Making decent settlements is fricking hard

Making decent settlements is fricking hard

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Making settlements is for chumps. Real GMs steal them.

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Alright but check this out
    >Alright guys this is [town name]
    >Picture? Map? Don't got one of those bro
    >Anyway it has this many buildings and this many people and these services

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >Anyway it has this many buildings and this many people and these services
      Rookie mistake. Players will invariably ask for a service that you forgot to list, it's better to just ask what they're looking for and decide.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >Players will invariably ask for a service that you forgot to list
        Well it's not fricking there, is it? You're in a small town in the ass-end of the country.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          > Player asks about the local brothel, with a shit eating, bard playing grin
          > "Sorry, no brothels here. We're honest and simple folk. Perhaps you should be attending the church at this time though."
          And then the players are crucified as sinners by nightfall.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >implying churches didn’t promote municipal prostibulum publicum to protect the virtue of “decent” women

            trad-right morons idealize an invented fairy-tale version of the past with anachronistic “values” created by political propagandists in the last two or three generations

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              settle down troony. deep breaths

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              continue to dilate, sinner

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          >you know, I didn't want to mention this before, but I've been checking these lists of services and the last 20 towns we've been to have had NO washerwoman

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      this is why theatre of the mind is based beyond belief

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Can someone post me some good quality settlement maps?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      https://watabou.github.io/village.html

      And why do you need to flesh it out if the adventure doesn't take place in the settlement anyway?

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Literally just look up the medieval plan of any european hamlet, village, town or city. Many havent even changed much in basic layout.

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    >I'm jealous
    I didn't fricking make it, are you joking me?
    I can barely draw a stick figure.
    Anyway, how'd you make yours, it's nice.

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    The only 'decent' settlement is the one believed by the players.

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    >Inkarnate.
    besides Inkarnate what other really good map makers are there? Preferably free.

  8. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    pleased with how this turned out. sorry for the small resolution image, I had to tighten it down for filesize reasons. campaign cartographer 3. It seems capable of a lot - and some of the things people do with it are downright amazing - but I don't know how half of it works yet.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      very nice, but a bit thic with trees. medieval people tended to deforest their surroundings pretty quickly

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        only stupid people deforest their surroundings. forest conservation was already well-established practice in many places by the medieval era

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Allow me to introduce you to this country called "Britain"

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Can't build ships to conquer the world without wood. Can't get wood without chopping down a few trees.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              The British deforestation happened way back when it was but a pimple on Europe's arse. You know the English moorlands? Those used to be forests back in the olden times.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Consider that anon's first point, that only stupid people deforest their surroundings

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            That is why the previous anon specified "people."

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      > Five separate bridges
      Dude those take time and effort to make and maintain. Generally you want to build as few bridges as possible. Every house in that village could be accessible with only three bridges.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Talk to the bridgebuilder guild. All these bridges are infrastructurally important and not built to scam the king outta cash

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          I will certainly have to! Judging from meandering river scattered with islands the village is clearly built on a floodplain and all those bridges are build very low to the water, saving expense I imagine. Next rainy season they are going to suffer severe damage that I expect this guild will be all to happy to repair, for a handsome cost.
          Yes I imagine I will go talk to them, and bring some of the kingsmen for the pleasure.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          I will certainly have to! Judging from meandering river scattered with islands the village is clearly built on a floodplain and all those bridges are build very low to the water, saving expense I imagine. Next rainy season they are going to suffer severe damage that I expect this guild will be all to happy to repair, for a handsome cost.
          Yes I imagine I will go talk to them, and bring some of the kingsmen for the pleasure.

          >out-of-universe honest mistake is explained with in-universe dishonest actions
          This always brings a smile to my face.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >thinking p=np is real

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          This isn't even p=np. Frick this shit isn't even four color theorem. It's REALLY fricking easy that a twelve year old with a pencil can solve it.
          B = L - 1
          Where B is number of required bridges and L is total number of distinct land areas.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Inns weren't real either.

        Once you start picking at the nits, the whole thing unravels.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Anyone who took high school Latin and read Ecce Romani can tell you that inns date back at least to Roman times.

          Raeda in fossa immobilis manebat.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >can't figure out what the difference between the Roman Empire and medieval Europe is
            jesus, didn't stay in high school, did you?

            Most travelers in the majority of European history stayed with other people of their economic class in their homes. The Church supported travel for pilgrimage, so you could typically get compensated for the food you provided to a traveler if you were a serf.

