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GameMastery Guide / Creating a World / The Cosmopolitan Society

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?