Worldbuilding 5e: Village

If at all possible, I'd like to stress the idea that each part of the world represents a moment in time, in which a sequence of events have caused this place to grow and reach a kind of fruition, whereas that place hasn't reached fruition yet.  Take the two hexes shown: the type-5 on the right and the type-4 on the left.

Fifty years ago, the type-4 might still be a type-5 ... with the "village" of Dragasani being no better than the "hamlet," as we've discussed.  Fifty years from now, the type-5 may have expanded into a type-4.  But there's no certainty of either; each part of the world grows at a different rate, depending on circumstances and how much care has gone into it's development.  The consequence for the game's players is an understanding that every part of the game world should be progressive, as well as interactive.

In a video game, interactivity is limited by the game's intended representation, which is in turn influenced by how long the programmer wants to spend building interactive elements.  D&D doesn't require programming.  If the player wants to interact with any part of my game world on a moment's notice, I have the potential to immediately enable that interactivity.  Want to bash through a wall in Dark Souls?  The programmer has to think of it first.  Want to bash through a wall in my dungeon?  Have at 'er.  I'll figure out the consequence in seconds and we'll see what results.

[yes, of course many DMs prefer to treat RPG's like they're preprogrammed inviolable entities, but we don't need to be limited by them]

Therefore we can look at Dragasani's hex and see that it must have once been a type-5 ... except that now it's richer (+1 coin) and more developed (+1 hammer).  All type-4 hexes get this increase ... and the addition of a village ... leading us to define the village.

Like hamlets, there are villages and villages.  Type-4 is "entry level" ... a scattered collection of houses, hovels, gardens, nearby fields and mills — something like the image shown, but don't take such images too much to heart.  Images like this are designed to provide a general overview of different building forms ... but the ratio of homes would be far greater, the mill's wheel probably much smaller and without the magnificently built weir, and as far as manufactures not every village would feature specifically a blacksmith and a large stone house on the scale shown.  Artists have a tendency to embellish.  My goal is to convey the space found between the houses and structures, and to stress the absence of an enclosing wall.  In some parts of Europe, walls became the rage as a way to buffer sea raiders, who could row up a river and plunder towns far inland.  However, walls take time and lots of money to build and maintain — and the sort of village that occurs in a type-4 hex has neither.

There are four important advancements between the hamlets we've talked about and a "scattered" village.  The first is the making of surplus goods.  The handicrafts produced for local use in a hamlet reach a tipping point where enough of an article is being made that it's quantity is sufficient to be sent to distant parts.  Anything might be the "article" in question: tools, pots, blankets, polished gems, pressed oils, powdered dyes, frankincense, resin, honey, glass ornaments, carved bone, planks, wine, cheese, toys, ponies and hundreds of other things.  Saying this, however, we shouldn't imagine some great quantity of these things.  Two score polished gemstones of a size smaller than a pea, per year, would be a tremendous boon to a single village of 350 people.  Nor should we assume these things are made in "factories."  The making of fifty embroidered chemises a month might be work shared out between a dozen labourers working in ordinary local cottages, the work being done in parlours and bedrooms — the literal meaning of "cottage industry."  No single type-4 village is going to threaten the Potter's Guild of Delft, but as we can see from the map I've devised, there are dozens and dozens of little villages in one small corner of the Carpathian Mts. (and in real life, many more than I've depicted).  Combined, a given product produced in twenty villages and gathered together in a market town like Kronstadt or Jassy would matter on the world market.

Secondly, a village has traffic and trade.  The type-5 above has it's road (and many haven't that), but Dragasani is a minor crossroads.  Not enough to justify an inn (still only has two hammers), but certainly there are enough people passing by to create a slight demand for goods and services by outsiders.  This in turn culminates in a weekly "market day" ... which, traditionally, would happen on Sunday in Christian regions, opening once services were completed.  Sunday was best because as a "day of rest," the peasants were permitted to set down their labours, fill a cart with wares and drag them to the village greenspace.  Why this was not seen as "work" baffles me ... but the Sabbath was made for man and not the reverse, so the powers justified it somehow.  Nearby villages would agree to have different market days ... so that while Dragasani would have their market day on Sunday, nearby Strejesti (a larger type-3 village) would have two or three market days a week, none of them on Dragasani's day.  As the two villages are a mere 12 miles apart, vendors could drag their carts back and forth, benefitting from a unique group of buyers at each end of their journey ... while the locals could ask for things that a peddler might remember to bring next week or next month.

