In 5e there is almost nothing devoted to this, the renown system is the closest we get, and, to be honest, it doesn't make sense. If you do something to gain power with the faction of law and order, how does that not (generally at least) affect your standing with the faction of criminals?
Also, when you're thinking about a settlement, be that a hamlet, or the capital, what keeps it alive? What makes it tick? If you can start to answer that, you can start to make your settlements feel alive.
This isn't going to descend into economics, that really doesn't work for me, although if it is your cup of tea, go for it.
My academic background is as a biomedical scientist, and then as a microbiologist, so I tend to think of hamlets, villages, towns and cities as broadly analogous to living things. I'm not going to deep dive here either (although personally I often do, if it's a campaign setting that's going to last for a long time) but if you think about what your body does it's got some core functions:
- Eating and drinking
- Converting food and drink into fuel and waste
- Heart beat and blood circulation
- Movement
- Sensory stuff
- Feedback and Regulation
- Other stuff
Now, you might be thinking to yourself "But, Hecate, cities don't move" and that's (usually) true, but movement here stands in for a couple of things to think about.
Working through this list in order, how does it relate to a city?
Cities Eat and Drink
Ok, they don't directly, but the consume resources. A city needs food and water for its residents, but it also needs building supplies, clothes, metal (raw and worked), and probably other things. A lot of cities have temples, barracks and the like, and don't necessarily train soldiers, clerics, wizards etc. so it needs to have a supply of those. If it has cavalry, does it have its own horses?
You don't necessarily have to answer all of these questions straight away, but if you have an idea of the big imports to the city it's a good starting point (and it's different to the normal starting point, which we'll come to later on). You might actually start with the idea that "this is a mining town" the normal point, but what does a mining town need to be able to survive?
Cities Convert Inputs to "Fuel" and waste
Why does the city import these things? What does it do with them? And, for everything that comes in (and for all the people living there) there is waste. What does the city do about that?
Fantasy cities almost never think about that, beyond the heroes occasionally sneaking through the sewers, but it is important and adds colour to your cities.
Cities have a Heartbeat and a Circulation
This may feel like two different things, and in some cities it probably should be. But because I use the body as a model, I think of them together. Sometimes analogies don't work all that well.
A heartbeat for a city is the sound of it, or sometimes the feel of it. I've never been to New Orleans, but the things that evoke the feel for me, is slow jazz, the smell of rum, and heat. I have been to Paris, and the smell of coffee and cigarettes, fast, angry French and accordion music on the metro bring that back. I never lived in Cardiff, but mostly visited for the rugby, so Delilah and Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, the feel and sound of the crowd and the high of victory over the English are the feelings for Cardiff. The anticipation before the match, the joy (and sometimes the anguish) after it.
The circulation is a bit different. This is literally how you get around. I'd suggest looking at maps of places like York, Salisbury, Exeter, Marseille etc. if you want Eurocentric cities, old maps of Shanghai, Beijing, Tokyo etc. for China and Japan, and so on. Look at how people really built cities and, if you come from somewhere that has a grid-pattern, note how that really wasn't how old cities were built!
But Cities Don't Move!
Granted. But movement here is, as mentioned above, a stand-in for two things.
First, movement is about stretching out to interact with the outside world. How does your city do that? Roads, rivers (and later canals) were a huge factor for bulk transport, just as the sea is now.
Second it's about influencing the outside world. Technically speaking, exerting force on the outside world. If you pick up that cup and move it over there, you do work, and you exert force on the cup. In city terms though, exerting force is usually military might. Is your city purely defensive or can it put an army out to aggressively interact out there?
Sensory Stuff
How does the city know what's going on? Remember that the body doesn't just use the classic five senses. We have many more than that. Don't believe me? Close your eyes. Make a fist with either hand. Extend your index finger (your pointer finger). Now put it across your lips like you're a librarian saying "Shhh." Easy isn't it? You can do that because your body has things called proprioceptors that let you know the position of everything and you can (most people can at least) guide their body around, relative to itself, without any problem. You might not be able to navigate around your bedroom from memory, but you know where your body parts are relative to each other.
So, how does your city know what is going on elsewhere in the world? How does it know what's going on within it's own walls?
