Cozy Village Campaigns in DnD Done Right

Aberration, the Ghostfire board game I forgot to say the name of, is right here. Check it out: ghostfiregaming.com/RUNE_GHAB...
I'm having a bunch of fun running my home game, so I wanted to share the building materials I'm using to let you guys have similar fun. Iffin ya like comfortable campaigns, creative freedom as a player, or just hoarding resources n characters this be a good thing to try. If you read this far for some reason, you get one small kiss from a cherub and a gold star you are allowed to implode whenever you choose.
Check out my 5e books! eldermancy.com/
I’ve got Good Merch! www.bonfire.com/store/runic-f...
My Patreon’s still full of stuff! / runesmith
I’ve also got a silly ol’ discord server! / discord
My Twitter’s a real stinker! / the_runesmith
Music Credits: Pretty much everything by Kevin MacLeod
Link: incompetech.com/
License: creativecommons.org/licenses/b...

[@BuildinWings]

I love this. This makes a vampire/werewolf "whodunnit" murder mystery carry BIG emotional stakes for the players.

[@L337P1R4735]

Oh man excellent idea! You'd want to wait a while before pulling that one but it could hit the players like a truck.

[@LCCWPresents]

Hell you can have a couple sessions be Oregon trail style beginning where characters come and go from the game until the real campaign begins. The Oregon trail portion basically takes care of character backstory in its own.

[@Audiotrocious]

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

[@zoushaomenohu]

I swear, the best RPGs ALWAYS have some kind of home-base building element: Neverwinter Nights 2, Pathfinder: Kingmaker, Pillars of Eternity, Morrowind. Probably hardens back to the oldest days of D&D, where one of the high level class features for Fighters was straight-up "you get a castle and become a proper feudal lord!"

[@gonaldginkus6228]

You have now unlocked: Landlord

[@icejaguar3695]

ALWAYS A GOOD DAY WHEN RUNESMITH POSTS

[@tristanvermaak1803]

Facts

[@gonzalocampos7875]

Preach brother 🙌🙏👏💯❤👌

[@ShadowEclipex]

The next campaign I want to run will have the players sent by their Guild to go establish a new Guild Hall in a small village. So this video is kinda perfect for ideas to add to that campaign. Thanks!

[@psionicsknight6651]

You know, funnily enough, I actually backed a Kickstarter campaign that was basically about this. It’s called Cottages & Cerberus, and is meant to be a new way to play that is based around cottagecore and cozy fantasy. It looks really fun and wholesome, and I hope the creators expand on it to include things like Farming Sim, Life Sim, and other genres that could work with a cozy fantasy campaign!

[@Trefox87]

I backed them as well and was expecting this to be a video related to that just expanding on side ideas

[@vgmaster9]

And learning about friendship like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

[@Marionette_Doll]

I wish I had seen this comment back when the Kickstarter was still active. I would have probably jumped on it. I'll have to keep an eye out for its publication.

[@fakjbf3129]

Seems similar to the Homestead in Assassin’s Creed 3, where you gather new people and help them with various quests to make the small town grow.

[@pbutternj8921]

This format works really well for a rotating party where not every player is present every game. If the tavern owner and the alchemist both want to find a rare ingredient for their brews the blacksmith doesn’t need to be there but can tag along if they want

[@Deathven1482]

Being a tester for the GH board game has been a hell of a lot of fun! It’s been so awesome starting to see ads for it now that the public finally knows about it! Hope any of ya who pick it up have has much fun as I had with it over the past year!

[@Marionette_Doll]

I would absolutely squeal in delight over a campaign like this. Recettear and Stardew Valley are two of my favorite games and this sort of campaign would fan both those flames!

[@jp5834]

WOOOOOH RUNESMITH UPLOADDDDD

[@hannahdawg6829]

I can actually get behind this, plus it's the type of campaign that really encourages your players to actually work together because they have a shared goal other than just "defeat the villain." This is their new home, and if they want to make it a good place to live they have work together to build it up

[@maximtrenhaile5190]

I know this channel tends to be more for players of specifically dnd than anything else, but I do want to add that Pathfinder 1st Edition has an entire framework for players putting together buildings and organizations, as well as some higher-level rules for players who rule entire kingdoms in the book Ultimate Campaign. Even if you don’t want to run Pathfinder 1e (and, y’know, fair, you could fill an entire library with pathfinder rulebooks at this point) I found it to be a great source of inspiration!

