Settlements

Summary

This video script delves into the intricacies of world-building, focusing on settlements as pivotal elements in storytelling. It advises Dungeon Masters to detail only locations relevant to the player's journey, emphasizing the necessity of a place to stay, pray, and shop for short visits. The script outlines settlement types from hamlets to cities, detailing their hierarchy, resource dependencies, and evolution. It discusses the importance of government, religion, trade, and the role of various NPCs, providing a comprehensive guide for creating immersive and dynamic settings in tabletop RPGs.

Takeaways

• 🌍 For world builders, settlements are crucial as they reflect the history and provide a setting for storytelling.
• 🏰 Dungeon Masters should focus on creating detailed locations relevant to the party's journey, rather than exhaustive world-building.
• 🏠 In short visits, players typically need places to stay, pray, and shop, which should be given personality if the settlement is a home base or quest hub.
• 🏡 The foundation of any settlement is a resource, most commonly food and minerals, which can be exploited and potentially exported.
• 🏞️ Hamlets are small, with less than a hundred people, and are unlikely to have much to offer adventurers beyond basic survival and information.
• 🏕️ Villages, with a population of up to a thousand, have farms, animal husbandry, and a basic government structure, often with a noble family in charge.
• 🏪 Villages also feature a church or shrines, reflecting the need for faith in a world with many unseen secrets.
• 🏢 Towns, with around 3,000 citizens, are hubs of trade, with an influx of merchants and a variety of goods, and often have guild systems for craftsmen.
• 🏦 Cities are complex, with layers of development and a diverse range of experiences, governed by a circle of nobles and featuring extensive law enforcement and trade guilds.
• 🏛️ Cities are also religious centers, with grand cathedrals and temples, and are the heart of a kingdom, offering a wide array of services and opportunities for adventurers.
• 🏖️ Kingdoms are networks of settlements under one ruler, typically centered around a city, and are the highest level of organization in the settlement hierarchy.

Q & A

What is the primary factor that leads to the formation of a settlement according to the script?

The primary factor that leads to the formation of a settlement is the presence of a resource, such as food and minerals, which can be exploited.

Why are hamlets rarely visited by adventurers in the script?

Hamlets are rarely visited by adventurers because they are small communities with little to offer in terms of goods or services, and they generally have a tight family mentality that discourages outsiders.

What are the key differences between a hamlet and a village as described in the script?

The key differences include the number of residents, with villages having more than hamlets, and the presence of cultivation of food, a government structure, and a church in villages, which are absent in hamlets.

How does the script suggest handling the creation of settlements for a short visit by adventurers?

For short visits, the script suggests focusing on providing a place to stay, a place to pray, and a place to shop, as these are the essentials for adventurers.

What is the typical government structure of a village according to the script?

The typical government structure of a village is a single noble family that owns the village and is responsible for its upkeep.

Why are towns characterized by a surplus of a rare good in the script?

Towns are characterized by a surplus of a rare good because they either pop up on major trade routes or their export rarity makes trade routes form around them, attracting people from far and wide to trade.

How does the script describe the evolution of a town into a city?

The script describes the evolution of a town into a city as a process involving a significant increase in population, the development of layers with each expansion, and the establishment of a complex governance system involving a circle of nobles and a bureaucratic legal structure.

What are the two types of guilds mentioned in the script, and how do they differ?

The two types of guilds mentioned are traders and craftsmen. Traders band together to set prices for goods, while craftsmen set standards for the quality of goods representing their trade.

How does the script suggest adding personality to locations in a settlement?

The script suggests adding personality by describing the people who run the locations, such as a family that runs an inn or a tavern, the presence of other guests, and the types of entertainment available.

What is the significance of a kingdom in the context of settlements as described in the script?

A kingdom is a network of towns and villages under one ruler, with a city serving as the administrative center, and it represents the political and economic structure that connects smaller settlements.

Outlines

00:00

🏰 Building Settlements in RPG Worlds

The paragraph emphasizes the importance of settlements in world-building for RPGs, suggesting that their current state is a reflection of their history. It advises Dungeon Masters to focus on locations relevant to the party's journey, such as places to stay, pray, and shop. For short visits, only essential locations are needed. The paragraph also touches on adding personality to locations and the types of shops that might exist, suggesting that for more detailed world-building, one should consider the settlement's resources, which are the foundation of its development.

05:02

🌾 The Evolution of Settlements: Hamlets to Towns

This section delves into the hierarchy of settlements, starting with hamlets, which are small groups of people with minimal resources, typically not visited by adventurers. It describes the growth from hamlets to villages, which cultivate food and have a basic government structure, often a noble family. Villages may have a church, guards, and basic shops, and can be formed in various ways, such as by city commission or through integration of different groups. The paragraph also discusses the transition to towns, which have a surplus of a rare good, attracting trade and leading to the development of more infrastructure like inns, taverns, and a more complex legal system.

