Topic: Need help with a small city

[Rigby]

Hi all,

   I could some help putting together a small city consisting of 15 buildings (not counting homes). It already has a waterwheel sawmill, a general store, a smithy/tinkerer, a tanner, a stable, two small temples,  and two taverns/inns. By my count that is 9 buildings. What else do you think I should add?

[GrumpyOldFart]

What kind of town is it? What's the basis of its economy? A mining town high in the mountains will have a different 15 buildings than the cattle and trade town that supplies its needs down in the foothills. Likewise it will have a different 15 buildings than the town in the next valley over, whose only function is to serve the needs of the fortress that guards the pass.

Does it need a jail? Is it on a road big enough to justify a coach service of some sort? On such roads sometimes you'll get "towns" that the coach station is the only building there is.

[Marc R]

Start with "Why is this town here" and work out . . .. is it the inn on the road, the harbor, the lumbermill?

[Rigby]

A small growing city in mainly farming area. There is a large forest nearby and a fairly large river near the city. The city serves as a stopping point for adventurers leaving civilization and for farmers bringing product into the larger cities. There is also a medium sized lake not too far from the city.

[GrumpyOldFart]

Okay, then there's a wharf, a granary and probably at least one warehouse. Depending on the river trade and what countries are up or downstream, there may even be a moneychanger. If people raise livestock for the river trade, there may be a slaughterhouse. Seems likely, given that there's a tannery.

[GrumpyOldFart]

There may also be a boatwright.

[Rigby]

Thanks!

[Cory Magel]

Farming Community = Market in town.  In England you would often see a two story building.  On the bottom it was open air, lots of arches/columns to support the top, and divided into 'stalls' for the various sellers.  Above was effectively the 'community' building space (town hall, what little 'government' there might be, etc).

[GrumpyOldFart]

   I could some help putting together a small city consisting of 15 buildings (not counting homes). It already has a waterwheel sawmill, a general store, a smithy/tinkerer, a tanner, a stable, two small temples,  and two taverns/inns. By my count that is 9 buildings. What else do you think I should add?

To be honest, I'm not sure the population of a town with only 15 non-residential buildings would support the second temple or the second tavern. With the temple it depends on the local culture, with the tavern it would largely depend on the river trade, I'd guess. Much changes according to whether this town takes the produce of the surrounding inland towns and trades it up and down the river, or really only deals with the locals. In other words, is it Memphis, Vicksburg or St. Louis in the early boom days? Or is it some tiny little burg no one has ever heard of and probably never will, like Waterproof, Louisiana or Napoleon, Arkansas?

What's the terrain like around here? How good are the roads? If it's rocky or mountainous terrain roads are a pain to build and another pain to maintain. The history of the US would be entirely different if it nature hadn't built a free superhighway running down the middle. If the roads are bad, the inland towns trade with this one, they don't really have any other choice unless they want to be effectively isolated.

If you have 2 temples then one probably has all the river traffic and those who deal directly with it for its congregation, and the other gets all the farmers and people from the inland towns. Basically the division being between those who are cosmopolitan and those who are insular.

Recommended reading: Life on the Mississippi, by Mark Twain.

[Vector Z]

I love how 2 out of the 15 buildings are taverns. Fantasy worlds are the best!

A Town Hall of sorts might also be in order. Or if there is a feudal lord type person around, their estate might be nearby. If any farming is done, they might need a building to store all that stuff in, or maybe to stockpile lumber.

It could add a little flavor to put a non-building kind of landmark there too. A giant, historically significant statue or fountain, or the half buried skull of some enormous monster, perhaps.

Also, all those adventurers passing through will need a place to bury their dead friends, so a community cemetary might come in handy. Or maybe a crematorium... that's a building

[Zedul]

All good suggestions here, but the most important aspect is the story of the town.

What is going to make this a desirable place to set an adventure, what is it's link to your greater campaign.  Is there some nefarious dark ancient secret lurking within or above this town?  Perhaps some villain or important NPC is hiding out here from the forces of justice and/or evil.  What is the name of the town and why?

Worlds are not static, major events can happen in insignificant villages and towns.  Bethlehem, Roswell, White Sands, et.




