Article:  Making Communities and Towns, A Concept
By Dahak, March 2, 2005

Chances are that your scenario contains towns. Chances are that these towns are 
related.  Chances are you carefully thought out the what's, why's, and how's of 
your community.  Am I right?  If I'm wrong, then you need to do so.

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What is a town?
A town is collection of buildings where people live, work, play, and MOST
 importantly, interact.

How do I make towns?
1) How big is your town?  Towns fall into many categories.  Most towns can be 
divided by size.  This is NOT the L/M/S size given in the BoA editor.  These are 
sizes based on the number of people.  Towns can be divided into these sizes:

   -Village    (1 - 100)
   -Small Town (100 - 1000)
   -Large Town (1000 - 5000)
   -Small City (5000 - 25,000)
   -Large City (25,000 - 100,000)
   -Metropolis (100,000+)

It is important to realize that these are GUIDELINES.  They are not set in stone.  
In a low population world, the resident might call 5000 people a "Large City". In 
extremely crowded lands, the "Small City" of just a piddling 20,000 people may be 
a "Small Town".  It all depends on the setting.  I came up with these numbers as a 
rough overall. 

2) Now that you have picked a size, say WHY it exists.  You may wonder at why this 
isn't step 1, but bear with me.  As I said earlier, a town is a collection of 
buildings where people live, work, play, and interact.  I hope this isn't needed, 
but you need to understand the why's of these four characteristics.
- People need a place to live.  If they do not have a place to live, then they 
wander from spot to spot and no town is formed.  However, even those nomads must 
have a place to spend the night.
- People need to work.  Work provides for the bare necessities and with extra 
work, people can afford luxuries.  Basic econ!  My teachers would love me. :)  
Towns are a natural center for people to work because extra work is traded to 
people for goods (things) and services (actions).  These people can easily be 
found in these congregations now made into towns.
- People need play (R&R).  People want to have free time.  If they do not have 
free time, then that time is spent working to stay alive or to afford luxuries.
- People need interaction.  Without interaction people are alone and lives only 
for themselves.

Now, after that digression we need to get back to the 'why'.  Why does the town 
exist?  People are there already.  They live, work, play, and interact.  The main 
reason a town exists is because the quality of life (how good or easy life is) is 
better than anywhere else, or because the opportunity to later afford great luxury 
exists.  People are greedy and that greed is what ties them together.
There are many things to attract people to an area and form a town.  These reasons 
are called centers. Some centers are:

   -Agricultural Center.  People grow and harvest things.  These do NOT need to be 
food.  A center for growing and harvesting medicinal plants in a special valley is 
an agricultural center.  An agricultural center is most important center in 
existence.  Without an agricultural center most people would be force to find food 
for themselves instead of buying it off others.

   -Harvesting Center.  A harvesting center is a temporary town.  It may last 
decades or even centuries, but when the items being harvested are gone, the town 
will become a ghost town.  This may be a mining camp, a lumber town, or even a 
hunting paradise.  The main difference between a Harvesting Center and an 
Agricultural Center is the fact that an Agricultural Center can replace what it 
uses up.

   -Trade Route Center.  People not only trade within towns, but they also trade 
between towns.  Some towns are VERY far away and the journey to deliver goods 
takes a long time.  The journey between is called a Trade Route.  Since these 
journeys take a while, the merchants carrying goods often stop at temporary camps 
along the way.  If enough merchants stop at a particular area, a Trade Town is 
setup.  These Trade Towns cater to merchants and offer goods and services that 
merchants may find useful.

The above three are the BASIC types of towns.  There are other types of towns, but 
I will cover them later.  It is important to note that the smaller towns are 
usually forced to be one type of center.  Bigger towns can have multiple types of 
one center and even many types of many centers.  What is why I said to pick town 
size FIRST.

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What is a community?
A community is collection of people who interact.  This is similar to a town.  
However, a town is the buildings.  A community is the people.  Communities can be 
within a town or between towns.  If you want to make a community within a town, 
you will not find it here.  If you wish to make a community of towns, read on.

Linking Towns:
A single town scenario is not much of a scenario unless the scenario is about that 
town.  A scenario can be successful that way, but most people want to be able to 
travel and visit many towns.  We will focus on the linking of many towns.  
Towns are linked together.  They are linked by common cultures, common goals, and 
trade.

