D&D City Geopolitics, Explained!

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Why are some cities bigger than others? How do we know which fantasy cities in our worldbuilding would be larger than others? How do these various cities create interdependent economies and authority structures, and how are these things all ripe for quest hooks, regardless if you play Dungeons and Dragons or Pathfinder!?

[@DungeonMasterpiece]

Head to keeps.com/baron to get 50% off your first order of hair loss treatment.

[@LecherousCthulhu]

You can clearly be heard sucking in air at the end of every sentence in this video. I only noticed it because I had recently seen a meme where someone is just sucking in air

[@vortraz2054]

Scam advertising leech

[@rampaginwalrus]

@@LecherousCthulhu you're going to keep noticing it, because humans breathe when they talk. He sounds normal lol

[@LecherousCthulhu]

@@rampaginwalrus yeah, but he can edit it out, move the mic, or change the audio so it doesn't pick up the breathing. So there's a lot of little things he can do to remove the heavy gasps

[@saharo4884]

I just love the Fantasy economy switch to hairloss treatment 🤣🤣

[@maxinehowland8246]

What you were saying at the end made me think a shop keeper could be a very good tool to potentially hook players into sidequests. Items made from certain materials in the shop could become more expensive and if the players ask why, then the shopkeeper explains that said material is becoming scarcer due to [Quest Hook].

[@Hrafnskald]

Exactly. Or the merchant princes that depend on the flow of that raw material may raise money to send adventurers from the big city to fix the problem.

[@dane3038]

You could of course take this back to basics: Caravans are being raided by X and retreating into the nearby hills. X is in the employ of a neighboring city or even a rival guild. Maybe the merchant himself is behind it all, the janky lil bastard!

[@Illianor123]

Even the murder of skilled craftsmen (who could be in a somewhat raw off, or out of the way place). A potion brewer, a smith, or someone else who transforms the raw materials into manufactured goods.

[@davidmcguire8041]

Hey Baron? Never change. Your niche is so specific and I love it so much.

[@liammckenney6792]

This explained some things I've always found missing in other geopolitical videos by other creators. Most people stop after mentioning mountains, rivers, waterfalls, and ports.

[@angelalewis3645]

Yes! Same for me. So much about medieval age basic economics finally clicked for me. Brilliant.

[@CthonicSoulChicken]

For a good primer to geography and why it matters, I highly recommend the book, "Prisoners of Geography." It's an easy read, written by a lifelong journalist, that breaks down our world into a series of geographical areas and explains why the wars happen-and where they will continue to happen--why some places were easily colonized and others weren't, and why some things really aren't going to change. Can't recommend it enough.

[@sirioguidoandreapreziosi3836]

Many thanks for the tip! But let's not forget about The Power of Geography, the following of Prisoners of Geography by the same author, Tim Marshall. Plus another reader recommended alongside Marshall's books The Silk Roads of Peter Frankopan too, to have a really, really good understanding of the thematic. Nice tip and many thanks again for having shared It!

[@dogbert32]

To add to the economic disruption, Most resources don't exist in a vacuum with only 1 source in the entire world (Though they might be the sole source in the region). It exists in multiple areas at different quality levels. So the mithral mine and the dwarven shops of that one river are hurting, but a human settlement on a different river system with their own mithral mine but less efficient refining and crafting ability will find that they can charge more for their goods as supply has diminished. It may also be found that this mithral meets the needs of the market at a lower price, reducing the ability for the dwarven settlements to recover after they solve the disruption as they have found their marketshare stolen. The quality of the goods at the human settlement may even increase as workers and artisans from the dwarven settlement immigrate to continue practicing their trade. The Confederate States of America hoped for a global textiles industry crash due to a lack of American Cotton to push European powers to support their bid for independence, but this occurred just as Egyptian and Indian Cotton plantations were finding their production groove and the quality was good enough if not on par with American Cotton. Meaning there was no crash and the CSA had little to no international support.

[@angelalewis3645]

Cool example! Thanks for the illustration of this principle!

[@Teneban]

"don't worry, I'm saving city-states for later" yes please, I would like more of this

[@tuomasronnberg5244]

Always build up, always build up, always build up. This video highlights incredibly well why you don't start your worldbuilding with war of the gods that happened millenia ago, but with a small mining town and a road to farming community that supplies them with food. The first gets you nowhere, while the second one gives you five adventure ideas just by existing. You can always add your grand level stuff later once your game has actually gotten underway from all the small scale stuff.

