Barking Alien's RPG CAMPAIGN TOUR CHALLENGE! Day 5

Day 5 - Campaign History

Day 5-Can you tell us about the campaign's history?
In the real world and within the universe.

Sweet Home Chicago

Elowen’s Journal

"People ask about the history of West Haven as if it were something written down somewhere, bound in leather, and kept on a shelf. I suppose parts of it are. Dates, names, floods, fires. That sort of thing. But that is not how I learned it.

I learned West Haven’s history by listening.

The ghosts here remember things in pieces. Not years or reigns, but reasons. Why a wall was built thicker in one place. Why a road bends when it should not. Why a family stopped using a name. I have spoken with spirits who remember the first Haven, before the lake swallowed it, and with others who arrived long after, never realizing they were walking streets that no longer existed. They do not count time the way the living do. They remember what mattered to them when they were alive, and that tells me more than any ledger ever could.

I think the village is about three hundred and twelve years old, give or take a season or two. That is what the dead suggest, anyway. I sometimes wonder if I know its history better than Larina does. Not because she has forgotten anything, but because she lived forward through it, while I hear it all at once. The joy, the fear, the mistakes, the moments when someone chose to stay rather than leave. West Haven remembers itself through its ghosts. I just happen to be someone who can listen."

Designer's Notes

The earliest seeds came decades ago, walking through downtown Chicago and wanting a fantasy city that felt lived-in, layered, and resilient. Prior to this, I was working on something I was calling "The Urban Survival Guide" with my old DM R. Michael Grenda. We explored the idea of urban environments as equal to dungeons and wildernesses as adventuring landscapes. 

From those early notes came West Haven and East Haven, separated by Lake Haven and bound together by history, trade, blood, and tension. Over time, West Haven evolved into a witch-centered settlement, a place that outsiders might superstitiously call “Witch Haven” without quite understanding why the name fits. The town's history has since grown organically over decades of play across multiple systems, accumulating layers much like the ghosts Elowen listens to. In that sense, West Haven’s history is not static. It is remembered, retold, and still very much alive. 

Every system I have played it under has added something new. If not history-wise, then via its organic growth. 

While West Haven draws on influences from places like Lancashire, England; Zugarramurdi, Spain; and Salem, Massachusetts, it also owes much to my favorite city, Chicago.

While Grenda was working on his Riverton/Riddleholm, I was working on smaller places. I knew West Haven was the smaller of the two cities. We both wanted lakes, thanks to Lake Michigan, and I wanted to be able to see the lights of East Haven from West Haven. 

I figure that West Haven has a population of about 800-1,000 and East Haven is about twice that, 1,500-1,900. 

Join Adam Dickstein of Barking Alien, and his RPG CAMPAIGN TOUR CHALLENGE 2026!