The uneven cobblestone road leads you out of the desert and through a ramshackle neighborhood around the city's base. It slopes upward, leaving the impoverished masses below and out of sight. The silver spires seen on the horizon gleam blindingly as you pass through the city gates into the Crown District. As you shade your eyes from the glare, the incredible city of Silver Haven sprawls out in front of you. Inviting you to explore her streets...
Well, you've done it now. Envisioning a sparkling city in the far distance as the capstone to the awesome set piece you’ve created. But didn't bother making the city itself. You've assured yourself the quest is too important and the distance too great for your players to ACTUALLY go there. Yet here they are, right at the city's gates. Fortunately, creating a vibrant city or settlement doesn’t have to be a difficult or time-consuming task. So lets go through building a city, town, and any other settlements you want for your D&D/TTRPG game of choice. All in just 5 mins, on a single index card. Follow along and make a brand-new location with me.
Setting the Stage for Settlements (Front Side)
First, we need the name of the place. It doesn't need to be fancy or unique. The simpler the name the better as it will be easier for our players to recall. Then, as a little reminder for myself, I normally add what kind of place this settlement is. Writing down if this place is a trading outpost or a village is surprisingly helpful when quickly referencing things in the future. As established Silver Haven, our settlement, is a city. Updated 5-18-23 (After this was posted I had a discussion with Pteryx on the Dice.camp Mastodon server. She brought up the importance of listing the biggest industry of a settlement. I always attributed those kinds of details as something that required fleshing out during worldbuilding and not something to be done in the moment. While I still maintain that line of thinking, Pteryx makes a fantastic point. A simple thing like "the best silk comes from the village of Webglade" can spin off into a variety of different prompts or give a mental touchstone to help when you are giving context to the settlement. You don't need to go into the details for it to be helpful. So if you think this would be useful and it comes to you in the moment, I would encourage you to include your settlement's main industry right next to the name & type of settlement. As Pteryx points out, "The product doesn't actually have to be something concrete" either. At the end of the day, it is just a tool for your reference.)
Next, we'll define what sort of services and sellers are in the city, or rather who isn't. It is a whole lot easier to make a short list of what sorts of things are missing from the city than trying to name every single one. We can also add to the list in a pinch should our players ask about something we forgot and didn’t want to be in the city, such as a merchant guild, magic shop, or any other missing services or sellers. Due to Silver Haven’s location, paper is rare and expensive, so a scribe working in the city doesn’t make sense. With the citizens also refusing to cut their silken locks, a barber would also be a strange sight to see, so let's say it isn't here either.
Now, we'll go over some of the unique features that make it stand out. Maybe a landmark, a business, or even just a strange custom everyone follows. It doesn't have to be something significant, just different enough to leave a lasting impression on our players so they'll remember this place. For Silver Haven, we already described the glittering silver towers so let's add that. Then, we came up with the idea of locals refraining from cutting their hair due to vanity, so let's write that down too. Leaving one space open should something draw our player's attention during their exploration isn't a bad idea either. But not necessary if we are brimming with ideas we want to write down.
Next, at the bottom, we have a space to describe the state of crime and the guards in this place. We don't need to go into a full crime family or the multi-layered command structure of the town guard. Just a few words we can use to flavor our interactions with either. Here in Silver Haven, there are smugglers running goods outside the walls and rebels working to bring down the city leadership. They all can get away with it because while the guards are numerous, they are oblivious to what is going on around them.
Now we'll be skipping the Named NPCs section for the most part. If there are a specific couple of NPCs we know our party is going to interact with, let's go ahead and list them. But likely those important names written down somewhere else. This section is best reserved for the random many people our party interacts with, and their associated professions. Leaving more space here is helpful because as we know, our players like meeting the most random of people. Keeping track of it here allows us to just reference the card should our party ever return to this place. With that the front is filled out pretty nicely. Let's flip over the card now.
Prepping the Notes (Back Side)
The backside of the card is going to be used for mostly note-keeping and a few additional details. Having a big section on the right for random events, interactions, or details we want to remember for later is very helpful. Maybe our players have a bounty listed here for them because of a "misunderstanding", or maybe a new leader has just been elected. Anything we want to remember can be listed here.
We can use the Hooks section to list interesting things in the city our party might interact with and notice. In my example, there are hints Silver Haven has a secret entrance because of the peasants seen around town who would normally be excluded from the city. We can also leave this blank to fill in with things our players find interesting while exploring, and that way we can use their interests to create a side quest or event for future sessions.
Lastly, we always leave an area to list distinct neighborhoods or districts if the settlement is large enough. I find by defining specific areas around the settlement, my players can more easily navigate around a location without having to get into the nitty gritty about road names. It also adds a layer of depth to the city itself. We can just as easily leave extra room for notes or hooks instead.
And with that, we are all done. The fundamentals of an entire city captured on a single card that we can run our players through right now. No need for a long list of names, locations, or governmental structures. This method can help us easily create a fully functioning city for our TTRPG game, without getting bogged down in the excessive details.
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