City Builder 01 - Communities
City Builder 01 - Communities
City Builder
Builder V
Volume
olume 1:
1:
Volume
COMMUNITIES
By Michael J. V
arhola, Jim Clunie,
Varhola,
and the Skirmisher Game Development Group
City Builder V
olume 1:
Volume
COMMUNITIES
By Michael J. V
arhola, Jim Clunie,
Varhola,
and the Skirmisher Game Development Group
City Builder V
olume 1:
Volume
COMMUNITIES
Skirmisher Publishing LLC, P.O. Box 150006, Alexandria, VA 22315
Email: [email protected] Website: www.skirmisher.com
Authors: Michael J. Varhola, Jim Clunie, and the
Skirmisher Game Development Group
Publishers: Robert Mac McLaughlin, Michael J. Varhola,and Geoff Weber
Editor
-in-Chief: Michael J. Varhola
Editor-in-Chief:
Layout and Design: Michael J. Varhola
Thanks T
o: Sharon Daugherty and Steve Lortz
To:
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Characteristics of Communities
Regional Influences...........................................................................................................................................9
Types of Communities...........................................................................................................................................10
Small Communities..........................................................................................................................................11
Towns......................................................................................................................................................12
Cities........................................................................................................................................................13
Special-Purpose Communities..........................................................................................................................14
Buildings
17
19
Fortifications..................................................................................................................................................20
On, Above, and Below City Streets.........................................................................................................................22
Lighting.........................................................................................................................................................23
Disasters
25
33
35
Introduction
haracters in a typical fantasy role-playing game setting spend much of their time trudging through teem
ing wilderness, exploring forgotten ruins, and risking the hazards of subterranean dungeon complexes.
Before and after such adventures, however and sometimes even during them characters often visit
a wide variety of places to buy and sell weapons, armor, and other equipment; consult with or hire mercenaries,
tradesmen, scholars, and various sorts of specialists; and participate in training and other activities related to
their vocations.
The various types of communities where adventurers
perform these and other functions is the subject of this
book and the series of which it is part. It has not been
written with any particular game system in mind and
is intended to be useful for Game Masters building a
wide variety of ancient, medieval, and fantasy communities.
In many game campaigns, visits to such communities and the essential places within them are often given short shrift, and dispensed with in the most perfunctory way. Not every visit to such non-adventuring
venues needs to be played out, of course, and it is perfectly appropriate that many not be. Periodically roleplaying visits to various essential places, however, can
serve a number of useful functions.
Communities of various sorts often serve as the starting and ending points for all sorts of ventures, and uncounted parties of adventurers have begun and ended
their quests in the marketplaces and taverns of the villages, towns, and cities of the game world. Communities themselves can also serve as locales for exploits of
all sorts, especially those involving skill use and roleplaying rather than battle, with encounters and characters much different than those typical of the usuallymore dangerous wilderness and dungeon environments. Even campaigns encompassing long overland
travels or voyages at sea will likely involve occasional
stops at settlements or ports to obtain supplies and services beyond what characters in a party can carry or
provide for themselves.
Indeed, one of the things that distinguishes a campaign from an unrelated series of dungeon crawls can
be the downtime between adventures. Many parties
will return again and again to a well-established base
of operations, a place where the adventurers can heal
up, resupply, and train. Providing a detailed community in which to perform these tasks establishes a sense
of continuity, provides a stronger rationale for player
characters progression in competence and ability, and
helps tie together adventures into a cohesive whole.
Game-world communities are, unfortunately, often not
as interesting or unique as they could be, and the intent behind this book is to provide Game Masters with
a resource for making the communities in their worlds
more plausible, memorable, and exciting.
Visits to places that have been given interesting details and added dimensions can reinforce the feeling
that the characters live in a real, vital, interconnected
world. This will seem especially true if various fundamental places and the people associated with them
are affected by the same sorts of factors present in the
milieu as the player characters are.
