Where The City Is

The first thing I like to think about is where in my world a particular settlement is. A city’s location can tell you a lot about why/how it was formed, and the type of people and industry that likely call it their home. Let’s walk through a couple of things to consider when deciding where to place your city.

Geography

First off, I like to think about the geography of where my city is located. When thinking about geography I’m typically going to start with the big questions, and then dive in as needed. These might include

• What general biome is the city located in?

• Are there any natural formations like rivers, lakes, or mountains nearby?

• What about natural resources like lumber or ores? 

• Is the city near navigable waterways that might be used for trading? 

• How fertile is the soil?

• Are there any dangers nearby? 

Each of these questions gives you insight into what your city’s purpose is. A city without much fertile land, but easy access to valuable ores is likely to have some sort of mining operation for example. Another city might not have many resources nearby, but sits in a defensive position of a mountain pass. Figure out where your city is first as almost every future step can use it to build from.

Why Was The City Formed? 

Building directly from the above, nailing down a brief founding story for your city helps keep it consistent. When you figure out why your city formed you can start drawing a logical history on how it expanded and what sorts of motives its leaders likely had. This helps to build a consistent narrative, and ultimately helps your city feel more believable and alive. 

Cities can form in a multitude of ways, and are oftentimes the result of the current culture and age the society that founded them is in. For example, many ancient cities were formed in locations with fertile soil and were the direct result of an increase in agriculture. Later cities were often formed around crucial trading routes or defensive positions and had more of a commerce or military focus. 

To get you started, here’s a handful of common reasons why a particular city might be formed:

• Near fertile lands for agriculture.

• Near the sea or other source of accessible food.

• Near valuable resources like ores. 

• Along popular trading routes. 

• Near spiritual locations like a monastery.

• The area has a cultural or historical significance.

• As defensive outposts.  

This list is certainly not exhaustive and doesn’t take into account any fantastical elements that might crop up in fantasy or sci fi. It should hopefully give you some ideas as to how a city gets started. People aren’t just going to settle down anywhere, there needs to be some reason why they’ve decided that a particular place is better than others. 

Who Founded It? 

While I feel this is not the most important step, depending on your goals it might be useful to define who was the founder of the city. This might be an individual, or a group of people. In this step I’m also going to think about who were the first groups of people that inhabited the city. This likely will be heavily influenced by why the city was founded in the first place. A defensive village likely skews more military while a farming town is probably going to be more civilian. 

City Size

Next, I think this is a good place to start thinking about the current size of your city. Figuring out how big your city is now will come in handy later as it will directly influence others aspects. A larger city is going to have more services and amenities, while smaller ones will have more limited options. 

In terms of numbers, here’s a couple of resources that give decent ideas of how many people lived in cities in different times:

List of major cities broken down by era. 

A more in-depth read that also details physical size and services.

Keep in mind that these are just rough guidelines and you don’t have to follow them to the letter. That’s especially true for fantasy or sci-fi worlds where magic/technology can drastically change what’s possible in the real world. Don’t overthink size too much, as long as you're in the rough ballpark, or have a good explanation as to why you’re not, then you’ll be fine. 

One thing to consider about city sizing is the logistics of food. How much food a city can reasonably acquire and transport to its citizens is often one of the limiting factors in its size, but far from the only one. The larger your city gets the more difficult it becomes to feed all those people. 

This also requires a number of people to live outside the city to provide it with enough food. I’ve used a rule of thumb that each city inhabitant needs about 10 people farming to provide enough food, but you can tweak that depending on the specific of your world. It’s not a hard rule, but something to keep in mind. If you have a metropolis with 10,000,000 people then you’ll need a way to feed them all. 

Naming Cities

I wasn’t sure the best place to put this step, but here is as good as any. All cities have a name, so you’ll eventually need to pick one for your city. I don’t always pick the name right away, sometimes it helps to have a bit more of an idea of the city itself before doing so. Don’t feel like you have to have a name right away; you can always come back and name it later.

In terms of names there really is no wrong or right answer. That said, there are a handful of popular ways cities have been named in the past that you can use to inspire you.

• Named after their founder - like Constantinople named after its founder Constantine I.

• After nature or a natural landmark - Portsmouth is an example drawing from the latin portus meaning harbor.

