Generating a Keyed Village

Having spent the last few weeks poring over T1: The Village of Hommlet, here is a method to generate generic households in a village. These are appropriate for farmers, wainwrights, cabinetmakers, & c. I have done the math and the houses generated thusly will be mostly in line with what one would find in T1.

Step One:

Roll three different-colored d6 dice and two different-colored pairs of d8 dice (3d6+4d8)

Each house has...

• A 4-in-6 chance of having d6 children 
• A 1-in-6 chance of having d3 dogs
• A 1-in-6 chance of being wealthy

Wealthy houses roll on a special treasure table and are generally the houses of moneychangers, traders, nobles, and clergy. For now, simply mark these houses with a '$' symbol. See step four.


Consult this 2d8 table to see how many adult men and women are in the household:

Step Two:

Stock the house with treasure and find a place to hide it. NB: Gems and jewelry are assumed to have values given on page B47 of Moldvay Basic. Gems and jewelry can have an unassigned value until recovery, if the Referee desires.

Click to enlarge.

Click to enlarge.

Step Three:

    

Arm the fighting-aged men. Roll a d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20. Each fighting-aged man in chain has a 1-in-6 chance of having +1d4 HD.

Click to enlarge.

Step Four:

Using your wealthy houses, assign the following roles:

1. Nobility
2. Inn
3. Clergy
4. Moneychanger
5. Merchant

Any leftover wealthy houses are also merchants (4-in-6), heads of guilds or minor nobility (1-in-6), or otherwise extremely skilled craftsmen (1-in-6). Depending on the governmental structure of your village, these wealthy individuals may hold pull with the nobility. There should generally be no more than five to ten wealthy houses, depending on the size of your town.

There is typically only one moneychanger per town. If there are multiple churches due to your milieu being polytheistic, split the treasure somewhat evenly between them.

IN ADDITION TO their normal treasure rolls, wealthy houses also roll on the following treasure table:

• d6 x 1,000 gp
• d4 x 100 pp
• d6 HIGH-VALUE gems (these gems are worth d6x200gp ea)
• 75% chance of d4 pieces of HIGH-VALUE jewelry (worth d6x1,000gp ea)
• 10% chance any two magic items

The town moneychanger will have twice this amount, and a store of at least 1,000 cp, sp, and ep (convert gold into these rather than in addition to treasure already generated)

A merchant will have half this amount, rounded down (10% chance of any ONE magic item, and usually not for sale).

The majority of gp in a wealthy house will not be cash, but rather paintings, expensive silverware, luxurious rugs, rare spices. Cash and gems are always hidden away. Churches typically have wealth in the form of rare religious artifacts.

For each wealthy house:

• Re-roll chance for dogs if there are no dogs
• 50% chance of having a guard (d3 HD)
• d4-1 (0-3) servants, employees, or apprentices
• Each fighting-aged man has a 50/50 chance of having +d4 HD
• ANY NON-GUARD WITH HD 3 OR MORE WILL HAVE A +1 WEAPON

Step Five:

Consult 1d100 names (printable link) and assign livelihoods commensurate with material wealth. Farmers, smiths, weavers, tailors, carters, cabinetmakers, potters, herdsmen, millers, wainwrights, carpenters, brewers, and stonesmasons are all staples of such towns. One can hold off on generating names for unimportant NPCs until asked.

Step Six:

Refer to my article on in-town factions and assign some villagers a faction. Five in six households have no interest in faction politics. Wealthy houses almost always do.

In Part II, I go over creating an Inn & Tavern. Click here to read it.