Village Council
There lies a quiet village on the brink of chaos, full of hard working salt of the earth peasants. Their lives of toil are made harder by the wild beasts, savage neighbors, and strange magics that plague them. Their one line of defense against the dark are the heroes.  These stalwart men and women are beacons of hope, righting wrongs, completing daring quests, and most importantly bringing much needed trade and wealth to this beleaguered village.  But it seems as if the heroes work is never done, almost as if the village seems to draw trouble and more adventurers with a will of its own.  In the following game, players will explore the actions and motivations of a seemingly quaint fantasy village as it struggles to survive.
To begin, the group should create their village. Work with the other players to answer the following questions. 
1.	What are the surroundings of the village? What other groups occupy the neighboring areas? 
2.	What type of resources are available to the village? Do they have access to magic through a priest or healer? Is there a militia or watchman? Are the surrounding forest plentiful in healing mushrooms?  
3.	What is the outside world like? Is magic common? Are there strong centralized governments or more advanced regions? 
4.	How does the village survive? Are they predominantly farmers? Miners? A cross-roads for weary travelers?
5.	Who lives in the village? Are there any notable or particularly skilled individuals?
6.	What are common threats?(i.e. beasts, bandits, legendary creatures, nightmarish fiends, ghouls, ghosts, etc.)?
After agreeing on a village setting, each player takes on the role of one of the village council. The village council members also fill necessary roles in the community. Necessary roles may include innkeeper, butcher, herbalist, blacksmith, hunter, farmer, etc. The players’ goal is to make their village thrive in the hostile surroundings. This necessarily means attracting heroes and keeping up their trades. It may also mean eliminating some of their neighbors and not always being entirely honest with those heroes. 
Players will manage the personal wealth of their villagers, represented by goods and money.  Each individual player starts with only 1 money and 2 goods. Players also share a pooled population (12 per player). If a player’s villager dies, they may take control of another member of village with a new role. The village population is reduced by 1.  If a village population would ever drop to zero, nothing remains of the village but ruins.
Village Resources
	The village has a number of resources that define it. Principle among them is the inn. Without an inn it is impossible to attract adventurers. If the inn is destroyed the village needs to rebuild it. In addition to the inn, the village may also have other resources that will interest adventurers: a smithy, a weapon shop, an alchemist, a temple (with built in healer), a wizard (to trade magic items), or a horse trader. The village also has infrastructure. This is primarily the number of roads that lead into the village. You can have a dead end, a through road, or a crossroads. This determines the likely hood and the number of adventurers that come into town. At the start the players should determine which resources are available in town (3 is a good number) and what infrastructure the village has. The village also has a pool of resources in the form of the town treasury, the town treasury starts with 1 money per player.
	The inn: The inn is defined by the number of rooms at the inn. The number of rooms caps the number of heroes you can have in town at a given time. The inn starts with 4 rooms. The village council can pay to expand it from the town treasury at a cost of 2 money per room.
	The town starts with four heroes present. The infrastructure caps the number of new heroes that can arrive in town each turn. 1 for a dead end, 2 for a through road, and 4 for a cross-roads.
Play
The narrative of the village is driven by a standard deck of cards, each player draws one card per turn. Players start play with a single card in their hand. On their turn each player decides which of the cards in their hand they will play. Each card is associated with an event and these events should help frame and facilitate a dialogue that takes place between the members of the village council about how the village will respond to the event. Events include adversaries of various sizes, problems, actions by neighbors, and occasionally a good thing. The events are described in the event table. Players are encouraged to modify the event table at the start of the game to better represent the town. The sequence of play is described below. Each turn there is an active player, this role is passed to the left.
The Draw- The active player draws a card and compares it with any cards they have in their hand. The active player selects one of these cards to determine the event for this week. They may consult the event table when making this decision. The active player may also take this time to announce any personal quests that they are going to offer. These are quests that they will offer to heroes that are in the village that don’t affect the whole village. Generally, gathering supplies for a craft or some personal errand. Ex. I will pay 1 money for ten deer skins. 
The Announcement- The active player that drew the card reviews the event table and announces the event to the group. They may frame the events discovery however they like and adapt its description to fit the village. Maybe a traveler arrived bearing strange news. Maybe Mr. O’Goldsmeld discovered the carcasses of two of his sheep torn apart by a beast.
The Reckoning- Determine the effect on the town of any events. Reduce the village population if people are killed, remove resources, etc. In general, positive affects flow to the active player for the turn.  Events remain until they are resolved.
The Discussion- The town council discusses how the town should react to this event. Should they offer a reward to draw a hero? Send out a villager to spread rumors of their plight? Should they try to deal with it themselves? Make a secret pact with dark powers? 
The Decision- Once the options have been discussed, the group should try to come to a unanimous decision on the best course of action. If this is not possible, the decision should be put to the vote of the town council with the “active” player’s vote winning in the event of a tie. 
The Conflict- The village’s plans are enacted. If heroes are present, they go on quests as assigned by the village council. The heroes are successful if their total levels are equal to 4 times the value of the event card they are trying to resolve. If the heroes fail a quest, kill a total number of heroes equal to at least the face value of the card. 
If the town sent out a villager, their rumors attract one hero. 
If the town offers a reward for an event, this attracts one hero/money offered. (the reward must be payed when the event is resolved)
The heroes will have goods to sell equal to the level of the event they resolved, players can buy them at a rate of 2 goods / 1 money. The heroes will buy improved goods based on what resources are available at a rate of 1 good / 1 money.  

