10.2.5: Creating Communities

Chances are very good that a group of characters will spend a fair amount of their time in civilized areas. Even those groups that like to spend time out in the wilds (including those who are predominantly space-faring) will eventually have to head back to civilization in order to recuperate, repair, re-supply and trade (otherwise there's not really much point to willingly spending time in the wild). Most civilizations are centered on a number of communities located in a given area. Communities provide essential services such as food, transportation, and lodging. They can even be used as the backdrop for a particular adventure. The following sub-Chapter describes the process of creating a community. Of the processes that can start with the creation of a Sector, it is generally recommended that a GM stop at this level; creating character stats for potentially millions of residents in a given community is a job reserved for those with bountiful amounts of time and who are lacking sufficient sanity.
There are five major steps in creating a community:
# Determine the general size of the community.
# Determine the power centers in the community.
# Determine the community's characteristics.
# Determine the hero point levels of the major NPCs living in the community.
# Add any "finishing touches" desired.
These steps will give general details about a community only; the community designer will be charged with determining more specific details, such as the types of businesses located in the community, who holds particular jobs, the community's layout, and so forth. Alternatively, they may leave these details vague, passing the responsibility on to an adventure's GM. It's strongly recommend a community designer utilize the Community Template available in Appendix Two during the building process, though it is not strictly necessary to do so.
==Determine the general size of the community.==
The size of a community determines several factors, including the types of services that can be found there, what kinds of objects and equipment characters can buy there, and what quality of local help can be enlisted. If a community has been generated as a result of the planet creation process, its general size has already been determined. In that case, a community designer may simply make note of the various modifiers associated with the community's category. Otherwise, the community may be of any size the creator desires. Community size can be generated randomly; to do this, the designer simply needs to roll d% and find the result in the following chart. Depending on the technological level of the world in question, the designer may need to adjust the result of the die roll (and therefore the type of community generated) using the amounts indicated by the second chart. Technological level may also have an effect on some of the other modifiers associated with a community's size. Again, all modifiers should simply be noted for the time being.
Community Generation Table
d% Result	Community Size Class	Population 	Characteristics	Qualities	Lifeforms	Item Limits 	Buy-Back Limit 	Power Centers Modifier	Major NPCs
<05 	Settlement 	20-500(20+(d%*4.8)) 	-20 	1 	+0 	1d5¤15 	¤150 	-1 	1d10100
05-14 	Rural Village 	501-1,000(500+(d%*5)+1d5) 	-10 	1 	+0 	2d5¤65 	¤325 	0 	1d10+1200
15-29 	Village 	1,001-5,000(1,001+(d%*40)+4d10) 	-5 	2 	-5 	3d5¤325 	¤1,600 	1 	1d10+2300
30-49 	Small Town 	5,001-20,000(5,001+(d%*150)+1d%) 	+0 	2 	-10 	4d5¤1,300 	¤6,500 	2 	1d10+3400
50-69 	Large Town 	20,001-50,000(20,001+(d%*300)+3d%) 	+0 	3 	-15 	6d5¤3,250 	¤16,250 	3 	1d10+6500
70-84 	Small City 	50,001-100,000(50,001+(d%*500)+5d%) 	+5 	4 	-25 	9d5¤5,000 	¤32,500 	4 (2*) 	2d10+9600
85-94 	Large City 	100,001-1,000,000(100,001+(d%*9,000)+(d%*90)) 	+10 	5 	-50 	13d5¤25,000 	¤162,500 	5 (3*) 	3d10+12800
95-98 	Metropolis 	1,000,001-10,000,000(1,000,001+(d%*90,000)+(d%*900)) 	+20 	6 	-50 	18d5¤50,000 	¤325,000 	6 (4*) 	4d10+151,000
99+ 	Megalopolis 	10,000,001+(10,000,001+(d%*150,000)+(d%*1,500)+(d%*15))	+25 	7 	-75 	25d5¤500,000	¤3,250,000+	12 (5*) 	5d10+181,000
d% Result Adjustment for Technological Level
Tech Level 	d% Adjustment	Characteristics Modifier	Item Limit Value/Buy-Back Limit Modifier	Services Modifier
Stone Age 	-84 	-15(-30 Economy) 	-75% 	-2
Metal Age 	-14 	-5 	-25% 	-1
Industrial Age	+0 	+0 	+0% 	+0
Starfaring Age	+15 	+5 	+0% 	+1
==Determine the power centers in the community.==
