RPG village in 30 seconds - how to generate population and make a map with only a pack of playing cards

This is a cool idea that came to me for generating a small settlement for any RPG of any genre. The examples I give will be fantasy, Dnd-style stuff because that's what I play - but I see no reason why it shouldn't work for a Wild West town, modern day hamlet or even a settlement on a remote planet.

The best thing about it is it takes mere seconds and only needs a pack of playing cards. And you can either do it in advance, use it for inspiration and try to flesh things out further, or simply chuck it on the table and run it completely on the fly.

It came to me when I woke up early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep as my mind started racing. So, now I am tired. But those sleepless hours are when some of the best ideas come, right?

By the way I read that the Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventure Scenic Dunnsmouth also includes a system for generating a village using playing cards. I haven't read Dunnsmouth yet, so apologies if this is similar - but I stress, any similarities are purely coincidental. 

Getting Started

1) Grab your pack of cards and a surface to place them. you might want to use a battle mat or flip-mat for some kind of scale, but really a floor or table top will do just as well.

2) Each suit is going to represent a different family or faction, so decide what suits your campaign. For my purposes, let's keep it simple. Clubs = the Butscud family, local ruffians. Diamonds = the Effington-Smythe family, local posh toffs. Hearts = members of the church of the high priestess. Spades = the Tumpkin family, mostly agricultural labourers or peasants.

3) Decide how big your settlement will be. Shuffle the cards then deal as many cards as you want buildings. Place them face down on the surface. Put a card wherever you want a building to be, roughly aligned the way you need to create 'streets' or 'squares' on your 'map'.

4) Now you can flip over the cards to see what's in each building. You can do it in advance to allow you as a DM to plan ahead and map out some ideas, even draw a full map on graph paper if you wish. Or you can simply run your PCs through the village asking them where they want to check out, flipping the cards as necessary.

5) The cards that turn up represent what's found in each building. The number shows the inhabitants, the suit shows who they are. So if I flip over a six of clubs, that's a nest of the rough and ready Butscud family, no doubt living in some rundown hovel. I flip over the next card - a two of hearts. Maybe there's two nuns living there alone, devoted to the high priestess. But ... maybe they're unhappy with their neighbours? Already the ideas are percolating.

6) The face cards are specials. I suggest the Jack might be a tavern, the Queen might be a store, and the King might be something grander - a temple, tower, fortified farm, manse or large coaching inn. The suit can again give you inspiration as to who controls this property. The Joker can be a special too - perhaps a derelict house that is home to a monster, or the entrance to a dungeon, or something else bizarre.

Expanding it further

This works best for small settlements, which are the most common type you'll need to generate for your PCs in a pinch. It works less well for larger towns or cities because there's likely to be more than four families living there! But if you have grand factions at play in your campaign (a la the 13th Age RPG) then you might work something out, where the Spades represent the Dwarf King, the Diamond represents The Emperor, or whatever works for you.
These factions may not exactly the inhabit the property as such, more that they have an interest or connection there.

Or you could theoretically make a giant table of all the possible cards and run it from there, as specific or as general as you like, eg:

Ace of Diamonds - Rundown house of grumpy old dwarf who has lost his prized pocket watch.
Two of Diamonds - Apparently deserted, this is really the hideout of an urban-based druid scheming to turn the entire city vegetarian by poisoning the local abattoir.
Three of Diamonds - A smithy where basic weapons can be repaired or purchased at PHB prices
Four of Diamonds - House of four peasants - father, mother, two young children

But that's not this post was about, that is surely a job for another day...