Ye Olde Revivalist: How to Make a Caravan Crawl pt 3: Stocking a Settlement & Surrounding Locations

UPDATE: This post is now a series.

1. The Procedures Alone

2. Settlements and Factions

3. Stocking a Settlement & Surrounding Locations (This Post)

Appendix A: d30 Troubles

Appendix B: Drifters: a rules set for the weird west (forthcoming)

Appendix C: The Weird: Magic, Clerics and Spirit-channelers oh my! (forthcoming)

As a reminder, here's what I made in the first two posts.

TL;DR a group of horse nomads conquered this land, and then their leader died.

Now, we pick one of those. I rolled 5 on a d6, so we'll be picking up with Settlement E!!

CITY E: Ancient, Mud Buildings.... +Water, Livestock. -Books, Metals.

- Factions: Ancient HOA

- Locations: Community Center / HOA headquarters (complete with pool!), universities (explains need for books).

- NPC's: HOA head, annoying resident, cool professor, student doing experiments they shouldn't.

Stocking a Settlement & Surrounding Locations

Placing Nearby Locations

For each settlement, create a zoomed-in area showing roughly a day’s travel around it. Roll to determine the number of nearby locations (city; d6+2, settlement; d4+2). For each nearby location, roll d12 to determine its direction from the city (using the numbers of a clock) and d12 to determine the distance from the city. Mark each location on the map roughly. After each location has been marked, roll d6 for each other nearby location to determine if there is a path between them, using the table below.

1-2 no path 3-5 trail 6 road

Label travel time. Traveling to a distance of 12 takes 6 hours on a road, 9 hours on a trail, and 12 hours through the wilderness.

Here's what we made!

So, we now have locations V, W, X, Y, Z. The numbers are travel distances in hours (you can also see my notes from the other parts of this process!).

Troubles

Troubles describe what is going on, provide hooks, and ultimately, interesting choices. For each settlement, determine the number of Troubles (city: d6, settlement: d4), and roll randomly for that many. For the points of interest (bolded) or NPCs of the trouble, place them as it makes sense, or if unclear, roll d6 to place them.

1-4 Nearby Location (assigned randomly) 5-6 In Town

Ironically, I rolled for troubles, and only got 1. Then I rolled again, and got 1 again. So, we've only got one Trouble. Got a 24 on a d30, and so the trouble is...

24 The Fugitive: The high schoolers and their families at school. Only one child doesn't have a father present, the boy called Silence. A busy street in the settlement, with a group of teens playing a game, led by Golden Boy Mike Trussel, watched by beauty queen Jenny Pearl. But Silence doesn't play, and instead sits on the porch of a kindly old man, the former Master Sergeant Thaldo Kilmer. A bonfire is held far outside the settlement, with countless young people there. Outside the fire light, a struggle. When it is over, Jenny Pearl has had her dress nearly ripped clean off of her, Mike Trussell is dead with a revolver in his hand and an old military knife in his chest, and Silence is covered in blood. Silence runs off into the night, and no one can find him. The town is in uproar, believing Silence tried to assault Jenny and Mike died defending her, and intends to put Silence to the hangman. In truth, Mike tried to assault. Jenny, and Silence came to her rescue. Now, he's hidden under the floorboards of Thalldo's house, with the former Master Sergeant merely waiting for an opportune moment to get Silence out of town. Patron / Pay / Job. Thaldo / a cavalry sabre and other war memorabilia, priceless to the right collector / get Silence far away from here. Ideally more than one settlement away or to a city, where he can fade into the background. Jenny / gratitude / convince everyone Silence is innocent. This isn't impossible, but it's a fool's errand. Cal Trussell, Mike's father / price of a cow / find Silence and put him in the dirt.

Just to break this down:

Locations: Thaldo's House, Bonfire Location

NPC's: Silence, Jenny Pearl, Master Sergeant Thaldo Kilmer, Cal Trussell.

Encounters: Mike's funeral. If the player's don't try to get Silence out of town, I do think Thaldo tries to do it himself, and Cal catches them, killing them both. So if they roll the funeral, then I'll replace it with seeing Thaldo and Silence running from Cal, which also gives sort of a timer to it.

Given my thoughts on the next step, I'm going to push off actually placing where all of this goes.

Jobs

For each trouble within each settlement, ensure at least one job related to the trouble is placed within the settlement. Additionally, each settlement should have d2 jobs for troubles in an adjacent settlement.

This one is fairly easy here; Thaldo will be at his house and both Jenny and Cal will be in town as well.

