If you plan to run an extended adventure—or even a whole campaign—in an urban environment, it’s important to put some time and effort into describing the details of your city.

Simple defences: stone city walls, ditches, mazes. Stretch chains across the river to slow or stop boats passing. Scuttle ships to create blocks in the channel. Clear the forest away from the walls to create a clear field of fire. Have all the buildings built with arcades fronting onto the street to disguise your troop movements and protect them from attacks from above.
Simple traps: spike pits, rope trips, garrotte wires, snares.

Simple non-magical fantasy defences: bundles of garlic, maybe even fields of garlic, lots of windows, holes and above ground areas for letting natural light through, moats with running water, lots of religious symbols, gargoyle statues, silvered traps, fire walls and pits to harm incorporeal undead slipping through walls. High towers and grid-like city streets to deliberately kick up wind to complicate flying. Areas with a heavy amount of undead and corpses to align the area into the negative energy plane and make healing and turning undead more difficult. Really tricky steps that are hard to walk over (especially for clumsy undead.)

More complicated non-magical fantasy defences: Layered natural and unnatural areas. Magic-users can cast spells to animated and control the natural environment. Invaders should be on dirty ground with plants so that they can be entangled and attacked by animated trees. Defenders should be on paved streets. Corpses should be burnt and mortuaries should be strictly regulated by the city to spread them out, prevent disease, build ups of negative energy and undead. Traps to flash flood areas with water.

Simple magical defences: plenty of holy water, holy-water moats to prevent incorporeal undead, portals to the positive energy plane. The city could have magical wards built into their walls, and important structures would be similarly treated - they might need to be activated (which means your alpha strike is to assassinate the court wizards), or they might be permanently on. Depending on the level of magic involved (and how much the ruler can spend), such wards may only stop physical attacks on the walls, or they may prevent movement across them (maybe limited to physical, possibly extending to ethereal/incorporeal), or possibly even dimensionally lock the city to prevent teleportation and planar travel, and the more things they stop, the more inconvenient they'd be to the normal life of the population of the city and the less likely they are to be always on.

For flyers, if they're perceived to be a threat, the larger cities would likely have their own (either their own or part of the countries organised military forces), and may also have defences, which could be things like ballistas and scorpions firing bolts, single medium sized stones, clusters of smaller stones or arrows, nets, and potentially things like barrage balloons, which may themselves have defensive weapons slung from gondolas, and nets and ropes strung between the tether cables to entangle flyers. Another option is anti-air defense towers spread throughout the city with overlapping fields of fire. On top of each tower there would be some type of light artillery - ballistas, catapults, or cannons if the setting has gunpowder. They would be light because a high rate of fire is more important than high damage in this situation. Stretch wires between tall towers to discourage flyers from diving into the city.

There's also the possibility of tunnellers - which would mean careful siting of the city in the first place to make it as difficult as possible (if you can), placing materials and structures that are either incredibly difficult to mine through or are impassable, counter mining, having trained tunnel fighters and so on.

Another one a high magic setting could do would be to make the city impossible to approach except through the gates. The whole city would be inside a pocket dimension with the only openings being the front and rear gates, with an illusion of the city placed over where the city should be. You could even put a trap city overlayed with the real city, so trying to break in you find a city of zombies and ghosts instead of the real one.

Another sewer-related problem - they always seem to get infested with monsters. How do these damn things all get into the city limits and into the sewers in the first place? I mean, things like trolls and otyughs down there? They're huge. Why has there been a dungeon under the city for 300 years without anyone noticing? Easy. The only access is in the sewers. In fact, the sewers empty into the dungeon, and the city has unknowingly been using its rivers of lava, nigh-infinite chasms, and other such pitfalls (hur hur sorry) to dispose of its waste products for centuries.
Why has there been a dungeon under the city for 300 years without any problems, but just last week the inhabitants appear to have declared war on the surface world and are raiding and murdering? Easy. One of them finally got around to taking a break from their unholy rituals to go out back and discover what the smell was, and found that the city's sewers had been emptying into their scenic lava garden.

Some fantasy cities all have sewers because dwarves were hired to build them, or because the cities were built on abandoned Dwarven cities. D&D underground cities dispose of poo by having Otyughs, which usually set up telepathic mutual agreements with the other monsters. Not to mention Gelatinous Cubes and Carrion Crawlers to scour the tunnels clean.

Lots of dirty people in one place= disease city. This is why sewers are a Good Thing, and not just to have convenient places for the hero to sneak into buildings from. They carry away the waste that otherwise might build up in the streets and make people sick. If you do the crazy thing I derided in point 1 and try to establish your city away from any water whatsoever, then no sewers for you! (I wonder what the people in the floating city do. Do they dump everything over the side? I can’t imagine that would make them very popular with the neighbors they’re passing over at the moment. “Gods damnit, they’re raining their shit on our heads again!”). But even if you have sewers, lots of people crowded together + dirty state of most fantasy cities + lack of advanced medical technology = a whole hell of a lot more plague and localized outbreaks, logically, than most cities seem to
suffer. You can use magic to make compromises, if you like. Perhaps the city government keeps a whole host of water-purifying mages on hand, just to make sure that people don’t get cholera. You can use it to show classism. Perhaps, if disease breaks out in the slums, the higher classes wall them up and leave people there to die in primitive quarantine.

The sewer's primary function is obviously to provide a sewerage disposal system for the city above, keeping the city clean and relatively free of serious diseases. It's secondary function is to serve as an underground transportation system, both for legal official city functions, and for, shall we say, the less publicized movement of goods, and people. Thirdly, the sewer acts as a base for the criminal factions which operate within the city above. In the darkness of the older sewer tunnels, thieves and criminals meet, hide, plan and scheme, whilst always on the look-out for the King's patrol of Sewer Guard. Often tunnels become blocked and water is retained within them, requiring either manual unblocking by human intervention or a great surge of water flowing through the tunnels, either caused by long periods of rain, a torrential downpour or storm, or again by human hands (lots of buckets and many willing volunteers). These blockages can be caused by natural debris and detritus, having washed down from street level (sticks, clothing, bones, man-made objects & general rubbish etc.), or by collapsed sections of older sewer tunnel. Occasionally, blockages can be caused on purpose (see the criminal factions for example) or be caused by a cadaver, not always human. The depth of water/muck varies from tunnel to tunnel and from time to time.

