As OP, I'll start.

There is a small camp of two dozen half-starved halflings living in ramshackle huts some distance outside the village walls. There is a sign up at the village gate that reads "No halflings allowed by order of the Magistrate." If the halflings are questioned they'll claim they are unfairly persecuted, if the guards are questioned they'll say the halflings were behind several burglaries inside the town before the magistrate banned them. It is unclear who is telling the truth.

Over the past couple of years, individual people have regularly gone missing, but the total number of inhabitants remains the same.

There is an open air shrine, much like a gazebo, where a small bronze brazier is kept lit night and day in honor of the goddess of radiance.

It is not one of the religions followed in the area, and the priestess who maintains it is from a far away land who travelled here a few years ago with a group of companions. She's stayed here in town ever since they were all lost in battle nearby. With her original purpose no longer valid she's remained and is well liked by the village.

>>53055633
For something completely original:
>The barrow to the north is rumored to be the warrior king of an ancient civilisation and when he awakes, a new age will begin.

And then throw your adventuring party at it.

>>53056977
*resting place of

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>>53055633
> Not posting the full size
Anything involving a mild spat that gradually spirals out of control until you're dealing with a literal hell mouth these bumbling farmers opened to make them thar 'taters grow bigger, and fark the lard up in his cassle.

The village is far from civilized lands, right on the border with a fuckhuge war, and the lord of the village is known to care little for his peasants. He's pretty much absent and only cares for the village elder delivering the taxes to the castle upstream once every two months or what. However, the fields are rich and full, and the people are poor, but still happy and well-fed.

In the distance, you can see several puffs of smoke out in the dark forests, probably from deserters or brigands that crossed the border and came here for easy pillaging. And as the Sun slowly goes down, you are warned by the villagers to stay inside during the night. The tavern keeper even offers you a free stay in the barn, which has had improvisatory doors installed recently.

The next morning, the smoke puffs are gone. If you chose to visit the bandit camps, you'll discover some pretty good (but not very expensive loot; food, camping equipment, basic weapons and cheap armour) stuff, and above all - completely butchered brigands. As in, literally crushed, pulped, gutted, skinned, ripped, torn. Like someone tried to make lemonade out of them.

If questioned about this, the villagers say they don't care as long as whatever it is, keeps killing bandits and brigands. The local priest however does offer some gold if you investigate the case - BUT only if you do not escalate the situation and cause whatever force it is to attack the village too.

>>53055633
>Aye, Gorm, did ya hear the news?
>Wot, Jim?
>Them traders up north passing through say them caves to the east are comin' alive. Drows an' duergars an' other horrors comin' our way. Buncha baloney, if ya asked me. Them caves are a dead network, seen the ends myself.
>I ain't never been out the village Jim, an' I should be glad I ne'er did, if this is the kinda rumors floatin' round.
>Yeah, be nice to have someone take a look for us if ya get my drift.

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>>53055633
Posting comfy village

While digging out a new cellar, the village elder discovers a barrow underneath his house.

He promptly runs away screaming, as a skeletal warrior clad in blue-greenish armour armed with a short sword, a big round shield and a fuckhuge pike marches out.

Turns out, he just dug into the final resting place of the founder of the first Paladin Order. Who was prophesied to have awoken from death when [Insert Ancient Evil Here] rose up against the world.

Problem is, [Insert Ancient Evil Here] rose up 1500 years ago, and despite the loss of over 1449 paladins, [Insert Ancient Evil Here] was defeated just fine.

Now this ancient paladin realises that sacrificing his sanctity and eternal rest for undeath was futile in the end, and he now has an eternity of being useless to look at.

>several hundred people
That's a full-fedged town or a small city in any pre-modern setting, m8.

Village elders are evil.
Goblin tribe was peacefull.
Cultists were just druids.
Kidnaped children were sent there by their parents to steal dragons gold.
You are third party that believed without doubth.
First two had those items they aren paying you.

>>53055633

>The Blacksmiths son is seen a quiet recluse. People often see him sneak away at night to do who knows what.

When the party investigates they find him fucking with the local lords daughter and her mother.

>The local Lord is viewed as a gentle and caring man admired by many.

He's actually a sadistic homosexual who purchases male slaves every now and then, keeping them captive in the basement of an old watchtower he owns and keeps as a storage for grain.

>The local priest is a known drunkard who is often found sleeping in the streets.

When the party investigates they find out that he's been trying to catch a thief all this time but always falls unconscious right before the roberries happen.

>The three local guards often capture smugglers going through the village.

They are in cahoots with the thieves guild of a nearby city and cooperate as enforcers to catch non-sanctioned criminals who get sent their way.


>There's an old wood-elf herbalist living on the dge of town. He's famed for his painful but effective miracle cures.

He's actually a native of this village who was born there before humans settled there. He hates the fact that humans pushed his people away from their home and is slowly sterilizing the non-elven population so he can invite his kin back home.

Vilagers are just high tier illusions local wizard(archmage of Pentacle, Grand Master of illusions) created secretly because he wanted other archmages to stop joking about his loneliness. He actually to shy to live with other people. And after all this years probably bit crazy.

>>53055633
No-one's suggested Hot Fuzz?

Villagers actually puppets controled by rats inside them. Rat colony tired from being exterminated by every passing adventurer create this sort of disguise for their society. They test guests by asking them to kill rats in tavern basement and locking those who agree.

They ask to join old harvest ritual devoted to Gods Beyond Our Time.
There is alot of drinking, singing and costume contest.

