Unboring urchins: more than thieves and victims
The classic fantasy urchin isn’t much to the eye.
They either congregate in orphanages, waiting for villains/PCs to burn it down.
Or they roam the streets in packs as thieves.
I like to build on that second idea. Young folks growing up on the streets would know a lot about said streets. They’d have to in order to survive. They’d have to read the rhythms of the city, knowing which places are safe and when. And which places are ripe with resources.
So they’d know a lot about how the city works - valuable information they can sell to the town guard, tourists and adventurers.
Still, even that’s been done. What can we do to make the city’s underclass more interesting?
The real question here is: what jobs only exist in a fantasy world, that poor children can do?
Interpreters
Kids absorb languages as easily as they breathe. In a melting pot city full of elves and orcs on the streets, kobolds in the sewers, goblins in the alleys and barbarians outside the walls, who better to act as a translator between these people?
Yeah, the Comprehend Languages spell exists, but not everyone knows or can afford fancy-ass magic. Also, that spell only translates - it doesn’t tell you about taboos or customs.
You can take this further. Some urchins will be on good terms with the kobolds and know how to navigate the sewers without triggering their traps. Others will know the orcish customs to stop you making faux pas everywhere.
Blood bag
In the right (wrong?) hands, blood has a thousand uses.
A cultist or vampire could hunt for hapless victims. Or, if they want to keep a low profile, they can take a little blood from a dozen urchins. It’d be cheaper and easier that way, too.
Ethically and sustainably sourced!
Recruiters
The thieves guild might be a respected organisation in this city. Even if it is, most of the members come from nothing.
Urchins could supply the guild with new recruits in two ways.
Firstly, from their own ranks. The quickest and sneakiest among them can earn their place among the guild.
Secondly, as a secret test for outsiders. Put a potential new recruit among the urchins and see how they react. If they treat the urchins as inferior, how are they going to behave in an organisation made of criminals?
Speaking of a thieves guild…
A fun thought experiment is to think about how one shapes the city it’s in. As the guild starts from nothing… slowly rises in influence… seizes power behind the scenes… then collapses into chaos… what subtle and drastic ways does this change the city?
Answer that and you can build a world that lives and breathes - that lets the players see more than what you tell them.
If you like that idea, check out Footprints - it teems with this sort of stuff. From evil cults to barbarian hordes, how do the groups in your world shape it?
You can see how here: