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Message: <blockquote data-quote="amerigoV" data-source="post: 6658840">I have not formalized how I do this - but I have gotten to the point that I think of key towns and cities as a well developed NPC or a couple of NPCs in contrast. Everything should then be through of in the lens of "what would make this NPC memorable?" and build from there.You listed Phandelver. Pretty quickly the old A-Team theme song began to run through my head as I was reading about this town. Classic small town with some real jerks running roughshod over good, hardy townsfolk. I have not run it, but if my PCs were not building a tank out of a wagon to smash into the bad guys hideout then I would consider my GMing a failure. The town is a cute, tough girl being harassed by the big jerk in the bar. If the PCs have a ounce of honor, they should be chopping at the bit to beat that jerk's butt, but something should get in the way (just like in real life you cannot just clock someone - there are social restraints). Eventually, they get the satisfaction of smashing the jerk and winning the girl.I love Lankhmar as a fantasy city. She is clearly a lady that has been through a rough time yet continues to surprise you. She is irreverent (Street of the Gods) but yet mysterious (Plaza of Dark Delights). And she will take you for all you are worth if you are not careful (if the taxman does not get you, the Thieves Guild will). I have the old AD&D 1e Lankhmar setting and I still pull it out from time to time. Waterdeep - I remember having the Lankhmar supplement first and we picked up Waterdeep a year or so later...it was just so bland in comparison. I never had any desire to run or be a player in a Waterdeep game because if it. Maybe that is different after all these years. But to me that old box set is an example of "doing it wrong".I finished up a 50 Fathoms game recently (Savage Worlds -- sort of a D&D meets Pirates of the Caribbean sort of game with a cross over from our world pirates). There were three main settlements my PCs had a significant amount of interaction. Over time, it was easy to see what was the driver in each town -- one was commerce (money was king), another was Station (money did NOT buy you social status), and the other was "worth" (in the pirate town, what you accomplished meant more than money or birth). It was fun to drive those different points home - the capitalists, the princes (and their paupers), and the pirates.In Eberron I kinda like Sharn, but if I were to pick a place to set a game it would be Stormreach. While it may not make sense logistically, Stormreach is really a condensed version of the continent of Khorvaire before the war - everyone is represented in somewhat equal proportions. That city should be alive with intrigue between the houses and the country representatives, all with a wild west frontier feel. It really does hit on the "pulp noir" design of the setting. Stormreach is a composite of Indiana Jone's lady interests - beautiful, exotic, adventurous, and usually entangled in mess of deeper import.</blockquote>

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