OSR Great standalone fleshed out settlements

[timbannock]

What are some great supplements that feature fleshed out villages, towns, and cities without a significant reliance on a larger campaign setting's trappings? I'm building my own world and have loads of adventure sites like this, but having trouble sourcing settlements that aren't either so bare-bones (Whitesparrow in Sly Flourish's Fantastic Adventures is cool but too little content on its own) or too integrated into setting assumptions (Waterdeep and Sharn).

An example of ones I like are the keep from Keep on the Borderlands, Hommlet, and Sandpoint from Pathfinder. They're not only fairly "generic" but also have cool stuff going on inside them regardless of the larger adventures around them.

 

[Alzrius]

Raging Swan Press's Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands (for 5E, there's a Pathfinder 1E version as well) is supposed to evoke the same impression as B2.

Please note my use of affiliate links in this post.

 

[haakon1]

Raging Swan has an entire series of villages - 5 books of them - and they’re good. For OSR, get the PF1 version, and it’s mostly 3e compatible, so semiconvertible to AD&D or OSR. You get them from DriveThruRPG or Raging Swan’s website.

 

[Voadam]

Pirate's Guide to Freeport is a great detailed island trade city state with a lot detailed and going on and is system neutral. and has a Castles and Crusades rules companion if you want NPC OSR stats and such. Freeport being an early standout in the OGL era was added to a number of different worlds by different publishers and while it has its own chapter on a wider world it is very adaptable to a bunch of worlds where a former pirate haven maritime trading hub city state island can be slotted in. Has pirate, Mythos, and urban D&D themes running through it. The details of places and establishments to use is a standout of the Pirate Guide.

 

[aco175]

4e DMG has Fallcrest in the back of it. Not OSR but has a lot going on that can be easily used.

There is also some great stuff on Restwell Keep from the Dungon articles about the Chaos Scar series. These were a homage to the Keep on the Borderlands. Dungeon 176 has the beginning adventure and full description of the Keep on the Chaos Scar.

 

[Mannahnin]

Restenford from L1, The Secret of Bone Hill is great, IMO. A very good little town and mini-sandbox around it, ripe for seeding with another dungeon or two.

 

[thirdkingdom]

Not to pimp my own stuff, but I've got a couple of settlements in hexes that can be plopped down wherever. Let's see:

*The Basilisk Knights. Grassy hills, town controlled by order of knights that patrols the surrounding lands. Gold rush going on to the south. It's been compiled into a larger hexcrawl book that adds a new village to the area.
*Village of the Owl-folk. Arboreal community of owl-folk . . . actually, I think you did the original layout for that one, but it has been revised since.
*The Domain of Deepwater is a seven-hex domain cluster centered around a keep and village.
*My newest Patreon release is a sub-arctic community that supports a research institute and their expedition into the Frozen North to recover lost artifacts of the giant-folk. This should be available middle of next week.

 

[haakon1]

4e DMG has Fallcrest in the back of it.

is that the source for the Nentir Vale setting? I’ve searched for a source for that and couldn’t find it.

 

[timbannock]

Not to pimp my own stuff, but I've got a couple of settlements in hexes that can be plopped down wherever. Let's see:

*The Basilisk Knights. Grassy hills, town controlled by order of knights that patrols the surrounding lands. Gold rush going on to the south. It's been compiled into a larger hexcrawl book that adds a new village to the area.
*Village of the Owl-folk. Arboreal community of owl-folk . . . actually, I think you did the original layout for that one, but it has been revised since.
*The Domain of Deepwater is a seven-hex domain cluster centered around a keep and village.
*My newest Patreon release is a sub-arctic community that supports a research institute and their expedition into the Frozen North to recover lost artifacts of the giant-folk. This should be available middle of next week.

Absolutely interested in folks sharing their creations in this thread!

 

[Aldarc]

is that the source for the Nentir Vale setting? I’ve searched for a source for that and couldn’t find it.

It is. Fallcrest and the Nentir Vale was first overviewed in the 4e DMG 1.