One thing I would recommend is, you don't need a fire service, police service, court, a king and a government. You can just have one building that is the government center across the town or city and live with that. I've seen a few campaigns where people have tried having guards as more of a modern police force than a medieval guard assigned and loyal to their lord. Or they'll have a constitutional monarchy instead of a full- monarchy or constitutional government. Yes, constitutional monarchies are great in real life, but in D&D they can become confusing because you don't know if you should go to the king or the mayor to try and find missions.

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

I definitely agree that less can be better, especially for a small town! A sheriff’s office sometimes is the only defense and government building!

@mxspokes

4 ай бұрын

Town Guards will carry some sort of polearm, like a billhook because spears/pikes are easy to teach and the curved hook can be used in fire response to pull at weakened walls and roofs to stop the fire from spreading further.

@Lucas-df4ht

4 ай бұрын

My dude if creating complex political systems just confuses your players, you might wanna change how you run complex political systems. I’ve run campaigns that take place in kingdoms that are actively splintering into civil war and chaos and the players never got confused about what needed to be done/where to go for what (outside of what’s appropriate for, yknow, being a confused citizen of a kingdom that is splintering into civil war).

@stevenmarecle5502

4 ай бұрын

​@@Lucas-df4ht or they might just be new players. Newbies usually need a lot railroading

@SusCalvin

4 ай бұрын

The wall guard consists of townies on rotation. All townies have a few hours of militia service each month and a couple days of crossbow training that's partly a get-together with beer. The only full-time guards are an officer and a clerk and a couple sergeants/instructors.

For a metropolis, you don’t have to go massive on it. You can use the exact same method for creating wards and neighborhoods within the city. Each of those wards can fulfill a singular part of the whole for the rest of the city, like a temple district, a government ward, a foreign quarter and the like.

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

You definitely can! You can also do a house or faction style breakdown too where each district has their own subset of all 6 of these buildings as each faction tries to be almost autonomous from each other (if you want to make things intentionally separated and self sufficient).

@almitrahopkins1873

4 ай бұрын

@@lootgoblinmarketplace Dwarves, Drow, goblin hordes and military camps in feudalism all look the same in that regard. There is more blending in large cities, but it's essentially the same. Even the small villages outside of the walls of a major metropolis are miniature wards or districts of the metropolis. That's the farming wards that provide food resources. A major city will have multiple walled sections, showing how the city grew outside of its walls repeatedly. That makes it look like multiple fortifications clumped together. Ed Greenwood has videos on KZread about the wards of Waterdeep, as an example.

Great advice! In addition: If you want to divert from the standard tavern formula, try introducing a sport the locals are crazy about and gather to watch, a public bath, a tea house, a theater troupe visiting the town, a village storyteller, a cloister that rents out rooms and brews beer, a tourney ground, an annual magic festival, a night club, a gambling hall, a stranded ship that’s been turned into a snack bar, etc.

@lootgoblinmarketplace

2 ай бұрын

These are all really cool suggestions. I personally always like having at least one city with a tournament ground and some kind of guildhall that also does games of chance.

When tallying up resources, don't stop at the farms and mines the resources are collected from. Add storage buildings and workshops. Then decide if the resource or finished good is kept here or sent to market in a larger town. Now you've got an entire regional economy and low level parties make great caravan guards.

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

Infrastructure to refine and make finished goods is a great call out!

@jasonhenderson3678

4 ай бұрын

I am running a campaign and the party just finished repairing an old mill and started milling the local wheat. Now they run a caravan to the nearest small city with flour. Good times. And they ignited the flour dust to fend of some baddies, good times for all.

Something to consider with Thorps is that they will have all of these same traits, but will operate on such a smaller scale that they will look very different. The community is small enough that there may not be an official "Government", but everyone makes decisions, and turns to an elder for guidance. Defense would probably rely on the whole town taking up arms, but would have a rotating job of lookout, who's job it is to sound an alarm for everyone to prepare a defense. An alter may just be a small shrine, or a talisman held by the elder. Etc.

