Hommlet. Saltmarsh. Small cities and towns.
How to make them useful?
Now we have plenty of semi-useful large cities. Vornhiem, Lankhmar, City-state, and more.
But what can we do to make our smaller settlements both interesting and playable. What information or stat-block can we give a village that makes it instantly useable?
Pathfinder has a settlement stat block. Notice the complete lack of shock and surprise on my face.
Is this stat-block useful?
Eh.*
Some people who run cities, said they wanted: Name; overall feel; map; names of major NPC's; tavern or a few shops/key locations/interesting features; shadiest guy in town; who the guy they will run afoul of is; a plot point/adventure seed or two; a descriptive phrase; and resources and obstacles (nee features);
Some people who play in cities, said they wanted to know: Shops; How easy is it to get in and out of town; What is the reaction to our arrival; who lives here; what language do they speak; what religion are they; Is it a village of ghosts where they hate thri-kreen and do they eat ghost candy.
I don't know if that last one is relevant but Scrap Princess is more awesome than you.
Description
Name : Descriptive Phrase
Type : "Community Motto"
Demographics
Government if non-standard (not mayor/council)
Population (Breakdown by race)
Languages Spoken
Local Gods
Notable NPC's
I)
II)
etc.
Districts
Shops
Locations / Interesting Features
Resources
Diversions
Obstacles
Adventure Seeds
Some examples of names
* Name, six categories that affect skills, alignment, government type, "danger level", population, base value/purchase limit, spell-casting, magic items available, qualities, and disadvantages. Basically the most mechanical towns possible.
That's a nice idea actually. I'm designing a city at the moment, so nicely timed :)
ReplyDeleteThat's actually a pretty nice shorthand. Consider it Yoinked.
ReplyDeleteI've been working up a large town as a home base for dungeoneering, and have a very similar format for the basic information. Nice to know I'm on track.
ReplyDeleteOne other thing I've added is potential Contacts/Connections for each class/race the players might bring. Dwarves might have heard that a dwarven exile runs a rough tavern near the docks, Fighters may remember that a man they trained with joined the local garrison, etc... Then I have specific rumors for each of those. Hopefully, it will give me a chance to immerse the players in local culture/intrigue in a more natural way, and provides some immediate names and faces to work from.
I would add a Landmark. It is a interesting feature of a city, a big tower or a castle, or a huge pit. Someday, you can use it.
ReplyDeleteLandmark sounds good, but it needs to start with a D, sooooo Distinct Feature? That makes it the Quintuple D system
ReplyDeleteLandmark is subsumed under "Interesting Features"
ReplyDeleteThere is a companion piece to this article coming up soon.
That's a great stat block
ReplyDeleteMy ideal method for the player's starting base goes more like this:
ReplyDeletePlayer: "What's the town like?"
Ref: "It's a substantial place near the edge of the desert. Several thousand people live there."
Player: "Are there taverns?"
Ref: "Of course. What's the name of your favourite?"
(etc.)
But the kind of ready reference you're proposing is good for new places.