[@Hrafnskald]

Agreed. And if you really want that war of the gods in the backstory, have it be the result of a small mining town and a road to that farming community. Big events start with small details, and making the big tie in with the small allows us to see the world created holistically.

[@user-mr6hc9hy2t]

I don't think anything is wrong with "painting your ceiling" early on, as establishing what the deal is with the Gods/overarching world can establish some of the basic elements of your world, and what makes it a unique fantasy setting. Your ceiling however, is not something your players will interact with until much later. So for actual playable content, especially early-mid game, I entirely agree with you. And saving the world won't feel meaningful until there are places and people in the world whom you want to protect.

[@kotor610]

@@Hrafnskald big things have small beginnings

[@Illianor123]

You can start with top down planning, but once players get involved you have to do a lot of bottom up building.

[@lepthymo]

Unless you're Brennan Lee Mulligan and the gods are just vehicles for the emotional journey your characters take

[@w4iph]

I feel pretty proud that the first trade hub I built is down-river from mountains that have significant mining interests, but now that I've watched your geopolitics vids, I feel like I need to work out more rivers for all my world building... So thanks for the homework. . . It will make my games better tho so yay

[@krl10101]

You can search for videos talking about cites located in the fall line in the eastern United States. Pretty neat stuff. I'm in the Midwest so all I know is eventually a creek is going to end up in the Mississippi river.

[@BillNyeTheBountyGuy]

These videos are vital to my world building now. And the only issue is that these videos are my vancian magic, if I use it I forget it and have to relearn it.

[@KnarbMakes]

Great trove of ideas for world building a D&D city and it's surrounding areas. You've touched on it in other videos, but war is also a huge stressor on city economies and goods/services. Levies raised for too long and missed a harvest? Well, famine is coming your way. I think I remember many cases in historical medieval warfare where a levy army had to go home to collect crops, costing a major battle.

[@chadhardt6136]

the best advice i took from this channel isn't the content itself, but one question. "how this thing will affect the things in the surroundings?" plot hooks and quest are really easy to write when you put a situation and just think "how this could ruin somebody's day in the most mundane way?" take the undead haunted mine, this could ruin the job and lives of locals, but you can also make the excuse that: *Because of the undeads, Minerals are scarcer and trading harder, because of this, an allied military focused kingdom comes over to fix the problem, not because they want to, but because they need to, even if it isn't their mess. *the disturbation of the mine is actually the plot of a petty necromancer,hired by an enemy faction to sabotage the local's infrastructure, they don't care about the mine itself right now, they just need to create time and chaos. *The mine is haunted because the autority of the mine is actually corrupted, and the safety of the miners isn't actually guaranteed, people have been dying from years now and the undead are actually revenge seeking miners, both envious of the living and a few that actually warns the workers and then adventurers of the reason of the attack.

[@DungeonMasterpiece]

HE GETS IT!!!!

[@chadhardt6136]

@@DungeonMasterpiece Top tier content dude, never change.

[@snobgoblinDK]

Your videos bring such a unique perspective on world building that I haven’t seen anywhere else on the tubes. Thank you!

[@Wraithing]

Like the Geopolitics. Solid dissemination of some useful ideas. Loved highlighting the relationships between cities on navigable rivers down to their corresponding seaports. So much potential for stories… and not just fantasy! Not so sure about the hair tonic segment - reminded me of snake oil salesmanship. But if that floats your boat, I guess it's that kind of world.

[@VallelYuln]

Didn't expect to see a painting of my hometown in a DnD video at 4:07

[@MacLord]

Don’t forget stone for building, lumber for building, ships, semi-precious stones used for inks, gems, inlay work. Look at more than wood, metal, big items. Small business can have HUGE effects.

