Town Services

What are types of services and vendors that a wealthy city of around the size of pic related have, aside from the standard of

>tavern
>smiths
>alchemists
>church(es)
>stable
>general store

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brothels.im/?
welshpiper.com/medieval-demographics-online/
donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/demographics/
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Really depends on the function of the city...

Depending on how developed the harbour is and how connected it is with the rest of the world, perhaps some kind of late medieval bank (managed by whatever race can replace Jewish moneylenders backed by Italian powah) and Amsterdam-like market.

A city hall is also always nice for your average citizen, even back in medieval times. Maybe a collection of guilds that regulate the production of weaponry and allows individuals to train to become a specific occupation. A town militia training ground perhaps?

Oh, and what my übernerd WoW past taught me: Always have ferry connections to the rest of the planet.

>Production of weaponry
I meant products, I was already thinking about the possibility of a town militia training ground before I finished the guilds suggestion.

>function of the city...

Let's say it is strategically close to a conflict border region, so it would stand to reason that it has barracks, recruiters, and probably a fair share of bounty hunters.

A town hall is a given, yes.

Cities in fantasy settings that are close to conflict areas / contested borders / borders with other countries and races generally have an agency of another race or country that works within that city openly, such as the dwarf merchants and mining clans that have a community in Warhammer Fantasy's city of Grenzstadt.

They can otherwise be the location of military orders, especially if its a fully fantasy city close to an area inhabited by for example undead, which could attract a religious military order (think like the Knights of Morr in Warhammer Fantasy).

These cities can often boast big seasonal markets from several races/countries during peacetime, although the biggest economic service you could find is most likely a place to change between currency, because it is way too dangerous to put too much economic importance in one city unless it is a city-state that manages to maintain an uneasy peace.

When it comes to vendors and services, you will probably often find some that would offer services handy for off-duty soldiers, adventurers, merchants and travellers. Again, the exception would be a city-state.

some kind of art gallery or Bohemian Quarter where creatives can fluff the nobility

>cobbler
>tailor
>hatter
>bank/moneylenders
>carpenters
>glass shop
>imports
>drunk food

I recognize this map from brothels.im/?

...

Out of context, but does anyone know where I can give more maps like these? This is BEAUTIFUL

Perhaps a school or college of some sort?
Also there'd have to be a doctor/medic/healer.
Town brothel.

depending on the campaign, setting, etc

>brothels
>potters
>carpenters
>tailors
>cobblers
>rat catchers
>tanners/leather workers
>bakers
>brewers
>shit shovelers
(don't know the exact name but basically guys with wheel barrows and shovels following horses and selling the droppings to the tanners. historically speaking dung was used in the tanning process)
>soap makers (although that might tie in with alchemists)
>millers

that's all I can think of off the bat

Jumping on the bandwagon to ask the same question... the DM has implied we will need our party's settlement to be drawn out for a potential siege in the future. This is the tentative map I drew.

Also, it's called Dawson's creek because my character (the de-facto leader of the party) is named Dawson... don't judge me.

the fort(?) on the left side of the creek intersection will need serious fortifying in its foundations to prevent them from being literally washed away, especially during flood season.

also the possibility of the enemy damming the river upstream, to deny the settlement water as well as potentially make a clear channel for entry- unless the pond near the top of the pic is an additional water source the flows into it?

When I drew the map I assumed that the water would be coming from both the left side and the top (2 sources converging and moving to the right).

I never thought about that though, a besieging force could damn up one side and either deny water to the city or create an opening beneath the gate.

>WoW
>übernerd

...

water towers at the highest elevation in the town will make sure you have a surplus of water in case of enemies damming the river on the right and in times of drought.

as for enemies possibly using the river as an entry during a siege have a portcullis(?) that goes down into the riverbed.

Warehouses
Masons

Depending on the age, and how much magic and what races live there, might be some divers that do salvage work when a ship inevitably sinks.

Also, if it's not explicitly the purview of the nobility or the church, there might be a courthouse. And lawyers. Where there are trade and contracts, there are always lawyers.

or, alternately, plug the outgoing side and let your settlement flood.

idea: divert the water that comes from the north into water towers/ aquaduct/resevoir tanks. the are where the streams meet is best for this. Divert the river upstream of the settlement to then go around the exterior wall to the south, and close the gaps in the walls. You still have fresh water inside the walls, and can effectively make a moat which will deter attackers.

Stop giving my DM ideas

Learn how towns develop user. it's almost always trade.

It has a fairly well sheltered harbor, that looks like it could be protected by a dock chain. It has some warehouses on the docks and it looks like it could support a small fishing fleet.

It's a walled 'city', but it unfortunately only has two gates to enter it and both on the same side (near the castle too). It does have a castle so that's good (workshops, castle forged steel, nobles which = men at arms and town watch).

