An idea

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Eric42
Posts: 28
Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2020 5:27 pm

An idea

Post by Eric42 »

I wrote this back in November, but strangely enough, never posted this. So I am posting it now to get feedback.

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So, there I was having to drive for hour to where I was headed this past Tuesday, when I grabbed my cell at a stop light (where I live, we have notoriously long red lights in many places) and saw that someone had replied to my adventure thread that I had posted a while back (The Local Demon adventure idea). I had actually forgotten about it. Last month, I had come down with Covid, again, and thus the past few months have been nothing short of a blur to me.

But it got me to thinking. Hey, an hour long drive by yourself is a long time. ;) I had this idea of using “The Local Demon” as the first part of a campaign that would revolve (pivet) around this town. So, then I realized that I would have to build this town. It actually got me excited about the idea during the drive up. But on the way back (another hour drive), I realized that I didn’t know what this town would even have in it. I didn’t know how big it would be, though I think I had envisioned it to be a decent size town. But I also realized that I didn’t really know what even defined what made a town a town. Does that make sense?

I know that, in the real world, what defines a town from a city and everything else is population. Would this be the same in a fictional fantasy world? Probably, I am sure. But I also wondered if it could be the things that the place offered. So following this rabbit trail, I had wondered if there were resources out there that could help a budding GM to stock their villages, towns, cities, or whatever. Stock meaning helping them decide whatever size of the place they are making might actually have. Like, a village wouldn’t have very much, if really anything at all. So, they might not have, say, a blacksmith and definitely wouldn’t have more than one of them. So, a question here is if anyone here knows of such a resource somewhere? And I don’t exactly mean a Basic Fantasy resource.

But from there, would there be any interest in trying to put together a resource like that for Basic Fantasy? My thoughts are a document covering this could be presented in two parts: part one would be a generic coverall, with break downs by population. For instance, “A village with a population up 10 would have….” or “a town will a population between 100 and 150 would have 1d4 X, 1d6 Y, 1 or 2 Z”. Then, part two would have examples of everything in Basic Fantasy RPG terms and stats. I could see this as a companion to the Equipment Emporium.
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FakeHealer
Posts: 101
Joined: Fri Oct 16, 2020 2:25 pm

Re: An idea

Post by FakeHealer »

https://www.ragingswanpress.com/at-a-glance-archive
this is a link to some really quick, well-made maps of cities, towns, villages, and a few other things...along with a map key to let you know the points of interest in them like blacksmiths, inns, shops, etc....
https://www.kassoon.com/dnd/town-generator/
a settlement generator that gets pretty detailed with buildings and such. there are a bunch of sites with varying degrees of generators so a google search will be helpful to find one you really like.

I believe most versions of D&D and the various spin-offs and such tend to stick pretty close to this scale for settlements.
Population Settlement Size
20–80 Thorp
81–400 Hamlet
401–900 Village
901–2,000 Small town
2,001–5,000 Large town
5,001–12,000 Small city
12,001–25,000 Large city
25,001– Metropolis
Seven
Posts: 836
Joined: Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:17 am

Re: An idea

Post by Seven »

I grew up in a hamlet, so I don't have any problem imagining what would be in a thorp, hamlet, village or small town. Basically, you'll find whatever businesses the rural folks need and are able to support. It there is a business that employs many people, than you'll have an inn that rents rooms. A thorp might not have a temple, but a hamlet will have a place of worship of some sort. If the locals are farmers with horses, there will be a smith who makes horseshoes and fixes plows and the likes.

Having rules that would make all villages look the same is not really worth the hassle. It's the outstanding things that make a place interesting.
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