A lot of the DM facing rules in Dungeon World seem interesting outside of the game itself. Fronts are one aspect of Dungeon World that seem to be loved by all. Presented below is the chapter from Dungeon World on Fronts. (This text was generated from the text on Github.) — RAM

Fronts

Fronts are secret tomes of GM knowledge. Each is a collection of linked dangers—threats to the characters specifically and to the people, places, and things the characters care about. It also includes one or more impending dooms, the horrible things that will happen without the characters’ intervention. “Fronts” comes, of course, from “fighting on two fronts” which is just where you want the characters to be—surrounded by threats, danger and adventure.

Fronts are built outside of active play. They’re the solo fun that you get to have between games—rubbing your hands and cackling evilly to yourself as you craft the foes with which to challenge your PCs. You may tweak or adjust your fronts during play (who knows when inspiration will strike?) but the meat of them comes from preparation between sessions.

Fronts are designed to help you organize your thoughts on what opposes the players. They’re here to contain your notes, ideas, and plans for these opposing forces. When you’re in a bind your fronts are where you’re going to turn and say, “Oh, so that’s what I should do.” Consider them an organizational tool, as inspiration for present and future mayhem.

When you’re building fronts, think about all the creepy dungeon denizens, the rampaging hordes and ancient cults that you’d like to see in your game. Think in broad strokes at first and then, as you build dangers into your fronts, you’ll be able to narrow those ideas down. When you write your campaign front, think about session-to-session trends. When you write your adventure fronts, think about what’s important right here and right now. When you’re done writing a few fronts you’ll be equipped with all the tools you’ll need to challenge your players and ready to run Dungeon World.

When to Make Fronts

You’ll make your campaign front and first adventure fronts after your first session. Your campaign front may not be complete when you first make it—that’s great! Just like blanks on a map, unknown parts of your campaign front are opportunities for future creativity.

After that first session you’ll also make some adventure fronts. One or two is usually a good number. If you find yourself with more adventure fronts consider leaving some possible fronts as just notes for now.

Campaign and Adventure Fronts

At their core, all fronts contain the same components. They sort and gather your dangers into easy-to-use clusters. There are, however, two different kinds of fronts available to you. On the session-to-session level there are your adventure fronts. These fronts will see use for a few sessions each. They’re tied to one problem and will be dealt with or cast aside as the characters wander the dungeon or uncover the plot at hand. Think of them as episodic content: “Today, on Dungeon World…”

Tying your adventure fronts together is your campaign front. While the adventure fronts will contain immediate dangers—the orcs in Hargrosh Pass, say—the campaign front contains the Dark God Grishkar who drives the orcs to their pillaging. The campaign front is the unifying element that spans all the sessions of your Dungeon World game. It will have slower-burning portents but they’ll be bigger in scope and have a deeper impact on the world. Most importantly they’ll be scarier if they’re allowed to resolve.

When a danger from an adventure front goes without resolution you’ll have to make a decision. If the danger is something you like and feel has a place in the larger world of your game don’t hesitate to move it to the campaign front. You’re able to make smaller dangers that went unresolved into bigger dangers some day later on. You can move dangers from the campaign fronts to an adventure front if they’ve come to bear, too.

Creating Fronts

Here’s how a front comes together:

• Choose campaign front or adventure front
• Create 2-3 dangers
• Choose an impending doom for each danger
• Add grim portents (1-3 for an adventure front, 3-5 for the campaign front)
• Write 1–3 stakes questions
• List the general cast of the front

Creating Dangers

Not every element of your game will warrant a danger—traps, some roving monsters, and other bits of ephemera may just be there to add context but aren’t important enough to warrant inclusion. That’s okay. Fronts are here to keep you apprised of the bigger picture. Dangers are divided into a handful of categories, each with its own name and impulse.

Every danger has a crucial motivation that drives it called its impulse. The impulse exists to help you understand that danger. What pushes it to fulfill its impending doom? Impulses can help you translate the danger into action.

When creating dangers for your front, think about how each one interacts as a facet of the front as a whole. Keep in mind the people, places, and things that might be a part of the threat to the world that the front represents. How does each danger contribute to the front?

Let’s say we have an idea for a front—an ancient portal has been discovered in the icy north. We’ll call our front “The Opening of the White Gate.”

The easiest place to start is with people and monsters. Cultists, ogre chieftains, demonic overlords, and the like are all excellent dangers. These are the creatures that have risen above mere monster status to become serious threats on their own. Groups of monsters can be dangers too—goblin tribes or a rampaging centaur khanate, for example.

For the front we’re creating, we can pick a few different groups or people who might be interested in the gate. The College of Arcanists, perhaps. There’s a golem, too, we’ve decided, that protects the forgotten portal. The golem is just an obstacle, so we won’t make him a danger.

