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Psilulz
2011-08-02, 03:30 AM
So I've wanted to play a town builder game for a while, guided by the idea that even common working peasants should be able to earn enough to sustain themselves. Basically, this post (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19573350/D38;D_Commoners_Make_Plenty_of_Money).

Here's what I've come up with so far:
-Important resources could include: Lumber, Minerals, Sustenance, & Currency
~Resources are gathered in groups called 'nodes', which have a limited supply and a limit to how many workers may access it at a given time.
~Some nodes, like trees or food, should be able to grow, albeit at a slow pace
~You can use resources for building and supplying your populace, or trade it off to other settlements.
~Thinking about creating a trading system that takes into account whether or not certain settlements require certain resources (willing to pay more/less).
~Possibly allow different levels of resources: standard, exceptional, luxurious. Nodes that have higher level materials would give a bonus to the Profession check of anyone that harvested from the node, representing higher quality material
-Building pricing is based pretty much off of the Stronghold Builder's Guide.
-Prices for hiring mercs/adventurers from the Arms & Equipment Guide
~Considering altering prices a little... Not sure. It just doesn't seem like a lot compared to the 7+ gp peasants can easily earn/week.
-The various uses of the Profession skill are used primarily to gather resources
~They harvest an amount of resources (in gold pieces) equal to the result of the Profession check, but only earn half of this (as the skill itself dictates).
~This follows the idea that in D&D, you generally sell items at 1/2 price. Of course you could choose to pay more/less but there should be consequences for such
~Keeping track of workers seems like it would be a pain, so a system that organizes them by skill and what they are doing, seems like it would make most sense
~~ie. (19) Prof (Woodcutter) +4, Prof (Miner) +4:
(12) harvesting at the Skystab Caldera Mineral node
(7) harvesting at the Mangled Pines Lumber node


That's pretty much all I have. I'm curious what everyone thinks, though.

Ingus
2011-08-02, 06:56 AM
This reminds me... wasn't it in the Companion set that there were the stronghold-lordship rules?

I once played an online, by forum/mail game like this. It was overcomplicated even with the ease of a excel page preset by the game masters, cause it was based on goods equations, production equations, population growth equations (assuming not only birth rate, but also the strangers coming in town) ... you got the point :smallwink:

If you're not in love with calculations, you may simplify the task, but in my experience this come at the cost of variety and strategy

By the way, the post you've linked doesn't take into account that there are around better commoner (till level 20)

Immonen
2011-08-02, 06:56 AM
Subscribing, because I really want to see how this turns out.

A good system for this might be Settlers of Catan, from what I've seen. (Never actually played it, so don't take that seriously)

Domriso
2011-08-02, 12:32 PM
Settlers of Catan is a very fun game, but in no way suited for what I think the OP is trying to do.

But, I quite love this idea. It's just... full of awesome and I would love to have these rules. Now, in trying to think of how this would work, are you assuming a massive map sort of game, with commoners taking bare wilderness and turning it into a town? Or is this a sort of competitive game, where players take control of groups of commoners and attempt to create the town they want? Both sound like fun (and could probably both be accomplished in a single game).

Yitzi
2011-08-02, 12:45 PM
And thus, things come full circle (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0644.html).

Suicidal Charge
2011-08-02, 05:26 PM
And thus, things come full circle (http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0644.html).

"Just-just trust me, guys. It'll be fun."

Pretty cool idea. Maybe a limit to how much work the villagers can do?

Psilulz
2011-08-02, 06:32 PM
Maybe a limit to how much work the villagers can do?

Maybe. I think this would be better if Profession checks represented daily work, but as they are, it is over the span of a week. I could see holidays and such (set by the DM) applying to this, however.
Another idea I was considering would be having random injury/illness, which could foce workers to not work for a while, and having certain nodes have higher risks, like underground mining.


Settlers of Catan is a very fun game, but in no way suited for what I think the OP is trying to do.

But, I quite love this idea. It's just... full of awesome and I would love to have these rules. Now, in trying to think of how this would work, are you assuming a massive map sort of game, with commoners taking bare wilderness and turning it into a town? Or is this a sort of competitive game, where players take control of groups of commoners and attempt to create the town they want? Both sound like fun (and could probably both be accomplished in a single game).

It is indeed a very fun game :smallwink:
Initially, it was more of the first, but the rts idea was in the back of my mind as well. I think that if there were rules down for the first, it wouldn't be too difficult to convert them to the rts style game.

