Settlement Creator


Homebrew and House Rules


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I am trying to teach myself MySQL, PHP, Javascript, any many other things. So I decided the best way to learn it is just to start coming up with ideas and see if I can make it work.

The first project I have created is a web based Settlement Creator at pathfindertools.nairb.net. It uses the information found in the Game Mastery Guide for creating Stat Blocks for a settlement.

There will be more stuff added to it eventually. If anyone has any suggestions or notices any errors please let me know.

In order to save your own settlements you need to create an account. I have noticed that the confirmation email that gets sent out when you create an account works sometimes, and sometimes it doesn't. I haven't figured out quite why yet. It worked for me when I tested it for one of my email accounts, but not another one.


Interesting idea, looking forward to taking a look.

Grand Lodge

Very cool I like it a lot. VERY handy.

Questions, and sort of more related to "industry practices" for web developers...

1) Why ask for a username if you must use an email account to log in? The username isn't actually used for anything that I can see. Typing my user name is faster at login than my email account.

2) Why go through the annoyance of emailing account activation? Undoubtedly an email exists. I have to register with your site, leave your site, hope there is an email in the Inbox, if not go searching through the Spam Box, find the email, open it, find the link, click it and finally go back to the site I was at in the beginning to do what I wanted to do before I went dumpster diving in my email. I understand "security" (use one of those random number generating things to eliminate "bots") and I understand needing an email in case someone forgets their login info. But to go through such annoying steps is ridiculous.

I had to register last night to use Dundjinni so I could post on their message boards. It took over an hour for them to send the email conformation, and then there was an error somewhere and I was still not allowed to post to their message boards. Great way to piss off customers.

In marketing the idea is to REDUCE the number of road blocks your customer must face. Make the experience of using your service memorable and pleasant. The more "seemingly" minor disruptions, diversions, and road blocks you throw up, the more likely you are to loose customers. And rule number one is NEVER let them leave (if you can help it). So every time a web developer throws up a "leave my site go elsewhere for while because I don't want you to do what you want to do right now" moment is a great way to loose customers.

I am sure web developers sit there and go "okay whatever" but I guarantee you the marketing guys are saying "He GETS it!" Web design ultimately is a variation of marketing. That is the purpose of web sites (at least commercially- and heck even most private sites market something if even just marketing the owners).

SOOOOOOOOO this is not directed at YOU directly, but more the industry as a whole. I understand you are learning web languages, so doing things the established ("wrong") way is justified. But once you are established and doing whatever you do please find a way to not make your customers go elsewhere and never come back. :)

On to more relevant matters, I liked the site. Easy to use and very useful. Follows the format already established in the book, so no new education is needed to find what you want. Presentation is nice and kept on one page to make it easier to navigate, organize and use. I particularly liked the tabs for NPCs, Locations and Factions. Those were terribly useful.

On to a side trek... I think we, as a community, should come up with more Qualities and Disadvantages to give settlements more flavor and character. :)


Nice tool you are making.
However, as the site is freely accessible I guess that you should add OGL and CUP license as you are using OGL rules and Pathfinder logo from CUP package. I admit I am not certain about that but I think that someone better knowing the rules will tell you what legal text exactly you should place on your site.


Krome wrote:

Very cool I like it a lot. VERY handy.

Questions, and sort of more related to "industry practices" for web developers...

1) Why ask for a username if you must use an email account to log in? The username isn't actually used for anything that I can see. Typing my user name is faster at login than my email account.

2) Why go through the annoyance of emailing account activation? Undoubtedly an email exists. I have to register with your site, leave your site, hope there is an email in the Inbox, if not go searching through the Spam Box, find the email, open it, find the link, click it and finally go back to the site I was at in the beginning to do what I wanted to do before I went dumpster diving in my email. I understand "security" (use one of those random number generating things to eliminate "bots") and I understand needing an email in case someone forgets their login info. But to go through such annoying steps is ridiculous.

I had to register last night to use Dundjinni so I could post on their message boards. It took over an hour for them to send the email conformation, and then there was an error somewhere and I was still not allowed to post to their message boards. Great way to piss off customers.

In marketing the idea is to REDUCE the number of road blocks your customer must face. Make the experience of using your service memorable and pleasant. The more "seemingly" minor disruptions, diversions, and road blocks you throw up, the more likely you are to loose customers. And rule number one is NEVER let them leave (if you can help it). So every time a web developer throws up a "leave my site go elsewhere for while because I don't want you to do what you want to do right now" moment is a great way to loose customers.