A community has one or more centers of power, which consist of individual authority figures or groups charged with taking care of the community at large. These power centers will directly affect a community's characteristics, for better or worse. Power centers come in one of five general categories: Council, Autocrat, Theocracy, Overlord and Syndicate. Councils are a standard representative democratic governmental structure, usually consisting of a ruling body of councilors, who are either elected officials, a group of local aristocrats, guild masters, or elders. Council-based communities are generally stable, requiring fewer laws and generating culture, though perhaps fostering a more "closed", insular atmosphere. Autocrats are single individuals chosen to lead by the community's population whether elected or appointed to the post. They usually have a term of office and are expected to vacate their post for the next individual upon expiration of their term. Theocracies are ruled by high ranking individuals in a religious sect, either a council of members who share the same religious beliefs and preferences or by a single charismatic leader within the sect. This form of government is typically seen where there is a strong religious movement based either within the community itself or in the region in which it is located. Theocracies usually promote education and charity, though they do have a tendency to suppress the influence of any "dangerous ideas" contrary to the facets of the religion in question or how they are being implemented. Overlords are single individuals who lead either because they conquered the community themselves, because they have inherited the position from an ancestor who did so, or have been appointed to rule by the individual who did so. Conquered territories are typically ruled by overlords; freedom of expression is generally forbidden, and law and order can often be bypassed with a quick exchange of money to the right people. Finally, Syndicates are communities wherein an unofficial or underworld group is in charge, typically remaining hidden under some kind of puppet government. Criminal groups often form syndicates within communities that have poor law enforcement, but occasionally communities may be ruled de facto by legitimate corporations (what's known as a "corporate state"). Greed rules syndicates, leading to general all around wealth for its members but also sometimes producing frequent, violent confrontations with members of competing syndicates.
All power center types fall into one of the five categories as described above (with the exception of anarchies, which will be covered in the next section). A community creator may, if necessary, classify any other forms of government by comparing the desired form of governance to the descriptions provided of each power center type. Should a designer have difficulty determining the power centers of their community, they may roll d%, add the town’s Power Center Modifier to the result and look up the final sum on the following chart. Again, any modifiers to a community's characteristics due to its power center(s) should simply be noted for the time being.
Determining Power Center Type Via d%
2d10 Result	Power Center Type	Characteristic Modifications
00-49 	Council 	Culture +20; Order -10; Information -10
50-69 	Autocrat 	None
70-84 	Overlord 	Corruption +10; Culture -10
85-94 	Syndicate 	Corruption +10; Economy +10; Order -40
95-99 	Theocracy 	Information +10; Corruption -10; Culture -10
For any community type listed with a multiplier value in its Power Centers Modifier stat (Small Cities and larger), the d% roll for the Power Center type should be rolled a number of times equal to the multiplier. This reflects the fact that these communities are large enough to contain districts, and therefore have multiple centers of power (for example, a Large City might have a conventional city council, merchant guild and mafia - two Councils and a Syndicate - as its power centers). Each district acts as a separate community in its own right, sharing the whole community geographically but splitting it politically. Should a community have multiple power centers, the creator should take some time to determine which of the established power centers is the legally recognized "actual" power center in the community, and also determine how the various power centers interact with one another (whether they work together, tolerate one another, try to subvert the other's work, are openly hostile towards one another, etc.). The characteristics of a district remain contained within in; the characteristics of other districts will not affect or "pool" with those of a given district.
