Building a village

[Grimmjow]

So I'm creating a village in my spare time. It will basically be for the next campaign i play, worked in as the village my party starts in.
I'll be deciding what races are in and around the village later and only allowing my party to play those races.
For now what I'm looking for is things to put into the village. I'll need an inn, a market area, and some farms around it but that's really all have so far. What else could i add?

 

[Trit One-Ear]

I would suggest planning some form of governing body or authority for the village. Depending on how big/affluent you want to make it, it could be anything from a single village elder, to a mayor, to a village council, or even a representative appointed by a nearby duke/king. This gives someone or a group of someones that your players will have to interact with during their time in town.

I think adding NPC's with various roles and involvements in the town will do you more service than coming up with buildings or areas. You have a pretty basic foundation for a village, and in my experience that's all you really need. When the players want to find something else in the village (the library, the blacksmith, the temple, the healer) they'll ask where it is. Chance are the village will have something pretty generic for them to go to, but what can make it interesting and/or notable are the people they meet in these places.

I use http://donjon.bin.sh/random/[URL=ht...sc.php?do=dbtech_usertag_hash&hash=npc]donjonhttp://donjon.bin.sh/random/#npc sometimes to make up npcs on the fly.

Hope this helps!

Trit

 

[Derren]

How big do you want your village to be? Do you want it to be more "down to earth" and like real medieval villages or more the romantic fantasy version of it?

What are the essentials you absolutely need? You most likely want a place for the PCs to get weapons and armor from and to receive healing, etc. (even though with those things we are likely talking more about a town already).

 

[Grimmjow]

I have five different gods in the village.
Moridian brought in by the dwarves
Pelor by the humans
Buhamut by the dragonborn
Melor by the elves/drow
and Kord, because he's friends with meridian and buhamut.
Im thinking I'm going to have the priests, the "high" priests, for each god be in charge, acting as a 5 person council.

Its going to be a small village with around 500 maybe. I know there will be an untrained militia. A human who use to adventure soul job in the village is to manage the militia but most people are farmers.
There is going to be a tiefling merchant in the town also. He is part of a bigger enchant family, just representing them in the small village of Stonehaven

 

[The Red King]

Don't forget the basics.... wells, farms, a blacksmith, bakery, inn, clothing/seamstress. That kind of stuff tends to slip past me when I'm town building.

I never forget the haunted manor, infested lake or crumbling caverns.


Include a graveyard as well. The dead have to go somewhere!

 

[Derren]

I have five different gods in the village.
Moridian brought in by the dwarves
Pelor by the humans
Buhamut by the dragonborn
Melor by the elves/drow
and Kord, because he's friends with meridian and buhamut.
Im thinking I'm going to have the priests, the "high" priests, for each god be in charge, acting as a 5 person council.

Its going to be a small village with around 500 maybe. I know there will be an untrained militia. A human who use to adventure soul job in the village is to manage the militia but most people are farmers.
There is going to be a tiefling merchant in the town also. He is part of a bigger enchant family, just representing them in the small village of Stonehaven

500 people certainly does not count as a village any more, let alone a small one. That would be a town just short of becoming a small city.

How is your power structure on your world? Or more specific, to whom does the town answer and pay taxes? You said it is ruled by a council of clergy. That means that either the town belongs to the church (but they can't decide to which one, so they sorta have a truce in there), is free or the lord can't be bothered to live in there or elect someone who rules so the clergy stepped up.

As for buildings, as a town you certainly need a market place where the surrounding villages can sell their products and enough craftsmen to supply those villages with the basic stuff they need (a blacksmith for all the tools, a carpenter, maybe a mason and barrelmaker and likely a tanner). You should also add one or two more specified craftsmen to give the town an identity. That can include anything from candlemaker, over shoemaker to even a small glassblower or horse breeder) It also depends on what resources are near.

It would also have a wall, most likely a wooden one (don't forget to demand taxes when you want to enter for non citizens). If it is prosperous some of the streets around the market square and temple (or temples) might even be paved.

Much of the details depends on your decision of why there is a town in that location in the first place.
Is the land around it just so fertile so that the village simply grew and grew till it became a town? Is the location otherwise valuable, for example the only possible crossing of a river for miles so that control of that location is important? Is is in a very defensible position so more and more villagers flocked there when they felt threatened? Or is it in a very good trade location at the intersections of several highways or rivers?

This will set the tone of the village and determine how the people will view outsiders and what other buildings the town has.

As for the adventuring needs, you likely need a place where strangers can stay for a while (Inn), a place to equip them (blacksmith, tanner, temples, maybe an enchanter and at least some farmers to sell horses even if not the best ones). As for adventuring possibilities, a town of this size will likely have a few sheriffs but not enough of them if there is some unrest in the city. And they will likely still rely on drafted militia and would not have a standing garrison. Maybe they even rely on the churches for protection (clerics, paladins). Too bad when they start feuding...
A graveyard was already mentioned and don't forget that many town are build on the ruins of old ones.

 

[Grimmjow]

Sorry about all of this. I'm planing on giving this to my players when they create their characters so that they know whats going on.



