Village 4: Kash
Population 250; Chaotic
Here’s the 4th village for the 69 villages project, the second of in the “random results only” format that’s designed to save me time and give GMs more flexibility.
Good news is that I’ve gotten “production” time down to 30 minutes, including the map. Bad news is that I’m seeing a not-great trend with certain random results. Check the overview below and see if you can spot the same trend I’m seeing.
Village Overview
Kash
Population 250; Chaotic with few laws
Kash (1 hex = 50')
Ruled by House Ikrogri
- Matriarch is middle-aged and savvy (AL Neutral)
- Medium household of 13 members
- Average influence with appreciable holdings (18 regional hexes)
- Recently achieved Pyrrhic military victory
- Currently acquiring land supporting a special feature
- Secretly harbours a band of foreign spies
First Impressions
- People here are known for their potentcy
- Crime Rate: 4d6 [roll each week: every "1" indicates a crime; PCs are victims if the 4d6 roll exceeds total party level]
- Spending Limit:
- Recent Events: Disaster caused by disease
- Worth Checking Out: Plagued by flocks of beady-eyed carrion birds
Population Breakdown
- Ruling House: 13
- Officers: 4
- Clergy: 2 [lesser priests]
- Freeholders: 19 [1 charcoaler, 2 cobblers, 2 furriers, 1 glassworkers, 1 jeweler, 1 litigant, 1 metalsmith, 2 millers, 2 tailors, 1 tanner, 1 tavern, 1 vintner, 1 weaponcrafter, 1 weaver, 1 woodcrafter]
- Citizens: 211 [1 hireling]
- Buildings: 70 [1 mansion, 1 church, 23 businesses, 1 municipal, 44 homes]
Final Words
Have you identified the mystery trend that I don’t like? If you said, “The freeholder list is starting to look the same for every village,” then you get a gold star.
On one hand, this makes sense: given the populations required to support certain freeholders, the results are going to be fairly identical for any settlement with a population of 50-300 people.
But it’s not terribly exciting, and after a few villages, it’ll start to become boring (perhaps even predictable). This suggests that I might want an alternative to the Medieval Demographics Online tool for population generation (gasp!). Less drastically, I think I’ll tinker with how population breakdown is calculated. More to come on that front—suggestions welcome.
Make a switch: Classic calculation vs. random fantasy calculation which varies way more.
I think the most awesome thing would be to combine the tables with the MDO tool so I get the results for the past and all ruling houses as the webs calculate the population. Also, expanded tabels. =)
@Benjamin Yeah, I’m playing with population alternatives. One benefit of this exercise is stress-testing these randomisers–the MDO tool works well for low-fantasy, but I like a little more spice these days…
As for the rest, it’s in the works. Let’s just say that I’m learning a lot about Inspiration Pad Pro.
Thanks for spelling it out for me, IPP looks great!