[@giladpellaeon1691]

A friend ran an urban thieves campaign for our group and we got very invested in the bar we used as a base and ran as a front company. Several of us had jobs in the bar, my gnome character ran a pawn shop in the basement (I was also our fence and forger). We even had a rival bar on the same city block that we ran out of business then bought to expand into a chain plus we acquired several wagons we used as food trucks and covert transport around the city.

[@madhatter1334]

love it, this is the kind of campaign i would dream to be a player in

[@Jane_8319]

The earlier few adventures from Ghosts of Saltmarsh really lend to the party caring about the town, especially if you add the political throughlines. That’s what I did. Those guys care about that little port town so much that when they have to leave to go deal with something else, if Saltmarsh still has unfinished business they want to play NPCs to solve it

[@daspence2374]

I’m actually planning a campaign where the players are all either goblins or kobolds and have to build up their “evil” base going on little quests/raids or whatever in order to gain more resources for the growing tribe they develop, this was helpful thank you

[@justsomejerseydevilwithint4606]

1:00 Speaking of brewing potions, Potion Craft: Alchemy Simulator is a really good indie game where you get to brew potions for people, operating a mortar and pestle, couldron and spoon, water pot, bellows, the works. You even get advanced alchemy equipment later on to eventually make The Philosopher's Stone. It's good.

[@selensewar]

I'd love to play a campaign like that.

[@MrTwrule]

If you want to try something like this in an established urban setting with a bit more initial structure, combine Waterdeep: Dragonheist with Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and you've got a decent framework for this if you don't want to homebrew a whole world. Run Dragonheist with all 4 seasons instead of just one. Let the party explore new levels of Undermountain when they like (or gate off levels if you want), give them plenty of downtime between storybeats of Dragon Heist. You can also easily insert your own events like the festivals described in the books, 1-shot adventures like some of the heists from Keys from the Golden Vault or your own homebrew. Waterdeep is nebulous enough that you can just homebrew your own shops and other locales pretty freely, but you can at least mine the existing lore for ideas if you need inspiration.

[@Bassanova100]

I did something like this with my campaign. Set out with one character going to a large city to inherit a guild house, and on the way they find the mcguffin, make friends and enemies, and find a reason to stay together once they get to the city. Fast forward a year of gaming, the half orc has made friends with a village of religiously reformed orcs outside town, the wood elf had a dwarven apprentice he's teaching to smith, and the human thief is discovering his list family history and starting a bunch of quests by failing his crimes in downtime.

[@simplyjud9330]

Hi Mr Smith how's the weather been

[@willowgibbs7131]

Glad I found this video again and I may continue to come back to it. I'm a baby dm, running a campaign for my family. We're all noobs, and my mom is quite sensitive and she's not sure the campaign we're running is sitting right with her.. There's a lot of media she no longer consumes because things are too intense, and her imagination is so vivid that even if I keep descriptions pretty clean in combat, it's still difficult for her. If we don't find a way to make things work in that story I think I might try to do something chill and cozy like this to see if that works better for her! ^^ Thanks for the tips on how to do this!

[@gratuitouslurking8610]

Honestly, a more stationary homebase situation which grows around some simpler group could also easily work alongside something like a ship or similar flying device. Perhaps your traderoute is actually the path your sailing vessel or airship is taking, and this has the added bonus of allowing time between return trips to sell items to both gain rare goods to pawn off and also allow *drama* to brew while the party is kicking around. You can even pull the rug out and remove the comfy for a session by envoking some eldrich hunter beast on a stop like one of the many False Hydra statblocks, or maybe something more mundane like an underdark invasion. The stakes are close to similar but dangit those were your customers damnit!

[@L337P1R4735]

I have seriously considered doing this for YEARS! Thank you for making this video it's excellent.

[@superspiffychef1923]

It is so funny this video came out today. This is exactly the kind of campaign I was trying to put together, so this could not have come at a better time. Thanks as always, Runesmith!

[@MalloonTarka]

I can imagine this could work really well in a sci-fi setting, with the players being part of a colony, perhaps even of the unwilling kind.

