Building Bhakashal - The Marshland Villages
Bhakashal is a city built on an island in a lake, deep in the marshlands. There are several main rivers and large lakes in the marshlands, and thousands of smaller lakes and rivers/streams throughout. Also strewn throughout the marshland are hundreds of small villages and settlements.
Rather than detail them all Bhakashal uses the same system for the villages as it does for the Wards in the city, everything is randomly generated when the PCs adventure. This gives your campaign a very organic feeling, and it means that the player’s choices will shape what parts of your game world that are developed. I will outline the steps to creating a village or settlement then run through an example.
1. Determine Settlement/Village Playable Groups
When creating a settlement or a village, start with the Bhakashal Random Encounter Table C to determine the playable group that lives there. Note that you can come upon a settlement or village due to a random encounter roll, or you could be generating the settlement or village ahead of time for an encounter or some other reason, either way, you would start with the table.
Marshes Random Encounter Table C - Humanoids (d100)
Table C Notes:
A. Percentages in bold are the “in lair” odds for this group. If the encounter is “in lair” then the humanoids in question are in a camp, settlement, or village and their number appearing should be maximum listed multiplied by 5, 10 or 20 respectively.
Rolling on the table determines the playable group of the village, settlement or camp. Camps and settlements will be primarily one playable group, villages are up to the referee but are often (75% of the time) primarily made up of one playable group.
2. Assign Camp, Settlement and Village Functions
All camps, settlements and villages will engage in some fishing and hunting some settlement and villages will engage in limited agriculture.
Camps will either be organized for (d4):
1-2: hunting
3-4: fishing
Settlements will have one primary function, (d6)
1-2: hunting/animal husbandry
3-4: fishing
5-6: agriculture
Villages will have a primary function, a secondary function and 1 in 4 will have a specialized function:
The primary function of a village will be either (d6) 1-2: hunting/animal husbandry, 3-4: fishing or 5-6: agriculture.
The secondary function of the village will be either (d8) 1-2: hunting/animal husbandry, 3-4: fishing, 5-6: agriculture or 7-8: crafts
The specialized function of the village will involve (d4) 1-2: monster or 3-4: monstrous plant
Camp/Settlement/Village Functions
A. Hunting/Animal Husbandry - There are many huntable/domesticable creatures in the marshlands, hunting will occur for many kinds of small prey, but generally a settlement or village will focus on one kind of larger prey for hunting/domesticating in order to develop specialization. Camps will only hunt prey, not domesticate. Experienced hunters will have a (d4): +1 or +2 “to hit” and (d4): +1 or +2 “to damage”, as well as tracking odds of 61-80% (d20+60) against their chosen larger prey. Those experienced in animal husbandry will have a [+1] in the skill.
To determine the animal in question roll on Marshes Random Encounter Table A - Animals.
Marshes Random Encounter Table A - Animals (d100)
For the larger and more dangerous animals the hunters will hunt in groups and often have specialized traps and tools to combat them like nets, pits, snares, etc. The products created from hunting are medium value items.
B. Fishing
Fishing is a bit different than hunting, for hunting the primary focus is on a single larger prey and smaller prey are secondary. For fishing, smaller fish are the primary focus. Fishing is done on stilts, in boats and from the shoreline with nets, lines and spears/harpoons. Divide the number of inhabitants in the camp, settlement or village by 20, there will be that many experienced fishermen with the fishing [+1/+2] skill. The products of fishing are low value items.
C. Agriculture
Agriculture only occurs in settlements or villages, and those that are in non-agricultural hexes are smaller scale, enough to feed the settlement/village population and store a small surplus but generally only enough for limited local trade. Agriculture in settlements/villages that are in agricultural hexes are larger scale. In agricultural hexes they practice polder agriculture, polders are areas in swamp or marshland that are drained of water using windmill pumps, the water is shunted to canals and streams leading away from the agricultural plot. As a result individual fields tend to be separated by some distance, otherwise one farm’s shunted water will inundate another farm.
In an agricultural hex the fields associated with a farming settlement/village will be equal in size to 2X their population in acres, e.g. a village with 200 people will farm approximately 400 acres of land. This is comparatively small, but farming is very productive in the lush, fertile marshlands. The products of agriculture are low value items.
D. Crafts
Camps and settlements do not create crafts. In most cases villages that practice crafts do not do so on a large scale, but proximity to raw materials (plants, animal parts, minerals) of different kinds will give the possibility of production. In all cases, craft materials made in villages will be high-skill production, e.g., there will be expert practitioners in the village, often several generations of them, creating these crafts.
Village Crafted Items Table
Tools
Dishes/Cutlery
Clothing
Artwork
Musical Instruments
Weapons
Vehicles (boats, carts)
Structures (buildings, windmills)
Wines/Beer
Roll two items
Any given village will have a number of master craftsmen equal to their population / 100 (minimum 1), so a village with 400 people would have 4 master craftsmen, each with a number of apprentices. These master craftsmen will have a Skill [+1/+2] (d4)in the relevant skill area, e.g. carpentry [+1/+2]. The products of craft production are high value items.
