by
Caris of SciallaMud

One of the most frequently asked questions on one mud board I read is this: "Where do I start making my mud?" And the most frequent answer is, of course, the start town and the areas around the start town. Of course, one can either make one's start town make sense, or just make whatever the heck one wishes, but most admins like their world to make at least a little sense. Hence, this article, which hopefully will guide someone.

When considering a new town, I draw my sources from history. Sure, orcs or kzin or elves aren't historical, but their makeup probably isn't radically different from ours. The same basic needs drive them; the same things are required of their cities. We can draw from history what works and what doesn't for habitation. Getting too far outside history means that a knowledgable audience will lose patience with you, or not take your work seriously.

So I'm ignoring fantasy, because fantasy typically is just that -- imaginary. If you want a purely imaginary mud, then ignore this whole article. Make whatever you want. Put your city in the middle of a swamp. Make it inaccessible to any trade. Put whatever races you want in it, make it entirely unsupported by farms, fisheries, or herds, ignore the question of where the crafters are that make all the clothes and armor, and if it makes no sense at all, justify it by saying "Oh, it's magic", or "Oh, it's on a different world."

If you want it to make sense, however, read on.

Cities are founded primarily because they are close to resources. The primary resource we're talking about here is water. Think about the major cities in the world. They are next to water -- rivers, oceans, big lakes. Another big resource is trade. When the highways in the USA were made, tons of little towns sprung up or blossomed around them, as they had a hundred years ago around railroads, and a thousand years ago around primitive trade roads. Locations in easy to defend locations, proximity to other things people want (metal mines, firecracker stands, outlet malls).. these all happen too, but mostly, it's water or trade. Decide why your city got built to start with, and you'll have most of its surroundings just like that.

Where are cities NOT built? In the middle of war zones, in the middle of swamps or other difficult terrain, off in the middle of nowhere away from ANYTHING people'd want. Oddly, however, one sees mysterious cities springing up in these kinds of areas all the time. I suppose their writers subscribe to the imaginary-mud model.

Once a city is founded, it must be able to sustain itself. Very few cities in ancient times were able to import all their food and exist solely for trade, for example, though it did happen occasionally. Most families were themselves self-sustaining, farming their own food, making their own clothes, etc. Only when a village grew a little more were people able to specialize -- a man might be just a tanner, and through sale of his products eke out a living to enhance whatever kitchen garden he was growing. There have to be enough people there to buy enough product to support the craftsman, for there to be craftsmen. If you want there to be scribes, there has to be enough business there to support scribes. More on this later.

That said, the city will have extensive farmlands or fishing waters around itself, plus enough forests or quarries to build from (unless you're going the clay brick route, which entails a lot of labor -- who's providing all that labor?). It'll need some degree of economic and political stability, or it won't get very big; an astute ruler can do wonders, but you still need a way for the city to grow. If it's concentrating on war, it won't grow very fast -- all the men will be off fighting, not farming or procreating. Stability makes cities big.

One last thing about city placement I'd like to point out: Cities don't tolerate lots of conflict nearby. Nobody tolerates a cave full of nasty undead monsters next to his home. Putting a horrible super-dangerous forest two steps out your west gate is unrealistic. Nasty monsters don't tend to hang around settlements; heroes get ideas, and farmers are happy to make posses to go destroy the wolves so their kids will sleep safely. A lone, desperate predator might from time to time make an appearance, but this isn't at all common. The trend toward making a mud-world so dangerous one can barely step outside the start town is prevalent, but it's not in the slightest realistic.

Now that we have established the setting for the city itself, one must consider what gets built around it. If your city is walled, it's entirely possible that people have built homes around the wall, just outside it, spilling over from inside. You'll need some way to support the city. A city can import much of its food, but it can't import it all -- and if it isn't wealthy, it can't import much at all. A city without a means of support is a city ripe for siege; it is a city that exists upon the goodwill of its neighbors. If your city has no means of support, it needs to be utterly indispensable to its neighbors.

Farms are a primary means of support. Grain cultivation is one of the most important technological advances our world ever made in terms of population support. Grains also give a city fermented drinks, which are regarded as important. Be aware that some grains require special terrain to grow, such as the wet swampy land required by rice. Weather is also important to consider in picking your city's staple crop. Whatever it is, be sure to include lots of variations of it in your city's taverns and food shops. Even the evil races have to get their bread from somewhere; slaves or serfs can accomplish this, or perhaps a lower caste of your race.

Other means of support include herds, particularly of horses or cows. However, herds have to move around a little, and require more land than farms do. They also have to eat, and this means they compete with people for grains (unless you're going the straw route, but even then, grain supplements). Pigs are good because they don't need much space, will happily eat trash, and can be let loose in the woods to forage most of the year without any help from people. Most herding civilizations will go for sheep or horses, however, and history shows us that they are largely nomadic. You might also consider fisheries, if you are near a coast (and you probably are, if you got this far). A strong navy would go far toward explaining why your city is independent, and would certainly be a natural outgrowth of a fishing industry. That, and players really seem to like sailing code.

Forests are a good source of lumber, but if your city uses this source, be sure to include lots of chopped-down areas. Convert them to farmland if you wish. It can be fun to periodically go chop down some forest rooms and turn them into "A Field of Stumps". Bear in mind that rarely will aggressive creatures hang around cities, so if you want aggressive bears, wolves, etc., to be around your forest, they need to be skittish, or desperate. Hunting down a rogue wolf can be quite fun for your PCs, but again, this shouldn't be a regular pop. Forests can be quite tame, and one near a city almost certainly would be. It should also be noted that most rulers declare forests off-limits for hunting, preferring to let nobles and higher-ups enjoy this privilege. Poaching can bring a whole new level of conflict to your game.

If your city is on a trade route, most of the rules can be suspended. There are numerous examples from thousands of years back on up of trade villages in hostile areas (I refer you here to the history of the Great Wall, the Biblical Sodom and Gomorrah, the medieval Silk Route, and modern-day Little Five Points of Atlanta, Georgia and Rice Village of Houston, Texas). While the immediate vicinity might be dangerous to outsiders, strong walls and a fiercely protective police/military force can ensure safety for caravans passing through. Food can be almost entirely imported, for the village is completely indispensable to its allies, who will gladly supply it with its needs. The city quickly becomes a major immigration goal. The problem here is that these cities are ephemeral. While Rome can last three thousand years, a trade village might last only a couple hundred. When the object of trade peters out, or another route is discovered, the village quickly dies.

Trade routes can be very dangerous, very urbane and cosmopolitan, fashionable, and filled with action-oriented conflict. Political maneuvering can be severe, as well, as merchant houses vie with each other for tax breaks and contracts. Trade route cities are prime locations for slave trader type interaction, which also provides fabulous conflict. Stability is almost unheard-of, but, again, there is always the bitter knowledge that this will all pass, and probably quickly -- so get what you can out of it now. These cities don't have a lot of history, and almost certainly won't have sewers or other fun established places.

So, in short, one can examine the great cities of the world to see how they started and why they have endure the centuries. Why a city appears is as interested as why it disappears, and these reasons can be complex. Luckily, the basic reasons are fairly simple: A city needs to be able to provide for its people in the beginning, and this means water and food, trade and resources like stone or wood. Provide a means to obtain these, and you will have a good site for your city.