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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MarauderX" data-source="post: 794385" data-attributes="member: 9990">Hey Merak, feel like I need to reply to some of your excellent points.As I am in the architectural design industry, I know that things have evolved through the different time periods.  Even in recently history one can tell when a home was built by how big the kitchens and bathrooms are.  Location is another factor, and in DC (I work there) the construction was often dependent on the how taxes were collected.  You are certainly right; I wouldn't make any castle or keep self-sufficient, as most of the inhabitants seldom lived there.  There weren't servants quarters, but there was plenty of room for food.  But this is D&D, so do what you want.  In any random town, I usually have plenty of outlying buildings where the majority of the people live and one manor/keep that the other buildings surround, and the market is usually just outside the main entrance.  It really depends on how much you want to 'stick with reality', but magic and skilled thieves throw things askew with having traditional buildings.  I am big into making all buildings and dungeons functional as living quarters for humanoids, as it would most likely be humanoids that would be constructing their own environment.  The problem I have with players (and some DMs) is the need to make the structure completely defensible and stores enough to house an army during a prolonged seige.  I like to make buildings in my homebrews rather elegant with function following form to keep my players on their toes when it comes to defending.  So when it came to the players taking over a duchy from a good fallen NPC, they abandoned a really ornate tower to build their own bunker on the other side of the city.  They were tired of defending buildings made of wood with too many windows and tapestries.  Then they lived in a dark, damp, stinky 'castle' and had no visitors or guests, so they gave up the leadership role and moved on to other things since the region was no longer at war.  Your suggestions are really accurate, and when it all comes down to it, it's often about how much money was spent.  If the town was rather wealthy, the structures there tend to reflect the amount of money they had - on the flip side, a cheap town might have poorly constructed walls erected by unskilled craftsmen.  Poor towns also reused as much as possible and had cramped quarters for most everyone.  And when it comes to DMs, we just need to take the time to think it out, check it against what the PCs may do, and have the settings work with the NPCs, plots and battles.</blockquote>

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