10:03

🏙️ Cities: The Pinnacle of Settlement Development

The final paragraph discusses the characteristics of cities, which are large, well-established settlements with a complex structure. Cities are composed of layers, each representing a different period of growth. They have a circle of nobles, a robust legal system, and a significant military presence. Guilds play a major role in cities, controlling trade and setting standards for goods and services. Cities also feature large cathedrals and temples, which are central to the religious life of the settlement. The paragraph concludes by mentioning kingdoms or nations as networks of settlements under a single ruler, with a city typically serving as the administrative center.

Keywords

💡Settlement

A settlement refers to a place where people live, ranging from small hamlets to large cities. In the context of the video, settlements are significant because their size and structure are shaped by historical factors and resources, which influence the story's setting. The video emphasizes that a Dungeon Master (DM) should design settlements with a balance of realism and narrative efficiency.

💡Resource

Resources are the fundamental reason settlements are formed, such as food, minerals, or water. In the video, it’s stressed that every settlement begins with the exploitation of a local resource, which could be agricultural land, a river, or minerals. The presence of these resources dictates the growth and sustainability of the settlement, making it essential for world-building.

💡Hamlet

A hamlet is the smallest type of settlement, typically comprising fewer than 100 people who live on subsistence resources. The video describes hamlets as unlikely places for adventurers to visit since they lack infrastructure like shops or inns. Their main role in the narrative could be offering information or a hot meal in exchange for labor.

💡Village

A village is a step above a hamlet, housing between 100 to 1,000 people. Villages have small-scale agriculture, simple governance (usually a noble family), and some form of religious institution. In the video, the village is presented as a place with basic services, a place where adventurers might find small shops or stay while passing through.

💡Town

A town is a larger settlement with a population of up to 3,000 people, typically known for producing and trading specialized goods. The video explains that towns are often located on trade routes, and their growth is spurred by the demand for the resources they export. Adventurers are more likely to find multiple inns, guilds, and shops in towns.

💡Guild

Guilds are organizations of craftsmen or traders that control trade and craftsmanship in towns and cities. In the video, guilds in towns are responsible for training apprentices and overseeing the quality and distribution of goods. Guilds provide structure to the economy and could play a crucial role in the political or social conflicts within the story.

💡Church/Temple

Religious institutions such as churches or temples play an important role in settlements. In the video, temples appear in villages, towns, and cities, serving as centers of faith and offering quests or problems for adventurers to solve. They also add to the cultural and spiritual depth of the settlement, reflecting its religious beliefs and practices.

💡Noble

A noble is an individual or family responsible for governing a settlement, typically a village or town. The video highlights that in smaller settlements, a noble oversees the resources and people, ensuring stability and protection. In larger settlements, such as cities, the governance system becomes more complex, with multiple nobles or a council.

💡Guards

Guards maintain law and order within settlements. The video explains that the number and quality of guards vary based on the size and type of settlement, from poorly trained volunteers in small villages to a formalized law system in cities. Guards play a key role in protecting the settlement, enforcing rules, and potentially interacting with adventurers.

💡City

A city is a large, complex settlement that serves as the heart of a kingdom or nation. The video describes cities as being built in layers, representing their expansion over time. Cities have the most diverse range of people, services, and institutions, including guilds, temples, and a governing council. They offer adventurers a vast range of experiences and interactions.

Highlights

The importance of settlements in world building for storytelling and character development.

Simplification advice for Dungeon Masters: focus on locations relevant to the party's journey.

The necessity of a resource for the establishment of any settlement, with food and minerals being the most common.

The role of goods that are not daily necessities in the development of settlements.

The concept of a hamlet as the smallest settlement unit with less than a hundred people.

The transition from a hamlet to a village involves cultivating food and establishing a government.

The function of a village's church and its significance in the community.

The variety of craftsmen and their roles within a village's society.

The evolution of a village into a town due to a surplus of rare goods attracting trade.

The impact of trade on the development of inns, taverns, and the guild system in towns.

The structure of a town's government, including nobles, appointed overseers, and elected councils.

The presence of larger temples and the representation of various religions in towns.

The characteristics of a city, including its layers, diverse experiences, and complex social structures.

The role of guilds in cities and their influence on trade and craftsmanship.

The bureaucratic systems and law enforcement present in cities to maintain order.

The concept of a kingdom as a network of settlements under one ruler, with a city serving as the administrative center.

The video's conclusion and the presenter's invitation for viewers to contribute additional information in the comments.

