First of all, keeping in mind Dungeoncraft rule #1, we need to think about government and politics on two levels. You need to have a "national" level politics, but luckily we don't need to develop this much beyond a basic idea. However, you will need to look a little more closely at "local" politics, because that will impact the PCs right away in their homebase area. Also, keep in mind as you develop these to implement Dungeoncraft rule #2, and add secrets to these elements as you develop them. It might be handy to keep these secrets written down on index cards or somesuch -- you'll end up with a fair deck of secrets, each of which is a plot hook for the PCs to eventually follow up with and give you a great deal of gameplay.

Ray Winninger believes, and I only partially agree with him on this, that a homebase area should be an area of relative security, seperate from the "adventure" areas. Because of this, he believes a good alignment, relatively peaceful area is ideal for the homebase. Personally, I believe the homebase should be the source of a good deal of the adventure seeds -- and even the adventures themselves -- that player characters navigate through the coarse of a campaign. So, I'll present his theories modified to what I prefer, but also note where he differs from my opinion on the matter as we go through the development of a homebase. As to his basic premise -- a good aligned and sleepy little homebase requires that the PCs follow leads to somewhere else to find anything interesting, which I disagree with, but I do also agree that PCs need a place to hole up after taking a beating so they can regroup and prepare to move on to the next phase of the campaign. Rather, I'm more interested in a homebase that follows the first rule of dungeoncraft, and is easy for me to create with a minimum of initial effort, so I can gradually fill in details as appropriate later. What does this mean? It means I want a homebase that is cosmopolitan enough that I can have urban adventures, wilderness adventures, and everything in between, yet isolated enough that I don't have to invent all kinds of complicated trade routes, relationships with TBD regions and areas and the like. A homebase that is too big or cosmopolitan probably requires you to develop much more than you want to at this stage just to explain everything that goes on there. Similarly, a homebase that is too isolated and sleepy requires you to develop surrounding areas with more detail, because that's where the PCs will likely be going just to do something interesting.

The first option for a homebase is an urban sprawl -- a large city. These are fun, adventures can be entirely self-contained in the city as PCs struggle with thieves guilds, corrupt politicians, underground sewers crawling with monsters, or whatever other fantasy city ideas you want to throw at them. The PCs also potentially have access to things like libraries, shops, black markets, and all kinds of other interesting things. All of these are great gaming opportunities, and very much along my taste. However, there's one big problem with using a city as a homebase: it takes a lot of work to develop it sufficiently to actually use it. You need a relatively detailed map, and a good idea of where things are in the city. You need lots of NPCs. Especially in a traditional fantasy setting, large cities are so rare, than any that exist are likely to be very cosmopolitan, and this means you'll have to develop even more of your world just to explain where the "dwarftown" ward came from, for example. If you're good at inventing these kinds of details on the fly, and keep good enough notes so you don't later contradict what you invented on the fly, then this may be an option for you, but since a full implementation of Dungeoncraft rule #1 is a goal here, I'd recommend against starting the PCs in a large city. They can later end up at one, but that's something you can work up to.

Another option is the stronghold. A stronghold is a fortress of some type built along a border region. It may be a stopover for various people, and a local trade center, but they are typically fairly isolated from major population centers. The fact that they are in border regions makes them ideal also in that the hostile territory on the other side of the border is a ready-made adventure area, and even within the stronghold itself, spies, threats of invasions, border raids, etc. all provide potential story fodder. In addition, because they are relatively isolated, and are bulwarks of safety in an otherwise relatively hostile region, most fortresses tend to attract towns near or around them that are populated by civilians. If you play your cards right, you can even get many of the advantages of city gaming without many of the disadvantages of having to invent lots of campaign material to explain it. Ray Winninger calls this out as a seperate option, the feudal town, but since that assumes that feudalism plays a role in your campaign (it may very well not) and doesn't add anything particularly new to the mix, I've consolidated it here with the stronghold.

Rural villages have many of the disadvantages mentioned above, in that they are typically not located near borders, and so certain types of adventures require the PCs to hike a considerable distance in order to get anywhere interesting. They do offer peace and stability, and if you want your PCs to be able to dabble in things like item creation or spell research, they are places where these kinds of things can be done relatively easily without interruption. They aren't locations brimming with adventure ideas, though -- unless you want to make the village the headquarters of some kind of evil cult or somesuch, which does at least give you a very Lovecraftian feel. That, however, defeats the primary advantage of the village, according to Winninger at least. I'd suggest villages are better as stopping points when the PCs are traveling, rather than permanent base camps.

Ray's last example is a bit interesting: the homebase could be a mobile camp of some kind. Whether it's a traveling merchant caravan, circus or camp of nomadic herdsmen, the advantages of a wandering camp are that it allows you to make up campaign detail at your own pace (when you've got something new, the camp moves) and it is full of story potential (PCs could be scouting for new areas for the camp to move, or smoothing the way through hostile territory as the camp moves, or even working security for a camp that is having trouble with attacks from bandits or hostile natives.) You do need to figure out exactly why the camp moves -- are they following herds, seasonal hunting grounds, or are they wandering traders or a circus, for example. Also, what kind of structure does the camp have -- most would be meritocracies in which the most capable are the authority figures. There is a real communal sense to camps, and they don't tolerate troublemakers or internal threats though. PCs have to tread a bit more carefully than they might otherwise, or risk getting booted out.