D. Specialized Functions - Monsters and Monstrous Plants
One in 4 villages will have a specialized function associated with monstrous creatures.
If the village has a specialized function, roll on (d6):
1-3: Marshes Random Encounter Table B - Plants
4-5: Marshes Random Encounter Table D - Monsters
6: River/Lake Encounter Table F.
For Table F ignore any humanoid results.
The creature rolled is the creature the village hunts or domesticates for specialized production. It will be up to the referee to determine what purpose each specialized function creature will serve.
Each village with a specialized function will have experienced hunters/handlers for their creature. Regular hunters/handlers will have a +1 or +2 “to hit” (d4) and +1 or +2 “to damage” (d4) bonus, as well as tracking odds of 61-80% (d20+60) against their chosen creature. If they have domesticated the animal, handlers will have a [+1/+2](d4) in a relevant skill.
Marshes Random Encounter Table B - Plants (d100)
Marshes Random Encounter Table D - Monsters (d100)
River/Lake Encounter Table F (d100)
3. Location
Now that you have determined the functions of the camp/settlement/village, and the associated creatures, you can find a spot on the map to locate the village. Note that you may have had the village come up in a random encounter roll, so the location may be more or less restricted by the roll.
4. Slayers and Spellbinders
Slayers are Bhakashal hunters.
Spellbinders are Bhakashal shamans.
Settlements and camps in the marshlands have no slayers or spellbinders, instead they have 0-level warriors (hunters). Once they are large enough to become villages they will attract (or produce from within) spellbinders and slayers (numbers determined as below).
Every village in the marshes that has hunting or animal husbandry as a primary function will have slayers. Divide village population by 100 (rounding up), and add 1, this will be the level of the village slayer. There will be an additional 1-2 slayers of half their level in the village.
Every village in the marshes that has a specialized function will have slayers. Divide village population by 100 (rounding up) and add 3, this will be the level of the village slayer who will specialize in the chosen creature and creature type. There will be an additional 2-5 slayers of half their level in the village.
Every village in the marshes will have two spellbinders, one will live permanently in the village, the other will wander the marshes. Divide the village population by 50 (rounding up) +2, this will be the level of the spellbinder who stays in the village. The wandering spellbinder will be half this level.
The two spellbinders may communicate across distances in dreams.
Villages may be remote and choose to stay out of city business, but they do not seek ignorance. The second spellbinder who travels amongst the villages and settlements of the marshlands will forge bonds, organize trade, help and heal to generate goodwill, learn of outside events, travel to the city periodically, etc.
5. Assign Alignment
In Bhakashal, individuals do not have an alignment, but institutions and factions do. Settlements and villages have alignments. Alignment in Bhakashal is descriptive, it captures the tendencies of the group over time. Roll d100:
10-20. Lawful Good
21-30. Chaotic Good
31-45. Neutral Good
46-50. Chaotic Neutral
51-60. Neutral
61-75. Lawful Neutral
76-80. Neutral Evil
81-90. Chaotic Evil
91-100. Lawful Evil
Lawful institutions/factions prioritize and reward groups and cooperation
Chaotic institutions prioritize and reward individuals and independence.
Good institutions behave altruistically and avoid harming others wherever possible.
Evil institutions will harm others to achieve their goals and are fundamentally selfish.
Neutrality means passive selfishness, neutrals will not actively work against others unless under direct threat, but will avoid engagement to produce advantage
So a Chaotic Evil village would prioritize individuals (so might have several factions competing for influence and be disorganized) and would not be above harming other villages or factions to achieve their goals.
A Lawful Good village would prioritize the group over the individual, and would help out other villages, band together for protection, etc.
Obviously individual members of those villages may behave in a different way, but those whose actions match the alignment of their village the best will be most successful in those villages.
Example: A Spellbinder’s Village
For our example we will generate a village for a Spellbinder. Spellbinders are Bhakashal shamans, and rather than having a patron or being part of a city faction, they are associated with a village in the marshlands. One of the NPC spellbinders I made for the January character creation challenge has a village designated in his description but that village was never detailed. Today I will detail the village using the system outlined above.
The spellbinder in question is Ukreeth Sonem, a 3rd level Rakasta Spellbinder from Bamai Village in the Outer Marshes [NG].
Step 1 - Instead of rolling for the playable group for this particular village, we will assign it as Rakasata. The table tells us that the village will have 160 rakasta.
Step 2- Assign Settlement and Village Functions
Primary function - Rolled: Fishing
Secondary function - Rolled: Animal domestication, animal rolled: Giant Frogs.
1 in 4 chance of specialized function, rolled.
Specialized Function - Rolled: - Monsters, Rolled: Giant Slug
Step 3 - Location
I look at the Bhakashal marshes map and the character sheet description, Bamai village is located in the “outer marshes”, which means anywhere far out from the city. I pick a location at the bottom of the map, on a large, isolated lake, Lake Heerk. The hexes adjoining it are all marshland hexes, the nearest forested area is a hex away, and the nearest large river (there are innumerable smaller rivers, ponds and streams in all hexes, but only a few larger rivers) is two hexes away. There are no roads nearby either. So it’s an isolated lake.
