Laborers

A boomtown needs labor.  This will help the place come alive!

On the episode of the podcast Monster Man about peasants he talks about itinerant workers and laborers that move about to make money working different crops or in different mills or other places through the year.

At times, they may become bandits at times; sometimes they may be beggars or do doing sketches or singing for coin.  Their income is quite variable based on what crops are in, travel opportunities, etc.

In the encampment they may show up to look for work as men-at-arms (if they have any experience fighting), porter or torchbearers.

There was a custom during the middle ages (especially in the German-speaking area) called the “Walz.”  Young craftspeople spent three years and one day with traveling to other cities, seeking contact to the locals of the same profession and exchange knowledge and experience in the craft.  The purpose was to spread crafting know-how geographically.

Using a journeyman as your main character has several great storytelling opportunities:

• They go to unfamiliar locations with the goal to learn about the local customs.  That gives you plenty of opportunities to weave infodumps into conversations and observations without breaking immersion.
• They have a reason to interact with many different people.  Seeking contact to their peers is literally their motivation.  But they also have opportunities to interact with lower-class people (if just to ask for directions) as well as higher-class people (to ask for work).  As inexperienced outsiders they might also be of interest to more shady characters, both as victims and as pawns.
• They are young adults, so they have plenty of room for character development.

Once more permanent construction goes on, there will likely be an influx of these types.  They may get lured away to go into the dungeon to build things, or help tear them down…

Of course someone is going to set up some sort of brothel in a boomtown full of men and gold.

Musicians, actors, jugglers and fools would all come looking for work, I’m sure!

With all these tents, people will need someone to do repairs!

Mending pots, sharpening scissors, retinning pots, etc.  They may be able to do light repairs on things or have other skills that your normal smithy might not have.

These guys run the barges for the Sea Scow Fishing Company and any others who may come down, and they will spend a few days while their boats are unloaded or loaded, or even repaired.

In a place this dangerous there is a call for someone who help the sick or injured… just be careful what he’s doing with that knife!