Revolution starts right after you mention that prices on grain goes down in the capital. They cchoose you as a leader and representer. Finaly someone to end this monarchy torture mechanism.

>>53057359
This. It probably has a market square, and upwards of a thousand inhabitants on market days.

>>53055633
A theocratic village is up in arms over the new head paladin. They were assigned a new paladin after the last one fell in combat with the goblin encampment a few dozen miles out. The new guy is a bugbear that comes highly recommended for dedicated service to the church.

>>53055633
>Rogue apprentice enchanter has taken up in an abandoned mill down the river. He's not bothering anybody, but someone should probably check on him.

>The sheep were all disappearing in the night. We figured they'd been taken by wolves or...worse. Now they're all back.

>Our trade is in vinegar. Its not glamorous, but every year at our fall festival we have a contest to see who can drink the most of it. The winner gets a cask of mead and a whole smoked pig.

>Somebody's been dumping stones in the river. Not sure who or why. Mind straitening that out?

>We had a flag made to comemorate the king's passing, but it blew away into the woods. His son is touring the fieldlands before his coronation and it'd be nice to have something to show for ourselves. We're not too concerned, but we should probably at least make an effort.

>We herd sheep here, just like the giants over the ridge in the neighboring valley. We get along alright, but they're not exactly talkative folks. Problem is, our sheep keep wandering into their flocks. They dont keep a good count of theirs, figure they must not care to account for such small creatures, but they dont take kindly to us trying to get a few back from them. You seem like sturdy types, mind nabbing a few back for us?

>The Jacobson's boy thinks he's got it in him to be a squire in the capital. We really need him around here. Wont be enough men around in a few years to raise new houses, what with the losses from the war. See if you cant talk some sense into him. Ill make it worth your while: he up and bought himself a fine lookin blade. Get him to give it up, and I promise it'll find its way to you.

Im just riffing waiting for something to run through at work. Anybody got any they like, or any suggestions on improving my technique in general?

>>53055633
There's a charming village nestled beneath a hill near a great stone bridge that stretches into a deep, ominous fog over a chasm. The bridge is the only way forward. The adventurers are greeted heartily by the villagers, and offer a wide array of goods and entertainment. They're almost too friendly. Any questions about the fog are dodged or laughed off as just a quirk of the region.

Once the adventurers are ready to proceed, they begin their trek across the bridge. They soon enter the ominous fog, unable to see past their noses no matter what they try, and any attempts dispel it with any kind of magic fail. After hours of walking, the fog finally begins to thin. The end of the bridge is in sight, and beyond it... the village.

The villagers once again greet the adventurers, exactly like the first time. Any items that they may have bought are back on the displays in the shops. If the adventurers display any knowledge from their previous stay in the village in an attempt to convince the inhabitants that they've been there before, the villagers will just laugh and ask how the adventurers knew, marveling at their uncanny knowledge but not really listening to the answer.

At this point the adventurers might decide to start doing a little investigating, trying to figure out what exactly is going on in the village. Any questions are met with laughter and the villagers proudly recounting the village's nearly completely unhelpful history. But should the adventurers begin stumbling towards the truth, the villagers will start to become distinctly less friendly, questions answered with curt nods or monosyllables.

And should the adventurers decide to leave the village the way they came, they'll reach the crest of the hill they climbed to get there and be greeted by the sight of a charming village nestled beneath a hill near a great stone bridge stretching into a deep, ominous fog over a chasm.

>>53055633
>Post any interesting quest hooks and plot hooks and and neat developments and rumors for villages that have several hundred people in them.

Village is forgotten by the king of the land, for generations it rots, young people leave it, there is no industry or commerce, its just dying.
Local bandits take over the place, the leader is a puppet they put in place, and they make it the center for their drug trade.
They make a lot of money, give jobs to many villagers, give prospects to the young people to climb up the military-like (perhaps they are deserters?) structure of the gang.
They renovate the church, build a bridge, purge off foreigners and minorities (other species like elves/dwarves if its fantasy), and overall appeal to the very traditionalist conservative villagers.

The king is sending you to bring the village back under the control of the state, to get them to start paying taxes again, to get them to surrender the druglord bandit leader (some alchemy thing perhaps).
You have to decide between the bad rightful king or the popular thugs, and either get the town folks on your side, or siege the town hall, or join the locals and defend against the small force sent with you by the king.

>>53055633
villager has been poaching in the lord's woods to feed his malnourished family, the guards are moving in to find him and hang him

Local tavern isn't getting much business due to a rumour about it being haunted, is actually just the new abode of a mischievous hob

Strangely big villager that has only moved there in the last few weeks with a woman. turns out he was actually the King's bodyguard but is now on the run with his secret lover. The price on his head is enough to feed our party for a long while

>>53058298
fuckin ratatouille turned ttrpg

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>>53055633

shut up and post villages nerd

>>53058874
I really like your blend of mundane and magical, and the fact that any one of these prompts can be approached in any number of ways by good or evil leaning parties.

>>53055633
There was a thread where some guy played a village doctor. There were tons of good hooks there involving a village.

If anyone has it.

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>>53056758
>gazebo

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>>53057359
It depends on whether you mean simply residing within some village walls or palisades, or if you include all the nearby farms and ranches and so on. It also depends on if you use british parishes or some other basis for your town organization.

This is what I've been using because I like having my own systems for my fantasy games.