            Then, during the crusades the more formalized hospital network (you took high school latin so you should know the roots of the word) was established to allow pilgrims to reach the holy land more easily. A hospital was a place you stayed if you couldn't find lodging for whatever reason. One of the primary reasons travelers couldn't find lodging? They were sick. So hospitals became places where sick people gathered, eventually becoming what we know them as today.

            Inns were eventually established along highly trafficked routes -- some of the earliest were in England (ca. 1200 CE) due to the basically linear pilgrimage trail through the isle. Inns on the mainland came later in general, although there are a few older ones (ca. 800) in major ancient cities.

            Get an education, kid. It won't hurt, I promise.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              > didn't stay in high school, did you?

              I did, which is how I know more than the contrarian pop culture history you do. Inns post-date the Roman Empire and didn’t necessarily have anything to do with pilgrimages to the Holy Land. Medieval England at the very least had a long history of pubs/inns that have nothing to do with the Hospitalers; read some Chaucer sometime you philistine (yes, the characters of The Canterbury Tales are on a pilgrimage, but it’s from London to Canterbury, not to the Holy Land). Inns feature in numerous of the tales.

              You yourself observe that there are inns on mainland Europe dating back to 800 AD. And then outside of Europe/the Middle East, the oldest inn in the world has been with the same family for 52 generations in Japan, dating back to the 700s AD.

              Yeah, people generally tried to stay with friends, family, or acquaintances. But that wasn’t always possible, and for as long as they hadn’t always been possible there’s been people trying to take advantage of it. For frick’s sake the foundational story of Christianity is centered on the idea that when Joseph and Mary got to Bethlehem there was no room at the inn so they had to stay in a manger. Whether or not this is a literally true story is irrelevant; it means that the idea of inns was already well-established. It’s not like inns just disappeared into the aether across Eurasia just because the Roman Empire changed management.

              > Get an education
              Yeah let’s do a review:

              You: inns did not exist
              Me: yes they did, for example the Romans had them
              You: no they didn’t, except for all these examples that did, and also a bunch more examples that predate them

              I don’t think *I’m* the one that needs a remedial education, dude.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >gets BTFO
                >tries to come back
                >can't do basic math
                I've read the Canterbury Tales, which is why I know a) they WERE on a pilgrimage and b) they're set in the late 1300s.

                Please notice I said that inns were established fairly early in England (ca. 1200s).

                Inns on mainland Europe were *not* in random ass villages, my guy. They were in major cities.

                I have a degree in medieval history if this makes it any less complicated for you.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                > they WERE on a pilgrimage
                But a) not to the Holy Land and b) were not staying at any inns connected to the Hospitalers.

                > Inns on mainland Europe were *not* in random ass villages, my guy. They were in major cities.

                I think you’ll find otherwise if you did even a modicum of research - not that I’m sayi Jr every podunk thorp in the middle of nowhere had them, mind, but they could be found in places outside of Paris and Hamburg and Rome and other major cities. Again, it’s not like the inns established by the Roman Empire just disappeared into the aether simply because the empire changed management, and even beyond those there was plenty enough trade and travel for the market for inns to exist, even if they were nothing more complicated than the local pub owner letting you throw down a sleeping mat near the hearth for the night (which is what most inns in podunk towns in D&D are supposed to represent).

                > I have a degree in medieval history

                Well then you need to take a remedial course in it because you are flat wrong about this.

                AND ON TOP OF ALL THAT, it’s not like D&D or most other fantasy RPGs is supposed to ever represent the depths of the stereotypical Dark Ages where everyone was a mud farmer gathering filth and opining on the nature of executive power. D&D is anachronistic as Hell but very broadly could be described as more or less the high Middle Ages - that is, the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, or in other words, exactly when you yourself stated that Hospitaler-founded inns started to proliferate across mainland Europe.

                Meaning that for D&D and any fantasy game that’s trying to ape D&D, inns wouldn’t be anachronistic.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >But a) not to the Holy Land and b) were not staying at any inns connected to the Hospitalers.
                Are you a legitimate moron? The hospitalier orders had hospitals, not inns.

                >I think you’ll find otherwise if you did even a modicum of research - not that I’m sayi Jr every podunk thorp in the middle of nowhere had them
                I have an actual degree in medieval history. Are you saying there's a research paper out there somewhere that says "umm, actually, inns were common and every town had one"? Because I assure you there is not.

                >it’s not like the inns established by the Roman Empire just disappeared into the aether simply because the empire changed management
                ...the Roman hospitia largely transitioned back into the private residences they had been. Stabula (think motel) largely transitioned to just being stables rather than also providing accommodation to the traveler. Mansiones -- think caravansary or roadside waystation -- all disappeared; either they became the center of a settlement or were abandoned because nobody paid to maintain them.