[@imverytired1164]

Really helps to go into extensive world building when you decide to go this route, just so you can cover all bases for odd things players may want to ask.

[@HeavenkingBucky]

i literally held a session about this kind of stuff. this is gonna be a huge help for session 2

[@MossCoveredBonez]

The grim hollow tower defense sounds like a companion piece to ttrpg. Basically a mini game that you work up to in your campaign, and I love that

[@dogfromotgw]

metro boomin make it boom

[@EPadraigM]

Roomsniff

[@heroicfool8541]

Ooh. I had an idea for a campaign like this. The starting town was the location of the final battle between a different adventuring party and a bbeg whose influence can still be felt in the world because of all the weird magical portals and monsters they created. But as a result, the surrounding area has a lotta valuable resources. It's been a year since the baddies defeat and the town is still rebuilding so the players get to decide if they are townies, people who moved in to start a business, or a random wanderer who decided to stay awhile. I was inspired by a pdf called Witch+Craft. I highly recommend.

[@foxross]

I have a town controlled by my party (a paladin, a nun and a mastermind rogue who is the local lord) in one game and it’s been fun so far. They aren’t building from the ground up though so it’s been a bit tricky to gauge progress. They have small things though like how the priests want to put up beehives at their temple to upkeep the ridiculous number of candles they burn through and make a local honey. The whole town is underpopulated due to a recent plague which will make the introduction of new citizens viable and desirable. I had the castle be heavily damaged and in danger of further damage due to a waterfall that used to be outside of town but which has crept upriver and is making the land unstable. The lord position was gifted to the player for saving the prince and in a position of power the party is somewhat tied to the land now with freedom to explore elsewhere and a safe-ish place to return to.

[@bloodangelphil]

I'd actually recommend Beyond the Wall or Ryuutama over using a system like D&D. Look 'em up, they're really easy to learn.

[@NRMRKL]

I remember looking at Beyond the Wall (at least I think that's what it was). Does it have any village/town building mechanics or did you recommend it purely for the setting's vibe?

[@bloodangelphil]

Both. It's a collaborative effort to build the village, building both the notable places and inhabitants. Me and my group are playing it now.

[@OldGreyGryphon]

I actually prefer small stakes games to epic scale ones. This has a lot of great ideas. Thanks Runesmith!

[@preyasmanthedemopan2854]

It's funny seeing this now as I'm currently running my first campaign which is a kingdom builder, with alot of similar things from the start such as asking what each player wants and giving the tools to build what they want. The whole premise being that a whole-ass continent just rose from the sea and their kingdom commissioned them to go explore it.

[@PuddingXXL]

Goated Bandicoot reference. Sent me right back to childhood

[@TinyRobotED-tm9rs]

This is a really cool campaign idea

[@isaacschmitt4803]

There's a game that's pretty similar to this called Stonetop. It's pretty fun! My wife ran a campaign for some friends and me a while back, and we took the tiny village of Stonetop and turned it into a bustling city of trade. We fought against an ancient, unknowable evil, allied with the local goblins it was turning into unwilling servants, and cut down a large swath of the evil forest next to us that it called home for trade resources and a nice protective border between us and the big bad. I even drew out detailed plans for the town like what to do with the cliff at the back of the village that was fairly protective, but could still be climbed by a motivated adversary. It was a lot of fun!

[@Fallenmonkd20]

Genuinely good advice here i like giving my players stuff like this 👍 I think that's the most passionate I've ever seen my party when it came to destroying their business rival in Water Deep Dragon Heist

[@B33fcakes]

This is all solid advice for making campaigns in general.

[@geoffchurchill5492]

I did something similar when one of my players wanted to play a chef artificer, and when the party discovered dinosaur eggs near their town instead of the mother of all omelets they turned the town into a petting zoo

[@MrMaradok]

4:27 I’m imagining the town of Kling Klang is clockwork megastructure that would make Primus proud, and is home to sentient automatons - from Warforged Artificers to magical clockwork artifacts that work a 9 to 5.

[@LCCWPresents]

I love this campaign idea

[@darienb1127]

So if I were to play in a campign like this, I think I would know what I would want to play: A magic toymaker. It would be some kind of Artificer and/or Wizard who would make toys for children that have been enchanted in some way. Somtimes the enchantments are to make them operate, but sometimes they are to protect the child. So a teddy bear might be infused with Protection from Evil and Good to ward off monsters from trying to attack or abduct them. The bear is named after Teddy Tumbleweed, a Halfling Paladin who gave his life defending and orphanage from a coven of hags. Obviously.

