Detail the town where characters will retire to heal and carouse.

“Here your players will find lodgings, buy equipment, hire mercenaries, seek magical and clerical aid, drink, gamble and wench. [...] Strange towers, a thieves quarter, and temples of horrible deities add greater flavor to play. The 'Thieves Guild', a society of evil clerics, a brotherhood of lawful men, and so on bring a bit more interest also. If a few warring nobles from the surrounding territory also send large parties of men into the place occasionally some interesting brawls can occur. Honest and dishonest merchants should be indicated, Taverns which drug patrons should likewise be indicated, and so on. In any event be sure and leave room for additional things and expansion.” – EGG

Tasks

• [ ] Find or sketch out a city map. There’s not a lot of points to be had for originality here. Finding an old city map or town generator online and pasting a copy of it into your journal is a smart play. You will certainly make it your own in the next few steps anyway.
• [ ] Look at the equipment lists for your game. Name several shops were various kinds of items can be bought: a smith for arms and armor, a stable for mounts, etc. You may want to find a fantasy name generator or list at this point. When in doubt name a place after a location’s owner, e.g. “Tarn’s Leather Goods.”
• Locate/describe at least five of the following in a short sentence:
• [ ] Create at least 5 NPCs, each with a “DNA.” D is for a Distinguishing trait of feature. N is for what they Need most. A is their Agenda, secret or otherwise; what do they hope to do in the following days, weeks, months, or even years? (Alternately, A could stand for an Asset they have that the players need.)

Extra Credit

• [ ] Create 4-5 hirelings or specialists. These are characters the players might recruit, or NPCs that might try to recruit the characters.

• [ ] Generate 7-9 rumors that are going around the town. The majority of them should be unrelated - at least on the surface. Some should be absolute rubbish.

• [ ] Describe stuff! Take the time to write a few sentences about each structure.

  

Example