Finally, Game Masters can often use communities
and the relevant places within them both as locales
where player characters might meet non-player characters who might be useful to them or otherwise influence their fates, and as opportunities to insert adventure hooks of various sorts.
City Builder V
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Volume 4: Pr
ofessional Places discusses institutions
Professional
that characters might need to visit in order to advance
in their vocations, or to which others might need to go
for information or various services. Specific places of
this sort described in this chapter include Guildhouses, Hospitals, and Training Halls.
Volume 5: T
radesman Places examines places ocTradesman
cupied by various sorts of specialized individuals that
player characters might periodically need to visit. Specific places described in it include Apothecary Shops,
Breweries, and Mills.
Volume 6: Mer
cantile Places deal with wealth in
Mercantile
its various forms and are the locales where characters
go to liquidate, spend, and safeguard the loot they acquire in the course of their adventures. They are, naturally, among some of the most visited places in many
campaign settings. Places of this sort described in this
chapter include Banks, Brokerages, General Stores,
Marketplaces, Pawnbrokerages, Trading Posts, and
Warehouses.
Volume 7: Ser
vice Places are locales that characService
ters can visit to fulfill their needs for things like food,
drink, sleep, and personal hygiene and include some
of the most quintessential places associated with fantasy role-playing games. Such places described in this
book include Inns, Taverns, Barbershops, Bathhouses,
Hostels, Kitchens, Livery Stables, Restaurants, and
Rooming Houses.
Volume 8: Scholarly Places looks at places characters go to ask questions of their knowledgeable inhabitants or purchase goods and services from them. Places
of this sort described here include Academies and Colleges, Alchemists Workshops, Fortune Tellers, Libraries, Mages Guilds, Scriptoriums and Scrollshops, and
Wizards Towers.
Volume 9: Religious Places are locations characters can visit to fulfill various spiritual needs, meet with
the people associated with them, or try to commune
with the gods or their agents. Such places described in
this book include Cemeteries, Monasteries and Convents, Shrines, and Temples.
Volume 10: Gover
nmental Places examines venGovernmental
ues associated with and controlled by the ruling powers of a community or state. Characters might decide
to visit such places for any number of reasons, but might
also find themselves summoned or unwillingly taken
to some of them. Specific places of this sort described
in this book include Audience Chambers, Barracks,
Guardhouses, Harbors and Harbormasters Offices, Jailhouses, Manor Houses, Municipal Courthouses, Palaces, Prisons, and Workhouses.
Volume 11: Under
world Places are those associatUnderworld
ed with criminals and the seamy underside of society.
Places of this sort that adventurers might visit for business or pleasure include Brothels, Pit-Fighting Rings,
and Thieves Guilds.
This volumes section on Physical Characteristics
of Cities contains a significant amount of material
derived from Wizards of the Coasts v.3.5 System Reference Document, which is used under the terms of
the Open Gaming License. Content in each of the other
10 volumes of this series is completely new and original.
Overall, the intent of this book and the others in this
series is to provide Game Masters with concrete information about how to create communities and places
within them for use in their own fantasy roleplaying
campaigns and to inspire them to develop places that
are believable, colorful, and exciting for their players
characters to visit.
This book and the entire City Builder series have
also been written so as to be fully compatible with the
various existing Skirmisher Publishing LLC d20 publications, including Experts v.3.5, Warriors, and Tests of
Skill.
Introduction
Features of Communities
ost communities in the game world are inhabited by a populace with similar or overlapping back
grounds, goals, interests, and concerns (there can, of course, be marked exceptions to this rule, as
with communities in the throes of division and crisis, or those in which there has been historic
isolation and oppression of a weaker group).
Populations in smaller communities tend to be racially
homogenous; generally have a relatively narrow gap
between their richest and poorest members; are often
comparatively egalitarian or democratic in nature; generally enjoy limited privacy, probably no anonymity,
and tend to know everyone else; and generally suffer
or benefit fairly equally from conditions affecting the
community overall.