Thirdly, there's the likely presence of some kind of temple.  I don't like to say there will definitely be a singular building for this; or even that if the place of worship exists, there's certainly a priest to occupy it.  Priests pass away from old age all the time; and villages are often to poor to build more than a small shelter.  Many villages are serviced by priests who make a circuit of three or four parishes, preaching at each one no more than once or twice a month.  And some religions don't require temples in the same way that the Judeo-Christian culture does.  Therefore, there's plenty of wiggle room ... and opportunity for a player character cleric to be "assigned" to a distant village somewhere that needs a priest.  This would eliminate the need to build a temple, as the old player handbook requires.  Though this doesn't keep the player from expanding or rebuilding the local church once he or she arrives.

The temple's presence reflects the number of people.  I haven't said yet, but a village on the type-4 level would have between 200 and 400 residents ... though some of these would live in houses on the extreme village periphery.  Imagine instead a close cluster of 20 to 30 structures at the core, with 5-8 persons per structure ... and outlying this, a scattering of adjoined yards, paths, intermittent fields and the inclusion of wells, shrines, sawpits and all the stuff we've discussed being located in thorps and hamlets.  This greater number of people, plus those in walking distance whose cottages and hovels are definitely outside the village, makes giving a service to a congregation a worthwhile affair.  Most visitors wouldn't have any money to give; so the priest's livelihood depends on his or her ability to pull in distant people who come to hear a good performance ... creating a customer base for the village and thus a reason for the few wealthier artisans and landowners to fill up the priest's collection plate.  A poor performer wouldn't get much, for the same reason a bad circus plays to empty seats.

Finally, there is most likely the presence of some form of authority.  Not every slight village would be blessed with a "noble lord" ... but a wealthy squire is certain to have built an extensive house amidst a yard with stables, grape press, chandlery, loom and hired servants would likely be located adjacent to the village.  In fact, the squire — or the squire's ancestors — would be the reason the older type-5 hamlet became a village.  It has everything to do with that "care" I mentioned earlier.  A squire, who for general purposes we can think of as a financially liquid, educated individual with friends in high places, would have justification to provide capital to build roads, better mills and promote trade (the "coin" which the type-4 hex possesses).  He or she might be liked or disliked, but the money pouring outwardly through the neighbourhood would be taken and appreciated.  And in turn, the squire would have the power to exercise considerable will upon the locals by the withholding of that money, or the purchasing of people to deal with troublemakers.

In place of squires, we might have a baronet, invested for some service that was done to the monarchy.  Some villages may be entirely made of a single clan, so that the central authority might be a clan chief or a thane.  Other cultures have their equivalents.  It should be understood that any potentate with real clout or prestige through the land would certainly be found in a more important hex type, since their influence would increase the size and scope of the village and it's environs.  A type-4 is really a backwater among villages.

The exception is the type-4 settlement, like Vaslui here.  I've veered away from talking about settlements, doing little more than mentioning them in passing.  There's got to BE settlements because these determine the originating distribution of infrastructure, which in turn fills out the various villages, hamlets, thorps and wilderness that comprise the detailed map.  I've been asked specifically to discuss the placement of settlements, and that with other thoughts in my head deserves its own post, which I will attend to forthwith.  For the moment, consider Vaslui.  As a "settlement," it gets +1 coin, +1 food and +1 hammer.  This is more of any of these things than what we've seen so far ... and commensurately, this means more produce to be collected at harvest, special kinds of food that are produced throughout the year, a market that takes place on multiple days (like a type-3 hex), the presence of a permanent constabulary, a village hall and an inn.  More hammers means many more kinds of facility, which will need to be discussed eventually.  So, all in all, a considerable expansion beyond anything we've seen yet.  And all this for a village with a mere 665 residents.

In short, we've barely begun to discuss the enormous expansion of services and elements of worldbuilding provided by the game's urban setting ... a setting which is usually boiled down to one inn, one tavern and one market place.  As such, we have a long way to go yet.  So please understand, if it takes me five or six days to get a new post up, remember I have commitments and that I'm describing things which, honestly, I've never thought about myself on this level.  Like anyone else, I've trusted that I'll invent these things in the moment of gaming.  Structurally explaining and resolving each detail in concrete terms for the blog is a mental exercise that forces research and the expansion of my thinking.  It takes time and effort and very often, not a little doubt before I'm ready to dive in and do a good job.

And ... let me say firmly, thank you to everyone who supports me on Patreon.  It makes a terrific difference with regards to my enthusiasm and desire to work hard on this blog as often as I'm able.  You're great for helping.  Be good to yourselves and take care.  I'll try to get the settlements post up by Wednesday, maybe Thursday.  March has been something of a trial regarding my other responsibilities.