I was also thinking of doing something like the PCs set actions for the town every week, and adventure in between. In a game like this, the town would probably be an important plot point, but not the entire focus of the game.


This reminds me... wasn't it in the Companion set that there were the stronghold-lordship rules?

I once played an online, by forum/mail game like this. It was overcomplicated even with the ease of a excel page preset by the game masters, cause it was based on goods equations, production equations, population growth equations (assuming not only birth rate, but also the strangers coming in town) ... you got the point :smallwink:

If you're not in love with calculations, you may simplify the task, but in my experience this come at the cost of variety and strategy

By the way, the post you've linked doesn't take into account that there are around better commoner (till level 20)

What is this Companion set you speak of?
A goal of mine within this whole project is to make sure that the rules don't get way too complex. I don't want players to have to constantly look back and forth between the rules and their game; it just slows down gameplay too much, which makes it a lot less fun imo.

Suicidal Charge
2011-08-02, 07:07 PM
What is this Companion set you speak of?

It was an expansion set to Basic D&D published in 1984. Wikipedia article here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_Companion_Set).


The book provides details on running a stronghold and its recurrent costs, such as wages of the castle staff.


Another idea I was considering would be having random injury/illness, which could foce workers to not work for a while, and having certain nodes have higher risks, like underground mining.

Random additional effect table? Like, say, gas, creature, nothing, large ore vein, valuable gem, weighted to the middle?

Domriso
2011-08-02, 07:32 PM
Okay, so we're still talking about having a D&D game, but with a town being a plot point in it? In that case, things seem as though they would be a wee bit easier.

For instance, figuring out basic geography can allow for a whole bunch of interesting possible resources. Being a D&D, bizarre things could possibly turn into resources, so this allows for a hell of a lot of player initiative (especially if this is sort of a "PCs settling a new frontier" game). From there, randomized tables could allow for special resources, which could in turn allow for increased boons (maybe a vein of iron is found, and so iron suddenly becomes cheaper).

Plus, if this is something like a mechanic to be introduced into a normal D&D game, then the PCs can have adventures involving running around solving problems that the commoners find (Oh god! Earth Elementals in the coal mine!)

I like this concept. Is this along the lines you were thinking?

Psilulz
2011-08-02, 07:32 PM
It was an expansion set to Basic D&D published in 1984. Wikipedia article here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_Companion_Set).

Random additional effect table? Like, say, gas, creature, nothing, large ore vein, valuable gem, weighted to the middle?

Ty for the link
And yes, something like that, although, it should probably be generalized so that it wouldn't need much, or any, modification between different types of nodes.


Okay, so we're still talking about having a D&D game, but with a town being a plot point in it? In that case, things seem as though they would be a wee bit easier.

For instance, figuring out basic geography can allow for a whole bunch of interesting possible resources. Being a D&D, bizarre things could possibly turn into resources, so this allows for a hell of a lot of player initiative (especially if this is sort of a "PCs settling a new frontier" game). From there, randomized tables could allow for special resources, which could in turn allow for increased boons (maybe a vein of iron is found, and so iron suddenly becomes cheaper).

Plus, if this is something like a mechanic to be introduced into a normal D&D game, then the PCs can have adventures involving running around solving problems that the commoners find (Oh god! Earth Elementals in the coal mine!)

I like this concept. Is this along the lines you were thinking?

Yes and no. What I want to do is make a system that can be adapted to various town-building campaigns, such as: A. focus entirely on building a town (PCs all working together for the most part)
B. building numerous towns, by PCs, which compete against one another
C. PCs are building a town and adventuring at the same time, possibly solving problems their town runs into
I hope that makes it clearer :smallfrown:

Special resources also seemed like an interesting idea, seeing as this is D&D. Things like naturally occurring quintessence (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/powers/quintessence.htm) or something (I hear 4th ed. D&D has some sort of material that replaces xp costs for item creation??).

Suicidal Charge
2011-08-02, 08:20 PM
And yes, something like that, although, it should probably be generalized so that it wouldn't need much, or any, modification between different types of nodes.

Like this?

d%|Result
9|Major detriment
26|Minor detriment
30|Nothing
26|Minor benefit
9|Major benefit

Psilulz
2011-08-02, 08:36 PM
Like this?