Populations in larger communities are much more
likely to be racially diverse; to have a distinct economic gap between their richest and poorest members; to
have power concentrated in the hands of a few individuals or families, to have a politically disenfranchised
underclass, and to have the bulk of the residents fall
somewhere between these two extremes; tend to value
their privacy, to have many individuals about whom
little is widely known, and who generally mind their
own business as much as possible; and to enjoy benefits or suffer detriments that are often not distributed
equally.
A single major community anywhere between a
large town and very large city in size might compose a small nation-state. In addition to its main community, such a small state might also include a number of nearby villages or smaller towns, mostly dedicated to producing food for the capital. Despite their
relatively small size, such countries that evolve from
single cities can often become quite influential and
powerful. Small states of this sort will likelymay well
be the norm in ancient, medieval, or fantasy game milieus.
A large nation-state might comprise many communities including scores of cities, hundreds of towns,
and thousands of villages and smaller communities.
Such larger countries may be divided into several major regions, each containing perhaps one to three cities
and numerous smaller communities. Although such
states will likely have some form of central government
and a unified foreign policy, individual communities
might have significant control over the administration
of local and regional affairs.
Even subject communities might operate with a great
degree of independence, especially if they have suffi-
Regional Influences
Where a particular community is located is one of the
most critical factors in how it will develop. Indeed,
major terrain features like rivers, lakes, seas, mountains, valleys, forests, hills, swamps, islands, and
deserts can be some of the most significant determining factors in why a particular community was established, the form it takes, its economic basis, and how
large and successful it does or does not become.
Communities established in areas of rich farmland,
for example, may be able to produce food in surplus of
their needs, allowing them to both maintain a well-fed
populace and engage in trade with communities less
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stantly has to protect it, and nation-states that fail to do
so will lose vital portions of their lands, become occupied by foreign powers, or be annihilated.
Major terrain features like those noted above can
also limit how far a particular community has naturally expanded and determine any major lines of defense
against foreign invaders, such as a major river beyond
which the communitys troops do not venture, or a strategic pass controlled by a vital fortress that may have
changed hands many times. Areas that are beyond the
control of any of the surrounding civilized states will
likely remain debatable in legal status and a haven to
whatever outlaws, monsters, and highly-skilled adventurers choose to make their home there.
Racial Influences
10
Features of Communities
in one or more areas.
It is also possible that the populations of two or more
sentient communities could be largely unaware of each
others existence. A sequestered community of submarine Elves in the great bay adjoining a major city might
be invisible to its Human inhabitants, and might themselves be largely ignorant of the fact that other people
have settled the lands beyond their holdings, possibly
centuries before, gaining some inkling of this only when
violence or the elements drive vessels and their contents beneath the waves and into the watery realm below.
Types of Communities
Most communities can be broadly classified as villages, towns, or cities. There are also various sorts of special-purpose communities that can play a role in the
game, such as communes, prisons, plantations, and
military bases, and these are all described either in
this chapter or elsewhere in this book. The size of a
particular community will play a big role in determining what sorts of essential places are present within it.
In general, the larger the community, the more sorts of
specialized craftsmen, goods, and services it can support.
Size of most communities is also closely linked to
their proximity to natural resources or trade routes, so
the GM should have some plausible reason for why a
particular community has attained the size that it has.
Communities with little to offer new residents will remain at their current size, or possibly even shrink if
the pickings are scarce perhaps leaving amenities
intended for a much larger population to fall into disuse or to be adapted for different purposes. On the other hand, events like establishment of a new trade route
or discovery of a previously unexploited resource might
cause a period of expansion. Being based in such a
boom town can make for many exciting adventure
hooks, as well as providing adventurers with a familiar
base of operations that could plausibly grow to meet
some of the more complex needs of higher-level characters.
Small Communities
Many sorts of communities smaller than true towns
exist, and the vast majority of communities in worlds
that function largely like our own will likely be agricul-
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Hamlets are larger than thorps and are typically
home to as many as 400 residents, but depend on larger communities for amenities important to everyday
life, such as purchase of necessary tools and supplies,
religious worship, or local government. It is 30% likely
that such a community is only temporary and occupied either seasonally or until completion of a specific
project, such as a section of road, a castle, or a temple.
