Solstrivik - Shaleharrow Thaneship

I've finally started filtering through the 'world folder' and realized the sheer extent of things and places I've worked on.  There are probably hundreds of different files, some just small sketches, others fully fleshed out places that even players in the various campaigns I've started over the years never laid eyes on, or have encountered.

Apparently I've done more work on this weird little ball of monsters than I could have possibly imagined.

In wandering through the folder I was reminded of a video I had seen earlier in the year.  Its one of those many videos giving advice to new GM's on running their own game, and creating their own worlds.  I remember a particular bit of advice that really struck me as a terrible thing to tell someone excited about working on their world:  'Don't waste your time detailing things out, or even writing a paragraph on places they visit.  Players won't care and won't read/interact with it'.

I personally found that to be a particularly bad bit of advice.  I know it wasn't given out of malice, but was more in the spirit of efficiency.  It was a round-about way of saying 'Don't sweat having every detail done by the time a game-session rolls around', but the phrasing of it made it sound like there wasn't any inherent value in building things in your world that only you the creator would ever see.

I believe there is a huge value to creating and fleshing worlds and people out.  An example I can give here is Solstrivik.  This was a place that was only going to be briefly interacted with by the group.  However I had mapped it out fully, created a bevy of people within the town, and even came up with a history that they never truly asked about.  Why?

Inspiration.  In creating this place I recall thinking of a larger and larger scale of things in the surrounding area.  It allowed me to give a sense of place and history to the world.  It allowed me to think of creatures and things hidden in the woods, the history of a grand city of Auchenovar off to the east, Lathreadon to the south, and even the distant cities and territories of Orthienne and how all of those inter-meshed with this little northern town.

I got to draw upon history and the actions of the players.  They righted a wrong that was accidentally inflicted upon the town after they re-claimed the lost dwarven city of Dulcimmavor, driving an ettin and his retinue from the mountains south, where they happened upon the small mining and logging town of Solstrivik

The town itself didn't have a wall around it, and while many buildings were made of shale-stone and sturdy, the military force consisted of local volunteers and farmers for the most part, with only a handful of dedicated warriors amidst the populace.  

Solstrivik had suffered from decades of paying taxes to two different large cities that claimed the town as part of 'their territory' but didn't bother expending anything to defend or help the people there.  The original inhabitants were refugees from the now ruined northern fort town of Arlskrivan that was razed by sudden and savage raids from Frost Giants of the Northern Calderviik mountains.  The survivors setting first in Womford until worship of the Bleakshrouded Matron split the populace, and the more druidic minded relocated across the Dwyrhaldr river to found what would become Solstrivik.

Arlskrivan was once a far north-eastern outpost of the Aucebrionnen Republic, though when the fortress fell, and the survivors moved further east, they managed to settle in disputed territory, both Orthienne and Auchenovarri nobility fighting over the abandoned dwarven holds of Dulcimmavor.

After the attack of the displaced ettin and his clan, and the help of the Company of the Radiant Blood (A company consisting of Cinderfrost, Berrand, Dougan, Amathos and Ember), the town swore fealty to the newly re-occupied dwarven hold with promise of better trade in lieu of taxation.  The town supplying grains and food to the arriving dwarves, in exchange for military help, mined stone and a wall erected around the town's perimeter.  For the first time in their history both Orthienne and Auchenovar couldn't claim a silver penny from them.

Creating the Map

I was once adamant that I had to create everything in my world by hand.  I don't know where that ideal came from, but now that I have less time during the day to draw dozens of maps a week I've found lots of ways to help speed the process up.  Sites that offer ways to quickly create towns and even 'npcs' that might occupy them.  While I rarely use them whole-cloth, they provide some huge time-saving shortcuts.

One such site is 'watabou' ( https://watabou.itch.io/ ) which has a bunch of random generators from one page dungeons to simple town maps.  The output for Solstrivik was this:

A simple line map that in its own right was just fine to use in any game.  But I like adding my own touches to things, so I used this as a template to ink over, added in a few flourishes like various farmer's docks down river, and a forest around the area.

I like the town map generator on watabou for a few reasons, namely that it can be customized to allow for things like rivers and walls, but even better, the layout has a medieval to 1600's feel to them.  The crowded together, almost 'jumble' of buildings feels more natural for settlements like this than the more spaced out housing that we know today.  Roads tended to simply be along the easiest routes to various things in the town itself, the markets, the storage warehouses, long-houses and even temple had roads built up over time, with many back lanes that were only maybe five to seven feet wide.  claustrophobic, and a fire hazard, but such was the nature of the towns of that time.

I guess as the years roll on, I'll take any help I can get, including using generators, but with a bit of work they can be absolutely invaluable for world creation.

My advice:  Work on your world as much as you wish to.  It gets to be important and fun for you too.

-T.J