SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the two settlements I have to populate for the second session. The first being the Northlander village and on Mintarn itself Queen’s Cove.

For this campaign I’ve decided not to use a pre-existing settlement from a published adventure. I had thought about Phandalin. I really like what WotC have designed there. But I want to save that and the others for another time/campaign.

These will be the first settlements I’ve created from scratch. Luckily there is a lot of great advice online and in the DMG.

The DMG gives us the following questions that we just might to think about when designing our own settlements.

“Consider the following questions as you create any settlement in your world:

• What purpose does it serve in your game?
• How big is it? Who lives there?
• What does it look, smell, and sound like?
• Who governs it? Who else holds power? Is it part of a larger state?
• What are its defenses?
• Where do characters go to find the goods and services they need?
• What temples and other organizations feature prominently?
• What fantastic elements distinguish it from an ordinary town?
• Why should the characters care about the settlement

The guidelines in this section are here to help you build the settlement you want for whatever purpose you have in mind. Disregard any advice here that runs counter to your vision for a settlement.”

The omnipotent Matt Colville in his Running the Game series has these couple of relevant videos.


Another YouTube video I like is by Dael Kingsmill.

In the rest of this post I’m going to use the questions from the DMG as prompts to help me create the Norse inspired Northlander village.

After some semi-light googling on Norse names/words I’ve come up with the village name Sealby. -by is the Norse for farmstead, village, settlement And considering that there is a seal colony on the far side of this island that the Northlanders living there would name the settlement along those lines. And considering how the Norse named the Faroe Islands (Sheep Island) I think that the Northlanders would have named this island along similarly and call it Seal Island or Sealay. With the -ay being Norse for island.

What purpose does it serve in your game?

This is a settlement that the party visit after getting through Angrath’s lair. It allows the party to “recover”/rest and get a lift via boat to Queen’s Cove on Mintarn. The boat journey is also a chance to give information to the party about The Red Rage of Mintarn.

How big is it? Who lives there?

The population of the village is 40+. This is a Northlanders settlement. It has a crew for the Knarr ship (see notes), plus light guard for settlement whilst ship is away.

What does it look, smell, and sound like?

Like the Vikings that inhabited The Faroes the island is treeless. So the homes are built out of rock and turf. Livestock has been bought to the settlement, basic cattle, chickens, sheep.

Who governs it? Who else holds power? Is it part of a larger state?

This is the “embassy” of the Northlanders with Mintarn and the Moonshae Islands. Plus Angrath the pirate. Whom the Northlanders have a truce/agreement with.

The settlement is governed by its jarl, who also acts as the ambassador for the Northlanders. The ambassador answers to a council of jarls that represent the various islands that make up the Northland kingdom.

What are its defenses?

Semi circular earth works, guard tower by the west gate. Gates at east and west of village.

Where do characters go to find the goods and services they need?

The islands’ economy is very dependent on livestock and harvesting the products of the sea, particularly fish, whales, seals and birds. So the characters will have no problem getting food, and goods that are by products of the hunting. They can get equipment repaired.

What temples and other organizations feature prominently?

Not applicable this time.

What fantastic elements distinguish it from an ordinary town?

Not applicable this time.

Why should the characters care about the settlement?

This settlement will get them to Mintarn and particularly Queen’s Cove.

I created the following map for Sealby based on the Foteviken Museum viking village map.