What are the priorities to colonize a new piece of land?

Question

Fantasy setting, Lord of the Rings style, homebrewed into a D&D campaign. Magic exists, although strong casters are fairly rare. Our group are strongly built males only, recently saved from slavery by the protagonists, and asked by them to make a town and a base of operations for the protagonists. As they are a nice group of people who are thankful for their freedom, and fearful that their previous captors will come back for them, want to remain on our protagonist's good side.

The protagonists are very strong warriors (2 of them are great spell casters) and have very strong political influence in the world. They will not only hail the town, but lead people there. They also intend to establish novelty Teleportation Circles between points of the world, and one of them will be here (possibly the first one in this continent). This will eventually spur the growth of the town and make it (in some years) one of the great commerce centers of the world.

The group of 70 freed slaves arrives to the bay in their stolen galleon. They go ashore in their boats and have been tasked with building a functioning city in the bay. The weather is cool, large forests surround the bay, whose large size (10km across, 20km until it opens into the ocean) allows for a gigantic city to be planned out.

The closest known cities are maybe 60km away (although smaller villages may be nearer) and the slaves have few resources, aside from the Galleon which brought them, some tools, and some coin. The slaves have many varied skills, so lets assume someone will know how to do something at all times. Their leader, a wise swordsman, decides to lay out the plans for the future Freedom Town. He assigns groups of people to each task, sets priorities and goals (short and long term).

What is the task list he makes?

I was going with Short Term:

• Food and fresh water first. Search parties to locate both are dispatched within the day
• Start clearing the woods, building rudimentary shelters, and building tools
• A militia is trained to avoid marauders and other dangers
• City is planned, layered around beach, with large roads being planned between districts to incite future commerce
• Houses and workshops start being built. Mostly small homesteads with lots of farmland. Eventually, blacksmithing, wood-working, ship-building, leather working, and a small herbal medical station
• A steady supply of fresh water is found by then, hunting is providing food for all the group, people are starting to have a regular work-life

Long term:

• Galleon is dismantled to build both a port, and some smaller boats (for fishing)
• A city hall is built, leaders for each area of commerce are found among the slaves
• Freedom Town starts making roads towards closest road to incite trading routes
• Other people eventually flood in (from political influence, disasters in other cities, novelty teleportation circles being deployed in Freedom Town, etc), a commerce system is made, salaries are defined by the city hall, and the city starts slowly expanding
• Eventually, schools, walls, hospitals, and other highly sophisticated buildings are built

1) Is this list reasonable, or are there different priorities when colonizing a new patch of land from scratch? Did I forget something important, or could this plan actually work?

2) Also, how does the economic system start out? In the beginning, everyone is working for everyone. Is it a city hall decision to eventually start paying salaries when enough gold has been made available by commerce? Or are the people who trade and barter the ones to create the economic revolution?

Answer 1

The definition of incite is: to encourage or stir up (violent or unlawful behavior). ... You say the slaves go ashore having been tasked with...Wait, didn't you say they were free? Why would they not just leave? You have to justify them staying around. Here's a hint: few in their right mind are going to hang around a place with no women. Here's another hint: Feeding 70 people is going to make a big hole in the native animal life. This competition with the locals is going to lead to conflict sooner rather than later. Given that they are starting from scratch, it makes no sense to assert that they'll build their (70??) huts in order to accommodate roads, shops, inns, etc. etc. for a city of thousands. The idea of 70 men without women is going to work is delusional. Since they're starting from scratch, they've nothing to attract the local girls, so I guess rape and kidnapping will be high on their "to do" list. And unless you assume that there's no king or local government which has a military force strong enough to eradicate them, then they'll not last long. But 70 is a lot of people, so if there is no real opposition, rather than just settling in to some virgin forest, why not have them attack a village of a couple hundred, execute all of the men, and take the women for themselves? A much more reasonable solution. (I realize this breaks the fairy tale that people are inherently good). IMHO, 70 is too large a group to work with starting from scratch. There will not be enough resources (not at the needed density) and so there will be a lot of in-fighting (unless they take what they need from others). The most likely scenario, after they get off the boat, is that they'll scatter with the peaceable types building their own (widely separated, out of necessity) homestead, and the more aggressive types becoming raiders (or pirates). Sorry to rain on your parade. Of course, magic can solve all problems. Since there is nothing magic can not do, by definition, the only problems you have to solve without it are by choice. Enchant the men, enchant the wildlife, enchant local girls, enchant the ground, etc. etc.