Question 1:
I was looking for some sort of city sheet print out, like a character sheet, but for cities for me to use for my own campaign and I can't find anything. I have the Ultimate Campaign book, but that has stuff about players making their own (which is something we see ourselves doing at some point.) but I just want something to use so I don't miss any details. So I can list rumors and notable NPCs etc without making a mess of it, not the hand writing. I've been trying to find stuff online, but no such luck.
Question 2:
I have the Inner Sea World guide and that doesn't really have stat blocks for any of the cities or towns, just some descriptions (with population and alignment), is that so the GM can make the city his own way but with stuff like the population, alignment and Government, languages etc sorted? Or am I missing another book that has all the information on the towns and cities. I got the Towns of the inner sea, but that only has six towns in it... My fault for not looking into it. But I like what that little book has in regards to what a town should look like on paper, so for reference material, it's great.
I know it's a big question, I've only been at this RPG thing for a year, so any help is appreciated.
EDIT: I just had a friend inform me that what I was looking for was a settlement sheet, not a city sheet, so question 1 has been answered :D
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Got some links for you:
And if you want to see how it all ties together:
My work in tying it all together
You might want to read this last one first THEN go back to the above links. It'll keep your head from swimming in the minutiae of rules if you have an idea of where the endgame is.
Snip.
Thanks, lots of useful information there :D
Do you have any idea on the cities of the Inner Sea World Guide? Or is what's in there just made to inspire us to use to make those cities?
Obvious product placement is obvious.
Several others are spread across the adventure paths and various other books. I don't think anyone has put together a settlement sheet list yet for Golarion due to intellectual property rights, or at minimum because we are lazy folk and no one has thought to do it yet.
Was hoping for a collection of cities, not another (and many more) small books with 6. I suppose nothing stops me from making their stat blocks for my own campaign though :) Since the descriptors lead to what they are like.
For your responses, this fairly new GM thanks you :D
That doesn't sound like a bad idea, I'm heading into town to see a movie, will stop by an info center and grab a few.
Question is, what do you really need out of a city, to make it more useful and fun in the game.
IMHO, what you need are NPCs with colorful descriptions, shops and their inventory, inns and their patrons, rumors and story hooks.
Something like this: http://donjon.bin.sh/pathfinder/inn/
Location: On Lower Sword Arcade, north of the Merchant's Gate. The street outside is strewn with debris from an overturned cart.
Description
The inn is a two-storey timber and brick building, with a small fenced yard and unusually high ceilings. Accomodations consist of several small rooms with wooden cots and a mezzanine with several wooden cots. The inn has recently become infested by rats.
Innkeeper
The innkeeper is a heavyset female human named Audreyn Awer.
Menu
Dried Shellfish and Sharp Cheese, Tankard of Ale (9 cp)
Roasted Mutton and Lentils, Tankard of Bitter (12 cp)
Vegetable Stew, Mug of Bitter (2 cp)
Boiled Veal and Beetroot, Tankard of Ale (9 cp)
Stewed Mutton and Dried Peas, Tankard of Mead (9 cp)
Patrons
Abar: Female Dwarf Sorcerer, LN. Str 11, Dex 11, Con 16, Int 9, Wis 10, Cha 18. Abar has a long face, with brown hair and brown eyes. She wears white robes and wields a club and dagger. Abar is searching for her lost sister.
Gauwis Moore: Male Half-elf Fighter, LN. Str 14, Dex 11, Con 9, Int 10, Wis 5, Cha 9. Gauwis has short golden hair and gray eyes. He wears half-plate armor and wields a rapier and longbow. Gauwis seeks to free himself from an ancient curse.
Annel: Female Half-elf Sorcerer, N. Str 13, Dex 10, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 10, Cha 17. Annel has short golden hair and brown eyes. She is ambitious and abusive. Annel seeks a party to steal a powerful arcane device from a rival.
Robern: Male Human Summoner, N. Str 9, Dex 15, Con 11, Int 11, Wis 14, Cha 18. Robern is common in appearance, with red hair and amber eyes. He wears leather armor and wields a morningstar and spiked gauntlet. Robern seeks a party to rescue his companions from the Halls of the Vampire Emperor.
Kadu: Female Dwarf Fighter, NG. Str 13, Dex 11, Con 8, Int 11, Wis 10, Cha 11. Kadu has black hair and hazel eyes. She wears full plate armor and wields a rapier and heavy wooden shield. Kadu speaks with a mousy voice.
Rumors
A caravan of merchants has stumbled upon the secret temple of an ancient cult in the Trollmarch
The town magistrate is dying of an incurable affliction
A star has fallen into the Venomous Heath
The legendary hero Eryet is held imprisoned within the Secret Caverns of Souls, bound by chains of magical jade
This is a great resource, and a half hour on this site, cut and pasted into Word and reformatted for printing, you've got an excellent city right there.
Another great resource for all kinds of generators is Abulafia. It takes a bit more time and effort than donjon so plan on spending an hour there instead. In the end though you'll have a lot of fluff towards building up your city if you like.
Personally I just make all mine up. I copy and paste a stat block from PFSRD into a word doc, then I just swap out names/stats for my settlement. Also I grab the hard copy of the GMG, a few dice, and randomly roll the settlement.
For alignment for example I roll 1d3 for each component:
1-2 = Good, 3-4 = Neutral, 5-6 = evil
1-2 = Lawful, 3-4 = Neutral, 5-6 = Chaotic
Randomizing, pulling fluff from random generators and tinkering a bit with the final result usually takes me about an hour's work to come up with a fully fleshed out stat block, hooks to the surrounding region and even more plot points in the settlement to keep the PCs busy.
Applying this to any of the cities of Golarion will likely take as long; you have an easier idea of the framework you're shooting for but you'll have a longer time making decisions that fit exactly the flavor of the text you're working from.
There was a 3.5 book called Cityscape that was all about buidling large cities. The focus was on truely massive metropolis sized cities, like Waterdeep or Sharn, and they provided a method of buidling the city by using multiple districts that each had there own character and flavor. If you can find a copy of that, it has some good ideas that you can work off of.
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I don't usually bother with details like shop inventory. If players are looking for a particular item, I'll just roll a random chance based on how unusual the requested item is, and how big the city is.
I think it's more important to focus on painting a general picture of the city, of its mood and character, than to have lots of detailed statistics.
Snip.
The one thing I don't understand with the random shop generator is that it has items that cost more then the base value of the town/city appearing, can you do that?
This is all great stuff guys!
I'm pretty sure there is a blank copy of a settlement seatback in the GM's guide
I'm pretty sure there is a blank copy of a settlement seatback in the GM's guide
Yeah, had a friend point that out to me after I posted XD I have that book too, so it was embarrassing...
Was hoping for a collection of cities, not another (and many more) small books with 6. I suppose nothing stops me from making their stat blocks for my own campaign though :) Since the descriptors lead to what they are like.
For your responses, this fairly new GM thanks you :D
You know I just might have one last gem for you:
Pathfinderwiki, Geography has the regions listed and might have some information on various cities.
I am not certain of that though.
Certainly has more of what I was after, thank you! You spoil me.