Greetings,

I am in the planning phase of a - somewhat long - campaign for rank 7-8 acolytes that takes place on a backwater world. Something like the planet shown in the upcoming Borderlands game. Desertlike planet with small town communities - with a Mad Max feel.

I got most of the story mapped out but I have writer's block about the towns - names, stories, hidden treasures - so if any of you could help me with some ideas about town names/hooks I could use I'd appreciate it. Since I'm not a native English speaker I have trouble coming up with good story hooks for a goldrush type game - think side quests, the main quest is all written down. My idea is that this planet was discovered by an Explorator fleet and the AM decided to set up mining which caused all these small towns to spring up. Eventually the Mechanicus - for unknown reasons - decided it is not economically feasible to continue with the mining operations, maybe they found something buried or the quality of the ore was not good enough, and now with the main export gone a lot of poor folks are stuck on this planet and living off scavenging.

So I need some ideas about small town names, how would folks live in those... maybe have sheriffs? Would they tolerate mutants now that the Imperium left them behind?

So, this world has been left alone. The people dwell on scavenging and fighting among themselve. Big Trade Ships do not show up since there is no export and the "natives" aren´t wealthy.

All settlements are build around digs of mechanicus mining operations, right?

So, the settlements could well be numbered. "Setllement 3845´" "Settlement 2423" and so on.

Since real people need real names, it could go along the lines of

Landscape features:
Red Sands
ChasmCity
TwinSprings (Spring like the water source)

Names of (famous) fonders:
Jonestown

Features of the Settlement:
HospitalCity
GunHome (or "Gunheim" if you like part-german-names)
Longbridge
Fort Fuel

I like the landscape based names, those are what I was trying to come up with for those small town settlements. And Fort Fuel, that's a very good one, thanks! I'm usually good with storylines but terrible when I have to name a town/hostel/place...

A town I am going to use in one of my own campaigns is Range Hill

Range Hill is a rather small fortified settlement atop of a natural hill in an otherwise flat surrounding. "Range Hill" was build there due to the "defensibility" of the place. The name hails from a statement from one of its founders that "having anyone approach this hill is like having him on a shooting range".

In my game, Range Hill (which I do not have a GERMAN name for.. ) is settlement of peopl making a living of hiring their service as guides and guards to makro haulers going through the area to the next hive.

In you game, Range Hill could simply be a fortified settlement. Perhaps with a water source inside it´´s scavenger-steel walls. The settlement could be about 500 people (about 80 families). People could sustain themselves on a huge termite field nearby.

The city is governt by a group of "regulators". These are the descendts of a forma arbites familiy. They still own bolt guns, but only use it in the case of an assault to the city. In addition, they have a "bulletmaker" in town. But no resources near. Scavengers travell to RangeHill to trade raw materials (copper, lead) for bullets.

Hook:
While the pc are inside RangeHill for some reason, group of aggressive motorized nomads starts to lay siege on the settlement. While they are within range of the rifles, the armour of there vehicles is to tough to be cracked on the distance. They do not approach since they now that coming clothers would allow the marksmen of the town to shoot the drivers. Instead, they send in a messenger: they demand bullets and water, otherwise they will siege the town until the people beginn to starve.

If the settlers would try an assault, the vehicles could cut them down. But if some-one would be brave enough to sneak into the nomads camp at night to drill holes into there water canisters... they would have to end the siege rather quickly!.

The settlement you described is the general athmosphere I'm going for.

Since my group has 2 tech-priests the fact they can actually repair things like plasma reactors will be very valuable to the locals. Since this is a backwater planet with no official recognition I'm going with bullets as legal tender, as in Imperial Thrones have no value but you can buy/sell stuff for bullets ( the 20 to 1 Throne ratio helps with the prices, I'm still thinking about Manstopper bullets having higher trade value ). My players are - almost all of them - rank 7 and they have lots of Thrones so the official money being useless will be a big surprise.

So I figured one town - your Range Hill for example - could be a major trade hub for bullets, something like the Federal Reserve in the States I guess, and I'm thinking Fort Fuel could be the other big economic powerhouse for selling prometheum for the buggies - Mad Max style - the residents and raiders use to travel. It could be a town that has a sizeable oil field nearby and the still working equipment the Mechanicus left behind, maybe the players could get free fuel if they can repair some of the pumps/refineries and increase the mining production. That covers the two basic needs of ammo and transportation my players will need for the campaign.

Food will be a problem though, I envisioned the planet ( Codename A29E ) being close to its star and most of its surface a desert. I'm not an agricuture expert so I'm at loss at what could the natives grow. I remember one of the planets in the core rulebook producing canned beans, maybe that could work here too. Alternatively the locals could grow drugs of some kind, trading it to xenos species - it's a frontier world and they're left behind, I don't think the locals are that loyal towards the Imperium anymore - for foodstuff. The planet is still under Adeptus Mechanicus jurisdiction so no Arbites Precinct or other cliche Imperial structure exists... and since the AM left them in there to rot it's pretty lawless.