In a magical city you could have buses, boats and trains pulled by domesticated monsters. Or a magically electrified rail system for trains, transport stones, etc.

A district is roughly equivalent to a modern city block or a small neighbourhood. On average, a district represents about 500 people, though some districts (such as tenements) have a higher population density than others (such as noble estates). Because a district is so large, this system is unsuitable for use with smaller settlements. A district has its own population number, gp limit, assets, important NPCs, and character, or “feel.” It’s much easier for both the Game Master and the players to think about a metropolis made up of eighty districts than to contemplate a teeming population of 39,761 individuals. The city structure becomes even easier to deal with if you assume that wards or neighbourhoods are just clusters of identical districts. Thus, a metropolis might have a dozen wards: waterfront, noble’s villas, shantytowns, merchant’s quarter, temple quarter, and so on. As a starting point, use twenty districts for a small city, forty for a large city, and eighty for a metropolis. If you need to, you can always add more districts, but the total population number you get by doing that may bump your city up a size category.

Most cities are made up primarily of lower-class districts, simply because they have more lower-class residents than any other sort. An average small city (twenty districts) has two upper-class districts, six middle-class districts, and twelve lower-class districts. In larger cities, the upper class grows while the lower class shrinks in proportion. A typical large city (forty districts) has six upper-class, twelve middle-class, and twenty-two lower-class districts, while an average metropolis (eighty districts) has forty-two lower-class, twenty-four middle-class, and fourteen upper-class districts. One way to distinguish your city from others of similar size is to adjust how many districts of each social class are present. A particularly wealthy city might have more upper- and middle-class districts and fewer lower-class districts than normal, while a poor city would have the opposite ratio. A city heavily engaged in trade would have a larger middle class (and more middle-class districts) than one that is mostly isolated and self-sufficient. Generally, districts appear adjacent to others of the same social class, forming neighbourhoods that share a single social class. In some cases, a neighbourhood may include one or two districts whose social class is one step higher or lower than that of the other districts nearby. A neighbourhood typically consists of five to eight districts, and its total population ranges from 1,750 to 4,400. It is rare, but not unknown, for upper-class and lower-class districts or neighbourhoods to appear side by side. When such a situation does occur, some geographical or artificial feature, such as a small cliff, a river, or a wall, usually separates them from each other.

Merchants sell goods of any kind to the public. Examples include jewellery stores, furniture stores, weapon dealers, armour dealers, decorative items stores, clothing and book stores.
Entertainment includes anything that is fun and isn't drinking or sex. Examples include zoos, libraries, museums, art galleries, circuses, sporting arenas, dance halls, theatres, music halls, and even blood sports.
Guilds are organizations dedicated to promoting one particular kind of profession. Members get benefits by joining such as being able to visit any guild house in any city that is affiliated with the home guild, discounts on profession-related items, training, and even special treatment at sponsored shops/whatever in the city itself. Examples include Fighters and Mages guilds, Craftsmen and Sailors guilds and even Cartographer and Bardic guilds.
Inns/Taverns/Brothels (ITB) should be obvious. Use the same population-to-building ratio as we used in determining areas of housing to figure out how many of each of these places are in a city. Brothel, is of course, optional.
Craftsmen are exactly that. People who take raw goods and create finished goods. Examples are almost endless with Blacksmith, Carpenter, Bowyer, Fletcher, Armourer, Weapon Smith, White (or Gold) Smith, Perfumer, Glassmaker, Cooper, Joiner, Limner, Clockmaker, Shoemaker, Leather Smith, and Wainwright.
Government Buildings are both the housing for the nobles of the city, and the actual buildings where the government does its business. Examples include Palace, Courts, Asylum, Currency Exchange or Bank, School, Army Barracks or Stables, Freight Warehouses, Officer housing, Embassies and Public Execution areas like a gallows or guillotine.
Public Services are places where the public can get help from the government, usually, but some Religions or other groups could run these. Examples include Hospitals, Guide or Messenger Services, public wells, Records or Information buildings, public housing (like a hostel), soup kitchens, or other social services like Veteran's Care.
Security is anything directly related to keeping the city safe. These have some cross-over with Government buildings sometimes. Examples include Watchtowers, Gatehouses, Watch Barracks, Impound or Customs Yards, Jail, Holding Cells (before transferred to the Jail) and Armouries.
Religion encompasses actual Temples, which are large, well-staffed and sometimes house artefacts or other divine objects; Shrines which are usually much smaller, and with only a few staff (or none), and Cemeteries.
Decoration is anything that improves the city. Examples include statues, parks, fountains, commons, courtyards, gardens and ponds/lakes.

What follows below are examples of what districts might be available in city or large town. Each district’s description includes the following key information.
Buildings: This entry details what sorts of buildings might be found in the district.
First Impression: This entry consists of a sentence or two that describes the flavour or feel of the district—that is, what sorts of sights, sounds, and smells characters are likely to notice while casually passing through it.
Social Class: This entry denotes the social class of the residents (upper, middle, or lower).
District Type: Some districts, such as a waterfront or shop district, represent neighbourhoods that have many similar types of buildings. Others, such as a lord’s keep or a garrison, may feature single buildings or complexes that occupy an entire district and house large numbers of residents and staff.
Total Population.: This figure represents the total population of the district. The remaining columns show how many single-class characters of each character class (both PC and NPC classes) dwell in the district. Temple districts have many clerics, obviously, while most aristocrats are found in upper-class districts.

