UPDATE: This post is now part of a series. In this one, I use the first part of my caravan crawl procedures to create an area with settlements and factions! The procedures are in bold, and my work is normal text.
1. The Procedures Alone
2. Settlements & Factions (this post)
3. Stocking a Settlement & Surrounding Locations (forthcoming)
4. Integrating Factions & Guilds (forthcoming)
5. Encounter Tables & Restocking (forthcoming)
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)
Get an 8.5x11 piece of a paper, and drop d6+3 dice (doesn’t matter the value) on it. If any fall off the page, you may discard them or reroll them. Ignore the value rolled, and mark where the dice landed. Each dice marks a settlement.
Roads
Roll for connections between each settlement. d6; 1-2 no path 3-5 trail 6 paved road. Assign distances. It takes 1 week to travel the length of your pinkie on a paved road, 10 days to travel that distance on a trail, or 14 days through the wilderness without a path. If connections cross where there isn’t a settlement, treat it as its own location, but populate as you would a Nearby Location. Just an inn, or a monument is enough.
This is the map I got after rolling eight dice on the page (two fell off, and I chose to leave them off). However, the paths did make a crossroads, which is interesting.
Description:
For each settlement, roll on each column to describe it.
1 | Ancient | Fine Timber |
2 | Bustling | Dried grass roofs |
3 | Homely | Mud Buildings |
4 | Pastoral | Brickwork |
5 | Urban | Rotted wood |
6 | Trendy | Sea-sprayed |
7 | Religious | Sandy-blown roads |
8 | Tyrannical | Cave-dwelling |
9 | New | Ancient Stone |
10 | Democratic | Decadent Velvet |
11 | Farmerly | Tented |
12 | Backwards | Plentiful Sun |
13 | Multinational | Dreary and Rainy |
14 | Political | Riverine |
15 | Xenophobic | Smoky |
16 | Welcoming | Concrete buildings |
17 | Quiet | Walled |
18 | Educated | Major Port |
19 | Aristocratic | Major Market |
20 | Militaristic | Palace |
A: Bustling, Dreary & Rainy
B: Quiet, Smoky.
C: New, Major Market.
D: New, Walled,
E: Ancient, Mud Buildings.
F: Militaristic, Sandy.
Defining the Settlements
Each settlement has d2 resources in excess and d2 resources in need. Excess resources are generally cheaper and higher quality, while needed resources fetch a higher price, as local supply is less than demand. You may choose your own, or roll on the table below.
1 | Bureaucrats |
2 | Water |
3 | Ice |
4 | Livestock |
5 | Grain |
6 | Leather Goods |
7 | Industrial Metals |
8 | Firearms |
9 | Fine Cuisine |
10 | Fruits |
11 | Books |
12 | Luxury Goods |
A: Bustling, Dreary & Rainy.... + Water, - Luxury Goods. Love the dice. Of course the rainy place has excess water.
B: Quiet, Smoky.... + Leather, Ice. - Fine Cuisine. Maybe the smoke is because this place is cold - it's got an excess of ice. Mountains maybe?
C: New, Major Market.... +Guns. - Luxury goods, ice. with three settlements in the same area needing more luxury goods or fine cuisine, they've got to be sites of fairly high productivity with correspondingly high disposable income.
D: New, Walled.... +Luxury goods. -Ice. Hotter climate, and natural trade opportunities with B in particular. But C is also new. Settled at the same time perhaps?
E: Ancient, Mud Buildings.... +Water, Livestock. -Books, Metals. Mud buildings and livestock calls to mind the Shire.
F: Militaristic, Sandy....+ Ice, Livestock. -Fruit, Leather goods.
Ice in a sandy area reminds me of middle eastern Yakhchals. Having livestock but needing leather goods makes me think of cowboys, which go with a desert-ish ethos.
Cities
Based on the above descriptors, designate d4-2 of these as cities; the rest are smaller towns.
I think it will be D & E. I like the contrast of new and old.
A: Bustling, Dreary & Rainy.... + Water, - Luxury Goods.
B: Quiet, Smoky.... + Leather, Ice. - Fine Cuisine.
C: New, Major Market.... +Guns. - Luxury goods, ice.
CITY D: New, Walled.... +Luxury goods. -Ice.
CITY E: Ancient, Mud Buildings.... +Water, Livestock. -Books, Metals.
F: Militaristic, Sandy....+ Ice, Livestock. -Fruit, Leather goods.
At some point, label the biome(s) of this area. If unsure, roll d4 for number of biomes, then d6 1 desert 2 grasslands 3 mountains 4 swamp 5 steppe 6 forest
Didn't feel the need to roll for this.A&E have water, so they get wet grasslands.
F is sandy, so desert.
C & D both want ice, so I assume its toasty. Hence, dry grasslands.
B has ice, so snow covered mountains fits.
Factions
Establish d4+2 factions. For each faction, roll once on each column below to describe them.