Farmstead.......<14
Thorpe.............14-49
Hamlet.............50–99 (usually has no shrine or temple or church)
Small Village....100–199 (usually has some sort of shrine or temple or church)
Medium Village..200-299
Large Village....300-499
Small town.......500–999
Medium town...1,000-2,999
Large town.......3,000–5,999
Small city..........6,000–14,999
Large city.........15,000–40,000
Metropolis........More than 40,000

>>53058295
Because villagers murdering their neighbors in a series of elaborate accidents to win "best village to live in", in some sort of competition is both incredibly ironic and doesn't really suit the fantasy medieval aesthetic

>>53061620
>early 70s
>neutral paladin

Something here doesn't add up.

>>53064726
They were more into winging it in those days.

>>53058389
You and your band of peasants are cut down by the much more well trained, fed, and equipped knights.

>>53057030
>pointless gate/tower
Well I am triggered.

>>53065331
You should invest more in perception because it's not pointless, it's just from an earlier time when this place was more dangerous.

The village is clearly built on the site of an ancient ruined fortification with an earthen rise/ditch around it.

Most of the ruins have been picked clean as building material, but the old tower was mostly intact and at some point rebuilt.

>>53055633
Also post comfy villages artwork.

>>53065399
>cut down by the much more well trained, fed, and
Wrong The gate doesn't look older than the village.

>>53065331
Look closer.

You can clearly see that the wall is being built. They started on the gate first, but it looks like they are going to wall in the village.

>>53065399
Thanks sherlock. Now tell me where this pipe ash comes from and whether he was lefthanded.

>>53065501
>>53065399
>two completely opposite opinions.

Yeah the art is shit.

The wall isn't thick enough to be a proper stone wall.

A village that small would build a wood wall not a stone one.

>>53065501
>wall is being built
>it's paper thin almost as if it was picked clean for building material for the village
>zero sign of construction
>village already extends far beyond the tiny wall
>wall would be pointless to keep out the occasional bandits and sheep thieves

>>53065399 is right.

>>53065613
>zero sign of construction
It's rainy, they put their tools away for the day.
>village already extends far beyond the tiny wall
It's a work in progress anon, the wall will catch up soon. (after the rain quits)

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>>53055633
This place seems pretty comfy.

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>>53065684
You realize that there would be literal piles of stone in place for preparation if that was in fact the case.

>>53065695
>Comfy
>Implying that the faggots in Wrenscote aren't up to something evil
>Implying that they aren't trying to summon a demon from The Hole
>Ignoring the river that (due to rains) is threatening to crest and wipe out the town

>>53065735
er....

Well.....um......

They put the stone away because of the rain. They don't like wet stone.

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>>53065736
I heard the fish that old man Jenkin's gets from the hole make people sick anyway.

We can go comfier.

>>53065823
I've heard rumors that Jenkins gets his worms for bait.....from the graveyard. That dude is weird man.

The new pic looks sorta comfy, but I'm concerned that we're too close to the edge of the woods, you can see in the picture, that there is CLEARLY strange noises coming from deeper in the woods.

Can you go a little more comfy?

>the villagers are friendly enough, but most of them wear ungainly mittens and gloves regardless of the weather or their occupation, and there is a strangely high amount of them missing one hand...

The villagers were cursed. At night their hands come off and try to strangle their loved ones. They were mittens so their hands can't walk around on their fingers. Are you a bad enough dude to kill the witch and her army of crawling hands?

>>53065942
>At night their hands come off and try

My hand does weird things to me at night too.

Maybe my town is cursed?

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asian farming villages, for variety

>>53065942
lol

>>53066040
This is NOT comfy.

WTF is that weird stone creature lurking in the bottom left corner? Look at it's unseeing gaze of evil!

The fence is broken, like something big and angry has stomped through it.

I see no people, and things are over grown.

This is a village of dead people, and the killer is resting........

>>53066040
The statue in the bottom left has been there for longer than the Elders can recall. It's their symbol of good luck, protection and prosperity.

Thing is, it's actually a golem originally built to protect the village.

And there's rumblings from further on down the valley.

>>53066090
>it's actually a golem originally built to protect the village.
>Built to protect the VILLAGE
>Notice that anon didn't say it protected the villagers?
>Because the golem kills everyone that tries to live in the village

>>53066141
Now we're cooking.

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Inside the great forest where the will o wisps play.

>>53066207
HOLY FUCK!

Notice the lack of people?
Notice the glowing balls of light? Those are spirits of the dead, still lingering....
Look at the mist in the background.....but wait, it's NOT mist. It's actually millions of tiny spider webs flowing in the breeze....
Look at the tear in the roof in the bottom right.
That's clearly a where a claw has ripped into the tree/roof.

Holy fuck, that's not comfy!

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You fuckers are terrifying me with your "comfy" villages.

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>Nobody posting the comfiest village around

>>53065331
You know not everything is defensive. Gates, walls, and even castles were often just built for looks, as a sign of familial prestige or civic pride, with no defensive purpose. Just look at medieval Bologna.

>>53066501
Holy shitbeans batman.....

Look at those roads and homes. Built all willy-nilly with no sense of reason. This is a village of madmen, who despise any type of order.

Totally not comfy

>>53055633

after recognizing the need to strengthen their economy or risk their population having to resettle, three small hamlets, two smaller thorpes and half a dozen farmsteads have finally merged into a medium sized village, clustered on several banks of a river in an enclosed valley, and are just beginning to make sturdier bridges and formally paved roads between them for trade and communication.

while each of the new neighborhoods retains their own specialized industry, they need to negotiate trade with a distant but large town to bring supplies and builders in to create a new central district where members of the various neighborhoods can meet and do business relevant to the village as a whole.

a general store in the former largest hamlet sends word with a passenger caravan- which nearly missed the sole road into the valley- that they need help, both for security for the new trade routes they hope to establish and for advertising their locally made goods.