Low Population Districts
The districts with the lowest populations tend to be upper or middle class. They often feature fine landscaping and ornate buildings.
Civic District
The day-to-day business of governing the city is carried out from the offices in this district, which is usually dominated by one massive government building.
Buildings: Council hall, bureaucratic offices, monument/memorial, guardpost, temple (Heironeous, Pelor, or St. Cuthbert), upscale lodging (4), upscale food (6), exotic trades (10), upscale trades (15), average trades (15), upscale services (15).
First Impression: Robed bureaucrats scurry from appointment to appointment, and nobles travel with their retinues. The main building is a stately structure with plenty of statuary and inscriptions.
Social Class: Upper class.
Civic District, Ruined
This district is like the one above, except that the rulers of the city have abandoned the massive structure that once dominated the area.
Buildings: Council hall (vacant), bureaucratic offices (possibly vacant), monument/memorial, guardpost, temple (Heironeous, Pelor, or St. Cuthbert), upscale lodging (4), upscale food (6), exotic trades (10), upscale trades (15), average trades (15), upscale services (15).
First Impression: The crumbling edifice that dominates the streetscape once housed the power centre in this city. The surrounding businesses have also fallen on hard times.
Social Class: Middle class.
Elf Neighbourhood
This district, found only in cities dominated by nonelf races, is where many elves choose to live.
Buildings: Temple, druidic site, upscale lodging, upscale food (4), exotic trades (3), upscale trades (15), upscale services (5), upscale residences(30).
First Impression: The neighbourhood has more than its share of trees, bushes, and flowers. Even the more modest homes feature flowering window boxes.
Social Class: Upper class.
Embassy District
Usually found only in a capital city, an embassy district houses ambassadors, diplomats, and their staffs.
Buildings: Embassies (7), diplomatic residences (15), upscale lodging (9), upscale food (12), exotic trades (5), upscale trades (10), upscale residences (10).
Social Class: Upper class.
Finance District
Banks and merchant-houses tend to congregate here because much of their business is with each other.
Buildings: Banks (2), moneychangers (7), temple, upscale food (10), exotic trades (5),upscale trades (25), upscale residences (20).
First Impression: The city watch is augmented by private guards, making this a particularly well-protected district, day or night.
Social Class: Upper class.
Fine Shops
Shopping districts such as this one often feature store fronts of interest to adventurers. The city’s best armourers, weaponsmiths, sages, and magic-dealers offer their services here.
Buildings: Upscale lodging (4), upscale food (6),exotic trades (10), upscale trades (30), upscale residences(20).
First Impression: The hubbub of commerce is omnipresent here, but the high prices discourage the crowds found in less expensive shopping districts.
Social Class: Upper class.
Lord’s Keep
A fortress, usually the castle where the city’s ruler lives, dominates this district.
Buildings: Manor house, servants’ quarters (2),garrison post, chapel, average trades (15).
First Impression: Pennants in the city’s colours flutter over the castle, and guards eye the street from their watchtowers above. Soldiers drill in the courtyard beyond the open drawbridge.
Social Class: Upper class.
Lord’s Keep, Vacant
This district is similar to the one above, except that noone is living in the fortress. Perhaps the lord is on a crusade, or maybe a more mysterious fate has befallen the city’s ruler.
Buildings: Manor house, servants’ quarters (2),garrison post, chapel, average trades (15).
First Impression: This once-proud castle is beginning to show signs of neglect, though it is still an imposing fortress.
Social Class: Middle class.
Magic District
Many cities segregate users of magic into their own ward to protect the rest of the city from errant spellcasting. Such an arrangement also helps the rulers and constabulary keep an eye on some of the city’s most powerful residents.
Buildings: Magic item dealers (2), spellcasters for hire (6), temple, shrine, upscale food (5),exotic trades (10), upscale trades (15), upscale services(10), upscale residences (20).
First Impression: Continual flames illuminate the streets, and entertaining, artistic illusions decorate some of the buildings. The citizens frequently display flashy magic—typically glamers. Useful magic items abound.
Social Class: Upper class.
Noble Estates
The wealthy, highborn residents of the city live in splendor in the manors of this district.
Buildings: Estates (30).
First Impression: This district is quieter and cleaner than the rest of the city. Servants scurry abouton their errands, and nobles travel by carriage to call on their genteel counterparts.
Social Class: Upper class.
Park District
For those who love the outdoors, this district provides are spite from the hustle and bustle of the city.
Buildings: Parks (1 large or 3 small), temple, druidic site, upscale taverns (5), exotic trades (5), upscale trades(8), upscale services (17), upscale residences (30).
First Impression: Clusters of trees, landscaped flowerbeds, and lawns of trimmed grass dominate the landscape. The air smells fresher here than it does elsewhere in the city.
Social Class: Upper class.
University
The colleges in this district teach everything fromKnowledge and Profession skills to the secrets of divine and arcane magic. Adventurers can find esoteric lore and answers to obscure riddles here.
Buildings: University buildings, including instruction and faculty offices) (4), library, temple, shrine, upscale lodging (5), upscale food (8), upscale literary trades (booksellers, stationers, mapsellers, sealmakers, and the like) (10), upscale literary
services (scribe, sage, translator, cartographer, and the like) (10), dormitories (5), upscale residences (25).
First Impression: Young, well-dressed students carrying armfuls of scrolls and books hustle to their classes. Others sit or stand in circles, discussing the day’s lessons.
Social Class: Upper class.
Wealthy Residential
These residences belong to successful merchants and high-level bureaucrats in political or religious organizations.
Buildings: Upscale residences (60), average residences(10).
First Impression: Well-appointed buildings
line the quiet streets of this district. Servants or guards are posted at many of the front doors.
Social Class: Upper class.

