Bringing the Village to Life

The homefront is what happens before, after, and between adventures — the PCs living their lives, the village changing around them. It's where the players see the impact of their choices. For the game to work, the players (not just the PCs) need to care about Stonetop.

Homefront play is looser and less intense than expeditions. You spend more time in loose play, glossing over days and weeks. Even zoomed-in homefront scenes often have small stakes. That doesn't make them unimportant — the village is the heart of the game.

Follow the rules, especially the homefront moves — they introduce surprises that make the village feel real. Begin and end with the fiction: when a player Requisitions the horses, describe the neighbors hauling a cart themselves, glaring as the PCs leave. When Fortunes go up, describe the town's good mood. Show players that mechanical changes have fictional weight.

Address the characters. Ask questions all the time — about chores, traditions, gossip, morning routines, what makes this place feel like home. Build on the answers; treat them as if they've always been true. When a player asks something, sometimes turn it back: "Caradoc, given the lack of timber, what do people use for doors?"

Embrace the mundane alongside the fantastic. Crops, weather, livestock, kinship, gender roles, holidays, myths. The game asserts that Stonetop is egalitarian; what that looks like is for your group to define.

Players steeped in traditional fantasy may assume things that aren't true:

• Locals don't pay each other in coin — coin is for outsiders. Locals swap, gift, owe.
• Folks don't need jobs to get by — everyone pulls their weight; no one starves unless all are starving.
• There aren't multiple shops, taverns, inns, or even a mill. There's maybe one public house. Most crafts happen in households.

Don't just tell players they're wrong. Talk it out, in character if needed.

Write up Threats for ongoing village problems and use them — the town busybody (institution), the bright kid who idolizes the Seeker (wildcard), the Stone itself (MacGuffin). Make troublesome NPCs nuanced: a sympathetic motivation, a redeeming quality, a skill the village needs, family who loves them, a position of influence, something to hold over a PC. The PCs can't just run them out of town.

And let things burn. The village and beloved NPCs are not protected. Stay within content guidelines, but otherwise take the gloves off. If the stakes aren't real, the PCs' heroism isn't real.