Thinking more broadly, less obvious elements of the world can be dangers. Blasted landscapes, intelligent magical items, ancient spells woven into the fabric of time. These things fulfill the same purposes as a mad necromancer—they’re part of the front, a danger to the world.

For our front, we’ll add the gate itself as a danger.

Lastly, if we think ahead, we can include some overarching dangers. The sorts of things that are in play outside the realm of the obvious—godly patrons, hidden conspiracies and cursed prophecies waiting to be fulfilled.

Perhaps the White Gate was carved in the ancient past, hidden by a race of angels until the Day of Judgement. We’ll add the Argent Seraphim to our front as a new danger.

There’s always more dangers you could add to a front, but limit yourself to 3 at most and leave room for discovery. Like a map, blank spaces can always be filled in later. Leaving room for player contribution and future inspiration means you’ll have freedom to alter the front and make it fit the game. Not every bad thing that could happen deserves to be made into a danger. If you’re uncertain, think about it this way: dangers can always get worse.

A barbarian tribe near the gate, the frozen tundra itself, a band of rival adventurers; all these things could be dangerous elements of the game but they’re not important enough just yet to deserve to be dangers.

Creating dangers is a way to slice up your overall front concept into smaller, easier to manage pieces. Dangers are tools for adding detail to the right parts of the front and for making the front easier to manage in the long run.

Once you’ve named and added a danger to the front you need to choose a type for that danger from the list below. Alternately, you can use the list of types to inspire dangers: with your front in mind, peruse the list and pick one or two that fit.

For our three dangers (The College of Arcanists, The White Gate and the Argent Seraphim) we’ve selected Cabal, Dark Portal and Choir of Angels, respectively.

Types of Dangers

• Ambitious Organizations
• Planar Forces
• Arcane Enemies
• Hordes
• Cursed Places

Ambitious Organizations

• Misguided Good (impulse: to do what is “right” no matter the cost)
• Thieves Guild (impulse: to take by subterfuge)
• Cult (impulse: to infest from within)
• Religious Organization (impulse: to establish and follow doctrine)
• Corrupt Government (impulse: to maintain the status quo)
• Cabal (impulse: to absorb those in power, to grow)

GM Moves for Ambitious Organizations

• Attack someone by stealthy means (kidnapping, etc.)
• Attack someone directly (with a gang or single assailant)
• Absorb or buy out someone important (an ally, perhaps)
• Influence a powerful institution (change a law, manipulate doctrine)
• Establish a new rule (within the organization)
• Claim territory or resources
• Negotiate a deal
• Observe a potential foe in great detail

Planar Forces

• God (impulse: to gather worshippers)
• Demon Prince (impulse: to open the gates of Hell)
• Elemental Lord (impulse: to tear down creation to its component parts)
• Force of Chaos (impulse: to destroy all semblance of order)
• Choir of Angels (impulse: to pass judgement)
• Construct of Law (impulse: to eliminate perceived disorder)

GM Moves for Planar Forces

• Turn an organization (corrupt or infiltrate with influence)
• Give dreams of prophecy
• Lay a Curse on a foe
• Extract a promise in exchange for a boon
• Attack indirectly, through intermediaries
• Rarely, when the stars are right, attack directly
• Foster rivalries with other, similar powers
• Expose someone to a Truth, wanted or otherwise

Arcane Enemies

• Lord of the Undead (impulse: to seek true immortality)
• Power-mad Wizard (impulse: to seek magical power)
• Sentient Artifact (impulse: to find a worthy wielder)
• Ancient Curse (impulse: to ensnare)
• Chosen One (impulse: to fulfill or resent their destiny)
• Dragon (impulse: to hoard gold and jewels, to protect the clutch)

GM Moves for Arcane Enemies

• Learn forbidden knowledge
• Cast a spell over time and space
• Attack a foe with magic, directly or otherwise
• Spy on someone with a scrying spell
• Recruit a follower or toady
• Tempt someone with promises
• Demand a sacrifice

Hordes

• Wandering Barbarians (impulse: to grow strong, to drive their enemies before them)
• Humanoid Vermin (impulse: to breed, to multiply and consume)
• Underground Dwellers (impulse: to defend the complex from outsiders)
• Plague of the Undead (impulse: to spread)

GM Moves for Hordes

• Assault a bastion of civilization
• Embrace internal chaos
• Change direction suddenly
• Overwhelm a weaker force
• Perform a show of dominance
• Abandon an old home, find a new one
• Grow in size by breeding or conquest
• Appoint a champion
• Declare war and act upon that declaration without hesitation or deliberation

Cursed Places

• Abandoned Tower (impulse: to draw in the weak-willed)
• Unholy Ground (impulse: to spawn evil)
• Elemental Vortex (impulse: to grow, to tear apart reality)
• Dark Portal (impulse: to disgorge demons)
• Shadowland (impulse: to corrupt or consume the living)
• Place of Power (impulse: to be controlled or tamed)

GM Moves for Cursed Places

• Vomit forth a lesser monster
• Spread to an adjacent place
• Lure someone in
• Grow in intensity or depth
• Leave a lingering effect on an inhabitant or visitor
• Hide something from sight
• Offer power
• Dampen magic or increase its effects
• Confuse or obfuscate truth or direction
• Corrupt a natural law

Description and Cast

Write up something short to remind you just what this danger is about, something to describe it in a nutshell. Don’t worry about where it’s going or what could happen—grim portents and the impending doom will handle that for you; you’ll get to those in a bit. If there are multiple people involved in the danger (an orc warlord and his clansmen, a hateful god and his servants) go ahead and give them names and a detail or two now. Leave yourself some space as you’ll be adding to this section as you play.