Average Population Districts
These districts are where the middle class and merchants live and work.
Average Residential
Shopkeepers, artisans, and other skilled workers dwell in these modest homes.
Buildings: Upscale residences (10), average residences(70), poor residences (10).
First Impression: Children play in the streets of this district, and the younger ones are often chased by older siblings. Neat rows of houses line the thoroughfares.
Social Class: Middle class.
Dwarf Neighbourhood
Because clan and family are important to dwarven culture, many dwarves who live in cities dominated by other races tend to congregate in their own neighbourhoods.
Buildings: Temple, average lodging(2), upscale food, average food (9), poor food (2), exotic trades (2), upscale trades (7), average trades (15), poor trades (6), upscale services (5), average services (10),poor services (5), upscale residences (5), average residences(45).
First Impression: All the structures in this neighbourhood are slightly smaller than normal because they’re sized for dwarves. Stonework, much of it finely carved, dominates the architecture.
Social Class: Middle class.
Garrison
This district is essentially a military encampment. Thes oldiers who dwell here are charged with guarding the city and the surrounding countryside.
Buildings: Garrison building, temple, average lodging (4), poorlodging, upscale food (2), average food (4), poor food(3), upscale trades (4), average trades (8), poor trades (2),average services (10), average residences (40), poor residences(10).
First Impression: Some soldiers march to and fro in groups, while others stand at attention, and still others drill for combat. Shouted commands and marching songs fill the air.
Social Class: Middle class.
Gnome Neighbourhood
Gnomes find comfort in buildings sized for them, so this district features architecture that humans and other Medium races would find cramped.
Buildings: Temple, upscale lodging (1), average lodging (4), upscale food (3), average food (5), exotic trades (2), upscale trades (4), average trades (6), poor trades (3), upscale services (4), average services (6), average residences (50).
First Impression: This neighbourhood looks like any average residential area, but on a smaller scale.
Social Class: Middle class.
Guildhall District
This district is home to organizations of skilled workers, such as the mason’s guild, the cobbler’s guild, and the jeweller’s guild. Depending on the city, more exotic guilds devoted to sages, wizards, or mercenaries may also have facilities here. Illicit guilds may exist for thieves and assassins, but these rarely have publicly known guildhalls.
Buildings: Guild halls (3), average lodging (5),average food (10), upscale trades (5), average trades (15),poor trades (4), upscale services (5), average services(10), poor services (3), average residences (30).
First Impression: Each of the massive guildhalls in this district is emblazoned with a symbol representative of its craft, such as a massive hammer and anvil for the blacksmith’s guild, and a welcoming signin every known tongue for the Scribe’s Union.
Social Class: Middle class.
Guildhall District, Former
For some reason, the guilds have moved out of this district, but commercial interests still dominate its streets.
Buildings: Vacant guild halls (3), average lodging(5), average food (10), upscale trades (5), average trades(15), poor trades (4), upscale services (5), average services(10), poor services (3), average residences (30).
First Impression: The guildhalls are boarded up or in disrepair, but the shops and businesses that surround them still thrive in the hustle and bustle of commerce.
Social Class: Middle class.
Halfling Encampment
Halflings tend to be more nomadic than most other races. Even when a group of them settles in a city, their neighbourhood looks more like a camp than a proper district.
Buildings: Council hall, temple, shrine, average lodging (4), average food (8), average trades (15), average services (10), average residences(50).
First Impression: This neighbourhood looks like it could vanish tomorrow, leaving behind nothing but half-constructed buildings, smoldering campfires, and vacant building foundations.
Social Class: Middle class.
Marketplace
Most of the residents from surrounding districts come to this bazaar to buy everything from necessities (such as clothing) to small luxuries (such as spices).
Buildings: Open-air market, temple, average lodging (2), average food (12), exotic trades (3), upscale trades (12), average trades (35), poor trades (10), upscale services (5), average services (15),poor services (5)
First Impression: This district is awash in colourful signs and tents. The shouts of barkers rise above the noise of shoppers, and a dozen scents—everything from sweet perfumes to sizzling meats—fill the air.
Social Class: Middle class.
Professionals
This district is home to a variety of specialists the PCs might want to hire or consult.
Buildings: Temple (any), shrine, average lodging(3), upscale food (3), average food (7), exotic trades (2),upscale trades (3), average trades (10), upscale services(10), average services (20), upscale residences (10), average
residences (20).
First Impression: This district features row upon row of quiet shops and offices. Their signs advertise everything from translation services to wilderness guides to architectural design.
Social Class: Middle class.
Shops
A few businesses in this district cater to the well-to-do, but most serve the city’s middle and lower classes. Such a district is more common in a smaller city that doesn’t have multiple shopping districts.
Buildings: Temple (any), shrine, average lodging(3), average food (10), exotic trades (3), upscale trades(12), average trades (35), poor trades (10), upscale services(3), average services (10), poor services (2).
First Impression: Well-guarded nobles saunter from shop to shop, seemingly oblivious to the more ordinary citizens who rush by with their arms full of packages.
Social Class: Middle class.
Temple District
The centre of the city’s religious life, the temple district is where established faiths vie for worshipers. PCs can often find healing and other clerical magic here.
Buildings: Temples/shrines (any 6), upscale lodging (1), average lodging (3), upscale food (3),average food (7), exotic trades (5), upscale trades (5),average trades (10), upscale services (10), average services (25), upscale residences (5), average residences(20).
First Impression: Each temple’s architecture reflects the faith of its builders. Periodically, the doors of a temple open, and a throng of worshipers spills out into the street.
Social Class: Middle class.