==Determine the community's characteristics.==
Once a community's size and power centers have been determined, its final characteristics can be set. Communities have a set of five major characteristics, which are analogous to a character's Attributes and Disciplines. A community's characteristics act as DC modifiers when a character is attempting to perform certain actions within that community. The five main community characteristics are Economy (ECON), Culture (CLTR), Order (ORDR), Information (INFO), and Corruption (CRPT):
*Economy: A community's Economy characteristic indicates the health of its trade and the wealth of its citizenry. A low Economy score doesn't automatically mean rampant poverty; it could merely indicate little trade or a condition of general self-sufficiency. Communities with high economy modifiers tend to have large markets and many shops. A community's Economy score is added to the DC of any Resourcefulness or Profession Check used to generate funding for a character within its limits.
*Culture: Culture measures how open-minded and civilized the citizenry of a community is. A low score may mean that many of the citizens harbor prejudices or are overly suspicious of strangers, while a high score indicates that citizens are used to diversity and that they respond favorably to well-spoken attempts at conversation. Culture modifies the DC of any Performance or Cunning Check of any character attempting to disguise themselves or of any Diplomacy Check being made to alter the attitude of any non-governmental official within the community's limits.
*Order: A community's Order characteristic measures the balance between how strict its laws are and how effective they are (i.e. the perception of lawfulness within the community versus how lawless it actually is). Low scores may indicate significant problems with violent crime or simply few laws due to a relative lack of crime. Communities with high Order scores are generally safe, with an alert and vigilant civil service at its core. A community's Order score is added to the DC of any Intimidate Checks made to force an opponent to act friendlier, to any Diplomacy Check made against a public official of the community, and to any Check made to summon the local civil services within the community's limits. It is subtracted, however, from the DC of any Perception or Cunning Check made to avoid being bluffed and from the DC of any Dexterous Maneuvers Check made to pick another character's pocket within the community's limits.
*Information: A community's Information characteristic measures how willing its citizens are to talk to visitors, as well as the accessibility and usefulness of its libraries and archives. A low score indicates a community where the citizenry is either close-mouthed or lacks access to quality knowledge resources. A community's Information score is added to the DC of all Rapport Checks made for the purpose of either gathering information or performing research within the community' limits.
*Corruption: A community's Corruption characteristic measures how open its officials are to bribes, how honest its citizenry is and how likely it is that any crimes will be reported. A low Corruption score indicates a high level of civic honesty. A community's Corruption score is added to the DC of any Intimidate Check made to bluff city officials and to the DC of any Dexterous Maneuvers Check made while attempting to move about stealthily within the community's limits.
To determine a community's characteristics scores, its designer first assigns the indicated "Characteristics" score as determined by the community's size to all five of its characteristics, adjusting the scores as indicated by the "Characteristics Modifier" as determined by its technological level. This sets the base scores for all districts within the community. For each one in turn, the scores within each of the community's districts are then adjusted as indicated by the local power center. After accounting for the power center, a final adjustment is made for a district's "disposition". Designers may either perform a roll d10 and make the disposition adjustments to the district as indicated on the table below or simply make a selection off the table at their discretion.
Community Disposition Via 1d10
1d10 Result	Characteristic Adjustments
0 	Order +5, Culture +5
1 	Economy +5, Culture +5
2 	Order -5, Culture +5
3 	Order +5, Information +5
4 	Information +5, Economy +5
5 	Order -5, Information +5
6 	Order +1, Corruption +5
7 	Information +5, Corruption +5
8 	Order -5, Corruption +5
9 	Economy +10
For example, a Stone Age Rural Village has a governing Council. A Rural Village has a Characteristics modifier of -10, so all five scores are set at -10. Stone Age communities have a -15 modifier (with -30 for Economy), so all five scores become -25 (with the exception of Economy, which becomes -40). A Council adds twenty points to Culture and subtracts 10 from Order and Information. A random roll is made for the community's disposition; this comes up as a three, so Order and Information are both adjusted by +5. Adding everything together, this community's base characteristics (up to this point anyway) are ECON -40, CLTR -5, ORDR -30, INFO -30, and CRPT -25.
