Making D&D Towns Feel Alive 

Quick name generator: Take two normal, two-syllable names, like Walter-Hogan, Edgar-Alvin, Herbert, Lawrence and switch the second syllables around: Walgan-Hoger, Edvin-Algar, Herrence-Lawbert.

I remember I once had an old storytelling lady in a town, she’d just sit around telling kids fairy tales & legends surrounding the town’s history, but one of my players kept coming back to hear every story she had

One of the _nice_ things about having players who know more than you about period-appropriate jobs and activities is that you can lean on them for descriptions. "Hey Dave, what's the inside of this blacksmith going to look like?" and then get your NPC ready while Dave talks about triphammers for the rest of the party so you don't have to.

Funny thing: i play a Lot of the sims games, so i wrote down about a dozen actions that my sims often can be seen doing in the background which caught my interest such as cleaning/ making plans/ conversation etc and i use that list to always make sure that i say that my dnd npcs are doing some ambient action, just like a sim

Just for fun, when my PCs are in a major city and visiting the "Adventurer Store", I like to off handedly describe another adventuring group exiting/entering. It seems to catch their attention and make them wonder about the other stories that are being lived.

My tip: the shop is out of something. Pick one minor thing that shop or business might sell. They are out of it, and won't have any fresh stock until sometime next week. This obviously is not intended to hinder or punish players, but instead to show that shops have customers besides the players.

You know what would be cool? Making a town that is really that "NPC's are just idle", but putting emphasis enough to make the players think about what the hell is happening, intentionally making it creepy and awkward, so that they have a mystery to solve, in this case: "why the hell do all of those guys seem like they've been brainwashed?"

Ok but the cleaning advice is unironically very solid After I read how leatherworking often used piss and other excrements to treat their materials, even though I KNOW how it happens, I think I'd rather just describe them cleaning their tools/shed haha

For anyone interested in how candles are made, it's pretty much just pouring molten beeswax, animal fat or paraffin into a mold with a string, and sometimes coating said string in the fuel you used too so it starts burning easyer. Notes: making them with paraffin makes for a much more uniform process, as it's usually a single compound in contrast to the natural alternatives, which are complex fat mixes. Making them with animal fat will make for rather dim, smelly and smokey, but cheaper candles. Additionally, very high grade beeswax will sometimes form little white spots all over it, similar to some chocolates, when exposed to slight temperature changes over time.

5:41 EXCUSE ME, I PLAY D&D TO _ESCAPE_ FROM REALITY FOR A WHILE.

lol if you have a player who has a Phd in medieval history, AND, they are judging you for your world building... well then I say your table found a new volunteer DM to start running some games too... 🤣

I remember an old bit of advice from the 2e players handbook. To paraphrase: an illusionist can only create a convincing illusion for creatures they’ve experienced. Applying it to DMs, studying up on what you’re describing is hugely important.

I remember populating a tavern of a seaside town with interesting and varied characters, as sailors and travelers from outside the continent would appear there... And the elf lady of the party glued to an elven sailor, and I had to improv a f*ckton. It was fun. They got a different route by sea, and I got to use Captain Pen and his ship, the calligrapher, for the first time.

I’ve spent the better part of a decade watching videos on writing, world building, real history, how they made things back in the day, etc… I only started D&D last October. It’s like I finally found the place where all of that useless yet fascinating knowledge has a use, and it’s great! I _can_ tell you what’s happening in the cobbler’s shop (and it isn’t _making_ shoes! It’s exclusively _repairing_ shoes!), or what the knights are eating, or how those mountains have effected the weather. I already kinda understood this, but this video helped me realize I’m not actually using that knowledge in my games, and I should as a DM! Tonight they’re going into a new town, I’m gonna try to do it!

“You have come to our town on our monthly cleaning day traveller. What do you need”

Good points made. I try to make at least one unique thing about the town be it the main export or demeanor of the townsfolk. But pointing out basic activities the townsfolk are doing does make it feel more alive. Just make sure you have some generic NPC personalities at the ready as someone is bound to talk to the person sweeping the stoop in front of their home. ;)

"They can feel flat, un-inviting, and lifeless." Vallaki, Krezk, and the village of Barovia: "That's...why I'm here."