                They literally did just disappear back into the aether, anon.

                >you need to take a remedial course
                You need to learn to take an L, kid.

                >AND ON TOP OF ALL THAT, it’s not like D&D or most other fantasy RPGs is supposed to ever represent
                That was my point: once you start picking nits, the entire fiction of the D&D village unravels.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                > The hospitalier orders had hospitals, not inns.
                For the purposes of our discussion this is a distinction without a difference since in either case we’re taking about a place where travelers without other accommodation could bed down for the night.

                > I have an actual degree in medieval history
                I don’t believe you for a second, because even a cursory Google search would have found you several hotels, motels, inns, etc., in Europe with histories dating back to the 1100s or earlier and which have no direct connection to pilgrimages AND which aren’t located exclusively in what we’re then major cities. Hotel Alte Goste in South Tyrol, for example, is in Bolzano, which at the time of the hotel’s founding had less than 2,000 people in it.

                Your degree in Medieval history doesn’t count if it’s just something you drew up in MSPaint and framed, you know.

                > once you start picking nits, the entire fiction of the D&D village unravels.
                That’s so not the point that you’re not even on the same landmass as it before.

                The point is that your MSPaint Medieval history degree is telling you that inns didn’t really exist in mainland Europe until the 1200s to 1300s. Guess what: this is, very roughly, the era that D&D is aping. Meaning that it was ENTIRELY POINTLESS for you to bring up your fictional vision of the Middle Ages’ 8th or 9th or whatever century because D&D isn’t trying to be a copy of that era, it’s trying to copy an era when inns did exist and were prevalent. So why are you trying to claim that Medieval inns didn’t exist when they did, and you yourself confirmed that they did, in the time period that D&D is aping? Why did you bring it up? How stupid are you, and why did you think no one would fact check your obvious lies?

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >can't take the L
                >keeps digging
                Sad. No wonder you're in your mother's basement shitposting on Ganker.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >trying to play the degree card on an anonymous site
                >can’t even refute arguments
                >but it’s the other guy who’s losing

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >samegayging to try to snag a W
                Jesus, Ganker has sunk

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >everyone who disagrees with me is the same person.

                1) that’s not me.
                2) I cited specific examples three times that point to inns as an D&D nerd would understand them existing in the Medieval era, two of them outside of England.
                3) And it’s all irrelevant anyway because D&D and games like it tend to broadly exist in a rough analogue of an era where you yourself pointed out that inns were proliferating across mainland Europe.

                Until and unless you have a counter for (3), you’ve got nothing.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >no u!!!1!!!
                kek
                You're an adorable little sperg.
                Instead of owning that guy with facts and information - like he did to you - you fall into simplistic childish insults.
                Tbh it's been fun watching you spin-out, senpai.
                Moar, loser.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >loser
                kek
                You got owned, kid.
                Reed moar.

                >everyone who disagrees with me is the same person.

                1) that’s not me.
                2) I cited specific examples three times that point to inns as an D&D nerd would understand them existing in the Medieval era, two of them outside of England.
                3) And it’s all irrelevant anyway because D&D and games like it tend to broadly exist in a rough analogue of an era where you yourself pointed out that inns were proliferating across mainland Europe.

                Until and unless you have a counter for (3), you’ve got nothing.

                >no u!!!1!!!
                kek
                You're an adorable little sperg.
                Instead of owning that guy with facts and information - like he did to you - you fall into simplistic childish insults.
                Tbh it's been fun watching you spin-out, senpai.
                Moar, loser.

                Look at all this effort to avoid an L on an anonymous imageboard. If you applied yourself in school, you wouldn't be 31, no education, no career, no girlfriend, no prospects living in your mom's basement.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >no argument
                >SAMEgay!!1!!ONE!!
                >le irony of le pic
                kek
                It's even funnier because you're completely oblivious to your stupidity!
                Moar.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >loser
                kek
                You got owned, kid.
                Reed moar.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >I have an actual degree in medieval history.
                No, you don't.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      That is very nice. Did you use any specific tools/stock art or is it all hand made?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Comfy as hell anon, what'd you use to make this? Looks like inkarnate.

