Villages and Farms

The towns described in this chapter are the most significant communities on the frontier. They’re the names everyone knows, the places where you’ll find the most opportunities and useful goods. But the frontier is filled with smaller villages, ranches, and farmsteads. There’s no need for a complete list of these, because you’ll never have any reason to visit most of them; beyond that, farms are failing or being built every day. The important thing to understand is that the empty space on the map isn’t always empty. There are vast stretches of empty plains in the Barrens, but especially if you’re following an actual road, there’s a chance that you’ll come upon a farm, a village, or a struggling inn. Likewise, if you’re from the region, you might be from a small village most people have never heard of. The tables presented here can help quickly create a village, but the DM should expand on this foundation!

Perhaps the adventurers are traveling the Border Road and decide to stop at a village for the night, and you end up with Lost Hope Steading, a village with a disturbing cult and its cursed shrine, where the local preacher wants to recover something from a fiend. Well, perhaps it used to be Bright Hope Steading, celebrated for its shrine to Dol Arrah, but at some point in the last decade a fiend from Khyber claimed and corrupted the shrine. The majority of the villagers have chosen to work with the fiend, giving it the adoration it craves in exchange for its protection or other gifts. But the old priest still wants to drive out the fiend and to reclaim the shrine. Will the adventurers help or will they mind their own business and be on their way in the morning? Where there are details in parentheses—such as Livestock (Tribex)—these are quick possibilities, but a DM or player can come with other ideas!

Village Name

Quirks

Troubles