City Design by Journal Entry -Reboot!-

well there's a problem.. the scale looks a bit off for the buildings and such... since i'm looking for the river to be wide enough for logging... which looks at examples would probably be at least 100ft... the bunk houses are meant to be about 18x24... with my calculations meaning they can hold about 16 people each.. they are just bunks.. no bathrooms, kitchens, etc... so that means they are kinda off as far as size.. I think i might go with my original idea and try for a vector image.. that way zooming in and out is a lot easier in this map and i can keep things scaled correctly.. the general layout will be similar tho, however the buildings will be smaller.. i'll just trace the rivers/trees...

Here's a new copy in illustrator, the svg is done 1ft:1px to make things simple (the image has been resized).. I'll also attach the svg

Attachment 43398


As for time.. thats going to be difficult, like i mentioned before... I think my plan is to create a post at the beginning of the thread identifying the posts to date, in a timeline order... and then you can place your posts where you want... To keep it fair, with things "growing" instead of being defined, I would like us to keep posts falling within the near future, to the past... This way, we can slide things in we want to flesh out more or create something new... but we're not jumping 50 years in the future and describing the city so everyone else has to follow suit up to that point... right now we're looking at about the time the bunkhouses get finished... which is around a month or 2 since the fort has been finished.

Also, I can't stress enough that I am trying to define a process that works fairly well.. so if you have a suggesting as to how things could go smoother or be easier to manage please bring it up! I'd love to be able to quickly set up this idea for other cities and areas, etc.

I tried to stick to your scale but I could be way off, but if an 18 person bunk house is that big then a two room smithy with a stables would be smaller, I think? I don't really know tbh.

marked out a spot for the smithy and the brewery in the posts I've made so far. The larger building is the smithy. The brown is for a fenced yard.

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Oops, forgot to attach it.

wow...this sounds like an awesome project. I was going to go to bed but got caught up in this, heh.

One question...where is everyone coming from? There's been mention of runaways and such but I was curious about the origins. Are people leaving for the 'promised land'? Escaping financial hardship in the hope of a better future? Escaping governmental/social restrictions? All of the above? Large-scale exoduses, such as the pilgrims, were to get where religious persecutions would not apply, or for some promise of hope...like the Gold Rush or settlers on the Oregon Trail. I bring this up because knowing the mind-set of where we'd come from would influence how we interact with the world...and said elves and dwarves.

Of course, I could be over-thinking this :D

Here's my entry:

Anya Vanyer, apothecary/physicker, age 26

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Tatya,

Dearest Sister, I have arrived at my new home. It is both an exciting and terrifying place. When I recall riding 'to the country' to attend to a wound or an illness, I laugh at myself. Truly...there is nothing here but country and wilderness. I can't say I've ever been so far from a town, village or city. It is...vast. So much so, I'm heartily glad I brought as much equipment as I did, as there is none to be found here. And it will be a long while before I could receive more.

I'm torn between fear of the knowledge that I am far outside my experiences and excitement in wanting to explore the area. Ah, the plants, Tatya...so many I have never seen. I've poured over my herbal lore and while there are quite a few that will be very useful, there are dozens more I will have to research. I can only hope I will be of help. They have precious few people with more than basic physicking. If I'm to be of any use, I must set up preparations as soon as possible.

There are a few places where I believe the seedlings will prosper. I can only plant a portion...should they falter I'll have to find some other location. The soil here is quite different in ways I've yet to determine and I cannot afford to lose all of them. The distilling equipment largely came through, though you should have heard the grumblings about the number of crates. Well, they were well-paid and when fevers strike, or if anyone is wounded, they might sing a different tune.

As I was saying...about half the equipment survived the trek, which is better than I hoped. If all goes well, I will have a respectable lot of tinctures, salves, potions and whatnot to lay in for the winter. I have to stop...you know I would ramble all day and I know you don't have a jot of interest in my craft.

But, you do know people. These here are quite outside of what we are used to. They are not the lords the live comfortably, nor are they the masses I've often treated. They are quite...what is the word? Resilient. Resourceful. With a hard practicality that I suspect might be brutal, at times. Unlike Lord Horesy, I think that if I said I could not help, it just might be acknowledged, if not accepted. No whining or sending for the guards in a fit of pique. And that just makes me want to work harder. And everyone works very hard, here.

Ah, my parchment is almost full. I daresay I am Romanticizing a bit. But, for now I am content and hopeful. I will try to write again, soon. And I hope to hear from you, for I do miss you all sorely, especially during these so-quiet nights.

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GREAT POST!

as an answer to your question, people are basically coming from the highly populated southern lands... There's nothing wrong with the area, but.. like say, the UK.. there is very little "wilderness"... cities and farms... good lumber in the city is scarce and highly priced, so forrays to the north are becoming common... the north has it's fare share of trees, bigger than any you've probably seen in your lifetime, since forests in the south have probably been entirely cut and regrown a few times already. Causes for a commoner to head north is partly due to the rumours of riches, the need for adventure, escaping the law, or just a need to be out of civilized land... it's common especially for such a small outpost for now, for men to head up and work without their families, bringing them in when they have built a house for them, etc.