[@DungeonMasterpiece]

or cobalt in the congo

[@MacLord]

@@DungeonMasterpiece Look to the Bronze Age where copper mines were sparse compared to later iron mines. Tin needed in a ratio of 1:9 with copper was mined in remote Afghanistan $British isles was the petroleum of its day. Evidence suggests the Bronze Age collapse was because tin shipments were disrupted at the same time a massive migration occurred in the western Mediterranean resulting in 3 of the 4 empires collapsing as multiple mutual protection treaties fell apart under the onslaught. Egypt the only empire to survive suffered diminished power domination & subjugation eventually overwhelmed by Rome.

[@Illianor123]

Watching your videos always makes me go back and refine my world notes and jot down some more plot hooks for each area.

[@kevinsmith9013]

Wonderful and concise breakdown as always. I literally thought of 3 unique plot-hooks for 3 different locations in a campaign I'm running based off 1 event spiraling through the economy just from this video alone!!! Thanks again!

[@sirioguidoandreapreziosi3836]

Care to expand on that? Nothing better than some good old brainstorming, in these situations!

[@seanpinkey2188]

I am NOT kidding when I tell you, after this video I had the off-thought to have my players escort a boat with furniture down a river. They would be paid depending on the goods remaining. Never have we had SO much trouble and the shenanigans were terribly delightful. They had to pay for the boat's shipment actually, boat damages, fines with a guild, and are terrified of commerce. Indeed, this made them more nervous than mimics around tables and chairs! And - I'll be darned - we learned something about economics as well! 🤓

[@williamsolis3678]

Your videos have been helping me world build the new map I'm drawing up & it's been so fun looking over the landscape & binge watching yr channel; much love & appreciation to how you are really making me think of important information regarding geopolitics!

[@joshbingham212]

I love these types of videos so much! The realism they add to my worlds is so helpful. Can’t wait for the video about city states!

[@NoNamesLeft0102]

Imagine a city at the top of a waterfall, running an auction on which merchants can benefit on the couriers or merchants can benefit from their techniques to minimize the damage to product improve ease of travel. Or just really emphasize feather fall and shape water.

[@jm25ro]

I started my home brew in the Calimshan region, just underneath the marching mountains it has just about everything for a great kingdom / starting area.

[@kaedrys]

Super good stuff. I studied geology in university and I love learning how we are interconnected with our natural world.

[@Dreamfox-df6bg]

That does open up a lot of ideas. Let's say there is an area known as 'Wool Country', because the grass there is perfect for sheep. In the big city the tailor's guild notices an upsurge in price on wool or that less wool is sold to the city. A messenger comes back with the news that the Wool Country is suffering from rising wolf attacks. The adventurers are called in to deal with the problem. It turns out that a group of Druids is behind the attacks, because someone despoiled a part of the forest and evidence points to the shepherds. Not able or willing to fight an entire forest community the adventurers have to figure out the true culprit. Which could have a number of reasons for their actions. From trying to influence the price of wool to hunting unicorns or unearthing a tomb in the forest with an unspeakable evil inside and so on. While it's unlikely that the guild that commissioned the adventurers will raise the payment for the little 'Wolf Hunt', the forest community with several Druids and the Shepherds will likely be thankful beyond mere financial payment. Reincarnation anyone if another form of raising the dead is unavailable? The price for wool is up right now? And that's on top of the loot from solving the problem that led to this chain of events. And that was just one quick idea.

[@angelalewis3645]

I LOVE this idea! Thank you!!

[@oo4352]

I'd love to play in a world of yours, it must be so nicely fleshed out :)

[@michaelanderson2166]

I bet he doesn’t flesh more out than needed for the next couple sessions.

[@DungeonMasterpiece]

I just make disposable regions I play in for six months to two years with half a dozen cities or so. And note what each city is known for in a few bullet points and what some dozen of factions want and dont want in the region. I even do it partially with the players so they know a few things about the game world before we start playing.

[@Hrafnskald]

@@DungeonMasterpiece Letting the players know beforehand can be a great way to get the party up to speed. I love stepping into a well crafted world, but sometimes the limits of what the player doesn't know, which the character living in this world would know, is a barrier to enjoyment. Kudos to you for easing that transition :)

[@PureFascinationFilms]

Great video! These kind of videos with this kind of info are so valuable. Thank you !

[@liamcullen3035]

Hahahaha brilliant transition to the sponsor ad 😂 I was not expecting that!