Events
The events listed here are just guidelines. The active player should adapt them to fit the village and the village council should decide if the consequences/effects of the event are reasonable. For the purposes of quests treat face cards as 10s and aces as 1s.
Event Table
Spades (monsterous)
A  –  A beast in the woods
3   – A neighboring tribe gets aggressive (-2 population)
4   – Undead monster (divine hero counts double, the level of this event increases every turn) (-1 population) 
6   - Escaped golem rampage! (magic hero does not count) 
7   -  Orks attack! (-2 population) 
10 –  Dragon! (-1 town treasury or -1 population)
K -  A demon offers a windfall in exchange for a blood sacrifice. 

Diamonds (Money)
A  –  Traveling merchant (goods can be sold for 1 money each) One turn.
2   – Bandits raid the town (-1 money)
8   – Tax collector. (-1 money)
9   – Interdimensional merchant (the heroes don’t buy/sell to the village this turn). One turn.
J    - Struck illuminit! The town finds a valuable resource in its mine/woods/whatever. (+2 town treasury, +10 population).  One turn event.
Q  -  They’re not even using it! One of the neighboring tribes is sitting on a valuable resource. (+4 town treasury, if you can find a way to get it)

Hearts (Good things)
A – Birth! (+1 population) One turn.
2 – Make peace with the neighbors. (+1 good will)
 
Clubs (misc.)
3- Fortune teller. (The active player draws an extra card)
7 – Big news! Several heroes run off to go help. (Remove one party of heroes)
J- Astral rift! The heroes go on no other quests until the astral rift is sealed. (+1 hero per turn, +2 money, +1 population)

In character consider the past events and the effects on the village as a community. 
The Heroes
	At any given time, there is a pool of heroes staying at the inn. Heroes have a tendency to accumulate into groups of four. Any new heroes that arrive in town will join up with others at your inn to form parties of four. Once a group has reached four, the heroes will naturally start a new party. The parties will go on any quests available. The council can allocate available parties to whichever quests they wish, by manipulating the rumors and making sure the right villagers repeat their stories to the right set of heroes. 
	Based on the town actions, new heroes arrive each turn. Draw a card from the deck for each hero. Place the hero into the “inn” and add them to any available party. The hero’s strength (lvl) is represented by the face value of their card. Their type is represented by their suit.
Diamonds- Thief
Clubs- Magic User
Hearts- Divine Magic User
Spade- Warrior
	Jacks represent traveling bards and minstrels. These performers reduce the town treasury by 1 each turn as you just feel compelled to throw coins at them every time they perform. Jacks are treated as level 1 for going on quests. Queens are special snowflakes, ex. half-dragon half-unicorn vampires that are the only chaotic good member of their species. The Queen’s effective level is 11, but they are replaced by another hero after a single quest when the GM realizes how broken they are.  Kings are anti-heroes, their effective level is 15, but they only act alone and never join a party.
	As the number of heroes increases, the chances of an “incident” occurring goes up. Incidents are heroes being less than heroic. If the number on the event card for the turn is less than the number of heroes in town, there is an “incident”. No matter what incidents occur, the heroes are never punished and never pay for damages. After an incident remove one party of heroes. 
	A-4: Bar fight, reduce the town population by 2. 
	5-6: Take everything that’s not nailed down. Reduce the town wealth and player’s wealth by 1.
	7-8: Murder most fowl. The heroes have a problem with a service provider in town. They solve their problems through violence. Remove one service from the town and reduce the population by 1.
	9-10: Heroes burn down the inn. Reduce the town population by 4, pay to rebuild your inn. It costs 2 money per room.