@tmac2744

4 ай бұрын

Also, in some locations, a town elder may serve as the local religious leader in the absence of an "official" representative of a deity. That same elder may be the primary governmental leader as well, and an interesting point of conflict could arise if a cleric arrives and takes up residence. It could result in a political and spiritual power play by the elder, who may not want to give up some of their authority. For defenses, you could also have local hunters who keep an eye out while looking for game. You could also have a Shire Reeve (from which we derive Sheriff) who is responsible for multiple settlements, but doesn't have enough personnel for the job, and now has a problem that he can't solve on his own. Characters passing through become valuable assets. This is especially true if they have political aspirations (ala the Sheriff of Nottingham from "Robin Hood Prince of Thieves"), and a major point of conflict could be the character was just given a title and lands that place them above the Sheriff, who now sees the characters as road blocks to their ambitions. Even more intriguing, your underworld contact could also be one, or both, of the individuals above. Edit: Grammar

@achimsinn6189

9 күн бұрын

For a thorp I would make the tavern the centre of everything. It could be the only larger building in the thorp and therefor being used for public announcements, meetings of the elders council, and travellers would meet local craftsmen there in the evening socialicing with everybody. Same for that shady guy serving as the thorps underbelly - where else would one find unsuspecing travellers who not yet know better than staying away from dealing with them and their shady business? Making the tavern the one most important building gets across that the party is visiting a small thorp much better, than having them visit several buildings for the different functions.

@skiks3562

5 күн бұрын

@@achimsinn6189 For something the size of a thorp, a "tavern" likely would be the center of everything, as a communal area where people would eat and relax makes sense as a meeting place. However, unless it was on the larger side, it wouldn't be a tavern in the sense of "a business where food, drink and lodging is provided at a price". It would be more akin to a large, sheltered firepit where there may-or-may-not be food available to those who are welcome. Link a big communal lodge with a firepit in the middle.

@robertaylor9218

5 күн бұрын

Yeah, a thorp is really just a few extended families whose houses are close together.

@achimsinn6189

4 күн бұрын

@@robertaylor9218 I think we are thoroughly entering flavour territory here. Depending on what the campaign is calling for the thorp could be a trade post with an actual inn, a clan outpost with just a village hall or maybe even just some houses with meetings being held under the large tree that grows in the center of the settlement. I actually also had the idea of a nomadic clan who would only build up the "large tent" if a meeting of the elders was supposed to happen nd if not they just wouldn't bother with that, but again that is part of the individual flavour you're going for and there is a lot of ways one could build on these ideas.

Hey this is great! Reminds me of the SPICE method for analyzing ancient cultures I learned about back in high school: Social, Political, Interaction w the Environment, Culture, and Economic

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

I’ve seen that one used before and for top level civilizations I’ve used it!

I love the guard formula this is so efficient and understandable a lot of guides to making towns always feel bloated but this like is just enough to get the point across and be helpful too.

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful! I think that a lot of the time just having point of interest like this is a great way to get started. You get to fill it in as much as you’d like or keep it simple while still covering the essentials!

I started using GUARDS as soon as I learned about it. It's a great template to quickly make a town when the party gets zoomies like a tabaxi and has a sudden need to be "over thatta way". Just remember to write down the names of all the NPCs you call into existence. The most one-off throw away NPC you make is the one the party wants to adopt.

@Krishnath.Dragon

4 ай бұрын

Writing down the names of NPC's the players interact with (like Thom, the Guard Captain of the village of Raven's Cove), is a great way to name drop them later in the campaign when interacting with another NPC somewhere else. "Thom my cousin from Raven's Cove has told me about you and your friends."

