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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mythusmage" data-source="post: 418752" data-attributes="member: 571">Great CitiesTo borrow a term from the late Isaac Asimov. To him a great city was any metropolis with a population of 1 million plus.Now where would a great city be located?Where are the resources? Where is a good place for people to come together in great numbers. What sort of location would have that sort of draw?No one resource can do it. Gold and silver mines in the American West gave rise to small towns, but nothing larger. When a city resulted (Carson City in Nevada for example), it was usually because the location was where a number of routes came together.In other words, larger settlements typically arise at focal points. Places where trade routes come together. New York, New York is a prime example of this. Originally it was the place where farm goods from Dutch colonies along the Hudson River came for shipment to English and Swedish colonies up and down the Atlantic Coast, and transhipment overseas to Europe. As time went by, and the English came to control the Atlantic Coast, New York City's trade expanded to include much of the goods shipping across the Atlantic and along the coast.The services a city can provide are another resource. Again, NYC serves as an example. Lots of business was being done back in the 17th and 18th centuries, so businessmen came to do business. They attracted food and clothing establishments to set up shop. For much the same reason financial services came to attend to the needs of the business community. Less reputable endeavours were attracted as well, Bawdy houses, taverns, and theaters.Success breeds success. A city that does well, and has the resources necessary to draw people, will draw more. By the time of the American Revolution New York, New York was the place to go to conduct trade, do business, live, work, dine at fine establishments, and be entertained. A condition that holds to this day.So where do you put your great city?Where are the resources?Where is the transportation good? At the meeting of two major rivers is a good place (St. Louis, Missour). Major roads are almost as good, but in a medieval technology rivers are better. The mouth of a river is another good place. Where is the farmland good? Where can food be produced in great quantity? A great city requires a lot of food. Even with magic to produce comestibles, farmland, grazing, and fishing is needed to satisdy the hunger. You need good farmland at the very least to supplement what the clerics can produce, and to keep the priests from starting to think they're indispensable, and so get ideas about their position and power.What other resources are there? Lumber, mineral (stone and metal). Are there magical resources? Substances that can be endweomered more easily than others. Is it a place where magical energy is more abundant/available. Does magic tend to "pool" there or do magical lines of energy converge on the spot?When you have primary resources coming together you'll get secondary resources. Tradesmen, merchants, craftsmen. Government is often attracted to great cities. Rulers choosing the spot as the location of their court. Bureaucracies setting up shop to regulate affairs. London, England and Paris, France are good examples of this. In turn, the presence of government can, and often will, draw even more people. Folks who see a need to be where the government is, the better to do with business with the government.So there you have an incomplete look at where great cities arise, and why. There is more that could be said on the subject, but I've run out of material. Hope this helps</blockquote>

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