Talking argiculture:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_farming

http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Israel/South-District/blog-415261.html

Generally, your main problems with growing food in a desert are:
- having a source of water (not water = no plant)
- having a plant that stand the conditions (heat; the rather "sandy" ground etc.)

Water can be gained by pumping it up from the deep. As far as I know, this will turn the surrounding area into a desert even fast since if you pump ground water up at one point, the ground water level in the surrounding area will fall even further!
It can also be gained from rain. Have heavy rain falls coming in periodically and your settlements will for sure have "rain traps" and "moisture traps" to even be able to "get" water from the moist air shortly AFTER those heavy rain falles.

Talking crops, the link might be usefull. But remember, you are 40K invent a plant you deem to be accepted by your players and everything is fine. There ARE plants similiar to our grain that can grow in conditions found in countries like Afghanistan. But they do not yield the group-quantity one is used from the plants we cultured for our (mass-)agriculturing.

In adition to this, hydro-cultured algae goes a long way. You could use a "tailored" algea as a double-goodie: it cleans the water (so one can drink it again) and uses the substances "filtered" to grow. Not tasty, but sustaining.

An advise:
Don´t let them refine Promethium at Fort Fuel. The playes WILL blow up Fort Fuel, otherwise. Trust me, it WILL happen. Unless, you want the cars go BOOM like in the movies. Then, let all of them drive with Promethium in their tanks.

Settlement: "Windfall"
Windfall is a settlement in the open desert. It was once a huge energy park surrounded by a high fence and patroulled by Mechanicus troups. Powerlines where leading to all the major settlements, since the wind traps (think "Dune" if you know what I mean) provided much of the energy. But now, most lines are severed and a lot of the Windtraps are used as housing now. Sure, there are still generators, but they used for re-charging energy cells. The surplus energy goes into the malefunctioning power grid and simply drains away...or is "taped" by some settlement somehwere. Windfall is not really "controlled". Some people life here and there. Some are good neighboors, some are not. Most of them go out of each others way. Most of them are descendts of the Technomats who once serve to maintain the machines, but since the Mechanicus draw out everyone important, much of the knowledge and rite is lost. Those who are still in the know use there knowledge to re-charge cells and trade re-charged cells "for empty ones and an offer". This might be food, water, bullets, clothes, petrochemicals... whatever one will barter for.
The people in Windfall are not overtly hostile, but will react bad to large armed groups entering there territory. They will simply start to hide. If forced to fight, LasLocks or even Las Rifles will be brought to bear.

Hook:
Perhaps some other settlement wants to be "tapped in" again, and your pc need to stroll in to link the spirits of the city power grid with the spirits of Windfall. While doing so, they will be disturbed by people from Windfall. If they do not want the people of Windfall to undue there doings as soon as they leave, they will have to perform some service to this people. Perhaps putting down a pair of fierce predators whom invaded Windfall.

To consider:

Where does fuel come from? Is there a well/mine? Does in need to be transported a refinery? Maybe they use electrical engines. Then a reactor becomes vital. Or maybe there are lots of solar panels. Geothermal?

What sort of weapons do they use? Lasguns are great as they are rugged and last a long time, but refueling the cells can be hard. (I've always had the throwing them in a fire method destroy the cell after a while.) SP weapons are easier to make, but I could see black power weapons being used by the poorer folks.

Adding a xenos threat would be good. Orks work well. They can be any tech level you want. Eldar of Exodite type are a good neutral xenos. While dark eldar are great for raiders who aren't going to take over.

You got me thinking...

If Prometheum is too dangerous could someone take a power armor's - not the cheap kind - plasma reactor out and build a sand buggy around it? I'm guessing it wouldn't blow up that easy in a firefight or they wouldn't put them into armors.

I'm going to use SP arms exclusively - I'll think up some reason for that - to make it feel more like the wild west. Maybe the local creatures have thick chitinous armor and the laser weapons are too weak to punch through it so most folks favor armor piercing bullets.

Well, at least it is me who thinks "big explosion" if he hear "Promethium". But perhaps there are "different grades" of it? Perhaps some if it as stable as our fuel today?
And that is what I would use. "Fuel". "PetroChem". Think "MadMaxII" for "Fort Fuel", but much better defended and bartering in order not to get raided... and stay alive itself. A "normal" oil pump with a refinery making fuel out of it.

In a non-animated "First of the North Star" movie, there was a facility which recycled tires to get oil back. Perhaps something like this would work for you game as well, as small thorn in the side of the mighty Council ruling "FortFuel". Pc could choose sides.