Shining city in the wilderness

Somewhere out in a quiet corner of the wilderness, a community is building a wonderful new home: a gleaming city of marble, a valley of bountiful fields, a peaceful refuge in the trees.  They've left their old society in search of a place to live far from outside intervention.

Utopian dreams like this are common in the story of America: the Pilgrims coming to the New World, the Mormons establishing Deseret, Tenskwatawa's Prophetstown, the Oneida Community, and the list goes on.

But it's not a utopia yet.  They might never build one at this rate.  For now, they're a struggling community full of problems and promise.

And they're a great source of quests.

First, let's see which species this is:

People (d8)
1-3	humans	(d6) 1-2: a wandering tribe seeking a new home 3-4: a small group that left their people 5-6: refugees from many tribes coming together
4-7	elves	(d6) 1-3: a religious group considered heretical by most 4-5: veterans of the losing side in a war against the empire 6: people suffering from a disease that makes them outcasts
8	giants whose ancestors adopted the elven religion at a mission and are keeping it alive in the face of heresy

The Holy City (Clarence Larkin)

A community like this will need help getting started, but they'll also be able to offer help.  Choose an ideal that this community is founded on.  This should suggest the type of help they might offer those who help them.

Ideal (d4)		goal	imagery	for their friends
1	refuge	offer a safe haven for those in need	white dove, fireplace	food, rest, healing
2	stronghold	become a place of military might	sword, tower	powerful allies
3	isolation	focus on quiet contemplation and righteous living	plain dress, book	a place to hide, secret knowledge
4	industry	work and prosper together	beehive, plow	financial/material help

Joseph Smith

Every utopian community is based on a vision, a shared dream of how they could build a better world.  Where is the inspiration for this community coming from?

Inspiration (d6)
1	their leader, a charismatic visionary who is in charge of everything and is never questioned
2	a prophet or elder that the leaders listen to, someone who speaks of visions and forgotten wisdom
3	a martyr, someone who was killed for saying bold things and is now revered by the people
4	their traditional ways and wisdom, prophecy passed down from olden days (possibly in a book)
5	signs that everyone has witnessed, signs that a widely-known prophecy will be fulfilled by their new community
6	a shared experience of struggle and hardship that binds them closer together

Cahokia (Michael Hampshire)

What difficult task is ahead of them that they'll need help with?

Difficult task (d10)
1	Find/grow food for everyone in this barren land.
2	Bring about or find the fulfillment of prophecy.
3	Clear the land of dangerous creatures/plants/phenomena.
4	Get enough of something for survival: guns, medicine, warm clothing.
5	Obtain the foundation of the city: a sacred object to institute true worship, mothers and fathers to begin making babies, an official charter, a seedling of the perfect tree.
6	Make lasting peace with a fearsome enemy that the party has crossed paths with before.
7	Utterly defeat an outside enemy that's supported by allies of the party.
8	Conquer the powerful fortress of the people who already live here.
9	Open up a path to this place through difficult terrain: build a bridge, make a road, clear obstacles on a river, carve a tunnel/canal.
10	Build an amazing structure: a mighty fortress, a wall to defend this community, an imposing temple.

Quests also come from outside the community.  A place like this will have its enemies, quite possibly the people who already lived here and were driven out of their homes, or maybe the ones who drove them to live in this wilderness to begin with.

The First Sermon Ashore (Jean Leon Gerome Ferris)

What danger is roused by the making of this utopia?  Roll twice, one danger leading to the other (though not necessarily in the order you rolled them) or both dangers springing from the same source.

Danger (d10)
1-2	Displace the local people who will need a new place to live.  If they can't find one, they'll wage war on someone, possibly the party's allies or families.
3-4	Draw the ire of religious/civil authorities (of the party's religion/group, if possible) who will try to end this place.
5-6	Introduce something that disrupts the local way of life: disease, new religion, addiction, guns, a new invention.
7	Disturb natural danger, causing it to reach new places: wolves, snakes, vultures, flooding, wildfire, thirty-year locusts wakened early.
8	Thousands of people flock here from all around, making the other powers of the world wary of this community's power.  The newcomers might be in desperate poverty and in need of help.
9	Deplete local resources: overhunting game animals, drinking the wells dry, chopping down all the trees for firewood.
10	Attract the attention of powerful enemies who drove these people out of their original homes.

Kirtland Temple (Walter Rane)

What's wrong inside the settlement?

Problem (d6)
1	Discontent over leadership/decisions is likely to cause a split, with one part of the community leaving to build their own settlement.
2	The leadership is secretly corrupt: accepting bribes, giving privileges to sycophants, betraying the community to their enemies.
3	They need better ways of acquiring food: new plows, a new crop, a network of irrigation canals, homemade goods to trade with a farming society.
4	Many of the people have lost sight of the vision of this community, turning away from the ways/religion of the leaders.
5	They've run out of money/supplies. Hope for the future is mixed with fear.
6	The community hasn't found the site for their new home yet.

Roll up your own utopian community:

random shining city
people
founding ideal
inspiration
difficult task ahead
danger
danger
problem