You buy Banished from Gog or Steam, load it up and make sure it is working. I recommend that you play that a while to learn some really important survival skills. Also, lots of people like to get some or all of the achievements before they add mods. If you use any mods, you can't get achievements.
All mods are free, including Colonial Charter 1.76 and MegaMod 8.01. <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> is included in <abbr title="MegaMod">MM</abbr>. <abbr title="MegaMod">MM</abbr> includes over 200 mods so it is really HUGE. Here again, I would recommend that you play with just Colonial Charter (or even just some smaller mods) before you try playing with MegaMod.
Colonial Charter 1.76 can be subscribed to from the Steam Workshop. That, to me, is the easiest way to load a mod. Once you subscribe, open the game, choose mods and check <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr>. Then exit the game completely before starting a new town. This helps prevent crashes.
Both <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> 1.76 and MegaMod 8.01 can be downloaded for free from this site. (Don't use both since <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> is included in <abbr title="MegaMod">MM</abbr>.) When you download the file, it will be placed in your Downloads folder. The files type is .rar which is compressed. You may already have software that will uncompress files. If not, you can download 7-zip from the web for free. Uncompress the files - the uncompressed file type is .pkm. <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> is one file; <abbr title="MegaMod">MM</abbr> is 3 files plus a list of the mods included.
Move the .pkm files (not the folder they are in) to your Banished > WinData folder. (Yours may be located somewhere else; mine is here - note that I use the Steam version of Banished: This PC > Local Disk (C:) > Program Files (x86) > Steam > steamapps > common > Banished > Windata)
Again, go into the game, check the files (if they turn red, it is because the files affect the same data NOT because they are incompatible). Make sure <abbr title="MegaMod">MM</abbr> is in 1, 2, 3 order. Then exit the game completely. Always do this when making changes to the mod list, It helps to prevent crashes. Then start a new game.
Note that <abbr title="Colonial Charter">CC</abbr> is a big file. It can take many minutes to load. Some people find that changing to DX 11 makes it load faster but others says it causes it to crash. Same with <abbr title="MegaMod">MM</abbr>. However, instead of it taking "many minutes" to load it can take 10-15 minutes to load. All the while you get a black screen. Good time to make a cup of coffee!
Note that there are lots of other great mods. Feel free to look around this forum and also WorldofBanished.com. Enjoy!