High Population Districts
These districts cater to the lower classes and to transients, such as adventurers. Prices are generally lower in these areas.
Adventurer’s Quarter
This district has a little bit of everything, but it’s generally a pretty seedy place. No “respectable” resident would think of coming here.
Buildings: Temples (3), average lodging (5), poor lodging (10), average food (5), poor food (15), average trades (6), poor trades(15), average services (5), poor services (15), average residences (5), poor residences (20).
First Impression: This district is noticeably more diverse than the surrounding neighbourhoods. Various humanoids wearing a wide variety of garb rub shoulders and chat in the streets. The buildings look somewhat rundown, but most are quite serviceable.
Social Class: Lower class.
Anglers’ Wharf
Those who fish for a living have a district of their own, if for no other reason than to keep the stench away from the rest of the city.
Buildings: Shrine, poor lodging(5), poor food (10), average trades (2), poor trades(12), average services (3), poor services (7), poor residences(60).
First Impression: The smell of fish hangs heavily in the air here, mingled with the tang of saltwater and sea air. Rough-looking sailors lurch from ship to pier to tavern.
Social Class: Lower class.
Apartment Homes
This unremarkable district consists of nothing but unremarkable residences. Thus, it is an excellent hiding place for those who are skilled at blending in.
Buildings: Average residences (10), poor residences(55).
First Impression: Rows of apartment buildings rise like the walls of a canyon on both sides of the street. Day labourers and craftspeople scurry to and from work, while the district’s more indolent residents relax on the building steps.
Social Class: Lower class.
Caravan District
Districts such as this one are common in cities that rely on overland caravans rather than sea transport for their imports and exports. Merchants and other foreigners are welcomed here but usually discouraged from spending time in the rest of the city.
Buildings: Temple, average lodging(5), poor lodging (15), average food (10), poor food (30),average trades (9), poor trades (15), average services (9), poor services (15).
First Impression: This district has fewer buildings than most, but animal pens, stables, and circles of trade wagons squat on many vacant lots. The air is thick with campfire smoke, and a dozen different languages can be heard.
Social Class: Lower class.
Goblinoid Ghetto
If a city allows goblinoid residents at all, its other inhabitants usually prefer to keep them at arm’s length. The goblinoids who live here eke out a squalid existence, taking on jobs that no other city resident will accept.
Buildings: Temple, poor lodging (1), poor food (8), poor trades (20), poor services (10), poor residences (60).
First Impression: Goblins, hobgoblins, and orcs move among the ramshackle buildings that line the streets. The ghetto bustles with business—both legal and illegal—despite the obvious poverty of its residents.
Social Class: Lower class.
Inn District
Inns are scattered across most cities, but sometimes a cluster of them dominates a neighbourhood. Such a district tends to be rundown simply because it has few permanent residents to care about its upkeep, and the transients who stay there spend most of their time in other districts.
Buildings: Temples (any 2), average lodging (8),poor lodging (25), average food (5), poor food (20), average trades (5), poor trades (15), average services (5),poor services (15).
First Impression: Music and laughter wafts from the open doors of half a dozen inns and common houses. Each offers the promise of food, drink, dancing, or perhaps even more exotic diversions.
Social Class: Lower class.
Red-Light District
Notorious for the prostitution, narcotics, and other black-market businesses that thrive here, a red-light district tends to attract adventurers like flies.
Buildings: Temple, average lodging (2), poor lodging (17), average food (5), poor food(20), poor trades (20), poor services (gambling halls, houses of ill repute, pawnshops, and the like) (35).
First Impression: A visitor can hardly walk 30feet in this rundown district without being propositionedfor something illegal. Some passersby scurry furtively past, while others beckon visitors toward some illicit pleasure.
Social Class: Lower class.
Shantytown
Many of the structures in this district seem to be in imminent danger of collapsing on their residents. The poorest of the poor live here in decrepit buildings, refugee colonies, and squatter camps.
Buildings: Poor residences (100).
First Impression: Lean-tos, smoky fires, and makeshift hovels crowd in among the debris and rubble of the dirty, destitute streets.
Social Class: Lower class.
Slave Quarter
Slaves merit slightly better huts than those who live in a shantytown, if only because their masters care about their welfare to some small degree. Districts such as this are rare, since good-aligned societies find slavery
abhorrent.
Buildings: Overseer’s station, poor services (5),poor residences (94).
First Impression: Whip-wielding masters lead chained slaves in threadbare robes from place to place. Few of the slaves are bold enough to meet the gaze of a bystander.
Social Class: Lower class.
Slum
This district is clearly for the down-and-out. A slum falls somewhere between poor apartments and a shanty town on the scale of poverty and misery.
Buildings: Temple, poor lodging (1), poor food (3), poor trades (10), poor services(5), poor residences (70).
First Impression: Home to the destitute, this neighbourhood features a mix of shanties, hovels, and tenements in disrepair. Trash fills the streets and alleys, and the stench of offal mixed with rotting flesh and even less wholesome substances hangs heavy in the air.
Social Class: Lower class.
Tannery District
Tanneries—businesses that turn animal hides into leather—are typically in lower-class neighbourhoods simply because they smell unbelievably bad. No one who can afford to do otherwise lives near a tannery.
Buildings: Temple (any, especially poorer or more obscure faiths), poor lodging (2), poor food (7),poor trades (tanners, dyers, and other folk who practice odiferous trades) (60), poor services (30).
First Impression: The acrid smell of tanning hides would reveal the nature of this district even to a blindfolded person. A cluster of small, dingy shops caters to the unfortunate denizens of this nauseating district.
Social Class: Lower class.
Tavern District
Adventurers spend a lot of time in taverns, and most cities of any size feature at least one. Inns sandwiched among the bars provide revellers with relatively safe places in which to sleep off their intoxication.
Buildings: Temple, average lodging (3), poor lodging (20), average food (6),poor food (30), poor trades (10), poor services (10), poor residences (20).
First Impression: By night, inebriated revellers stumble forth into the crowded streets from literally dozens of taverns. By day, this district is a virtual ghost town, with only cleanup crews, delivery personnel, and the occasional determined drunk to liven up the streetscape.
Social Class: Lower class.
Tenement District
This district is similar to a slum, but without any nearby businesses to support its poverty-stricken populace. This district must be placed close to one in which even the desperately poor can acquire staples.
Buildings: Poor residences (60).
First Impression: Crammed together like so many sardines, the poor residents of this district cluster on stoops, in their rat-infested apartments, and in the streets and alleys.
Social Class: Lower class.
Theatre District
Theatres tend to spring up in lower-class neighbourhoods because rent is cheaper there. Drama patrons rarely linger for long, although nearby pubs and shops entice some to stay and celebrate a fine performance. This district can serve as a musician’s quarter or a dance hall district with only a name change.
Buildings: Theatres (4), temple, poor lodging (10), poor food (20), poor trades (20), poor services (30), poor residences (15).
First Impression: Each theatre features a large sign promising comedy, tragedy, and inspiration—often all in the same play. Lines of people wait outside the box offices, and periodically a large crowd emerges from a theatre, heatedly discussing the play that has just ended.
Social Class: Lower class.
Undercity
This district, typically situated underneath the city’s streets, is a combination of a dungeon and a neighbourhood. The residents of the city may or may not be aware of the undercity’s existence.
Buildings: Dungeons of at least 10 rooms (8),temples (any 2 evil deities), poor lodging (5), poor food(10), average trades (5), poor trades (15), average services(5), poor services (20), poor residences (30).
First Impression: The air belowground is dank, and the darkness is oppressive. It’s eerily quiet most of the time, but the silence is punctured occasionally by a scream or the clash of battle.
Social Class: Lower class.
Warehouse District
Adventurers who have business with shipping concerns—or just larcenous intent—may find their way into this district.
Buildings: Warehouses (30), poor trades (5), poor services (10), poor residences (55).
First Impression: The massive warehouses that give this district its name dominate the landscape. The streets are devoid of life except for the occasional delivery wagon and the guards who stand watch at some warehouse doors.
Social Class: Lower class.
Waterfront District
Visitors who arrive by ship often get their first taste of a city in the waterfront district. Adventurers typically feel right at home in this rough-and-tumble place.
Buildings: Other (5), temple, poor lodging (5), poor food (9), poor trades(25), poor services (35), poor residences (20).
First Impression: Most of the traffic here consists of sailors in search of liquor or entertainment. Bars, flophouses, and small shops—many of which don’t bother to advertise the nature of their business—line the street.
Social Class: Lower class.
Remnant Neighbourhood
This district is the last vestige of an older culture that has been largely supplanted by the city’s current residents.
Buildings: Temple (any 1, especially to an unusual deity), upscale trade, upscale residences (5),vacant buildings (3).
First Impression: The architecture here looks out of place, as do some of the residents. They eye visitors strangely, evidently regarding them as intruding on their turf.
Social Class: Middle Class
Immigrant Enclave
This district houses well-heeled representatives of another culture, such as wizards from a far-off land or plane touched pioneers from another dimension.
Buildings: Temple (any 1, especially to an unusual deity), magic item dealer, upscale trades (2),exotic trade, upscale residences (5).
First Impression: This district doesn’t even feel like it’s part of the same city. The architecture of the buildings is dramatically different than in other districts, and the residents’ garb marks them as a minority elsewhere in the city. Here, however, they fit right in.
Social Class: Upper class.
Necropolis
This massive graveyard has few or no residents other than the undead creatures that may lurk among the tombstones and crypts.
Buildings: Mortuaries (2), mausoleums (16), temple, shrine.
First Impression: This district is quiet and orderly. Rows of tombstones and crypts stand silent guard over the dead.
Social Class: Lower class.
Boat Town
This district is completely afloat. The residents live in houseboats and do their shopping at other boats. Even long time residents of a boat town must relearn their way around the neighbourhood if they leave for a time, since it constantly rearranges itself.
Buildings: Temple, average lodging (1), poor food (3), poor trades (10), poor services (10),poor residences (45).
First Impression: Boats of every size and shape bob on the water, connected by a baffling web of piers, gangplanks, and rope bridges.
Social Class: Lower class.
Coliseum/Arena District
A massive arena dominates this neighbourhood. Its existence leaves little space for actual residents.
Buildings: Coliseum/arena/hippodrome, associated buildings (gladiators’ barracks, stables, and the like) (3), temple, average lodging (5), average food (15), exotic trades (2),average trades (13), poor trades (5), average services(10), average residences (15).
First Impression: A crowd waits to be let into the coliseum for the day’s events. Buskers hawk their wares, and periodically a chant or cheer emerges from particularly devoted fans in the crowd.
Social Class: Middle class.
Prison District
An immense, forbidding-looking fortress dominates this district. Because inmates are typically kept in small cells, a prison district often has a very high population.
Buildings: Prison building, guards’ barracks.
First Impression: Guards are everywhere in this district. Most are standing watch, but occasionally a small group of them escort a chained inmate to or from the massive prison walls.
Social Class: Lower class.

