Settlements

A settlement is an aggregate truth: so many people, this prosperity, this food, this market, these pressures — not a roster of every resident and building.

Establishing a settlement

Give each important settlement: its kind and scale; its livelihood; surrounding countryside; food, water, and fuel; work and markets; crafts present; authority and custom; roads and access; current conditions and the one or two pressures that matter now.

Scale qualitatively. A hamlet has narrow economy and few specialists; a town has broader markets and institutions. Never populate every building or resident to "account for" a population number — the number already includes everyone, including any individuals you later make persistent.

What settlements need — and don't

A village may lack a smith, a temple, a market, or a healer. That absence is content: it creates journeys, dependence, and prices. Do not stamp every settlement from the same template.

Households, businesses, and organizations inside the settlement get individual attention only when their own state genuinely matters. Everything else remains background the system can aggregate.

Good builder question

What does this place eat, drink, burn, make, and sell — and what is worrying it this season? Answer that and the settlement will live.

You usually do not need...

...street maps, building-by-building inventories, or resident lists. Establish conditions and let details emerge where play goes.