• Similarly, cities might also be named after their original function - Portsmouth again fits here. 

• Taken from legends or religion - Rome which is said to be named after the legendary founder Romulus.

These aren’t the only ways to name towns of course, you just make them up and you’ll usually be fine. However, if you’re seeking realism, then there probably should be at least some thought put into the specifics of the name. 

How The City Grew

With the basics out of the way we can really start digging down into the specifics of the city. In this section, we’ll look at how the city grew, and flesh out its history a bit more.

This section can be as in-depth or as sparse as you want and as your city demands. A smaller or newer village probably hasn’t experienced the same amount of events and turmoil as a larger city. Keep that in mind as you figure out what events lead to the current state of your settlement. 

The Goals Of The Town

While we haven’t talked about people yet this is a good spot to start thinking about them in a broad sense. Specifically, consider what types of general goals the leadership and important people of the city might have. Not their individual goals, but the long-term goals of the town itself.

A mining town, for example, might be looking to expand their mines to bring in more revenue. A trading focused town might be looking for new partners to trade with. 

The idea is that these types of goals will often lead to conflict and these conflicts can lead to interesting situations. A mining town, in pursuit of profit, might dig too deep and unleash a terrible beast, or perhaps they come into conflict with a rival mine. As you go through the rest of this section consider what types of conflicts might naturally arise from the growth of the town.

Important Conflicts

Next, I like to think of the important conflicts that the town has seen. These are generally the big-ticket, history defining moments that are talked about for years to come. Here’s a short list of some examples:

• War and battles

• Diseases/plague

• Natural disasters (famine, volcanoes, earthquakes ect.)

• Civil war or fights among leaders

• Major social issues like droughts or famines

Any of the above are likely to lead to a lasting impact on the town in question. Don’t only think about what happened, but think about what sort of lasting impact they had. A town that was attacked and nearly destroyed by marauding barbarians might now have a standing and trained militia ready to defend itself with. Think about not only the causes of conflict, but what those conflicts lead to as a consequence.

This is also a good place to consider your city’s place in the world and how that might influence the conflicts it experiences. Also, consider the point above on what types of goals your town has and how that might lead them into conflict.  

Other Events

Outside of conflict, I also like to consider any other types of historic events that might have happened in or nearby the city. These don’t necessarily have to be harmful events as mentioned above, but can be cultural moments that have a long lasting effect. To better illustrate what I mean, here’s a couple of examples:

• Founding of an important religion.

• Birth of an important historical figure.

• Place of an important invention.

There’s dozens more but hopefully that illustrates the point. It’s easy to see how any of these could have a profound effect on the city and its people even centuries after the event took place. If you deem your city to have had any culturally significant events in its past, think about how that might have influenced its growth and how it still affects the present day. 

Infrastructure and Trade

At this point you should have a good idea of the beginnings and general history of your city. Now, it’s time to start defining the details of your city. In this section, we’ll look at filling out the different areas of your city and what types of locations it contains. Keep in mind everything you’ve done above as your city’s location and history are likely to influence the specific locations of your city.

How/What Do People Eat?

When talking about infrastructure the biggest question in my opinion is how and what people eat. This is an important question, so important that this is the second time it has been mentioned. Access to food is often going to be a limiting factor in a city’s growth. Lack of food is going to stymie its growth and prevent it from expanding. There’s a reason many ancient cities were founded in areas that were conducive to agriculture.

When it comes to actually defining the logistics of food you can take a lot of liberties and hand-wave a bit. Saying that it comes from outlying farms or trade is often good enough unless your story heavily relies on this particular aspect of city management. As long as it seems semi-plausible you’re probably fine, you don’t need to get down to exact acres of farms that feed the city.   

What are key Buildings?

Now, I like to start adding in the key buildings that make up the city. I’m not going through and adding in every little shop or service, yet, but just trying to hit the most important or visible buildings.

This might include things like:

• A castle or keep.

• Large/important church.

• Faction related buildings.

• Industry specific buildings (like a lumber mill). 

• Important/famous tavern.

• Important/famous shops.

• Any landmarks like parks or statues.