Trades, Exotic: Alchemist, art dealer, calligrapher, costumer, imported goods dealer, magic armor dealer, magic item dealer (general), magic weapon dealer, pet merchant, potion dealer, rare wood merchant, scroll merchant, soap maker, spice merchant, trapmaker, wand merchant.

Trades, Upscale: Antique dealer, bookbinder, bookseller, candy maker, clockmaker, cosmetics dealer, curio dealer, dice maker, distiller, fine clothier, gemcutter, glassblower, glazier, goldsmith, inkmaker, jeweler, mapseller, papermaker, perfumer, pewterer, sculptor, sealmaker, silversmith, slave trader, toymaker, trinkets purveyor, vintner, wiresmith. Also found here are average trades performed at fine quality and increased cost (masterwork).

Trades, Average: Armourer, baker, bazaar merchant, blacksmith, bonecarver, bowyer, brewer, butcher, carpenter, carpet maker, cartwright, chandler, cheesemaker, cobbler, cooper, coppersmith, dairy merchant, fletcher, florist, furniture maker, furrier, grocer, haberdasher, hardware seller, herbalist, joiner, lampmaker, locksmith, mason, merchant, music dealer, outfitter, potter, provisioner, religious items dealer, roofer, ropemaker, saddler, sailmaker, seamstress, shipwright, stonecutter, tailor, tapestry maker, taxidermist, thatcher, tilemaker, tinker, weaponsmith, weaver, wheelwright, whipmaker, wigmaker, woodworker. Also found here are poor trades performed at fine quality and increased cost (masterwork), and upscale trades at lower quality and lower cost (80% of normal).

