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Locus: Outbuildings - Part IV

The tables from part I and part II of this series were used to create two sample estates, Brenden House and Necheild. Just as in part III each was given four outbuildings with two traits each, but the dice were not as kind to these manors.

Brenden House

The borderlands south of Jorvik are wild and harsh places. There are long stretches of mountain inland and shifting swaths of sick country along the coast, but the stubborn and desperate are still able to survive and sometimes prosper here, at least for a time.

Locus: Outbuildings - Part III

The tables from part I and part II of this series were used to create two sample estates, Nornodd and Lockewick. Each was given four outbuildings with two traits each.

The presence or qualities of a single outbuilding can affect the role or nature of the entire estate and suggest its history as well.

Next week, part IV, more sample estates.

Nornodd

This Gasmith estate pastures, slaughters, and renders old ghasts. It’s a property of the Bouchol Clan which suffers an unpopular reputation for doing unpleasant but needed work, so is constantly understaffed.

The main house is a severe fieldstone

Locus: Outbuildings - Part II

Living the strange lives they do, outbuildings accumulate quirks and characteristics that set them further apart from each other and daily life on the estate. This table allows traits to be added to the outbuildings created in the first portion of this article. Roll d100 or choose once or twice for each building. It's also possible for a single roll to apply to multiple similar buildings if you like.

Next week, part III - Sample Estates.

Locus: Outbuildings - Part I

The outbuildings of any large farm or manor carry a sense of mystery. In addition to the main house and largest barn, these estates may have dozens of buildings of specialized purpose. Isolated from the common life, outbuildings gather strange tools, distinct smells, and their own lore. Many sit at the edge of the lands as the last gesture of civilization before the wilds.

Outbuildings are excellent places to hide or forget things. They (or their ruins) can give clues as to the region’s history - why does the old gatehouse face the woods?

Do they have a flag?

Created flags for all the nations and added them to the gazetteer pages.

Vye

Jorvik

Gasmithon

Acadia

A quote for Acadia

It was a valley that I had known well when I was young, but I had not seen it now for many years. Beside me stood the tall flower of the mint; I saw the sweet-smelling thyme flower and one or two wild strawberries. There came up to me from fields below me the beautiful smell of hay, and there was a break in the voice of the cuckoo.

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Acadia

Influences

At least the ones I can consciously recognize...

Books

  • George R. Stewart - Earth Abides.
  • The works of Lord Dunsany:

    I know a roadside where the wild rose blooms with a strange abundance. There is a beauty in the blossoms too of an almost exotic kind, a taint of deeper pink that shocks the Puritan flowers. Two hundred generations ago (generations, I mean, of roses) this was a village street; there was a floral decadence when they left their simple life and the roses came from the wilderness to clamber round houses of men.

    Of all the memories of that little village, of all the cottages that

A chance encounter

You should be able to walk further off the path than this without risking limbs. Our guide fell back in the creek, but we'd run on, hounded by his fading screams and their nearing howls.

Now it was the Acadian and I, backs to boulders. In the clearing, ferns and water played at our feet; eyes and teeth flickered at the edge of moonlight.

To my stitched leathers and long blade she wore a smock, a symbol, and a smile. My life I'll not forget how she placed her hand to my chest, pushed my back to damp stone, and stepped towards the growling, gleaming line shrinking in from the trees.

She

happy

i want the average, daily life of someone in the Land of Still Waters to be good. i want them to be happy and satisfied and hopeful and healthy. even the people of Vye should be content in their own somewhat alien way.

it's important this doesn't turn into a crapsack world. the worst should be behind humanity. things should be improving. there are enough settings where everything is terrible, humanity is always about to be extinguished, and everyone is struggling to live another day.

making things nice will hopefully give the players more incentive to fight to keep it that way.