By 3orcs
If you're like me, crafting an immersive fantasy world means digging deeper than stat blocks and encounter tables. It means knowing where the bread is baked, who tends the goats, and what the smith drinks after dusk. That’s why I want to talk to you today—not about dice, but about a game that’s become an unlikely but powerful source of inspiration for my Greyhawk campaign: Bellwright.
Currently available as a beta on Steam, Bellwright is a medieval survival village builder meets RPG-strategy hybrid. And if you're a Dungeon Master running something as iconic as Temple of Elemental Evil, I highly recommend checking it out—not just for play, but for inspiration.
What is Bellwright?
Imagine this: You’re not just scavenging or surviving in the woods. You’re building a village, defending it, managing its farms and hunters, recruiting people to your banner, and slowly building a network of settlements that owe you their lives.
Bellwright is about liberating the land, one village at a time. You don’t just hack and slash your way through enemies. You establish, recruit, farm, hunt, and govern. The game includes:
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Farming (crops, livestock)
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Hunting (elk, deer, wolves, rabbits, boars)
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Crafting, construction, and village management
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Command-based combat and defensive logistics
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Story-driven progression around reclaiming your identity and destiny
It’s less sandbox, more strategy-sim. And it’s perfect.
Why Bellwright Matters to DMs in Greyhawk
When I set out to write the Verbobonc Campaign Guide 576 CY, I knew I didn’t want my towns to feel like cardboard cutouts. I wanted every village—Hommlet, Nulb, Sheernobb, Ostverk, Twilight Falls—to live and breathe, with shopkeepers who barter, farmers who fear wolves, and blacksmiths who might moonlight as spies.
Bellwright showed me how a
village runs. It showed me how supply chains work. That taverns need food. That villages need wood. That guards don’t just stand—they patrol, eat, sleep, and care about the people around them.
Now, when I design villages in my campaign, I think in Bellwright terms. What are the roles? Who grows food? Who gathers firewood? Who gossips? Who schemes?
That’s how my Twilight Falls came to life.
What I’ve Built Thanks to Bellwright
The following villages were built with Bellwright-inspired realism and interwoven into the TOEE campaign:
🏡 Hommlet
The iconic starting village. With its new economic layers—honey trade, mushroom hunters, and wool weavers—it’s now more than just a stop.
🌫️ Nulb
Now fully alive with bandit smuggling rings, moonlit Rhennee trades, and a corrupt but believable economy.
🌲 Twilight Falls
An old druidic village turned logging frontier town—conflicted, sacred, and economically driven.
🧙♀️ Sheernobb
A halfling hamlet built on gnomish trade routes, now enriched with Bellwright-like agricultural rhythms and black-powder exports.
⚒️ Ostverk
An industrial crossroads town, designed like a Bellwright fort-village—rural and fortified.
How You Can Use Bellwright as a DM
Here’s how I suggest using Bellwright as a worldbuilding tool for your Temple of Elemental Evil campaign:
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Play through the beta with DM eyes. Take notes on job roles, logistics, and layouts.
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Steal freely. Bellwright’s village design, land use, and trade loops are excellent.
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Get inspired by the factions. Who controls the forest? What if a Temple faction poisons the harvest?
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Create resource-based quests. Villagers need food. Trade routes are threatened. Bandits want wood. These all build tension without requiring combat.
3orcs Thoughts on Bringing Bellwright to Greyhawk
To me, Temple of Elemental Evil isn’t just about dungeons—it’s about the fragile world around it. It’s about the villages standing against the dark. Bellwright gave me a better framework for what that fight looks like from the ground level. From the smith who reforges an heirloom sword, to the hunter who knows the goblins are coming.
I’ve always said: "You don’t just tell stories. You build them." And this game lets you build better villages.
Explore the Full Verbobonc Campaign Guide
Want more?
👉 Head to the Verbobonc Campaign Guide 576 CY to read detailed articles about towns, taverns, temples, and tension
👉 Catch weekly breakdowns on the 3orcs YouTube Channel where I walk through factions, characters, plot webs, and encounter design
👉 Support the project and get access to exclusive maps, NPC stat blocks, and Patreon-only materials at Patreon.com/3orcs
Final Word
Whether you’re hunting a deer for your people, defending a frontier village from bandits, or laying out the walls of your next campaign location, Bellwright is a gift to fantasy worldbuilders.
And if you’re building Greyhawk, it’s the tool you didn’t know you needed.
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