4:13 you should aslo know what time of the year it is because caring for plants depends entirely on weather and time of the year

Thanks for the video! I just realized I've been forgetting to put candlestick makers in my towns. XD

Great advice! I'm gonna use a lot of this in the future. I'd also throw in that if a campaign involves notable factions, having faction interactions can give players valuable information about those factions too. Stuff like cultist preacher on a soapbox getting arrested by Kingsguard or whatever gives a lot of implied context to the world.

Good video, currently running an Urban campaign in a harbour city. They're always seeing Tellin the fisher hauling that nights catch to market, till they didn't...... New quest, find Tellin.

I love the simple but detailed art style of this video

For really committed DMs I highly recommend spending some weekends at historical museums. The most recent I've been to was a glass museum with a glass blowing demonstration. I learned a ton about how glass was made in the early 1700s and those kind of details can really help flesh stuff out.

i have a large list of names i’ve generated ahead of time (they all have little checkboxes so i can mark the ones i’ve already used). it really helps to *SAY* the name out loud before you use it, just to see if it sounds funny. if you don’t, you might end up making the players laugh every time they interact with the NPC.

When PC enter a shop have a few go to descriptions: One) the shopkeeper is busy replacing merchandise on shelves. Two) the shopkeeper is taking inventory. Three) the shopkeeper is finishing a transaction as the PC walk in.

I love so much this channel. I've seen so many channels just give generic advice and some of them would give examples but this channel really focuses on the little details of being a great DM. After watching one of your videos I feel inspired with a lot of new ideas that I feel that they will improve my DMing. Thank you.

Since all of my players also have Game Master Experiance, I can be lazy. When one player asks for a specific detail abd I have no name or description for it: I just point to another player and relay the question to him. This way I engage more than one player at a time, outsorce the thinking, and give the players the agency to contribute to worldbuilding.

i am quite good in making towns feel alive. so much so that my party immediatly noticed that one of the towns they stopped in was weird. there were still people doing stuff but I made it feel like the whole town solely existed for them (it was a very elaborate illusion using spells such as mass suggestion and illusionary spells. it existed to stall the hero's). but it is good to hear all of this verbalised cause I did it mostly subconciously and did not know how I did it per se

A random encounter table for townies. Can be variable with town districts or day/night if you like. One city-wide event table for what the big talk of the town this week is.

Great video with a lot of helpful tips. I always find filling my towns and making then feel alive difficult, so all this advice was super useful.

Really cool advice. I’m running a Pathfinder 2e game where the party keeps hopping between three towns because there’s just nothing to do in them. So I’ve been trying to work on fleshing out the world around them more. Particularly because they have a more reactive play style, so I need to figure out things that can happen around them.

I really like the animated follow up to everything you say. It's pretty great effort and it's pleasant to see. I only realised that is worthy of praise after a couple videos and realising you're still a growing channel

I've been going through you're videos, and I have to say, there are some of my favorite videos because they are quick and to the point. I mean this in the most positive way possible. I know when I click on one of your videos I'm going to learn something useful, that stays on the topic of what the title is.

I would add a theater as the players main place of operation, or homebase, instead of the usual inn or tavern. It is a great place to stay and a way to add some "Class" to your characters and your town. And a great way to reference actual theater plays and opera shows and similar, to show off your great knowledge of such

Love the voice, the advice and the drawings! You've earned a subscriber :)

On the topic of doing research, I've found RU-vid to be a HUGELY beneficial resource. You can watch videos on history and get a real feel for what it was like and then just take notes on the things that make it *feel* alive. A lot of the time, you can even get details on the smells involved from the people doing the documentary/experiment!

I absolutely love your channel. The videos are so informative, and yet simple and to the point, making them easy to follow and easy to retain the information. Keep on keeping on!

5:19 houserule: if for any reason someone with a PHD in medeival history joins the table, they're the DM.