Now, we technically don't have have an adjacent location, but I like the idea that there's trouble at the adjacent crossroads. Maybe d2 of them? Got 1 trouble off a d2, and rolled trouble 3, which is a very interesting one to have!

3 The Woman: Far outside the settlement in a silk tent, a beautiful woman sits. Men find that wherever they set out to go, they sort of just end up at the tent. It’s nothing sexual, but a conversation with this woman (she goes by Diane) just puts a man’s mind at ease. Productivity is down, and the women are jealous. Diane won’t even talk to any women! Patron/Jobs: Lily/Get Diane out of town, or get her into the local tavern. She’s ruining business for the other women of the night, like Lily. Caroline Munroe/Prove whether her husband Jimk is cheating on her with Diane. He is, but with Lily, not Diane. In their prenup, Caroline gets their farm in the event of unfaithfulness. Father Patrick/Offers a blessing to kidnap this Diane so he can perform an exorcism. She’s not a demon, so it won’t work, but she also isn’t capable of enthralling holy people.

Gives us a sense of the crossroads too: you've got...

Locations: a silk tent, a tavern, and church.

NPCs: Diane, Lily, Caroline Munroe, Father Patrick, Jimk.

So the question becomes which of these quest-givers is in our muddy HOA city, and I think its got to be Caroline Munroe. Jimk has been on the road, and Caroline is afraid she's cheating. I wonder if the tent, the tavern and the church is too many locations though? Well, we can save Father Patrick and his church for a different adjacent settlement! That will just make the crossroads a tavern and a tent!

It's at this point I get the feeling we have too few things going on to fully stock a city and five surrounding locations, so I'm going to add another trouble. Rolled 14, which means we have The Hills!

14 The Hills: On a road out of the settlement, a run down watering hole with a single bartender (Silas, scrawny, tall, weathered) and bare shelves. He recommends a shortcut to the next settlement through a series of hills just off the main path. In the hills, a well-traveled path into a box canyon, where 14 of them lie in wait. Branching paths from the canyon, left leading to a collection of destroyed wagons, and right to a cave sloped deep down into the earth where the rest of them live. Patron / Pay / Job. Kelsey, Gray Warden / chicken per person per day / escort her into the hills to investigate the many disappearances in the area.

So now, in the city, we've got...

CITY E: Ancient, Mud Buildings.... +Water, Livestock. -Books, Metals.

- Factions: Ancient HOA

- Locations: Community Center / HOA headquarters (complete with pool!), universities (explains need for books), Thaldo's House, Bonfire Location, Munroe Farm. Silas' watering Hole, The Hills (which lumps together the box canyon, the cave and the collection of destroyed wagons)

- NPC's: HOA head, annoying resident, cool professor, student doing experiments they shouldn't. Silence, Jenny Pearl, Master Sergeant Thaldo Kilmer, Cal Trussell. Caroline Munroe, a few Munroe kids. Silas, Them, and Kelsey, Gray Warden.

And we've got locations V, W, X, Y, Z, plus the city itself.

Below is what I came up with!!

Beerlaba: CITY E: Ancient, Mud Buildings.... +Water, Livestock. -Books, Metals.

- Community Center / HOA Headquarters: Squat & Muddy, Pool, Sitting Rooms

Squat & Muddy: Like everything else, muddy, covered in grassy reeds. Sizeable footprint in terms of square footage, but not tall at all.

Pool: The main event, but Mud Pit would be more accurate. Those bathing come out brown, the shores are reedy, and everyone is having a great time. This is why we have HOA's!! One person is not having a great time. Jenny Pearl runs from the pool crying, as her friends all look on. "You don't understand! Silence helped me!!" She would do anything for people to believe her, or even just to have the chance to tell her side of the story. Doesn't know where Silence is, but would be eternally grateful to someone who convinced the city that Silence was innocent, which he is.

Sitting Rooms: Inside the main building, sitting rooms. Some spas with low fires burning sage, some board rooms with rugs all over, people wearing their finest togas, and sitting on actual furniture. In one room, Cal Trussell, HOA president, lecturing on the dangers of endorsing violence. Asking everyone he knows to search for Silence. Knows Jenny's story, is attempting to keep her quiet by keeping her at the pool. Will pay 125 dollars for someone who finds him Silence, dead or alive.

- University. wet, library, experiment.

Wet: Constructed only of cold mud amidst wet reeds. 6 buildings; three for teaching, two dorms, and one library.