The key is to identify what types of important buildings are in your city. Don’t forget to keep all the above in mind about your town’s history and location. An inland lumber-based city is going to have some differences from a coastal fishing town.

You also want to focus on what matters in the story you’re trying to tell. You don’t need to detail every little shop if your story only takes place in the king’s favorite cathedral. On the other hand, if you’re writing an economic overview of a city you might! 

Adding Districts 

This is also a good point to break your city down into districts if that’s your plan. Even if you don’t want to have officially named districts there’s likely to be some shorthand to denote the various areas of a sufficiently large city. An area near the docks might be referred to as the harbor or docks even if that’s not an official designation.

I use districts to help me organize my city and use it for planning purposes. It also helps me think about what types of buildings belong in certain areas of my city. In the docks example, I’d expect to see a variety of buildings geared towards seafaring and trade. A shipbuilder, for example, is more likely to be located there then further inside the city. You don’t have to create explicit districts, but thinking about the general areas your city contains can help keep you organized.   

Trade and Neighbors 

After buildings, I like to start considering what types of trade my city might engage in and with whom. Trade has two components; imports or what the city brings in, and exports what it sends out. It’s likely any city of sufficient size is going to have some type of exports, and almost every city is going to have some types of imports. Generally speaking, I find it easiest to be fairly broad with the specifics of trade. I find that answering the following couple of questions is usually enough to get started:

• What are the 1-3 major exports?

• What are the 1-3 major imports?

• Who are the closest trading partners?

• How important overall is trade to the city? 

In particular, the last two are where the interesting conflicts tend to arise. 

Government

Moving on, we come to the government structure of the city. There’s a lot of details you could dive into here, the minutiae of how laws are passed or how local sheriffs are elected, but we’ll stay with a higher level approach for now. You can always add in more details later, so let's start with a high-level view that will often be enough for most purposes. 

Independent or Ruled

First, I think it’s important to define where your city’s place in the world is, and what its status is. By that I mean whether your city is independently ruled, part of a larger empire, or somewhere in between. To illustrate what I mean, I think it’s easiest to show an example of each.

Independent: An independent city is ruled on its own terms. Be it a single person or several, the leader has the highest authority, although their direct actions might be limited by other entities; like a senate or rich landowners for example. They might be considered to the city as a king is to a kingdom. The council of Dukes that rule a city and owe loyalty to no one else fits here. 

Ruled: A ruled city might have a leader, like a mayor lord, but they ultimately owe some type of fealty to a higher power. The lord of a small town that’s the vassal of a king and owes them homage fits here. The town’s leader still might have a great deal of power and authority, but there is someone above them in importance.

In-between: This constitutes the middle ground where there is technically a higher power, but it generally stays out of the way. A city, once conquered by a foreign nation but left alone as long as they pay some tax, is an example here. The city, for the most part, runs and governs itself however it wishes, but there is still technically a higher power looming above them. 

Consider the examples above, and think about how the rulers or aristocrats of your city would interact with the wider world. Is it an independent city-state that has no master, or is it part of a large kingdom and might pay some sort of homage to a lord? 

Rule of Law

How do laws work at a high-level, and who enforces them? These are two questions I think it’s important to have at least rough answers to as they’ll influence a good deal of day to day life for your city. A town without strong laws or the means to enforce them can end up chaotic with various groups vying for power and promising protection for those that follow them.

I also like to think about how laws might touch different areas and different classes of people in different ways. Certain areas of the city, for example, might tend towards lawlessness; or it might be that the wealthy are often able to dodge the grip of justice through wealth and influence. Those might be a bit cliche, but it’s not far off from reality in a lot of cases.   

Specific Laws Or Legal Quirks

Speaking of laws, are there any in your city that are oddly specific, weird, or otherwise unique? Laws are an important piece to any developed society, and also an interesting look at culture. The types of laws that a group follows show a level to what they view as important and their values. It’s telling when a society views murder as perfectly acceptable as long as it’s done in secret. 

Laws can often arise from conflict, both at the city and individual level. Think about the issues your city and its people might face, and how those in power might use the law to help alleviate them.

Additional Questions 

Lastly, I think a good way to flesh out your city's government is through a simple list of questions. Here’s a couple of questions to help you flesh out your government:

• Who are the ruler(s)?