After you select your homebase type, you'll want to take just a minute to give it some life via a few vague details. First of all, what's the basis for the local economy? You don't want to spend tons of time working out detailed trade routes or the like, but give the matter some thought, at least. Here's a few ideas:

• Residents are hunters or farmers, and trade for other commodities.
• Perhaps the residents work a mine, or other commodity and trade for food instead. Alternatively, the region could be renowned for its skilled tradesmen or some kind -- maybe local weaponsmiths are the best in the region.
• Maybe the region is funded through the community -- some noble or the ruler himself might have established it as a military installation, for example, and supplies it out of government funds.
• Somthing unusual -- maybe the region is an area that recieves pilgrims, or has a famous oracle in residence, or guards a choke point that charges a toll for all travelers.

• Despotism: a dicatorship of some kind. Freedoms are likely curtailed, loyalty to the ruler is a favorable quality, although subversive, rebellious elements are also a key element of this kind of campaign. However, despots don't have to be evil or oppressive despots -- that's just one way to handle it.
• Monarchy: a monarchy is similar to a despotism in most ways, except that they generally have more stability because there's a clear system for handling succession when the ruler dies or steps down.
• Republic: a democratically elected government of some kind, or at least one that is representative of some section of society. Truly representative democracies are extremely recent on our world, but Rome and Athens both offered prototypes for a more traditional type of republic that you could establish. Not that a fantasy campaign setting has to resemble the real world all that much, of course.
• Anarchy: interesting for a change of pace. An alternative to this is the city-state -- basically a collection of mini-nations that all operate independently. Typically anarchies are easy pickings for more organizes nations, but Greece was able to hold of Persia quite handily as a collection of city-states.

So, to look at my example campaign, let's try out this methodology to give me a workable nation and homebase with a minimum of effort. I'll choose a stronghold as my original homebase, because it doesn't require too much in the way of development immediately. I'll assume that a relatively affluent town has sprung up around my homebase, which gives me some of the amenities of a city setting, but without requiring me to go to all the work of developing a city. This stronghold will be a town on the border of a great desert, and near a handful of remarkable geographical features. It is just north of the western edge of a great "Valle Marinaris" canyon that is so huge that howling winds race through and around it constantly. A sizable desert stretches to the east of the stronghold, and cratered highlands stretch to the north and east. Both of these areas are full of bandits and outlaws. To the northeast we gradually come to the more settled land of the kingdom proper. South of the great canyon there is a rival nation.

To rule this stronghold, I've decided that a military man who is a (somewhat) distant member of the royal family. Because he's relatively important and is a recognized member of the peerage, a small "court" of sorts has sprung up in the area, including minor nobility and successful burgeouis traders and merchants. This in turn has facilitated a relatively cosmopolitan array of service industries in the area to meet the needs of these nobles and nouveau riche. There are two economies in the area then, the head of the base who has a small, professional standing army that is funded through the capital. In addition, there is an important iron mine near the town that employs many of the civilians, and the rest are employed in service industries catering to the whims of the nobles in the area. Finally, the great canyon to the south draws in pilgrims and tourists who pass through town as well. Tacking a few names to these features, I've named my town Razina, the nation itself Cassant, and the ruler of Razina is known as the High Lord of Razina; his real name is Heneric Raegenhere.

On a larger level, Cassant is a despotism -- probably neutral in terms of D&D alignment. The ruler has been the High Lord Imperator for hundreds of years, and is rumored to be immortal. Of course, it is also rumored that he is more or less permanently incapacitated, and the nation is actually ruled by a Congress of powerful nobles that collectively make up the High Lords. This despot doesn't mind citizens being armed; in fact, his professional army is small, and he depends on armed civilian militias to defend the country in the event of an invasion. However, he does have a veritable army of Inquisitors and secret police that are on the lookout for anything that may be considered subversive, traitorous or heresy.

Now, the second rule of Dungeoncraft compels me to develop a secret for these campaign elements I've just now introduced. Here's a couple:

• The High Lord's wife, a very young woman who is noted for her beauty and strong-will, has been involved with illegal and heretical occult -- the summoning of ghosts and demons and the like for seances. She's not evil, she just likes the titillation factor of doing something potentially so dangerous. However, unbeknownst to her, a web of intrigue has been building up that may bring her down because of it; several "real" occult players want to exploit her to enact rituals without fear of reprisals which would bring real danger to the area. In addition, certain members of the local Inquisition are aware of her activities. They haven't moved yet, because the High Lord is such an important personage that moving at the wrong time would likely cost them their heads. But they are biding their time and waiting for the perfect opportunity to catch her in something illicit and expose her. The PCs could become involved in several ways, either trying to prevent disastrous rituals from taking place, exposing the High Lord's wife, or depending on how things work out, trying to keep her from being exposed from the Inquisition.
• For a secret on the national level, the High Lord Imperator is just crying out to have secrets developed about him. The High Lord Imperator has, in fact, been alive since the downfall of the breeder race many centuries ago. The reason he still lives is a combination of arcane and occult magitechnology that has made him essentially undead. However, living in a decaying husk has snapped his mind, and he does little to actually lead the nation anymore, while the High Lords grind the people under their heels for their own benefit in his name. This secret isn't terribly difficult to guess (also since it closely parallels the Warhammer 40,000 setting) so it probably needs another layer. The High Lord Imperator was one of the ones that originally made the deal with the demons to overthrow the breeders. The reason he's so scared of dying is because all of those original conspirators promised their souls as payment. He's the only one still alive. However, the demons that entreated with him so long ago are getting impatient and are looking for a loophole in the deal. They will likely start sending demonic hordes against Cassant in an attempt to bring it down and harvest souls in the thousands. I can detail exactly how this is supposed to happen later.