-Linked by Trade
Trade is probably the biggest reason for towns to interact.  Trade carries the 
goods of one town to another town.  Say Town A is an Agricultural Center.  It 
grows Wheat.  Say Town B is a Harvesting Center.  It harvests Lumber.  Town C is 
an Agricultural Center.  It raises Beef.  If Town B is unable or unwilling to get 
its own food, then it must get food from someone else.  How does it get it?  It 
gets it from the nearest towns that can keep it supplied.  Note I said "towns" and 
not "town".  Not every town can produce enough for everyone, and not every town 
can produce everything.  If Town B wants Wheat and Beef, then it can get its Wheat 
from Town A, and it beef can be gotten from Town C.  If Town A provides enough 
Wheat and Beef and Town C did not, then Town B may get all its Wheat and Beef from 
Town A.  The process of giving the goods (Wheat and Beef) from Town A and/or Town 
C is called trade.  You now have towns linked by trade.  Congratulations.  Also 
note, that Trade is NOT limited to moving goods.  Services can be performed that 
link by trade.  It takes a great deal of time to travel for a service, so common 
services are local only.  However, uncommon services (i.e. Turning Lead to Gold) 
may cause people to travel and offer their services, or they may cause people to 
travel to them for those services.

-Linked by Culture
People may not want something from a nearby town.  What if Town A and Town B both 
grew Corn?  If Town A and Town B had enough corn for themselves, why would they 
get it from someone else?  However, Town A and Town B may be linked by culture.  
These towns have very similar ways of living.  This is culture.  Although they may 
not trade, they do talk (hopefully) and they do gossip.  Perhaps something is 
traded.  Perhaps that something is information.  Hm?

-Linked by Goals (Common Cause)
Unrelated People.  No Trade between.  Why should these towns interact?  What if 
something affected both towns?  What if both towns had to respond?  These towns 
are reacting to the same (common) cause.  An example:  Town A and Town B are 50 
miles apart.  A massive army threatens both.  If they do not stop the army, their 
countries may be overrun.  Both are linked by the desire to stop the enemy army.  
Thus they are linked by a common goal.  They may then work together to stop the 
enemy army until help arrives from their countries.  Each is separate, but for a 
common goal.

---

The above is what forms the core of your communities and towns.  By understanding 
what a town is for and how towns interact you may create a much more alive and 
realistic scenario.  You will not have cookie cutout towns, and you will not have 
a useless community.  Think, explore, and research your ideas.  Implement these 
ideas to create your scenario.

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Beyond the Basics, Advanced Centers

Early I listed three types of centers.  Agricultural, Harvesting, and Trade Route 
Centers form the basic core of a system.  However, there are outgrowths and 
specialized centers that arise from increasing resources.

Other types of centers are:
-Manufacturing Center.  It is through the existence of Manufacturing Centers that 
a community grows and flourishes.  The basic goods from Agricultural and 
Harvesting Centers are transferred to Manufacturing Centers. Manufacturing 
converts of one type of goods into another type of goods.  Take for example a 
Harvesting Center.  They mine iron and ship it to a Manufacturing Center.  This 
Manufacturing Center then takes the iron and converts it to nails, sheet metal, 
weapons, hammers, horseshoes, and any other iron good.  It is important to note 
the difference between Manufacturing and the Agricultural/Harvesting Centers.  
Manufacturing relies on these other two.  If there is no inflow of goods, then the 
Manufacturing Center must turn elsewhere.  Also, Agricultural and Harvesting 
Centers get their goods "unprocessed".  These goods exist in the raw form.  The 
third thing to think about is that every center is to some degree a Manufacturing 
Center.  With the ability to rapidly process goods and convert them to salable 
goods a center comes closer to being just a Manufacturing Center.

-Religious Center.  Religious centers are complicated.  I'm not quite sure how to 
express this.  A religion is a system of beliefs based on faith.  If there is 
proof and not faith, then it is science (I could be bashed for this, but 
whatever.)  Religious centers draw together people of the same or similar 
religions.  They practice their faith together and form a community.  Religious 
centers are rarely stand alone as a separate.  There have been religious centers 
that do so, but they are very powerful/wealthy, or they are government backed.  
Religious centers are also a powerful social force.  Religion is common thread 
between diverse people, and these centers are the knots tying the threads 
together.  Examples of Religious Centers are churches, temples, monasteries, et 
cetera.

-Political Center.  Political Centers are similarly complicated.  They can stand 
alone as a separate town, but it more common for political centers to be part of 
another major center.  Political centers are seats of power.  Those in charge or 
those who have heavy influence over the running of an organization group together 
to exchange ideas and policy.  When enough get together, a political centers is 
formed.  From this center, the politics spread out.  Imagine a spider's web.  The 
spider sits in the center of the web.  This spider is the politicians 
(bloodsuckers), and it web carries to it, and from it to the web the various 
vibrations, upheavals, and information.  This is a political center.

-Military Center.  Some centers have little to do with anything other than being a 
military center.  Military centers are designed to extend the reach of the 
military and its effectiveness.  These can be supply depots, forts, outposts, 
guard towers, castles, et cetera.  Anything designed to promote the military power 
is a military center.  Military centers usually promote their power with force or 
arms, but threats work as well.



