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PHB has quirks you can give to players and NPCs but what about

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PHB has quirks you can give to players and NPCs but what about town quirks? What kind of quirks would make a town memorable? I got the basic ones, like disproportionate number of males/females/old/young, regional accent, talking with hand movements, but what are some really memorable quirks that we can give a town?
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In my experience?
Truly bizzarre shit. Like a dark and ominous black obelisk in the middle of town that no one seems to notice is emitting a dark aura
Catgirls.
Have a local steal from the party.
Have the locals be extremely biggoted/unnaturally welcoming. Like to the point of them being so unnerved by it that they prefer to camp outside the town rather than have a free stay in the Inn.
Basically interactions.
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>>51739365
He's not puking, he's drinking
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>>51739365
> The town guard are exclusively catgirls, or the setting's equivalent. Nobody questions this.
> The whole town has an odd accent
> Discount magic item store; they all have some fatal flaw somewhere.
> Everyone's a dick
> Everyone's suspiciously, creepily nice
> Cart traffic is so snarled up you have to walk over the top of them
> It's a ghost town. Streets are empty, nobody about
> Literal ghost town. Inhabited by ghosts.
> Necromancy is fine here, and skeletons do all the heavy work
> Everyone wears an identical moustache, by order of the local lord.
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Every building sits on stilts ten feet above the ground. When asked, everyone says that's how they've always built them.
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>>51739365
>What kind of quirks would make a town memorable?
I'm far from a brilliant worldbuilder, but I usually start by asking myself questions about each town I create.

>1. Why is the town there?
In a pre-modern setting you don't just plop a city down because there was space left. There's a very good reason why people bothered to collect in that very location. If there's a lot of arable land, then it's a farming city. It can sustain itself and perhaps stock up on reserves to trade for luxury goods. If it's near a mountain range with a lot of precious metals and diamonds, it's a mining town. Near the sea, it's a port city. Those attributes alone tell you a lot about the city: what kind of people live there? Are there a lot of foreigners (like in a port city or a city near the frontier) or is it a closely knit community where foreigners ae considers suspicious (an inland farming village)? Is it rich or poor? How is the average peasant doing (in a prosperous farming community or a port city with a lot of fish even the poorest rarely go hungry, but it's possibly that a mining city is ruled with an iron fist and starved peasants literally work themselves to death to extract the wealth of the earth for their lord).

>2. Who rules the town?
Some cities are directly ruled by barons, some cities grew around a large monestary and some grew around military encampments. That already dictates a lot of the culture. A city which is ruled by a bishop will most likely take religion a lot more seriously, while one that grew around an army settlement will probably be a lot more nonchalant about such things as prostitution and heavy drinking. That already dictates a lot of the culture.

Those things you mentioned are good, but if I can give my opinion I think you're looking at the situation backwards. You come up with a culture and try to build the city up from there. It makes a lot more sense to first think out how/why the city is, and construct the culture from there on out.
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>>51743041
To elaborate on that last point (I ran out of space) the kind of city we're dealing with even influences language to a degree. A port city will have a lot more naval proverbs (there's more fish in the sea, putting the wind in yoour sails etc.) which a mining city won't use, and a mining city will probably have a lot more sayings related to mining and mountains (being able to move mountains, you're the salt of the earth etc.). It also dictates a lot of religious practices: an inland farming community doesn't spend a lot of time worshipping a sea god for example, but a rain god is highly respected. It can probably even influence certain gestures (just to name a fictional example, imagine someone pantomining throwing out a line. In a certain port city it might mean something like "he's a real go-getter, he goes for what he wants").

And to go back to the prudish monestary-city vs the roudy fortress-city, I can imagine this discrepancy in public mores would lead to a lot of smuggling. A very no-fun-allowed priest might ban alcohol, which leads to smugglers from a fortress-village earning big bucks with smuggling alcohol to that community. This in turn can lead to conflict and before you know it the fortress-village is filled with priest haters. And then you get proverbs and gestures relating to priests (for example, if someone suddenly starts acting really moralistic/authoritarian in that village, others might respond with "I think your mitre is on a bit too tight").
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>>51739579
Probably just suckin on some frozen brain.. dildo? That's some wizardry
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>>51739365
Things that have been in games I've played or GM'ed in
>The town has a ridiculously high number of chickens wandering its streets, and each belonging to someone nearby. Should one be kicked, an owner will run out of nowhere to scold the player no matter where or when this happens.
>The city has a reptile district, loaded with filthy lizardmen that have made adjustments to the city's sewers to empty there to keep things moist.
>There is an ongoing and highly talked about scam involving a ""barbarian" "princess"" with "dowry" seeking a "husband"
>Three words: Kobold Construction Crew
>The city has a tax collector agency that seem to know, by instinct, when taxable income is made, how much is owed and exactly when it is due. Though their tax rates are fare and they aren't evil, the entire city lives in fear of them for unspecified reasons. They will show up to get their taxes no matter where you go. Even if it's in the middle of the BBEG's monologue.
>the town is slowly being converted into a flying city by the king and a team of wizards. Half the town are very upset at this and have slowed progress down. Only half the city is flying at this time.
>The town is being pestered by a silver dragon that keeps sneaking into town to get the womenfolk pregnant. He's tricky and uses wigs and disguises. He may also be the mayor. Because of this, the town has an unusually high half-dragon population
>The town has two bitterly competing inns offering lower prices, better deals and shenanigan work against the other.
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>>51739365
theyre some kind of isolated community that still speaks some old language
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>>51739365
>>51739452
Thread posts: 11
Thread images: 3


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