        I could be wrong but I think i's campaign cartographer 3

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Comfy as hell anon, what'd you use to make this? Looks like inkarnate.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      i'd give it a "would save from a dragon" out of 10

  9. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >ok guys you are in a small town
    Wow that was easy
    >hmmm yes you did find an isolated hut mostly out of site from the other houses good job finding that anon
    >you know what there is a well in the middle of the settlement
    >yeah that building was completely demolished during the encounter
    >yeah you guys are actually right beside each other so you hear anon getting into an argument
    Imagine being beholden to some shitty drawing that doesn't even give you any information at least make an actual settlement

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      players are reduced to blubbering, messy fools if there is not a map, though

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        See here is the thing. Roleplay is a skill. It is something you can be good or bad at, and for that matter it is something you can improve at.
        If your players fall apart without a map then stop using a map, take it slow, and them will slowly improve.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        The map OP posted is useless, it's literally just a bunch of houses. Odds are the players just need to find an inn, a specific villager or some shops. If they are going to actually have to spend time here the houses should look somewhat unique or if this is going to be on the table it will need to be fricking huge to let miniatures walking around it

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          idunno. maybe its just nice and makes the world feel more lived in. you dont NEED art of monsters or PCs either, but fun things are fun

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        So make a map.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        just have a list of locations they can visit. they dont need a map.

  10. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Just ask yourself the following questions:
    - Why did people settle there?
    Usually economic reasons such as good farmland, ores in a mountain or a river/coastline. Being easily defensible is a close 2nd for towns/keeps/casltes. e.g. on a hill or enclosed by a river's curve.
    - What keeps them there?
    Usually because of safety, tradition and the points above still hold true.
    - Who's in charge and why?
    Depends on the local politics most of the time.

    If you can't answer these questions about your settlement it needs work. Accessibility to resources and infrastructure (usually roads) and the age of the settlement help determining size and population.
    A village at a crossroads can turn into a trade hub and town given a few decades sometimes.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      > Why did people settle there?
      It's been so long, I can't rightly remember. There was a man who promised that this was the future. That everything would be better somehow. Earth seemed to be so full of disrepair and then a man came along promising electric cars and free speech and a ticket to mars and it just made sense. I guess we didn't think about it very much. If I could, I would go back and tell myself that there is nothing wrong with the ground under your feet. I was so young back then, just a child really.
      > What keeps them there?
      Ha! That one is much easier! Gravity, my boy!
      > Who's in charge and why?
      Well I guess that would be the bird. We type the words into the computer that it desires and in exchange food, water and clean air fall from the sky. Sometimes it wants us to talk about a thing called a 'movie', which always is a bit strange to me. I imagine these movies as far off worlds, much nicer than this one. But sometimes it wants us to be angry at a person. I don't know what this 'voting' thing is but every now and then it seems to become very important, so we type the words it wants into the computer.

  11. 1 year ago
    Anonymous
    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      In these lands no village that cant support at least 100 militiamen just don't survive

  12. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Can you guys kindly provide what you use to build city maps? I do not want to use those random generators as for some cities I want it placed exactly as I want it.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      clipstudio

  13. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    Playing with it now, you can do some interesting stuff with inkarnate

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      My biggest issue with Inkarnate is it's kind of tedious to lay down tons of stickers if you're doing a large, walled settlement.
      Anyone have any advice?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Drawing settlement maps is a waste of time, unless you're publishing a module and need "art" to sell it.
        Bullet point the useful locations, and give it to the players.
        No I'm not burned out on making maps, just another day of being objectively correct.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Draw it yourself.

  14. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Just make a non-comprehensive map with the general footprint of the place blocked out. Make sure to include the relevant services and try to have a vague idea of what the local economy is like and why the place was founded.
    Pic related is a small Dwarven fort town in the mountains I made for my 5e group.

  15. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    What's an indecent settlement?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >indecent settlement

      >Sodom, for sodomy
      >and Gamora, which is an even weirder move

  16. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    A thousand and one AI generators dedicated to producing off-putting, weird ass porn but apparently nobody thought teaching one to make cozy looking medieval village maps was a good idea.
    This is why humanity is doomed.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Who's the audience for such maps? In all of my years creating games for people, I have never once needed a town map more detailed than this one. I understand that the people who like them take their enjoyment from creating them, so they also couldn't care less for such a generator.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Same reason I like to look at all the monster art in the rule books. Some people just like pretty pictures.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          That's not a village map, that's a landscape art, and there are generators that handle it fairly well.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Ok, sure, that specific image is landscape art. You are correct.
            Can I still have a generator that produces village maps though? Forget the landscape art for a moment.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              You can. Enjoy this boring generator: https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Looks boring and abstract. Guess we really can't just have nice things.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Everything in this thread looks boring. Maps are boring unless you make them art.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Well good news if you actually run games and aren't just masturbatin on an imageboard, player groups travel a lot and most settlement maps are transitional stages at best. the players probably don't give a shit about what village forty two looks like as they travel across the kingdom. They care about where the shops are, where they can talk to knowledgable NPCs, whps in charge. they aren't going to sit there and go "Hmmm that water mill is too far downstream from the town, my immersion is destroyed". Unless you run urban adventures, the small town oustide the dungeon doesn't have to be a detailed masterpiece.
                Unless your group is Critters, then by god you better have a voice for every merchant and random npc nd make sure there's plenty of representation. Not reality level either, like Marvel Comics levels of homosexualry.
                tldr don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >They care about where the shops are
                No they don't. They only care if the town has a shop and what it stocks. Plotting every shop on a map in advance is the exact kind of toxic worldbuilding that hurts the game more than it helps it, as it's both boring and takes up time that could be spent coming up with things that are entertaining.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          >Same reason I like to look at all the monster art in the rule books. Some people just like pretty pictures.
          Frick man I could have an entire library of jsut "monster manual" like books for creatures, items or factions and I'd be the happiest man one arth, reading through them every night before going to sleep.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            There are enough such books published for 3.5 to keep you busy for the rest of your life.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        this post is why /tg/ will never be taken seriously