Once the adjustments to a district's characteristics from its power center have been made, the designer may opt to assign it a number of Qualities. Qualities are additional modifiers that are used to denote the uniqueness of a district. The maximum number of Qualities that may be assigned to any given district is determined by the size of the overall community, as indicated by its Qualities score. Qualities come in one of three types: Intrinsic, Site, and Dilemma. Intrinsic qualities are generally inherent in the district's citizenry. They often take a great deal of time to change, usually long enough that these Qualities can effectively be considered permanent. Site qualities indicate the presence of a particular facility in the district for which it is noteworthy and/or qualities based on the district's location. These Qualities can be removed from a district through a character's actions, but are otherwise also considered permanent. Dilemmas are serious, generally temporary problems affecting the district; a dilemma that goes on for a significant period of time will have a tendency to reduce the local population. Like Sites, a district's Dilemmas may be "solved" by the actions of a character; removing them can easily become the central focus of an adventure. Community designers may select any of the Qualities on the table below to add to a district. If the designer cannot decide on which Qualities they'd like to assign to a district, they may perform a 1d5-1 for the number of Qualities in the district (using the maximum number of Qualities possible should the result of the roll be higher than the maximum allowed for the community's size) and then perform a number of d% rolls, using the chart below to make selections. When rolling for a district's Qualities at random, it's generally recommended to ignore any result that gives it more than one Dilemma. A district may take a Quality more than once; the effects of that Quality accumulate each time it is applied.
Community Qualities Table
d% Result	Quality Name 	Type 	Effect 	Description/Notes
00-04 	Anarchy 	Dilemma 	(Removes the district's power center, including all Quality modifiers. Adds Corruption +20, Order -50, Economy -20, and Culture -20)	The district's government has either collapsed or is ineffective at enforcing law and order, or there is no government at all.
05-09 	Asocial 	Dilemma 	Culture -20 	Members of the district generally don't socialize with other citizens and keep their problems to themselves.
10-14 	Backwater 	Dilemma 	Information -20 	The community is generally considered a backwater; news of the outside world is slow to reach it.
15-19 	Charitable 	Intrinsic	Corruption -20 	Members of the district are generally charitable with one another and see to each other's needs. Cannot be applied to a community larger than a Village.
20-24 	Depressed 	Dilemma 	Economy -20, item limit value -25%, buy-back limit -25% 	For whatever reason, the local market is depressed; merchants tend to avoid selling items in the district as a result. A district may not be both Depressed and Prosperous. Cannot be applied to a Stone Age community.
25-29 	Holy Site 	Site 	Corrupt -10 	The district hosts a landmark, shrine or temple with great significance to one or more religious groups.
30-34 	Hunted Citizenry 	Dilemma 	Economy -20, Order -20, Culture -20, Lifeform +20, item limit value -20% 	A particularly dangerous lifeform uses the district as a hunting ground, or some kind of local group snatches its citizens off the streets to be sold as slaves. The district's citizens live in fear and avoid going out unless absolutely necessary.
35-39 	Impoverished 	Dilemma 	Corruption +5, Order -5, item limit value -50%, buy-back limit -50%, item search chance reduced to 35% 	Because of any number of factors, the district is completely destitute; poverty, famine, and disease run rampant. A district may not be both Impoverished and Prosperous.
40-44 	Infamous 	Intrinsic	Order -10, Lifeform +10, item limit value +30%, buy-back limit +50% 	The district has a bad reputation; a significant portion of the populace may be members of an illicit underground network.
45-49 	Intolerant 	Intrinsic	None 	The district's citizens are prejudiced against one or more groups (certain races, religious groups, etc.). All members of the persecuted group must pay 150% of normal price for all goods and services and may face persecution. When a district takes this quality, a persecuted group must be specified.
50-54 	Isolated 	Site 	Order +10 	The district is physically isolated from other districts, producing a tight-knit populace. Cannot be applied to a community larger than a Large Town.
55-59 	Liberal 	Dilemma 	Order -20 	District citizens are generally open to political or social changes and reforms in favor of increased freedom or democracy, leading to fewer laws and/or less effective law enforcement.
60-64 	Military Installation	Site 	Order +5, Corruption -5 	The district is home to some form of military command center; a significant percentage of its populace may be military members and/or military support staff.
