You know, like those old modules where you had a dungeon, and then you could return to the village (player base) to replenish.

Well, some of those villages were more lively than others. Had more color, or nice little subplots going. Some had NPCs with more personality or offered more possibility.

Name me those cool player bases. Might not even be a village for all I know. I just want to hear about the great ones who pack a lot of punch in a modest number of pages.

Thanks!

Hommlet

Does it have to be an old module? I liked the town of Bellhold in the third party 3e adventure "Of Sound Mind". Not a lot of pointless background I'd never delve into, but well written to address the DM's needs and significant to the ongoing adventure.

Restenford, from Secret of Bone Hill.

Doesn't really need to be an old module, no. Doesn't need to be TSR/WotC either. I'm just looking for that old school flavor of villages, without the crappy, flowery 260-page treatment that includes bad fiction

Thanks for the suggestions so far!

I agree that Restenford was pretty decent.  The sample village in S. John Ross's Uresia is fun.

Most dungeoncrawl villages are lame beyond belief. I blame Hommlet. It was the first one for most gamers, and it set the bland-as-bland-can-be standard. We get a bunch of farms and shops full of plump, cheery Olde Englande yeomen, who have sacks and sacks of gold stuffed under their floorboards. Is it any wonder that players figured they were supposed to sneak/break into the houses and loot everything they could find? What else of possible interest can PCs do in Hommlet?

Virtually every D&D village I've seen since Hommlet is the same; stand-alone farms, a crossroads or bridge, a high-STR blacksmith, your obligatory mischievous halfling thief, a poor but arrogant lord who may have a mission for the PCs, someone who has lost a daughter to an ogre/troll in the woods, a ranger to watch over the place, a cleric who will cure the PCs if they clear out the ruins/fort/caves, a shopkeeper who happens to sell everything in the PHB, maybe a reclusive mage who will eventually trade or sell spells to the party's magic-user, and of course an inn that is inexeplicably home to several intriguing NPCs despite the fact this is a tiny village of 150 people in the middle of fucking nowhere.

All of the most vanilla Medieval Europe/Tolkien complexion. All in temperate farming land on the edge of the Scary Forest or Even Scarier Mountains. Every one full of free men who have a volunteer militia. All dull as dishwater. Even Necromancer Games, who publish some of the better adventures in recent memory, feature the most generic-ass villages imaginable - I find the Vault of Larin Karr more or less unusable owing to the utterly insipid villages around which the setting is built.

Why in fuck do we never have villages that are run by a band of mercenary marauders? Or fed by fields full of slaves? Or built in a strange location like a ravine or at the base of an ancient monolith? Or supported by an economy based on symbiosis with giant insects? Or riven by political factions who paint themselves in garish colours? Or honeycombed with the burial tunnels of an ancient civilization? Or anything remotely, you know, fantastic...

Of course, you get lots of cool-ass villages like that in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. You just never see any detailed in mainstream D&D adventures.

It's not a village included with a dungeoncrawling adventure, but the village of Pasaquine, described in the Ars Magica adventure "Pact of Pasaquine," has served me well as a base for two campaigns.  Interesting personalities, well-developed background, and lots of fae weirdness about for ideas.

The village is boring because it's not the focus of the adventure.  Its purpose is to act as the home base from which the adventurers operate; anything more than the details necessary to fulfill that function are superfluous fluff that has no place in the product.  All it needs are quest-givers, support facilities, hosting for downtime and a connection to the outside world; more than that is too much information.

Quote from: Haffrung(great rant)

Why in fuck do we never have villages that are run by a band of mercenary marauders? Or fed by fields full of slaves? Or built in a strange location like a ravine or at the base of an ancient monolith? Or supported by an economy based on symbiosis with giant insects? Or riven by political factions who paint themselves in garish colours? Or honeycombed with the burial tunnels of an ancient civilization? Or anything remotely, you know, fantastic...

Of course, you get lots of cool-ass villages like that in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. You just never see any detailed in mainstream D&D adventures.

well, you've pushed me off the purchasing fence for the wilderlands, sir.  now it's vying for my miniscule gaming dollar with a few other titles.

Quote from: HaffrungWhy in fuck do we never have villages that are run by a band of mercenary marauders? Or fed by fields full of slaves? Or built in a strange location like a ravine or at the base of an ancient monolith? Or supported by an economy based on symbiosis with giant insects? Or riven by political factions who paint themselves in garish colours? Or honeycombed with the burial tunnels of an ancient civilization? Or anything remotely, you know, fantastic...

Most villages in my campaign are pretty ordinary. But I've used a fair number of 'different' ones too, including several rather like those you described there.

In fairness to Hommett, it wasn't cliched when it was first described.

Quote from: Bradford C. WalkerAll it needs are quest-givers, support facilities, hosting for downtime and a connection to the outside world network externalities

Fixed.

I tried my best with the upper levels of Badabaskor to make it fun, interesting, and cool.

An excerpt

Quote16- Seven Winds House (ECL 10)
A two story half timber building with two banners hanging on either side of the main door. The banners depict a happy man being blown around by the breath emanating from the heads of seven comely ladies surrounding him.

Under Madam Delrita, the Seven Winds offers many forms of entertainment. Twenty-three enticing slave girls perform, work the gambling games, and engage in other pastimes. She will arrange private entertainment priced as follows: 5 gp for Peasant, 10 gp for Common, and 50 gp for Royal. Much of the gold in Badabaskor goes into Madam Delrita’s strongbox containing 3744 gp (DC 30, Open Lock)

Bandits from all the gangs make use of Madam Delrita’s house including the Duke and the top leaders. Madam Delrita often hears many of the rumors floating around in the fortress. Tar Kazak is a huge troll that guards the premises. Madam Delrita found him severely burned outside of Badabaskor and nurtured him back to health two years ago. Since then she has been highly interested in Tar’s tales about the dragon gods who slumber beneath the earth that his tribe worships.

Madam Delrita was a wizard’s apprentice 18 years ago. While she and her master were on a caravan, it was attacked and her master was slain by Cragen. She was made a slave and used her wits to survive and even prosper. Thanks to an alliance with Talgorkon she has managed to resume her studies of magic; in exchange she supplies Talgorkon with all the juicy gossip her girls overhear.

Rob Conley

Quote from: Consonant DudeName me those cool player bases. Might not even be a village for all I know. I just want to hear about the great ones who pack a lot of punch in a modest number of pages.

The Keep on the Borderlands has a small village inside of it.  It's fleshed out a bit more in Return to the Keep on the Borderlands but perhaps the best version of all is in the Hackmaster treatment Little Keep on the Borderlands.

Quote from: John Morrowbut perhaps the best version of all is in the Hackmaster treatment Little Keep on the Borderlands.

Really?

KotB is a favorite of mine, in part due to nostalgia I have the old version and the "return". But I had no idea it was redone in Hackmaster!

Thanks, John!