I'm submitting this for your "users' tips & articles" page, if you think it
will be useful to people.

TOWN BUILDING TIPS

1. Enlarge your boundaries.  If you put one or more sides of your town
against a mountain, cave wall, or other impassable terrain, adjust the town
boundary on that side out to its maximum extent, so you have more space
inside to work with.  The preset boundaries are only needed if players will
be entering or leaving from that side. If it's a dungeon level accessible
only via stairways, do so on all four sides.

2. Give it a reason for existing.  With the number of scenarios being
produced now, many of the towns are starting to look alike, mainly because
they contain only the essential adventurer's facilities: mayor, armor &
weapons, trainer, sage, barracks, etc.  A great way to set your towns apart
is by deciding why it exists in that spot at all.  What made people settle
down here? Give it a key "industry" and add in appropriate buildings and
people.  If it's in a mountain region, it could be a mining town, like
Blinlock in "Valley of the Dying Things."  If it's near plains or swamp, it
could be based on agriculture or herb farming, such as Muck in "A Small
Rebellion."  Another great industry-based town is in "Erika's Legacy," in
which Silvar was very effectively renovated as a schlocky tourist trap,
complete with a fake (and tacky) vahnatai home, a hair salon, and a gift
shop with "snowglobes."

3. Give it a mood.  Decide how the townspeople are being affected by local
events (i.e., the events of the scenario), and work their feelings about it
into the dialogue and descriptive messages.  If the town is under seige,
are they worried? confident? leaving in droves? Are they happy with what
the authorities are doing these days? Are they welcoming of strangers, or
are they a little bit paranoid?  Perhaps there is some special celebration,
festival, or period of mourning going on right now.  Remember that in real
life people like to talk about themselves and give opinions; make your
townspeople do the same.

4. Add happenings unrelated to the party's goals.  This may seem like a
tedious distraction from writing the important scenario elements, but it
adds a lot to the experience.  Put in among the townspeople some gossip,
relationships, or intrigues that have nothing to do with the scenario
objectives. The mayor is fooling around with the innkeeper's wife.  This
barmaid has a crush on that soldier.  Someone has been going around
stealing people's pants.  These things give a strong sense that life is
still going on here whether the party wanders through or not.

All these things take time and creative thinking to write into your
scenario, but can transform your cities and towns from mere stopovers for
training and selling stuff to realistic places that are as fun to explore
as the hostile dungeons.

--Scott
mountaineer@loop.com
This sentence no verb.