Location. On Seminster Street, in a temple quarter of sprawling monasteries and learned clerics. It stands next to the Cloister of the Empyrean Lords.
A guide to random tools for fantasy cities and towns with sections for entire cities, details, pdfs and maps.
Fantasy Tools - main | chars | city | dungeon | hinterlands | otherworldly | sea | wilds
[Image from Here Be Taverns. Text from donjon]
Disclaimer. I'm an affiliate for DM's Guild and DriveThru RPG and I also create a lot of products with random tables on DM's Guild.
Starting Points
city tools | pdfs | city details | maps
Fantasy Cities can look quite different, from typical Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate on the Sword Coast, to the sprawl of Ravnica on an entire world. From the spires of the island of Tar Valon to the ever-shifting fashions of Ankh-Morpork.
For some adventurers the city is a place to relax, resupply and network. To others it is the heart of their adventures.
Temple politics, gang wars, dangers in the sewers, disappearances in the slums, fires in the noble quarter and whispers in the backstreets...
Related Guides include taverns section of fantasy guide. And Guide to Titles for Fantasy Cities and a City Maps Guide.
City Tools
city tools | pdfs | city details | maps
Draelesh - A town situated right on the barrier to the ethereal plane. The townsfolk live alongside spirits like neighbors and see them much in the same way common folk see stray cats. Many of them also have an understanding of divination and history not seen outside of universities due to their extensive experience with spirits.
From the 100 Unique Towns/Village at DnD Speak.
Over at OMGM is a City Generator with all the necessary details but not an overload of it. There are history events, hooks and numbers of buildings. It is accompanied by an Inn Generator and Shop Generator for more options. All of the tools have a settings section above the title.
Another City Generator is at Dungeon Masters Vault with a small map and masses of information, including job postings, people, locales, events and culture.
On github Praxxian has a Fantasy City Generator with detailed lists of peoples, businesses and inventories.
For all of your Town needs you can go to Eigengrau's Essential Establishment Generator which creates buildings, npcs, plothooks and far more around a single City. Everything is linked and editable.
For several cities at once Donjon has a Town and Cities generator with filters for culture, size and race.
Random PDFs
city tools | pdfs | city details | maps
The Fantasy City - Random Generator Collection from Black Falcon Games LLC includes 100 Fantasy City Rumors & Mysteries, plus 4 other d100 titles.
At the other end of the scale is 400+ pages of Spectacular Settlements from Nord Games with many chapters full of tables for building and detailing settlements. Sections include Trading Posts, Villages, Towns, Cities, Capitals and Fortresses.
From Never Engine is the Encounter Generator - Urban, Rough with tables for more dangerous parts of town. There is also a Safe version.
On DM's Guild there is 100 Non-Combat Random Encounters and Character Focused Random Events for the City which are both Pay What You Want.
City Details
city tools | pdfs | city details | maps
Athena's Olden Restoratives is run by an impatient battle-scarred woman who speaks too quickly. You can identify it because the shop is taller than any other building on the street, and has a greenhouse in the back. Among the customers there's a warrior in highly decorated armor. Overseeing you all is a silent human guard with an axe, ensuring there won't be any trouble.
from Potion Shop at Magical Gurll
For sections of the city Fantasy Name Generators has a City District Name generator such as "Craimp Cross" and "Venict Hill". It also has City Descriptions, House Descriptions and Monument Descriptions.
For groups of people Chaotic Shiny has a Crowd Generator with entries such as "The tanned, flirty man who is carrying a strange staff." and "The overweight, exuberant woman who is wearing an odd symbol". While you're there check out Medieval City for more details, the Bazaar Generator for market stalls and the Holiday Generator for spontaneous festivals.
At Dungeon Masters Vault you can hear Rumors around town
I've got City Rumours and Plot Hooks over at Chaos Gen. As well as City Street Events and Urban Encounters for D&D 5E.
For streets Kassoon has a City Street Generator with a text description and encounter.
For stranger shops springhole.net has a Magic Store and Shop Generator.
To give visual inspiration, Inkwell Ideas has Encounter Builder: City Scenes with 100 images to inspire.
Or for pickpockets, hobbit riddles and mundane loot try items in an NPC's pockets at Dnd Speak. Along with 100 Non-Combat Urban Encounters, 100 City Campaign Quest Hooks and 100 Thieves' Guild Quests.
City Maps
city tools | pdfs | city details | maps
The most well known map tool is Watabou's Medieval Fantasy City Generator which makes beautiful maps (like the one from the cover).
Another map generator is Donjon's Fantasy Town Generator which creates settlement maps of any size with a few details and npcs.
One of the most complete tools is Fantasy Town Generator which creates a map with neighbourhoods but also all of the citizens, and where each one is at any time of day!
For smaller scale maps Kassoon has House Maps with plans.
City Tool Recommendations
I'll come back and update the Guide so send me any recommendations for tools, tables and pdfs.
If you liked these there are Generators at Chaos Gen and a monthly random tools Newsletter. Or find us on the Rand Roll Discord or an instagram of Random Tables.