65-69 	Plagued 	Dilemma 	All Characteristics -10, item limit value -20% 	The district's populace is suffering from a prolonged disease. When a district takes this quality, a specific disease must be selected; there is a 5% chance each day (cumulating each day) that a specific character will be exposed to the disease as long as they remain within the district's borders. If a character is known to have visited the district within a short time frame, they may face persecution (same effects as Intolerant) in other districts.
70-74 	Prosperous 	Site 	Economy +5, item limit value +30%, buy-back limit +50% 	The district is a trade hub with a generally wealthy populace. A district cannot be Prosperous and either Impoverished or Depressed. Stone Age communities may not have this Quality.
75-79 	Rumor Mill 	Intrinsic	Information +5, Culture -5 	The district's citizens are busybodies; little happens in the district that no one knows about. Cannot be applied to a community larger than a Small Town.
80-84 	Seat of Learning 	Site 	Information +10 	The district possesses a school, training facility, or library of renown.
85-89 	Strategic 	Site 	Economy +5, item limit value +10% 	The district sits at an important crossroads either from a military or commercial standpoint.
90-94 	Superstitious 	Intrinsic	Order -10, Culture +10 	A significant portion of the district's populace has a deep and abiding fear of the unexplained; this causes them to become more supportive and loyal to each other and their community at large. Cannot be applied to Starfaring Age communities.
95-99 	Tourist Trap 	Site 	Economy +5, item limit value +20% 	The district possesses some sort of landmark or holds a regular event that draws in visitors from far and wide.
Note that many Qualities adjust a district's item limit value and/or buy-back limit by a percentage of their standard values (as does the community's technological level). Should a community have multiple Qualities of this sort, the percentages should be added together and the standard values adjusted by the aggregated total (i.e. not one at a time). The final values represented by the limit value and buy-back limit should be calculated once the community's Qualities have been determined.
A district's item limit serves as a measure of the types of goods that are available within it. The item limit has two parts, a die roll and a specific value in credits; it is only the value that is affected when any adjustments are made due to Qualities. The die roll indicates the number of unique searches a character is allowed to perform for specific items within the district over the course of a two week period. The die roll should be made at the time of the community's creation and cannot be adjusted once made. If a character is searching for a particular item within the district, there is a 75% chance (determined by a roll of 74 or less on d%) of their being able to find it easily within that district if the value of that item is less than or equal to the district's base value. Items above the base value will never be found within the district, and once the maximum number of searches has been conducted any attempt to find another item within the district will automatically fail. Should the item not be available, a new d% search for the item may be conducted in two weeks' time. Districts with a base value of zero credits or less indicate areas where commerce has completely ceased; items may not be bought or sold there.
A district's buy-back limit indicates the amount of available hard currency typically present, and indicates the highest possible value of any single item (or a collection of items in aggregate) that can be sold off within its borders. If a character wishes to sell off an item worth more than the district's buyback limit, they'll need to settle for a lower price, travel to a larger district, or (with the GM's permission) search for a specific buyer within the district that has deeper pockets. Selling off items in a district reduces its current buy-back limit by the amount of the sale; it takes two weeks with no transactions for the limit to reset itself back to its normal level. Districts with a buy-back limit of zero credits or less indicate areas wherein the local merchants are not interested in buying goods, or areas where the available supply of hard currency is in need of replenishment.
One final characteristic of a district is its lifeform modifier. This lists a modifier made to the hourly Check for lifeform encounters (see Chapter 8.2) while the characters are still within the confines of the district. While it is less likely that a character group will have an encounter with a significant lifeform while within the confines of a community, the chance remains non-zero (though it becomes substantially reduced in large pockets of civilization).
Once the characteristics, item limit value and buy-back limit have been determined for each of a community's districts, its average population may be set. The designer may simply look at the Community Size Chart and select an average population value that falls within the range given for the community's size; alternatively, they may make the die rolls indicated on the chart. Note that the exact number of citizens in a community is flexible (hence the word average); its actual population can swell or dwindle depending on seasons or events (for example, a community that houses a major university will probably have a substantially lower population when classes are not in session). The exact number of citizens is generally used for flavor; no in-game rules are dependent upon that number.