I am sure web developers sit there and go "okay whatever" but I guarantee you the marketing guys are saying "He GETS it!" Web design ultimately is a variation of marketing. That is the purpose of web sites (at least commercially- and heck even most private sites...

1) The username will be used eventually whenever I get around to adding a forum.

2) Yeah, I agree it probably wasn't the best way to handle it, but it was the only way I could figure out. Once I learn more I will see if I can come up with a better way to do it.

I had created an OGL page, but had forgotten to have a link to it.


I have finally got around to working on this again. I have made a couple of bug fixes and I am slowly adding the new stuff from this post.

If anyone has some suggestions or finds any more bugs, please let me know.


I like this very much. Dotted.


Added the Description, Locations, Groups/Factions, and Adventure Hooks/Rumors info to the bottom of the Stat Block tab.


The link does not work for me. Something I am doing wrong?


2 people marked this as a favorite.

add a www to it, for some reason the old won't work anymore without the www

www.pathfindertools.nairb.net


A settlement hoping to grow into a city some day will build a town hall and a clock tower. Probably have some sort of pump to get the water back up in the waterclock.


I noticed that you added a lot of homebrew material to the tool, and found the thread where you pulled all that new material from.

I'm all in favor of more qualities, disadvantages, and governments, but the modifiers granted by these new features seem underdeveloped, in my opinion, and might not work for everyone.

I propose that you add a "custom" option to the list of qualities, disadvantages, and governments, so that we can easily add our own homebrew material, or modified versions of those that you've added. The interface could look something like this:

:

Add information below and Save Changes to add a new custom quality/disadvantage.

Name:

Description:

Modifiers:
Corruption: (-5 to +5) Crime: (-5 to +5) Economy: (-5 to +5 Law: (-5 to +5) Lore: (-5 to +5) Society: (-5 to +5)
Danger: (-10 to +10) Base Value: (-30% to +30%) Purchase Limit: (-50% to +50%) Spellcasting Level: (-3 to +3)
Other:

Modifier selections would be drop down menus, except for "Other" which would be a text box.

I don't think you should necessarily remove the homebrew material from the tool, because most of them are quite good, but you should at least denote them as 3rd party content.

If possible, you could even let us save custom made features to our accounts to be listed among other qualities/disadvantages/governments when making other settlements.


First off, great work nairb.
The IMPOVERISHED disadvantage seems to have been entered incorrectly. Unless I'm mistaken, it's reducing Crime and Corruption by 1 instead of adding.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 16

I considered making something like this for Ultimate Campaign's building/team system. Rather well done.

Instead of forcing people to create an account and log in, I recommend adding an import/export feature. Have the exporter take the settlement data and spit out a JSON string. The importer parses the string into settlement data.


The town clock would add an output bonus. +3 crops when watered and harvested on time. +3 building results when workers all arrive at the same time.


sk8r_dan_man wrote:

I noticed that you added a lot of homebrew material to the tool, and found the thread where you pulled all that new material from.

I'm all in favor of more qualities, disadvantages, and governments, but the modifiers granted by these new features seem underdeveloped, in my opinion, and might not work for everyone.

I propose that you add a "custom" option to the list of qualities, disadvantages, and governments, so that we can easily add our own homebrew material, or modified versions of those that you've added. The interface could look something like this:
** spoiler omitted **

Modifier selections would be drop down menus, except for "Other" which would be a text box.

I don't think you should necessarily remove the homebrew material from the tool, because most of them are quite good, but you should at least denote them as 3rd party content.

If possible, you could even let us save custom made features to our accounts to be listed among other qualities/disadvantages/governments when making other settlements.

I had planned on doing something like this. I just haven't had the time to really work on it in a long time.

ritesign wrote:

First off, great work nairb.

The IMPOVERISHED disadvantage seems to have been entered incorrectly. Unless I'm mistaken, it's reducing Crime and Corruption by 1 instead of adding.

Thanks, fixed.

Cyrad wrote:

I considered making something like this for Ultimate Campaign's building/team system. Rather well done.

Instead of forcing people to create an account and log in, I recommend adding an import/export feature. Have the exporter take the settlement data and spit out a JSON string. The importer parses the string into settlement data.

I have been trying to come up with another way of doing this. When I get the time I will check into it.


Great that you're still working on this. It really is the best tool of its kind, much better than the other pdfs and spreadsheet files available. Thanks for making that change.