Custom Moves

Sometimes a danger will suggest a move that isn’t covered by any existing ones. You can write custom moves to fill the gaps or to add the right effects for the danger. They can be player moves or GM moves, as you see fit. Of course, if you’re writing a player move, keep your hands off the dice and mind the basic structure of a move. A 10+ is a complete success, while a 7–9 is a partial success. On a miss, maybe the custom move does something specific, or maybe not—maybe you just get to make a move or work towards fulfilling a grim portent. The formatting of these moves varies from move to move.

For the Opening of the White Gate, I just know some fool PC is going to end up in the light that spills from the gate, so I’m writing a move to show what might occur.

When you stand in the presence of the Light From Beyond, roll+WIS:

✴ On a 10+ you are judged worthy, the Argent Seraphim will grant you a vision or boon. ✴ On a 7-9 you are under suspicion and see a vision of what dark fate might befall you if you do not correct your ways. ✴ On a miss, thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting.

Grim Portents

Grim portents are dark designs for what could happen if a danger goes unchecked. Think about what would happen if the danger existed in the world but the PCs didn’t—if all these awful things you’ve conjured up had their run of the world. Scary, huh? The grim portents are your way to codify the plans and machinations of your dangers. A grim portent can be a single interesting event or a chain of steps. When you’re not sure what to do next, push your danger towards resolving a grim portent.

More often than not grim portents have a logical order. The orcs tear down the city only after the peace talks fail, for example. A simple front will progress from bad to worse to much worse in a clear path forward. Sometimes, grim portents are unconnected pathways to the impending doom. The early manifestations of danger might not all be related. It’s up to you to decide how complex your front will be. Whenever a danger comes to pass, check the other dangers in the front. In a complex front, you may need to cross off or alter the grim portents. That’s fine, you’re allowed. Keep scale in mind, too. Grim portents don’t all have to be world-shaking. They can simply represent a change in direction for a danger. Some new way for it to cause trouble in the world.

Think of your grim portents as possible moves waiting in the wings. When the time is right, unleash them on the world.

I’ve chosen a few grim portents for my new front.

• The College sends an expedition to the Gate
• The Key is discovered
• The First Trumpet sounds
• A Champion is chosen
• The Second Trumpet sounds
• The Herald appears
• The Gate is Opened

When a grim portent comes to pass, check it off—the prophecy has come true! A grim portent that has come to pass might have ramifications for your other fronts, too. Have a quick look when your players aren’t demanding your attention and feel free to make changes. One small grim portent may resound across the whole campaign in subtle ways.

You can advance a grim portent descriptively or prescriptively. Descriptively means that you’ve seen the change happen during play, so you mark it off. Maybe the players sided with the goblin tribes against their lizardman enemies—now the goblins control the tunnels. Lo and behold, this was the next step in a grim portent. Prescriptive is when, due to a failed player move or a golden opportunity, you advance the grim portent as your hard move. That step comes to pass, show its effects and keep on asking, “What do you do, now?”

Impending Doom

At the end of every danger’s path is an impending doom. This is the final toll of the bell that signals the danger’s triumphant resolution. When a grim portent comes to pass the impending doom grows stronger, more apparent and present in the world. These are the very bad things that every danger, in some way, seeks to bring into effect. Choose one of the types of impending dooms and give it a concrete form in your front. These often change in play, as the characters meddle in the affairs of the world. Don’t fret, you can change them later.

• Tyranny (of the strong over the weak or the few over the many)
• Pestilence (the spread of sickness and disease, the end of wellness)
• Destruction (apocalypse, ruin and woe)
• Usurpation (the chain of order comes apart, someone rightful is displaced)
• Impoverishment (enslavement, the abandonment of goodness and right)
• Rampant Chaos (laws of reality, of society, or any order is dissolved)

When all of the grim portents of a danger come to pass, the impending doom sets in. The danger is then resolved but the setting has changed in some meaningful way. This will almost certainly change the front at large as well. Making sure that these effects reverberate throughout the world is a big part of making them feel real.

Stakes

Your stakes questions are 1-3 questions about people, places, or groups that you’re interested in. People include PCs and NPCs, your choice. Remember that your agenda includes “Play to find out what happens?” Stakes are a way of reminding yourself what you want to find out.

