Total Improv: Settlements

Welcome to my third entry in "Total Improv"!
Today's topic: settlements and how to totally wing them during a game.

Updated 22/4




The Basics
First thing you need to do is to define the size of the settlement, since this affects your workload. I use five categories:

• Thorp. Less than a hundred people. 1d4+1 areas. Buy/Sell limit: 10.
• Village. Hundreds of people. 1d6+2 areas. Buy/Sell limit: 100.
• Town. Thousands of people. 1d8+3 areas. Buy/Sell limit: 500
• Large Town. Tens of thousands of people. 1d10+4 areas. Buy/Sell limit: 1000.
• City. A hundred thousand people. 1d12+5 areas. Buy/Sell limit: No limits.

Random Size Table ripped straight from Perilous Wilds.
1-2 Thorp.
3-5 Village
6-9 Town
10-11 Large Town
12 City.


Commonalities

• Aestethic. What does the settlement look like? Color? Light? Smells? Sounds? First impression?
• Reaction to Outsiders. Are strangers welcomed? Do they ignore you until you've flashed your wealth? 
• Resources. What do they produce? What do they eat? Where do they get their drinking water from?
• Settlement Landmark. What is the first thing that tends to pop up in visitors' minds when they think of the settlement?
• Problem. What is the main issue of the settlement right now? How does this influence its ambience?
• Factions. Towns have 1d4 factions plus one governmental faction. Cities have one governmental faction plus 1d6+1 other factions.
• Who (or what?) rules the settlement?
• Gimmick. What's a fun, mechanical way to distinguish this settlement from all others? Can you hire giant, docile bees to get around here, are bribes 2x more effective, is the water contaminated with hallucinogens? Is it easy to round up hordes of thugs due to high unemployment, or are there secret passageways beneath the settlement?

If your mind goes blank at the sight of this task, no worries.

Ways of brainstorming:

• Look at Icons. Grab a random image and go with the first thing you think about. Either use the same image for all bullet points or roll up 8 icons.
• Look around your surroundings. What's the first thing you lay eyes on? Hell, grab a book and turn it to a random page, look at the first word.
• Think of a random word. What word pops up as a response to that? Black>White>Milk>Milky Way>Galaxy.

Thorps and Villages
Usually don't require a lot of effort. They tend to feature a handful of buildings, centered around a central landmark, such as a church, or town square.
Roll the dice type listed to get X dice, dice drop that many dices on a sheet of paper, draw outlines around them. This is the settlement map. It is likely every building will be visible from the town square.
No random encounters.


Towns and Larger
For larger settlements, you use the same method, but instead of drawing the positions for individual buildings, you instead draw outlines of districts. Take note of the edges of the dice, and draw a straight line from one edge so it meets the edge of another. This shows how the districts are connected to each other.
For each district, roll a d4 to determine their general wealth level, roll up a random Business to determine the most common one in the district, then finally give each district a landmark for PCs to navigate by.


1. Poor
2-3. Average
4. Rich.


Random Encounters
The first time they enter the settlement, a random encounter should occur. Then there is one every Settlement Turn (1 in 6), time span depends on what activity they choose to do. 

If the settlement features several districts, there is also a chance of an encounter every time they walk into a new district.

The Super Generic Encounter Table (2d6).
Color the result to the context you're in.

2. The Settlement Problem Rears Its Head. This should usually throw a wrench into the PC's plans. For example, a settlement with Plague as a problem suddenly experiences an outbreak, while one with Dinosaurs at The Gates discover that a dino has managed to break through a wall and is now on a rampage.
3. Social/Festival Encounter. A festivity of some kind. An opportunity for the PCs to get acquainted with the local culture.
4. Town Watch. 50 % chance of being 2d6 of them, otherwise 1d12.
5. Aggressive encounter. This usually means trouble. Their behaviour toward the PCs is antagonistic for some reason.
6. Anywhere Encounter. Something you could encounter at any part in the settlement.
7. Scene. The PCs walk into a scene that's already ocurring, and may choose to get involved or not. I like to use a Random Profession, along with the Narrative Generator to see what the scene looks like.
8. Common Local Encounter. This consists of a profession and a personality trait describing them. The type of person the PCs are going to see if they look around (jolly sailors, needy beggars, moody wizard apprentices). If rolled, however, it indicates that it is unusual in some way.
9. Faction Encounter. Someone belonging to either of the factions of this district, or a random one.
10. Settlement Event. Something happens that affect the PCs movements in the settlement and/or introduces new complications, such as a driving rain that penalizes sight-based actions, a cold snap that makes running around perilous, or the announcement that a VIP has died, causing a large burial procession throughout the streets.
11. Social/Local encounter. They offer something beneficial to the PCs.
12. Contact or Recurring NPC. See [Actions] below. If there is no contact around, use something else.


[Actions]
1 Dead.
2 Fighting desperately with a district encounter.
3 Fleeing from something, they press a small package into the PC’s hands.
4 Running from watchmen.
5 Deep in conversation with someone from a faction hostile to the PC.
6 Chatting up an attractive young person.
7 Buying something.
8 Deep in conversation with someone from one of the PC’s factions.
9 Stumbling around disoriented and confused- are they drunk? Or something else?
10 On their way to a broker to act on a sweet tip.
11 Supervising moving a large amount of material relevant to their career.
12 Standing in the middle of the road with a shocked look on their face.
13 Examining a structure with great interest.
14 Moving furtively, trying to hide their appearance.
15 Doing something that seems remarkably out of character, opposite their usual character in fact.
16 Wild eyes, crazy hair, frantic.
17 Whistling happily, largely oblivious to their surroundings.
18 Eating or drinking something.
19 In a furious shouting match with someone, possibly about to come to blows.
20 Passed out in the gutter.


[Hostility Reason]
1. The NPC mistakes the PC for someone else.
2. Doesn't like adventurers.*
3. Doesn't like PC's looks.*
4. Philosophical hate.
5. Racist/bigotry.
6. Robbery/confiscation.
7. Lust.*
8. Breakdown/Madness.
9. Imagined slight.
10. Clan/group hate.
11. Doesn't like PC's company.*
12. Doesn't like PC's clothes.*
13. Thinks PC's looks shady.
14. The PC's disrupts NPC's plans.
15. They're in the way.
16. They're drunk.
17. Religious hate.
18. Revenge.
19. Envy.
20. Wants to capture PCs for:

1. Ritual sacrifice.
2. Bait.
3. Slavery.
4. Ransom.
5. Exchange of prisoners.
6. Pressganging. 

*Wants to subdue, rather than kill.

-Optional, Severity-
Roll a d6 if you need more context about the encounter.

1 Bumped into by encounter.
2 Passively witness encounter.
3 Clash between this and another encounter. Roll twice.
4 Delayed, takes an hour longer due to Encounter.
5 Get separated due to Encounter.
6 Recognized by, or recognized at the scene of encounter.

Credits to Jeff Russell at Blessings of the Dice Gods



Navigating Inside a District
Sources:
Tarsos Theorem
Last Gasp

For the times when you need to crawl around a district on foot, see Tarsos way of creating a city street map with playing cards. When they want to examine their closest surroundings, use Last Gasp's crawler tables.