@Sergio-rq2mm

4 ай бұрын

"The most one-off throw away NPC you make is the one the party wants to adopt" OMG, this.. 1000% this. This is ALWAYS TRUE.. hahahaha

2:53 - I liked how there was the meme-face (I don't know the actual name for that genre of memes) versions of 4 different "Heroes of Baldurs Gate" shown to represent the party in the example scenario

@Kobble03

4 ай бұрын

The face is called "Wojak" if I recall!

There's an acronym I've heard about regarding worldbuilding like this: SPERM. Social, Political, Economic, Religious and Military. This one includes the underground element, which is definitely important, and I guess it's less embarrassing to say for some people. Well done.

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

I’ve heard of Spice before too, and I’ve seen Sperm. I definitely feel like this one is easier for me to remember. And it’s definitely easier to say in public 😂

@Myzelfa

4 ай бұрын

@@lootgoblinmarketplace I haven't heard of SPICE, what's that one?

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

@@Myzelfa Social; Political; Interactions between humans and the environment; Cultural; Economic is what it stands for!

This is.... i feel like you took a complex university course and condensed it into a formula.

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

I appreciate it, I hope to drop more like these in the future!

@Maninawig

4 ай бұрын

@@lootgoblinmarketplace I look forward to them.

This is sosososo helpful. I've been worldbuilding for a campaign I'll be running and this is a wonderful way for me to organize some quick info on the different settlements.

This is very useful indeed. Keeps it simple, but provides everything a travelling group of adventurers needs without going too deep into an origin story for every little settlement.

Player: Is there a blacksmith in this town Me: *flips coin* no

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

Honestly RNG truly is the best impromptu system

@TheCinderfang

Ай бұрын

With a big enough place that should have at least one I do a "streetwise" (investigation, charisma) not to see if it is present but rather what quality they find. Different DC results for that one roll.

One thing I kind of added in is to call it the "guards 2 guard". Following the acronym of the first I add it in a second time with different focuses. G - Government (How is this town or city governed on a local basis? Council, elected official or is their an appointed leader). U - Unity (Is the town more of a collectivized group, Individual or are they split? Or are they against the leadership?). A - Advancement (How advanced is this town compared to others? are they seen as more of a backwater or do they have stronger development into localized specialty? eg. fishing village making a fish farm) R - Rationality (Is this place going to be perceptive to having their ideas challenged? or are they going to see the half-orc in the party and tell you all to get out) D - Dazzle (Why would you want to go to that town? what does the town offer that no where near by offers compared to it?) I set it as separate as a way to develop and then use the second to kind of focus on a more social aspect. Having the second in mind when making a town/city/kingdom can really help flesh out some of the more difficult to think of part with roleplay. A town mayor being a council that one is trying to get your help to win over the others to allow in stronger development of the mine can come very naturally.

I use a similar method when designing a town, but I also include a chart (From pathfinder 1e settlements system) to quickly gauge the worth of items for the party and what levels of characters they may find. eg: Thorp: Less than 20 people and no formal church. 50gp items are the base value (So rope and blankets are easy to buy and sell, wands and magic swords not so much), the economy supports 500gp total in trade (So maybe hold onto that heavy looted art piece until we get to a larger town). Magic items are rare at only 1d4 minor items total (likely lvl 1 potions). Guards 1 Formal guard (likely sheriff), Militia that can be called upon for emergencies 1 (deputy), Spell casters are likely only level 1, if there are any they will be the same number as guards (1). Small Town: 201-2000. 1k gp of base value goods (Fine wares, masterwork items, etc), 5kgp in total trade. 3d4 minor magic items and 1d6 moderate magic items are available (Indicating a formal magic shop), 20 Guards on duty at all times, 100 militia that can be formed to defend the town, 10 spell casters at max level 4 (likely 1-2 lvl 4 as leaders and most as lvl 1-2 apprentices). This chart helps me set the scale of industry, the worth of common homes, the number of nobles and criminals, the threat to the party for interacting aggressively, and the scale of the threat the location faces. a Thorp can absolutely fear Goblins in the woods, a small town could easily send a mob to wipe them out, but a pair of owlbears might be beyond them.