The surrounding area looks incredibly hilly, so I'm not sure what the local agriculture is like. Because there's a port it almost assuredly has some important merchants with access to ships (so trade will be a thing, which also means important services).

The streets are laid out somewhat poorly, which isn't good, no main avenues or throughfares that allow land based traders to access merchant guilds within the city easily... which implies that it may have been sieged or had a fire or something that lead to a rebuilding (that fucked up traffic flow). Supply chain flow of goods doesn't necessarily look great here either.

There's a high spot of town that looks like it might be suited to rich people with a nearby market.

>High quality goods
>stables
>inns
>brothels (for soldiers and sailors)
>several marketplaces of varying affluence
>No building 'screams' church to me.
>Castle forged steel, alongside architects and workshops
>probably does most of its trade by sea, which means relatively high but concentrated wealth
>Shipyards as the noble is probably responsible for a costal fleet.
>alchemists and foreigners - ideas from other places flow here, but it's not *as* important as much larger / freer flowing cities with better land routes.
>Some form of lesser nobility / mayor that runs the city directly
>trade guilds.

It's probably not a "border" town (because those are stupid), but it may be an important part of a kingdoms 'coastal defense'.

I only skimmed the thread briefly, but I didn't see a taxi service mentioned. Not horse-drawn chariots, but just passenger carts pulled by people. Probably based around the raised section of the city that looks upper-class.

Other things that seem likely are theater and fighting pits. I imagine the theater in one of the town square areas, and the fighting pits by the docks.

Money laundering for international corporations.

That is the City of London, yes?

> WoW general up at all times on Veeky Forums

Well, /v/ and derivatives are pretty shit I guess. Lifeboat Veeky Forums, sailing the waters with a slightly less shitty user-base. And Quest Threads.

OP, go outside and look around your city. Pretty much all that shit has always been there in one form or another except for internet cafes.

Even industrial areas w/ tanneries and paper mills and shit.

Just remove the electricity and pretend OSHA doesn't exist and you're good.

Don't forget that it's illegal to be poor in some areas. I mean, that's also still the same but you might not have been exposed to it.

>That puny little town with like 70 buildings tops
>City

Cities are a lot bigger than that OP.

70 is way too low. I guesstimate about 450, not counting the warehouses along the docks or the tiny buildings that might be sheds/stalls, except along the waterfront because those are probably fishermen's huts and they usually live in those.

Depending on what kind of time period we're talking here ~450 buildings is either a very small city or a medium to largish town.

This also depends on what we're using to distinguish as the difference between a city and a town. While settlements called cities were generally larger than settlements called towns, the difference was often based on administrative organization, agreements with other powers, or laws rather than raw population density.

Dunno the source on the map, but you should check out the Cartographer's Guild.

Fantasy demographic generator, with a lot of focus on trades and services for a given population. It's idealised and averaged so a bit of common sense is needed to interpet the result but it is quite useful.

welshpiper.com/medieval-demographics-online/

There is a pdf that goes with it explaining what it all means and how to use it.

Town" by Lisa Steel, is also a great resource to help breath life into a settlement beyond the raw data given by a generator.

>It's probably not a "border" town (because those are stupid)
Someone elaborate, please.

Pretty sure castle-forged steel is a ASoIaF/GoT invention. The best actual medieval steel tended to come from towns and cities that specialised in metalwork and had a large cluster of smelters, smiths and artisans who exported both metal bars and finished products internationally. Toledo and Solingen are probably the most famous medieval examples, and Noricum served a similar rol in the Iron Age. Aside from the concentration of specialists, these centres could also import the best ores to use and one leading theory about the explosion of international trade in Frankish weapons in the 10thC is the restoration of trade routes feeding high quality iron ore to the Rhineland furnaces.

A city would probably have better access to good steel than a rural blacksmith using locally sourced bog iron but the term castle-forged is made up and doesn't have any real historical use.

I DON'T WANNA WAIT

FOR MY LIFE

TO BE OVER

>I have no fucking clue how small pre-modern cities were
user, a large city could take less than a square kilometer.
A fucking capital of large and populous country could easily fit within 5 square km.
Just take any map of any European city, find the district called "Old Town" and measure it. Chances are - it won't go beyond 2 square km for some super-important historical city.

Try this:
donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/demographics/

It's FAAAR from perfect, but gives you a broad idea of what kind of services should be included in general.

>Village population
>Counted in hundreds
Who the fuck did this generator?!

My city was an important trade and mining hub even before being granted town privileges (which happend as late as in 1254). At the point of the privileges being issued, it had an astonishing population of 1377 people. It was a full blown city, taking space of 1.2 km2, with two churches (and five chapels), rathaus, town square with weight and grand total of 82 buildings within the city limits. When walls were finished, the city had 91 buildings inside of them.

So yeah, user, this is most definitely a city on the picture. Fucking Lübeck was located on a tiny isle below 3 km2 and it was considered one of the largest Baltic cities