Designing a Community, Practical.
Nice talk I gave, but is it worth anything?  Let us design a small BoA scenario.  
I don't mean to use the editor, but I do plan to layout how everything goes 
together.  I assume you have a scenario idea.  The scenario idea does not need to 
be dependent on what follows.  What follows could easily be adapted to many 
scenarios.

1)  Environment.  Before you design the community, you need a place where the 
scenario occurs.  This takes place in a Southwest to Northeast mountain pass.  The 
pass is fairly large, almost a plain in the mountains.  It has fertile soil, is 
somewhat cold year-round, and a major river flows from the north.  You have that 
picture?  Good.

2)  Centers.  There should be people right?  Let us decide on what centers.  Step 
through the document.  Step 1:  Get a population.  This a lightly populated.  1 
major city sits in the middle with small population scattered around.  The next 
two heavy populations are at the pass's end.  NW, and SE.  These are more lightly 
populated.  In between are small centers.  I have fertile soil, so maybe I have an 
Agricultural Center.  Hm.  I like wheat bread, and I just had a sandwich, so I 
will say that these centers grow wheat.  Wheat it is.  I want variety.  Are there 
any non-food stuff to grow?  What about the harvesting?  Anything?  Well....  
Maybe the tress just don't grow so well, but there is gold.  Lots of gold, silver, 
iron, and tin.  Many metals.  I need harvesting centers.  These will be mining 
camps.

3)  Step back.  We've added some centers.  Lets us link them before adding more.
-Ag Centers -> Wheat
-Harvesting Centers ->  Useful and Precious Metals

Links:  Internal Trade Route Centers, External Trade Route Centers.
Internal:  Wheat is ground into flour and shipped throughout the area.  Major town 
in center is the hub.   Wheat is ground near the farms, and shipped to the town.  
The town's merchants then distribute to non-Ag centers.  The metals are collected 
by independent miners.  I'll leave big businesses out of it.  Note a possible side 
mission of claim-jumping.  Metals are assessed and sold to businesses, businesses 
sell to locals, include blacksmiths, silversmiths, goldsmiths.

External:  Maybe a nearby area (outside scenario) has lousy soil.  Set up a small 
area for merchants to stop over as they cross borders.  Note: Add border post.  
Hm.  Maybe the metal trade is too small except for the silver and gold.  Gold and 
silver are taxed by local gov't, but a brisk trade exists.  Maybe most trade is 
down south.  Setup a town near the south, add a border post.

4)  Review centers:
Ag - Wheat
Harvest - Iron, Tin, Silver, Gold
Trade - 2, one at each end of pass. Sells raw and finished goods.
Manufacture - Big city in center.  Process wheat, tin, silver, gold.  Excess is 
sold off to neighboring areas.  See Trade Route Center above.
Religious - Hm.  None yet.  Add only local small centers.  None major.
Political - Big city.  Filled with officials, and rich merchants.  Add big 
businesses (combines?) to the mix.
Military - Surround on two sides, mountains to the other 2 sides.  Add border 
posts at open ends.  Maybe a small fort for border post.  Add an HQ at big city.

5)  Sketch on paper.
*****************************************************       *******  North
*                                                 Exit ->         *   
*                                               Border Post       *   
*                                                Small TRC        *
*                          Farms----\               /             *
*                                    \             /              *
*                                    /------------/-----|         *
*                                   /            /      |         *
*                        /---------/            /       |         *
*                       /         /            /        |         *
*                      /         /            /       Farms       *
*           Farms-----/          |           /                    *
*                     \          |          /                     *
*                      \         |         /                      *
*                       \        |        /                       *
*                        \       |       /                        *
*                         \      |      /                         *
*                          \-Big City--/----------                *
*                                /      \         \               *
*                               /         \         \             *
*                              /           \        Mines         *
*                             /             \        \            *
*                            /              Mines-----\           *
*                           /                          \          *
*                          /                            \Mines    *
*                         /                                       *
*                        /                                        *
*                       /                                         *
*                      /                                          *
*              Small TRC                                          *
*             Border Post                                         *
*          <- Exit                                                *
********      *****************************************************

Okay.  This isn't paper.  Oh well.  Simple 2x2 outdoors.  Maybe 3x3.  Easy to 
modify and adapt, but a basic core exists.  Took me 20 minutes from step 1 to 
finish.  Too little time for a proper design, but you are supposed to make it fit 
the scenario.  Flesh it out, add details, and make it interesting.

Maybe the southern town sees more trade, so upgrade it. Make a little brother or 
sister to the big city.  Of course, from what we have, this seems rather ho-hum, 
but that is what the scenario plot is designed to do.  To add life.