Stakes are concrete and clear. Don’t write stakes about vague feelings or incremental changes. Stakes are about important changes that affect the PCs and the world. A good stakes question is one that, when it’s resolved, means that things will never be the same again.

The most important thing about stakes is that you find them interesting. Your stakes should be things that you genuinely want to know, but that you’re also willing to leave to be resolved through play. Once you’ve written it as a stake, it’s out of your hands, you don’t get to just make it up anymore. Now you have to play to find out.

Playing to find out is one of the biggest rewards of playing Dungeon World. You’ve written down something tied to events happening in the world that you want to find out about—now you get to do just that.

Once you have your stakes your front is ready to play.

My stakes questions include, as tailored to my group:

• Who will be the champion?
• How will Lux respond to the Light From Beyond?
• Will the College be able to recruit Avon?

Resolving a Front

Often a front will be resolved in a simple and straightforward manner. A front representing a single dungeon may have its dangers killed, turned to good, or overcome by some act of heroism. In this case the front is dissolved and set aside. Maybe there are elements of the front—dangers that go unresolved or leftover members of a danger that’s been cleared—that live on. Maybe they move to the campaign front as brand new dangers?

The campaign front will need a bit more effort to resolve. It’ll be working slowly and subtly as the course of the campaign rolls along. You won’t introduce or resolve it all at once, but in pieces. The characters work towards defeating the various minions of the big bad that lives in your campaign front. In the end, though, you’ll know that the campaign front is resolved when the Dark God is confronted or the undead plague claims the world and the heroes emerge bloodied but victorious or defeated and despairing. Campaign fronts take longer to deal with but in the end they’re the most satisfying to resolve.

When a front is resolved take some extra time to sit down and look at the aftermath. Did any grim portents come to pass? Even if a danger is stopped, if any grim portents are fulfilled, the world is changed, if only in subtle ways. Keep this in mind when you write your future fronts. Is there anyone who could be moved from the now-defeated front to somewhere else? Anyone get promoted or reduced in stature? The resolution of a front is an important event!

When you resolve an adventure front usually that means the adventure itself has been resolved. This is a great time to take a break and look at your campaign front. Let it inspire your next adventure front. Write up a new adventure front or polish off one you’ve been working on, draw a few maps to go with it and get ready for the next big thing.

Multiple Adventure Fronts

As you start your campaign you’re likely to have a lightly detailed campaign front and one or two detailed adventure fronts. Characters may choose, part-way through an adventure, to pursue some other course. You might end up with a handful of partly-resolved adventure fronts. Not only is this okay, it’s a great way to explore a world that feels alive and organic. Always remember, fronts continue along apace no matter whether the characters are there to see them or not. Think offscreen, especially where fronts are concerned.

When running two adventure fronts at the same time they can be intertwined or independent. The anarchists corrupting the city from the inside are a different front from the orcs massing outside the walls, but they’d both be in play at once. On the other hand one dungeon could have multiple fronts at play within its walls: the powers and effects of the cursed place itself and the warring humanoid tribes that inhabit it.

A situation warrants multiple adventure fronts when there are multiple impending dooms, all equally potent but not necessarily related. The impending doom of the anarchists is chaos in the city, the impending doom of the orcs is its utter ruination. They are two separate fronts with their own dangers. They’ll deal with each other, as well, so there’s some room for the players choosing sides or attempting to turn the dangers of one front against the other.

When dealing with multiple adventure fronts the players are likely to prioritize. The cult needs attention now, the orcs can wait, or vice versa. These decisions lead to the slow advancement of the neglected front, eventually causing more problems for the characters and leading to new adventures. This can get complex once you’ve got three or four fronts in play. Take care not to get overwhelmed.

An Example Front: The Opening of the White Gate

Dangers

The College of Arcanists (Cabal)

Impulse: to absorb those in power, to grow

Grim Portents:

• The College sends an expedition to the Gate
• The Key is discovered
• The Gate’s Power is harnessed
• The College seizes control

Impending Doom: Usurpation

The White Gate (Dark Portal)

Impulse: to disgorge demons

Grim Portents:

• The First Trumpet sounds
• The Second Trumpet sounds
• The Gate is opened

Impending Doom: Destruction

The Argent Seraphim (Choir of Angels)

Impulse: to pass judgement

Grim Portents:

• A Champion is chosen
• An organization of power is formed or co-opted
• The Herald appears
• Judgement is passed

Impending Doom: Tyranny

Description and Cast

An ancient gate, buried for aeons in the icy north. It opens into a realm of pure light, guarded by the Argent Seraphim. It was crafted only to be opened at Judgement Day, so that the Seraphim could come forth and purge the realm of men. It was recently uncovered by the College of Arcanists, who do not yet understand its terrible power.