Settlement Creator Changelog
Version 2.0
Released: June 17th, 2015

New Features

Added buttons to hide/show Qualities and Disadvantages from Piazo Forum.
Added "Include on Stat Block" field to Locations, Groups/Factions, and Adventure Hooks/Rumors so you can have only the ones you want to show up on the Stat Block.
Added buttons to hide/show Description, Locations, Groups/Factions, and Adventure Hooks/Rumors from the Stat Block.
Added "Print Stat Block" button.
Added "Guards! Guards!" tab for handling the Diplomacy check when calling on the guards.

Changes

Site should look better on tablets and phones now.
Changed all PHP MySQL code to MySQLi.
Changed code from using JQueryUI to Bootstrap.
Reorganized Qualities and Disadvantages to be grouped by official ones and ones from the Piazo forum.

Fixed Issues

You can now delete settlements that you created. WARNING! This can not be undone!
Text for Pious Quality was not being saved when creating a new Settlement.
Text for Plagued Disadvantage was not being saved when creating a new Settlement.
Government Capitol Quality was not calculating as being used.
Added stripslashes command in multiple places for text with apostrophes.

If anyone has any problems or notices any bugs, please let me know.

Thanks


Fixed a problem with creating a new account. If you tried to create an account lately, you will have to do it again.


After much Googling the "Print Stat Block" button now works in Chrome.

Sczarni RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Wayfinder has quite a few articles about settlements.


Settlement Creator Changelog
Version 2.2
Released: April 29th, 2016

Changes
Updated to latest versions of JQuery, Bootstrap, and metisMenu.

Fixed Issues
Fixed issue with some Qualities (Pious, Racially Intolerant) and Disadvantages (Plagued, Haunted, Spellblight) that required text from being null or excepting blank spaces.

If anyone has any problems or notices any bugs, please let me know.

Thanks

Scarab Sages

First off let me say how amazingly useful this tool is! I've built out over 50 classic settlements from old DND settings for use in my home game. That said, allow me to beg on bended knee for the ability to enter custom qualities/type of govt.

As is I can use your magnificent tool to do the basics, but then I need to recalculate and manually add in traits like Planar Metropolis. The format suggested earlier in the thread looks great for instance. I don't even care if they save anywhere other than the local entry, for many of us it would increase the usefulness of your generator a thousandfold.

Kudos on the great work, I've even used this to help build statblocks for some of my published work! Can't give a higher recommendation that that!

Thanks, nairb!


Didn't check to see if this was captured. The tooltip when selecting Plutarchy is:

"A small council comprised of the wealthiest individuals direct society. The rule of coin runs this society, with heavy BRIDES and wealth buying position."

I like women with curves, but I don't think that's what was intended here.


As part of an unrelated project I've been scrounging through published Paizo adventures for settlement statblocks that contain custom settlement qualities. I've edited out names and places specific to Golarion where appropriate (for instance, in the Adventuring Site quality I replaced "the Silver Mount" with "a famous adventuring location"). Perhaps this list could be useful?

Settlement Qualities:

Adventure Site
Proximity to a famous adventuring location has long drawn curious adventurers from across the land. (Society +2, increase purchase limit by 50%)
source: Iron Gods Palace of Fallen Stars

Broad-Minded
The citizens are open, friendly, and tolerant, and react positively towards visitors. (Lore +1; Society +1)
Source: Reign of Winter Snows of Summer

Cultured
The settlement is well known for its culture of artistry, particularly among actors and musicians. (Law -1, Society +1; always counts as a prosperous city for the purpose of perform checks)
Source: Hell’s Rebels In Hell’s Bright Shadow

Darkvision
Most of the citizens have darkvision, and thus nights provide no cover for thieves and other criminals. Merchants lose little inventory to dishonesty. (Crime -1, Economy +1)
source: Distant Shores

Deep Traditions
The settlement is bolstered by its strong traditions, but its citizens have difficulty interacting with visitors (Crime -2, Law +2, Society -2)
Source: Hell’s Rebels Dance of the Damned

Defiant
The citizens of this settlement have a natural predilection for free thinking that borders on rebellious action. (Law -1, Society +1)
Source: Hell’s Rebels In Hell’s Bright Shadow

Long Memory
The people of this settlement have a deep-seated hatred for a specific group or faction. Any such individual who makes their presence known in town is attacked within 1d4 hours, and either violently out of the settlement or executed. Similarly, residents look upon those who deal with this enemy faction with suspicion, and they must pay 200% the normal price for goods and services and may face mockery, insult, or even violence.
Source: Gallows of Madness

