Most Cliche Fantasy Cities

[DontEatRawHagis]

I was going through all the different types of cities that I have gone through in games to help build my own world. I came across a few cities that followed the same theme.

• Elven Tree City
• Dwarven Underground/inside Mountain City
• Human Medieval castle city

Anyone else notice any types of cities or towns that always seem to crop up in your games?

[Yora]

The wretched hive of crazy.

Like Sigil, Ankh-Morpok, or Bookholm

[Dr.Epic]

A city in the clouds.

Pirate cove city that's nothing but docks and pirate ships and pirate ships stacked onto of each other.

The Necropolis (otherwise known as Zombie Town or Skeletonville)

[Daftendirekt]

Pirate cove city that's nothing but docks and pirate ships and pirate ships stacked onto of each other.

"Not for naught it's called Shipwreck Island, where lies Shipwreck Cove and the town of Shipwreck.

"For all that pirates are clever cobs, we are an unimaginative lot when it comes to naming things."

"I once sailed with a geezer lost both his arms and part of his eye."

"What did you call him?"

"...Larry."

[yugi24862]

City of canals which there are no roads and everyone travels around on boats. AKA not-venice

[Kitten Champion]

Not-Vatican Cities are quite popular, with optional magical pope.

[Craft (Cheese)]

Those "Desert Cities" that delightfully showcase just how horribly the Turks, the Arabians, and the Egyptians can be thoroughly confused.

The "Tribal Village" that just screams "Hi, I'm your DM, and I know absolutely nothing about pre-modern cultures aside from what I've seen of them in incredibly racist books, movies, and video games!" This goes *double* when it's applied to Orcs and Goblins and other "savages."

[JellyPooga]

The Market Town; You know, the smallish, but up and coming town that's not quite a city, but is big enough to have a varied and potentially unpredictable and/or dangerous portion of the populace without causing too much of an upset in the local economy. There always seems to be a fair or carnival going on, too...

[DigoDragon]

Four cliche settlements that always crop up in my fantasy games. Names are based on the very first settlement I used by that cliche:

"Adventure City" - A city founded by adventurers, for adventurers. Most of the population are adventurers, from newly started members to retired epics. Due to the nature of "PC Cash-Flow" the city tends to have vastly inflated pricing, but one can find nearly any magical item in the shops. Most businesses are guilds of a sort for collecting adventurers into parties.

"Union City" - A city built over the ruins of some past civilization. This will always lead to the city having the most notable non-magical technology anywhere due to the ideas looted from the ruins. Always makes for a springboard to dive under the city streets and explore the lost passages below for secrets. Sometimes forgotten denizins surface to the streets above and need to be dealt with.

"Emerald City" - A large Elven capitol city NOT based in the trees. The city has a crystal-like construction motif and features the peak of magical "technology" in its infrastructure. Will always subvert the "Elves are nature-loving tree dwellers" concept as this is a city with a competative economy and military force.

"Ares Magica" - A large city run by a powerful local mage guild. Not necessarily corrupt, but always Amoral with their studies of magic. This leads to magical experiments roaming the streets on a daily basis and subjecting half the population to unhealthy levels of magical auras. Side effects of the magic are always surprising and unexpected. The city may end up Reploding into either a dead magic zone or wild magic zone depending on the situation.

[INDYSTAR188]

The city ruled by outlaws and thieves. Bonus points if the rulers/leaders are actually in the guilds pocket.

[North_Ranger]

A wretched hive of scum and villainy.

[Ksheep]

The small desert town built around an oasis. Usually the halfway point across the desert. Buildings typically made of mud brick, 1 story, except for one tower that looks out across the desert.

[Water_Bear]

The City Which Should Not Be

Cities built in the middle of nowhere which, in defiance of logic, lack basic geography to support them. These are almost always, in my experience, cities built of stone in the middle of a vast lethal desert with no rivers nearby.

• Is built in a highly dangerous area without a compelling reason why.
• Has no access to liquid fresh water.
• In difficult to navigate terrain, with no rivers / oceans / mountain passes nearby to compensate.
• Has little or no airable land, and lacks a coast to fish and trade for food.
• Doesn't have a nearby supply of the building materials used to make it; i.e. the wood and stone town in the desert.
• Has a population in the thousands despite any of the above being true.

[BRC]

The small desert town built around an oasis. Usually the halfway point across the desert. Buildings typically made of mud brick, 1 story, except for one tower that looks out across the desert.

