Posts Tagged ‘towns’

20 Unusual City Encounters: From Beg...

Posted on Jan 27 2010 | No Comments
20 Unusual City Encounters: From Beg, Borrow, & Steal Image via Wikipedia Once a month, I publish a newsletter of quick tips for busy GMs called Beg, Borrow & Steal. Some require advanced preparation to use, but most are designed to be last-minute tips you can add... Read More »

“Where are we again?”: C...

Posted on Jul 24 2009 | 3 Comments
Sometimes creating a believable city or town is one of the hardest parts of building an adventure or campaign. You don’t want all your towns to look the same and you definitely don’t want to get stuck in the generic “fantasy town”, consisting of a tavern/bar, inn or other lodgings, magic shoppe, etc. Below I’ve gathered a list of... Read More »

City Creation: Kael Pathfinder Stout...

Posted on Jul 01 2009 | No Comments
Since the PCs aren’t likely to interact with Meadowbrook’s blacksmiths other than to have items repaired or commission new ones, I’m not going to spend much time detailing them. Most Meadowbrook’s blacksmiths focus on creating practical items — horseshoes, plows and farming implements, iron nails and building tools, etc. Kael Pathfinder... Read More »

City Creation: Hospitality

Posted on Jun 29 2009 | No Comments
According to our demographics , Meadowbrook has two inns and ten restaurants/taverns/pubs and one of the innkeepers is a retired adventurer. Let’s start with our inns. The Inns The most obvious choice would be to place one inn in Littletun and one in Bigtun. But since inns generally aren’t used by locals, and the river docks are in Bigtun, it makes... Read More »

City Creation: Religion

Posted on Jun 26 2009 | No Comments
The next entry on our list of Notable People is “Clerics of the local shrines”. While these would, indeed, be notable people (the head priest/ess of the largest shrines would likely have considerable influence), religions differ greatly from one game system to the next and one campaign to the next. So much so, in fact, that I’m going to leave... Read More »

City Creation: Thieves Guild

Posted on Jun 25 2009 | No Comments
What would a fantasy game town be without a thieves guild? Whether the PCs work with it or oppose it, the local thieves guild frequently provides many opportunities for adventure. Meadowbrook’s thieves guild is extremely small: 10 members. Until the recent trade boom, Meadowbrook had no thieves guild — there simply weren’t enough thieves in... Read More »

City Creation: The Town Guard

Posted on Jun 22 2009 | No Comments
Town Guard are not employees of Meadowbrook. A guild in their own right, they’re employed by the town council. Each guild tithes a small percentage of their annual income directly to the Town Guard, in return the Guard protects the other guilds from dangers local and foreign. But how many town guard members are there? The 3.5 Dungeon Master’s Guide... Read More »

City Creation: The Fix-it Guild

Posted on Jun 18 2009 | No Comments
Continuing our description of Meadowbrook’s notable citizens, we come to Barsus Tinner, the head of the fix-it guild. The Fix-It Guild First off, let’s give the fix-it guild an official name. As low-level arcanists, I can see the guild trying to give themselves a greater sense of status with a lofty-sounding name, something like: “The Noble... Read More »

City Creation: Character Class Demog...

Posted on Jun 15 2009 | No Comments
Generally, I don’t detail numbers for the NPCs of my games. Unless I expect the PCs to pick a fight with one of them, I don’t even created stat blocks. I look at the NPC’s history, role in the game, personality and profession to decide what they can do, which is generally I need them to do in a particular situation. If the players start to interact... Read More »

City Creation: Guilds and Guild Poli...

Posted on Jun 09 2009 | No Comments
Now that we know what kinds and how many of each type of business Meadowbrook has, we can work out how powerful each of those guilds are, how they relate to each other, what part they play in Meadowbrook politics. We’ve already postulated a split of the town council between the merchant guilds and the craft guilds. Basically, every trade in Meadowbrook... Read More »


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