Settlement Building - Part 2
Last time, I talked about what I envisioned for Settlement Building rules, this time I want to start looking at resources and buildings.
A big thing to determine is how many buildings a city should have. And I’m not going to get into houses or random bars. Instead, I want a more holistic take on it. I don’t want people at the table trying to determine if they have enough houses for their city’s population or if they need to produce more food.
Resources & Structures
So we are looking at resources and structures to build with those resources.
There are many resources, and it can start feeling a bit overwhelming when figuring out what a city needs to build itself. Obviously wood and stone are important, metal is great for equipping adventurers, and food is kind of critical if you want anyone to live in the city.
But what about precious metals? Do we take those into account? Do we have mines for gold, platinum, silver, etc? Or do we just have a single mine that can mine ‘ore’ (with no qualifications on what ore is), or do we also have a Speciality Mine that only cares about rare and precious gems (and we ignore the ore coming out of it?) Do we have a specific mine for gold and another for silver? Eh, I think not, but hopefully you get my point that this could get into the weeds very quickly.
So let’s look at what Resources I am definitely going to include in this:
Food
Metal (made from Ore)
Ore
Precious Ore (includes gems, gold, silver, etc, it’s not a great name)
Stone
Trade Goods (? This may need to be broken down more. But things like manufactured goods, and natural resources like sugar, spices, horses, etc.)
Water (? It’s important, but maybe only worth tracking if you have a desert kingdom with no source of water?)
Wood
Is there anything that you think I’m missing or want to see represented? I’m sure this list will increase, especially when we get into trading, but for a basic list, it is probably good enough to start with.
Gaining Resources
It’s all well and good to have resources that you could one day get, but how do you gain those resources? Ideally, you will have buildings devoted to producing them and the buildings will produce them passively while the party is busy doing war crimes adventures.
The other option, beyond passive gathering, is through active means. Every week, the party will have to decide what their city is up to. They can gather a specific resource (like wood, stone, ore, food, etc), build a new structure (like mines, a wall, etc), conduct trade, or other things.
This will be how a city first gets started, by the party deciding what resources to gather so they can build their first few structures. Like the party arrives at the location of their new settlement and they must decide, firstly, what structure to build—and then they send out their population to get them those items (most likely wood to build a simple structure). Gathering those resources would be their action (I assume that a city at Level 0 would only get a single action, once it builds its first building, then it gets two actions going forward).
Structure Building
Every week, the city will get to take a number of actions equal to its Proficiency Bonus. While I don’t yet have a comprehensive list of every action that the city can take, the two we are focused on this time are Gathering Resources and Construction.
If they take a Gathering Resources action, they get 1 resource of their choice. I don’t think it is ridiculous to say they can pick whatever they want (maybe restrict it to the basic resources like Food, Ore, Stone, Water, and Wood). They are spending half of the city’s focus for a week on gathering this specific resource, so they can find it during that time.
As for the Construction action, once they have the materials they need, they can build a structure. They will have to meet its requirements and prerequisites, as well as have the space for the building in their city (we’ll get to that).
While the structure is under Construction, that takes up one of their actions every week. So if the structure takes a month, they must spend an action every week for 4 weeks on the building’s construction. If they stop for a week, that’s fine, but all work is halted. In addition, if they stop work for the same amount of time they spent working on the structure, then a random event happens, most likely that they’ll have to repair what they’ve already built as the structure has been exposed to the elements and needs clean up or repairs.
For example, it takes 4 weeks to build a sawmill. You have only completed two weeks, and then took two weeks off to focus on another project. When you return to the project, you will have to roll a random event to see if your sawmill needs another week and resources to repair and get back to where you were.
Number of Buildings
I mentioned earlier about needing enough space in your city. What does that mean? Well, you can’t have thirty smiths in a city the size of a postage stamp. In the previous post, I said I wanted people to be able to draw out this city on a hex or square grid, and each grid would be around 500 sqft. That space will eventually get filled up, so how do you decide how many buildings can fit in your city?
Well, I don’t want to be exact. Also, some of these structures (like a mine) would be outside the city proper (but still part of the settlement). Right now, I’m thinking of some sort of restriction on buildings, like twice your city’s Proficiency Bonus. This way, at low levels, you could have 4 buildings, and at high levels, up to 12 in the settlement. But that 12 number seems pretty low unless we have a ‘structure’ that you can upgrade a building into that is more like a factory of smiths, sawmills, etc.