[@firedeath21]

This is downright brilliant, I want to play it and maybe eventually run it

[@ImmortalLemon]

Just finished a one shot about a carnival day so this is a welcome surprise

[@TinyRobotED-tm9rs]

This is pretty cool

[@adlervann5736]

Such a cool concept

[@BigothyArchibaldBusiness]

Just got off work. Runesmith post, got my dinner. Its abouta be a good afternoon.

[@jotarokujo5305]

Now I've got an idea for something just like this but with a fleet of airships maybe like a trade caravan where you could run into floating cities and what not that way you could change the background every other session or so

[@nicholasmcmahan-watson9405]

I love your work.

[@fireguardianx]

Was wanting to run a dungeon crawl or wilderness exploration game with base building for a WHILE, but was always too afraid that people wouldn't want it! Now that ik there are some people into it I'll go for it!!!

[@Quietu]

I know you’re busy with your career…but man…your posts….top 20 part of my week. Easy.

[@alecolson8360]

This is a pog setup

[@diredm3889]

long ago he made a very basic video about how to tarvern and then he went mad and made a whole book, I BET he is going to do the same thing, I look forward to the VillageSmith Book KickStarter

[@TomasCyr]

Moonlighter+Stardew, very cool idea.

[@piketheknight2581]

Honestly I don't know what to do in such kind of campaign since I love exploring and wandering

[@andr0oS]

A video about cozy village experiences? **"Burgz" by Ken Ashcorp plays in the distance**

[@Greyscal3d]

I want to run a west marches campaign like this. Allow the players to do downtimes activities in a discord server or something similar, then run adventures for players who want to go out and explore/need things

[@Gunthersby]

Crystal Chronicles had an aspect to it where you create a character and decided what their family's profession was, which in turn created a relevant merchant at the home town. You could make a monster rancher campaign that's half about the capture and acquisition of creatures and then half about developing the business where you figure out how to make money from your stall of rust eating sewer beasts

[@hadarc01]

Logan just reinvented Ars Magica but without the bookkeeping

[@aldenprowell6684]

Love the Crash Bandicoot reference

[@JCinLapel]

WOW I love this I have made more farms then I can count

[@TheSneakyHunter]

Everyone’s saying the runesmith uploaded wow, but let’s take a moment to actually appreciate this vid

[@Pentten]

I had to rewind because it sounded like the goblins left "because of ogre population"

[@micahlegobutter1294]

PSYCHONAUTS REFERENCE!!!!

[@clericofchaos1]

Ah the cozy village...the seat of every evil action that will unfold through the rest of your campaign. If you're playing dnd (or any tabletop) and you walk into a quaint little village where everyone is happy and safe, most experienced players immediately jump to "cult" or "mind control"...because there's no way any place in a dnd game can be happy and safe. clearly, something is wrong.

[@bobhallway5507]

God I would love to watch this

[@brannanvitek1035]

I really enjoyed this! Awesome ideas, I’d love to run a game like it. Do any of y’all have suggestions for handling the economy aspects of player owned businesses?

[@not_gizby]

I feel like I wanna run a ryutama campaign using this concept

[@CaptIronfoundersson]

I took a break from playing Baldur's Gate to watch this. Thanks, bud.

[@owen6830]

Ight time to make an Earth Genasi baker who will build a city from the “Rock and Roll” artisanal bakery

[@jonathanrobinson319]

I will never forget dagger falls.

[@iftheworldfantasy6386]

I love your make a tavern and my favorite is train. So I think. Why not build a house moving or castle moving. Also moving castle is my favorite movie to

[@Squeakingrabbit]

Currently playing Faefarm while watching this lol

[@Oddmanoutre]

Any normal, Level-0 NPC that would buy a taxidermied Lammasu is either a fiend from the Lower Planes, or is some terrifying moral abdomination that wants a taxidermied fiend, too.