==Determine the hero point levels of the major NPCs living in the community.==
Once the characteristics of all of a community's districts have been determined, it may be necessary to create some of the major NPCs that live within the community. Some of these NPCs may be leaders in the community’s power centers, while others may be specialists in various fields that have settled in the community (whether because they've retired, have set up their own practice there, or are simply between jobs). Whatever the case, there is always a chance that PCs will need to interact with these characters in a given adventure and so at least basic information on them needs to be available.
Communities are dynamic places that contain people from all professions and walks of life. There's no real reason why a member of a given profession couldn't go and live in a given community. This is true no matter how small the community or how prominent the person is in society. As a general rule, the amount of real world experience that the citizenry of a given community have accumulated in aggregate can be determined by finding the NPC with the highest number of hero points living there. Bear in mind that this is a general assumption and not a hard-and-fast rule; a GM may need to put a fully-trained character living in a Settlement somewhere in a campaign where everyone else living there is a stereotypical redneck yokel, for example.
A major NPC is simply a character living in a community that has earned hero points during the course of their lifetime (see Chapter 2.3 for more on hero points and how they involved with the character creation process.). To determine the number of major NPCs living within a community, a designer may simply look up the Major NPCs entry for the size of their community and make the indicated roll. The result of that roll determines the base number of major NPCs living within the community. The number listed below the die roll determines the "hero level" (i.e. number of hero points) the NPCs have accumulated. For example, let's say that a community designer was creating characters for a Metropolis. The Major NPC entry for a Metropolis indicates a roll of 4d10+15 and 1000 points. The designer rolls the 4d10; the result is seventeen, to which fifteen is added, for a final result of 32. This means 32 characters in the town have accumulated 1000 hero points over the course of their lives.
A community may have other characters living in its limits that have gathered hero points, but not as much as others. Once the number of major NPCs have been determined, finding "lesser" NPCs with added hero points only takes a little bit of math; there will be twice as many lesser NPCs with half the number of added points (rounding down to the next whole hundreds place) living within the community. This works in progression until the number of added points becomes zero. Additionally, a designer may add one "stronger" character for every four major NPCs indicated. It's generally recommended that these stronger characters have no more than 100 to 200 more hero points than the other major NPCs (though the upper limit of 1000 hero points must be observed so that the rapid character creation routines in Chapter 2.3 may be utilized). For example, let's say that a Small Town is being generated. The roll for a Small Town is 1d10+3; we'll assume the maximum possible 1d10 result of nine, so twelve major NPCs are indicated by the die roll, each with 400 hero points. For this community, in addition to twelve 400-point characters, there are twenty four characters with 200 hero points (400/2= 200) and forty-eight characters with 100 hero points (200/2=100). We can also add some stronger characters to this community; in this case we could add three (12/4 = 3) 500 or 600 hero point characters...we'll go for broke and say 600, just for the sake of example.
When determining the specific Skill set for a given member of a community, the designer should be sure to select character Skills that make sense for the community's technological level; it wouldn't make much sense for a member of a Stone Age society to have a full 25 points in Starship Piloting and 50 points in Confederation Medium Fighters as a specialization (except under extremely unusual circumstances). A good way to handle this is to use the rapid character generation routine as outlined in Chapter 2.3. Note that this portion of the community building procedure does not select the profession or archetypes of any major NPC indicated - that series of decisions is left open to the designer or to any GM who wants to utilize their community. It is recommended that the archetype list presented in Chapter 2.4 be utilized to directly determine the professions of major NPCs in the community. Selecting a trait set for major NPCs is recommended (though not necessary) as is filling in minor basic details about them (such as their name, age, place of residence and employment). This gives a GM some basic information on the intended function of that character in the community, and it also gives them enough information to build the character's stats without the need to explicitly write them all out at once (i.e. it allows a GM to generate the data for only the characters they want to use).
