Splatbook*

Home, downtime & aftermath

Life in Stonetop

People

  • 300 people live in Stonetop (50 families)
  • Most adults work the fields or keep a home; ~a dozen ply the Great Wood
  • Few tradesfolk: a smith, tanner, potter, publican, midwife (plus apprentices)
  • Other crafts (carpentry, weaving, sewing, distilling, etc.) done on the side

Home & hearth

  • Homes are squat, stone (from the Old Wall), thatched roofs; 1-3 buildings per family
  • Each family keeps a garden and livestock
  • No mill; folks grind grain with quern-stones
  • Most families keep a whisky still
  • Water comes from cistern; fill with rain/snow
  • Folks wash at the Stream, but rarely go alone

Trade & commerce

  • Most crops go to the granary for public use
  • Mostly barter; coin comes from outsiders
  • Merchants come at least once a season (except winter)
  • Gordin's Delve brings metal & tools
  • Marshedge brings textiles, herbs, glass, finer goods from the south
  • By compact with the Forest Folk, no one fells living trees in the Great Wood (but the Forest Folk haven't been seen in a decade)

Protection & governance

  • Every able body drills with the militia, keeps a spear handy, takes a turn at the watchtowers
  • No nobles, no elected officials; decisions made by the wise, the cunning, the brave

Homefront questions

  • What task or chore are you working on?
  • What's the best/worst thing about this chore?
  • What's cooking on the hearthfire?
  • What here makes the place feel like home?
  • What about your home would you change if you could?
  • How does Stonetop mark or celebrate the coming of spring/summer/autumn/winter?
  • What's your (least) favorite thing about this season?
  • What's your favorite tale of Stonetop's history?
  • What's the scariest story that the elders tell?
  • How do the villagers mark or celebrate a birth?
  • How do the villagers mark one's coming of age?
  • What do the villagers do with their dead?

Seasonal activities

Spring

  • Harvesting winter potatoes
  • Spreading seed, planting beans/potatoes
  • Harrowing soil (to cover seeds, plantings)
  • Chasing birds from the fields (child's work)
  • Spreading manure & plowing fallow fields
  • Kidding goats, sheep
  • Picking spring vegetables
  • Clearing and planting gardens
  • Harvesting/cutting deadfall for firewood
  • Fur trapping, light hunting (for meat)

Summer

  • Haymaking (from Flats-grass, fallow fields)
  • Weeding crops/gardens
  • Spreading manure & replowing fallow fields
  • Weaning goat kids & lambs
  • Milking goats, shearing sheep
  • Picking summer vegetables
  • Berry-picking from gardens and the Wood
  • Light hunting/trapping (for meat, not fur)

Autumn

  • Harvesting beans, barley, oats, potatoes
  • Gleaning fallen seed from fields (child's work)
  • Threshing, winnowing, sieving, storing crops
  • Plowing fallows & planting winter potatoes
  • Picking & preserving autumn vegetables
  • Breeding goats, sheep
  • Foraging for nuts, fruits in the Wood
  • Heavy hunting/trapping (fur & meat)
  • (If able): harvesting timber from Foothills

Winter

  • Collecting snow for the cistern
  • Distilling & aging whisky
  • Tending to livestock, stockpiling manure
  • Heavy trapping (for fur)
  • Hunting as able (for meat)
  • Slaughtering/butchering livestock as needed

Always

  • Cooking, grinding grain, baking
  • Rendering fat, making oil & rushlights
  • Cleaning pens, coops, homes, clothes
  • Collecting & hauling water, to & from cistern
  • Spinning, weaving, sewing, hand-crafts
  • Smithing, tanning, pottery, midwifery
  • Maintenance (buildings, clothes, tools, etc.)
  • Manning the watchtowers at night; drilling

Downtime

  • Take care of logistics
  • Establish goals and intentions
  • Frame scenes/situations as needed, to… resolve a player's move/actions; make a GM move/resolve stakes; or play out a desired scene.
  • Describe time passing
  • Eventually, the Seasons Change

Downtime ends when the PCs head off on an expedition (to pursue a goal, or in response to a threat or opportunity) or a crisis erupts in town.

Make a Plan

When you wish to accomplish some project but aren't sure how to go about it, tell the GM what you hope to achieve. They'll say what's required. If you're stumped on how to accomplish one of the requirements, tell the GM and Make a Plan for that.

Requirements the GM might name:

  • You must learn/know/decipher ___
  • You must find/locate/obtain ___
  • You must create/design/fix ___
  • You'll need the help/support/approval of ___
  • You must wait until/for ___
  • You must travel to ___
  • It'll take days/weeks/months/years (which means ___ will go undone)
  • The best you can get/do is ___
  • It will cost ___
  • You'll risk ___
  • The steading must Pull Together ___ times, each requiring ___

Clarify exactly what they hope to achieve and how they plan to go about it. Then tell them as many of the following as makes sense, connected with "and" and "or" as you see fit.

Aftermath

  1. Determine what's happened while the PCs were gone or during the crisis. How will you reveal this? Make a to-do list!
  2. Play out their return or the immediate aftermath of the crisis. Start working through your to-do list. Return Triumphant or Meet With Disaster, if appropriate.
  3. See what follows. Play out any obvious or urgent scenes. Give each PC a scene with family or important NPCs. Do any other scenes you all want to play out.

I wonder…

Keep a running list of open questions that either...

  • … you don't know how to answer yet, or
  • … you want to answer via play.

Update this list between each session.

Relative value

Value 0

  • A ◇ purse of copper coins
  • A single silver coin
  • A favor
  • A few days of unskilled labor
  • A common, mundane item

Value 1

  • A handful of silver coins
  • A season (or so) of unskilled labor
  • A few days of skilled labor
  • A unit of trade goods* (a sack of grain, a ◇ pouch of salt, a ◇◇ stack of pelts, etc.)
  • A bit of finery (a ◇ richly embroidered cloak, a silk scarf, a silver comb, etc.)

Value 2

  • A ◇ purse of silver coins
  • A single gold coin
  • A Surplus
  • A year (or so) of unskilled labor
  • A season (or so) of skilled labor
  • A cartload of common trade goods*
  • An item of luxury or status (a gold ring, an artful silver torc, a gemstone, etc.)

Value 3

  • A handful of gold coins
  • A year (or so) of skilled labor
  • A good, trained horse or mule
  • A precious item (ruby ring, gold torc, etc.)

Value 4

  • A ◇ purse of gold coins
  • A dozen or so horses
  • A "priceless" item (huge flawless gemstone, ◇ gold statuette, ◇ bejeweled scepter, etc.)
  • *Exotic trade goods are +1 Value.
  • A ◇ purse of coins contains ~10 handfuls of coins. A handful is ~10 individual coins, and so a purse has ~100 coins in it.
  • Remember, trade is based more on barter, debts, and honor than standard currency.

Safety tools

Keep this in sync with the steading playbook. Review it at the start of each session.

When anyone calls "time out," play stops. Step out of character, check in with each other, maybe take a break. Discuss what's wrong, player-to-player.

If content was included that shouldn't have been, acknowledge the mistake, fix the fiction, and move on.

If someone realizes they need content to be excluded, veiled, or handled in a particular way, then update the lists. Clarify specifics, now or later, but don't ask for reasons. Fix the fiction. Check in with the player(s). When everyone is ready, move on.

Excluded content
Not part of the game, on-camera or off
Veiled content
Part of the fiction, but only off-camera
Special handling