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Anon, I...

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >calls others autistic
            >posts a color coded bunch of hexagons and calls it a map

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              Yes, it's a map for a game (something that you have never experienced)

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                NTA but you sound pretty fricking autistic right now
                See here is the thing, most people like to dress their game up in a theme a bit, rather then deal in pure abstraction. Even in chess we call pieces 'Knights' and 'Rooks' and 'Kings' rather than just calling them piece 1 through 6.
                We take these abstract mechanics and then layer a theme on top. It's how real, non-NPC humans like to enjoy their games. So for a map, rather than just a bunch of hexagons, most people like looking at a semi-realistic drawing.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Anon, I...

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Hexes are cool but this map is incomprehensible, the key is larger than the lap itself, and the colors are so similar that it's impossible to tell at a glance which color is which district; double-takes being necessary, the utility of this map plummets.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        This homie got a pitchfork recharging station on his map. This is the fricking Mona Lisa of shitposts.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >Pitchfork recharging station
        >Watermelon terraces
        >Backwards people ruins

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Just take a map of some random medieval village and trace over it.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        > If only there was a machine to make shoes, then we would all have access to shoes
        > Just take some leather and nail it into some wood
        Frick anon its the twenty first century. We are literally trying to find ways to use computers to replace every aspect of human creativity while we slave away doing dumb shit like taxes or something. I don't think nice AI maps are an insane ask.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          You should have just said you’re lazy, if you want a computer to do it for you then go play vidya.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            > Just do more for your game
            Sounds a lot like you have never run a game. A lazy GM is a successful GM.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              >A lazy GM is a successful GM.
              NTA, I wouldn't say that, but definitely a GM who limits their projects is a GM who won't burn out as fast or as hard.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Tracing a map is about as lazy as it gets

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              To be fair, the hobby has a long history of tracing.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              And as tedious as it gets.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      That actually exists
      >https://watabou.itch.io/

  17. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Post your "Foundation" map

  18. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    And to this day no player has ever caught on

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Underrated post anon

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      What?
      Is this a merchant or loss?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        No it is a map from an MMO called Runescape. The point is to take villages from videogames, maybe vaguely trace their map if you're feeling spicy, and serve it up.
        Players generally don't notice when you reuse locations from games they have played.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          I would 100% notice stormwind or orgrimmar

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            you say that, but once ran my players through the OG deadmines, story and all, and they didn't catch on until like a week later.
            literally the only changes i made was names, and mr smite was a bugbear.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              ive long considered running vanilla WoWs defias and onyxia questlines for my players
              vanilla WoW was straight up a dnd campaign anyway

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Ok sure, some of the really big ticket place you avoid. But honestly you would not believe what you can get away with. I've been using this classic as a map for teaching newbies at the local store, week after week, for about a year now since the end of lockdowns. Nobody has ever clued on even the slightest.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              Hmm you’re right if that’s from WoW i can’t tell what that is. Dire Maul West?

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Anon it's in the filename. It's E1M1 from Doom.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Is that Bruma?

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            It is indeed Bruma. But without the Oblivion color coded map and it being very obvious from context that the map was stolen from somewhere, the players will never notice.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              I would notice a morrowind, oblivion or skyrim town instantly. Ive spent too much time checking those maps not to.