• Oren Balserus, Arcanist Supreme
• Hali’el, voice of the Seraphim
• Drudge, a manservant

Custom Moves

When you stand in the presence of the Light From Beyond, roll+WIS.

✴ On a 10+ you are judged worthy, the Argent Seraphim will grant you a
  vision or boon. 
✴ On a 7-9 you are under suspicion and see a vision of what dark fate 
   might befall you if you do not correct your ways. 
✴ On a miss, thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting.

Stakes

• Who will be the Champion?
• How will Lux respond to the holy light?
• Will the College be able to recruit Avon?

The world

Much of the adventuring life is spent in dusty, forgotten tombs or in places of terror and life-threatening danger. It’s commonplace to awaken from a short and fitful rest still deep in the belly of the world and surrounded by foes. When the time comes to emerge from these places—whether laden with the spoils of battle or beaten and bloody—an adventurer seeks out safety and solace.

These are the comforts of civilization: a warm bath, a meal of mead and bread, the company of fellow men and elves and dwarves and halflings. Often thoughts of returning to these places are all that keep an adventurer from giving up altogether. All fight for gold and glory but who doesn’t ache for a place to spend that gold and laugh around a fire, listening to tales of folly and adventure?

This chapter covers the wider world—the grand and sweeping scope outside the dungeon. The always marching movement of the GM’s fronts will shape the world and, in turn, the world reflects the actions the players take to stop or redirect them.

Steadings

We call all the assorted communities, holds, and so on where there’s a place to stay and some modicum of civilization steadings, as in “homestead.” Steadings are places with at least a handful of inhabitants, usually humans, and some stable structures. They can be as big as a capital city or as small as few ramshackle buildings.

Creating the world

Remember how you started the first session? With action either underway or impending? At some point the characters are going to need to retreat from that action, either to heal their wounds or to celebrate and resupply.

When the players leave the site of their first adventure for the safety of civilization it’s time to start drawing the campaign map. Take a large sheet of paper (plain white if you like or hex-gridded if you want to get fancy), place it where everyone can see, and make a mark for the site of the adventure. Use pencil: this map will change. It can be to-scale and detailed or broad and abstract, depending on your preference, just make it obvious. Keep the mark small and somewhere around the center of the paper so you have space to grow.

Now add the nearest steading, a place the characters can go to rest and gather supplies. Draw a mark for that place on the map and fill in the space between with some terrain features. Try to keep it within a day or two of the site of their first adventure—a short trip through a rocky pass or some heavy woods is suitable, or a wider distance by road or across open ground.

When you have time (after the first session or during a snack break, for example) use the rules to create the first steading. Consider adding marks for other places that have been mentioned so far, either details from character creation or the steading rules themselves.

##While You’re In Town…

When the players visit a steading there are some special moves they’ll be able to make. These still follow the fictional flow of the game. When the players arrive, ask them “What do you do?” The players’ actions will, more often than not, trigger a move from this list. They cover respite, reinvigoration, and resupply—opportunities for the players to gather their wits and spend their treasure. Remember that a steading isn’t a break from reality. You’re still making hard moves when necessary and thinking about how the players’ actions (or inaction) advances your fronts. The impending doom is always there, whether the players are fighting it in the dungeon or ignoring it while getting drunk in the local tavern.

Don’t let a visit to a steading become a permanent respite. Remember, Dungeon World is a scary, dangerous place. If the players choose to ignore that, they’re giving you a golden opportunity to make a hard move. Fill the characters’ lives with adventure whether they’re out seeking it or not. These moves exist so you can make a visit to town an interesting event without spending a whole session haggling over the cost of a new baldric.

Elements of a Steading

A steading is any bit of civilization that offers some amount of safety to its inhabitants. Villages, towns, keeps, and cities are the most common steadings. Steadings are described by their tags. All steadings have tags indicating prosperity, population, and defenses. Many will have tags to illustrate their more unusual properties.

Steadings are differentiated based on size. The size indicates roughly how many people the steading can support. The population tag tells you if the current population is more than or less than this amount.

Villages are the smallest steadings. They’re usually out of the way, off the main roads. If they’re lucky they can muster some defense but it’s often just rabble with pitchforks and torches. A village stands near some easily exploitable resource: rich soil, plentiful fish, an old forest, or a mine. There might be a store of some sort but more likely its people trade among themselves. Coin is scarce.

Towns have a hundred or so inhabitants. They’re the kind of place that springs up around a mill, trading post, or inn and usually have fields, farms, and livestock of some kind. They might have a standing militia of farmers strong enough to wield a blade or shoot a bow. Towns have the basics for sale but certainly no special goods. Usually they’ll focus on a local product or two and do some trade with travelers.

A keep is a steading built specifically for defense—sometimes of a particularly important location like a river delta or a rich gold mine. Keeps are found at the frontier edges of civilization. Inhabitants are inured to the day-to-day dangers of the road. They’re tough folks that number between a hundred and a thousand, depending on the size of the keep and the place it defends. Keeps won’t often have much beyond their own supplies, traded to them from nearby villages, but will almost always have arms and armor and sometimes a rare magical item found in the local wilds.

