How do I create and organize locations?

Locations are places in your campaign world, from continents and cities down to individual rooms. SwiftPrep helps you track atmosphere, sensory details, inhabitants, and dangers so you can bring places to life when the party arrives.

Creating a Location

1. Click Locations in the sidebar
2. Click Create Location
3. Enter a name (required)
4. Fill in additional fields as needed
5. Click Save

Location Fields

Basic Information

Sensory Details

These fields are designed to be read aloud when the party enters:

[!TIP] Even one or two sensory details transform "you enter a tavern" into "you push open the door and the smell of woodsmoke and cheap ale hits you. The room is dim, lit by guttering candles. A few sailors glance up, then look away."

Features and Dangers

Features give players things to investigate. Dangers create tension.

Connections

Story Elements

Organization

Building Location Hierarchies

SwiftPrep supports nested locations using the Parent location field:

The Sword Coast (region) Neverwinter (city) Docks District (district) The Rusty Anchor Tavern (building) The Back Room (room)

Creating a Hierarchy

1. Create the parent location first (the city)
2. Create the child location (the district)
3. Set the Parent location field to the city
4. Repeat for deeper nesting

Benefits of Hierarchies

• Filter locations by area
• See what is inside a city or dungeon
• Navigate from broad to specific
• Understand spatial relationships

How Deep to Go

Go deep for:

• Dungeons with many rooms
• Important buildings the party explores thoroughly
• Cities with distinct districts

Stay shallow for:

• Places the party passes through quickly
• Wilderness areas
• Locations you have not detailed yet

You can always add child locations later when they become relevant.

Reading Sensory Details Aloud

The sensory details fields are your read-aloud text. Here is how to use them:

Before the Session

Prepare sensory details for locations you expect the party to visit:

The Rusty Anchor Tavern

• Sights: Dim room lit by oil lamps. Sailors crowd rough wooden tables. A harpoon mounted above the bar, its barbs dark with old stains.
• Sounds: Low conversation, occasional laughter, creaking floorboards, waves against the docks outside.
• Smells: Salt air, cheap ale, fish stew, tar.

During the Session

When the party enters, combine and adapt:

"You push through the door into a dim room, oil lamps throw flickering light across rough tables crowded with sailors. The air smells of salt and cheap ale. Someone's cooking fish stew. Above the bar, you notice a massive harpoon, its barbs stained dark with something old."

You do not read every detail. Pick what fits the moment.

When You Do Not Have Time

If you are improvising, note a single sensory detail:

• A smell (burning, flowers, decay)
• A sound (silence, distant music, dripping water)
• A visual (too dark, too bright, something wrong)

One detail is infinitely better than none.

Using AI to Create Locations

Field-by-Field Generation

1. Click the AI Generate button next to any text field
2. Provide guidance: "cramped and paranoid" or "abandoned but recently disturbed"
3. Select tone preset
4. Generate

The AI is particularly useful for sensory details. It generates atmospheric elements you might not think of.

Quick Generation with Super Swift

1. Open Super Swift from the sidebar
2. Click Location Generator
3. Select location type (tavern, dungeon, etc.)
4. Choose tone preset
5. Generate

This creates a complete location with name, atmosphere, sensory details, and features. Promote it if you want to keep it.

Linking Locations to Other Entities

Inhabitants

Add NPCs who live or work at a location:

1. Open the location
2. In the Inhabitants field, add NPC references
3. Or from an NPC, add a "lives at" or "works at" relationship

Now when you view the tavern, you see who is there. When you view the NPC, you see where they are.

Plot Hooks

Connect story threads to locations:

1. Open the location
2. Add plot hooks to the Plot hooks field
3. Or from a plot hook, add related locations

This helps you remember what story opportunities exist at each location.

Items

If important items are at a location, create the item and set its Location field. The party finds the cursed amulet here.

Tips for Better Locations

Focus on What Is Unusual

Every tavern has tables, chairs, and a bar. What makes this tavern different? The harpoon on the wall. The owner's missing eye. The cat that watches everyone. Lead with what is distinctive.

One Danger or Secret

Most locations benefit from having one:

• The tavern's back room is used for smuggling
• The temple's crypt has something sealed inside
• The forest clearing is where cultists meet at midnight

Even "safe" locations are more interesting with a complication.

Prepare Key Locations, Improvise the Rest

You do not need sensory details for every shop in the city. Prepare:

• Locations you expect the party to visit
• Important set-piece locations
• Recurring locations (their home base, the tavern they always return to)

For everything else, improvise with one or two details.

Update After Sessions

If a location changes, such as the tavern burning down or the dungeon being cleared, update it. Add a note about what happened. Your locations should reflect the party's impact on the world.

Example: Creating a Tavern

Name: The Rusty Anchor

Location type: Tavern

Description: Dockside dive popular with sailors and those who prefer not to answer questions. The owner asks no questions and remembers no faces, for a price.

Atmosphere: Dim, smoky, watchful. The kind of place where everyone minds their own business because they are all doing something worth hiding.

Sights: Oil lamps cast uneven light on rough tables. Sailors cluster in groups, speaking low. Above the bar, a massive whale harpoon hangs from the rafters, its barbs dark with old stains no one talks about.

Sounds: Low conversation, the creak of floorboards, waves lapping at the docks outside. Someone is always playing a sad song on a battered concertina in the corner.

Smells: Salt air, cheap ale, fish stew from the kitchen, and underneath it all, the faint tang of blood that never quite washed out of the floor.

Features:

• The harpoon has a story (One-Eye Peg will not tell it, but she will sell it for the right price)
• Back room available for private meetings (5 gold, no questions)
• Smugglers tunnel in the cellar (only Peg knows)

Dangers: None apparent, but the clientele handles problems themselves

Inhabitants: One-Eye Peg (bartender/owner)

Parent location: Docks District, Neverwinter

Tags: tavern, safe-haven, docks, neverwinter

Related Articles

• What are entities and how do they work in SwiftPrep?
• How do I create and manage NPCs?
• How do I define relationships between entities?
• How do I create and balance encounters?