The main cause of skilled trade persons like Anya would be one of 2 reasons... money.. as for the guild, or the lumber tycoon also being posted... or, really.. being payed for by one of those factions.. the mining guild has a vested interest in the area, so i would think that you would have been "hired" to head to the outpost and offer your services... probably the mining guild made an agreement with the herbalist guild or whatever, offering to pay for regular supplies and such in return for you treating men under their contracts for free... any others are up to you, and the herbalist guild is asking that you explore the fauna of the area, sending your findings back south.. so basically, you have kind of a field researching professor type role in the area.. the guild will go out of their way to set you up.. upon your arrival (probably after these last couple of months, in another smaller caravan) they will begin to set up another building specifically for you if you wish you can choose the location... they'll probably try to keep you as close to the city as possible, but are aware you need to be somewhere with enough room to plant and grow herbs and the like.

As for the locale, it will be resemblant of northern canada... bedrock is quite close to the surface, many areas with 1 ft or less topsoil, so farming areas will be quite limited... as you said there is a lot of plant growth and such you probably do not have in the south... and everything basically grows larger here than in the south.

This will be an older post, if current "time" is about 2 months from finishing the fort, this post will be probably a month in... Since then, the bunkhouses will have been built, and a second caravan has arrived with supplies, tools, and more immegrants. Along with those is also 2 more soldiers, Finneas and Wilmont. I'l probably post another post with a bit more recent info. The map will also be update sortly

Fyrdrick- Captain of the Guard:

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Disaster struck us today. We lost one of our laborers Tam Donnrel, to a surprise ambush from orcs.

Baxis had seen signs of the tusked filth in the area for the past fortnight... They had been so common that I limited the forays into the forests for lumber to groups of 4, requiring either myself, Braxis or Thane to accompany them. For this particular day, Thane, Tam, and the others had headed farther north than normal, in search for a particularly large and straight log for the rafters of one of the bunk houses. Tam was ambushed while he relieved himself, taking a club to the back of the skull... thankfully a quick death. Thane chased them off, sticking an arrow in one of the orcs legs. They pulled Tam back to the city, but there was nothing to be done, his skull had been crushed.

Thane's usefulness had been in question up until now, for he has taken the death on his watch quite seriously. He's quite the tracker, and an even better archer... He's returned with what he's claimed the scalps of the 2 orcs responsible for the attack, as well as another orc scalp, along with 3 goblin ears. I'm worried he'll end up dying out there by himself, so I've recruited him for a much more important task, erecting defenses for us, and building a watch tower close to the forest itself, to give us some warning if we come under attack.

For now I have the men harvesting lumber from the other side of the river. Jehan Maras, a merchant from the south has erected a lumber "shoot", used to catch logs travelling down river. We're making good progress with lumber, no longer requiring the men to drag each log back to town individually.

As for Tam he's been buried out of down, on the east shore of the Weilmis. I had our carpenter Derry fashion a marker for him. I've also sent a letter to his family, with assurances Tam's wages will be sent to them in the future.

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Heres an update.. I've marked out where lumber is now being harvested from, and an area designated for the lumber yard. Also the first roadway forming due to common paths run.
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"Little Johnny" Apples

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I'm not to good at counting days but near as I can figure I've been here about 2 months now. I got some barrels made and found a huge patch of strawberries in the woods up north a ways. We aren't supposed to go out there alone but I can't have everyone finding my berries?

I got 6 barrels of the strawberries going an I got one of those red headed farmers to sell me enough apples for 6 barrels of that. Once they were well on their way I started working on a house.

I've got it started right next to the smith's palce. He is a good fellow and is always lending a hand with this or that and so when it started raining last week he said I could shelter under his roof.

It's been raining so much that I haven't gotten much done on my new house but the brandy is done. Well, it's really just a strong wine, but the smith said he could make me a still... anyway, the BREW is ready.

I went to roll the first barrel up to the barraks and I almost fell down the hill because of the mud!

I talked to the Captian about it and if we put down some logs along the path and get them good and stuck in the mud then we will have traction along the road without having to haul flagstone for weeks.

P.S. The strawberry is good but the apple is REALLY good.

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By an astonishing coincidence your placing of the lumber yard is exactly where I was thinking of placing Jehan's operation. And speaking thereof, would a dock or two be in order?

I'll try and get another entry written tomorrow concerning lumber operations and Jehan's reaction to the raid.

Hmm, lost my post..

But yeah.. Sular, feel free to state something like "I told the captain not to cut trees from there".. and that now, after the attack, he's allowing your team to control of a few of the men, and your allowed to cut tree's all you want as long as you supply the city with a decent ammount... If you wish any of this to be moved around feel free, I just wanted to try to illustrate my idea.

The "shoot" is just a floating contraption which catches the logs and holds them till they can be pulled out, or gathered into a big enough group to be run down river... I think it'd be cool to get an old-school river running log operation going.. not something i've seen very often... Docks are great, tho they would probably be powered by oar, i don't think sails would be of much use in a smaller river... i could be wrong tho.. I could see some sort of barge system, or rafts, following the logs down stream.. the river does run, but it's not at any amazing rate... the smaller river (Weilmis) is faster however, and will give the logs a good push as they move on their way down stream.