World-Building Made Easy

Like many of you, I have a job (actually I have two jobs) so the amount of time I have to devote to sitting down and creating a world for my players’ PCs to inhabit is limited. 

So I cheat. 

I used pre-generated settings with the Forgotten Realms being my go-to for most of my gaming career.  Cities are listed, important characters and plot hooks are provided – everything you need to adventure in or around an urban area is right there in black and white at your fingertips.  But what do you do with it?  How do you take the information provided for you and bring it to life in the eyes and imaginations of your players? 

I have always equated published cities with real-world counterparts.  I treated Waterdeep as a Seattle analog, Suzail as London, Marsember as Venice, as so on. 

But sometimes, you need to create something of your own. 

Awhile back, there was a conversation in one of Facebook’s D&D 3.5 groups that I jumped in on regarding making your own campaign settings. I took the easy route, one that many, many DM's before me have taken and adapted a real-life location to a fantasy world.

In the example I came up with, I took New Orleans and changed the name to something like “Delta Town” or “Marsh Town”.  The real city has a strong voodoo reputation so I placed hags on the outskirts of the city and in the nearby swamp that control bands of lizard folk (and possibly even dinosaurs) who prey on travelers.  Clans of dwarves struggle against the city elders for funding to repairs the levees and maintain the giant pumps that hold back floods during the hurricane seasons.

The city is a haven for smugglers and pirate as it has access to the ocean and a massive river system that empties into it.  Druids struggle to hold back the city developers who seek to reclaim land from the swamp.  Halflings control a massive amount of the city’s wealth due to early and successful investment in cotton.  Debtors are usually sold as slaves to recoup financial obligations and a secretive band of elves has formed an underground railroad to escort escaped slaves safely away from the city.

Numerous mausoleums are rumored to house wealth buried with the deceased and undead are thought to roam these boneyards at night.  The two primary deities worshipped are Yondalla and Silvanus. The Lord of the Dead, the God of Sea and whatever gods the smiths and craftsmen pray to come in closely behind the first two.

The setting for my Old West campaign was done the same way and is based on Spanish Fork Canyon
where I was living out in Utah - the ruined town of Glister became the ruined town of Cactus Brush, the town of Spanish Fork was transformed into a cross between Mad Mesa and Burned Bush Wells.  My version of the Desperado's Den borrows heavily from the Red Ledges across the highway from where we were staying.

With just a little effort, I made two fictional cities roughed out for use in my campaigns.  I add a few details here and there and suddenly both are ready to be sprung on my players the next time we are gathered around the table.

For the other DMs out there, how do you go about establishing cities in the games you run?