Saving this because I've been struggling with world building, and this video and the comments are the guidelines I've been looking for! Thank you!

@lootgoblinmarketplace

3 ай бұрын

You got this! I’m glad you found the video helpful.

For context on settlement size; England used to say that to qualify as a village a community had to have a church. I think that helps put into context how complex communities are at village and below.

This is so immensely helpful and such a simple way for me to keep my fantasy setting consistent while also feeling realistic enough to be immersive.

Social, Political, Economic, Religious, Military. Easy to remember and funny to explain.

Very much enjoy this and will be using it in my TTRPG campaigns. Even the creators of vast worlds need a crutch sometimes!

This feels like a good jumping off point for quick creation. But last year I was in Vegas for a writer’s convention and got to attend one of Luke Gygax’s talks on worldbuilding. He recommended a system from his time in the military that struck me as brilliant for story design. The PMESII-PT system which is used by the military for understand unfamiliar terrain or locales. PMESII-PT stands for Political, Military, Economic, Social, Information, Infrastructure, Physical environment, and Time. It’s been really invaluable for my writing as well as my DMing. Though in the future, if I need a town in a rush, I’ll def use GUARDS

@lootgoblinmarketplace

Ай бұрын

I’ve heard people talk about the SPERM method and this definitely looks like the advanced version. I think that would be great for a deep dive in the world building process!

Another tip I would give is that (depending on how fleshed out you want the setting) you should have multiple instances foe each category. My general rule of thumb is "every 500 people". Each example doesn't need to be significant, but a little variety goes a long way to making the setting feel more lived in. Government could be as important as the town hall, or it could be as simple as the local homeowner's guild. Likewise, resources could be the logging company that operates in town, or the band on tour who are the village's small claim to fame because some of the members happen to be from there. Social gathering hubs could be a popular (or otherwise) bar, the fairgrounds, or the next AA meeting. Variety is the spice of life, and the spice of worldbuilding!

You can use this is most other genres as well. It works in Numenera and Stars Without Number. Altar's might be substitute for academics.

The thing I must add is that a hamlet or smaller gathering might only have one or two people working as guards/sherif/police, and likely wont have any priests or nuns of their own, but a place within 1-2 days walk (less on a horse) priest would be the one traveling there to give cermons. Also with less than 500 people there isnt an underworld as everyone knows everybody, but might be a guy who knows a guy to sell things to, or buy things from kind of grey market would be the only thing working. The place would be simply too small for anything more.

Thank you for your advice. Now I know some basic structures for creating a town for my fantasy story.

Gotta love the Baldur’s gate party visual reference. “Go for the eyes boo! Go for the eyes!”

That method is indeed useful, but I'd add a few caveats. Each function need not be served by just one organization or structure. Things can be distributed, particularly in a larger town, but even in a small village. The local militia, for instance, could comprise all able residents who are expected to train and maintain basic arms, even if they're mostly farmers. Yes, they have a commander, but he might also be the local blacksmith, a retired warrior, and his yard serves as their training ground. So, some functions can overlap or be served by the same place. The inn-keeper might also be the local mayor, but she's well aware of the local shady smuggler, and deliberately keeps tabs on his activities, so she can decide what is worth thwarting and what can be let be. By the way, love that coastal village map.

This model is going to be very helpful in finally designing my red dragon's lair. He has his own kobold tribe and the tribe needs a small underground town, this'll help me design the facilities the kobolds need to survive, and maybe even the dragon's own quarters.

Nice, I've been using Dael Kingsmill's SPERM method (Social, Political, Economic, Religious, Military), it's great and very easy to remember 😉This system makes a great compliment to it, as this encourages me to think about the underground element as well. Thanks for sharing. Also where did you get that map? It's really nice looking and I'd love a generator that can output something that high quality.

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

So Crosshead Studios is a great artist you can subscribe to on patreon and get this and many more maps!