Yes, like that :smallbiggrin:
Of course, consequences are up to the DM.
Not sure if this should simply be rolled 1/week, 1/node/week, or even 1/worker/week :smalleek:
My gut is telling me 1/week, and let the DM choose who/what/where is affected

Suicidal Charge
2011-08-02, 09:25 PM
Yes, like that :smallbiggrin:
Of course, consequences are up to the DM.
Not sure if this should simply be rolled 1/week, 1/node/week, or even 1/worker/week :smalleek:
My gut is telling me 1/week, and let the DM choose who/what/where is affected

+1 for your gut. Allows for larger and smaller events than a node, and reflects a slowish pace of life.

Psilulz
2011-08-03, 12:12 AM
I've been thinking about workers and various adverse conditions that may affect them.
Perhaps you cannot pay your workers in currency? Perhaps you can only afford to pay them only so much? Perhaps the weather is particularly bad? Perhaps they are slaves?
Maybe things like these could be represented in various penalties representing poor morale and such?
Of course the opposite could also be true, having events/circumstances grant a bonus of sorts.
Thoughts?

Runeward
2011-08-03, 12:30 AM
Yes, like that :smallbiggrin:
Of course, consequences are up to the DM.
Not sure if this should simply be rolled 1/week, 1/node/week, or even 1/worker/week :smalleek:
My gut is telling me 1/week, and let the DM choose who/what/where is affected

I think I'd go even slower than 1/week. Life proceeds slowly and at ~50 checks per year, think about how much change that potentially introduces into a settlement. If a check can lead to even 3% improvement, you'll have a double-doubling every year. That is, if earnings at the start of the year are 100, by years end they'll be 400. But improvement of 3% in a single check won't *feel* like that much.

I would probably shift to one check per season. That is ambiguous enough that the GM can define it to be whatever is necessary to help the narrative, but implies 3-4 checks per year and only when big things change. So in the spring you make a check when floods come and threaten to wipe out your bridges, in the summer you deal with bandits, in the fall you deal with the harvest, and in the winter you deal with the hunger. Each check can be meaningful but you don't suffer for compounded improvement.

Psilulz
2011-08-03, 01:59 AM
I could see increments of weekly/monthly/seasonal. It just really depends on how much these checks do, which would be up to the DM, and so I think the frequency should be determined by them. Obviously a seasonal roll would represent something larger/more important occurring than a weekly roll. If such a DM wanted to incorporate larger events, like bandits showing up around town, rather than "William lost his wood carving tools," then they should feel free too. I think the best thing to do would perhaps provide examples of what each roll would mean in regards to the frequency.
Location should also be a factor in this. For example, maybe increasing the frequency of visitors when your town is near other settlements, and having events involving them more common.

Suicidal Charge
2011-08-03, 11:51 AM
I just realized you couldn't actually use the previous event able without modifying the d% column. So, I fixed that, and tweaked the numbers a bit.

d%|Result
1-12|Major detriment
13-35|Minor detriment
36-65|Nothing
66-88|Minor benefit
89-100|Major benefit

Ingus
2011-08-03, 12:26 PM
Ty for the link

What I want to do is make a system that can be adapted to various town-building campaigns, such as: A. focus entirely on building a town (PCs all working together for the most part)
B. building numerous towns, by PCs, which compete against one another
C. PCs are building a town and adventuring at the same time, possibly solving problems their town runs into


C. is a mere way to play D&D adding new and attractive ways to play it.

A. and B. are both pen-and-paper management games, the first being a sandbox PCs vs DM, while the second is a classic civilization-like management game.
Allow me to speak by experience: building up a management game is a charming but vexing task. While you put down rules, you multiply the cool, new features you may add and then go crazy :smallbiggrin:
Then again, you may feel the charm to add a military side also. Or a political side (diplomacy with foreign/PNG nations). Or a religious side, or a racial side, or a slavery/monarchy/feudalism/democracy side.

If you want to engage in some of the like, I'll ferociously help you. But you'll need my good luck :smalltongue:

Psilulz
2011-08-03, 06:33 PM
C. is a mere way to play D&D adding new and attractive ways to play it.

A. and B. are both pen-and-paper management games, the first being a sandbox PCs vs DM, while the second is a classic civilization-like management game.
Allow me to speak by experience: building up a management game is a charming but vexing task. While you put down rules, you multiply the cool, new features you may add and then go crazy :smallbiggrin:
Then again, you may feel the charm to add a military side also. Or a political side (diplomacy with foreign/PNG nations). Or a religious side, or a racial side, or a slavery/monarchy/feudalism/democracy side.