[@stevef6523]

I love so much these historical eye view on DnD worlds! I feel like I'm learning real life history (obviously only tiny slivers) while enjoy ideas for fantasy societies. Please keep it up!

[@amatostano3936]

You spoil us Baron. So much good information for worldbuiding, in a easy to eat chunks. Thanks!

[@LecherousCthulhu]

This video is really insightful and actually brings together my idea of world building realisms. Good stuff

[@dantherpghero2885]

I Love ALL Dungeon Masterpiece videos! Especially his back catalog.

[@lucasmarquesdecamargos4298]

What a great video. Really inspired me to adjust some things on my homebrew world. I just have to take into consideration the effect of fantastical creatures and some low-magic into the mix.

[@Bene_Singularis]

Again, an awesome video. Full of knowledge and tips.

[@johnathanrhoades7751]

This is so good! Currently shaping a region and thinking through all this...

[@Dan_Does]

Hey, I don't D&D but I could listen to your voice all day!

[@filkearney]

Such good commentary!

[@juiceheadtodd]

Damn I would love to play with a DM who put this kind of thought into a campaign, inspiring stuff!

[@ShammyCam]

Most DMs would love to have the available time to go this deep

[@Hrafnskald]

Another awesome breakdown. I especially appreciate the way you highlight how geography will effect economies, as this opens up many useful secondary effects, in areas like religion, social norms and expectations, history, etc. Bookmarking this and other episodes to refer back to when worldbuilding, and really looking forward to what you cover next :)

[@ronniabati]

Great video 🤙 Regarding your reference to the Bronze Age Collapse, I doubt any fantasy monster could impact a civilization as much climate change. Super-powerful monsters can utterly destroy a major city, but a drought that prevents agriculture can utterly destroy every city, town, and village of a civilization… and perhaps even kill the monsters during the local extinction event.

[@isaacmcdaniel6278]

Love your videos is there a way you could do one about how magic influences how nobility would develop ina feudal state assuming magic is randomly gifted and not genetic

[@brucemaximus3797]

Ah, the opposite of the Birthright setting.

[@Hrafnskald]

Oh, that would be an awesome plot thread to explore. I wonder if it would lead to something like the elective monarchy of the Holy Roman Empire? Or perhaps a variant on Confucian Testing meritocracy found in Imperial China? So many great options with that thread :)

[@NegatveSpace]

I've always wanted a resource that contains a good list of all the various products that could be made from certain resources, how those resources would be obtained, advice on ratios and varieties of resources a town would survive on, how many buildings a town would have based on its population and how spaced out they would be and how much town guard or even military a town or city would have based on its population. I have seen some of this in some KZbin videos but some of it is buried under hours of live streams I'd have to dig through. Then some of it is pathetic two-second advice like, "Pick a resource and have your town based on that!" Same with town or city locations.

[@DungeonMasterpiece]

This will be in a supplemental workbook for a book book I'm writing on geopolitical worldbuilding

[@trespass_cali]

top notch video right here! Now I'd love that quite scientific and systematic approach applied to underdark...

[@danrimo826]

Ooooooooh that is a great idea!

[@Tortferngatr]

One thing to note is that the Underdark is explicitly magical in nature. It can go down multiple times the height of Mount Everest because magical evil or whatever cools down the caverns of most DND settings with Underdarks to otherwise liveable temperatures. You might also want to try exploring what a more realistic Underdark might hypothetically look like, such as one that has a much smaller band of liveable height (for standard humanoids).

[@homunculus023]

Thank you for always adding value to our game!

[@LionKimbro]

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the impact of Teleport Circles and teleportation in general, on the economic, magical, educational, and colonization patterns of D&D worlds.

[@eddarby469]

I believe they would be comparable to an airport in impacting a city. They would also have to be heavily guarded.

[@LionKimbro]

@@eddarby469 I keep thinking about magic and teleport circles and cities. I think there should be "Portal Wizards" -- essentially, people who are trained and instructed in schools on the specific magical foundations required to open and close magical portals, and the runic magics that have to do with their inscription, and the pragmatics of teleportation. And I suspect that magical circles would not only be guarded, but also concealed, so that their whereabouts and codings are hard to scry. I think that "levels" of magic spells is only an approximation - that with proper training, people can learn relatively high level spells, for just that one spell, if it has been sufficiently researched and studied.