@blefyplayswowable

4 ай бұрын

Inkarnate

@user-is1ot5sj5t

2 ай бұрын

@@blefyplayswowable inkatnate is great and I love it, but it isn’t a map generator.

@gackybass

2 ай бұрын

Azgaar's world map generator, Watabou's procgen arcana. Between these you can get an entire campaign generated.

This was exactly the information I've been looking for. All the things jumbling around in my head finally laid out in an ordered systematic form. Thank you. Liked and subscribed

this will sure help me in my campain, thanks for the tips mate!

I love this method, very easy to remember too. I wasn't struggling filling in my own town but this simple method helped me refine everything and add to it a bit. Appreciate it!

My dude, that's a GOOD VIDEO, straight to the fkng point. Thank you sir!

Go to the library or other resource near your place. Look up a historical map for towns in France or Serbia or Thailand. Use the map as a basis for the town layout and features. If your historical map has a graveyard or pagoda or barber guild hall you let it be right there.

First time DM. I truly appreciate content like this. Thank you

Great video. I always enjoy seeing different takes on world building. I think this is one of the better and cleaner videos I've seen on the topic.

@lootgoblinmarketplace

3 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it! I am going to work on a few more videos like these on my channel.

If the settlement is the focus of the campaign, another important factor could be to consider the potential dynamic between each of these GUARDS variables for enriching the story one might want to tell. Maybe the Government officials are of no help to the adventurer because their pockets are lined with underworld funding, or the altars of the settlement are well protected and difficult to operate within because it's tradition for those in the military branch to be devout worshippers. I love this GUARDS method. So many complex features that go into creating a fleshed-out setting simplified into an understandable manual.

Rather than (only) adding buildings for those functions, do also create at least one NPC for each function, so one NPC who is the major (or if the major is unavailable acts as his replacement), a shady guy who represents the underbelly of the village and depending on how it goes a crimelord leading that underbelly, a priest or dedicated believer of the deity they worship, a guild leader for the local fishermen or a storeowner where you buy their stuff, a sheriff or guards commander and obviously a tavern owner or an innkeeper. The buildings are putting stuff in context, but the NPCs are what brings the city to live.

Neat! This is a nice resource! Thank you for posting this. It’s a good structure to use for town building in games and even writing. Also I love that map 😮 🥰

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

Crosshead Studios has been my favorite map maker for some time!

@mentalrebllion1270

4 ай бұрын

@@lootgoblinmarketplace Thank you! I’ll look into it!

This system is awesome! My mind is already buzzing with ideas!

This is amazing. I tend to have trouble working some things out and i tend to go by bulet points to make it easier for me and this works wonders

Excellent method. Thanks for the info.

Just at the time i need it most! Thank You!

Liked and Faved by the acronym reveal. Brilliant video and it just started.

Great video. I'll definitely reference it when I make my next town.

Amazing video! I would also love to see some example towns in a future video.

Settlement planning is something I've struggled with for a long time. Condensing it down into a simple, step-by-step formula, will make things *so* much easier for me. Thanks for that!

@lootgoblinmarketplace

3 ай бұрын

I find formulas like this are a great starting point. You can abandon it once you feel comfortable or skip parts that don’t feel right, but it forces you to get the process started!

Now this was amazing, thanks!

funny enough i actually needed this to start fleshing out my world a bit more, thanks LG!

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

I’m glad I could help!

fam this video is perfect. this is like the perfect check list good shit

This was really cool. Hope you do more videos like this!

@lootgoblinmarketplace

3 ай бұрын

That's the plan!

That was very useful!

As someone preparing to be a first time DM this is great, thanks.

Excelent advice

This makes a lot of sense and I really appreciate for sharing this. I will try to build my next towns with it. But I personally don’t think that everything is necessary in small villages: Thorps (and maybe hamlets) don‘t necessarily need defense. Or their defense can be found in the next bigger village/ city. The same goes for government and underworld.

