2025-02-01 - Creating Our Starting Town

Previous session: Next session: 2025-02-15 - Social & Light Discussion

Where Were We?

In the beginning, the map was without form, and void.

And Then What Happened?

For our first session, we played Ex Novo to design our starting town.

Setting Assumptions

Jenn would like "happiness".

Dave wants "not grimdark".

"Noblebright"? Good guys are good guys. Bad guys are bad guys. Moral compasses are more set and obvious.

No (deliberate) commentary on the current political situation. Pure escapism.

Avoid "Dimension 20" territory.

Multiverses? Could be okay but let's not overdo it to cover plot holes. Stick with D&D cosmology. This setting won't be in the Forgotten Realms. Deities TBD later.

Use the 2024 D&D 5E rulebooks.

Use Foundry VTT? Let's check it out.

D&D Beyond for character sheets.

What's the species mix? Maybe more classic fantasy where towns are more single-species. For this town, default to human majority.

Mike's not excited about steampunk but doesn't care too much.

Druids exist? Jenn's interested in bringing Orla back. Maybe major areas have druid groves, giant trees? Druid groves as seed for settlements. What if druids are the only clerics (in this area)?

"American movie-medieval"/ren faire feel, like a Celtic influence too.

Dave's interested in an arcane magic user, so some source is important to exist. Would we use standard 5E spell list? Remove things? Add things?

James is working on a wizard subclass around "sonomancy". Sound based magic. Could be interesting.

Scale

Size

What size is this settlement? Small city.

Age

Grown: a respectable age, a handful of generations.

Terrain

Geography

Hills

Features

Woods Depression - a basin in the middle of the forest Lake River

Purpose

Location

Useful natural resources: logging & lumber

Decision

Settlers looking for freedom - oppressed loggers broke away from their guild in a neighboring kingdom & started their own

Power

Hierarchy

Governing council

Representatives of each faction plus an at-large elected member colloquially known as "the froe".

Factions

Staunch allies

• Loggers
  • symbol: pine tree
  • landmark: camp in the forest
• Rafters
  • symbol: 6 logs bound together
  • landmark: dockyard

Rafters dominate because they make the deals, move the resources. Loggers are under-appreciated for their labor (history repeating?).

"Freemen's Wood"

Development

The age selected above gives us ten phases

1: 562: Two Districts Join

Founding district and adjacent one along the north side of the lake.

2: 266 Redistribution of Wealth

Early profits helped the Loggers build a proper camp deeper in the forest

+1 district

3: 246: An Important Alliance is Forged

Leaders of the Rafters and Loggers join

4: 442: Education Gains Value

Milling brings in more profit, and the sawdust can be made into paper for books, allowing the town to build a library.

5: 323: A Need Now Satisfied for All

Milling leads to the rise of various forms of woodcrafting, which begins to diminish the overall logging + shipping power

6: 426: A Shift in Cultural Values Occurs

A bridge is constructed across the river.

7: A Peaceful Neighbor

A halfling farming community provides agricultural products

8: 425: Outsiders Arrive

Halflings from the trading neighbor.

9: 414: A Festival is Established

A music festival at a fair grounds by the lake

10: 636: The Land Opens Up

Land near the depression sinks, revealing a cave opening near the edge of the forest.

Plans for Next Time

More world building — especially whatever impacts character creation. Species, faiths, culture, that kind of thing.