Transcripts

for us world builders arguably the most

important thing to flesh out below the

heroes are where people live because the

current state of a settlement is the

result of all the history that predated

it and now we get to tell a story inside

of it for Dungeon Master's I have a

little statement to make if you follow

this guide for every settlement that you

make your brain will die because all the

information I'm about to give you is

completely unnecessary for the village

you're running all you need are the

places that the party is actually going

to go as a general rule of thumb for

short visit settlements all you need is

a place for them to stay a place for

them to pray and a place to shop if the

settlement is big enough don't expect

exploration from players with a goal

already in place for a home town or

quest centric areas it's best to add

personality to each of the above

locations an inn and a tavern have a

family that runs them other guests and

sometimes a form of entertainment for

adventurers they'll try to get involved

in things like fight pits or bard songs

a temple should have a priest and

usually its own current issues like

false teachings or poor funding I'll be

describing the types of shops that might

exist in certain settlements later in

the video check out my NPC video to

populate these locations but for myself

and people like me I don't care at all

about making the process easier for

myself I want to make a damn City from

the ground up not a quick backdrop with

two buildings a hot elf barkeep and a

cardboard general goods shop even if

that's all I need so let's get started

the one and only thing that sparks a

settlement of any size is this a

resource if you've ever played

civilization you probably walked around

some before finding a good resource to

exploit the two most common resources

our food and minerals

examples include huge tracts of land a

surplus of flora and fauna a cave full

of iron ore and of course rivers all

settlements need a source of water

nearby just below that would be goods we

don't usually use at home on a daily

basis like lumber or spices not to say

that this is the only thing that a

settlement has but it's something they

can collect in abundance that can

eventually be an exported good so let's

move on to

you can debate the accuracy of a

settlement hierarchy but I'll base this

video on my own research and the book

itself the first and the smallest is a

hamlet this isn't in the DMS guide

because there is next to no reason for

an adventurer to ever visit one this is

a group of generally less than a hundred

people who work just enough resources to

survive until tomorrow basically imagine

your first week in Minecraft when you

were seven all you wanted were dirt

walls to protect yourself and some food

to eat it's unlikely these guys have any

goods to offer they don't have a church

because that's a textbook trait of

Hamlet's for some reason and no shelter

for an outsider to stay in if you want

to tie a hamlet to the story the best

they can provide is information and

maybe a hot meal and trade for labor

they either haven't been around long or

have a tight family mentality and want

to keep it that way in either case you

won't see a hamlet on a map now let's

double the size of the residency and add

some stability to create a village

during that growth quite a few things

happened first they started cultivating

food instead of relying on the local

flora fauna patterns they either have a

small number of farms or animal

husbandry

this is enough food to provide for the

village itself with a possible surplus

to trade with outsiders such as

merchants second they gained a

government to keep the excess of people

in check

this is usually a single noble family

that owns the village and is responsible

for its upkeep government believe it or

not is where things get tricky further

down the line I'll talk about cities but

villages don't always evolved from

Hamlet's oftentimes they're commissioned

by a city or town to collect valuable

resources they could be formed by a

pilgrimage of foreigners a conquered and

integrated tribe or purchased from a

noble and redesigned to fit a city's

needs in situations where a village is

owned by a city the city could provide

food for the villagers so they can work

mainly on minerals or other local goods

regardless of who's in charge they need

protection stations throughout the

village there is a massive misconception

about town guards but here's a couple of

bullet points most are volunteers

and not all of them are well trained to

do more than attack or detain someone

each settlement handles log differently

and each individual does the same there

is no realistic guard to person ratio

and the number heavily depends on the

type of natives but my personal

preference is roughly one official guard

to every 50 people in addition to those

improvements they also built a church we

all need something to believe in and the

world is a place that holds too many

unseen secrets to stay faithless this

doesn't mean the villages religion makes

any sense at all because history is more

than overflowing with human sacrifice

and ideological warfare so let's run

through what all that actually means if

the heroes walk into a village they'll

find anywhere from a hundred to a

thousand people working the land for

shelter this place will likely have some

where merchants are welcome to stay

while they're trading for religion there

is either a temple or a network of

shrines to make offerings or to pray to

for shops they'll likely have a small

shop with general Goods relating to the

villages own needs so they likely won't

include weapons or armor there's likely

also going to be a traveling merchant

passing through with a few unique items

for sale for order there is one guy in

charge most of the time he doesn't even

live here however he's got someone who

does all the paperwork and that guy

lives in a nice home where he collects

taxes and writes letters just below that

you've got a decent population of guards

to keep the village in check for locals

we have farmers religious workers and

craftsmen who are just skilled enough to

get the job done a lot of crafts fall by

the wayside but they're still working 9

