itch.io

Result: higher ev, higher variance than a standard dungeon. Another goblin area is quite the resource at stake, and getting on their bad side might mean certain death. But they're intelligent beings with a lot in common, so I'd expect by default PCs can do very well here.

My prep was:

1. Define the necessary town elements. The PCs had established that this other goblin settlement had a profusion of cooks and a mine. Choose its size. I chose smaller than Goblinville but with the same number of starting elements. Roll the other elements. I chose to reroll duplicates so it was completely distinct from Goblinville, and ended up with a sawmill and barracks. We already knew the hex was primarily mountainous, so I put the new town in a forest on a mountain with a mine in the mountain and gave it a backstory that a wiped out warband settled here.

2. Set up three big problems, write names for the obvious NPCs (a big boss, a boss for each town element, an extra cook, and an NPC to showcase each of the big problems if none obviously already did). Give each NPC a one word personality and write their relationship to the big problems and what I know the PCs are coming here for.

Edit: also a dead simple map just so I could describe locations consistently.

3. Take your suggestion of 1 ration to enter town phase and use a town element; camp is normal; no progression on major events by default because that's too coincidental, not everything is Going Down exactly when PCs arrive. Instead just play the NPCs.

Things worked out pretty well... getting what they wanted wasn't a pushover, though aborting at most points would have been easier than when deep in a dungeon. But they were poisoning folks and framing them and causing trouble all on their own, plenty of Danger to be had.