Library: The books of this place still rots through pretty consistently, so there's a need of more. Libraries of scribes work to keep the knowledge from being lost. Librarian Kirsten Thump is almost always in the midst of negotiating with one trader or another to get new blank books. She needs blank books, and she pays double for them. Library does contain a variety of treatises on the history of this area, as well as a few stories of magic. One such tome describes someone killing a grizzly with a rattlesnake, then smoking the meat over a fire of ironwood. After consuming the meal, their mouth spewed for sickly sweet smoke that put to sleep all those around them.

Experiment: 18 yr old undergraduate student Mienar is posted up in a field outside the library. If you watch, something whistles and flies into the air from the field, before exploding in a red sunburst. He's invented fireworks, and wants to make money with it, but people here don't understand the appeal. Loan him 20 dollars to create a firework show, convince the HOA to pay him to put it on, and he'll give you 50% of the profits! The HOA won't go for this easily.

- Run Down Army Camp. empty, one fire, haunted.

Empty: The HOA once ran this whole region with their army of "Compliance Officers." But those days are gone, and gone too is the army. This camp extends for miles; mud huts with simple campfires in neat, pre-planned rows.

One Fire: All the other huts are deserted, but one has a woman in it. The Gray Warden, Kelsey, sits here, reading through tomes taken from the Library at the University, describing the hills southeast of here (see X: Hills). She heard rumors of people disappearing down that way. Offers pay of 2 dollars a day to people who would escort her to see them. Has three eyes of an eagle, filled with a mixture of crushed diamonds and gold; will eat them to grant her the ability to see people's intentions as well as magical effects. Has the knowledge to make more; will offer the formula and one eye as alternate payment to those who express interest in magic.

Haunted: A spirit of the dead has come to this place. People walking through hear whispers, see movement where there is none, and find relics marked with their names or personal information. Summoning this spirit reveals Ser Iaoth, The Tabbris, Dead Man Who Walks, Last Guardian of Ber. Desires the overthrow of the Ibakha Empire, the death and embarrassment of Colonel Tabur, who led this army's defeat and retired to settlement D, and finally, for six soldiers whose bones were left barely covered in mud in this camp to receive a proper burial with full honors. Offers supernatural gifts for those who achieve those.

- Cattle Yard. bustling, farriers

Bustling: A storm of people, cattle and horses. At its center, coordinating it all, Stewart Paddock, Yard Owner. Knows everyone, known by everyone, incredibly effective. Knows there's an excess of cattle; pawning them off at decent discounts. Has a buyer in settlement A, but wants them shipped to him. Pays 150 for a group that can drive those cattle.

Farriers: Shortage of metal for horseshoes, nails, buckles and the like. Head of the Farriers, Oz Garmon, will pay significantly above price for finished metals; will contract for shipments of 10 or more sacks of finished metals, paying 20% up front and the remaining value upon delivery.

SURROUNDING LOCATIONS

V: Bonfire. empty, pit, tracks.

Empty: Nobody here.

Pit: Large pit, full of charred wood. Remains of the Bonfire.

Tracks: Area around the bonfire is a mess of tracks. But, leading away from it, tracks show Mike's fine cowboy boots walking away from the bonfire with Jenny's bare footprints. Then, evidence of a struggle, then the running tracks of Silence's cheap workman boots.

W: Silas' Run Down Watering Hole. shack, shelves, cot.

Shack: And frankly that's generous. Small porch out front, windows next to the door.

Shelves: Inside a few shelves and Silas behind a bar. Nobody else. Silas (weathered, lanky, old) tells of a shortcut to the next settlement over; follow the trail east until it cuts south in the hills. Suspiciously, he has an incredibly nice pocketwatch, and a Derringer up his sleeve.

Cot: Back section of it has a cot and a small kitchen.

X: The Hills. ambush, ruins, cave.

Ambush: Box valley with sloping walls. Above, Them. 14 of Them. They prefer to fight hand to hand, and run down the near-vertical walls to close the distance. Two exits at the far end; one left to ruins, one right to cave.

Ruins: Countless ruined wagons. Scavenging them yields a few coins, children's dolls, a d6 pistol bullets and a rusted Lancer Hammerless repeater.

Cave: Opening reeks of rotten flesh, and leads down into the earth. A fair walk past the entrance, a circular chamber with openings in all directions. Through the openings are Their Alcoves, containing a total of 36 of Them. In Their alcoves, a treasure trove of weapons (each character can pick any weapon), 30 ammo for that type, and a total of 456 dollars worth of valuables (watches, paintings, coins, etc). Also, a cookfire, with cuts of human flesh nearby.