Maybe the number of buildings should be tied to the city’s level instead. That way, every time you get the city leveled up, you can expand it. You start out with 1 structure and end with 20 structures. The more I think about it, the more I’m leaning toward this one, but let me know your thoughts or if you think of a better number to tie it to (or even just have arbitrary limits).
Other Structures
That said, 20 buildings does not a metropolis make. When I talk about 20 structures, I’m only talking about key structures in the city that the city itself is very into creating. Random homes, taverns, and farmsteads are not going to be tracked (cause that’s too much work).
Instead, if the city wants to build a structure called Houses, it is because they are looking to attract people to the city, not because they need to house the people already in their city. If the city wants to build Farms, it isn’t because there are no farms around there, but because it wants to increase its Food resources.
I’ll be getting into more about city levels, how to level up, trade with your excess resources, and more later on. Below, you’ll find a few structures that I’ve created basic stat blocks for, and how I think they’ll function and the cost to build them.
Example Structures
Farm (Basic)
This structure is focused on the growing of crops and rearing of animals. This basic farm produces a small amount of food every week.
Requirements Near arable land
Prerequisites None
To Build 1 Metal (tools), 1 Wood (structure), 500 gold
Building Time 1 week
Effect Gain 1 Food once per week (no action required).
Mine (Basic)
This structure is typically a large, subterranean excavation to find valuable minerals, metals, and ores. This basic mine produces a small amount of ore every week.
Requirements Near a deposit of ore
Prerequisites None
To Build 1 Metal (tools), 2 Wood (structure), 1,000 gold
Building Time 2 weeks
Effect Gain 1 Ore once per week (no action required).
Quarry (Basic)
An open-pit mine for excavating rock, sand, stone, or other aggregate. This basic quarry produces a small amount of stone every week.
Requirements Near a source of stone
Prerequisites None
To Build 1 Metal (tools), 1 Wood (structure), 500 gold
Building Time 2 weeks
Effect Gain 1 Stone once per week (no action required).
Sawmill (Basic)
This simple structure has a large saw that cuts wood into lumber. This basic sawmill produces a small amount of lumber every week.
Requirements Near a forest or source of wood
Prerequisites None
To Build 1 Metal (Saw), 2 Wood (Structure), 1,000 gold
Building Time 1 month
Effect Gain 1 Wood once per week (no action required).
Sawmill (Upgraded)
This upgraded structure features more saws and greater production. When constructed, it replaces the Basic Sawmill.
Requirements Near a forest or source of wood
Prerequisites Basic Sawmill (replaces)
To Build 3 Metal (Saws), 5 Wood (Structure), 5,000 gold
Building Time 2 months (basic sawmill produces no wood during this time)
Effect Gain 1d4 Wood once per week (no action required).
Sawmill (Advanced)
This upgraded structure features more saws and greater production. When constructed, it replaces the Upgraded Sawmill.
Requirements Near a forest or source of wood
Prerequisites Upgraded Sawmill (replaces)
To Build 7 Metal (Saws), 11 Wood (Structure), 15,000 gold
Building Time 2 months (upgraded sawmill produces no wood during this time)
Effect Gain 2d4 Wood once per week (no action required).
Sawmill (Factory)
This expansive structure is built of multiple sawmills and yields large amounts of production. When constructed, it replaces the Advanced Sawmill.
Requirements Near a large forest or large quantities of wood
Prerequisites Advanced Sawmill (replaces)
To Build 12 Metal (Saws), 20 Wood (Structure), 25,000 gold
Building Time 3 months (advanced sawmill produces no wood during this time)
Effect Gain 4d4 Wood once per week (no action required).
Smithy (Basic)
With a large forge, the smithy can turn mined ore into metal. This basic smithy produces a small amount of metal every week.
Requirements Have access to a mine
Prerequisites None
To Build 2 Metal (anvil and tools), 1 Stone (hearth), 1 Wood (structure), 1,500 gold
Building Time 1 month
Effect Gain 1 Metal once per week (no action required).
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