>>53057359
Not really. A village may have several hundred people in it, but it's probably more spread out and rural than a town would be. It really depends on what the locals figure constitutes a town or how close or far apart it can be, which varies a lot.

Either way, several hundred is FAR from "city" in any setting. Even the ancient world had cities of hundreds of thousands. Rome's population at its peak was over a million.

>there will never be a software to make comfy villages
Why do all programmers hate role playing tools so much?

>>53055684
>half-starved halflings
Halflings don't exist in any of the settings I DM. Fuck those bastards. Completely fucking useless as a race. Gnomes are better than them, dwarves are better than them.

Delete Halflings.

>>53068093
now THIS is a sleepy forest village.

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>>53068093
That's beautiful.

>>53057173
I wouldn't call 4 houses a village. According to GURPS that ain't a village.

>>53068169
There's farmsteads in the land around the moat/town. This is probably a thorpe as >>53063427 suggested, a collection of farmsteads that have a single central, well defended keep. Probably hydrophobic monsters or risk of foreign incursion are common, as the land is on a border with a dangerous place. The keep is to defend when the next skirmish breaks out, while the soldiers signal a nearby garrison.

>>53059951
>Village is forgotten by the king of the land, for generations it rots
This always bothers me. Why is it always the king?

The king does not bother with every town in the realm, hell he doesn't even bother with all the provinces. That's what the Dukes are for. And every Duke has at least a Count managing every County(that probably has a couple of villages maybe a bit more than a couple).

So it always bothers me when people or stories revolve around peasants and kings. Ignoring the whole nobility hierarchy inbetween them. Why do people ignore it /tg/? It annoys me to no ends. Counties are owned by Counts not by Kings!

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I bet playing a game that was sort of inspired by Blue Velvet and/or Twin Peaks would be fun. You know, the sleepy idyllic little farming village harbors some weird dark secrets right under the surface and the players have to suss it out.

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Pic related: village density in ye olde merry England.

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>>53068560

>>53066040
So every nigga has its own crops?

Who determines how much land each peasant has? What happens to the poor folk that decided to build his house in non farmable land?

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>>53068589

>>53068588
What do the numbers even mean though? So the most populated village has over 10 people?

>>53068644
Means there's over 10 villages in the hexagon you nerf herder.

>>53068560
>>53068589
>>53068635

we need more games with this. :D

>>53068644
Pretty sure that's the number of villages in each hex

>>53068659
>>53068671
Sheeeeet. 10 villages in merely 50 miles? Just how small is the UK?

>>53068706
son where did you learn how to read

>>53068706
tiny. find a map.

>>53068559

Because they have no idea how medieval society worked?

>>53068706
the entirety of the UK is smaller than Michigan

>>53068559
because the nobility is just as misunderstood in the US as the role of a functional government is?

>>53068559
>>53068807
Because fairytale kingdoms are extremely small?

>>53055633

A grave up at the old churchyard is said to be visited every year on a holiday by a figure dressed in a long black robe. The figure didn't appear last holiday, and some say the sickness that has fallen over the village is somehow tied to this.

The old folks say that the one-eyed dwarf who runs the local mill arrived when they were children during a war. He refuses to make armor or blades. A broken axe hangs above his threshold.

They say the duke's son ran off with a common maid. Some say he took up in the army, though he was no more than 14. His best friend, the man-of-arm's son, woke screaming shortly after he left, and has been whitehaired and mumbly ever since.

There hasn't been a single living child born in the village in a generation.

The Inn is built from the stones of an old garrison tower built in the hinterlands. On nights of the full moon those beneath the roof of the Inn are said to have dreams of what happened in the garrison.

A field southwest of town were once the site of a massacre. The grains grown in those fields bleed as they are picked.

This village in the outlands was once home to a great wizard. It is illegal to eat meat, tan hides, or trap for furs... this has come about since many of the animals around the area can speak. None know if the animals are human subjects imprisoned in animal forms or the byproducts of magic leaking into the water table.

Death is said to visit Old Lady Maren, widow of the great landholder, every new moon. Some say that the Old Lady Maren is a witch, others say that the old woman saved Death's life. Still others claim Maren sharpens Death's scythe on the shadows of the New Moon.

There is a tree that bears fruit even in harshest winter. The land is rich here. A group of trappers turned a furrier's camp into an industrious little hamlet.

No one knows why the Martins hate the Oswalts. Some say love, others murder.

A woman in the caves is said to shed tears that revive the dead.

>>53069148
How small are we talking about?

>>53069148

I like your answer more than mine!

>>53069260

We tackled this issue at university just today. Roughly speaking a villager was lucky to see his king once in his lifetime if his village was 50-60 miles from the residence and that's not from a medieval but early modern times perspective (~16th-17th century). So fairytale kingdoms would need to be considerably smaller than that.

Most kings in medieval times were always traveling, so he might have visited some locations more often but those still were exceptions.

>>53069195

The children of the village tend a pot of stew. The adults bring goods to put in. The pot must never be emptied or the flame go out. Ever.

All babies born here have 6 fingers and toes.

Every night the laughter of men, women, and children can be heard outside the walls of every home in the hamlet. Do not go outside.

