Towns

Towns have a hundred or so inhabitants. They’re the kind of place that springs up around a mill, trading post, or inn and usually have fields, farms, and livestock of some kind. They might have a standing militia of farmers strong enough to wield a blade or shoot a bow. Towns have the basics for sale but certainly no special goods. Usually they’ll focus on a local product or two and do some trade with travelers.

By default a town's tags are is *Moderate*, *Steady*, *Watch*, and *Trade* (two of your choice). If the town is listed as Trade by another steading choose one:

* The town is booming: Booming, Lawless
* The town stands on a crossroads: Market, +Prosperity
* The town is defended by another steading: Oath (that steading), +Defenses
* The town is built around a church: Power (Divine)
* The town is built around a craft: Craft (your choice), Resource (something required for that craft)
* The town is built around a military post: +Defenses Choose one problem:
* The town has grown too big for an important supply (like grain, wood, or stone): Need (that resource), Trade (a village or town with that resource)
* The town offers defense to others: Oath (your choice), -Defenses
* The town is notorious for an outlaw who is rumored to live there: Personage (the outlaw), Enmity (where the crimes were committed)
* The town has cornered the market on a good or service: Exotic (that good or service), Enmity (a settlement with ambition)
* The town has a disease : -Population
* The town is a popular meeting place: +Population, Lawless

Sample Town by Eric Lochstampfor

The Town of New, New Tinkerton

Built on the ruins of old New Tinkerton, which itself it built next to the smoldering crater that was the original Tinkerton, New New Tinkerton is one of the liveliest, whimsical and exciting places one could be seriously injured at any time in! The streets are sometimes quite literally alive with the whirring and clanging inventions of it’s residents, many of whom are of an inventionarial nature. It is a great place for the clever or lucky to pursue their fortune but unpleasant for those that seek stability in their hometowns.

Prosperity - Moderate

Despite it’s penchant for calamity New New Tinkerton more often than not is able to turn a profit with it’s outlandish ideas.

Population - Shrinking

It’s reputation as a dangerous place has caused many who are not inventors to leave the town.

Defenses - Militia/Watch

Although the town has no standing guard, most able bodied men would aid in the defense and a few of the inventors have caches of weapons. However when it comes to aiding in any type of natural or unnatural disaster or fires or floods, the towns-folks are experienced enough to be considered a Watch.

Exotic - Some of the townsfolk are famous or infamous inventors and the town itself is built with one of a kind gadgets and gizmos that sometimes make life easier and sometimes not.

Lawless - The town’s relaxed regulations and need for cheap labor has lead to a general lawless and chaotic feel to the town.

Technology - Advanced: The town is considered a hub of new ideas although it is most famous for the largest failures there are a multitude of examples of it’s successes prominently displayed throughout the town.﻿

* good forum conversation on Making Towns Interesting