  19. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    The school textbook drawing of a medieval village is one of the most criminally underappreciated forms of high art that society has ever produced.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Like look at this shit. Does this not both inspire a sense of childhood nostalgia while provoking the imagination? I honestly feel sorry for anybody that doesn't feel a sense of wonder looking at these dirt shacks.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        There are still villages that look like this, they're just swarming with americans now.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Yes but at least in the 1100s the kids didn't need to worry about getting shot.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Chester in particular decriminalised the shooting of Welshmen with a bow.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              > A bunch of mud farmers were better at weapons regulation than modern day USA

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              Shouldn't have been shagging all the sheep if they didn't want shot.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Allegedly the story behind that is that stealing sheep was punishable by death, but fricking them wasn't. So from what I've heard that's where the legend started: thieves who were caught crossing the border lying to save their hides.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            There was a lot to fear from the woods. The stories of olde are full of people disappearing into the forest because it's a fricking nightmare realm out there.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              Good. Any shitbag kids that wanders into the forest deserves to get 'taken by the fairies'

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >that classic move of taking kids to die on the woods because you can't feed them during a famine
                Sure was fairies

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                > "Papa, what happened to my brother?"
                > "I fricking killed him so we could eat, and if you keep asking questions I'll kill you too"
                And that is how you raise a child. Folklore is a side effect of weak parents.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                what are you, a commie?

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                What are you, a /misc/ poster? Go get some comfy images of villages.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >the kids didn't need to worry about getting shot
            They just had a frickload of other things to worry about.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Maybe if you didn't post a picture for ants.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Like look at this shit. Does this not both inspire a sense of childhood nostalgia while provoking the imagination? I honestly feel sorry for anybody that doesn't feel a sense of wonder looking at these dirt shacks.

      Maybe if you didn't post a picture for ants.

      Based. Textbook art is god-tier.

  20. 1 year ago
    Anonymous
  21. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    They live only from fishing when they have a bunch of land to cultivate? But why?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      The surrounding forest is an average of CR 5 on the encounter table, but the GM didn't have a table for the lake so its pretty safe.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        This feels like a claims a campaign for cleaning the woods like England hunting wolves to extinction to allowed a safe place for cattle.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          That might actually be kind of a fun gimmick for a hex crawl campaign. Try to emulate the economic expansion resulting from all the monsters disappearing by converting hexes into farmlands over time. Seems like a nice little detail to throw in for players.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      cuz just cuz land exists doesnt mean its any good for farming.
      the soil could be dogshit, there could be salinity problems, coastal areas are also generally shit for farming as well cuz of proximity to the ocean, the rainfall could be too little or too much to support crops. seasons could be too short to grow anything worthwhile, the list goes on and on.

      food supplies based on fishing usually happens in areas where they cant really get food any other way, or where farming is a sub-optimal option that cant sustain a population on its own.

  22. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    What do you want your settlement to do in the game? Helps focus how to build it.

  23. 1 year ago
    Anonymous
    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      > for me it's 1200

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >200
        Soul
        >1200
        Soulless

        1700 is peak

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >200
        Soul
        >1200
        Soulless

        [...]
        1700 is peak

        I'm ALL about the 886.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >200
      Soul
      >1200
      Soulless

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >Filling up the moat/water way
      I absolutely hate this.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Any reason why? Issues historically? Don't like the look? Issues paying the water bill?
        I kind of feel like if you're building a castle then putting it right next to a river is a good way to prevent attack from at least one side, and if you want to dig a moat next to a river then it is going to fill up.

  24. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Look at how much greenery there is within the city walls. Seems like a nice place to live if you don't mind dying of dysentery.

  25. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Anon there’s over 6000 settlements in the UK considered villages, many of which are hundreds of years old. Just use a real map. Nobody will know.

  26. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Making a pretty picture for a "settlement" is 100% pointless work.

  27. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    >Dungeon '23
    This isn't what you are calling it right?

  28. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    >The forest wouldn't be that close to town. If the walls are pallisade the townsfolk would have cut down the nearest trees to save time and cost of transportation. There should be a wide swath of cleared land from all the shrubs cut to make charcoal and rope, trees to make firewood and lumber, and there should be vegetable and herb gardens adjacent to the houses.
    >Without any topography it appears as if the town is built over flat silt that will wash away should there be a flood. The houses built here will sink on their foundations.
    >Everything is far too square and geometric. Square city plans were an invention of the enlightenment. Old European towns and cities are built on a jumbled mess of curved roads and paths. Even a new world city like New Orleans has a confusing maze of roads that make no sense, almost as if the city grew organically from a series of plantations that originally fit the natural topography of the area. BTW, the French Quarter is the only area of NOLA that doesn't flood specifically because it was built on solid raised ground.
    >Draftsmanship is fine but too clean and "computery" for my tastes. I can tell a program made this, not an artist working by hand.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      is far too square and geometric. Square city plans were an invention of the enlightenment. Old European towns and cities are built on a jumbled mess of curved roads and paths.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        romans are autists that's different

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          >no true scotsman

  29. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    Remember it for next time. Or ignore me. I'm a pedantic ass.

