Testing Settlements - Coldwater Bend Part 1

They probably have cows.

I've got enough structure built for the Settlement System to give it a whirl, so let's try an alpha test by starting with a brand new settlement.

A few definitions to navigate what's happening might help. Basic stats are Size (governs the scale of everything), Trade, Culture, and Militia. Each of those except Militia corresponds with a more volatile stat that potentially changes every turn, namely Population, Coin, and Morale. Settlement Turns are how often Income, Events, Projects, and Upkeep happen; I'm using a week per turn, but for a more casual experience a month per turn should work (and probably make more sense).

Settlements have Resource Income, which generate Food, Raw Materials, and Luxury Goods for consumption or trade, with extra Resources persisting between Turns in the Warehouse. Infrastructure tracks settlement buildings and Specialists are notable people in the settlement, and both can impact settlement stats. Projects allow the citizens to build and do things, and Events happen randomly every Turn to help or hinder the settlement's progress.

With all that as prologue, let's follow along as six ex-adventurers found a tiny settlement named Coldwater Bend.

Turn 1

Turn 1 covers the initial settlement and assigning starting values to stats. I suppose we could call this Turn 0 instead, but I already labeled everything so it's officially Turn 1.

They begin with the water of the river and a stable source of River Trout as Resource Income. They manage to cobble together a shelter to keep the rain off, but otherwise living conditions are decidedly rustic. Stats: Size 1, Trade 1, Culture 1, and Militia 0. They start with 3 Resources: Wheat, Wood, and a Coin. They also hoarded some of their adventuring wealth and started with another Coin, for a total of 1 Coin. Morale starts at 0 and Population is currently 6. They can work on a maximum of 2 Projects with a total of 2 Project Points (PP), so they decide to build a palisade for defense and recruit some more people to help out.

I didn't do anything this turn other than set the initial conditions. Not much action, but we have our starting point.

Turn 2

The citizens take their Income (1 River Trout, 1 Coin from their Trade score, and 1 Morale from their Culture score). The palisade used the Wood from the warehouse, but it's up and providing a +1 bonus to Militia, moving the Militia stat to 1. Recruiting efforts enticed 3 people to move in. I rolled a Refugee event, so 3 more people came to town after their caravan was attacked by bandits. Coldwater Bend spent 1 Coin to feed and care for the refugees, and the population doubled to 12.

For Projects, the townsfolk decided to forage for food (1 PP), in case even more people arrived. They also asked around to find a Specialist to move in (1 PP). For upkeep, they pay 1 Coin (based on 1 Size) for everyday expenses, ate the River Trout they caught this turn, and lose their Size (1) in Morale, bringing all 3 scores down to 0. It's a building turn.

Turn 3

Income looks much the same as Turn 2, netting 1 River Trout, 1 Coin, and 1 Morale. The people foraged some blueberries (1 Blueberries) and talked the merchant Zofia Gorni to settle and start Gorni's Goods in a lockable storage shed. As long as the town pays Zofia 1 Coin per turn, her work raises Trade by +1 to a total score of 2, meaning more money per turn. Zofia immediately started expanding the shack by adding a place to sleep and cook, and she proved her worth immediately by making a tidy profit selling River Trout (2 Coins for a total of 3 Coin).

For an Event, bureaucrats came to town with bills that needed immediate payment to make the town charter official (-1 Coin). Good thing Zofia knows her craft. With the extra burden placed upon them by the bureaucrats, the people decided to harvest some lumber (1 PP) and forage for food (1 PP). They ate Blueberries, paid for regular expenses and Zofia (a total of -2 Coin), and lost the usual 1 Morale.

Coldwater Bend After Turn 3

Current Stats - Size 1, Population 13, Trade 2, Coin 0, Culture 1, Morale 0, Militia 1.
Infrastructure - Palisade (No upkeep. Gives +1 Militia)
Specialists - Zofia Gorni (Merchant. Upkeep -1 Coin. Gives +1 Trade and a 50% chance of +1 Coin for each good traded).

System Notes

This system runs pretty quickly. I got through 9 turns in about 90 minutes, and that included rewriting rules on the fly and creating a tracking sheet and resolution procedure checklist. For turn order, I set Income first, then Projects to add more Infrastructure and Specialists, followed by Events, then Trade and Specialist abilities, and finally paying Upkeep. That means that you pay for Infrastructure improvements that provide Income before you actually receive their Income. I think that makes sense, since if you have a shortage and can't pay Upkeep, you'll choose which Infrastructure and/or Specialists will be inactive next Turn.

It's flexible, as I'm making up the foraged food resources on the fly. It seems fairly balanced in the early stages, though Size 1 balances on a knife's edge. The events might be a little heavy-handed when just starting out, but once a settlement hits Size 2 I think settlements can more easily absorb random Event hits. The narrative flows smoothly from a few simple dice rolls (a d20 for Events, and a d3 or d6 for almost everything else). So far, I'm digging it.

I haven't had a chance to try the Attacked event yet, so hopefully that will come up when I get back to running this testing starting with turn 10. It's simple, but I think it'll work fairly well. We'll see.

I'll write up more in forthcoming posts, a few turns at a time, where we watch Coldwater Bend get more infrastructure and income sources. Though they don't have nearly enough food to survive expanding to Size 2.

Final Thoughts

I'm working on this system for publication as Bolthaven Folio #3 (current working title "Settle Down" - suggestions welcomed), hopefully for February where it will get lost in a pile of Zinequest projects. I'm not sure it'll fit in 4 pages, but I'm game to try. Beyond that, this system will expand to form the settlement side of the Motewright TTRPG, still very much in development. If you're interested either, please stay tuned for more information as it solidifies from the ether.

If you have any questions or comments, or if you want to be notified when Bolthaven Folio #3 comes out on DriveThru and Itch, please don't hesitate to comment below or reach out on dice.camp or Bluesky.

Thanks for reading!