Hexplorations: Village Basics
This edition of our Hexplorations (charts for details of things you may encounter in a hex crawl or simply developing your world) gives you the basics for a village. Our previous post had a chart of village secrets.
Let’s make an example, based on rolls of 1-2-3-4-5-6: The village is just a couple years old (we’d roll a single d6 to find the definitive answer) with a population of 35 or so people. It was founded because it is just about a day from a nearby town, but it is also a good source of lumber. The people are pretty accepting. In addition to several houses there is also a town hall and a church (we need to roll for a second main building based on population size).
| Age | Population | Reason Founded* | Secondary Industry* | Reaction to Outsiders | Main Buildings** | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | d6 years old | 4d6 | Common layover point | Farming | Predatory toward them | Church |
| 2 | 5d6 years old | 2d6 x5 | Cluster of Farms | Raising animals for slaughter | Distrustful of them | Manor House |
| 3 | 2d6 x10 years old | 3d6 x5 | One day’s travel from a town | Raising animals for by-products | Annoyed by them | Mill or other building specific for the village’s industry |
| 4 | 5d6 x10 years old | 2d6 x10 | Cluster of Hunters/Fishermen/Miners | Lumber | Indifferent | Tavern |
| 5 | 2d6 x100 years old | 3d6 x10 | Large family split a plot of land | Fishing | Accepting | Smith |
| 6 | 2d6 x1000 years old | 4d6 x10 | A cult’s commune | Hunting | Welcoming | Town Hall |
- * For Reason Founded & Secondary Industry re-roll these if they don’t make sense such as a farm in the badlands. Or develop a reason that could exist (a farm in the badlands could be farming something unusual such as underground fungi). The primary industry should be obvious based on the reason founded, but most communities will have more than one industry.
- ** Roll 1-4 times depending on the population. If less than 20 roll once; 21-100 roll twice; 101-200 roll for three; 201+ roll four times. Re-roll duplicates.
