I'm currently designing a town for my next session but I need some help coming up with locations. I've come up with a few locations that are unique to the town they are in but I want to come up with some regular locations you can find in any town. I know this is kind of a weird question and my writing skills aren't helping but are there any locations (stores, temples, etc.) that should be in every DnD town? Thanks in advance to anyone who answers!
In addition to Erik soong, I’d add. Depending on the size of the town, there’s also likely to be some kind of seat of government. A city hall, or a lord’s manor house, or instead of its really small, maybe everybody knows that Jesse at the general store is kind of in charge.
A guild hall for the major industry.
A temple and/or shrine to the more popular gods — these will likely vary by geography and other factors. Such as a costal town having something to the sea god, while a mining town might be more about the forge and a farming town about the harvest. Likely temples to a couple gods
Xalthu makes some good points. This sort of also dpends on the culture of the people. For instance, if the culture is like the ancient Romans, they liked bath houses. To have bath houses, the town would need water canals and probably a sewage system of sorts. Where there are nobles or groups of people with a lot of spare time, they would also likely be something related to entertainment. Rooster or dog-fighting rings on the low-income side would likely be common in a culture that celebrates violence. If the culture values intellectual pursuits, dragon chess tables or the like might be found. The Aztecs had a game called pok-ta-tok that was sort of like soccer but the losers got sacrificed. This would require specially built stadiums. An Aarakocra town would look very different than a Gnome town would be very different from a Harengon town.
Keep in mind that specific buildings for specific goods is not a universal feature of towns. In poorer towns or even cities, most products are sold on the street or from outdoor market stalls, often with no roof whatsoever. This is how most people throughout most of history bought and sold or exchanged food, goods, and a range of services. RPG video games have gotten us used to the idea of going into Building C for Service C, but this was a lot less common (esp. for peasants) before industrialization.
Depends on the size and wealth of the location (and the type of setting).
Like a small village in a medieval agricultural region would only really need a tavern, a general store and a bakery or butcher or vegetable grocer, at least as long as other villages closeby have at least one blacksmith, one tailor, one cobbler and one of the other needed food stores (so bakery, butcher, vegetable grocer).
Weapon/armor stores, jewelers, horse traders, public baths and stuff like that would usually only be found in more important/rich locations.
Essentially, the bare minimum is :
One sort of tavern/inn so serve food and house and wash travelers.
One store of various everyday items (may have some weapons and armors to sell but mostly old/bad quality).
One seller of food items. With a higher probability of finding a bakery or a vegetable grocer than a butcher.
Then you add to it depending on the size of the place.
Remember there are no supermarkets so all of those departments are separate stores. There is no mass production either so department stores are all separate stores as well.
Clothes are made either by a tailor or self made.
Shoes/boots either by a cobbler or self made.
Coopers makes barrels which is basically the only way to carry/store items.
Foodwise, there are no canned goods, so everything is fresh/becoming rotten with a lack of refrigeration.
Butcher and a baker and vegetable market/store are 3 separate ones.
Remember there are no supermarkets so all of those departments are separate stores. There is no mass production either so department stores are all separate stores as well.
But many of them aren't stores as such. IF you need eggs, you go talk to the person with chickens, assuming you don't keep your own. There will likely be a regular market day where everybody brings their goods into town, but the only things that will have permanent locations are the things needing specialized infrastructure. (A bakery, for instance. In at least some historical cultures, people would make their own bread, and then bring it to be baked. Or the tannery, which is well outside of town. Or the blacksmith, if there is one.)
Mostly, however, one doesn't need to carefully plan out the shops in town. Figure out the interesting things, and in the unlikely event the players care, you can make it up on the fly. For instance, every area is going to have a blacksmith, but not necessarily every town. Very few will have any kind of weaponsmith.
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I'm currently designing a town for my next session but I need some help coming up with locations. I've come up with a few locations that are unique to the town they are in but I want to come up with some regular locations you can find in any town. I know this is kind of a weird question and my writing skills aren't helping but are there any locations (stores, temples, etc.) that should be in every DnD town? Thanks in advance to anyone who answers!
Taverns
Inns
Smith
Apothecary
Clothing store
Tailor
Cobbler
General Store (camping gear, house items, etc)
Weapons shop
Armor shop (if you want the smith to be more focused on repairing or making items that they do not store)
Horse trader
Weird shop that is totally not run by a hag
I think that gives you a good start
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In addition to Erik soong, I’d add.
Depending on the size of the town, there’s also likely to be some kind of seat of government. A city hall, or a lord’s manor house, or instead of its really small, maybe everybody knows that Jesse at the general store is kind of in charge.
A guild hall for the major industry.
A temple and/or shrine to the more popular gods — these will likely vary by geography and other factors. Such as a costal town having something to the sea god, while a mining town might be more about the forge and a farming town about the harvest. Likely temples to a couple gods
Public Bath
Coin Exchange
Jeweler
Perfumery
Butcher
Barber
Fortune Teller
Wizard Tower
Xalthu makes some good points. This sort of also dpends on the culture of the people. For instance, if the culture is like the ancient Romans, they liked bath houses. To have bath houses, the town would need water canals and probably a sewage system of sorts. Where there are nobles or groups of people with a lot of spare time, they would also likely be something related to entertainment. Rooster or dog-fighting rings on the low-income side would likely be common in a culture that celebrates violence. If the culture values intellectual pursuits, dragon chess tables or the like might be found. The Aztecs had a game called pok-ta-tok that was sort of like soccer but the losers got sacrificed. This would require specially built stadiums. An Aarakocra town would look very different than a Gnome town would be very different from a Harengon town.
Keep in mind that specific buildings for specific goods is not a universal feature of towns. In poorer towns or even cities, most products are sold on the street or from outdoor market stalls, often with no roof whatsoever. This is how most people throughout most of history bought and sold or exchanged food, goods, and a range of services. RPG video games have gotten us used to the idea of going into Building C for Service C, but this was a lot less common (esp. for peasants) before industrialization.
Depends on the size and wealth of the location (and the type of setting).
Like a small village in a medieval agricultural region would only really need a tavern, a general store and a bakery or butcher or vegetable grocer, at least as long as other villages closeby have at least one blacksmith, one tailor, one cobbler and one of the other needed food stores (so bakery, butcher, vegetable grocer).
Weapon/armor stores, jewelers, horse traders, public baths and stuff like that would usually only be found in more important/rich locations.
Essentially, the bare minimum is :
Then you add to it depending on the size of the place.
I love adding taverns and markets they make the town lively and interesting for players.
Remember there are no supermarkets so all of those departments are separate stores. There is no mass production either so department stores are all separate stores as well.
Clothes are made either by a tailor or self made.
Shoes/boots either by a cobbler or self made.
Coopers makes barrels which is basically the only way to carry/store items.
Foodwise, there are no canned goods, so everything is fresh/becoming rotten with a lack of refrigeration.
Butcher and a baker and vegetable market/store are 3 separate ones.
But many of them aren't stores as such. IF you need eggs, you go talk to the person with chickens, assuming you don't keep your own. There will likely be a regular market day where everybody brings their goods into town, but the only things that will have permanent locations are the things needing specialized infrastructure. (A bakery, for instance. In at least some historical cultures, people would make their own bread, and then bring it to be baked. Or the tannery, which is well outside of town. Or the blacksmith, if there is one.)
Mostly, however, one doesn't need to carefully plan out the shops in town. Figure out the interesting things, and in the unlikely event the players care, you can make it up on the fly. For instance, every area is going to have a blacksmith, but not necessarily every town. Very few will have any kind of weaponsmith.