I wouldn't call this "Cliche", so much as "Reasonable". Maybe It's just me, but "Cliche" implies a sort of scorn. "Oh, they built their city around the only source of water for miles around, how Cliche."

The wretched hive of crazy.

Like Sigil, Ankh-Morpok, or Bookholm

A while back there was a great Community World Building project here called Ishka that was basically this taken to Eleven Thousand.

[Ksheep]

I wouldn't call this "Cliche", so much as "Reasonable". Maybe It's just me, but "Cliche" implies a sort of scorn. "Oh, they built their city around the only source of water for miles around, how Cliche."

More cliché when it's smack dab in the middle of the desert, and you're forced to trek through the desert and stop there, even if your destination isn't necessarily on the other side of the desert.

[DigoDragon]

The City Which Should Not Be

That sounds like it could make for a cool mystery adventure.

[Giegue]

Here's another one...

EEEEVILLLLOPOLIS: You know this place. If the BBEG rules over an empire of some-kind, this will undoubtedly be it's capital. The place will be designed to look as outwardly evil as possible, with "evil" looking architecture that may feature Gothic designs, excessive uses of spikes and sharp edges, lots of dark colors, heavy industry and industrial aesthetics and pretty much anything that makes the place look threatening, dark and ominous. If it's in a high tech setting, it will probably look a lot like Midgar from FFVII. If it is in a more traditional setting, expect it to be something like Mordor. While this is certainly not a requirement, this kind of city is sometimes built on an "evil-looking" landscape, such as a dark, rocky waste near a volcano that has lots of natural lava rivers.

The people of this city fall into two camps; the oppressed lower caste(usually slave laborers, though in some cases this place will actually have normal pesants.) and the EEEEEVVVIIILLLLLL people who are either members of the leadership or minions of that leadership. The government and military of the city will be totally 100% evil, and so will most of it's major establishments. If this city has slums, it is the only city in which those slums are actually the safest area for PCs since the slums are where the non-evil oppressed people live and is most likely the base of the heroic rebels if they exist. This city is ALWAYS a dictatorship. If it says it's a Democracy and looks like one outwardly, it is never actually a real democracy but rather a totalitarian system that disguises itself as one.

This city sometimes overlaps the the Necropolis, especially if the BBEG of the campaign it's in is a Necromancer.

[Dr.Epic]

Merfolk city locate at the bottom of a volcano

...or the ocean. Whichever is more cliche.
(also there are talking fish that sing.)

[Ulysses WkAmil]

Freezingcoldsburg: The place up north, in the tundra, thats freezing cold with barley any revenue generation but is full of hearty northerners that are fair-haired and 7ft tall. The people usually have a blood-alchohol content of 1.2 but rarley seem to have any sort of ailments. They are very far from other cities, and have too cold of elements to grow crops, but have an affordable supply of mead, bread, pork, and everything else hearty northerners consume. Also, denezins of this city normally worship some god realativley similar to the Norse gods (battle, wisdom, power, ect.).

Noracismhereville: A city that oddly has many races integrated into one area or separate districts with no resulting turmoil. As if all the races are content with the same way of life, rendering the whole "race" thing useless.

[TheCountAlucard]

Elven Tree City

Halta, Exalted.

The wretched hive of crazy.

Nexus, Exalted.

A city in the clouds.

Yu-Shan, Exalted.

Pirate cove city that's nothing but docks and pirate ships and pirate ships stacked onto of each other.

Meh, close enough. The Denzik City-Ship, Exalted.

The Necropolis (otherwise known as Zombie Town or Skeletonville)

Thorns, Exalted.
The Skullstone Archipelago, Exalted.
The Thousand, Exalted.

Noracismhereville: A city that oddly has many races integrated into one area or separate districts with no resulting turmoil. As if all the races are content with the same way of life, rendering the whole "race" thing useless.

Halta, Exalted.

[Morithias]

Eternea: Now shorthand for "Giant ass city" in my D&D group. Eternea is a city that might as well be it's own state. A metropolis in the DMG is 25000 people, this city has a million or more. You can buy almost anything here cause the GP limit is so high.

[ForzaFiori]

A while back there was a great Community World Building project here called Ishka that was basically this taken to Eleven Thousand.

Ishka was such an epic place. It sucked that every playtest I tried to take part in died

[DontEatRawHagis]

We had an Airship city in the last true fantasy game I played. You could find everything you ever wanted there, but even if you had the Gold to buy something the DM said, sorry you have to make it yourself with your blacksmith and craft magic item feat.


Reminds me, town inexplicable devoid of people who are willing to buy the weapons and goods you took from bandits.