 

[GrumpyOldFart]

Worlds are not static, major events can happen in insignificant villages and towns.  Bethlehem, Roswell, White Sands, et.

Chernobyl...

[Cormac Doyle]

I love how 2 out of the 15 buildings are taverns. Fantasy worlds are the best!

hehe

The village I live in in Ireland has 5 pubs, 1 church, 1 school, 2 shops, a post office and one garage/service station. It used to have a fast food joint, but that closed down.

This is unusual ... most villages this size would have fewer shops ...

[Zedul]

Worlds are not static, major events can happen in insignificant villages and towns.  Bethlehem, Roswell, White Sands, et.

Chernobyl...

*nodding*

[DangerMan]

How about something odd, something that doesnt really make sense at all (at first glance)?

It could be a windmill in a place with little or no wind. What does it do? Nobody wants to tell.. or nobody, save a few, might know..

Or, you could have a miniature fortress, amongst the shops and taverns. Its no bigger than a small house, capable of sheltering but a small familiy. Bulit by the local madman, who happened to inherit / or come across some wealth long time ago. Now he's ever predicting the towns imminent doom and serves as the laughing stock of the towns inhabitants. Time might show, though, that he might not be that insane after all...

[GrumpyOldFart]

An easy way to work such an anomaly into the setting logic is to make it an anachronism. In other words, what was here before the town was? What remnants of the previous structures got incorporated into the current ones?

As examples, there are many medieval cities that outgrew their city walls, which were later plundered for stone used as building materials or road cobbles. The Catholic Church in the middle ages used churches being converted into mosques as a reason for the Crusades, but most of those churches were Roman temples before they were Catholic churches, and were Celtic druidical holy sites before they were Roman temples.

[Vector Z]

How about a fortune teller's house? Seems like a good business opportunity in a town with so many adventurers passing through.

A tattoo parlor might be good too. Or maybe a house of healing?

[Cormac Doyle]

Remember that for many true medieval villages, there were no "pubs"

The "Ale wife" was a role that rotated among most/all of the women in the village. Each family would brew large amounts of ale/beer. When a batch was ready, it would be made available to the village (typically free of charge) once the ale tester had ensured it had not been watered down.

The next family should be timing it so that when the current ale batch was nearly finished, their bacth should be ready to drink ...

Note that this was very important - generally, "fresh water" was NOT safe to drink. The Beer/ale was rarely more than 1 or 2% ... even young kids would drink it (assuming there was no milk available). You did not drink to get drunk ... you drank the ale because the water was polluted.

As such, the concept of a "Tavern" was rare in the extreme.

On major highways, you did get taverns/staging house/post houses. These would often stand alone, although in some cases small villages would grow up around them.

looking at Medieval britain, many small towns would have a "Guild Hall". This was not a "Mason's Guild" vs "Thatcher's Guild" ... in this instance, it would be the Village Guild; often associated with the priest/rector or monks nearby. Such a Guild would often be involved in village improvements, building walls, etc. (essentially taking over the role of the local lord that would rule a manor in areas where the lord was distant or no longer cared sufficiently to do it themselves). The "City of London" was one of these Original local guilds.

Specific trade guilds slowly edged those local guilds out, but only after the Monarchy smashed the power of the church (which had provided the patronage to the original guilds).

As such, you may have a Guild-hall (town unassociated with a Lord, or falling between two lord's demesnes) or a manor hall (serves the same purpose but represents the Lord's rule). In either case, the guild Hall/Manor Hall/Town Hall would ALSO serve as the location for Trials (assuming there was one) and the location where the guild/council or Lord would hold court and hear the people's grievances and complaints and on regular occasions host some form of banquet.

[Cormac Doyle]

PS - in some areas, the "Lord of the Manor" would actually be the church .. in such cases, there would NOT be a Guild Hall

In fact, often the Guild Halls sprang up in areas where a priest/rector would be hanging around in a weakly run Lord's outer territory ... the church would offer patronage and guidance rather than direct rule (and would then expect effective tithings and offerings from the guild as it became more successful), strengthening their own hand while simultaneously improving the Lords holdings yet weakening their hold over them ...

[Cormac Doyle]

Guess what it implies if you have a Guild Hall torn down by the Lord's Beadle ...