All wine turns sour, beer goes skunked. Whisky turns to water. A drunkard crossing into town is sober. Dammit, we just want a drink.

Villagers tell strangers their darkest secret upon meeting them. No one knows why, they just feel compelled.

A man is hanging from the sycamore tree gallows. He's been hanging for 10 years, still not hung. The rope won't cut. The man won't stop moving. The tree is immune to axe or ox pulling. He used to dance the air, til the villagers weighed him down and wrapped him up in sackcloth. Now you can only hear the choking as he sways in the breeze.

The local constable came into town 15 years ago an adventurer. He went into the caves up North of here with five fellows. He came back a year later, refuses to leave. Won't say what happened. He's got enough scars and that missing arm, tells me something did.

Alfred Tamarind is celebrating his 150th birthday today. No one knows why he's still alive, but every drunk and damsel has a story for it.

Rain refuses to fall on a house in the middle of town. Water dries up if you pass by. No one's gone in in years. No one's come out in longer.

>>53069544
>A man is hanging from the sycamore tree gallows. He's been hanging for 10 years, still not hung. The rope won't cut. The man won't stop moving. The tree is immune to axe or ox pulling. He used to dance the air, til the villagers weighed him down and wrapped him up in sackcloth. Now you can only hear the choking as he sways in the breeze.

That's some dark shit man..... I like it.

>>53065695
The way the houses are arrayed makes no sense. Whoever made this has clearly never seen a farming village in their life.

>>53069544
>>53069195

"Them Garfields are hard workers. They say that boy of theirs, Jon? They say he fell out of a tree picking apples, broke his damn neck. His ma came, she's a good bonesetter, but never heard nobody coming back from a neck break. She kept that boy home for a week, and he came back out a harder worker. Hasn't grown since though. Man of 20 looks 14. But he's a hard worker."

The women of the mountain village are all stunningly beautiful. Some say that they're not human, but I say they just grow prettier up in that high air.

There are no shadows cast in the hamlet of Brightday.

The butcher used to be a baker. That was til his hands started bleeding. No wounds on his hands, but it won't stop. Guess the gods chose his profession for him.

The village awaits the birth of a miracle. A seventh son of a seventh son. Strange folks have been arriving, camping out around the village, staying in the roadhouse. They say the King's magician is coming to witness.

A child was born speaking. Curious. His first word as he came out of his mother was one. Then two. Three. He is normal, all his fingers and toes. Every few days he speaks, just the one number. Then it became weeks. Then months. He grew up strong, if mute, tends to a huntsman's kennel.

A month ago he started screaming, rolling around. A week ago he said Five Hundred and Seventy Five.

Three days ago? Five Hundred Seventy Four.... Five Hundred Seventy Three...

>>53069686

Ehh. Have a lot of strange little hooks, oddities. But I'm gonna stop so I don't clog up the thread.

>>53061414
Thanks. Not sure what an evil party would be doing in a cozy village though. Sure wouldnt want them starting shit.

>>53070041

>not cheering on Urgok, Lord of Bone as he quaffs a gallon of full strength cider vinegar to win a suckling pig
>not kidnapping that little fucker who has been throwing stones in the pond
>not massacring the giants, putting their giant heads on stakes to tell other giants the sheep trade is off limits to their kind
>not hobbling the squire-to-be and mentally dominating the hottest woman in town to be his wife and keep him happy

I for one would love to see the happy town of Woolsheart, kept cozy by ANY means necessary.

>>53056977
>>53056987
>Not making the barrow a piece of the warrior-king's soul due to a simple typing error and then just fucking rolling with it.

Anon, for shame.

>>53070183

>a giant shambling mound used to be the warrior king of the area

I like it, I like it.

>>53069898
>total of four farms
>farming village

Yeah, it's lots of things, but a farming village it isn't.

>>53065942
Why don't they just put on the mittens before nightfall? It seems weird to wear them during the day.

>>53068588
So according to this, it's pretty normal to have 3-9 villages in every 25 square miles unless the terrain is unusually mountainous or swampy.

>>53073243
To be fair, it lists and names places that typically had some 50 people in half a dozen households, and some 'villages' that had all of 10 people living in them.

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>>53070122
> mfw all Disney fairytale kingdoms are probably run like this
> mfw they're so small and everyone knows the princess because the dissenters, the scholars, and those who can't sing in key are all exiled or more likely, sacrificed to the dark gods that keep the land alive
> mfw Elsa had a chance to save everyone and build a new, self-reliant people but doomed them all because of a fucking talking snowman.
Was Hans the real hero, turning the world back towards it's path of incremental shittiness to one day reap true happiness?

Also, comfy village.

>>53068026
Okay Sauron

>>53068559
It says king, not emperor. Generic fantasy kingdoms are normally like 4-5 towns and the settlements between them. There is no room for a duke.

Think HRE type german "city states", with a king each.

>>53057173
That's a motte and bailey, not a village.

>>53074263
Exactly, Ireland and Scandinavia for example was full of petty kingdoms each with a self styled 'King'

>>53057173
>>53074284
The scale is way off too, every building seems huge compared to the people.

>>53068559
Because all Barons are power-tripping assholes, all Counts are vampires, all Dukes are power-hungry psychopaths out to unseat the King, and all Grand Viziers are pure evil.

>>53068668
http://www.effectgames.com/demos/canvascycle/

>>53074377
I think they botched some perspective somewhere because the lady by the well looks reasonably proportioned compared to the well, and both she and the well seem fine compared to the nearby building, but if you were to put them further back near the parts of the building by the entrance, they seem too small.

