El meollo de la discusión: la política para A Luchar

Most DMs use cities in their games without a second thought, tossing them on the map to give the characters a convenient place to rest, equip, and sell off their loot. If this level of detail is perfectly fine with you, then proceed ahead and start with the urban archetypes. If the background, history, and origin of a city hold little importance to you, you might as well dive in and handle the parts of city design that have a direct effect on a game session. On the other hand, if you are in the midst of designing a campaign or want to add depth to your game world then this section is for you.

As products of civilizations, cities are rich in history. Where they have been is just as impor- tant as where they are and where they are going, because in the vast majority of cases a city’s history plays a major role in its present affairs. Since urban areas are products of a civ- ilization, the events relating to them have prob- ably been collected in that society’s written accounts. The city’s history is known, studied, and used on a daily basis by its inhabitants. If the northmen have invaded it in the past, they are likely to mistrust them in the future. If wer- erats once attacked it via the sewers, adventur- ers are liable to find those usually neglected tunnels patrolled by heavily armed guards. Past events, especially those in the imme- diate past, play a role in how the city’s

inhabitants act and the direction its rulers take in administering it.

A city’s origin can set the tone for the length of its history. In some cases, the city changes enough that the original motivations behind its genesis no longer matter, but even in those cases its earliest days can play an important role in its contemporary operations.

Cities exist for a variety of reasons, but the fact that they exist for explicit, concrete purposes sets them apart from mountains, hills, dun- geons, and other parts of your campaign world. It takes a lot of work to establish and grow a city. Therefore, nobody does it without a rea- son. Consider why your city was established and think about how that purpose affected its history and its current state. To help inspire you, here are a few different motivations you can use to explain a city’s origin. A few of them are drawn from studies of real world cities. Trade is perhaps the most common reason why a city is born. It starts with a few isolated tribes and villages meeting at a convenient spot to swap crops, tools, and other trade goods. They may gather at a point along a trail or at a cen- trally located village. In either case, with time more and more people settle at this meeting ground to offer services to visiting farmers, merchants, and traders. With the goods, ser- vices, and money flowing into the area, a criti- cal mass of talent, labor, and money develops. The prosperous merchants establish homes and spend the money needed to build a defensive wall to fend off bandits. Laborers gather in the area, increasing the proto-city’s population and expanding the market of customers for goods and services. In turn, skilled craftsmen settle in the area to offer their products and services to the inhabitants. As the population climbs, more farmers filter in to the area to sell their crops, attracting more traders to the markets, and so forth. Once this city gets going, nothing short of a major attack or natural disaster can stop it. As these cities age, they remain important trade centers. They either continue to grow until they reach a maximum size based on the available resources of the area or a larger or more pros- perous city begins to draw business away from them. Usually two competing cities establish an equilibrium, with the two of them settling into distinct roles. One city may grow at a faster rate, but so long as the other offers a use- ful service to its immediate area it can continue

CHAPTER TWO: City Basics

CHAPTER TWO: City Basics

to thrive. It may never rival its neighbor, but the two can both exist within their realms. Resources are another draw that can establish a city. Think of the boomtowns of the western United States in the 19th century. The discov- ery of gold in that region drew tremendous numbers of fortune seekers, economic invest- ments from businessmen eager to profit from the discovery, and an influx of businesses, entrepreneurs, and others who profited from the growth by offering services to miners, prospectors, and others involved in the gold rush. While many of the boomtowns came and went, some survived to become important parts of the region’s post-gold rush development. In a fantasy game, the discovery of a mammoth dungeon filled with monsters and treasure could spark the creation of a small town where adventurers rest between expeditions, sell the gems and gold they discover, and spend their money on ale, fine goods, equipment, magic items, and other comforts. A tiny village could grow from a single inn and a few homes to a bustling town in less than a year. The resource that sparked the town’s creation becomes its primary concern, as so many people rely on it for their continued prosperity. This origin is a great option if you want to present a place that has fallen on hard times, as once the resource is gone the town can no longer support the busi- nesses that made it grow. Any valuable, rare commodity can serve to spark a city’s birth. Veins of precious metals, hidden caches of rare magic items, even timber or animal furs work fine. A city based on a resource could be small or experience steady growth. The gold rush model is not the only one possible, though even in a less extreme case the town’s health is directly tied to the prosperity of its founding industry.