Always make it feel like you’re interrupting something.

I those cases when the player knows more than DM, then the DM asks the player what is going on in the candle shop

These are some really great tips! I've been struggling to help make the world or the town really feel alive, rather than a bunch of little set pieces or stages for the characters to move from one to the next. Thanks so much for making this, I fully intend to utilize the tips here next weekend! :)

Just found your channel from a recommendation in a Bob World Builder post! Love your content! You've got one more subscriber, and hopefully many more soon.

That's for doing these videos. They help with creativity so much

Love this series (and the art)! Gonna use all these tips for my next DM session.

For NPC names for my SciFi game i put together a list of names from "Behind the name" , specifically the list of popular names, and specifically specifically the names when listed in order of names that changed rank the most from the previous year.

3:49 the answer is always Fireball what was described in the most detail.

The art of conversation does play a big role for me. But also, I learned little interactions and microexpressions from literally talking everyday-this has helped me improv and even design the interactions with the party.

This was a pretty helpful video which really gave me a clearer idea of how to make more interactive type of sessions

There's ALWAYS something that needs cleaning. Excellent 😊

Most towns have an industry or commerce. Whether fishing, smiting, forestry, ag, quarrying or mining, there will be an activity that allows working folk to work.

Really helpful! Thank you so much!

This genuinely helps me, I'm running my first dnd session as a DM, and I somehow made my players interested in like the three main NPC's that inhabit the town, which honestly is extremely lucky on my part because without them my town is basically them standing around doing noting, sure the tavern Keeper cleans alot, but the others guys are just static, so tha k you for making this, it's simipw but I never thought about it like this, Thanks!

This was such a duh moment for me but extremely helpful. It's so easy to over think when deep diving into world building and this was a good wake up call and reeled me way back in. Thank you for this grounding content.

My players saved a kingdom and then traveled for about 3 to 4 years... So when they came back, they asked to go to their favorite tavern that they used to go at the start of the campaign... I described how when they got in the place where the tavern was supposed to be there was, instead, an alchemist ingredients shop. Why you ask? Well, the tavern keeper died of natural causes 1 year after they started traveling, and his family (only 2 sons, both 20 years old) now is trying a new life as shop keepers in other parts of the kingdom. They recognised the players from being the "old man's favorite clients" and offered them discounts, since the gold that the players spended with the tavern helped them to open the shops that they have now. Everyone felt like they made difference in the lives of the NPCs and were all super sorry for not being at the old man's funeral... It was so wholesome... (Edit) Some words they shared: "He was a good man and the best at beer brewing" - Half Orc Barbarian "The uncle that i never had" - Symic Hybrid Rogue "He helped me making money when i had nowhere to go" - Sea Elf Bard "He always liked when i casted spells for him to see... It was just cantrips most of the time, but he thought i would be the best wizard to come..." - Elf Wizard The fun thing is that all that they said was roleplayed, nothing was in their backstory, so i felt like a great DM at the time.

There needs to be an app of audio statements and descriptions so a DM can choose from them

STAHP MAKING SUCH GOOD CONTENT! I can't stop binge watching 💜💙💚💛🧡❤

1st - I subscribed. These videos are wonderfully put together. Towns - 1 to 3 things the town is known for (mining, trading, junction/crossroads, outpost/frontier, leisure/entertainment, criminal safe haven, farming, etc). This will help explain why the NPC's are here. "A quite town" is a passive perception/investigation by the players. To the players, what they see may seem mundane after days on the road vanquishing "bandits" and weeks exploring a "deadly" dungeon. Doesn't mean it is. Cities, and larger, should always feel "lively" though with people "accidentally" relieving them of their coin and treasure... I mean, bumping into them and having "places to be." "Many" sessions later when they enter a city that is "silent" or a town that is "agitated" in your campaign, it should put the "hairs on the back of their neck" up and them on alert. Or allow what ever mishaps befall them because they ignored the clues. *cue evil laugh*

Great information, thank you !