[@trioofone8911]

Hair loss?! That horse left the barn a long time ago... lol

[@felisleo101]

I love these discussions. When I listen to you, I feel like I am listening to Peter Zeihan if he had decided to have a D&D channel instead of going into geostrategic consulting. Well done.

[@SpiritWolf1966]

I enjoy all of Dungeon Masterpiece videos 😊

[@kevinhallett608]

This is the inspiration that gave my campaign a purpose driven life. Thank you

[@khayyin359]

Weird request: I would LOVE to see your take on the geopolitics (& just general economics & adventure opportunity) of the setting for Horizon: Zero Dawn & Horizon: Forbidden West. The base unit of currency is "metal shards", which are small pieces of the machines (robots) that roam the wilderness, and which also get used as crafting components for ammo & devices (along with other components looted from machines). That aspect of 'hunting machines generates more cash' seems like it would do interesting things to a traditional economy. In my D&D campaign, HZD recently became connected to my main fantasy setting, with arcane & divine magic suddenly becoming accessible in HZD, and I'm working through how that's changing things.

[@nikolaymarkov3313]

wow I have the painting at 6:30 as a postcard, pleasant surprise in a great video!

[@Elias-rj9ku]

I love the blue and cream combination on the suit 😎

[@ShamelessMayhem]

First, great stuff and thanks for making these. Second, this video has the best segue into sponsor. Thanks for making my campaigns better!

[@graythebruceii]

One of your best videos to date. Excellent.

[@benjaminholcomb9478]

That ad transition though

[@starwars90001]

The best plot hook from city poltics is the local wildlife or monster population has grown too big making travel to or from the city impossible, the city is dyng from lack of supplies and the region is suffering economically because of this.

[@oldmanofthemountains3388]

Basically river-trade doubles as a communication network.

[@rumorcontrol7873]

How do you think fantasy cities and societies would develop if say for instance there were a magical technology which allowed a "gateway" to be held open and people from one town to instantly travel to another one far away as though they had simply walked from one side of the street to the other?

[@user-cx9un9fs7q]

Another thing that could change a kingdoms success would be if there’s a dragon or another creature with a regional effect around its lair near. Like anyone living within 6 miles of a red dragons lair would have earthquake regularly, not to mention the fact that your in the territory of the dragon meaning it will shred the kingdoms resources down until eventually people in the kingdom will starve.

[@vefafox]

Love the content, subbed and I recently became a patron too! 1st time I've ever actually patroned someone haha Had a video request! Can you do something on practical improvisation. It's all well and good to make up part of a story and ans NPC when you're just doing voices and moving the party along; but when my party goes off the rails, I struggle to practically put pen to paper and track the initiative of a random encounter and that kind of thing. I'd love to hear your take on how to cover the practical side of improvisation. Hope my request makes sense.

[@10urion]

Heck, I have used that first map so often now for different games xD

[@aaronasbury2232]

Thank you for pronouncing Appalachia correctly

[@Toto-95]

quickly becoming top tier youtube content buddy :D

[@samchafin4623]

This makes me think just how many adventures should be the purview of armies, and not small bands of adventurers. 😅

[@razorboy251]

I highly recommend Professor Brett Devereaux's academic blog (KZbin wouldn't let me share the link but it's easily found through google - look for Unmitigated Pedantry), in particular his series on pre-modern cities. I feel your video focused too much on access to natural resources and trade and ignored another very important aspect of pre-modern cities: administration and tax collection. Whether we look at ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Mesoamerican, Roman or Chinese cities, one important role they all fulfilled was administration of surrounding countryside and collection of taxes from the markets.

[@FlutesLoot]

01:30 almost slipped that Starcraft reference by me

[@GallowglassAxe]

This is a great. I actually a friend who making a gaming system in a LARP that could really use this.

[@jlaw131985]

This should be handy for my Sharn campaign.

[@dane3038]

Good video with good comments. I'm leaving this up until I can take notes. Then, I'm going to watch it on another computer and leave another like to give you an advantage on the algorithm. After that, I'm sharing it to my D&D Discord group.

[@jtdg5849]

This is really fantastic stuff.

[@carlmartin612]

Man this is a really good video

[@jasonmcwhirter7093]

The one always truth is that cities will be on choke points of human transportation. That is... until we invent teleportation!