to 5 jobs people like cobblers leather

workers butchers bakers candlestick

makers potters rat catchers foresters

and quite a few more will walk by the

adventures without ever saying a word

now imagine if you will that a village

had close to 3,000 citizens and more

spices than they know what to do with

what's going to happen then is people

here about a surplus of a rare good and

come running in from far and wide to

trade or to reign this is what we call a

town let's go through the changes first

the excessive trade towns either pop up

on major trade routes between cities

or the rarity of what they export makes

trade routes pop up around them as a

result of this the town has to

compensate for a surplus of foreigners

and merchants this is where the business

of taverns and inns explodes towns

receive a wide variety of basic goods

like large stocks of salted meats grain

lumber and metal ingots this doesn't

mean jack to adventurers but it's

the underground lifeblood of every

settlement there's a reason companies

like Cisco or Home Depot have an army of

delivery trucks running 24/7 and just

like us most adventurers won't really

acknowledge a traveling merchant unless

they have personal goods second

craftsmen are allowed more freedom to

perfect their craft most towns of some

form of guild system were specialists

take on apprentices and have more

authority local and well-known artisans

or craftsmen take up the mantle of

overseeing most trade in the town

third you have too many people running

around to keep a loose law system in

addition to the noble and they're

appointed overseer the town adds a bit

of a republic to the system and elects

their own council of overseers sometimes

this group melds pretty heavily with the

local church or the guild system and to

keep the streets in check we have more

guards more rules and better training

lastly when merchants spread so does the

church larger temples are built

different religions are represented and

drama plays out in the triad of the

three systems when the God's will isn't

heated when the law is ignored and when

goods get stolen our set of in town

factions starts throwing blame at each

other so let's take a walk through the

town in the outskirts we have massive

amounts of resources being collected

split up by roads that lead inside

somewhere just beyond or maybe in a city

nearby lives the noble that owns this

land further in we find housing for

merchants a medley of Inns and taverns

to keep travelers entertained somewhere

nearby is the trade center

world owned and run by guild members

maybe they deal directly with merchants

or maybe they open up the streets for

travellers to sell their goods freely

here you'll find all the basic goods or

services you might need the number of

specialists doubles when compared to a

village and the cobbling business always

does really well certain towns may also

offer higher Ling's

slaves or a red light district scattered

about or various temples teeming with

devout clerics and a surprisingly small

amount of human sacrifice somewhere near

the center of town tucked behind a

mountain of residences and a barred gate

is City Hall this is where the council

collects taxes and rights laws and

somewhat more prominent in a town than a

village are of course the guards

everyone's favorite type of NPC to deal

with they won't be everywhere but

they'll likely be near the heroes points

of interest you'll find them buzzing

around trade centers taverns and

swarming around city hall like fruit

flies

if you tightly pack three to eight towns

together you'll get a city these are the

settlements that have had a lot of time

to grow and a lot of luck in terms of

both location and resources these

colossal monuments of human progress are

the hearts of kingdoms and offer the

widest variety of experiences for a

traveler the most definitive trait of

cities are layers everything exists in

layers here in the center of the city is

where the old town used to be every

expansion adds a new layer a new

defensive wall is built and the city

shifts as a whole a long-lived city

viewed from above might look like a cut

tree trunk with rings to show its age

and districts that represent the time

they were built their expansive

structure is uncommon due to how hard it

is to hold together instead of one Noble

there is a circle of lords and ladies

each seat upward holding more power than

the one below in order to protect the

city's interest a more than healthy

amount of guards are posted throughout

the city the law systems here are held

up by a court or another bureaucratic

model prisons and barracks are in

healthy supply here and the number of

trained and armed forces are well above

the amount required to wage war several

guilds take hold and sit

offering perfected trade of even the

rarest goods and services the Guild's

can be divided into two groups

but each trader or craftsman will likely

monopolize their craft traders band

together and set the prices for various

goods and craftsmen set the standard for

what types of goods will represent their

trade caravans travel from far and wide

to cities and the trade district plays

host to everything an adventurer could

want some examples for your city and who

herb shops magic component salesman

trinket sellers potion shops bookstores

palm studenten this list

great cathedrals and other central

temples become the tent poles of their

religions powerful clerics and paladin's

collect here to worship and pay homage

to their gods lives are lived in full

inside city walls and stories are

written on every street corner massive

housing districts play host to the

working common folk and abandoned

districts shelter both low-lives and

seedy deals adventurers might have a

reason to visit any district and deal

with any number of citizens inside a

city a kingdom or a nation isn't exactly

a type of settlement but more so a

network of towns and villages connected

under one ruler any larger Kingdom has a

city as its head and a single Noble in

charge of all the people's future well

that's all i got i know i droned on near

the end and i'm sure i missed some major

stuff like irrigation and some

government details feel free to add some

information in the comments hope I

helped some then thanks for watching

you