==Add any "finishing touches" desired.==
Once the basic information on its NPCs has been determined, the community is essentially complete. Any further details may be added by the designer or GM before an adventure begins. Should the community be the site of an adventure, it is important that the designer or GM add as many details to it as possible before the adventure begins. Such details include the locations of residences and businesses, the makeup of the power and sewer systems, layout of streets and so forth (the map section of the Community Record Sheet provided in Appendix Two is an excellent way to organize such details). If the community is merely a stopping off point during the course of an adventure, a GM may be able to get away with little more than a listing of a number of destinations within the town that characters can visit while they are there (it is recommended that data on how long it takes to get between those destinations on foot be generated). In either case, this procedure allows a designer or GM to help begin focusing their ideas on its layout, should they want to take its overall design further.
==Teroce: An Example Community==
The following section is an example of the community creation procedure in action. Since we started with the example of the Mantu Sector in Chapter 10.2.1 and have worked our way downwards in scale through the following sub-Chapters to the level of a single planet, it seems fitting that we should continue to work downward with the same set of examples and create a community located on the world of Cyvuspe. In this case, we'll go ahead and build the largest community on the planet's surface, the Large City indicated in the previous Chapter. We'll go ahead and name this community Teroce.
The first step in laying out Teroce is to determine its size. Fortunately, this has been done for us; it's a Large City. Checking the community size table, we see that Large Cities have a population between one hundred thousand and one million people, base characteristics of +10 each, up to five Qualities per district, a -50 lifeform modifier, 13d5 item searches and an item value limit of ¤25,000, a buy-back limit of ¤162,500, a Power Centers Modifier of +5 with three districts indicated, and 3d10+12 major NPCs with 800 hero points. Assuming the population is predominantly Mantu (a fair assumption given the community's location on a planet located in the Mantu Sector), we can safely assume that it's a Starfaring Age community. This adds +5 to its base characteristics (making them all +15 at this point), does not modify the item limit value or the buy-back limit (leaving them at ¤25,000 and ¤162,500 respectively), and adds +1 to the level of its available services (allowing us to treat it as a Metropolis for that purpose). We've already got a lot of information available on Teroce and we haven't really done much of anything yet.
Next, we'll determine Teroce's power centers. We know from its size that there are three districts, so we need to roll three times for power centers, adding the indicated +5 to the result of each roll. The rolls are made and come up as 13, 21 and 56; we add five to each, so the final results are 18, 26 and 61. Checking the appropriate table, this gives us two Councils and an Autocrat. We can easily say that there is a regular city council that holds the nominal power in the town. There is also a lesser council (let's say a farmer's guild, since we're talking about an Agricultural World) that holds some power within the community. Finally, since this is the largest community on the planet, it likely holds the seat of power for the global government; there's probably a planetary governor who resides in Teroce and has sway over an administrative district. We'll call the district controlled by the city council the Main District, the one controlled by the farmer's guild the Farmer's District, and the one controlled by the planetary governor the Administrative District. In the Main and Farmer's Districts, the characteristics are adjusted for the Council power centers; twenty points are added to Culture and ten points are subtracted from Order and Information. So, in the Main and Farmer's Districts (which are identical for the time being), the characteristics stand at ECON +15, CLTR +35, ORDR +5, INFO +5, and CRPT +15. The characteristics in the Administrative District remain at +15 each for the time being.
The next step is to make rolls for the disposition of each of the three districts in turn. We make three 1d10 rolls, one for each district; the results come up as 8, 7 and 7. Checking the disposition table, we see that we need to add Order -5 and Corruption +5 to the characteristics of the Main District, while the Farmer's and Admin districts both receive Information +5 and Corruption +5. For the Main District, we now have ECON +15, CLTR +35, ORDR +0, INFO +5, and CRPT +20. In the Farmer's District, we have ECON +15, CLTR +35, ORDR +5, INFO +10, and CRPT +20. Finally, in the Administrative district, we have ECON +15, CLTR +15, ORDR +15, INFO +20, and CRPT +20. The characteristics of each district are starting to shape up; so far, this doesn't look like a particularly great place to live (though it could be worse)...