Trades, Poor: Bait & tackle dealer, basketweaver, brickmaker, broom maker, candlemaker, charcoal burner, dyer, firewood seller, fishmonger, fuller, leatherworker, livestock handler, lumberer, miller, netmaker, tanner. Also found here are average trades performed at lower quality and lower cost (80% of normal).

Services, Upscale: Animal trainer, apothecary, architect, assassin, banker, barrister, bounty hunter, cartographer, dentist, engraver, illuminator, kennel master, masseur, mewskeeper, moneychanger, sage, scribe, spellcaster for hire, tutor.

Services, Average: Auctioneer, barber, bookkeeper, brothel owner, clerk, engineer, fortuneteller, freight shipper, guide, healer, horse trainer, interpreter, laundress, messenger, minstrel, navigator, painter, physician, public bath owner, sharpener, stable owner, tattooer, undertaker, veterinarian.

Services, Poor: Acrobat, actor, boater, buffoon, building painter, burglar, carter, fence, gambling hall owner, juggler, laborer, limner, linkboy, moneylender, nursemaid, pawnshop, porter, ship painter, teamster, warehouse owner.

Lodging: Almshouse, boarding house, hostel, inn.

Food: Club, eatery, restaurant, tavern.

Temples and Shrines: Any deity, or sometimes a group of allied or related deities. Most cities in civilized lands have few obvious temples to evil deities, but exceptions do exist.

Alphabetical list of Shop/Job types
Apothecary - Seller of potions, tonics, salves and medicines.... maybe the odd poison or 2... maybe.
Armourer - A general armour maker, part blacksmith and part leatherworker.
Artist – A painter of portraits and may sell their own pieces.
Baker - Bread and pastries.
Blacksmith - Though they can make weapons and possibly armour but they normally do horseshoes, tools, even pots and pans.
Bookbinder - Makes books. You can probably buy scribe supplies here, paper, ink, quills, etc.
Bowyer/Fletcher - Bows, arrows, strings, etc. Fletchers are more associated with arrows specifically but they normally overlap.
Brewer – A maker of beer and ale. Normally sales wholesale.
Butcher - Meat is Murder.... Delicious Murder.
Candlemaker/Chandler - For all of your candle/lantern needs.
Carpenter – An elite tradesman, skilled in math as well as woodworking
Cartwright – A maker and repairer of carts and wagons
Clothier – A garment-maker/seamstress.
Cobbler or Shoemaker – Makes and mends shoes/boots.
Cooper – A barrel-maker
Dyer – A maker of inks, paints, dyes, and stains. A much more important job in the middle ages than one might think.
Enchanter - Specialized profession that enchants your items or makes enchanted items for you.
Engraver - Engraves items. Works with or can be with gold/silversmiths or jewellers.
Fishmonger - Sells fish caught that morning.
Furrier - Deals with fur garments. The making and repair of them.
Glassblower - Glass vases, glasses, etc.
Goldsmith or Silversmith - Occasionally has their own shops or works with jewellers. Sell silverware, fills in filigree, repairs jewelry.
Hatter - They make hats and are often mad because of the process to make them.
Herbalist - Seller of different plants, herbs, berries, etc for various uses from cooking to healing to poison.
Innkeeper or Tavern-keeper - Sells drinks, meals, and rooms. Your group should be familiar with these.
Jeweller - Gems Gems Gems. Often has a gold or silversmith on staff or works with one.
Joiner – A maker of furniture... might need this so keeping it.
Leatherworker - Belts, shoes, even armour. This guy could be popular.
Locksmith - Keys and locks. Seems simple but can also be where housebreaking supplies are sold on the side.
Merchant - Your general goods seller. Often specializes but rarely makes anything.
Moneylender - Most decent sized cities will have these. There is always a broke person in need of money.
Potter - For all of your clay pot, jug, cup, dish, etc needs.
Shipwright – A builder of ships. Need to buy something that floats? Head here
Tinker – Normally a travelling craftsman who repairs tin pots and other small items, often also a peddler but they can be in a city.
Trader – This I kept in because it could be seen as more of a warehouse type store. Selling large numbers of items wholesale.
Vintner – Winemaker. Might not have had their own shop except in large cities.
Weaponsmith - A blacksmith type shop specializing in weapons.
Weaver - Basic Cloth, normally not dyed.
Some specialty shops will often be combined like Jeweller, Engraver, Goldsmith, and Silversmith in the same shop, Weavers, Clothiers, and Dyers in the same one, and several others can be combined too. Some specialty shops will not even be in a city unless it is pretty large.

Services With No Product
Academics/Scholars/Sages - Astrologer, cartographer, historian, philosopher, etc. The place to come for information and research. May actually produce maps and charts but mainly used for research.
Actors - More often seen in theatres you can of course hire one for your own purposes.
Banks - Storage for money. Large banking groups provide documentation allowing one to withdraw money from far flung financial institutions without the need to transport large amounts of money.
Barber – A doctor, surgeon, bloodletter, dentist, and haircutter. Probably best at cutting hair though.
Barristers – A lawyer. Often individuals but also form groups.
Bricklayers/Masons – Labourers skilled in the building of walls and ducts. Freemasons actually formed from a bricklayers guild.
Boatman – Need to travel by lake or river? Hop in.
Bodyguard - Everyone needs protection sometime.
Coachman – Driver of a coach.
Cook - Need someone to fix your meals in your mansion?
Gravedigger - Someone has to do it.
Groom – One who tends animals. Works at a stable.
Messenger - Mail was not very advanced at this time. If you need a message to get somewhere send this human sized letter.
Mercenaries - When you need someone to fight your wars for you. Big or Small.
Minstrel/Bard/Storyteller/Juggler/Acrobat - Entertainment for hire. Singing, dancing, and stories of the olden days.
Prostitute - .....You know.
Sailor - Helps sail your ship wherever you might need to go.
Scribes – Skilled in taking dictation or copying documents. Writers for Hire.
Servant – Maid, butler, attendant, steward, etc. All your household needs.
Stevedore – One who loads and unloads goods from sailing ships or caravan.
Warehouse - Storage for your goods.
Watchman/Guardsman - Sometimes your goods or property needs protection.