• How do the ruler(s) obtain their position?

• What sorts of powers and privileges do the ruler(s) enjoy? 

• Are the current rules well-liked?

• What sorts of positions exist under the rulers? 

• What are the ruler(s) goals and motives? How will that affect the city? 

If you’re able to answer these questions you should have a very good understanding of your city and how its government functions. These questions also touch a bit on how the average citizen views the government, which can also be another interesting source of conflict. 

Culture and Society

With the main infrastructure outlined we can move on to looking at the culture and society in broad terms. In the next section we’ll look at individual people, so for now let’s consider the larger groups that people fit into. More importantly, we’ll also look at how these groups interact both with each other and outsiders. This is where a lot of interesting conflict comes from that helps drive your world and story. 

Start With The General Feel

I find it easiest when thinking about culture to start by defining a handful of general terms. Think in broad terms about how an outsider might describe the people of the city. These could be things like: 

• Religious

• Insular

• Commerce Driven

• Secular

• Snobbish

• Individualistic 

• Hard-working

• Hedonistic 

Now, these certainly won’t apply to everyone in the city, but they can give you a rough idea of how the city behaves. A very religious city, for example, might place a high priority on building temples and on having the entire population convert. A more individualistic society might see religion as a more personal choice and not have as many outward displays as such.

I find starting broad like this to be extremely helpful when getting more specific later. If I know the general theme of the city then it helps me make decisions later on. It also gives you easy ways to create exceptions which can be interesting in their own right. Consider, how might an extremely religious city deal with a group of atheists trying to live there? 

Build With Key Groups

Every culture tends to have some sort of hierarchy or groupings, and I think it easiest to start with that. Think about the different groups that people might sort themselves into. These might be social class, economic standing, religious beliefs, common ancestors, profession, just to name a few. Keep the above “city theme” in mind as these groups will likely be different depending on your city’s general outlook.

When planning out your city’s culture consider what groups might exist in it, and, most importantly, how these groups interact. The conflicts between the different groups can lead to interesting events that are perfect to explore further. 

Religion and Beliefs 

Religion is a key part of most cultures and I feel a crucial piece to understanding any group of people. We have a whole article on building religions, but it goes into a lot more detail than you might need. If religion is a key piece of your world then by all means go for it, but don’t feel like you need to build a religion from scratch in order to construct your city. The two major questions I like to answer when it comes to city building and religion are: 

• What religion(s), if any, does your city follow?

• How important is religion to your city as a whole?

Generally, I like to focus on how the various peoples of the religion interact day-to-day with those around them. I also like to think about the various buildings, like churches or mosques, that might be constructed around the city. These are the most interesting aspects of religion when it comes to city building. One more thing to keep in mind, if your city houses multiple religions consider how they might interact. They may very well be peaceful, or you might have bloody conflict as they all vie for power. 

Customs, Holidays, and Events

While these likely have some tie-in with religion also consider those that don’t. Having social events like holidays, or specific customs that people follow, are great ways to add depth to your city. They make it feel more alive and believable, and also add some interesting opportunities for story telling.

One tip here I like to use is to explore cultures outside of your own to find new ideas. I find that the eastern world is oftentimes underutilized, at least from a western perspective, and is filled with interesting ideas, holidays, and customs. The more open you are to new ideas the more depth you’ll have to pull from when constructing not just your cities, but your worlds in general.

Starting with your city’s history is a good way to come up with important events and holidays. Consider which important events you’ve come up with and see if it makes sense to have some type of celebration around that. The date a city was founded might lead to a founders day, or the commemoration of an important battle might be celebrated in its own right. Not all celebrations need to be tied to a historic event, a harvest festival for example, but it’s a good place to start that feels natural.

In terms of customs, adding a few can go a long way to help your city feel alive. A specific greeting or salutation, an accessory or way of dress, or the idea that respect must be shown at all times are good examples of customs. Start with just a couple, and consider the general theme you started with and how that might lead to specific customs. 

How Cultures Interact

Lastly, consider the wider world that surrounds your city and how they interact with each other. You may have done this a bit when thinking about trade and commerce, but it also applies here. The more different two cultures are from each the more likely they are to conflict. On the flip side, similar cultures might get along quite well and become long-term partners.

