The World
Much of the adventuring life is spent in dusty, forgotten tombs or in places of terror and life-threatening danger. It’s commonplace to awaken from a short and fitful rest still deep in the belly of the world and surrounded by foes. When the time comes to emerge from these places—whether laden with the spoils of battle or beaten and bloody—an adventurer seeks out safety and solace.
These are the comforts of civilization: a warm bath, a meal of mead and bread, the company of fellow men and elves and dwarves and halflings. Often thoughts of returning to these places are all that keep an adventurer from giving up altogether. All fight for gold and glory but who doesn’t ache for a place to spend that gold and laugh around a fire, listening to tales of folly and adventure?
This chapter covers the wider world—the grand and sweeping scope outside the dungeon. The always marching movement of the GM’s fronts will shape the world and, in turn, the world reflects the actions the players take to stop or redirect them.
Steadings
We call all the assorted communities, holds, and so on where there’s a place to stay and some modicum of civilization steadings, as in “homestead.” Steadings are places with at least a handful of inhabitants, usually humans, and some stable structures. They can be as big as a capital city or as small as few ramshackle buildings.