We now need to determine each district's Qualities. Checking the community's size, we see that each district may have up to five Qualities each. We'll let the dice decide the number of Qualities that will actually be utilized, rolling for each district in turn. The d5-1 rolls are made and the final results are one, two and three; we will add one quality to the Main District, two to the Farmer's District and three to the Administrative District. We can go ahead and roll the Qualities out, rolling in the same order once again; the results are 81, 71, 88, 98, 81, and 33. Checking the Qualities chart, we see that this will add the Seat of Learning Quality to the Main District, increasing its Information characteristic by ten. The 71 and 88 rolls for the Farmer's District add the Prosperous and Strategic Qualities to it; between the two the Economy is adjusted upwards by ten points (5 each), its item limit value is increased by 40% (30% for being Prosperous and another 10% for being Strategic), and its buy-back limit is increased by 50%. Finally, the last few rolls add the Tourist Trap, Seat of Learning and Hunted Citizenry Qualities to the Administrative District. While the Hunted Citizenry Dilemma might appear to be incompatible with the other two Qualities at first glance, such things can happen in real life and so we'll leave it as is; every city has its slums. The qualities combine to give adjustments of Economy -15 (+5 from Tourist Trap and -20 from Hunted Citizenry), Order and Culture -20, Information +10 and Lifeform +20. The two item limit value adjustments (from Tourist Trap and Hunted Citizenry) will cancel each other out in this case. At this point, the characteristics of the three districts have been set. The following table sums up the results:
Teroce District Characteristics
District 	Power Center	Qualities 	ECON	CLTR	ORDR	INFO	CRPT	Lifeform	Item Value Limit	Buy-Back Limit
Main 	Council 	Seat of Learning 	+15 	+35 	+0 	+15 	+20 	-50 	¤25,000 	¤162,500
Farmer's 	Council 	ProsperousStrategic 	+25 	+35 	+5 	+10 	+20 	-50 	¤35,000 	¤243,750
Administrative	Autocrat 	Tourist TrapSeat of LearningHunted Citizenry	+0 	-5 	-20 	+30 	+20 	-30 	¤25,000 	¤162,500
We should go ahead and set the maximum number of item searches at this point. The indicated roll for a Large City is 13d5, so we simply make the roll; the final result sets the maximum number of item searches to forty-two.
Now that we have the characteristics of each district, we can begin considering the community as a whole again and set the number of major NPCs that live within it. The indicated roll for major NPCs for a Large City is 3d10+12 at 800 hero points. We'll start with the roll; the results are 8, 8 and 1, so there are 29 people living in Teroce with 800 hero points (8 + 8 + 1 + 12 = 29). We can begin going through the progression of lesser NPCs; this gives us 58 people with 400 points, 116 people with 200 points, and 232 people with 100 points. We can also add a small number of higher level characters; with 29 people, we can add up to seven such NPCs (29/4 = 7.25, rounds down to 7). We'll let four of these folks have 900 hero points and give the other three a full thousand.
At this point, we're ready to start adding finishing touches. We've given the community a name already, so that detail has been filled in. We can go ahead and determine what kind of services will be present; since it's a Starfaring Age Community, we can treat it as a Metropolis - one level higher than its actual size category - for this purpose. Checking the services list in Chapter 5.4, we can expect Teroce to feature High Quality meal services, High Quality transportation (Cyvuspe doesn't have a moon, so Inter-lunar transport doesn't apply in this case), 5-star lodging, Major surgical facilities, and available repair facilities for small starships. We can also go ahead and set its average population using the indicated roll (100,001+(d%*9,000)+(d%*90)). This requires us to roll d% twice; the result of the die rolls are 73 and 59, giving Teroce an average population of 762,311 people (100,001+(73*9,000)+(59*90) = 100,001+(657,000)+(5,310) = 762,311). Teroce is definitely a high-end Large City; it's roughly the size of Fort Worth, Texas as of the 2010 census.
That'll do it for Teroce. At this point, the city is fairly well-defined, though we haven't filled in any specific details (and which we're not going to do, but which our hypothetical Sector/system/planet/community designer probably will at some point). Still, this is a good thing; we've got things to where Teroce can stand in for any Large Starfaring Age City in a pinch, generally ready to be used in any adventure.
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Category:WCRPG