If permanent, a hamlet generally has no firm economic base or organized government, and its inhabitants
typically work as subsistence farmers, hunter-gatherers, or craftsmen. Residents of non-permanent hamlets are typically laborers engaged in governmental
projects; people engaged in exploiting some resource,
such as seasonal harvesting of wild plants, hunting of
saleable fur or meat animals, prospecting for precious
metals or gems, or scavenging from ruins; or even bandits or equivalent lawless groups, including irregular
military forces like rebels or unemployed mercenaries.
Prominent residents of a hamlet might hold some sort
of outside authority such as bosses of a work group,
priests, or rebel officers although typically no particular post of leadership exists for the hamlet itself, which
is more often recognized as a locality than a community. Buildings in a hamlet might include permanent longhouses or huts, along with those found in thorps.
Villages are communities of up to about 1,000-or-so
residents that have some sort of organized government
and a particular economic basis (e.g., farming). A typical village might have up to a half-dozen industries,
three of which will almost always be a blacksmiths
workshop, a mill, and a brewery in a farming community (i.e., a miller to grind grain and a blacksmith to
forge and repair agricultural tools, and a brewer to convert grain into beer).
Buildings in a village are mostly permanent in nature and consist largely of such things as longhouses
and sunken huts. If constantly threatened, a village
might also include some sort of simple defenseworks,
such as a palisade, a fence of sturdy thorn bushes, a
watchtower into which people can flee if the community is attacked, or even a fortified temple. The residents of any particular village might also be organized
into some sort of militia, especially in areas perpetually menaced by various threats.
Communes are inhabited by people who share a similar ethos and follow the same spiritual beliefs. Such
communities generally look and function much like
12
Towns
Towns are substantial, permanent communities that
often feature a wide variety of industries, quite possibly have some racial diversity, and are typically home
to at least 2,000 inhabitants and as many as 5,000.
Towns often have several recognized districts and
Features of Communities
even suburbs. They also generally require a more complex and organized system of governance than villages
and are often run by a permanent body, such as a citizens council headed by a mayor. In addition, towns
almost always have central markets that are used by
people from surrounding villages and other small communities to sell and trade the produce of field and forest, and as an outlet for local craftsmen and tradesmen
to provide their various goods and services. Unlike villages, towns are typically not self-sufficient in food,
making their populations dependent on the markets
that have allowed their communities to prosper.
Industries associated with towns include fundamental ones required by their inhabitants on a daily basis
such as greengrocers, bakeries, butcheries, fishmarkets, mills, blacksmith shops, and breweries and
about a third will also be noted for some other craft or
activity in particular, making them a destination for
people hoping to either participate in those pursuits or
acquire the products associated with them.
Structures associated with towns are generally substantial, permanent, and diverse, and might include a
Cities
Cities are large, complex, diverse communities that are
almost always located along the banks of navigable rivers, or on the shores of deep water bays, or major trade
routes, and which have ample access to resources like
food and fresh water for their populations. In a typical
ancient, medieval, or fantasy game milieu, small cities
are home to as many as 12,000 residents (one modern
definition of a city, in fact, is a settlement of at least
10,000 residents); large cities as many as 25,000 residents; and metropolises as many resident as can be
supported by the economic basis of the campaign set-
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ting, possibly hundreds of thousands or even millions.
Many cities have some sort of significant commodity
exchange or industry associated with them (50% and
25% likely, respectively).
A citys head of government usually has at least the
title of Lord Mayor (though often this personage will
instead be a high noble of the realm or the ruler of an
independent state, holding such titles as Duke, Prince,
Doge, or Sultan) and presides over a council of representatives who each have a considerable constituency
in the city and without whose organizational skills the
administration of such a vast and complex system could
not function.