>>53067925
Yeah, and Rome had the granaries of Sicily, Egypt, Norht Africa etc to provide for her, Italy alone couldn't at the time.

>>53069195
>>53069544
>>53069921
Nice, I like your take of fantasy, very fairy tale/ye olde magic curses and stuff.

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In the HRE style state the village resides in, the small hamlet has the strange honour of being an elector, this is due to the fact they were first to support the unity movement.

The current election is a tie with one vote left to cast, theirs. The players must navigate the town while being assailed on all sides with promises if they help convince the townspeople one way or another.

Rumor has the village of generic was the hiding place of a refugee sorcerer a few dozen years ago... it was never comfirmed so no one really cared about it.. it was a story to scare little children

>the sorcerer actually did hide here, blending in and even started a family
>he had a sorcerous son who had a significant gift/curse of wild magic..

Now after many years the village is as calm as ever. Sometimes even too calm.. no one really leaves or goes in anymore, but i checked on them a few days back and everything seemed normal. Every single citizen was friendly as ever.

Though it seemed no one aged a bit...

// present time //

Something is seriously wrong with the village of generic. The 6 year old little girl i knew 10 years back is still 6 years old. Everything looks exactly the same as then, no one knows whats going on but the cirizens seem friendly and fine as ever.. its weird

>the boy grew to love his village, but a wild surge caused every citizen to die instantly, even his father, the old sorcerer.
>the boy summoned lifelike illusions of his memory, clinging to his beloved village, slowly going crazy.. he believes the citizens are still there.

>>53074618
I'll build on that premise a bit.

The village is randomly chosen to host some event with the king. He travels around the country every year, hosting events everywhere, to keep the country stable and unified.
However, there is an assassination attempt brewing, and an army backed coup about to happen.
The player is the local village police-security-guard-man, mostly telling drunk people to fuck off, not even carrying a weapon beyond a bunch of rope shaped like a club, never needed to. But now he and the rest of the party need to get some detective work done and possibly some fighting too.

Mercenaries representing a major guild in the area are causing a fuss saying that the village is harboring someone who crossed their guild. Whether this person exists and who is in the right is for the party to find out.

There's a plot to depose the local Lord. The party can help or hinder it.

The party ventures into some nearby ruins and gets some sweet treasure. When they return to town the entire village is pissed that they just looted the local burial crypt.

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>CTRL+F "Shire"
>CTRL+F "Hobbiton"
>No results

Do you people even comfy?

>>53075542
Halflings don't exist in any of the settings I DM. Fuck those bastards. Completely fucking useless as a race. Gnomes are better than them, dwarves are better than them.

Delete Halflings.

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This town's more modern fantasy, but that doesn't make it any less comfy.

>>53056758
>gazebo
It's like asking for a bloodshed

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This thread has got me yearning to run Village of Hommlet and focusing heavily on the village drama in between dungeons.

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Can it get any comfier?

>>53075920
>no fencing
>no nets on river

Is this a vegan only settlement?

>>53075940
You can always hunt in the woods and fish using rods.

>>53075940
You would not want to net that creek. and those farms are hardly worth fencing.

Remember kids: fences arnt for farms, fences are for keeping livestock out of farms (and roads).

I will say, though, that the bridge doesnt look very convincing, and that I find it odd that they have enough stones to build an earthwork embankment, but not enough to have fieldstone foundations on their homes.

>>53076476
>Remember kids: fences arnt for farms, fences are for keeping livestock out of farms (and roads).

Right, and the gardens not having any fences means those people don't keep animals. Thus the vegan comment.

>>53076486
They could hunt.

>>53076523
The forest is literally five meters from the garden.
If there was anything to hunt, they'd need fences.

>>53076585
They could just hunt it when it comes into their unfenced garden. Hell, thats what half my family does up in michigan. Run a half-acre plot off the back porch, and keep a loaded gun by the door. All through summer you'll be eating fresh turkey.

You do make a point though.

>>53076616
I don't think modern day americana applies to small fantasy setting villages like that.

>keep a loaded bow
>and if nothing shows up, eat from the mana-fridge

>>53076740
Fair enough. Its a stupid village for several reasons, fences included. For starters they've cleared the forest seemingly at random, and they plow their fields the short way seemingly for nothing but aesthetic effect.

>>53076775
The gardens are also so close to the houses, that the shadows will ruin some of the harvest.
And there is no way to guide water to the gardens, so they have to carry it.
And a card can't move on those narrow roads.
And there is no wood for burning stored anywhere.

I am getting too slav for these urban renditions of what a village should look like.

>>53076808
Not to mention the place they seem to have chosen is sub-par. That creek could supply water for one household, but not for four year round households. God forbid they have a drought. Everybody would die.

>>53068560
ok, that is nice visually, but there would be insane noise 24/7 around a waterfall that size and everything would be constantly wet and covered in moss because of the mist

>>53075736
>a bunch of lit lanterns outside the inn
>multiple lit lanterns inside the barn, lol
>almost a dozen torches inside that have to replaced every hour on the hour if not faster

I see that realism just goes out the window, even if it's an otherwise beautiful map.

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>>53077210
They're MAGIC torches and lanterns, OBVIOUSLY, so they burn long through the night. Durr.

Here's the second floor.

>>53077237
You realize even magic torches that never stop burning still generate a fuckton of awful choking smoke, right?

That's the reason everyone used candles, or small lamps with wicks that burned vegetable oils or whale oil or something.