My towns are gonna be so freaking clean now

At 6:20 talking about busy people is a busy town seems like a minor detail, its not in a minor town though lol

one mini encounter i remember from a recent session was the party enterred the town and we were beset by a small pack of young boys being well, young boys. some mudslinging later we find em and get them to go on home

One tip I’ve heard is keeping a list of names. If you need a name to drop in just pick on from the list, cross it off and make a note for where it fits in, and then later you can refresh the list.

I wish there was a playlist for all the town videos, so I could watch them easily

(sry if my english is too crispy ^^) i love combining staleness with uneasiness. Bring a group into a town where you describe how empty everything is, and how dead the peoples eyes look to them,noone interacting and you will have in no time a group that wants to dismantle the village to find the secret, but also burn it down because there has to be a curse or some other form of evil. i had a group investigating such a town for way longer than i thought they would be interested in it. It took them some time to realise they were just annoying some peaceful but very ascetic cultist villagers with a vow to never ever talk to an outsider The Absence of information can be equally appealing as a mass of information as it simply forces you to interact with the remaining things in different way than you did before. My people dismanteled a specific farmhouse before realising the truth and to this day i dont get excactly why they did it, but they swear it made sense to them back then

I've found that Red Dead Redemption 2 makes for some surprisingly effective DnD inspiration. Especially with how each town has their own personality.

Also: If you have a player who is super knowledgeable about the moving and shaking in a historical setting, you could always ask for their help! In my experience people are more than willing to share their interests if you ask, and the everyday goings on in a candlemaker's shop probably won't be super relevant to the plot of the game... it's the things that aren't ordinary that are usually plot points.

Great video. Thank you

Your videos are excellent refreshers even though I wish I could go into a paragraph of how luxurious a noble's manor is and how badly I want my players to egg his house because he's the guy who insisted on a tax increase to fund his crippling obsessions' with gem encrusted goblets.

Thanks for this!

My favorite way of introducing this is the concept of Street Cred (Shadowrun/ Cyberpunk mechanic) When you first go to a bar, many will ignore you or eye you over with passive interest, and if you're lucky someone might introduce themself or introduce some need they have to your table (consider these options a chance to improve your rep with the locals). Alternatively if they know you or it's your town, you'll find the locals far more cordial, willing to fling open their doors and rush to greet you. In this way the npc's become a breathing entity that's inhales and exhales pulse to your notoriety or infamy. ;)

I will say the vagueness skill is a good skill to have even if you're a well prepared DM because it's impossible to prepare for everything the players will want to do. You can think of everything that sounds reasonable for them to explore and then suddenly they tell you a location in town they want to visit that's out of left field. "I wanna visit the city graveyard or morgue" "Uh... really?" "Yeah my father died in an unknown location so I wanna see if any of the graves have his name" "Um... okay..."

I have been a victim of over describing architecture for sure! Love the cleaning tip!

I have a quick description on what is going on at different times of the day. As the adventurers return to the city it might be evening, or maybe they woke up before the sun rose.. I’ll have quick descriptions of what they see at each location based on the time of day to give town that life feel that things are going on without them

A few old as dirt tips for settlment enrichment. Every place has an outcast, the village drunk, the crazy cat lady et cetera. Jot down an incredibly random outcast for each settlment. It provides atmosphere and things for local NPCs to gossip about when you need some filler dialogue. At the start of creating a new settlement provide it with some absolutely random bit of lore about it's history. "There were five churches when the town only had three citizens/this river provides a prized tiny purple fish people like as pets". Just something seemingly off the wall random. Now you have inspiration for all sorts of things to do with the town. You get to tell a story of how the churches moved in before citizens when the local monarch chartered a new town, and now the place is named or nicnamed Fivetemples. You have a reason for a village to celebrate every year when brilliant purple fish spawn thier young. Children, except military encampments almost everywhere will have children, and they develop little cultures of their own. Don't forget the kids in any considerations for listing local factions. 3rd places. Children and adults all desire a 3rd place... that 3rd spot other than home or work that they think of as theirs in a way. For Norm and others Cheers was their 3rd place... but even in DnD the tavern can't be the only 3rd place available. Where do the kids hang out, the artists, the rumor mongers, the baseball cap and cup of coffe type old guys?