Feedback and Regulation
Your body regulates itself, your probably familiar with the idea we keep a pretty constant body temperature regardless of the outside temperature, unlike lizards for example. But we do other things. If you've come across diabetes and insulin you may be aware that it is about regulating your blood glucose levels. Specifically. it reduces blood glucose by promoting a range of cells to absorb it and make either glycogen or fat. Most people are not aware there's an opposing hormone, called glucagon, that raises blood glucose by breaking down glycogen and releasing glucose. If these are both working properly, you keep your blood glucose within very tight limits and your body functions happily.
This kind of double regulation and/or negative feedback loops are common throughout the body.
How does that relate to a city?
Cities have checks and balances too. Some are overt. Some work well. Some are covert. Some are less functional. The class system, assuming you have one, is normally overt - you can easily tell the nobles from the artisans from the peasants. The legal system is usually uneven and not wholly functional - people get away with crimes and, just like today, the "police" will wrap up a crime with the wrong person just to say it's been done. But the law of supply and demand functions regardless. If the party clears out an iron mine and the supply of iron ore improves, then the price of iron will fall. Probably that has a knock-on to iron goods and might attract people that work in metals too....
Other Stuff
There is a lot of other stuff the body does. Most of it doesn't necessarily translate well, or simply but you can imagine it and work it in if you want.
Using other models
I use this one, just because it works for me. There is absolutely nothing wrong with working out a different system if it works for you, but try to make a checklist to make your city more than "this is a mining town' and leaving it flat.
How does this affect factions and politics?
Once you know what your city is like, you can think about what the flows of power in it (which is often, but not always the same as the flow of money) are like.
For each point of power, who has the power (it might be an individual - usually a noble in that case, or an organisation) and why? Who wants to replace them? Why? Who is opposed to them? Why? Are their opponents organised and allied, or are they also enemies?
You can go through this and draw up a web of allegiances, opposition and so on, power flows and money flows. This can be through individuals and groups.
And then your politics can come alive.
Lets, very quickly imagine a small mining town. Baroness Claire is in charge, and her power is upheld by the military. She served in the military and is a war hero, so she's strongly supported there.
The town basically splits between the farmers, who raise horses, cattle and farm a variety of crops. They're split because the horse farmers despise the rest, they're yeomen - freeholders who own their land. The crop and cattle farmers are all serfs, basically one step above slaves, mostly serfs of Baroness Claire but a few are indentured to the mining company directly. The other major player is council of miners. There are five mines, each owned by a different company, and they have a council, the leader of whom presents their issues to the Baroness. There is always friction between the miners from different companies, and there is no militia, the army maintains law and order - it's harsh but pretty much unbiased. They just pile in to the fights and bash everyone, arrest them all and don't care if they kill a few.
There is, inevitably, a small criminal element. They run brothels, gambling dens and there are some thieves and the like. The army suck at cracking down on this, but it hasn't really hit anything serious yet.
There's a road and a river, the ore is shipped out, there isn't a coal seam otherwise they'd refine it here and ship out the iron.
News comes fairly regularly, the road is patrolled and troops rotate through, this is regarded as light duty, so squads come in and leave most weeks, bringing news from all over the kingdom.
There are factions from all five mining companies, the horse breeders and although it's not obvious to outsiders there is a single thieves' guild. There is also the Baroness' faction. Advancing in favour for any one mining company causes a small loss in status for the other four. Advancing in status for the Baroness causes a loss for ALL the mining companies and the thieves. Advancing for the thieves causes a loss for the horse breeders and vice versa. And so on.
Even without filling in the details, you've suddenly got a picture of who knows about whom and who is working for and against whom. And you can't magically become beloved of all the factions.
Even on a small scale, if you beat down a shopkeeper so he has to scrimp on what he buys for dinner... (he really does have a couple of hungry kids back home) then the food merchant doesn't make as much so she doesn't buy a new shawl, the shawl maker doesn't repair her house, the builder doesn't feed their children and so on... little social rolls make a difference.
How does this roll into 6e
This needs to be sorted out into formal structure and rules guidelines. It's not there yet. This is much more my process than a formal rule structure. But hopefully the outlines of the idea show through, enough that with my hypothetical team it could be converted into rules and a DMG section.
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