Cities are often divided into multiple sections often referred to as districts, precincts, quarters, or wards
that are sometimes separated by walls or even with
movement between them controlled or interdicted by
fortified gates. Each of these precincts typically has a
different, specialized purpose and each might actually
be similar in size to an independent town; possibilities
include craft, trade, mercantile, academic, profession-
al, service, temple, entertainment, underworld, government, residential, and military quarters, each of
which might be further subdivided. Another common
pattern is to allot one or more quarters primarily to particular nationalities or races, or to foreigners and visitors generally (both for purposes of providing them with
suitable amenities and segregating them from the indigenous population).
Various sections of a city might be set off with distinctive boundary stones marked with specific sorts of
symbols or sculptures. Respect for such official markers and adherence to them is generally taken very seriously by the community that has expended the time
and effort to erect them. Such markers might also have
some sort of reputed or actual magical properties.
Cities will almost always have substantial defenseworks and, whether independent communities or those
that serve as strategic strongpoints for kingdoms or great
nobles, will generally be walled and include towers
and fortified gates (see Fortifications, below, for more
information). Such defenseworks are frequently elaborate and imposing, are sometimes unique, distinctive,
or aesthetically striking, and are often intended to intimidate and impress as much as to defend.
Another feature common to cities and to many
towns as well is the presence of public fountains,
which are often erected in prominent areas by civic
leaders and organizations, both as public works intended to impress and as practical sites for residents or
travelers to obtain water. Edifices of this sort are often
reputed to have various magical properties, whether
innately as a function of the spring water that flows
from them or somehow deliberately imbued through
the actions of some being or agency.
Special-P
urpose Communities
Special-Purpose
Various sorts of special-purpose communities including plantations and military bases, both of which are
described here can play a role in the game and provide an interesting change of venue from more traditional sites of habitation.
Plantations are substantial commercial farms
worked by gangs of hired labor or slaves. Many communities of this sort have all of the characteristics of a
village and are frequently nearly or wholly self-sufficient. At least half and as much as three-quarters of
the population of a plantation will consist of laborers,
and to the extent that such a community exhibits any
14
Features of Communities
demographic diversity the members of different racial
or ethnic group may variously own, run, or work the
place.
Structures on a plantation typically include a home
for the owner and his family if they reside at the site,
barracks for overseers or guards, and quarters for laborers, along with the workshops, granaries, and other
buildings associated with villages. Conditions on plantations typically range from comfortable for the owners, to adequate for the overseers, to often execrable for
the laborers.
Communities like company towns, where the sole
local industry (e.g., a mine) and all associated resources are controlled by a single entity, generally conform
to the characteristics of plantations.
Military bases are fortified communities owned and
operated by standing armies, typically the armed forces of a state (although in a medieval setting other armed
groups such as knightly orders or pirate brotherhoods
might support equivalent facilities). Such places generally house one or more units of military personnel,
store equipment, and facilitate activities like training,
equipment testing, and field operations. Military bases
can range from small outposts to military cities containing thousands of people. Most are dedicated to supporting a single military or paramilitary organization,
such as an army, navy, marine corps, constabulary,
militia, watch, or guard force.
Some military bases may belong to nations or states
other than those in which they are located, and such
facilities are characteristic of imperial powers in particular. Regardless of where they are located, military
facilities are often extra-legal jurisdictions not subject
to the prevailing civil laws of the land.
Names applied to particular sorts of military bases
generally indicate their sizes, functions, or degrees of
fortification. Such terms might include armory, arsenal, barracks, camp, depot, dock, facility, field, fort,
fortress, garrison, installation, magazine, post, proving
ground, reservation, station, or yard. A strategic defensive line might contain numerous interconnected bases,
or effectively constitute a single large military base
along its entire length (e.g., 70-mile-long Hadrians Wall
in northern England).
Whatever they are called or used for, military bases
will generally employ stringent security measures,
which might include walls, towers, fences, moats, buffer zones (e.g., marches), free-fire zones, and armed
15
Buildings
n a traditional ancient, medieval, Renaissance, or fantasy campaign setting, many of the places characters
need to visit before, during, and after their adventures will be located in the sorts of structures described
here.