[@derpherp1810]

I am gonna apply this to my vaults of vaarn campaign. My players are all wanted criminals, in order to get off the blacklist and pay off their debt, a trade cartel merchant offers them a chance to repay what they owe by settling and rebuilding the ruins of a small village nestled around a desert oasis. The water is ridden with microplastics and it's poisonous so they need to find a way to filter the water and turn this into a bustling hub of trade. Nomad caravans will walk through to trade or villagers will come over to settle, there is also a dangerous ancient vault spewing forth eldritch horrors and malfunctioning synths. Its also got lots of loot and is a direct passage into The Labyrinth a massive sprawling underground network of ancient subterranean cities and autofactories. The only issue is since vaarn is a desert, its pretty barren so I fleshed it out with its own ecosystem and well ruins are usually dotted with strange fungi and plants that can be utilized into alchemical elixirs n stuff.

[@GreyGramarye]

Interesting, I’ve been thinking about taking the base idea of Rime of the Frostmaiden and reworking it to actually deliver on the frozen horror ideas it promised… but what if the tone was instead a cozy fantasy, with the conflict being the threat against that coziness? Like it doesn’t have to be AWFUL in Ten Towns from the start, but make clear supplies are starting to run short, problems needing solutions are coming up more frequently. Hm. Could be fun. Thanks for the idea.

[@gustavobarros4388]

Uhuhu, That's cool. I was thinking, and this style of play could somehow be similar or linked to some content in the Acquisition Incorporate module? I mean, mix this two ideias

[@hectortheforgetful103]

I find this idea really refreshing as somebody that's been running lots of "Beat-bad-save-world" campaigns, and I really wish to do this idea, but i need to know, how to structure a story into this idea? What could a climax be?

[@senritsujumpsuit6021]

I should use this in my Pathfinder Druid child babysitting setting XD the Child is a Fleshwarp which is just a mess of flesh an bones

[@VirgilAspect]

I'm not sure if you've done something like this before but a video on properly populating a fantasy city I think would be a very good resource

[@michaelroy1631]

Ah, this makes me want to DM again so much.

[@LordDany]

Go for it

[@underagedrinking69]

acq inc was a good framework to utilize

[@ThePrinceOfSpace413]

"market of weirdos" *Uses psyconaughts characters*

[@andrasbalogh342]

I was wondering if you could do a video about creating a city based campaign like dragon heist

[@jotarokujo5305]

Oh goody

[@danrimo826]

DUDE. MAKE THIS I WILL BUY IT

[@lucamonticelli267]

Systems like chuubo's marvelous wish-granting engine and ryuutama are made to accomplish a more pastoral/slice of life cozy style of campaign.

[@kaskando]

I backed a project aaaages ago called Witch+Craft that would be So perfect for your campaign. I think you'd love it

[@Gokou3036]

Like for the crash reference XD

[@Burningarms7]

crash bandicoot 2!? so unbelievably based.

[@rhhzdhbs2576]

Man just uses Power rangers scenes out of context, gatta respect how he pulls it off

[@honpolyo]

This is perfect! I've been wanting to run a game where all the characters are dead and the souls are living trapped in a demiplane inside a guys head. (Like in The Highlander, where do all the souls actually go?) The over all goal is to give them great desire to leave the plane they dont know they're in, but magic is highly volatile within it. Hopefully by the end once they know the whole truth, they'll all be as bitter and angry as the guy who trapped them.

[@andrewhalverson6974]

This is a brilliant concept. I've done something similar, but not as the primary campaign. You sir are brilliant.

[@0_Body]

The world is going to end in 10 days but I have a quest from a goblin due in 7

[@liamfitzgerald1400]

Inspiration... it has struck....

[@eryvac0074]

So, our DM bought stibbles codex of companions. Just thought I should let you know the barbarian beat Stibbles to death :c

[@mammonclarke]

You should have eachnofnyour players that owns a shop submit to you an inventory list that you can the post on your patron site. That waynyour patrons that are DMs can have their players buy sell and trade goods at your store in real time. Like a hybrid westmarch game. Your stores get updated based on your own campaign and all your patrons that are DMs campaigns. They can trade goods for like equal value plus 10% sell stuff to your stores at -5% and buy anything on your players stores inventory. It would give real life to your players stores and campaign and your patrons games would have real stores to buy from. You'd need to work out the rules and details but it would be really cool for your patrons and the players in your home campaign.