This step requires knowing a bit about the wider world around your city, so don’t worry about it too much if that’s not ready yet. Do, however, come back to this step once you’ve fleshed out the world a bit more and always keep in mind your city’s place in it. 

The People

Last, but certainly not least, we come to the lifeblood of any city, the people. I like to leave the specific people for last as many of the previous points can be used to help inform your work here. For example, knowing which important buildings your city has gives you an idea of the people you’ll need to staff them. Or, knowing about your general culture will give you an idea of how people might look or behave. 

Demographics

Firstly, I think it’s a good idea to define the rough demographics of your town. Depending on your story, you might break this down by gender, age, or race, to name a few easy ones. 

Generally, I start with a rough idea of how these demographics are made up. Something like 50% are male, and about 80% are humans, with the remaining 20% split between dwarves, elves, and gnomes, might be a good start for a generic fantasy city. 

I don’t spend too much time here, but it helps later on to know roughly what the makeup of your city should look like. It can also be an easy and quick way to give an outsider insight into who lives in your city, at least in a general sense. 

Important People

After I have the demographics down I like to map out a handful of the most important and influential people in the city. This would be things like kings, mayors, generals, important aristocrats, and heads of guilds/factions. I don’t spend a ton of time here, just a name, brief description, and overall goals are usually enough. I can always come back and flesh them out more later if I need to. 

Factions & Important Groups

As part of writing out my important people I like to take some extra time to consider any people associated with factions or other prominent groups within the city. If, for example, a thieves guild plays a large role in my city then it’s probably a good idea to jot down the leader and maybe a handful of associates. 

A Handful of Extras

Lastly, I like to just add a handful of additional characters, especially if I’m running a game where my players might go off the planned path. In most cases I’ll try to have them related to some plot hook, but I find it helpful to also have a couple characters for what I call “tavern filler”.

In a lot of cases I’ll just boot up a random NPC generator and cycle through a couple pulling out the bits I like. This gives me a lot of decent content without much work. In most cases these end up being background characters, so it’s okay if they’re not fully fleshed out. A few bullet points about appearance, personality, and a main motive are enough. You can always come back later and flesh them out as needed. 

A Quicker Way To Build Cities

As promised, in this last section we’ll walk through a very simple process of generating a city that should be far quicker than all the above. This gets you something with much less detail, but far faster. And that’s okay, not every city needs a 10 page history with dozens of details and specifics. Sometimes you just need a simple location to fill out the world; you can always come back and add more details if you want. 

1. Start with a general idea of what the city is, jot down 3-5 general themes that fit the city. A busy port town rife with corruption and crime but with an ultra-wealthy aristocracy that profits off it all. Civil unrest is, of course, high.

2. Next, define any key groups that make up the town. The dock guild controls most trade, it’s ruled by a council of 5 that are “elected” every 3 years, and the thieves guild controls the bulk of the underworld.  

3. Define any ongoing conflicts or points of friction experienced by the city. They’re always at odds with neighboring cities over trade routes. A recent influx of barbarians has threatened the farming operations that feed the city.

4. List down a few points of interest or the main district of the city. The city is separated into the docks, the slums, the crafters, and the noble districts. Points of interest include the dock guild headquarters, the merchants row, and the thieves guild’s hidden headquarters. 

5. Lastly, jot down a handful of people one might encounter in the city. Duke Edward III is the primary face of the government, Edmond of Sals is the leader of the dock guild, and Armand Strongs is the thieves guild leader. 

It’s quick, it’s dirty, but it gets the job done. If you’re looking for something quick try out the above, in most cases it’s honestly all you’ll need to have a perfectly acceptable city. As always, when/if you need more details you can always come back and flesh it out a bit more; and you’ll have a good foundation to start from. 

Wrapping Up

Whew, that’s a lot, but hopefully there’s been at least a little nugget of knowledge in there for you. While the above is certainly one way to look at city building, don’t take it as the end all method. I tried to be somewhat thorough, but honestly it’s probably overkill for a lot of cases. Take this more as a rough guide and way to start thinking about and generating ideas for your city, and go from there. If all you need is a name and general theme then go with that, but it doesn’t hurt sometimes to think a bit deeper as well.