Logan's Interactive Village Creation Process
He based it on Zzarchov Kowalski's Scenic Dunnsmouth, but addressed what he felt was a lack of inter-NPC relationships.
Following the instructions, I generated this map of the town. The arrows indicate houses that have relationships, good or bad, with certain other houses:
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| The Village of Cracklinborughford, which I thought sounded peppy and industrious. |
This is how the village breaks down, by house group number.
6's: Have a surprisingly large assortment of goods to trade or sell.
5's: Dress like demons and prance around burning pyres when the moon is full!
4: Fervent devotee of a known religion.
3's: Organic body-horror replacements from a fallen star in the hills. They smell of thyme and their flesh is all-too-pliable!
2s: Members of the same bloodline AND ALSO--are In Charge Around Here. They rule through a council with a representative from each of the Number 2 houses.
The Most Interesting Feature of the town is a monolith of carven white soapstone in the center of town. The village is arranged to form rough curving lines radiating out from the monolith. Most of the townspeople seem entirely unaware of this pattern, but once you mention it to them will descend into obsession over it, eventually seeking to unlock the monolith and what lies beneath.
Other Features of Interest include a mystically placed pattern of stones and a hanging tree. Apparently they don't take kindly to law breakers in Cracklinborughford.
Now that working map is fine, but you can't use that in a game--your players would flip the table in disgust. So here's what the village really looks like; many thanks to Sarah Richardson for reaching into my mind and creating this awesome map:
Here's who's actually in those houses, and how they relate to each other:
6A: a widower who is firm friends with 3D.
6B: a bachelorette with political connections to 6A.
5A: five friends and lovers. They do business with 3D.
5B: a couple and their five kids. They have vast respect for 3A.
5C: a bachelor with political connections to 5E.
5D: a couple and their child. They owe a debt to 5A.
5E: a woman and her three kids. They have an irrational dislike for 3B.
4A: a bachelor who knows varied secrets about 6B.
3A: an extended family with distrust for 2A.
3B: a widow who frequently mocks 2B.
3C: a cleric, single parent of 4 kids. Blackmailing 3A.
3D: an extended family with a long family history connecting them to 6B.
2A: five associates involved in betraying 2B.
2B: 2 friends and lovers; they have a rivalry with 5A.
2C: a couple and their three kids. They harbor a terrible suspicion about the widower in house 6A.
While I was looking around Logan's excellent blog I found his recipes for tea-infused liquor and his suggestion to make your own labels for the concoctions you make. So I made earl gray infused Bombay gin one night, jasmine tea infused Absolut vodka after that (the "Princess Jasmine"), and chai infused Belvedere vodka last. They were all good, but the chai-vodka was excellent!
I can't draw, but I found this drawing on the internet, printed it, cut it out and taped it to an old bottle of Viking's Blood mead using double-sided tape. I pretty much feel like a master mixologist who is super crafty now.
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| I'm crafty! So crafty! |