By the way even rich people carried them around, not left dozens of them burning in every room of the house.

>>53077210
A lot of them look like electric lamps to me actually. Perhaps magical Continual Lights.

>>53077274
>You realize even magic torches that never stop burning still generate a fuckton of awful choking smoke, right?

Continual Light doesn't.

>>53077274
Oh no, my magical fantasy realm has just lost it's realism.

>>53077274
You're absolutely right, and that's how I'd do it if I was running a low magic fantasy setting like conan, or lotr, or got.

>>53077274
Unfortunately nobody makes maps for low magic games. You'd just have to play on what I assume must be the day map versions.

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Comfiest village coming through, everyone make way!

>>53080842
Jesus, it looks like one of the villages from Monty Python's Holy Grail, where all the peasants are doing something stupid and pointless, like piling mud or beating a cat.

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Is this comfy enough?

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>>53080842
Who let Bosch out of his house again?

>>53075556
Why do you hate little people so much?

>>53075566
>we could live in a world like this if anime was real
Why did we have to be born in the 3DPD realm?

>>53083853
Anon is probably just a manlet who's insecure about his height.

>>53075920
The guy living next to the woods will die in his sleep by a wandering beast. He is literally right next to the forest.

>>53077988
The right amount of realism and art, not a good place to live in, but a good place to adventure in.

>>53086262
I especially like the monk kicking the beggar, that's a plot hook if I ever saw one.

>>53088064
> Juicing tank
I like where this is going

>>53072657
Peasants are dumb.

>>53068559
It could be a more centralized government, where the king has consolidated his power such that the local nobility has been largely stripped down to smallish plots of land, and relegated to manor lords. The crown owns the land, and runs it as an early modern state, with landowning burghers owning the land and paying tax on it as rent.

It would be interesting to play with two groups that didn't know each other, one group predominately republican/decentralist working for the local nobility trying to get their ancestral lands back, and one group predominately democrat/centralist and working with the king for a kingdom that's more stable and prosperous ruled under one crown. Then you can set up a reveal and they get to argue while you chuckle menacingly.

Evil dragon uniting the country by being big evil and scaly optional.

>>53075556
I feel like gnomes and halflings occupy two totally different niches. Halflings are more communal, pastoral, and agricultural while gnomes are either like crazy tinkers or fey-like trickstery forest guys.

Like, you don't associate gnomes with rolling farm pastures, do you? And you don't associate halflings with clockwork and filigree contraptions, right?

>>53080842
How the heck was that guy able to shoot that crossbow so quickly?

>>53083129
Built on the foundation of genocide, therefore not comfy.

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Nonconventional comfy villages?

A man disappears the day the characters come to town, the father of their host.

The next day the characters don't remember him. Neither do the villagers.

A dread boar that has become legend to the locals. It is said that unwary hunters, adventurers, and slayers alike have failed in their pursuit of it. From its back protrude broken hafts, shafts, and handles of a multitude of ancient weapons tangled in its knobby flesh, some grown ancient and rusty and grown in with the moss in its hair while others are still freshly splintered and mottled with blood. The most fearsome blade, though, is a massive one that was thrust through the back of the creature's neck- missing its mark, and becoming embedded sticking straight out the front, giving it an extra wicked tusk that has imperiled many to cross its path.

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>>53069949
Your hooks and others like them are the point of this thread, not clogs.

>>53083775
Now this is incredibly comfy.

Also, not really village stuff but related.
There is a recently abandoned silver and lead mine in the area that's been mostly played out. The mining tunnels seem to intersect with some natural ones that extend for miles in multiple directions. Nobody knows where they lead. The entrance has been completely blocked off with a heavy wooden barrier to keep children from wandering downinside.

Every year sometime around the winter solstice the barrier has been destroyed from the inside out, and every spring the villagers rebuild it. This has been happening for seven years now.

The barrier remnants are covered in claw marks and bits of blood. Nobody in the village wants to talk about it.

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>>53083775
You can't quash the Bosch.

>>53055633
Players enter a remote, small village which is completely deserted.
There are no signs of people nor farm animal, yet the thing couldn't be abandoned (IF it was abandoned) no longer than this morning - the fireplaces are still warm a bit, there is fresh milk in a bucket, eggs in a cellar and so on. But most importantly, there are no signs of what happend with the villagers and their livestock. All the possessions are still there, nobody touched food supply, nothing appears to be lost, but also there are not tracks around, signs of fight or even footprints.
Just an empty village that shouldn't be empty.

Extra points if you just throw it in as semi-related "encounter" when players are in some wilderness and tracking something that appears to be supernatural. It doesn't have to be related in any way with your main quest, it doesn't need to be "solvable", but it boosts the mood in truly magnificent way.

>>53089633
>Ksar next to oasis
>Non-conventional
It's like you never run not just campaign happening in North Africa, but not even Arabian Nights bullshit.

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>>53055633

OP, see pic related for the ultimate village adventure

>>53055684
>Village
>Walls
That's not how that works.

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>>53093766
That is in fact, exactly how that works. Palisaded villages and settlements are completely normal in dangerous lands, which is pretty much the definition of most fantasy settings where you have monsters and adventurers.

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>>53095240

>>53093766
It's like you never heard about oppidum. Or just any sort and type of Iron Age settlements.

>>53073243
Yeah, because that's pretty normal thing to have, all over the fucking world. As long as there is some arable land around or just good-enough-pastures, you are going to have a village one next to another, separated by 5-10 km from each other. If you try hard enough or just climb on the roof of the barn (or whatever is the tallest building in the village), you should see another 4-10 villages in the nearby area.