Suppliers
Caravan driver - Brings items to the wholesale market from far away locations.
Farmer - Farms.... Also produces eggs.
Fisherman - Brings in the bounty of the sea.
Herdsman/Rancher - Watches over and breeds sheep, cattle, and horses for the market.
Hunter/Ranger/Trapper - Brings wild game, furs, and herbs in for the market.
Lumberjack - Brings wood in for the market.
Miller - Turns the farmers grains into flour.
Miner - Brings the ore, stone, and minerals from the ground.

Examples of shops

Flophouse
A combined drinking hall/kitchen with a fire, and a loft for the proprietor. Open boarded windows without glass. Earthenware drinking vessels, stone pots, wooden cans treated with pitch on the inside and with leather thong handles. Might be located in a cellar, a tenement or ruin or built up against, through or over an abandoned inner wall. Single-barred wooden external door. Serves ale, beer, cider and mead. Kitchen provides cheesecakes, apple pies, conger eel and mutton pie and the like. Clientele includes labourers, servants and the indigent. Bunk down on the kitchen table, in front of the fire or join the landlord in bed.

Alehouse
A small premises of (usually) 2 to 5+ rooms, with an outside ale-bench near the front door. A main drinking hall separate from the kitchen and serving spirits as well as ale, beer, cider and mead. Shuttered windows. Pewter tankards. Wattle and daub walls, thatched roof, double-barred external wooden door(s); internal doors are single barred. The kitchen provides the usual flophouse fare and adds bread, herring and salt fish with pottage, thick meat or vegetable soup. Clientele includes small farmers, craftsmen & artisans.

Tavern, 2nd Class
A medium premises of (usually) 5 to 9+ rooms (excluding cellars/outhouses) without the more extensive accommodation of inns, but selling food (rashers on the coals, red herrings, anchovies, all sorts of salt meat) some of it brought in from neighbouring cook-shops, and wine (only). Ancillary chambers may be divided into drinking booths. Clientele number amongst the more prosperous (merchants, gentry and other affluent citizens). Often located on the first or second floors above a shop or shops, and usually found in towns. Barred and shuttered windows. Pewter and silver plate goblets. Timber and stone walls. Wooden shingled roof. External stout door(s) double-barred and bolted, internal doors with latch and bolt.

Tavern
Like it's 2nd Class counterpart but with more accommodation (10 to 20+), private drinking booths, panelled (quiet) rooms, and featuring entertainment such as gaming (especially with dice) and harlots. Barred, glassed and shuttered windows. Silver plate goblets. Stone and timber walls. Tiled roof. External stout door(s) with single steel bar and bolts, internal doors are latched, bolted and padlocked. NB: Many taverns are vintners or act as agents for vintners (wine-makers).

Inn
A large fashionable establishment (7 to 14+ rooms) including stabling and storage facilities, probably an additional hired cellar in adjacent premises, and offering wine, ale, beer, cider, mead, elaborate food, lodging and
entertainment to well heeled travellers, landed mercantile and professionals, noblemen and gentlemen, according to their quality and desire. May offer one or more special features such as a separate club or games room, a bowling/skittle alley, a cock-pit, and lodging rooms with feather beds, tables, chairs, chests and, pictures. Locked, barred, shuttered and picture-glassed windows. Pewter tankards, silver, and gold plate goblets. Stone walls and reinforced tiled roof. Bound and stout external door(s) with single steel bar, latched and bolted, internal doors are locked and bolted.

Inn, 1st Class
A sumptuous establishment (15 to 40+ rooms) offering all the facilities of a standard Inn as well as extensive stabling (up to 100 horses) and storage facilities (including large warehouses) and several cellars given over to
different drinks. Ale & beer brewed on the premises. Additional exotic features such as one or more of a bathhouse, room service, specialist shops retailing high quality goods, a bear pit, a post office, lodging rooms with locked, barred, shuttered and picture-glassed windows, or a triple chest for the storage of valuable items. Pewter tankards, silver, electrum, glass, and gold plated goblets. Thick walls, buttressed and reinforced tiled roof. Reinforced, heavy external doors locked, steel-barred, and bolted; internal doors are stout, locked and bolted. NB: extensive stabling was crucial because the inns had a virtual monopoly on the entertainment of travellers on horseback. Employees include maids, tapsters (a woman who taps or draws ale or other liquor for sale in an inn; a hostess), chamberlains (in charge of the bedchambers), and ostlers (attend to the horses).

This is a sales tax imposed on all transactions with the exception of food, clothing, and fixed assets (like buildings). It is levied on all imports, but rebated on all exports (in an effort to promote the sale of goods abroad). Various tolls (including harbour fees) are also levied. There is a fee for exchanging foreign currency (all transactions must be in local currency), the proceeds of which go to the city mint to fund their operations. Lesser tolls, excises, etc. are collected by local agents. This income goes to financing the local administration and community, and in particular it provides major fiscal income, which is used to maintain the city's guard forces, with significant revenue going to the main government for its own purposes.

Recently raided lands/communities may have their taxes partially remited (land and hearth taxes, for example, but almost never income, commercial, and military service). Most free landholder pesants pay only hearth and land taxes, and little in the way of either income or commercial taxes (since the goods they buy and sell are generally the types that are exempt from the Commercia). The income tax on the poor is mainly paid by poor townsmen, who recieve wages rather than producing their own food, etc. Wealthy landholders likely pay all three (commercial taxes on the sumptuaries they buy, land taxes on their lands, and income taxes on the rents and other sources of cash income).