17
ities are in many ways similar to dungeons, made up of buildings, alleys, and courtyards rather than
walls, doors, rooms, and corridors. Adventures that take place in urban areas differ from dungeon delves
in a number of significant ways, however, including much greater access to resources, restrictions on the
use of weapons and spells, and the presence of law-enforcement personnel.
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At any given time, 80% of the guards or watchmen
on duty are on the streets patrolling, while the remaining 20% are stationed at various posts throughout the
city, where they can respond to nearby alarms. At least
one such guard post is generally present within each
precinct or ward of a city.
Fortifications
In a traditional ancient, medieval, or fantasy milieu,
most cities and many smaller communities will
be defended by structures like walls, gates, towers, and
moats. Factors that determine to what extent a community might be protected in this way include what
the local economy can support, the sorts of threats
which they are intended to counter, whether those
threats are recognized by community leaders, and the
degree to which various sorts of defenseworks would
inhibit such threats. Rulers who distrust the populace
of a city (perhaps because of recent conflicts, whatever
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cities, however, gates are often less impressive and the
primary entryways are simply through reinforced double-doors set right into the municipal walls.
Gates are usually open during the day and locked or
barred at night. Usually, a door sized for a single person set into one gate lets in travelers after sunset and is
staffed by guards who might open it for someone who
seems honest, presents proper papers, gives a password or countersign, or offers a large enough bribe (depending on the ethos of the community in general and
the guards in particular).
22
Some municipalities, particularly those that gradually grew from small settlements to larger cities, have
no larger thoroughfares. Cities that are planned, or perhaps have suffered major fires, sackings, or periods of
abandonment that allowed authorities to construct new
roads through formerly inhabited areas, might have a
few larger straight streets through town, known as avenues or boulevards. These main roads are often 25 feet
wide or more allowing room for wagons to pass each
other and perhaps for central rows of trees, statuary, or
other embellishments by the local rulers who laid out
the street plan and often have five-foot-wide sidewalks on one or both sides. Because the majority of the
citys residents pass along them, rulers typically choose
such main roads as the locations for large monuments
to the states prestige, such as triumphal arches and
grand squares and for reminders of the states capacity to punish, such as execution-places and gibbets.
Rooftops: Getting to a roof usually requires ascending to it from a buildings interior, climbing a wall, or
Lighting
Communities may or may not light their streets at night,
and whether they do or not depends on factors like
their ethos, needs, and financial means. Whatever the
case, municipal lighting will generally be much less
reliable than in an industrialized milieu, and residents
venturing out after dark will have to address this in
some way (e.g., hiring lantern-bearers).
Cities that do provide street lighting will typically
23
Disasters
ire, flood, famine, plague, and war are among the major disasters that perpetually menaced historic an
cient and medieval communities of all sizes, and to these can be added the threat of monsters in a fantasy
milieu. Indeed, most of the misfortunes likely to befall a community as a whole are likely to be covered by
one of these broad categories. And all of them might both manifest themselves and be battled in unique and
fascinating ways in a fantasy campaign setting.
Fire is a major threat in ancient and medieval communities, and is made much worse by conditions that
typically include closely packed buildings; features like
wooden party walls between houses; widespread use
of flammable materials like wood, wattle, and thatch;
narrow, irregular streets; and a lack of effective firefighting equipment and infrastructure.
Measures for combating fire in traditional ancient or
medieval urban areas tend to be limited both in scope
and effect, and quite often consist of no more than bucket brigades. Some municipalities might have public or
private fire departments, but the latter type might negotiate rates before actually fighting any fires.
