Rules Index | GM Screen

The Cosmopolitan Society

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 156
While countrysides, farmlands, mountaintops, forests, and tundras all have their place in a well-developed world, the city is where the heart of civilized culture beats. As trade hubs, military fortifications, artistic centers, intellectual havens, and seats of government, cities are repositories of history and cultural knowledge. But what makes a city? How does it form, and how does it attract its people?

As a rule, cities form around water sources, whether that’s a single oasis or a lake, river, or sea that provides the additional boon of fisheries and convenient transportation of people and goods. Once water is accounted for, cities frequently form near tracts of fertile land or rich veins of ore—or junctions of the roads along which such things are transported. They may form at key strategic locations, like mountain passes that control movement between fertile valleys (thus allowing easy taxation), or just before a difficult stretch of a major thoroughfare, giving weary travelers a place to rest (or give up their burdens and put down roots, enlarging the city). Whatever the reason, a city grows and thrives by becoming a hub, attracting trade, visitors, and new residents. As it grows, it changes, and residents can often see the shape of the old city underneath the gleaming streets, with the old buildings coexisting with or being slowly supplanted by the new. A city’s architecture is typically reflective of the people who created it, and immigrants frequently bring the aesthetics (and cultural practices) of their homelands, making a city’s buildings and structure a physical record of its history.

City Requirements

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 156
While smaller settlements like towns and forts can sometimes exist in barely tenable situations, often for strategic military reasons, most realistic cities have a few basic requirements that must be met.

Access to sufficient food and fresh water (for both drinking and sanitation).
Centralized authority, whether king or council, to provide protection, and taxes levied by those authorities to help pay for walls, guardsmen, weaponry, and other defenses against invasion.
Infrastructure to provide food and basic necessities.
Craftsmen and specialists, and importation of raw materials for those artisans.
A reason to exist: Why is the city here, and not 20 miles down the road? Does it have strategic importance or natural resources, or is it a crossroads for trade?

Urban Planning

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 156
The first question the GM must ask about a city is what drew the original settlers to this specific spot, and why they stayed. Was it the protection offered by a mountainous bluff ? Proximity to a river? Or merely the closest they could reasonably get to an easily exploited natural resource?

Early on, building infrastructure is a communal effort, requiring little management. But as a city grows, someone eventually needs to take charge. Who rules your city, and how are they appointed? Are the leaders mayors, elected by the people, or are they viceroys, ruling in place of a king? How do they make laws, and with what strength do they back those laws? How far are they willing to go to enforce them? Is this a free city, where citizens can speak their mind without fear, or is it a heavily guarded fort where any hint of insubordination is immediately crushed under the governor’s iron heel? If it’s the latter, why do traders run that risk in order to trade there?

Every city requires trade in order to grow. Some grow from fur-trapping settlements, while others rise near especially productive mines. Some are merely waypoints along caravan routes, set alongside natural springs in the desert. What they all have in common is that they are centralized locations for people of varying backgrounds to come together and distribute their goods to others who might need them. Trade is a city’s lifeblood; its tolls and taxes provide support for the infrastructure, its coins enter and help to stabilize the local economy, and its cultural mores quickly come to dominate local customs. But trade requires markets, and markets require marketplaces. What sort of trade defines your city? Is it all based around the same basic good, with businessmen attempting to undercut each other in an effort to sell to outsiders, or is it varied and catering primarily to its own populace? What are the marketplaces like? The larger the city, the more markets it needs, centrally located for business and residential districts, and these markets need distribution channels—which is to say: roads.

Unless a city is planned in advance—a relatively rare occurrence, usually the result of government decree or religious mandate—city streets tend to grow up around existing structures and the paths of the original settlement; as a result, most cities have winding, narrow streets, suitable for foot traffic or small carts, with buildings pressing in above. As the city expands, the streets of the city often change and expand as well depending on their traffic and their usage patterns. If the streets see frequent use by heavy carts, the city leaders might pave them to prevent them from turning into trenches every time it rains. Smaller streets may remain unpaved, and the residents may even toss their chamber pots directly into the gutters, waiting for the rains to wash away the filth.

Cities frequently house a mix of social classes. Some people inevitably become wealthy and develop different living patterns, requiring people of lower station to help manage and maintain their estates. How much of your city do the wealthy command? Is there a middle class? How do the various races mix, and what do residents in general think of those who are different from them? What sorts of political groups or religions does the city have, and how do they interact?

Most of these groups will be interested in power, and many will imagine they can do a better job protecting the city than the current ruling clique. But from what does the city need protection? The Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary contains helpful lists of monsters grouped by their environment and habitat; these are invaluable tools for outlining the possible monsters that lair near the city. Of course, the presence of monsters also attracts adventurers seeking glory or wealth. The more monsters or other physical threats near a city, the more likely the city will have extensive stocks of adventuring supplies, weapon shops, armories, and the like.

Questions about Your City

Source GameMastery Guide pg. 157
Designing a city can seem like an overwhelming task, but in a roleplaying game, the key to designing a compelling city is to consider those aspects that are most likely to affect your adventure or the PCs. Before you start writing your city, develop a familiarity with the more practical elements of your locale by answering the following questions (many of which are useful in designing smaller settlements, as well).

Who rules the city?
How does the ruler maintain power?
What factions or personalities plot against the ruler? Why do they do so?
What four enemy types are common to campaigns set in this city?
Which local NPCs are the PCs likely to befriend? Why?
What three things about your city make it unique?
What monsters lurk in the city?
How powerful are the city’s trade guilds?
Is there a wizards’ guild?
Is there a thieves’ guild?
What deities have temples in the city?
What is the most popular religion? What about your city’s character makes this religion popular?
From whom are the PCs likely to seek healing?
Where can the PCs buy weapons, armor, and equipment?
What’s the best inn or tavern in town?
Which tavern is most likely to be the site of a bar fight?
Where would the PCs buy, sell, and trade magic items?
How does social class affect the lives of citizens in your city?
What do the social classes think of each other?
How corrupt is the city watch? The courts?
How dangerous is the city at night?
What are the three most beautiful things in the city?
How does the city protect itself ?
What does the city smell like?
What do the citizens do to have a good time?
What do the citizens fear more than anything else?
What would a bard like about the city?
What would a barbarian, druid, or ranger like about the city?
What would your significant other or spouse like about the city?
Why do adventurers come to your city?

Archives of Nethys

Rules Index | GM Screen

The Cosmopolitan Society

City Requirements

Urban Planning

Questions about Your City