This video was extremely helpful in thinking about what to think about lol

Great video thank you 😊

sleepy towns where everyone is idol is a town I've used but it was a horror session and the group got to see the town bustling and alive after freeing it from the pall of the shadowfell.

I do have a player who knows way too much about obscure things like ye olde candlemaking. I've found the best thing to do is just look to him, and tell him, "the candlemaker is working. What would that look like?" People love getting to show off what the know. He always gets excited when his weird knowledge becomes relevant. I don't think, as adults, the DM needs to know all these things. Use your players weird knowledge. My other player is basically an engineer with his knowledge and sometimes i get things wrong. Instead of doubling down and say its magic, i let him tell me how it works, and i use that knowledge to fix my description (it also makes it so that seemingly incorrect things stick out to show something is off about the situation).

I did a rework of Phandalin for a Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign. I got inspires by Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath. I described the town having a somber tone. The residents were bored and everyone hasn't found their fortune. The Redbrand militia has been protecting the town, but the heavy protection tax has left everyone worse for wear. It was vague enough that my players enjoyed the "new" town since the residents weren't mean, but sensed that they needed to do something to uplift the mood. Also, it turns out, out of all the vague details of this town. My players really latched onto the livestock ranch where one cow was nicknamed "Brick" by the players. I tried to do a thing where the rancher couldn't pay a tax so a cow was going to be taken by Redbrands. As it turned out, the Cow rolled a nat 20 on its Athletics check and became an immovable object. The players laughed and vowed to protect Brick the Cow.

IF the players stay longer in a town have the NPCs do different stuff. Like that candlemaker is making candles on the first two times they meet him, but on the third day he's cleaning up. Or like that old guy they've meet in the tavern on their second day who they then meet again on the fifth days afternoon sitting at the lake fishing. Also have one day of the week be market day - the day when all the farmers come to town to sell the food and other items on the market place. Add one or two travelling merchants who maybe also have some advenruting gear (that would not be sold by the farmers) so visiting that market is interesting for the players. Basically find ways so the people are not always doing the exact same thing, so they don't feel like those NPCs from videogames nobody wants to talk to because all their reactions are just generic and predetermined.

"You see ..." (1) A dozen soldiers sitting on the ground, some sleeping, while the teamsters try to reattach a wagon wheel on their transport. (2) An old man hit a child, and no one in town seems to notice or care. (3) An old woman in a fur coat, struggling with carrying two heavy suitcases.

“There’s always something that needs to be cleaned” Have you been talking to my wife again?

"Have you heard of the high elves?"

being a DM with a menace player is hard on my brain. they keep pickpocket people and throwing rocks to elderly couple

"What do they eat?" -MrBtongue

This example isn't from D&D per se, but... Approach the witches' mansion, you'll probably find the one-legged mechanic who works for them outside, building automatons out of scrap metal and arcane implements. If not, she's probably in either the market district, the industrial district, or the wasteland outside the city, buying or salvaging parts.

Also, looking up random things that your players come up with can also get you to google things that are definitely going to get you on some list somewhere. So far I’ve had to research making gun powder from scratch, how to dispose of a body chemically/non-chemically, explosive potential of at least 4 different items, and (of course) how poisons and toxins effect the nervous systems of biological creatures. I’m on at least one organization’s list at this point.

I do something a bit different I do a lot of public DMing at Cons at the D&D experience and Adventure league at game shops. So I tend to use one shot NPCs as a way to get quieter players more invested in the game by letting them describe the NPC and then I run it as that on Improve. The bar maid is old and tired of the lifestyle but it is a job OR this a halfling who balances the drink tray on her hat OR their is no made and the Man behind the counter is using message to take orders, Prestidigitation to transmute the drinks and mage hand to deliver the drinks.

