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Many new DMs find homebrewing a whole city in Dungeons & Dragons to be a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be that complicated.
From Neverwinter to Baldur’s Gate to the metropolis of Waterdeep, The Forgotten Realms boast some of the most recognizable cities in all of Dungeons & Dragons. The astounding amount of lore and history for the various cities throughout the base D&D can be intimidating for a new DM, so how does one go about preparing a city for their own world? Part of the magic of D&D is that things can be built on the fly and still feel as if they were part of the setting to begin with. The DM can work entirely on the spot, but it’s best to be partially prepared.
Online resources exist for homebrewing everything from cities and characters to entire world maps, but creating a fleshed-out city is another story. Just naming a tavern can be challenging, let alone creating the history of a completely new city. Names are a good starting point, but the best thing to remember is that D&D is a game, and the world’s design should be tailored to what the party wants out of it. Simple, functional design is a great foundation and provides the perfect framework for both DMs and players, but coming up with that framework can be the challenging part. Bearing a few basic guidelines in mind, the task is much simpler than it first appears.
Start with the Basics
The most important thing to remember is to start with the basics of what is required in the city. If the players are coming to the city to turn in a quest, meet someone in a tavern or visit a particular location, start there. Starting with the key areas allows the DM to focus on what is essential to the story.
Think about key locations the party needs to visit, especially if they aren’t planning on spending a lot of time in this city. It can be helpful to have a few locations named and fleshed out. If the party is only visiting a local lord to turn in a quest and then a tavern to get a long rest in, then there’s no need to name every street or decide what every shop has in stock. It might be possible to get by with just naming the lord, coming up with some basic descriptors of the house he is in, and then just saying, ”you find a tavern to rest in for the night” and move the story along.
World Building
If players start to spend more time in the city, they will naturally ask questions. Questions can be a great guide on what needs to be fleshed out and what leads the party might start following. This can even lead to entirely unexpected questlines simply from the players’ interest in the city. If players start asking about the city’s location, this can lead to a story about investigating ancient ruins from a civilization that once stood there. If players ask about the lore of different gangs they might see on the streets, have them slowly come into conflict or contact with one or more of these gangs. As powerful as worldbuilding is as a tool for designing the environment, never underestimate the power of worldbuilding to lead players on a questline.
Another thing that is important to remember about worldbuilding, especially for newer DMs, is that it’s entirely acceptable to make something up on the spot. If the adventure takes place in a completely homebrewed world, this is even easier. The DM’s word is law at the table, especially concerning the world the players are playing in. If the players ask who owns the old lighthouse overlooking the city and the DM hasn’t planned that NPC out ahead of time, it’s completely viable for the DM to just come up with an NPC on the spot. This can also be used to their advantage in storytelling. If there is no planned NPC for the lighthouse, maybe no one knows who runs it, and the players can investigate how it stays running or why the lighthouse keeper has disappeared.
Connecting to the City
Another powerful worldbuilding tool is the other players. If a homebrew campaign starts in a tavern, as they so often do, that tavern will likely be in a homebrewed city as well. The DM can use this to their advantage, taking parts of different characters’ backstories and inserting them into the city. If the rogue owes a debt to a thieve’s guild, the guild might come calling to collect. If the paladin is sworn to a particular temple, have that temple exist in the city. These types of storylines always hit harder for players as they had a hand in crafting them, and any NPCs and organization mentioned in their backstories can be used to bolster a homebrewed city.
The most important thing to remember when making a homebrew city, or when homebrewing any content for D&D, is that it is a game of make-believe. Not every road, town and tavern has to have a name with deep meaning and symbolism. Not every NPC has to have a complete family history, and not everything has to be planned out ahead of time. Storytelling on the fly is one of the strengths of Fifth Edition and can be one of a DM’s most powerful tools in keeping up the illusion of a real, breathing world without needing a mountain of paperwork.
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