Great Video! Thank You!

Man, this is really helpful. I'm gonna need to figure out how to adapt this idea to a sci-fi setting I'm working on.

Very helpful, thank you for sharing this

Super useful and informative

Good method. I like it!

Nice! Thanks I will use this!

:) Excellent, this will definitely make things much quicker and thourough.

This is neat and seems pretty simple and intuitive to work it all

@lootgoblinmarketplace

3 ай бұрын

Thank you!

My girlfriend, who had NEVER played RPG before, drew the attention to the fact that the lighthouse at the halfling coastal village was pointless for defense if the pacific village had a total of ONE inhabitant responsible for protecting the population. And even though I had prepared everything ELSE about this mine village...the guards just flew over my head.

I like this type of video, well done!

@lootgoblinmarketplace

3 ай бұрын

Glad you enjoyed it! I want to make more like it.

I like a good mnemonic. Well done.

This is really cool!

One thing I love about this method is that you can probably make a solid campaign by just this one method because you can directly target each part of the method to create a cohesive story

10/10 Great advice and a great system

Good shit gobbo man, keep it up!

This seems like a good method. I'll try it out in my dnd campaign

This is a brilliant mnemonic. In the town I designed I rechecked it with this method and found the only one I hadn’t included was the altar piece. It’s a very small village so I can easily correct that with a shrine.

@Zack_Wester

4 ай бұрын

was going to say small villedges might not even have a official altar but more of small statues in individual houses.

@originaluddite

8 күн бұрын

@@Zack_Wester yes, depending on your culture, they might have the practice of household patron deities.

This was very helpful! Thank-you. Creating a city of Cloud Giants for my stream tonight.

@lootgoblinmarketplace

3 ай бұрын

That sounds really cool!

merci, bons conseils, agréable à regarder

I like that one dude with the purple tat had a small critter :> also great advice my guy!

Thanks for the content.

@lootgoblinmarketplace

3 ай бұрын

My pleasure!

In most villages I tend to have the village government reside in the local tavern since it tends to be only a few people and do not meet on a regular basis. It also means one less location/encounter I have to design or plan for.

I kinda wanna make my own fishing village after watching this village

The hell, I didnt know Gelu was working as an adventurer!

I like this. Gave me some ideas for fleshing out a starting town I have that I felt was lacking something, and did it indirectly...but the method seams to have the bases covered for what makes good RP/what people want from RP in a town. Made me think to add more underworld hubs in the starting town I have, namely one to a movie theater that had contraband films in the basement...but idk I feel like this would also be good for fleshing out one's existing game-world and towns that don't quite feel all that there...even if you have a great plot for an adventure there and know exactly how the local climate impacts crop production outside the city and the local economy plus the social influence of dwarf and tiefling merchants migrating there 200 years ago mixed with the policies of the current kingdom effect local attitudes....ya might be missing something this covers.

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

Something to keep in mind with underworld activities is you can just have it be a small faction or group that has an activity the overall culture doesn’t approve of. It doesn’t have to be bad or even illegal! Just some kind of outcast with an activity that might catch the party’s attention!

This is genuinely a brilliant short guide to making a town when you're short on time. (and lets be honest, making a town TOO detailed tends to backfire for a GM, so brilliant in general is probably more accurate.)

This system is also useful for writers when we're in need of creating a settlement of some sort for our characters to visit or pass through, not just DMs/GMs or TTRPG players for their characters' backstories.

@lootgoblinmarketplace

3 ай бұрын

I definitely feel like some of the best D&D worldbuilding advice I’ve seen has come from traditional fantasy writing tips and tricks

Interesting. Thanks.

Great video but my mind boggled when I realized where you got the background music from :D

Very good, thank you

@lootgoblinmarketplace

3 ай бұрын

Thank you for watching!

You don't need altars. Those are purely flavor. You do need places for horses, other types of mounts, and livery stables, and if near water you need docks. You do need market areas.

