Fantasy City Creation Method

Why Build Cities Like Theme Parks:

This document will teach you to create cities for your games from a gameplay-first perspective to ensure they are actually fun to spend time in at the table.

It thinks of cities as theme parks; places filled with activities to enjoy. These activities are catered to the interests of your players, in order to ensure all of them have something that appeals to their particular interests.

A gameplay-first approach to city building does not preclude the creation of lore-rich cities filled with history and characters important to the plot. On the contrary, it allows those elements to exist in a space the players actually want to explore and spend time in, as opposed to a lore-first approach to city-making, where a city can easily end up feeling more like a classroom rather than a theme park, or a meet-and-greet line for important NPCs.

The Theme Park Method to City-Making:

In order to follow this method, think of a theme and attractions that follow that theme.

A theme is a guiding throughline for your city. Themes should be visually distinct and immediately understood by the players. These themes should be loose enough to accommodate a variety of attractions that appeal to all players.

Themes like “Hope”, “Revenge”, or “Love” are bad themes to choose for a city, because they are not immediately visual. Themes like “Blue”, “North”, or “Cat” are visual, but you’ll have a much harder time finding attractions that fit that theme.

Once you have a theme, think of attractions that can fit that theme. You find attractions by asking yourself (or asking your players directly, if you do not yet know) what they like about playing the game. Attractions should ideally appeal to more than one player, to ensure that a maximum of players find themselves catered to by one attraction. Attractions can be as long or short as you want them to be; they can range from something to do for one session to an entire adventure—but if the second is the case, you must appeal to all players with what is in that attraction.

Examples of the need an attraction needs to answer are preferences like: High-Stakes Roleplay, Combat, Puzzle-Solving, Competitions, Exploration, Intrigue, or Stealth.

The following sections include examples of both themes and attractions for you to use or to get you started on creating your own

Theme Examples:

The following are examples of themes that are both visual and accommodate a variety of attractions.
Undeath:

A metropolis that is also a necropolis. Houses are built alongside mausoleums, and class differences show not just in the clothes you can afford or the job you can land, but also on what shroud your family can afford to bury you in, whether you get interred in an oven crypt or cremated, and if you are afforded the luxury of eternal rest or forced to work menial jobs as a skeleton to afford your own burial. Necromancy is not looked down upon in this city, but is the most valued school of magic. The city has a similarly backwards view on undeath: animated corpses are a common sight on the streets of the city, alongside carriages pulled by tireless skeletal horses and undead messenger pigeons dotting the sky. True undeath—the kind where the corpse retains the memories, will, and personality of the living person—is seen as a wondrous feat and a great honor, with the rulers of the city being a council of liches.
Hell:

A city next to a portal that leads straight to the Hells. Originally a heavily fortified keep that only a devil-slaying order of Paladins called home, it grew in size when the portal proved too stubborn to close and the devils were found to be amenable to trade. What started as simple bartering of sulfur in exchange for goods from the mortal planes grew, slowly and steadily, into an actual economy. Nowadays, the city relies heavily on its tenuous relationship with the Hells and its inhabitants. Both devils and mortals are allowed to pass into each other’s domains on official business, and a hybrid culture influenced by both mortal mores and hellish ways of life has flourished, due in no small part to the massive tiefling and cambion population that calls the city home, a product of the mingling between the Hells’ inhabitants and those who call the mortal realm their home.
Underwater:

A settlement or even a town springing to life around a desert oasis is not noteworthy, but when this town continued to grow and fertile land around the oasis grew scarce, the solution to build inside the massive oasis allowed it to flourish into its current size. The diameter of the oasis’ surface is close to a mile wide, but it widens underground and then snakes into a complex and unexplored system of underground, underwater caves. It boasts a thriving and unique ecosystem, diverse and plentiful enough to allow massive creatures to subsist in its waters. The city itself is much bigger underwater than it is above water, and the nobility and rich merchant class make their homes exclusively under the surface, while the working class often has to live under the sweltering sun above. Life underwater has shaped every aspect of city life, including farming, resource mining, and glamorous galas celebrated in glass domes with a full view of underwater life.
Holy:

While cultures that focus on mastering the arcane are not uncommon, societies that instead focus on divine magic are much rarer. This city chose this path after a cataclysm stopped only by the combined power of the clergy, which catapulted them to rulers of the city and, in time, the country. In this theocracy, holy power is king. Their main export is healing apparatuses that have been imbued with divine magic, able to heal any wound, disease, or curse. They have the monopoly on this divine technology, and have used it to bolster their economy—and to starve their enemies of precious healing needed during wars, often wars the holy city itself is fighting with their Paladin-based military. There is no distinction between church and state, and everyone is in some way involved with the church. Heresy is not just a crime, it’s treason.
Art:

This city understood the importance of soft power, and chose to focus on it to great results. When the whole world sings your songs, watches your plays, admires your paintings, and reads your novels, it not only makes you rich, it also makes you an extremely unpopular target to wage war against. The city is ever-changing in its presentation, with districts dedicated to painting, sculpture, dance, and theater, all of them deeply intertwined with the arcane. Bardic Colleges flourish in the city and dwarf wizarding ones in both size and prestige. Art is paramount here, and artists are often also government workers. Social influence is worth more than gold, and fame and connections are a currency on their own.
Attraction Examples:

The following are examples of attractions that can populate your city. These have been written to be theme-agnostic, but in order to implement them into your city you should change them to fit your theme. For example, the “Fighting Contest” attraction might be a battle of the bands in a city with the Art theme, or a series of battles to the death run by a Pit Fiend in the Hell theme.

Each of these attractions also details which types of players this attraction can cater to. This list is not exclusive, and depending on how you run it and what you add or subtract to this attraction, it will cater to different players.

Nothing is stopping you from combining two of these attractions into a single attraction to appeal to more players. For example, the “Infiltration” attraction and the “Ball” attraction can be one single attraction, where some players are expected to mingle among NPCs and talk to them while others carry out a stealth mission to retrieve an important piece of blackmail.
Fighting Contest:

Concept: The players must face against a series of teams of enemies and/or monsters to win a prize.

Example Locations: A colosseum, an underground fighting ring, a stadium.

Appeal: Players who enjoy combat, players motivated by acquiring loot.
Infiltration:

Concept: The players must infiltrate a heavily guarded area to retrieve an item or a person.

Example Locations: A jail, a noble’s estate, a government building.

Appeal: Players who enjoy intrigue, players who have built their character towards Dexterity/Stealth.

To engage players who enjoy roleplay, give them the opportunity to pass themselves off as someone else. To engage players who enjoy combat, have failure to remain undiscovered result in combat.
Ball:

Concept: The players have been invited to a ball, where they must convince one of the attendants to align with their goals.

Example Locations: A noble’s estate, a government building, a club.

Appeal: Players who enjoy high-stakes roleplay, players who that have built their characters towards Charisma, players who enjoy intrigue.
Competition:

Concept: The players have entered a competition that will test their skills against other participants, the winner receiving an enticing prize.

Example Locations: A stage, a racing track, a stadium.

Appeal: Players who have built their characters towards skills that lend themselves to the competition, players motivated by acquiring loot.
Putting on a Show:

Concept: The players must put on a show to either acquire a significant sum of money or get noticed by a powerful figure in the city.

Example Locations: A theater, a powerful noble’s drawing room, a tavern, the main square.

Appeal: Players who have built their characters towards performance, players who enjoy roleplay, players motivated by acquiring loot.
Test of Mettle:

Concept: The players must prove their combat prowess in order to be chosen for a specific job or get an important NPC to agree to help them.

Example Locations: the military barracks, a fighting ring, a private estate’s training grounds.

Appeal: Players who enjoy combat.
Dispatching a Powerful Enemy:

Concept: The players have been tasked or have otherwise decided to bring a resident of the city down.

Example Locations: a ball of masks, the enemy’s home, a dark alley.

Appeal: Players who enjoy combat, players who enjoy intrigue, players who enjoy tactics and planning..
Siege:

Concept: The players have to reinforce the city’s defenses against the onslaught of a powerful opposing force.

Example Locations: the city’s walls, a keep at the center of the city, a government building.

Appeal: Players who enjoy combat, players who enjoy planning.
Explore Uncharted Territory:

Concept: The players must venture into a secluded and seldom visited part of the city to retrieve an important item or find a character.

Example Locations: the city’s sewers, the ruins under the city, an abandoned estate.

Appeal: Players who enjoy exploration, players who enjoy puzzles, players who have built their characters towards Survival, players who enjoy combat (if the opportunity arises).
Open a “Door”:

Concept: The players must find a way to enter a space, the entrance to which is locked by a puzzle.

Example Locations: a wizard’s tower, a government building, the forbidden section of a library.

Appeal: Players who enjoy exploration, players who enjoy puzzles.
Gather Clues:

Concept: The players must find clues that will guide them to their destination, or point them in the direction of a particular character.

Example Locations: a series of contraband stashes, a series of clues each pointing to the next, evidence of a crime scattered throughout the city.

Appeal: Players who enjoy exploration, players who enjoy intrigue, players that enjoy roleplay (if a clue comes from an NPC that needs to be convinced).