Flood is a constant problem for many communities
especially those situated in low-lying areas or along
rivers or coasts and often occurs during specific seasons, especially spring, when snow and ice begins to
melt and overflow waterways. Calamities of this sort
might also be the result of storms at any time of the
year. Small communities, such as thorps, hamlet, or
villages, might be completely swept away by a heavy
inundation, and even those that survive are likely to
suffer a heavy toll in death and damage. Towns, cities,
and other communities with relatively sturdy structures
are less likely to be completely destroyed but might
still suffer immense damage and be paralyzed, with
people trapped on rooftops or forced to employ makeshift watercraft to get from one place to another.
The easiest way to prevent flooding, of course, is
simply to build communities on high ground. Communities are situated in places prone to flooding for many
reasons, however (e.g., trade is made facilitated in cities located along rivers or coasts, agricultural settlements thrive on flood plains with rich soil). Effective
drainage systems can also be a means of dealing with
flooding but, with some notable exceptions, were rare
in most ancient and medieval communities.
Famine occurs when events like crop failure, destruction of crops as the result of warfare, or depletion
of food stocks through sieges reduces the amount of
food that can distributed or sold within communities.
While intensive agriculture can allow communities to
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forms of magical protection are among the ways that
plague and other epidemic diseases can be combated.
Such actions cannot necessarily be arrived at intuitively, however, and typically require a relatively high level of medical knowledge and organization to successfully implement.
War is one of the most extreme and potentially fatal
calamities that can befall a community, which might
end up being the target of anything from a raid-in-force
by marauding brigands to a prolonged siege by a complete enemy army.
Small communities, especially those of village size
or smaller, might not actually be the objectives of military operations but might instead get incidentally overrun in the course of invasions, major battles, disasters
triggered by magical means, or foraging sweeps by one
or more opponents, despite the residents having no
affiliation with any of the combatant sides and beyond the effects on their own fates quite possibly
being indifferent to the outcome of the hostilities.
Larger communities, those of town size or larger,
might constitute military objectives in and of themselves
(e.g., for annexation, pillage, oversight of a strategic
location, or a desire to harm or incite the nation they
are part of). Attacks on towns and cities that are not
independent but are instead subjects of larger states,
of course, are considered equivalent to assaults on those
nations overall.
Fortifications are one of the best and most basic
measures a community in a traditional milieu, if it can
afford them, can employ for deterring or resisting conventional attacks. Various improvements can make sim-
26
Disasters
nities by spellcasters empowered to call rain, create
water, or summon water elementals, epidemics might
be stopped cold by priests capable of detecting and
treating or curing disease, and famine might be forestalled by divinely-provided food (e.g., manna from
heaven).
Any of these kinds of calamities could also be created or made much worse by the presence of magic.
Flooding is only more dangerous if it is encouraged by
a vengeful druid capable of speeding the rise of waters
or prolonging seasonal rains, magical fire could be
much more lethal than normal flames to structures,
areas otherwise free of plague might be contaminated
by a depraved spellcaster capable of creating pestilence,
and warfare becomes more difficult to respond to when
enemy forces might include things like giants, elementals, and supernatural beings.
It is also certainly possible for two or more of these
disasters to strike a community at the same time, or for
one calamity to trigger or make another worse. Famine
diminishes peoples immune systems and makes them
more prone to disease, for example, and fire might break
out in a city even while it was being assaulted by enemy forces, whether in some connection with the attack
or by coincidence.
There are quite often also secondary problems associated with calamities that can provide the worst elements in any particular community the chance to perpetrate crimes like looting, robbery, and murder, and
Game Masters can customize such peripheral hazards
for their fantasy campaign settings. Floods, for example, are only more unpleasant if they have washed out
the interred remains of local graveyards, dumping soggy undead creatures throughout a community, famine
can be even more horrific if some elements in the population start resorting to cannibalism, and fire is only
more unmanageable if it attracts elemental beings with
an affinity to it.
27
City Builder V
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Volume
28
Disasters
ing their devotion to local deities.
Small communities with significant differences from
their neighbors may not be able to rely on any outside
help or local refuge and may descend into ruin, misery, and desperate compromises alone, perhaps littleknown to the outside world.
