Elements of a Mining Camp

[White_Drake]

I'm designing an adventure based around saving a mining camp up in the mountains, and I was wondering what advice people had on what it might contain. I'm looking for a Yukon gold rush type thing, and if you've ever read David Eddings, the Nadrak camps are exactly what I'm looking for.

So far I've come up with
- Tavern
- Trading post (general supplies, and maybe furs too)
- Lots of ramshackle huts/tents

What can you guys think of to add?

Edit: Almost forgot, as always, any assistance is greatly appreciated. :smallbiggrin:

[Lapak]

I'm designing an adventure based around saving a mining camp up in the mountains, and I was wondering what advice people had on what it might contain. I'm looking for a Yukon gold rush type thing, and if you've ever read David Eddings, the Nadrak camps are exactly what I'm looking for.

So far I've come up with
- Tavern
- Trading post (general supplies, and maybe furs too)
- Lots of ramshackle huts/tents

What can you guys think of to add?

Edit: Almost forgot, as always, any assistance is greatly appreciated. :smallbiggrin:Beyond what you've listed, pretty much every kind of short-term entertainment that can absorb huge cash flow springs up wherever that much (potential) money starts floating around. Dance halls, brothels, gambling dens, traveling theater troupes, the works.

Oh, and transport businesses. With people continuously flowing in and out of town, people who manage to corner the market on pack animals, wagons, fodder, and so on might become a mover and shaker.

(All of this lasts only as long as the boom, of course.)

[Traab]

Well if you read eddings, dont forget to setup random encounters any time the adventurers look like they have cash. If they come out of some ruins with jingling sacks in hand, then they can expect to be ambushed. Hmm, thinking in D&D terms, are there monsters that are attracted to certain types of minerals? Here is an odd idea, a hunters guild. Basically, they setup shop and its their job to keep the surrounding area free of monsters so the miners can work more or less safely. In exchange they get paid bounties for everything they kill.

[ShriekingDrake]

You'll also need some experts in rope work and rigging, explosives, tunnel construction, tool making and repair, water management, animal management, loading and transporting, etc. (I realize some others have mentioned some of these things).

[EpsilRon]

Prostitutes... lots of them. At least 30% of the population. I'm not even kidding, they where everywhere during the gold rushes.

[AntiTrust]

The campaign Age of Worms starts in a mining town called Diamond Lake. Take a look at it, its got a lot of good places and every npc of note has a character sheet so you could drop in any you like

[Malroth]

Talking about a hunters guild makes me want to stat out a Tigrex