  30. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Better than mine

  31. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Look at city and town plans from history. Learn why things were placed where they were, what you might expect to find in a settlement of whatever size etc. That's what I did to make towns and villages for an old west campaign I am running right now.

  32. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    tangentally related to the thread, i recalled this article from dragon i read some time ago when reading through all these lovely posts. i wonder if anyone has created a better or updated version of this table, or similar list of town/city buildings, for modern d&d? i would never actually roll on something like this table, but just taking a look at the odds is nice to think about

  33. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I used to make maps, nowadays I just pick a generic village image from google or pinterest and narrate what it has.

  34. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    did this while waiting for a player to show up. the We were joking the circle building is a fish silo

  35. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >Can easily make great dungeons and battle maps with dungeondraft
    >Wonderdraft makes it easy to slap together a world map
    >Theres nothing for easily making a visually pleasing town or city map.
    Why's it gotta be so hard.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      It is actually really easy with even simple image editors. GIMP is a free one.
      What you are missing is the art assets to just drop down onto the image. If you can find an artist that does a style you like that goes a long way. I don't mind Russ Hapke.

  36. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    1. Biggest gripe is mansion/keep/fort is on the edge of town with no towers facing the outside. Usually it's inside the town.

    2. Fort would usually support military ships or a at least a pleasure boat.

    3. Docks would likely have some warehouse.

    4. There would probably be some minor gates.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      1. I think that's a prison as the staircase to access the upper area of the gatehouse is on the town side of the wall.

  37. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >A plaza for a temple and some commerce
    >Some houses
    >Nearby farms
    Seems easy to me, sounds like a skill issue on your part. Granted making it look good is a challenge, but overall those are the elements that make a settlement.

  38. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    >The mansion was built after the village had already been founded.
    > Not just knocking down a few peasant shacks to make room.

  39. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    medieval towns were sprawling. the feudal system gave a minimum of 1,000 acres to a noble (not all farm land). That noble had to provide a number of services to make that land productive, so where those services were centered would form a village, but most of the towns people lived on their farms away from the village center.

    The farmers were grouped together 2-4 households which worked 80-120 acres together.

    I don't think I've seen many games properly give this feel to their towns.

  40. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    Your whatever-it-is doesn't look like a gold-rush town. It looks like a military outpost or some sort of logistics hub in hostile territory. If it's a bunch of gold rush people, it would be a disorganized little town without such heavy walls.

    If "it grew and was around for a while", then it needs a new reason for existing, and still needs to justify the walls. Also, your keep doesn't look like "the friendly rich neighborhood bullshitter" - why does he have four towers pointed TOWARD the city?

    And I insist that he would want to be on the coast for fishing, escapes, guests, pleasure boats, taking shipments, etc.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      When you sit down to play a game do you actually complain about these things, or are you just trying to be contrarian for the internet?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        His critique is objectively correct. If someone posts their map, they will recieve others thoughts on it. Thats how things work you know.

        Cairnwood-anon looks to me to be a clear cut case of someone who just loves to stare a neat graphics too much to think about 1) gameplay and 2) versimilitude.
        Let me also be very clear that the map is perfectly usable despite being poorly concieved.

  41. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    This is the first map I've made with Inkarnate, there is no excuse for a bad map.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      seems a bit short on houses.
      with all these fields and orchards I would expect a much larger population

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Needs more houses, especially for the size of that church and to have a village hall. Not sure if the dyer's house needs to be labelled, it should probably be by the river though. Should also be a village green, more orchards too.

        NOT FOR THE AMOUNT OF FIELDS. NOT SURE FOR THE SIZE OF THE CHURCH BUT IT WAS 2-3 HOUSEHOLDS PER 80-120 ACRES.