Breakdown of normal law and order in partially-abandoned settlements likely will lead to formation of adhoc gangs by those who have no role in combating the
calamity but have motives of their own not to leave,
contributing to looting, victimization of vulnerable individuals, and fires started by accident or arson that
proceed to spread unchecked.
Long after a disaster has passed, memory of it and
decisions made in haste during the bad times will affect the community. Examples might include homes
abandoned or sold to speculators, individuals or groups
who retain disgrace or honor in a community stemming from their actions in the crisis, depressed trade,
and widespread emigration. Evacuated thorps and hamlets might not be rebuilt, or might be re-sited. Elsewhere,
a wave of expatriates from a beleaguered city could
become well-known influences for better or worse
on one or many neighboring lands.
29
City Builder V
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keeping their books, collections, and fragile items safe
and may undertake considerable efforts or risks to do
so. Civic leaders may call upon those scholars who
have relevant knowledge or abilities to help find solutions to the crisis.
Religions may feel the need to offer comfort to their
adherents with special services or to arrange practical
help, such as shelter, food and medical assistance.
Nonetheless, their establishments could be targeted by
those who blame a particular deity or sect for a calamity, or attacked by looters or others seeking to take advantage of the situation.
Doomsday cults may also arise or reveal their presence, occasionally proving helpful by stocking up and
benefiting from organization beforehand as a consequence of survivalist beliefs. Ultimately, however, such
groups will largely prove to be a menace in various
30
unpredictable ways, such as instigating acts that promote and fuel the disaster, refusing to obey civil authorities, or inciting generalized panic.
Governmental office-holders are likely to be either
the busiest people in a calamity or the first to flee from
it.
The first parts of an effective response are likely to
include declaring or signaling a formal state of emergency in some pre-arranged way (e.g., making a decree, ringing temple bells), convening an emergency
meeting of community leaders, setting up a command
center for the duration of the crisis, mandating the callup of emergency reserves such as local militia, and
making appeals for specific forms of help that might
variously be answered by adventurers, mercenaries,
and the like.
The municipal government might have to enter diplomatic negotiations with the communitys neighbors
(or with a threatening army or intelligent monster),
whether for help, a suspension of hostilities or financial demands, or the formation of a league or alliance
against a common threat. These might be achieved by
concessions that the city would normally be unwilling
to make. The government or rulers personally might
have to borrow money or sell treasured items to fund
response to, and reconstruction after, the calamity.
This is likely to invoke, whether formally or informally, more wide-reaching and centralized powers than
the civic government and particularly its leader normally would exercise. Such measures may even involve setting aside of constitutional or relatively liberal
government and the investiture of a supreme leader
with a formal position such as Tyrant, Lord Protector,
or Warlord.
Prisoners of the local regime at the time of the calamity might be neglected or even abandoned and
perhaps even be offered an opportunity to escape
but might also be protected to a great extent by their
sturdy enclosure from events going on around them.
Underworld figures are likely to do better than average or even well in unsettled times. Brothels and gambling dens, like taverns, are likely to prosper with the
presence of soldiers and may even spring up in response to their arrival. Underworld figures can sometimes also show a surprising level of patriotism at times,
just as craftsmen, tradesmen, and the proprietors of
service places do, but perhaps with greater and unexpected effect.
Disasters
31
33
ity Builder V
olume 1: Communities is the first in a series of at least 11
Volume
complementary books that will help guide Game Masters through the
process of designing exciting and compelling urban areas and places
within them for their campaigns. It is not specific to any particular game
setting and is designed to be compatible with the needs of any ancient, Dark
Ages, Middle Ages, Renaissance, or fantasy milieu.
Contents of this book include:
* An Introduction that describes the scope of the series and the contents of the
upcoming volumes;
* A section on the Characteristics of Communities that examines regional
influences and small communities, towns, cities, and special-purpose
communities like military bases and plantations;
* A section on Buildings;
* A section on the Physical Characteristics of Cities that includes
discussion of fortifications, lighting, and conditions on, above,
and below city streets; and
* A section on Disasters.
SKP E 0802
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