[@philswiftdestroyerofworlds1988]

What I wanna know is how human's in the Witcher franchise can live so close to heavily monster populated areas And still have a village with a population lol

[@DungeonMasterpiece]

*magic* 🪄🪄🪄🪄

[@nowthenzen]

Okay, what Dungeon Master owns a suit and can actually tie a tie?

[@mikegould6590]

I've run large fantasy city settings, and I hadn't considered "sister cities" at all... ..more work needed, I guess.

[@GladRags]

Could anyone please tell me the source of the illustration at 0:17 ? Your help is much appreciated!

[@brucemaximus3797]

I dig this content way too much.

[@AnthonyDavis33w]

Hot damn this is good content. I wish I found this a year ago.

[@MacLord]

Unfortunately Baron my hair has already been mislaid.

[@lepthymo]

Dope

[@vefafox]

✨Engagement✨

[@jordanscoville3909]

A+

[@FateOfFury]

I love your videos, you just need better closers. I'm always left unfulfilled at the end, thinking wait thats it?

[@andrewshandle]

So is the next step a "realistic" fantasy world (or at least country) where all of these geopolitical videos all line up? I'd pay for a product like that. ;)

[@esmith86]

Only commenting to feed the algorithm. All hail the mighty algorithm.

[@Larsemillarsen]

Excelent! I wish you're videos could be hours long.... I'd watch!

[@ghostfaceknuts]

Love your videos. Must correct one pronunciation. Substinance should be pronounced Sub-sis-tense

[@solaries3]

It's *always* the Sea Peoples.

[@angelalewis3645]

Favorite comment. :)

[@Tuariq1]

Uuuh!!! Strong topic!! Im totally down!!

[@kevinsmith9013]

My response to Keeps sponsorship: A razor and a scalp tattoo.

[@magdalene2229]

That’s my plan too

[@trioofone8911]

Subsistence. Not substinance.

[@tohellwithyourcrap8045]

Noice

[@marioevildm7410]

this is how to make fiction, glue truth to it... 😏

[@obviouswarrior5460]

Commerce too interconnected? Middle-age like 1700 then, we are no longer really in the middle age, but in the renaissance. So the undead crypt wakes up. Break the trade. Is it the heroes who will take care of it or is it the army? answer : -The national army is paid by the state and are citizens. -The heroes are mersenaries with all the problems that entails. (see Machiavelli) ----------------- before google trad : Commerce trop interconnecté ? Moyenne-age de genre 1700 alors, on est plus vraiment dans du moyenne age la, mais dans la renaissance. Donc la crypte de mort-vivant se réveille. Brise le commerce. C'est les héros qui vont s'en occuper ou c'est l'armée ? réponse : -L'armée nationale est payer par l'etat et sont des citoyen. -Les héros sont des mersenaire avec tout les problemes que sa implique. (cf machiavel)

[@DungeonMasterpiece]

check out tin trade routes in 800 ad.

[@obviouswarrior5460]

@@DungeonMasterpiece After dagobert(600) ? no to mutch feodal. Only "big caravan" with a noble can move around with the "tonlieux" tax. Famine in 800 is climate change. We must go back before "Mérovée" to have a "interconnected strangled". Yes "rome". Climatic change by drilling : data.les-crises.fr/images/1300-climat/1345-analyse-rechauffement/hemisph%C3%A8re-nord-temperature-12000.jpg

[@corymerritt9100]

WE REQUIRE MORE VESPENE GAS!

[@RafaelLVx]

Yeah, so, it's "wyverns" not "wyrvens".

[@DungeonMasterpiece]

its part of my brand.

[@RafaelLVx]

@@DungeonMasterpiece at this point it definitely is, and my stake in this is to annoy you about it 😅 Nice video, sir Baron.

[@mslabo102s2]

These explanations are cool and all, but to me, it feels like they only add burden when actually building the world. What is your opinion about it?

[@DungeonMasterpiece]

Keep what is useful, discard what is unhelpful.

[@SirFleisch]

WTF this AD :D

[@stochasticagency]

A hair product...

[@TelloHacliah]

Keeps can cause impotence. How about you don't push pills on the channel, please.