1 | Guild | Expansionistic |
2 | Tribe | Backwards |
3 | Commune | Money-hungry |
4 | Empire | Egalitarian |
5 | Monarchy | Ancient |
6 | Feudal Pact | Progressive |
7 | Religion | Macho |
8 | Army | Exclusive |
9 | Religious Order | Decadent |
10 | Democracy | Vengeful |
11 | Farmers Union | Militaristic |
12 | Historian Group | Image-Focused |
13 | Khaganate | Conniving |
14 | Company | Anti-Intellectual |
15 | Family | Intellectual |
16 | Duchy | Reactionary |
17 | Magical Order | Pastoral |
18 | Bureaucratic Org | Compassionate |
19 | School | Punitive |
20 | HOA | Creative |
1 HOA Ancient
2 Family Pastoral
3 Guild Punitive
4 Religion Progressive
5 Empire Pastoral
6 Bureaucracy Pastoral
What do we make of that? Okay defining why three different things are pastoral seems a good start. To me, a pastoral empire in a weird west setting is 100% horse nomads with guns. We've got two new settlements on the map, so maybe the horse nomads came in and conquered the place, founding new cities as they went. Your Pastoral family is the leading family; to add tension lets say the head of the empire just passed away and the empire is mostly bickering. However, the bureaucracy established by the last head is still keeping things running. This is a little ahead of myself, but I'll say the empire and the family are both based in D, because it has a wall, while the Bureaucracy is in C because of the trade hub.
The weapon that will conquer the world.
Now, we've got an Ancient HOA, and an ancient city. Surely this means that a major power in this area is the HOA regulating who can and can't live in city E. Now, why would an HOA actually be significant? Maybe they started off with a small security team, then eventually raised an army, conquered the surrounding area and then were conquered themselves by our Pastoral Empire? Entrance to the HOA is contingent upon property ownership in the city, but they've been barred from taking up arms these days. That feels pretty good!
And now, just a Punitive Guild and a Progressive Religion. We have no factions in A, B or F so I'd love to fill at least one of those in. Maybe an ice-haulers guild that owns the ice fields in B and punishes theft? But also like there's ice everywhere in the mountains so they can't stop everyone? And the progressive religion worships.....peace? And lives out in the desert by F? Everybody else here feels fairly violent, and I'd love to have a group opposed to that. They're currently advocating for naturalistic approaches to land management and disarming various feuding cowboys, with a decent bit of success?
Roll 2d6 for their relationships to each other.
2 Immediate Attack 9-11 Talkative
3-5 Hostile 12 Helpful
6-8 Unsure
This one I don't feel the need to roll - the Pastorals all sort of hate each other in a sibling way, but unify well against external threats. The HOA is resentful of the Pastorals for conquering them. The Guild resents the Pastorals too, because they keep buying contraband ice. That creates an uneasy alliance between the two, but not because they like each other. And of course, everybody hates the progressive religion, and the progressive religion would like to love everybody.
This is the helpful reminder that the dice are a tool, not a rule. I use them when I need them, but don't when I don't.
Randomly assign or place each faction’s base in a settlement (you can change these later), Factions may share the same home. For each settlement adjacent to their base, place a representative of the faction.
Completed above.
To collate what we've just learned about each place:
A: Bustling, Dreary & Rainy.... + Water, - Luxury Goods.
- Factions: None
- Locations: None
- NPC's: Representative of Ice Guild
B: Quiet, Smoky.... + Leather, Ice. - Fine Cuisine.
- Factions: Ice Guild
- Locations: Guild Hall, Ice Fields, Ice Smuggler Base
- NPC's: Chief of the guild, Entry Level Guild Contact, Some weird little freak who lives in the ice fields, head of the smugglers. Representative of the Bureaucracy. Maybe they're responsible for taxation?
C: New, Major Market.... +Guns. - Luxury goods, ice.
- Factions: Bureaucracy Pastoral.
- Locations: Major Market, Bureaucracy offices, gunsmithys
- NPC's: Head of the Bureaucracy, A Handful of Traders, gunsmiths, representative of the family (maybe an uncle who got out of the chaos of the palace), representative of the Empire (Colonel guarding the market), representative of the Ice Guild.
CITY D: New, Walled.... +Luxury goods. -Ice.
- Factions: Pastoral Family & Pastoral Empire
- Locations: Palace, army camp (head of the empire itself), artisans shops.
- NPC's: Royal Family members: Naive eldest son, clever secondborn daughter, power-hungry mother-in-law (hate to rip the Livia trope but things happen). Most talented general. Littlefinger-esque treasurer. Butler, who can serve as an entry level NPC. A few luxury goods makers.
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.
F: Militaristic, Sandy....+ Ice, Livestock. -Fruit, Leather goods.
- Factions: Progressive Religion.
- Locations: Temple for religion, livestock yards, a few bars, fields outside town full of livestock, fields of Yakchals.
- NPC's: Rep of empire (lieutenant keeping the peace), rep of family (a cousin trying out their luck as a cowgirl), head of religion, cool cowboy.
Crossroads:
- NPC's: HOA, all three pastorals. Maybe some sort of holy site that's a neutral meeting and negotiating ground? Or a battlefield? Idk.
The above is more skeleton than finished product. In my next segment, I'll pick one of the above (maybe I roll for it, maybe I just choose) and create the detailed map showing the area around it, along with the surrounding locations. I'll also populate troubles, and do some other work to clean up each location. One such settlement has been an average of 3 sessions or more worth of content for me, and the idea here is to eventually fill in all six that way!
Follow along for more!!
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