From bustling trade center to sprawling metropolis, the city represents the largest sort of steading in Dungeon World. These are places where folk of many races and kinds can be found. They often exist at the confluence of a handful of trade routes or are built in a place of spiritual significance. They don’t often generate their own raw materials for trade, relying on supplies from villages nearby for food and resources, but will always have crafted goods and some stranger things for sale to those willing to seek them.

Prosperity indicates what kinds of items are usually available. Population indicates the number of inhabitants relative to the current size of the steading. Defenses indicate the general scope of arms the steading has. Tags in these categories can be adjusted. -Category means to change the steading to the next lower tag for that category (so Moderate would become Poor with -Prosperity). +Category means to change the steading to the next higher tag (so Shrinking becomes Steady with +Population). Tags in those categories can also be compared like numbers. Treat the lowest tag in that category as 1 and each successive tag as the next number (so Dirt is 1, Poor is 2, etc.).

Tags will change over the course of play. Creating a steading provides a snapshot of what that place looks like right now. As the players spend time in it and your fronts progress the world will change and your steadings with it.

Adding Steadings

You add your first steading when you create the campaign map—it’s the place the players go to rest and recover. When you first draw it on the map all you need is a name and a location.

When you have the time you’ll use the rules below to create the steading. The first steading is usually a village, but you can use a town if the first adventure was closely tied to humans (for example, if the players fought a human cult). Create it using the rules below.

Once you’ve created the first steading you can add other places referenced in its tags (the oath, trade, and enmity tags in particular) or anywhere else that’s been referred to in play. Don’t add too much in the first session, leave blanks and places to explore.

As play progresses the characters will discover new locales and places of interest either directly, by stumbling upon them in the wild, or indirectly, by hearing about them in rumors or tales. Add new steadings, dungeons, and other locations to the map as they’re discovered or heard about. Villages are often near a useful resource. Towns are often found at the point where several villages meet to trade. Keeps watch over important locations. Cities rely on the trade and support of smaller steads. Dungeons can be found anywhere and in many forms.

Whenever you add a new steading use the rules to decide its tags. Consider adding a distinctive feature somewhere nearby. Maybe a forest, some old standing stones, an abandoned castle, or whatever else catches your fancy or makes sense. A map of only steadings and ruins with nothing in between is dull; don’t neglect the other features of the world.

Steading Tags

Prosperity

Dirt: Nothing for sale, nobody has more than they need (and they’re lucky if they have that). Unskilled labor is cheap.

Poor: Only the bare necessities for sale. Weapons are scarce unless the steading is heavily defended or militant. Unskilled labor is readily available.

Moderate: Most mundane items are available. Some types of skilled laborers.

Wealthy: Any mundane item can be found for sale. Most kinds of skilled laborers are available, but demand is high for their time.

Rich: Mundane items and more, if you know where to find them. Specialist labor available, but at high prices.

Population

Exodus: The steading has lost its population and is on the verge of collapse.

Shrinking: The population is less than it once was. Buildings stand empty.

Steady: The population is in line with the current size of the steading. Some slow growth.

Growing: More people than there are buildings.

Booming: Resources are stretched thin trying to keep up with the number of people.

Defenses

None: Clubs, torches, farming tools.

Militia: There are able-bodied men and women with worn weapons ready to be called, but no standing force.

Watch: There are a few watchers posted who look out for trouble and settle small problems, but their main role is to summon the militia.

Guard: There are armed defenders at all times with a total pool of less than 100 (or equivalent). There is always at least one armed patrol about the steading.

Garrison: There are armed defenders at all times with a total pool of 100–300 (or equivalent). There are multiple armed patrols at all times.

Battalion: As many as 1,000 armed defenders (or equivalent). The steading has manned maintained defenses as well.

Legion: The steading is defended by thousands of armed soldiers (or equivalent). The steading’s defenses are intimidating.

Other Tags

Safe: Outside trouble doesn’t come here until the players bring it. Idyllic and often hidden, if the steading would lose or degrade another beneficial tag get rid of safe instead.

Religion: The listed deity is revered here.

Exotic: There are goods and services available here that aren’t available anywhere else nearby. List them.

Resource: The steading has easy access to the listed resource (e.g., a spice, a type of ore, fish, grapes). That resource is significantly cheaper.

Need: The steading has an acute or ongoing need for the listed resource. That resource sells for considerably more.

Oath: The steading has sworn oaths to the listed steadings. These oaths are generally of fealty or support, but may be more specific.

Trade: The steading regularly trades with the listed steadings.

Market: Everyone comes here to trade. On any given day the available items may be far beyond their prosperity. +1 to supply.

Enmity: The steading holds a grudge against the listed steadings.

