the town must be fortified rather well from the get-go. What is also precious in a mountainous region during a war? Iron is a good bet, lumber. The wizard's history would inspire the recruits for Garwicks army because of the war". Garwick decided to create the town next to the Tower of Arkhanius, which had many precious arcane books collection, and expand the tower into an Academy. He was asked to educate more wizards in the realm. What about the town? "Well, Garwick, the Steadfast had an affinity to magic and enjoyed studying the arcane arts. Okay, now we know why the Academy stands there. He also really enjoyed the mountain scenery". Why is that this Academy is there and not on the hill? "Well, dear Arkhanius was a private and irritable man that valued solitude and quiet surroundings, and the silence of the mountain top can't beat that for him. So let's say that this town stands in the steep mountain hills, where the Academy stands on the top of the mountains. Since college is tough and not many go through the process of it. I want to make it feel like this town is a bit of a cold place. It could be anything depending on your lore, but sometimes giving a new name creates more worldbuilding hooks for you and your town.” Where is the town located? Why is it called Garwick? Maybe the person that gave the order to refurbish the library into the Academy and support it was named Garwick, or perhaps he was the first lord here. After his death, someone transformed the library into an academy for aspiring Wizards. Let's call this arcane town college - "The Lodge of Arkhanium." The town of Garwick was established after the death of a well-known Wizard, Arkhanius, The Patient, which built his research library in the mountain nearby. “For example, "Arcane College" is the central theme, which I want to explore. Perhaps he can indirectly introduce the players to the most important characters to provide a necessary exposition organically to your players.
This character might give the players an idea that the local town academy is known for its high standards. In our case of Garwick, maybe the local innkeeper has a story about how he tried to become a mage but failed and had to settle for being an innkeeper, yet he is still trying. Meanwhile, the towns provide a more romantic side of our theme that you're trying to explore. Cities might feel a bit too big, characters - expendable, and you can do bar crawls when it comes to the Inns and Taverns. But it also helps us contain the intimacy between the worldbuilding you're creating because of its size. Not only that, we have enough characters and places to emphasize this theme and portray what it is like to live in such a place. The scale of the town serves us in such a way where we can freely explore any story theme. Like cities or villages, towns in your games should serve some story or gameplay purpose. Thus, towns are a perfect sized story device that helps us create thematic places and have great adventures. However, you'll not find every exotic thing in the town, which encourages adventures. This kind of Population provides space for the guilds, intrigue plots with the local Town Council, and different types of shops within its borders. Towns tend to be ranging from about a thousand to five thousand people living in them. Towns are also great since they have enough people and characters in them. However, the town might be a place where potentially you can write your whole campaign if you wanted to. Don't get me wrong small villages are an excellent introductory story device. I choose Towns over other areas since they don't require as much work and preparation as the cities and give way more content opportunities than the villages. They are not too big like the cities or small as villages, yet towns strike a perfect balance in their scale. Towns are probably the most balanced location for Dungeon and Dragons stories. Today, I'll be making an Arcane College town named Garwick.