Organic Towns: A Settlement Turn (month 1, before the players show up)

It has almost been 2 months since I started the Organic Towns and Taverns life for Windemere Crossing and The Nimble Priest Inn. First, let's see what we are doing in Windemere Crossing since we really did not do much there.

I don't think I ever established the basic population of Windemere Crossing, other than there are a fair number of empty buildings. Settlement points are based on the population, and as this is trade town on a fairly popular trade route, let's just start with an even 300 people. I've established a lot of NPCs, and there are a few more for the potential adventures from a few books and things. We have 30 settlement points. And there is a worksheet for settlements (I may eventually have to figure out how to combine the Spectacular Settlements and Organic Town worksheets into something a bit more comprehensive!). Somewhere back in the blog I did go over the settlements worksheets, and I have a copy handy. Basically, though, I seemed to have misplaced the priority of Windemere Crossing: it was supposed to be focused on the military, being a military town. Think I repurposed that: it was back when Tuvano was a thriving capital of the Respeth Kingdom, but with its fall (and yes, I will run that TFT game sometime!) the Dwarves basically took over centuries ago, and the capital is now Thuluhm, weeks away instead of just a week. The Crossing stood almost empty until the Ocean Trade Route was established and has grown as a trade town since then. I also know 30% of the population live outside the gated walls.

Anyway, back to our worksheet for growth. I know I did this somewhere, but cannot find it. So I've created a new one, and there are a lot of factors to consider. Various things either cost of give settlement points, and give advantages. I've got the Windemere Crossing worksheet posted below. While we do start with 30 SP, we actually have another 51 for various things. The big points come from the stable and inn: Lurboc the Orc family and the Sea Elf Pirates have the biggest impact on the little trade town.

With 81 SP (Settlement Points), we can build more things or expand what we've got. For me, the question is: these points are an abstraction similar to the Traveller Resource Units (which I never really played with). OSR games give a rate of 25GP per SP. This give Windemere Crossing basically 2000+ gold a month for various projects. Part of that will be building new houses - our population increase is about 4% a month. I can see things public sector things - the road, walls, town hall sorts of things - getting improved. But the points also go to the various shops and private facilities. We'll just gloss over that part of things unless it comes up in a game. And since this is all behind the scenes, it won't come up!

And the worksheet is missing some important bits: I'm going to have to break it down to building per line so I can have the costs and benefits listed a bit more easily. Looking at the government types, thinking an oligarchy is the closest: though technically a feudal outpost, the Elves have pretty much taken over the town a few years back. This also adjusts the crime and trade scores. And as the leader is also a kleptocrat, this has some severe consequences: gives us a bandit hideout (the Silver Pirate) and a really high crime score! Though this is a bit more organized, and if King Axechest finds out, there may be some troops moving in to take back this former military outpost.

Each building has events we can roll for. Having a few dozen buildings means that we also have a lot of rolls. 

Let's see what happens in Windemere Crossing the month before the players show up (I figure I'll be running the game before I do the next post). 

First, our general crime: someone has been scratching jokes into public buildings that require obscure knowledge of both Dwarven linguistics and the mating habits of Otyughs to understand. And oddly, my Spectacular Settlements work sheets show that the town is 50% human (~150), 25% Dwarven (~75), 15% Elf (~45, almost all the Sea Elves), and the remaining 10% various races (we do know Lurboc the Orc lives outside of town at his stables).  I need to make a note of the scratching, though none of the players are Dwarves.

Ahh, and there are only 3 rolls per settlement turn (monthly). Crime (above), morale and then a table for which building. Our morale roll indicates the residents are fearful of a threat to Windemere Crossing but are confident in the leadership. We have had an occasional Orc attack, so now I know we may want to start training a militia unit.

Which funnily enough leads us to our building roll - it was barracks. Someone was caught sneaking into the barracks: an assassin! Perhaps a hanging from our sheriff. 

Now we have our 81 settlement points to spend. As we are gaining 4%, or 12 people, this month. As this is on a trade route, it does not mean 12 babies this month, though rolling 1d4 there will be 4 new babies this month, which means 12 adults have moved in from somewhere. We're going to be building 3 houses to take into account next month's growth as well. Costs are in lumber and a total of 9 SP. The houses will be available at the start of the next settlement phase in a month. Though there are also other settlement actions we can do - as this is spring and food is plentiful, not going to worry about food storage. But in the fall months with the harvests come in, we'll be spending points for that. 

We're going to be improving the barracks from I to II and will cost is 50 SP and take 2 months. As metal is not as readily available, there is a 33% surcharge hauling it down from the mountains, so we'll just call it even for our point usage. We'll start training our militia next month. We know Rennor will want to be a part of it, though her father may not want her to. What's an Orc to do...

Worksheet (which I know I did already but cannot find it! So, I've saved it off in my Windmere directory and printed off a copy for the physical folder. And will still somehow lose it again!)

And I've run out of time for the tavern rolls this month! I'll get to it in the next post of so. 

But I do have a few things going on in the town now, which I'm adding to my cheatsheet. The wall scratchings, the assassin, and the town is a bit worried about another Orc attack.