History: Something important once happened here, choose one and detail or make up your own: battle, miracle, myth, romance, tragedy.

Arcane: Someone in town can cast arcane spells for a price. This tends to draw more arcane casters, +1 to recruit when you put out word you’re looking for an adept.

Divine: There is a major religious presence, maybe a cathedral or monastery. They can heal and maybe even raise the dead for a donation or resolution of a quest. Take +1 to recruit priests here.

Guild: The listed type of guild has a major presence (and usually a fair amount of influence). If the guild is closely associated with a type of hireling, +1 to recruit that type of hireling.

Personage: There’s a notable person who makes their home here. Give them a name and a short note on why they’re notable.

Dwarven: The steading is significantly or entirely dwarves. Dwarven goods are more common and less expensive than they typically are.

Elven: The steading is significantly or entirely elves. Elven goods are more common and less expensive than they typically are.

Craft: The steading is known for excellence in the listed craft. Items of their chosen craft are more readily available here or of higher quality than found elsewhere.

Lawless: Crime is rampant; authority is weak.

Blight: The steading has a recurring problem, usually a type of monster.

Power: The steading holds sway of some type. Typically political, divine, or arcane.

Steading Names

Graybark, Nook’s Crossing, Tanner’s Ford, Goldenfield, Barrowbridge, Rum River, Brindenburg, Shambles, Covaner, Enfield, Crystal Falls, Castle Daunting, Nulty’s Harbor, Castonshire, Cornwood, Irongate, Mayhill, Pigton, Crosses, Battlemoore, Torsea, Curland, Snowcalm, Seawall, Varlosh, Terminum, Avonia, Bucksburg, Settledown, Goblinjaw, Hammerford, Pit, The Gray Fast, Ennet Bend, Harrison’s Hold, Fortress Andwynne, Blackstone

Making a Village

By default a village is Poor, Steady, Militia, Resource (your choice) and has an Oath to another steading of your choice. If the village is part of a kingdom or empire choose one:

• The village is somewhere naturally defended: Safe, -Defenses
• The village has abundant resources that sustain it: +Prosperity, Resource (your choice), Enmity (your choice)
• The village is under the protection of another steading: Oath (that steading), +Defenses
• The village is on a major road: Trade (your choice), +Prosperity
• The village is built around a wizard’s tower: Personage (the wizard), Blight (arcane creatures)
• The village was built on the site of religious significance: Divine, History (your choice)

Choose one problem:

• The village is in arid or uncultivable land: Need (Food)
• The village is dedicated to a deity: Religious (that deity), Enmity (a settlement of another deity)
• The village has recently fought a battle: -Population, -Prosperity if they fought to the end, -Defenses if they lost.
• The village has a monster problem: Blight (that monster), Need (adventurers)
• The village has absorbed another village: +Population, Lawless
• The village is remote or unwelcoming: -Prosperity, Dwarven or Elven

Making a Town

By default a town is Moderate, Steady, Watch, and Trade (two of your choice). If the town is listed as Trade by another steading choose one:

• The town is booming: Booming, Lawless
• The town stands on a crossroads: Market, +Prosperity
• The town is defended by another steading: Oath (that steading), +Defenses
• The town is built around a church: Power (Divine)
• The town is built around a craft: Craft (your choice), Resource (something required for that craft)
• The town is built around a military post: +Defenses

Choose one problem:

• The town has grown too big for an important supply (like grain, wood, or stone): Need (that resource), Trade (a village or town with that resource)
• The town offers defense to others: Oath (your choice), -Defenses
• The town is notorious for an outlaw who is rumored to live there: Personage (the outlaw), Enmity (where the crimes were committed)
• The town has cornered the market on a good or service: Exotic (that good or service), Enmity (a settlement with ambition)
• The town has a disease: -Population
• The town is a popular meeting place: +Population, Lawless

Making a Keep

By default a keep is Poor, Shrinking, Guard, Need (Supplies), Trade (someplace with supplies), Oath (your choice). If the keep is owed fealty by at least one settlement choose one:

• The keep belongs to a noble family: +Prosperity, Power (Political)
• The keep is run by a skilled commander: Personage (the commander), +Defenses
• The keep stands watch over a trade road: +Prosperity, Guild (trade)
• The keep is used to train special troops: Arcane, -Population
• The keep is surrounded by fertile land: remove Need (Supplies)
• The keep stands on a border: +Defenses, Enmity (steading on the other side of the border)

Choose one problem

• The keep is built on a naturally defensible position: Safe, -Population
• The keep was a conquest from another power: Enmity (steadings of that power)
• The keep is a safe haven for brigands: Lawless
• The keep was built to defend from a specific threat: Blight (that threat)
• The keep has seen horrible bloody war: History (Battle), Blight (Restless Spirits)
• The keep is given the worst of the worst: Need (Skilled Recruits)

