Settlement Mechanics for OSR?

Last year, I got a chance to play Kingdom Death: Monster and I loved it. I was pleasantly

surprised, since I'd watched a not-so-positive review from Shut Up & Sit Down, who found the game rather bloated. Anyway, there was one thing about the game that got me really excited and that was the settlement mechanics. I immediately started thinking about how to port the idea into D&D.

    In KD, you start off with a small settlement of survivors, holding out against a bizarre, nightmarish, and hostile wasteland. Each player starts off with a character from the settlement and the party goes off on a "hunt," which ends in a fight with a single monster, similar to a boss fight. This is where you learn how harsh the game is. Your characters die, A LOT. Your characters get seriously injured, A LOT. You are doing well if your character has returned from a single hunt in one piece. However, as disappointing as it is to lose a character, it never felt really upsetting or like I wanted to rage-quit. This was because of the settlement mechanics.
     The settlement acts as an investment for the party and as a source to draw adventurers from. Each time a party returns from a successful hunt, the spoils are used to upgrade and "level up" the

settlement. The adventurers don't return to town to just refuel and get better gear, they unlock access to better gear and abilities. There is this whole "skill tree" thing going on with what new thing gets unlocked and how. This means that when your character dies, it's fine as long as the party gets back with all the loot. They will just pick up a new adventurer from the settlement who is now way more outfitted and prepared for adventure than the original adventurers ever were.
     There is a catch to this. The settlement's population is limited. This means dying is not without its consequences. Similar to video games where you can only lose so many lives, if the last man and woman are wiped out, then it's truly game over. This means that yes, a woman giving birth is a "1-up."
     There are so many reasons why a similar concept would work beautifully in OSR gaming. The OSR is known for its brutality. Character death is much more common than in more recent editions of D&D. This would take the sting out of it, but in a way that wouldn't detract from the narrative. Usually, if your character dies, you just roll up another one and make up some excuse on the fly as to how they just suddenly joined the party. Now, the new character isn't just some rando. They are someone who has directly benefited from the party's efforts and has always wanted to join. After a few adventures, the original party founded the town's fighter's guild (which cost so many GP in construction, staff, and equipment) and Markus has been practising sparring and sword-fighting every day since. Maybe he starts off at level 2. Maybe he gets a bonus to his strength roll. The achievements, resources, and benefits would need to make sense and be clearly spelled out, so the players know what they are paying for.
     Plus, the town and its inhabitants would actually mean something to the party. I am really not a big fan of the wandering murder-hobo playstyle that D&D parties typically fall into. I'd rather have the characters rooted somewhere, with a clear and immediate cause to get behind, something to defend. The party will be funnelling gold and resources into their settlement. They will watch it grow and develop, and know that they are a critical part of that growth. They rely on the town's success. They are then less likely to simply exploit the town's shops and services and cause mayhem just for the shits and giggles.
     Now imagine as the years go by, as the characters live, do brave and terrible deeds, and then die,

the small settlement becomes a city. Past characters are remembered in the annals of history. But the town lives on. Trade routes are opened. War, politics, and intrigue carry much more narrative weight. The players know that this is THEIR city.
     But if the party isn't really into being tied to a regular town, the settlement could be a gang or a den of thieves and rogues (a la Blades in the Dark). It could be a club, a base or some kind of stronghold. There are many variations that could be done on the theme.
      I believe something similar to this has already been done with the Adventurer Conquerer King System, but as I understand, starting adventurers have no ties to any one settlement or town and only in higher levels do they get into that kind of thing. 3.5 does have a supplement on building a stronghold. Some sci-fi games (like Other Dust and Gathox Vertical Slum) also get into settlement and gang development. But as far as I know, there is no fantasy supplement for the OSR that uses in-depth settlement mechanics.
     So this is something I will be thinking a lot about for some time. I will have to do some reading and research and see how other systems have handled similar ideas. So expect future posts on the subject 😊