I usually go with the population number, often divided into age sections or family-sized chunks. Here is a handy chart I made for a general region's population: Population Division: -45%: Peasants -Poor: 20% -Working Class (Area's Main Trade): 10% -Artesans: 5% -Builders: 4% -Caretakers: 3% -Entertainers: 2% -Hunters: 2% -Clergy: 2% -Scholars: 1% -Merchants: 1% -Logistics: 1% -Officials: 1% -Soldiers: 1% -Nobility: 1% -Criminals: 1% After that it goes to placing the above mentioned groups into buildings, districts or other locations around the town.

@chickenborn7697

4 ай бұрын

Nobility includes the Royal Guards, visiting Courtiers or Diplomats, and often royal servants.

You have a incorrect url for your Patreon link in the Show More. Great video.

great video

I was stuck on settlements because I want to make a settlement where the king gathers guidance religious leaders, nobles and commoners and trying to make it a better and safer city even if they have doubts of each other

This is a great little tool

@lootgoblinmarketplace

3 ай бұрын

I’m glad you like it!

Something else to think about as well: cultural advancements. London in 1100 was somehat over 15,000. Still a very large city, even a metroplolis in that day. Go two hundred years, and the population boomed to 80,000. Then the plague hit, and in 1400 the population was almost halved, to around 45,000. So in world building, what is the capital of your kingdom? Has there been an outbreak of plague or other such disaster? How have events like that affected your world?

One thing that I would suggest to your Resources element is some means of support. Making a town feel organic involves more than simply giving the party something to do. For example I look at that map of the coastal town in your video and all I can think is "What the hell are these people eating?" There are no farms, no gardens, nothing. Nor does there appear to be any source of potable water. You cannot support any sizeable, non-nomadic population year round solely on fish and game and you must have a readily available source of fresh water. Particularly in medieval periods (which most fantasy settings seek to emulate) grains and some vegetables formed the foundation of most diets and death due to contaminated water was a real threat. In our modern era, we consume a much greater amount of protein than was the norm for most of human history. We also have the technological and economic infrastructure to transport vast amounts of food and potable water but that simply wasn't possible in earlier times. At the very least there should be a stream, creek or river and some fields surrounding those walls. On the subject of Defenses, a GM or author should take the time to identify the need for those defenses. Sticking with the example of the town shown, why are there walls surrounding the town? those appear to be some sort of stone or, at the very least, planed wood. Even a simple post and wattle wall is a LOT of work. A town isn't going to put up a wall without some reason for doing so. That, in turn, is going to influence the character/tone of the town and its inhabitants. In other words, don't just stick a wall around your town because it looks good. Ask why the town felt the need to spend the money, time, and effort building the wall and how that impacts the town and the party.

Amazing tool! Is this town yours? Did you design it? The art style is great I'd like to see more!

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

So Crosshead studios made it, there is a link to his work in the description!

Imagine if there was a town that deliberately had none of this and you had to figure out why

@lootgoblinmarketplace

4 ай бұрын

I definitely would love to see that. I’d start to worry that it’s some kind of trap because maybe their source of food is lost travelers

nice video :D

@lootgoblinmarketplace

3 ай бұрын

Thanks! 😁

I kind of figure that Fantasy towns would be nothing like real world Medieval towns. With all the monsters in these worlds, every settlement would need to be solidly fortified. Cant really have a nice little cottage in a secluded area without the inhabitance dying horribly to the first random encounter.

for population and to make it more accurate you might want to halve the numbers. 500 people is a small town in medieval times

Depending on how feudal you want to be, most places should be manorial. In which case the government is the lords manor. The defense is based on the non-serf population. And the social hub is almost entirely based around church attendance. Resources are agricultural. Mineral extraction with mines were just something that didn’t really happen in the feudal world

@lootgoblinmarketplace

3 ай бұрын

That’s a good point. In some cities one of more of these roles may be fulfilled by the same entity.