Y: Munroe Farm fields, farmhouse

Fields: If you walk through them, tiny heads pop up to observe you. The three Munroe kids (Neb, Aten, Phik) play games with any who enter the farm.

Farmhouse: Two story affair with a wrap-around porch. Quite nice. Caroline Munroe suspects her husband is cheating. He hastily made up a yarn about a business opportunity up north, where there happens to be a tavern full of women, and has been gone for a week. She gets the house if he is cheating, so will pay 50 dollars to find out what he's up to.

Z: Thaldo's Home. porch, house, floorboards.

Porch: Master Sergeant Thaldo Kilmer. Old as dirt, hurts to move around. Barely talks, but has a revolver under a blanket in his lap. Anyone who asks about Silence, he tells to go speak to Jenny Pearl, as she was the last person to see him. If he believes he can trust the party, reveals Silence is under his floorboards, and will ask them to get Silence out of town, offering payment in the form of a Cavalry sabre and other war relics that would be priceless to the right collector.

House: Simple affair; only one cup, one bowl, one knife and fork. But, a huge altar to an ancient war, barely remembered. Drawings, maps, medals, the whole deal.

Floorboards: Under a carpet under the table with the altar to the ancient war, loose floorboards. Inside, Silence. Wracked with guilt for killing Mike Trussel, but knows he did it to defend Jenny. Selfishly hopes she loves him, which she doesn't.

Trouble Reminders:

Trade:

Return to the list of goods in excess and in need at each settlement. For each good, create an NPC who has or needs each of those things, and place them in a prominent location within that settlement (some goods can be lumped together into the same NPC, and sometimes this function may fit well with an existing NPC in the settlement). Whoever it is, this NPC will pay the PC's to transport and sell excess goods at other settlements or to retrieve needed goods from other settlements.

Added the whole Cattle Yard to fill this role. I'm thinking about adding something that points from other locations within this settlement to the cattle yard, but I think I'll leave it this way.

Collate:

For each trouble, ensure each NPC has a place within the settlement, create locations for people who don't have one, draw a crude map, list the locations with descriptions, add NPC descriptions and implied NPC’s, and then highlight all available jobs. Finally, name the settlements and any surrounding locations without them. Use additional tables if needed.

Seeds for Locations Within a Settlement

1	Bar	New
2	Road House	Ancient
3	Tavern	Welcoming
4	General Store	Tribalistic
5	Gunsmith	Worn-down
6	Farrier	Empty
7	Butcher	Crowded
8	Altar	Trendy
9	Well	Political
10	Military Camp	Religious
11	School	Intimate
12	Jail	Angry

And yes, there should be more bars, road houses and taverns than anything else.

Seeds for Surrounding Locations

1	Altar	New
2	Road House	Ancient
3	Standing Stones	Welcoming
4	Well	Tribalistic
5	Stream crossing	Worn-down
6	Barn	Empty
7	Cave	Crowded
8	Canyon	Trendy
9	Lake	Political
10	Beach	Religious
11	Monastery	Intimate
12	Farm	Angry

Seeds for Really Wild Locations to Mix It Up (for either surroundings or within a settlement)

1	Fighting Pit	New
2	Brewery/Distillery	Ancient
3	Manor House	Welcoming
4	Miracle Healer	Tribalistic
5	Hot springs	Worn-down
6	Centuries old tree	Empty
7	Massgrave (haunted)	Crowded
8	Army camp	Trendy
9	Major dock	Political
10	Inverted Tower	Religious
11	Mushroom fields	Intimate
12	Mythical Creature’s lair	Angry

Only thing to do now is names. So I cheated and did all this above.

Settlement will be Beerlaba, the people here call themselves the Ber. Pastoral empire is the Ibakha empire, and its the Ibakha family in charge.

And now, I'm finished with this one location! In my experience, just one settlement provides 3-5 sessions of adventure. I'm going to go through to finish the remainder, and probably post a rough version of it on Itch. If there isn't a link here yet, I'm not done!

Synthesizing Your Settlements:

Create an encounter table for the vicinity of each settlement. I typically keep mine fairly simple:

d20

1-4 Troubles

5-8 Faction

9-12 Recurring NPC's

If I haven't already, I go back to do the full faction goals.

I haven't completed these here, but will for the final version.

Connections:

Ensure each settlement has something pointing the players to an adjacent settlement (ideally 2-3 of these things). This could be a job, a trade opportunity, or a faction quest, but there should be more than one of them.