If you have time to prepare and you know your players will end up in a town for one reason or another - ask yourself a few questions about the town and take notes. Personally I think the most important ones are: * How big is the town? Is it a hamlet with just a few houses, no more than two dozen souls? Or is it a city with hundreds of people? * What's the reason for the city to be there? Is it a mining town? Do they fish? Is everything centered around this newfangled water powered weaving mill that Gnome founded a few years back? Or is it simply a group of houses that developed around a waystation deep in the woods? * Weird rituals and customs. For example - when the video talked about let people clean the shop... why not have this superstition, that you HAVE to clean the shop (and the streets and houses) every Saturday, lest the spirits get angry. It should be a bit strange - but not really threatening (well, as long as that isn't your plan). Not as important, but still good to know: * How old is the city? Is it built on the ruins of an Dwarven city? Is there a circle of standing stones (like in Avebury in England)? Does anyone know who was appeased / worhsipped here? * What's the signature drink or food of that town? It's one thing to order 'a beer' in the Tavern. It's something else, if you get Original Hagsbury Pale Hazlenut Ale. * Who rules the town? Who is important? Who rules the less legal activities?

The sleepy town _can_ be used intentionally, by the way, if you *want* it to feel strange and unnatural. Imagine a bright, sunny day in a town, and no one's around. Where is everyone? Why do they only speak when spoken to? The farmers make quick work, and then hurry back inside their homes at the urging of their family. The shops are happy to sell, but... what's keeping them in business, your party's the only one who's been here all day? Maybe it's the illusion of a masterful mage who, for all her power, doesn't really understand how day-to-day interaction between normal people works. Maybe it's an infestation of pod people, pretending to be human until the time is right... maybe the townsfolk are scared due to a string of recent disappearances, only for the missing persons to return with wide smiles and dull eyes... Atmosphere is super important! The hustle and bustle of a lived-in atmosphere, too, can be unsettling when unexpected, or perhaps comedic. Imagine sneaking through an enemy camp, when two chatting hobgoblins devolve into an argument-suddenly, they challenge each other to a duel, drawing their blades! Or, perhaps, you watch torchlights light up outside and witness a posse out on a witch hunt.

"As you poke your head in the door, you are immediately hit with the scent of beeswax. To your left, you see an old elf pouring what you can only assume is the source of that lovely scent into pewter molds, threads that will serve as wicks suspended on a metal rod draped over the top of each. They range in size from barely bigger than the matchstick that would light them, to candles bigger than your own, sizable barbarian thumb, and almost as long as your forearm. 'With ya in a moment, let me finish the pourings, would'ja?' The elf barely gives the slightest nod he's even noticed you. The rest of the shop is mahogany floors and shelves, lined with candles. tallow, paraffin, and beeswax, every shape, size, and colour you could imagine. Hopefully the chandler can read the list Hekore sent you with..." Just an example of the "lived in" nature of the kind of narration I'd give, re: the town, and since you mentioned "how things work" and candlemaking, it just kind of went from there (since I used to dabble in beeswax candlemaking).

Omg I love your voice!

I am not a geologist. My players kept asking me about the minerals used in the masonry… it was very awkward…

i loooooove these videos, i've always wondered, who does the art for the channel? do they have somehwer i can follow them?

Other options to cleaning may be sleeping, reading a book or daydreaming. Not everyone is that busy or hard-working :D

Nice day for fishing.

I just imagined a castle guard complaining about working a second watch. He is complaining because people don't particularly like the local noble he is guarding so despite the money he isn't invested in his job. They are understaffed because so many people prefer making less money than working for the noble.

I have a plot hook that involves the guards wanting to arrest and question a particular character on sight (due to a case of mistaken identity). I considered having this happen during a shift change. So that instead of just two or three guards, there happens to be twice that at the exact moment. Sure it sounds scripted (because it is), but I'm hoping I can play it off as impeccable timing. Should also deter the murder hobos from going "well, we got this!"

The problem is I've never seen enough social scenes or things people do to associate things together. And I am traumatized by all the RU-vidrs kept telling me to READ READ READ (I'm looking at you How To Be A Great GM).

i need this( i'm new at BEING the DM)