Exploit the setting guide

The Setting Overview handout and the Village of Stonetop entry provide plenty of details that can help bring the community to life.

When you frame a homefront scene, skim the Impressions section. Pick one or two and incorporate them into the scene. It's spring? Set the scene in the fields, planting beans, the PCs coated in cold wet mud. A PC visits their sibling? Mention the smell of fat rendering on the hearth, the rushlights hanging up to dry. Two PCs want a private moment? Frame a scene at night, with one of them manning a watchtower and the other one stopping by.

Extrapolate from what's established,

especially with things that strike you and the players as odd or anachronistic. The villagers don't fell living trees from the Great Wood. How does that affect construction and tools? Do houses have doors? Where do folks get wood for spears, bows, and arrows? They can't fell trees, but can they coppice them? Decide for yourself or (better yet) ask the PCs!

It's okay to change or ignore things. Exploit the setting guide, don't feel constrained by it. With that said, think about what you're changing and what ripple effects that change might have. Little details (like swapping Stonetop's whisky for mead) are safer to change than core assumptions (like the village's egalitarian culture).

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Handling misconceptions

Elements of Stonetop's setting can be counterintuitive for players steeped in the tropes of more traditional fantasy RPGs. For example, you might find your players assuming that…

... locals pay each other with coin (coin is for outsiders; locals swap goods and favors, give gifts, owe each other, help each other out).
... folks need jobs to get by (you're expected to pull your weight, but folks help each other out; no one starves unless all are starving).
... the village boasts a variety of trades (there's only a few fulltime tradesfolk; most crafts are done by homemakers or other folk as they have time).
... there are shops (nope), a mill (nuh-uh), an inn (no), multiple taverns (heck no), etc.

Watch out for such misconceptions. If a player mentions "needing coin," or says they run a shop, or otherwise reveals a disconnect between their assumptions and the default setting, then call attention to it. Don't just tell them they're wrong, talk it out!

"So, there aren't shops in Stonetop. Like, folks come to you if they want salt or spices, but I think they'd just come by your house. We can say it's set up like a shop, if you like, but few folks here know what a shop is."