Village of Stonehaven
Stonehaven is a small village built near an old dwarven gold mine. The mine was long since been depleted of gold and abandoned by the dwarves, some of which moved to a nearby river and founded the village of Stonehaven.
The dwarves lived in Stonehaven for 100 years before humans, running from an army of orc barbarians, arrived at Stonehaven 500 years ago. Together, the humans and dwarves battle and defeated the orcs, after which the humans settled with the dwarves in Stonehaven.
250 years after the war with the orcs, Elves and Drow showed up at Stonehaven, running from some monster in the Nerath Jungle 3 days south of Stonehaven. The monster never showed up at Stonehaven, but a few of the Elves and Drow stayed in Stonehaven, while the rest traveled north, to the human city of Pravarum.
In the past 100 years, Dragonborn and Tiefling have moved into Stonehaven. The Dragonborn acting as mercenaries and spreading the religion of Bahamut. The Tiefling, members of the Deviltongue merchant family.

Nerath Jungle
The Nerath Jungle is the old home to the Drow and Elves. Colossal beasts roam the Jungle. Ancient ruins lay, untouched, in its deepest parts. It is also rumored that you can find passages to both the Feywild and the Underdark in the jungle.

Pravarum
The city of Pravarum is a giant compared to Stonehaven. It is the home of the Pravarum Mage Collage, The Knights of the Steel Tide, but, most famously The Grand Assemblage of the League of Eternal Discovery, or “The Assemblage” for short. It is also where the Deviltongue family has its headquarters.

The Assemblage
“The Grand Assemblage is a highly respected-if, as the name suggests, rather flamboyant-guild for adventurers and arcane scholars.” – Amnon Deviltongue

Religion in Stonehaven
1-Bahamut-Brought to Stonehaven by the Dragonborn 100 years ago. The villagers pray to Bahamut for protection for monsters.
2-Melora-Melora’s religion was brought by the elves and drow. Her followers are mostly elves and the drow, along with half-elves.
3-Moradin-Has been in stone haven since the dwarves built it.
4-Pelor-Pelor is mainly worshiped by the farmers in the area.
5-The Raven Queen-While the Raven Queen is greatly respected in Stonehaven, she does not have many followers, only Fillith Shadowleaf. Fillith enters the city only when someone has died, in order to pray for the soul of the dead.

NPCs of Interest in Stonehaven
Torinn Flamebreath (Male Dragonborn)-Leading priest of Buhamut
Lia Sharparrow (Female Elf)-Leading priest of Melora
Orsik Stonemaul (Male Mul)-Leading priest of Moradin
Brandis Northfield (Male Human)-Leading priest of Pelor
Fillith Shadowleaf (Female Drow)- Leading priest of The Raven Queen. Fillith lives in the Stonehaven graveyard about 100 yards due north of Stonehaven.
Amnon Deviltongue (Male Tiefling)-Head merchant for the Deviltongue family in Stonehaven.
Lou-Fong (Male Human)-Ex-adventurer and leader of Stonehaven’s militia
Eldeth Stonemaul (Female Dwarf)-Full dwarf sister to Orisk and the blacksmith in town
Bhintel (Male Drow)-Leader of the traveling merchants that come through town ever 3 months. These guys are a little shady.
Varis Windleaper (Male Half-Elf)- Run the city bank.
Thava Goldscale (Female Dragonborn)-Owns the tanning and clothing store in town.
Heskan (Male Dragonborn)- Hands out mercenary contracts, but not just to any “small fry”. Not much else is known about him.
Thoradin Bronzearm (Male Dwarf)-Own the inn in town, “The Golden Nugget”.

Problems in Stonehaven
For the past 6 months goblins have been raiding farmsteads outside of Stonehaven. The militia was able to push them back most of the time, until recently. In the last few raids the goblins came in riding on giant ants. Believe it or not, these ants changed the course of the raids, and the militia has been able to do nothing about it. Lou-Fong doesn’t like talking about these defeats.
The old Stonehaven mine has been a quite place. But the last few nights people have been hearing howling coming from the mines. Most people insist it is just wolves and that they will pass, but Brandis and Fillith are not so sure.
The road to Pravarum is a major trade route for the farmers of Stonehaven. Sadly, bandits have begun raiding the road. Guards from Pravarum have begun to patrol it but so far they haven’t been much help.




Player Races
1) Dwarves-The original founders of Stonehaven.
2) Humans-Allies of the dwarves against the orcs, now mainly farmers.
3) Mul-Hey, humans and dwarves make mul.
4) Elves-Refugees from the Nerath Jungle.
5) Half-Elves-You get these when humans and elves spend too much time alone.
6) Drow-Refugees from the Nerath Jungle, same as elves.
7) Dragonborn-Priests of Buhamut and mercenaries
8) Tieflings-Merchants from the Deviltongue house.

 

[aco175]

Sounds like you have most things covered. I ran a campaign once where I gave each player a few pages of starter notes for the region. I knew ahead of time what they were playeing and some of their background. Each player had several notes for specific info they knew about, with only a few overlaping. Each character had one or two npc contacts as well in town or nearby. I worked out well and they all seemed to like the idea.

You can do a websearch on midevial businesses and come up with several ideas for stores and jobs. You can also leave things a bit open and place them on the map when you need them.