Impromptu Towns

Here's a slightly-modified table version of the information in the Hamlet, Village, Town post from Friday.

You can use either HTML version on Google Docs (which gives you the option to copy and paste) or the PNG version, which looks pretty.

To use the table, pick the size of your settlement and note its column on the table. Read the first five rows straight across, up to your selected column, to find out what's generally available. Roll the dice indicated for Miscellaneous Trades to find out how many other crafts or trades are represented in the settlement; write this down as a "trade counter". Thus, all you need to record for a new settlement is something like this:

Ducksborough (Small Village)
exports: duck meat and bags of down
has: food/down packer, blacksmith, weekly market, tavern, priest, posse when needed
trades: 2

Edit: As mentioned here, I forgot to include the blacksmith indicated on the table.

When players state they are looking for a glassblower, a basketweaver, an armorer, or some other craftsperson:

1. Roll the dice to figure out how many tradespeople there are in that trade, subtracting 1 or 2 dice if the craft is uncommon or rare (if the number of tradespeople per trade is already 1d6 or less, subtract a flat modifier of 1 or 2 instead of reducing the number of dice.)
2. If the number of tradespeople is less than 1, that trade or craft is not available locally.
3. If the number of tradespeople is 1 or more, lower the "trades" counter by 1 and write the name of that trade after the numeral; when the trades counter is 0, any search for a new type of trade or craft will fail.
4. Roll the dice, if necessary, to determine how many people practice the new trade or craft and record this number after the trade name.

When the players state they are looking for ordinary schmoes to serve as porters, guards, torchbearers, or whatever, roll for the number of hirelings available that week. Subtract the number of hirelings reported dead or missing; this penalty can be reset by successfully returning without losses or taking a long break, long enough for people to forget how dangerous associating with those clowns really is.

Fill in names, personalities and other details for NPCs as needed.