Step 4 - Slayers and Spellbinders
This village has a specialized function, so it has slayers, Population of 160/100 + 3 = 2 + 3 = a 5th level slayer (Kunroth the Russet) with rolled 3 slayers of 2nd level (Merak, Uleka and Leram). All of these slayers have giant animals as their general foe and giant insectoids as their specific foe.
The spellbinder that stays in the village (one Jik Meer Kam) will be 5th level (160/50 round up = 3 + 2 = 5th) to Ukreeth’s 3rd.
Step 5 - Alignment
The listed alignment of the village is Neutral Good.
Put these all together and here is your description of Bamai Village.
Bamai village is a Rakasta village in the southern reaches of the Bhakashal marshes. Located on Lake Heerk, their primary occupation is fishing. The lake is surrounded by marshlands with no major forests in any adjoining hexes, and no major rivers that flow to it or roads that pass through, so they are somewhat cut off from traffic and interaction. They stilt fish, boat fish and shore fish in their lake and the large ponds and small lakes that dot the marshland around them. Since they are far from roads or major rivers, they trade with local villages around the lake and send periodic larger hauls of dried fish to the villages further away.
They also practice animal husbandry, domesticating giant frogs (common around the lake area). They are developing a reputation for breeding fast, trainable, giant frog mounts. They get traders who come here to buy giant frogs for sale elsewhere, they sell them in the area and periodically take giant frogs to the city to sell. The village has a slayer, Kunroth the Russet, with 3 apprentice slayers (Merak, Uleka and Leram). They capture wild giant frogs, train them, and trade them around the marshes.
Finally, they have domesticated four giant slugs and keep them safe from hunters. The villagers dilute the slug acid to make wine and to create a solution used to clean off old artifacts from ruins in the marshes.
They also create custom ceramic “acid globes” they can hurl at opponents. The former two they sell and trade to outsiders, the latter they do not. Village hunters and warriors carry slings that shoot these acid globes, on a successful hit they explode for 2-8 damage, and if not washed off with water immediately the acid will do an additional 2hp damage a round for 2-5 rounds.
The resident village spellbinder, Jik Meer Kam, and slayer, Kunroth the Russet, know the process for creating these spheres.
Example of Adventure
To finish off, let’s put this to work. Every class in Bhakashal has level specific roles associated with the class, these can be used to generate adventure seeds. Spellbinders are an exception, as they do not become part of a faction the way other classes do. They may find a patron as part of a party, but on their own they often do not.
However, spellbinders do have tasks associated with the class, they just aren’t level specific. So if the spellbinder in question was participating in solo play, or the referee was looking for an adventure for the spellbinder’s party, one possible source of inspiration could be the spellbinder’s village giving them a task.
Spellbinder Tasks
Healing the sick
Helping with crops
Animal husbandry
Intra and inter-community politics
Hunting
Diplomacy
Trade
Religious ceremonies
Celebrations/festivals
Warfare/protection
I decided to roll on this table and get a 6, diplomacy.
At this point I sit with the character sheet, the description of his village and the rolled task (diplomacy) and I riff on them to come up with an adventure.
This is what came out of the creative process.
The Adventure: The villagers of Bamai have been dealing with frequent raids from bandits over the last few months, not the village itself, but fishermen, hunters and traders in the hexes around the village. City patrols from Bhakashal make it this far out infrequently, so they provide little protection, and the relative isolation has made the people of Bamai a prime target. A recent Speak with the Dead cast on a slain bandit leader by Bamai’s resident spellbinder, Jik Meer Kam, revealed that the bandits were being supported by a warlock who lives in the marshes, one Hauca Mysel the Charial. She is a disgraced House Ain warlock in hiding. Hauca wants to keep attention off of her by supporting bandit raids in the area, while everyone is chasing bandits no one is looking for her, and people avoid her territory for fear of banditry.
So the elders of Bamai have tasked Ukreeth with going to Hauca and convincing her to leave their villagers alone. As the village is aligned NG, they don’t think of banding together with other villages for defense, or to present a united front, instead they seek to cut a deal with the warlock directly, and Ukreeth is going to be their negotiator. Ukreeth has a 15 CHA, so he can be fairly persuasive.
In order to give him something to bargain with, the village elders have asked him to offer her one of the four giant slugs that the village has domesticated. It can take up residence around her marsh tower, deterring the inquisitive. If she is reluctant, he is to offer her the service of several villagers who can show her the secret of making acid globes. If she threatens him or seems unduly aggressive, Ukreeth can tell her that they will reveal her location to House Ain warlocks if she does him any harm and he does not report back in a certain amount of time to the village. She is not aware that they have this information before they show up.
This could be run as a solo adventure, with Ukreeth taking along a few hunters from the village for support. Or it could be run as an adventure for the party with Ukreeth telling the village elders he will bring along his allies from the city for the job. If Ukreeth is part of an adventuring party then they will have a patron, so you just have to tie the mission into the patron’s goals if you want to include the party .
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