If you want to engage in some of the like, I'll ferociously help you. But you'll need my good luck :smalltongue:

I would welcome any help on this. Indeed, all of the possibilities are enough to make anyone's head spin. Which is why I'm aiming for simple first, and then make optional rules to emulate anything else.
I'm trying to make a cheese pizza. All the addons are just toppings :smallwink:


I just realized you couldn't actually use the previous event able without modifying the d% column. So, I fixed that, and tweaked the numbers a bit.

Looks good. Ty for the help :smallbiggrin:

Psilulz
2011-08-07, 06:30 PM
I've been coming up with various ideas for the basic outline of this system and am having a bit of trouble with handling combat...
ie. Goblins raid your town, and your guards try to fight them off. After chasing the them away, you decide to hire a band of mercenaries to take care of your goblin problem.
How would the guard combat and mercenary combat get resolved? Actually conducting every individual combat sequence would be far too slow, imo.

HerbieRAI
2011-08-07, 07:21 PM
There are a few methods, all pretty separate from 3.5 mechanics. What you can do is follow a more wargame mechanics for when no PC's are involved. Group the different goblins or mercs into a unit with its own stats. Then just create a basic combat system that would put the large combat into a few rolls. Of course you'd probably want to sub divide it down to individual creatures if the PCs got involved in the combat.

Ingus
2011-08-08, 05:07 AM
I suggest you to think in terms of units, not single soldiers.
Think about goblins and PCs militia as single units. Depending on how big you think, you may think units as composed by 10/50/100 soldiers.
Miniature's Handbook and a few other manuals have rules for this, but I suggest you to make it simple. Give them AC and to-hit as PCs and any 10/50/100 you have a new unit.
Or you can do it quicker: any simple unit has, to say, a flat 10 as combat value and any unit give another +10. Then add customized bonus in (better equipment, spellcaster in the army, better described tactics, use of fortification, use of siege weapons... the only limit, your fantasy) and confront results. Less than 10 difference between the two armies is an equilibrate battle: roll dice/dices and the winner wins. Between 10 and a quarter of the higher is a small edge: roll dices as before, but the higher rank army has more possibility to win. Between a quarter and a half, edge: roll dices, but the victory of the underdog should be very unlikely and there should be a small chance of tota annihilation. Up one half to the double: the best chance of the underdog is to reach draw. More than the double: it varies from the overcome of the underdog to the annihilation of the underdog (or, if you like speed, don't ever bother to roll dices).
You've got the idea :smallwink:

Cieyrin
2011-08-08, 10:42 AM
Color me intrigued, especially the initial article. I've always kinda wanted to run a frontier campaign, with the PCs helping carve out a new settlement from the wilderness and the troubles that can ensue.

Psilulz
2011-08-09, 02:31 AM
There are a few methods, all pretty separate from 3.5 mechanics. What you can do is follow a more wargame mechanics for when no PC's are involved. Group the different goblins or mercs into a unit with its own stats. Then just create a basic combat system that would put the large combat into a few rolls. Of course you'd probably want to sub divide it down to individual creatures if the PCs got involved in the combat.

The only real mass combat system I've really used recently is the l5r 4th ed one, but I don't think it would work very well for this. I feel it's designed for larger scale conflicts, and has more dice rolling, than I feel is necessary for what I'd want here.

For anything involving PCs and combat, it would be just like regular D&D. This would be for determining whether or not hirelings, guards, another group of adventurers, or maybe even armies are successful in their combats, without having to roll 50+ dice.


I suggest you to think in terms of units, not single soldiers.
Think about goblins and PCs militia as single units. Depending on how big you think, you may think units as composed by 10/50/100 soldiers.
Miniature's Handbook and a few other manuals have rules for this, but I suggest you to make it simple. Give them AC and to-hit as PCs and any 10/50/100 you have a new unit.
Or you can do it quicker: any simple unit has, to say, a flat 10 as combat value and any unit give another +10. Then add customized bonus in (better equipment, spellcaster in the army, better described tactics, use of fortification, use of siege weapons... the only limit, your fantasy) and confront results. Less than 10 difference between the two armies is an equilibrate battle: roll dice/dices and the winner wins. Between 10 and a quarter of the higher is a small edge: roll dices as before, but the higher rank army has more possibility to win. Between a quarter and a half, edge: roll dices, but the victory of the underdog should be very unlikely and there should be a small chance of tota annihilation. Up one half to the double: the best chance of the underdog is to reach draw. More than the double: it varies from the overcome of the underdog to the annihilation of the underdog (or, if you like speed, don't ever bother to roll dices).
You've got the idea :smallwink:

This seems like a nice idea, and one I might use... although I don't think it really emphasizes the roles of individual units. Not sure how to distribute damage amongst groups, either.
ie, a group of 20 archers is charged by some berserkers. Each archer has 16 HP, for a total of 320 HP. They are dealt 100 dmg by the berserkers. Would 6 die, and only one archer be injured for 4 HP? Would the damage be spread out somehow? Thoughts on this?

While at work I was also considering a combat system. Perhaps have pre-selected roles that have various effects, and allow them for certain classes/units. Perhaps such roles would affect how situations, like the example given above, would carry out.
Examples of roles: Defender, Healer, Artillery, Melee Assault, Commander
Also, various terrain features could give bonuses/penalties to certain actions or roles.
For example, in the mercernary/goblin scenario above, the caves could provide the goblins some sort of defensive bonus, and perhaps limit the effectiveness of Ranged Assault and Artillery roles.

HerbieRAI
2011-08-09, 09:52 AM
This seems like a nice idea, and one I might use... although I don't think it really emphasizes the roles of individual units. Not sure how to distribute damage amongst groups, either.
ie, a group of 20 archers is charged by some berserkers. Each archer has 16 HP, for a total of 320 HP. They are dealt 100 dmg by the berserkers. Would 6 die, and only one archer be injured for 4 HP? Would the damage be spread out somehow? Thoughts on this?

I've got a few ideas.

1) No retreat - This isn't too realistic, but basically says that 2 units will fight until one is destroyed. If you have a moral system that would let one side retreat, they are considered destroyed for the current battle and you can probably make a percentage roll of some kind to see how many survive.

2) One at a time - It's not horrible unrealistic to believe that enemies will target one person in a unit until he is dead then move on to the next one.

3) percentage - When determining casualties, increase each persons hp by a certain amount, then divide the rest of the damage equally. This will add a bit more work for the DM, but isn't impossible. For an example, lets add 50% in the example above. The archers have 16 hp base, so we add another 50% (8hp) giving them a total of 24. For each 24 damage dealt one archer dies, so that would be 4. The rest of the damage would be 100 - 4 * 16 (we go back to the real hp) or 36 damage would be divided equally in the rest of the unit.



While at work I was also considering a combat system. Perhaps have pre-selected roles that have various effects, and allow them for certain classes/units. Perhaps such roles would affect how situations, like the example given above, would carry out.
Examples of roles: Defender, Healer, Artillery, Melee Assault, Commander
Also, various terrain features could give bonuses/penalties to certain actions or roles.
For example, in the mercernary/goblin scenario above, the caves could provide the goblins some sort of defensive bonus, and perhaps limit the effectiveness of Ranged Assault and Artillery roles.

Seems like a great idea.

Cieyrin
2011-08-09, 12:05 PM
I've got a few ideas.

1) No retreat - This isn't too realistic, but basically says that 2 units will fight until one is destroyed. If you have a moral system that would let one side retreat, they are considered destroyed for the current battle and you can probably make a percentage roll of some kind to see how many survive.

A simple morale system should probably be in place, as only undead, constructs and highly trained units (think Spartans) wouldn't start breaking when half their number have died, a smaller percentage for greener troops.


2) One at a time - It's not horrible unrealistic to believe that enemies will target one person in a unit until he is dead then move on to the next one.

3) percentage - When determining casualties, increase each persons hp by a certain amount, then divide the rest of the damage equally. This will add a bit more work for the DM, but isn't impossible. For an example, lets add 50% in the example above. The archers have 16 hp base, so we add another 50% (8hp) giving them a total of 24. For each 24 damage dealt one archer dies, so that would be 4. The rest of the damage would be 100 - 4 * 16 (we go back to the real hp) or 36 damage would be divided equally in the rest of the unit.