        THIS MAP IS THE BEST i HAVE SEEN AT INTEGRATING THE ACTUAL FIELDS INTO THE LIVING SPACE.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          No, there isnt a graveyard, the houses dont have gardens for growing their own herbs and keeping a pig or so, there are no orchards or trees, there are no barns, the ploughed fields are right next to the back doors of houses. Theyre medeival but theyre not ploughing right up to their door, they liked their space just as much as we do.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Needs more houses, especially for the size of that church and to have a village hall. Not sure if the dyer's house needs to be labelled, it should probably be by the river though. Should also be a village green, more orchards too.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        I like the edits anon, I did add a few more houses as was suggested above.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          ok but seriously a church needs a graveyard and a rural village needs at least one barn. Houses also had gardens, these could be small but were often long strips or sections which i tried to reflect as much as possible. There should be an orchard or several, should be some bees kept, and should be at least some buildings for producing neccessities, such as wool. The houses dont need to be so clustered unless theres a wall, they'd typically be set out slightly so that theyve each got their own garden. Its actually quite fun making these tbqh.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Don't forget that the church should have an archery range so that the locals can get some practice and recreation in on Sundays.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              Uhhhhhhhh. They just do that in a field idk.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Nice looking allotments, I like how much effort you put into recreating my map.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              It was a nice layout in principle, just needed more personal space. Although that app is quite addictive, halfway through mini not-Antioch now.

  42. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    This is the only village map I need.

    And it's the only one you should need also.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >This is the only village map I need.
      >And it's the only one you should need also.
      Absolutely BASED groganon.

  43. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Anybody got any ideas for something unusual or unique that a small village might have? Typically more unique stuff ends up in cities. Wondering if there are any ideas for something that feels right to put in a small town but also would be the only one of its kind.

  44. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    for me it's just copying pensylvania

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      For me, it's setting it in Pennsylvania. My setting is post-apocalyptic, and I live in Eastern PA. Picrel. (specifically "Fiat Lux," the middle part)

  45. 1 year ago
    Anonymous
  46. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    very, very wealthy town to have that much of a wall system for such a small seeming population.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      I don't know, it looks like a wooden palisade. Very quick and cheap to put up. Wouldn't take more than a few men with shovels and axes a few weeks.

  47. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    With Inkarnate's clone and edit stuff, I was able to make this one. I like it!

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      why build walls and towers where people cant walk to?

  48. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Banished or that barony-manager successor whatever it's called needs a god mode to just make village maps.

  49. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    This one, for some reason, gives me a vibe of 'small town where a successful adventurer was from and they returned home with wealth.' It also feels more rustic, less 'city' and more of a strategic town along a river used for lots of trade.
    The manor house's position bothers me but I'm not sure where I'd move it to. Having a water escape is a good idea though to one side of the village sets it up to be attacked more easily.

  50. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    The wharf at number 5 feels a bit weird. Generally in these harbour side situations people like to build their important stockade/fort/manor/what ever on top of the biggest hill that overlooks the water. Makes sure they are only defending from a land based attack from less directions, and if anybody comes in by boat you can shoot at them from your defended position before they land. So typically it is nice and high above the town, which I can very clearly see is happening here. But then there is this wharf sticking out that looks like it would be 50 meters above the water because it is coming off the headland rather than the bay. And if the land sloped downward to be level with the water, it would be such a steep slope that erosion would mean your structure falls into the dip in the next few years.

  51. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    It's a nice little ramp, and honestly could be used for some fun encounters in game.
    Raiders are coming in by boat and the party is outgunned but has the advantage of a bottleneck and high ground as they make their landing. Seems good.

  52. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    [...]

    Speaking as a newcomer to the discussion... this is coming along nicely, Cairnwood-anon.
    A suggestion, though? Depending on how rough the neighbourhood is, you might want to put a few more watch-towers along the perimeter wall. My recommendation would be two more in Area 5 (at the eastern and north-eastern corners of the sub-compound), one at the north-western corner of the main village compound (just north-west of the windmill), and one or two on the north-eastern corners (facing the forest).

  53. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Attention. Attention everyone.
    This is now a map stealing thread. Everyone post maps from worldmaps, battlemaps, settlement maps and city maps. Only criteria of course is that its gridless.
    On my end, I am willing to let you steal this spooky town in the middle of nowhere. Perfect for a random encounter when your players explore the Forrest!

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      I kinda like when they have grids because then you know what the intended scale is.

  54. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >city planning is hard
    Go figure.

  55. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    UM FRICKING UNREALSTIC???? THERE WOULD BE PATH WAYS UP THAT CLIFF FACE, NO ONES WALKING ALL THAT WAY EVERY DAY FOREVER UH FRICKING BAD MAP DM FRICKING GROSS

  56. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Anyone use talespire? whats it like?

  57. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Play something like Rimworld or Farthest Frontier and take a screenshot.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      When Manor Lords comes out properly it will make the most kino villages.

  58. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    anons, you ARE aware of https://www.cartographersguild.com, yes?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Thx

  59. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Welcome to the town of Riverford, where people fish from the river, farm the fertile land around the river, work in the textile mill powered by the river, and have a bustling inn to service travelers making use of the bridge to cross the river.

  60. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Well first remove those trees and add more farm land.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      No.

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