Urban prep is different than traditional dungeon prep. For a dungeon, or a hamlet or keep, you might key every location, but you’re almost never going to do that for a town or city. These are typically run much more loosely, with handwaving around movement through the city.

Here’s a PbtA move I wrote to be compatible with Freebooters on the Frontier—

FIND YOUR WAY
When you seek a specific person or place within a settlement you’ve not been to before, roll and add a penalty or bonus based on the steading size (hamlet, +3; village, +2; keep, 0; town, -1; city, -3). 

On a 10+, you find what you’re looking for without incident. You might even discover a shortcut or learn something useful about the location.

On a 7-9, you’ll find what you’re seeking, but choose one:
• You encounter someone from your past, and they’re not happy to see you
• You draw unwanted attention from unsavory types, dangerous characters, or local authorities
• You purchase something you didn’t plan to along the way.

On a 6-, you get lost in the settlement. The Judge will make a move. You may try again after dealing with whatever complications arise.

Maps

You may want to use maps instead. The Watabou Fantasy City Generator produces great city maps, like this one:

Donjon also has a map generator:

Donjon Medieval Demographics

In addition to maps, Dunjon also has a Medieval Demographics Calculator, which will provide the number of tradespeople by trade for a given-sized city, automating the S. John Ross article “Medieval Demographics Made Easy.” Typically a town of 5,000 will have all these professions:

For villages, many professions will no longer be represented:

When you’re in a place like that, or anywhere and looking for something rarer, then a move like Acquire from Freebooters comes in handy:

ACQUIRE
When you go looking for something specific and uncommon, say how you go about it and roll +size [hamlet, -3; village, -2; keep, 0; town, +1; city, +3]: on a 10+, you find it; on a 7-9, someone knows where you can find it, but the Judge chooses 1 from the list below; on a 6-, it’s nowhere to be found, and the Judge makes a move.

  • It’ll cost more than expected
  • It’ll be a poor substitute
  • You’ll need to jump through some hoops before you lay hands on it
  • Someone else recently acquired it.

Hex Describe

If you want to generate named characters and factions, check out Hex Describe. Even though it is powered by nearly 2,000 tables (!), I found myself missing the cast of characters that populate a town. I came up with a design goal of, within a single page, emulating the keep from the classic adventure The Keep on the Borderlands as a useful starting location for the adventurers, but adding more elements of intrigue. Since Hex Describe is open source, and you can append your own tables to it, I did so and shared my tables with Alex Schroeder and Ktrey Parker. Ktrey suggested I add more professions; Alex suggested it could be used for more than just one town, but if so it would need more options and more variability.

Here’s example output from what we came up with.

This is Selwick, a town of 200 humans (HD 1 AC 8 1d6 F1 MV 12 ML 7 XP 100). The wooden houses are protected by a large keep, a wooden palisade and the river. The outer bailey of the keep houses the richest tradespeople of the land, under the rule of Duke Félix the Lucky Khan. The inner bailey houses the castellan and the guard. Entering the outer bailey is by paying 1sp per person. These tradespeople work there: 

  1. The crier Darwin is an excellent source of rumors. (A member of Fellowship of Pale Fortune Tellers.) 
  2. The herbalist Ève buys rare flora. (A member of Perfect Disciples of the Archaic Victory.) 
  3. The jeweler Loan acquires up to 1,000gp of gems. (A member of Beautiful Folk of the Keep.) 
  4. The merchant Allyson buys bulk quantities of spices, metal ingots, and other trade goods. (A member of Beautiful Folk of the Keep.) 
  5. The moneylender Hristina will convert coins from one denomination to another (10% surcharge). (Prays to Odin.) 
  6. The provisioner Tamira sells all types of equipment. 
  7. The rat catcher Kashfia, a devoted follower of Mitra, travels around singing hymns. (Surreptitiously favors Duke Alesch.) 
  8. The smith Besart sells new – and refurbishes old – weapons and armor. (Surreptitiously supports Duke Alesch.) 
  9. The tavern owner Henos runs the King’s Swan here, frequented by the well-off and the rabble-rousers. (A member of Fellowship of Pale Fortune Tellers.) 
  10. The trader Aaron buys old equipment and rare finds. (A member of Perfect Disciples of the Archaic Victory.) 
  11. The watchman Thalea frequents the shops the PCs visit and keeps an eye on them. (Second-in-command of the Fellowship of Pale Fortune Tellers.) 

(For a rumor about allegiances, roll a d10 and a d6. On a d6 of 1-3, tell the truth about the tradesperson corresponding to the results of the d10; on a 4-6, lie about them.)

The inner bailey is open to the select few and houses these noteworthy personages: 

The castellan Courtney. (Trusted confident of Duke Félix the Lucky Khan.) 

The corporal of the watch Alisha. 

The local secret society Perfect Disciples of the Archaic Victory is being infiltrated. It is led by the wizard Gentjana (level 3). The spells known are based on The Book of Songs by Xoralfona the Wordsmith: 1. empathy, calm, 2. mind blast. They believe that the ruling class has been taken over by vampires. They prepare for the big fight by studying ancient books and training with silver daggers. 

The Fellowship of Pale Fortune Tellers have been plotting to overthrow them, led by the wizard Diell (level 5). The spells known are based on The Book of the Warp by Korokoro the Mad: 1. recoil, mishap, 2. ooze, plague touch, 3. warp mind. A potion of strength (deep red, smelling like tree resin, 20min, strength 18). To believe in the current order of things is what servants are trained to do. They believe that another world is possible. 

Yet another secret society waits in the wings.

The specific ruleset used by Hex Describe is Alex Schroeder’s OSR game, Halberds & Helmets.

Settlement Tables

Alternatively, you can roll up a settlement’s properties yourself using tables. Jason Lutes has written two invaluable resources for this:

  • The Perilous Wilds offers extensive tables and suggestions for creating your own homebrewed fantasy world, far beyond settlements.
  • Settlements & Citizens, Volume 2 of Freebooters on the Frontier 2e, offers nearly 60 pages of tables and advice focused on steadings.

Improv and PbtA Moves

If you prefer a more improvisational approach, check out my Compendium of Settlement Moves for PbtA Games, collected from over 10 different PbtA games and supplements. This collection has plenty of moves to help you co-create a village, town, or city with your players.

Photo credit: Licensed under the Unsplash+ License.

The Best-Delayed Plans book coverYou can download this and other essays in my free ebook, The Best-Delayed Plans.