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JadedDM
2009-12-13, 05:33 PM
I have this questionnaire from the Complete Book of Villains that helps a lot in building NPCs. I find it's most helpful when building NPCs (not just villains, but any NPC) and developing their backstories so they are more realistic and fleshed out.

I'm attempting to build a similar questionnaire for building villages, towns, and other settlements. This way whenever I make one, I can consult the questionnaire and make sure there are no logic holes. Like a mountain town cut off from the rest of the world, but somehow everyone gets food and water without trade, farming, etc.

I'd like some help in this. Any questions you guys can come up with to add to this is most appreciated. Questions like:

1.) Where do the inhabitants get their food from?
2.) Where do they get their water from?
3.) What are their primary exports/imports? Who do they trade with?
4.) Why was this exact area chosen when the town was built?
5.) What are the local customs or fashions?
6.) Who is the leader of the town? How did they acquire that position?

And so on. Any ideas?

jmbrown
2009-12-13, 06:02 PM
How safe is the area? A relatively safe location built in an easily defend-able spot will have a larger population than a town built in the wild, untamed boonies. This will also determine fortifications (will a town have walls and watchtowers?), the type of professions (in a frontier town warriors and rogues will be plentiful, wizards prefer safety and resources so they'll be rare, clerics will be rare unless a church funds a bastion of some type, and rangers and druids will be somewhat popular due to their special abilities).

What's the most plentiful natural resource? This will determine the most popular profession. A forested town will have more loggers, trappers, skinners, and hunters than a town by a riverbed.

What's the climate like? Another deciding factor in the type of people, how hardy they are, and how defensible the area is.

How close is the town to another? Cities are generally at the center of trade with surrounding towns supporting them. If a citizen from Bumbleton has to pass through Bigtown to trade with Hicksville, then Bigtown will likely have a higher population as traders from the smaller towns meet in Bigtown to reduce distance traveled. This is a simple way of how cities are formed.

deuxhero
2009-12-13, 07:02 PM
1.) Where do the inhabitants get their food from?
Create Food and Water traps
2.) Where do they get their water from?
Create Food and Water traps
3.) What are their primary exports/imports? Who do they trade with?
Imports - Genies.
Exports - N/A.
4.) Why was this exact area chosen when the town was built?
Tippy was there/it was an existing location.
5.) What are the local customs or fashions?
People wear what offfers the best mechanical benifit.
6.) Who is the leader of the town? How did they acquire that position?
Emperor Tippy, by creating it.

JadedDM
2009-12-14, 08:39 PM
1.) Where do the inhabitants get their food from?
Create Food and Water traps
2.) Where do they get their water from?
Create Food and Water traps
3.) What are their primary exports/imports? Who do they trade with?
Imports - Genies.
Exports - N/A.
4.) Why was this exact area chosen when the town was built?
Tippy was there/it was an existing location.
5.) What are the local customs or fashions?
People wear what offfers the best mechanical benifit.
6.) Who is the leader of the town? How did they acquire that position?
Emperor Tippy, by creating it.

Except for #5, I have no idea what any of that means. I'm assuming it's meant jokingly, though.

erikun
2009-12-14, 08:47 PM
Yeah, it's a joke about the "Trippyverse", which uses the most efficient magical means to maintain a village. Create Food and Water "traps" for infinite meals, Heal "traps" for infinite healing, summoning Genies for Wish to create any material object desired, and so on.

1.) Who lives in the town? (Important NPCs, which races)
2.) What is nearby? (forests, rivers, mountains)
3.) What lives nearby? (wolves, dragons, gnomes)
4.) What does the town do? (mining, farming, trading)
5.) What is at the center of town? (church, wizard's guild, mayor's office)
6.) How common are outsiders?
7.) How familiar is the town to Arcane magic? Divine magic?
8.) What are three major events that happened in town?
9.) Who are three major (relatively speaking) people whose name is known outside of town?

rayne_dragon
2009-12-14, 08:53 PM
How does the town deal with waste?
What natural resources are available to the town?
What kinds of skilled workers are available in this town?
What kind of shops does the town have?
Why would people desire to live in this town?

Saintheart
2009-12-15, 12:51 AM
How does the town deal with waste?

Disintegrate traps down the S-bend.

Or you could take a leaf out of the Joel Rosenberg book and just chain up a young dragon in the sewer for four hundred years or so. :smalleek:

Temotei
2009-12-15, 01:57 AM
Disintegrate traps down the S-bend.

Or you could take a leaf out of the Joel Rosenberg book and just chain up a young dragon in the sewer for four hundred years or so. :smalleek:

If I was ruler of that area, I would give three copies of A Nation of Meddlers to each person each month.