Travel is related to trade but bears examination on its own terms. Some places are just natural spots for a city, from a fertile plain that sits at the midway point between two realms that engage in heavy trade to a deep, clear harbor that is ideal for trading ships. In both these cases, the city serves as a conduit to travel, trade, and communication. If many caravans travel between two points, a city has many potential visitors to whom its inns and taverns can cater. Its fortunes depend on continued movement along whatever trade route or area it is constructed on, and it can grow to a metrop- olis or dwindle to a ghost town due to war,

drought, natural disasters, or any other event that causes trade or travel to decline. Note that in addition to trade, religious pilgrimages, reg- ular migrations (nomadic tribes may regularly stop at the city to trade), and other patterns of movement may spur this sort of city into devel- opment.

Religion can be an important factor in a fanta- sy world, especially one where the gods’ exis- tence is unquestionable and their followers openly practice divine magic. A prophecy or a direct commandment from a divine being can push a church to build a city. It might start with a single, large temple that draws businesses to service the priests, pilgrims who come to wor- ship, taverns and inns for the visitors, and so on. A city could be established at the site of a miracle or important event in a faith’s history, around an important temple, around a massive religious artifact, or at a site prophesied to play an important role in the future.

History is a powerful force not only in a city’s development but also in its foundation. In a kingdom’s ancient history, tribal custom held that the greatest chief in the land build his homestead on a specific plot of land. Over time, various warlords fought to control that land and claim control over all the tribes. As the barbarians modernized and developed farming, metal armor and tools, and other advancements, a city could slowly grow in that area. With the king holding his court there, diplomats, nobles, and others would naturally make their homes nearby. This development in turn would draw merchants, services, and so on.

Defense ties into travel and trade. The city occupies ground that is critical to maintaining the realm’s security. The town probably lies on a mountain pass, strait, major river, deep-water harbor, or other geographic feature that makes it easy for an invading army to enter a region. The city grows around defensive fortifications, such as a castle or a great wall designed to repel barbarian hordes. The soldiers who man the fortification need food and supplies, while tav- erns and other entertainment venues would spring up to give them a place to spend their wages. Older soldiers may bring their wives and children to live in the area, giving mer- chants more customers and leading to the rise of a more varied selection of shops and services.

As you may have noticed from the examples given above, a given location needs a few basic factors to combine and spawn a city. First, the area must be accessible. This might seem obvi- ous, but the easier a place is to get to the more likely it is that people go there. If you look at a map of the real world, most major cities are located on bodies of water. Rivers and oceans all facilitate travel. It is quicker and faster to ride a boat down a river than to walk the same distance. More importantly, trade typically relies on bodies of water. You can carry a lot more goods on a ship than on your back. Overland caravans pale in comparison to the safety and cargo capacity of even a single ship. The more routes that lead to an area, the better the chance that a city can grow there.

Not only does a city need accessible paths, but it must also offer something that attracts visi- tors and settlers. This can be anything from a convenient place to rest while traveling between two points to a valuable commodity. Many of the examples given above emphasize this point. While accessibility is important, it works hand in hand with this factor to yield a city. If people can get to a place and they want to go there, they will travel to it.

However, a city truly grows when people have a reason to stay in a place. The defensive city is a great example of this phenomenon. A king- dom sends soldiers to a place, builds a castle there, and pays them to simply occupy the area and deny it to the enemy. Once you have peo- ple permanently settled in an area, craftsmen naturally travel there to establish businesses and sell their wares to the inhabitants. At this point, a critical cycle that helps cities grow kicks in. As more businesses move into an area, merchants follow to sell their goods to the craftsmen. In turn, more people move into the city to take advantage of the economic oppor- tunities it offers. Farmers arrive to sell their goods, trade companies add it to the list of mar- kets they service, and so on.

In summary, a city grows because of three rea- sons: people can get to it, people want to go to it, and people want to stay there. Whatever fac- tors bring about those three traits play a role in creating a city. Usually, one of those three traits plays the most important role in a city’s birth. When designing your own cities’ origins, be sure to account for these traits and consider

how they affect the city’s growth.

A City’ s