It's going to vary by what you mean by medieval, and where you are talking about, and generally was much less standardized than today. I suggest wikipedia.
I'm having a hard time figuring out how some things were called in the "middle age"
How a precint/police station was called? Is there such a thing on a small town? (~2000 inhabitants)
The modern term “Sheriff” is a derivative of the term “Shire Reeve” that was used in the Middle Ages. So a precinct was called a “Shire.” (At least in some places.)
The Lord house (not a castle or palacy), does it have a special name?
The lord of the land typically lived in a “keep.” A castle would be built around a preexisting keep as it expanded to accommodate the growing needs of an expanding community.
Is there a city hall? The name would be city hall?
Yes, a “city hall” or “town hall” or sometimes “meeting house” was a thing in the Middle Ages. The modern terms come down from way back then.
PS: My main language is portuguese, perhaps in english those terms sound more natural than the same ones in PT.
So I don't know, tell me how you guys do it.
I hope that helps, and that it translates well into Portuguese.
The concept of an organized police force doesn't extend back as far as the middle ages. Most modern police systems originated in the early-to-mid 1800's (for not great reasons I won't go into). The closest medieval equivalent would be just some guy the local lord told to keep an eye on things (the "shire reeve" or sheriff, as touched on above) who might have one or two deputies depending on how small the town is. The "precinct" would be the dungeon in the lord's keep, but it's less criminals that end up there and more just people the lord doesn't like. There's less law aside from the fact that the local lord's word is law, but it's hardly codified and the peasents illiterate, so there's no real *system* of law in a medieval society. Just control by the ruling class.
If something threatens the village, the Reeve wouldn't be the one to deal with it, instead the town would more likely petition their local lord to send soldiers to deal with it.
I'd suggest perhaps a Barracks where the Town Guard (or similar) might call home, might equal a police station, I think. Otherwise, IamSposta seems to have hit the nail on the head for everything I can see.
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Talk to your Players.Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
In a small town there may be a town watch or if it had a keep the local lord may keep the peace using his own militia levies.
It's important to decide early if the settlement has a presiding noble, as the makeup of its administration will be different depending if the local lord (or lady) is performing these tasks directly as part of her retinue's responsibilities (for example the Marshal) or if the matter has been delegated to a Baron or a Council.
In the latter scenario, I would expect the chief of such an organisation to be a Sergeant-at-arms.
I would suggest filling the world with your own terminology, that does not have to be 100% historical. In German towns of the late medieval era, there was a "Wache", a guard force that did police like things, like keeping the order in the town. But who did employ the guard and und what rules did they operate? Big cities, like Frankfurt have been "Reichsstädte", which means a direct representative of the emperor of the HRE was head of the government and they shared laws among other cities of that type. "Free cities", like those of the "Hanse", e.g. Rostock were governed by a council of wealthy traders. And there were cities, where the clergy, like a bishop ruled and employed a guard. Most city guards had captains appointed by the local government, but the guards consisted also of "Bürger", citizens of the town (which owned a house, had a business and paid taxes in the city). Those had to do work in the guards for a certain amount of days a year. Weapons (like swords, bucklers) were kept in a city armory and handed out to the current guard force when they went on duty. Citizens often kept weapons of war (e.g. a helmet, a chain shirt and a spear or bow) at home and were required to join militia duty in case of war or a siege. But weapons of war were no carried in public or were even banned from the streets.
But if you look for an equivalent of a police chief, a "Vogt" or "Landvogt" is kind of the equivalent of what you are looking for. Remember that executive and judikative powers are not separated in the middle ages and the "Vogt" was also the judge in court for non-capital punishments, like theft.
I'm having a hard time figuring out how some things were called in the "middle age"
How a precint/police station was called? Is there such a thing on a small town? (~2000 inhabitants)
The Lord house (not a castle or palacy), does it have a special name?
Is there a city hall? The name would be city hall?
PS: My main language is portuguese, perhaps in english those terms sound more natural than the same ones in PT.
So I don't know, tell me how you guys do it.
It's going to vary by what you mean by medieval, and where you are talking about, and generally was much less standardized than today. I suggest wikipedia.
The modern term “Sheriff” is a derivative of the term “Shire Reeve” that was used in the Middle Ages. So a precinct was called a “Shire.” (At least in some places.)
The lord of the land typically lived in a “keep.” A castle would be built around a preexisting keep as it expanded to accommodate the growing needs of an expanding community.
Yes, a “city hall” or “town hall” or sometimes “meeting house” was a thing in the Middle Ages. The modern terms come down from way back then.
I hope that helps, and that it translates well into Portuguese.
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The concept of an organized police force doesn't extend back as far as the middle ages. Most modern police systems originated in the early-to-mid 1800's (for not great reasons I won't go into). The closest medieval equivalent would be just some guy the local lord told to keep an eye on things (the "shire reeve" or sheriff, as touched on above) who might have one or two deputies depending on how small the town is. The "precinct" would be the dungeon in the lord's keep, but it's less criminals that end up there and more just people the lord doesn't like. There's less law aside from the fact that the local lord's word is law, but it's hardly codified and the peasents illiterate, so there's no real *system* of law in a medieval society. Just control by the ruling class.
If something threatens the village, the Reeve wouldn't be the one to deal with it, instead the town would more likely petition their local lord to send soldiers to deal with it.
I'd suggest perhaps a Barracks where the Town Guard (or similar) might call home, might equal a police station, I think. Otherwise, IamSposta seems to have hit the nail on the head for everything I can see.
Talk to your Players. Talk to your DM. If more people used this advice, there would be 24.74% fewer threads on Tactics, Rules and DM discussions.
In a small town there may be a town watch or if it had a keep the local lord may keep the peace using his own militia levies.
It's important to decide early if the settlement has a presiding noble, as the makeup of its administration will be different depending if the local lord (or lady) is performing these tasks directly as part of her retinue's responsibilities (for example the Marshal) or if the matter has been delegated to a Baron or a Council.
In the latter scenario, I would expect the chief of such an organisation to be a Sergeant-at-arms.
The term "borough" might cover your requirements.
I'd offer an exhortation that fantasy settings do not need to recapitulate Earth history.
I would suggest filling the world with your own terminology, that does not have to be 100% historical. In German towns of the late medieval era, there was a "Wache", a guard force that did police like things, like keeping the order in the town. But who did employ the guard and und what rules did they operate? Big cities, like Frankfurt have been "Reichsstädte", which means a direct representative of the emperor of the HRE was head of the government and they shared laws among other cities of that type. "Free cities", like those of the "Hanse", e.g. Rostock were governed by a council of wealthy traders. And there were cities, where the clergy, like a bishop ruled and employed a guard. Most city guards had captains appointed by the local government, but the guards consisted also of "Bürger", citizens of the town (which owned a house, had a business and paid taxes in the city). Those had to do work in the guards for a certain amount of days a year. Weapons (like swords, bucklers) were kept in a city armory and handed out to the current guard force when they went on duty. Citizens often kept weapons of war (e.g. a helmet, a chain shirt and a spear or bow) at home and were required to join militia duty in case of war or a siege. But weapons of war were no carried in public or were even banned from the streets.
But if you look for an equivalent of a police chief, a "Vogt" or "Landvogt" is kind of the equivalent of what you are looking for. Remember that executive and judikative powers are not separated in the middle ages and the "Vogt" was also the judge in court for non-capital punishments, like theft.
Suburb is another possible term.