Not sure where the extra percentage is coming in unless it's something for Death's Door, which is honestly not that relevant in a skirmish style game, as when you're unconscious, you're as good as dead. One at a time makes the most sense, agreed, though there's something to be said for having facing in this kind of system for determining who takes what damage. It doesn't make sense for the guys in the back of the formation to take damage when the berserkers are only using melee to carve through the front ranks unless they manage to carve their way through and even then, the back rank has probably broken by then, as archers in melee is a real morale breaker. If they didn't break when the berserkers approached, they certainly did when contact was made.

Ingus
2011-08-10, 06:53 AM
This seems like a nice idea, and one I might use... although I don't think it really emphasizes the roles of individual units. Not sure how to distribute damage amongst groups, either.
ie, a group of 20 archers is charged by some berserkers. Each archer has 16 HP, for a total of 320 HP. They are dealt 100 dmg by the berserkers. Would 6 die, and only one archer be injured for 4 HP? Would the damage be spread out somehow? Thoughts on this?


If you second the unit system, I suggest you to not think in terms of turns like berserkers attack archers, then archers attack bersekers, or you'll end up with a dynamic in which the first that strikes wins (and since it is realistic in a duel, it is not in an army clash).

You can solve the issue in two ways.
1) Among the confrontation of bonuses, you add a 1d10 based table. In a drawish situation 1 means the attacker loses %40 of troops (to say) and the attacker loses %0; 5 means both attacker and defender loses 20% of troops; and 10 is the reverse of 1. This way you no longer need to calculate hp, damages and so.
In this way, you should consider that individuals in the unit are like hp and, given a loss of X, the unit is disbanded.

2) When the two armies confront, they deal each other damage to the hp total (in your example 320). Any unit doesn't report casualties until it had at least a 20% hp loss. To 20% and until 50% loss, the unit loses a percentage of troops equal to the hp loss percentage -20% (ie, after a 50% hp loss, the unit has a 30% troops loss). After the 50% and till 80% of hp loss, the troop loss is at -10%. After it is on par (but you should really consider to make a unit disband at this point)

Veklim
2011-08-10, 11:35 AM
I was also thinking of doing something like the PCs set actions for the town every week, and adventure in between. In a game like this, the town would probably be an important plot point, but not the entire focus of the game.


We (as in myself and all the D&D players I know) have been doing this for years...all the needed rules are in core, the cityscape/frostburn/sanstorm/stormwrack set, and a few others (including DMG II, a really rather lovely book imo). What you do is get leadership @ 6th, possibly starting the campaign there and having the feat either for free or as a requirement for character creation, then you use the accompanying tables.
THEN, you start to mod and create a bit, just add in extra positives and negatives for resources/locality/friendships & hostilities, etc.
The group can club together their followers, creating alliances, or create competitors (which could range from friendly to hostile depending upon the sort of competition created). This can be applied to any level of society/culture with little to no actual change in numbers, it's all in the flavour.

Then you move to economics. The basics have been heavily discussed in a few places and I won't even begin to debate/comment here, but if the PC is the landlord, then economics become easier anyway. You just make the player decide how much he gives/takes from his people, and you apply the standard leadership, morale and disposition rules to find an appropriate response from the population.

The reason for using leadership is that all the scaling levels for your expanding community are done for you, and all you need do is make a single template set (3 commoner templates, 2 expert templates, 1 warrior template, maybe 1 adept template if the character has made a school or retreat of some kind) for the majority of them. Within this group you choose a few specialists, use arbitrary numbers, ability scores or a ratio (I use 1/20 of the population). These will fill in special roles like the merchant (there's always at least one), priest/doctor (almost always the same person), an architect/engineer (for bridges/houses/mines), a couple of master craftsmen (often mid level followers in my experience, so the player could get an occassional masterwork item made relatively easily) and maybe a handful of guardsmen/police/militia/hunters usually with a leader (often a high-level follower also, sometimes the cohort) as well as a mayor or nominal leader for the entire community to make the decisions whilst your character adventures (almost exclusively the player's cohort).

As the PCs gain levels, so do some of their people. This is natural, every time the priest successfully treats an outbreak of typhus, every building or engineering achievement the architect completes, every dangerous criminal the town militia aprehend, and every advantageous deal made by the mayor should carry with them XP rewards for the people involved.
You can either keep track of every minute detail, or allow the game some fluidity and just have them gain the level as per the leadership table, choosing who levels by whatever has happened to the population. It's a sliding scale really.

You hardly need to brew anything. It's all there already.