Just check maps of Austria, which is probably the best example of this shit, as the country has relatively low urbanisation factor and is pretty "rural" for lack of better term. Most of those villages exist since the Late Medieval, and another hefty share since early modern period. And they are still there, densely packed in all those plains and mountain valleys.
Slovenia is same shit, but Slavic.

>>53066141
Beautiful

>>53069949
Your stories are the reason I keep on reading.

Here's something i used in a campaign based on the watchtower thread, something lighthearted I am sure some of you will remember that thread

Mr. Malafar the grumpy old man on the farm next to the village was found dead early this morning. Upon investigating, it seems that he was strangled to death, and the pumpkin he was growing for the village contest is missing. However some strange alchemic potions were found on the basement, what could that mean?

As it turns out the growth potion the old man was trying to brew had given life to the pumpkin,
which killed the man in self defense, and now the pumpkin is roaming free, ready to strike again. Will the pumpkin hunt other people or will it lead other awakened vegetables in a glorious revolution agains the humans ?

>>53088064
i-is that loss?

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>>53089633

Bamp

>>53103394
Ok, I give up... so where is Waldo?

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>>53075556
nah, gnomes are shit

>>53077274
That's not where lamps are all the time. Those are just like stands to hang your lamp.

>>53055633
Every episode of Stargate that involves a village.

>>53083775
Not Bosch
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netherlandish_Proverbs

>>53107441
So... first 5 seasons or so?

>>53067925
In a mediaeval setting, a city isn't really defined by population. it's defined by whether or not it has a Cathedral. And there were and still are some tiny ass 'cities'. Salisbury for example, only has a population of around 40,000 today, and in the Middle Ages is estimated to be around 8,000.

Huge cities like Rome or London were not the norm

>>53069195


These are all pretty great, as little stories within a description, amazing flavor, but serious question now.
How do even half of these get used as a plot hook in a role playing game without either being too obtuse, or their resolution a huge let down?

>>53074324
That's only really the case in the early Dark Ages. By the time you get into the stereotypical Mediaeval period that dominates most fantasy, Ireland was largely under Norman control, and the kingdoms of Denmark Norway and Sweden were pretty well established by the 11th century

>>53068588
pretty cool that you can see the fens from this

>>53108179
>Dark Ages

>>53108179
Nope, look at the Iberian peninsula where you got the Christian kingdoms, or the Taifas/petty muslim nations. Or Italy. The Balcans too, or even Anatolia was divided be the differents turkic conqueror and the remnants of the ERE.

>>53074810
So Guards! Guards! as a campaign, more or less?

>>53068706
The DnD concept of 'medieval europe was endless wilderness with the occasional village' is really an anachronism. By the early middle ages europe was teeming with villages and the great forests mostly cut down. You could pass through half a dozen villages in a day when travelling.

>>53108168
I'd guess that depends on your player's expectations. if you're not doing a massive grand adventure you don't need to have grand quests.

>>53108925
But like in general. A lot of these could have the most mundane explanations, or more likely than not none at all.

>>53103394
Do you have the rest of these? Loved this book

>>53108964
Typically these kinds of things are planted between major scenes. But even having small resolutions like that on hand can actually prove as interesting bait further down the line.

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>>53088917
There we go again...

>>53075566
Pictured: A town where literally everyone is a Pokémon Master. Yes, even that little shit running around pulling the pigtails of the girl a year older than him.

>>53109820
I'm afraid I have no idea where I got the picture, I just save a lot of cool stuff for campaign inspiration.

>>53088869
Same species, different cultures. Maybe dwarves are also just another cultural subgroup of the "mini humans" species.

>>53108008
This is factually wrong. City was a city if it got charter of laws. Usually it involved specific city design, for example Magdeburg law featured a square market in the middle with a grid of city blocks around it while Lubeck law used a wide, long trading road as a centre.

>>53086297
I know, that guy in the hood in the center looks like he's about to do something about it.

>>53098416
Aw man I'm rooting for you Mr. Punkin
Veggies have rights too
I like this idea

>>53065331
Because defensive walls were built in a day.

Remember anons: your autism does not automatically succeed at knowledge checks.

Old stories tell of a time when the village was razed by a necromancer who reanimated the corpses of the village's dead and used the village's own flesh and blood against them. The few who hid themselves well survived and repopulated, vowing to burn all bodies on death so that such an event could never repeat.

When the mangled corpses of livestock are found and evidence suggests that they were eaten alive by a human, rumors begin to surface that the undead still lurk in the shadows of the village, and that perhaps even one of the villagers him or herself may be undead.

Your job is to get to the bottom of these rumors and determine whether or not there are undead among the villagers and to determine who is killing the livestock.

It turns out that all of the villagers are undead, and that each individual is hiding it from every other out of fear of persecution. When the village was razed, after killing and cannibalizing all of the living villagers, the undead turned on the necromancer. Once he died their frenzy was broken, and they had no recollection of it ever occurring. They had no recollection of dying, either, and so resumed business as usual. There are a billion plotholes- such as the origin of the tale itself (perhaps someone who remembered the frenzy invented it in order to keep up the status quo but also to ensure that those who take the appearance of dying are truly put to rest through cremation), but I'm sure they could be patched up. Also there would be red herrings and stuff too.

>>53068093
>village is near large waterway
>not a dock in sight
Why? How do they trade?

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>>53066501

>>53111449
Different anon and yet I care too. What now?