How to Create Interesting Locations for a TTRPG

So, as a game master for just about any system, a problem arises when making your worlds, and that’s the idea of a place, how to make the players engage with it. To make interesting TTRPG locations, there’s a lot of methods, but how to do it is usually straight forward when you figure out what you need to do.

What Makes a Location Memorable

In many tabletop games, one thing the players do often is move. Sometimes they move from city to city, looking for your legendary MacGuffin that is essential to the plot, and they get a bit of downtime in every big city, or they’re a single town, bouncing from shop to shop. What really stinks is when you have a location you worked on and have the players not remember why they were there, or have them immediately forget the location entirely. What makes a location memorable will depend on each group of players, but generally, players like it when there are events going on in the location, interesting non player characters, have an impact on the location, and ties in with a character’s story.

Events, Mysteries, Tension

A way to make a location more memorable is when the place feels alive, like a big festival in the capital city, or the local store is having a big sale. Sometimes, it might be a mystery afoot, the death of a very important nobleman, or the bank has had a recent robbery, which the players attempt to solve as the culprit tries to flee. Or, maybe it’s the tension between two parties, such as a miner group trying to discuss rights to a mine in a heated debate with the near tyrannical mayor, or maybe the players find another group of adventurers on the same quest, where bad blood begins to boil. All of these can make the location where these star events began a much more memorable moment, where the stories that were born from visiting those locations can give reason to players a want to go back and see how things are after they nobly saved the day, or perhaps made things worse through some cosmic fate of the dice.

Recognizable Name, All Too Familiar Face

Sometimes, it’s the people in those locations that stick to players, making them want to go back to see their favorite mook or silly character. Maybe the owner of the tavern is a gruff old man who enjoys the songs of a bard that remind him of his younger days, or a military captain who’s super relaxed and gives his soldiers some slack on their duties. Just like any player character, a NPC should be interesting as well, with quirks, opinions and personalities. Maybe, if convinced thoroughly, they could join the adventure and help out in ways they reasonably could. A cheery chef could help make meals and provide moral support to the party, while a covert patron could help get out of a hairy situation with some pesky highway men that worked for them in the past. Characters like these could either turn into helpful allies, but not everyone’s looking to make friends. Perhaps a devilish shopkeeper doesn’t deal in money, but in favors, who then banks them so that when they call in a favor, it’s something truly grievous, or a soldier who thinks adventurers are a plague, and attempts to sabotage the party through jealousy. These antagonists are an interesting challenge to try to get around, or to figure out how to best in a battle of wits or steel.

Tough Choices and Meaningful Ways

When someone has an impact on something, they will retain that memory well, and that is no different on the table. Sometimes, the players will have a say in some big event or situation that calls for them to make a decision. Maybe the elections are coming, and the two candidates are tied, and need someone to break it, or a staff member is being laid off, and the players are given the option to comfort them in their time of need. Sometimes, these actions have a little impact, such as the staff member pursuing a life in whatever the party told them to pursue, or much larger, as a new mayor puts in radical changes to the system of a once loved town. These can make your players remember these locations, and give reason to see how things have played out, either to their benefit, or downfall.

I Remember That Guy

Lastly, to make a player remember your location, give the character a tie to the place. Read your players’ backstories, learn what makes their characters tick. Do they have parents in this city, and can’t bear to see them unhappy? Give that character’s parents something they need to get by until tomorrow. Does the priest have a place where they were first shown the ways of their god? The church needs funding, else they will close down. Does the gunslinger have an old partner that keeps getting into trouble? Yeah, they’re in jail because they were caught stealing. These are some of the infinite possibilities of what a single party looks like, and their ties to the in-game world you have created. Each character has their own reasons, hopes, dreams, fears, and motivations as to why they do the things they’re doing, and validating their backstory can make them remember the whole location, and feel important to the story as a whole.