Just putting this here to gauge any interest and if people want to help with the rules, stat blocks and math for this little enterprise. Now I will preface this by saying a) that I am suffering from depression and this is a way to help it and b) part of the project won’t start till the new year.
With that out of the way I plan on creating a village/small town in Taldor and part of the project will be painting miniatures and various terrain for it. So, some suggestions of sites will be welcome but I have a few decent leads currently with the following companies:
Otherworld miniatures
Reaper miniatures
Scibor miniatures
Cadwallon miniatures
Hasslefree miniatures
Gripping Beast miniatures
And for some buildings its:
Tabletop World specifically the Watchtower and Blacksmith.
Now the goal is to create a fully functioning community including economy so it could be extensive. I will probably aim for about 325 people or so, which places it as a small town the traits would probably be strategic location and holy site which we will go more into later. It will be an Overlord style community with a noble house, I will possibly ignore some common assertions when it comes to the amount of guards and what that a community this size could support.
Now most of the NPC class characters will come from the NPC Codex and some from the GMG, others will just be minor customizations of them. Now the interesting part will come when we start creating the various personality types for more major NPC’s particularly those with various PC classes. Also, what organizations do we think will be present in the town and how will they interact with the town and the PC’s.
So Taldor, I envision this place like it was a mix of the old Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire with a few simple reasoning’s. First is both the prefecture system and the senatorial system the second is each province reminds me of the various mini kingdoms that made up the HRE. Now this covers both the decadent side and the feuding, scheming, plotting and warring side. Now the location of the town and the barony that it is in is near to where the Falling river connects to the Verduran fork, this places it just inside the Yanmass prefecture. The towns strategic location comes from the low ridge that the watchtower is built upon and a stone bridge over the river, this bridge is on a branch of the Yanmass to Maheto trade route. I am placing the town here for a few reasons a) it places it as a possible conflict point between families and b) the presence of the wood nearby.
Holy site is an interesting addition because it requires the presence of a noted faith or other in the town. I have stated in another thread is the reason Arodens church still has power in Taldor is for Power, tradition and stubbornness. Another reason is the presence of offshoot faiths such as the various churches of his founders which still exist and receive divine backing. I am still deciding on what to call this sect but I am thinking at least the Trickery and Glory domains, longsword as a favoured weapon and probably NG. A possible candidate for inclusion is a Pharasman sisterhood and a small temple to Adbar with maybe a shrine to Erastril.
My vision of Taldor is numerous royal houses one attached to each prefecture and the various alliances between them and the proxy wars that are fought between the various vassal families. The family in charge of the town is a more adventurous family and a bit more level headed except when it comes to a rival family.
With that laid out what types of foes would we expect to beset this place, well we are told that Taldor being 6000 years old approx. has exterminated most of the monsters inside its territory. Now bandits and river pirates are common and with proximity to the Verduran forest we can have Kobolds, the odd fey, magical beasts and possibly Dragons. Another type could be undead from the various ruins that dot the landscape and then you have the political style foes.
Now this should help to get things started and to add to some family ideas.
Blacksmith pg. 261 NPC codex- journeyman carpenter except Human and smithing focus
Wife + 2 children Commoner2 for wife or maybe expert1
Forgot to mention due to the location of the town the lord’s soldiers will be a larger group than normal at about 30 or so members but will also be mostly warrior 3, with possibly 1 or 2 PC class members.
Thanks
EtG.
I forgot to put the racial demographics in for this barony/town. Now the barony will have about 15000 people but the town will be only about 350 or so. The main reason is this town was founded for strategic reasons and not economical ones and as such has been fought over multiple times. So the majority population of the barony will be about 90% human this town will be about the same, now of the human racial groups about 70% will be Taldain, 15% Kelishite, and 10% Minkain the rest will be a mix of the other groupings. Of the nonhuman population the majority will be Dwarven with Gnomes the next up and Tieflings non-existant.
Thanks
EtG