Making a City

By default a city is Moderate, Steady, Guard, Market, and Guild (one of your choice). It also has Oaths with at least two other steadings, usually a town and a keep. If the city has trade with at least one steading and fealty from at least one steading choose one:

• The city has permanent defenses, like walls: +Defenses, Oath (your choice)
• The city is ruled by a single individual: Personage (the ruler), Power (Political)
• The city is diverse: Dwarven or Elven or both
• The city is a trade hub: Trade (every steading nearby), +Prosperity
• The city is ancient, built on top of its own ruins: History (your choice), Divine
• The city is a center of learning: Arcane, Craft (your choice), Power (Arcane)

Choose one problem:

• The city has outgrown its resources: +Population, Need (food)
• The city has designs on nearby territory: Enmity (nearby steadings), +Defenses
• The city is ruled by a theocracy: -Defenses, Power (Divine)
• The city is ruled by the people: -Defenses, +Population
• The city has supernatural defenses: +Defenses, Blight (related supernatural creatures)
• The city lies on a place of power: Arcane, Personage (whoever watches the place of power), Blight (arcane creatures)

Fronts on the Campaign Map

Your steadings are not the only thing on the campaign map. In addition to steadings and the areas around them your fronts will appear on the map, albeit indirectly.

Fronts are organizational tools, not something the characters think of, so don’t put them on the map directly. The orcs of Olg’gothal may be a front but don’t just draw them on the map. Instead for each front add some feature to the map that indicates the front’s presence. You can label it if you like, but use the name that the characters would use, not the name you gave the front.

For example, the orcs of Olg’gothal could be marked on the map with a burning village they left behind, fires in the distance at night, or a stream of refugees. Lord Xothal, a lich, might be marked by the tower where dead plants take root and grow.

As your fronts change, change the map. If the players cleanse Xothal’s tower redraw it. If the orcs are driven off erase the crowds of refugees.

Updating the Campaign Map

The campaign map is updated between sessions or whenever the players spend significant downtime in a safe place. Updates are both prescriptive and descriptive: if an event transpires that, say, gathers a larger fighting force to a village, update the tags to reflect that. Likewise if a change in tags mean that a village has a bigger fighting force you’ll likely see more armored men in the street.

Between each session check each of the conditions below. Go down the list and check each condition for all steadings before moving to the next. If a condition applies, apply its effects.

Growth

When a village or town is booming and its prosperity is above moderate you may reduce prosperity and defenses to move to the next largest type. New towns immediately gain market and new cities immediately gain guild (your choice).

Collapse

When a steading’s population is in exodus and its prosperity is poor or less it shrinks. A city becomes a town with a steady population and +prosperity. A keep becomes a town with +defenses and a steady population. A town becomes a village with steady population and +prosperity. A village becomes a ghost town.

Want

When a steading has a need that is not fulfilled (through trade, capture, or otherwise) that steading is in want. It gets either -prosperity, -population, or loses a tag based on that resource like craft or trade, your choice.

Trade

When trade is blocked because the source of that trade is gone, the route is endangered, or political reasons, the steading has a choice: gain need (a traded good) or take -prosperity.

Capture

When control of a resource changes remove that resource from the tags of the previous owner and add it to the tags of the new owner (if applicable). If the previous owner has a craft or trade based on that resource they now have need (that resource). If the new owner had a need for that resource, remove it.

Profit

When a steading has more trade than its current prosperity it gets +prosperity.

Surplus

When a steading has a resource that another steading needs unless enmity or other diplomatic reasons prevent it they set up trade. The steading with the resource gets +prosperity and their choice of oaths, +population, or +defenses; the steading with the need erases that need and adds trade.

Aid

When a steading has oaths to a steading under attack that steading may take -defenses to give the steading under attack +defenses.

Embattled

When a steading is surrounded by enemy forces it suffers losses. If it fights back with force it gets -defenses. If its new defenses are watch or less it also gets -prosperity. If it instead tries to wait out the attack it gets -population. If its new population is shrinking or less it loses a tag of your choice. If the steading’s defenses outclass the attacker’s (your call if it’s not clear, or make it part of an adventure front) the steading is no longer surrounded.

Opportunity

When a steading has enmity against a weaker steading they may attack. Subtract the distance (in rations) between the steadings from the steading with enmity’s defenses. If the result is greater than the other steading’s defenses +defense for each step of size difference (village to town, town to keep, keep to city) they definitely attack. Otherwise it’s your call: has anything happened recently to stoke their anger? The forces of the attacker embattle the defender, while they maintain the attack they’re -defenses.

Clash

When two steadings both attack each other their forces meet somewhere between them and fight. If they’re evenly matched they both get -defenses and their troops return home. If one has the advantage they take -defenses while the other takes -2 defenses.

Other Updates

The conditions above detail the most basic of interactions between steadings, of course the presence of your fronts and the players mean things can get far more complex. Since tags are descriptive, add them as needed to reflect the players’ actions and your fronts’ effects on the world.

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