Militarized
The populace is devoted to the armed forces. Civil and military law is intertwined, punishments are harsh, and loyalty to the state is expected. (Law +4, Society -4)
source: Distant Shores

Mythic Sanctum
The settlement is a seat of power for one or more living mythic characters, granting each of the mythic characters additional influence so long as they reside here. (Corruption -2, each increase resident mythic character's effective mythic tier for the purpose of granting spells to followers)
source: Distant Shores

No Questions Asked
The citizens mind their own business and respect a visitor’s privacy (Lore -1, Society +1)
Source: Hell’s Rebels Dance of the Damned

Racially Tolerant
The settlement has a notorious minority racial population. These individuals are unruly and cause problems for the rest of the settlement, and are only tolerated due to the steady business they bring to the settlement (Corruption +2, Danger +5, Economy +2)
Source: Strange Aeons The Whisper Out of Time

Resource Surplus
A surplus of a certain community has made for very competitive markets in those kinds of goods. This commodity and items primarily made from it can be purchased for as little as half the normal cost. The additional cost of making an item with alchemical compounds related to that resource (for instance, alchemical silver for silver or cold iron for iron) is halved in this settlement’s marketplaces.
Source: Distant Shores

Restrictive
Foreigners who settle in this settlement are prohibited from owning property in certain districts and sometimes pay a higher price for goods. This disdain rarely involves violence towards foreigners, though the city guard monitors strangers to ensure they don't cross the boundaries of the city without appropriate paperwork (Corruption -1, Lore -1)
Source: Distant Shores

Rule of Might
The settlement has a tradition of rule by the strongest individual (Law +2, society -2)
source: Iron Gods Palace of Fallen Stars

Slavers’ Haven
This settlement not only permits the slave trade, but it serves as the core of the local economy. Fleshpeddlers of all sorts are welcome here and bring with them both their coin and a severe adherence to the laws of trade. (Economy +2, Law +2)
Source: Strange Aeons The Whisper Out of Time

Subterranean
The settlement is primarily built underground, sheltering it from enemies but also isolating it culturally. (Law +1, Lore -1, Danger -5)
Source: Down the Blighted Path

Supportive
The settlement provides aid to its citizens. A number of programs provide food and shelter to the less fortunate. Everyone in the settlement is guaranteed at least two meals a day and a place to sleep with a roof over their head. (Society +2)
source: Distant Shores

Technology Gatherer
The sale of technological items is heavily restricted. (Economy +2, reduce base value by 50%, purchase of such items is limited to black markets)
source: Iron Gods Palace of Fallen Stars

Timid Citizens
Citizens are quiet and keep to themselves; Crimes often go unreported. (Crime +2, Lore -2)
source: Iron Gods Palace of Fallen Stars

Wealth Disparity
The wealthy and poor of this settlement are segregated. High wealth districts gain +2 lore but -2 society. Low wealth areas gain +2 society but -2 lore. Some areas may be unchanged. The entire settlement gains +2 corruption.
source: Distant Shores

Settlement Disadvantages:

Heavily Taxed
The settlement is very heavily taxed and has fewer resources available than settlement of its size normally has. (Economy -2, base value decreased 10%, purchase limit decreased 50%, spellcasting -2, available magic items as per settlement 1 category smaller)
source: Iron Gods Fires of Creation

Martial Law
As long as the settlement remains under martial law, a 9:00 PM to 6:00 AM curfew is in effect. Additionally, as long as the citizens must follow the edicts and proclamations, he city stifles and suffers (Corruption -4, Crime -2, Economy -4, Law +2, Lore -4, Society -4, Danger +10; halve all values for marketplace entries).
Source: Hell’s Rebels In Hell’s Bright Shadow

Oppressed
The leadership of this settlement retains oppressive control. (Lore -6, Society -6)
Source: Iron Gods Palace of Fallen Stars

Polluted
The air and water of the settlement are tainted. (Visitors must make a DC 12 fortitude save upon arrival to resist being sickened for 24 hours; this is a poison effect. In addition, each day for the first 7 days of a visit, a visitor has a 20% chance of being exposed to a disease like bluespit or the shakes)
Source: Iron Gods Palace of Fallen Stars

Settlement Governments:

Mythic Oligarchy
This settlement is ruled by powerful mythic characters who are worshiped as demigods. (lore +1, society -1)
Source: Distant Shores

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