Frontier Plots
June 21st, 2011
Hello everyone and welcome to another exciting Grave Plots, where we bring you plot hooks and adventure ideas each and every week to inspire you to greater heights. This week is Frontier Week, a celebration of life on well, the frontier, and the grand adventures to be had there. I personally have loved the idea of frontier-based adventures ever since my first grade field trip to Pioneer Farms. For those of you unfamiliar with that in particular field trip, we went up to a little recreation of a pioneer town and learned about how pioneers got on with limited supplies (learning, for instance, how to make candles the old-fashioned way), what kinds of houses they would have lived in, what kinds of jobs they would have had, and what kind of challenges they faced. I seem to recall a lot of other activities, but can’t really remember the specifics. Anyway, at the time, I remember thinking how cool it would be to get to be a pioneer and have all kinds of cool frontier-related adventures. Now, after several years of running and taking part in tabletop adventures, I am shocked to discover that in all that time I’ve never made it my business to create a frontier-style adventure. Lucky for me it’s Frontier Week, and I have the opportunity to share with you the basic framework of what I imagine to be a cool frontier adventure.
The Town
For me, the most important part of this adventure is the town. After all, the town is what makes the frontier so interesting: that little bit of civilization teetering on the edge of the beautiful and deadly vast nature. What better place to highlight frontier living than the place where people do their frontier living? In addition, the frontier town will be an ideal place to set up for adventures, provide a convenient place for the PCs rest up and buy and sell things between adventures, as well as the perfect place to help simulate life in a frontier village. So, since the frontier town is so important to my vision, it’s important that I get the PCs tied in and connected to that element. In this case, I have a simple solution: I’m just going to set the PCs up as residents. Whether they’ve lived in my town their whole lives or whether they’ve just moved to the brave frontier, they will find themselves an integral part of the small community. So now all I need for my town is, well, the town. For now, I’m going to be looking at the big broad features of my town so that I can customize the details to best suit the needs of whatever adventure I’m going to end up running. After thinking it over, I ended up with this:
Earnestspring
Miles from the nearest city, and situated at very western edge of the map, is Earnestspring. With a population of just over 30, Earnestspring is really more of cluster of homesteads gathered around a small natural hot spring than a town. A large forest clearing serves as a sort of communal farm for the townsfolk, with coarse hempen rope serving as a makeshift fence dividing the clearing into smaller family fields. Animals of various kinds are kept by most everyone, either in large pens on their property or else left to mill about the roads. A large natural hot spring discovered 90 years ago by explorer Nathaniel Earnest (for which the town was named) serves as a place for social gatherings as well as a popular spot to relax. Finally, a single general store provides the townsfolk with everything they might need that they couldn’t make for themselves.
The People
In order to make Earnestspring really stand out as an interesting town, I will need to populate it with some interesting characters. To start I have the PCs; naturally these will be the most interesting people in town: after all, they are your story’s heroes. So what I need next is a cast of entertaining NPCs who won’t overshadow the PCs. Since I have a potentially large cast to draw on, I can start the adventure off with some characters I think will likely be interesting, or will be a source of future adventure, without sacrificing the ability to create more useful custom NPCs. After thinking about it for a little while, these are the notable NPCs I arrived at.
Yvonne: The teenage daughter of Kelvon and Mari, Earnestspring’s millers, Yvonne is a vivacious youth with a terrible crush on one of the PCs. Her parents constantly tease the PC in question about her, while she actively attempts to pursuit a romantic relationship.
Haloe: Everything about Haloe sets him apart from the rest of Earnestspring, from his deep olive skin tone to his fine clothes and regal bearing. Formerly a member of Prince Trivan’s personal guard prior to his death, Haloe came to Earnestspring hoping to escape the justice of his patron’s enemies. While the rest of town is aware of Haloe’s checkered past, none have yet to be made aware of the 10,000-gold piece bounty on his head.
Derik: The son of Gerard, the proprietor of the general store, Derik is a constant menace to everyone in town. Constantly undertaking cruel pranks and tricks, nearly everyone has had their flocks turned loose or their chairs fall apart at the hands of the youth. While no one has suffered any real harm from the trickster’s pranks, many people believe that it will be only a matter of time before someone is seriously hurt.
Braden: A simple farmer elected to the seat of town justice, Braden decides all legal matters in Earnestspring. While Braden is generally considered to be a kind and fair man, it is a poorly kept secret that he gives in easily to temptation, and as such, justice in Earnestspring is often for sale.
Erik d’lerger: A merchant from Iserd, the kingdom to the east to which Earnestspring technically belongs, Erik is hated by the people of Earnestspring for his unreasonable prices. Additionally, many suspect (correctly) that the small army of escorts he travels with are robbing the townsfolk. Still, he is a great source of information from back east. In fact, it is he who first brings news that the great western preserve is finally open for exploration and colonization, effectively starting our adventure.
The Wilds
It wouldn’t be much of a frontier adventure without the frontier itself. Thankfully, there really isn’t anything all that special about this frontier, and it can often look like whatever kind of wild, unspoiled, dungeon-filled wilderness you want. For my adventure, we have the great western persevere, a stretch of land formerly belonging to a great eastern empire that forbade travel into the region on penalty of death. Recently, the great western preserve was purchased by the kingdom of Iserd, who is eager to explore the region, sending out the call to all frontier folk to venture out and discover what’s out there.
Well,that’s all for this weeks Grave Plots. I hope you have fun creating your own frontier adventure, or borrowing my outline, the next time you’re feeling the call of the pioneer spirit. Until next week, allow me to wish you all the best in your gaming endeavors.