Do your PCs have homes?

[Ferrix]

Depends on the characters I play, sometimes they have a family or a home, sometimes they don't.

For games I run, currently it's only two and one of them is very tied to a town. The players are all halflings from a single out of the way village (200 or so people) and they've help me build the town with a great deal of detail. I found this really makes for great role-playing opportunities as the small village has almost half of it's population given names and basic personalities/roles. Check out the OOC thread here, the IC thread here.

 

[The Shaman]

Of the characters I run presently, one of them keeps a cheap apartment in Los Angeles (FBI agent), one was taken from his tribe as an egg to be trained as a shaman and wanders wherever the spirits lead him (lizardfolk druid), and one is a saddle-tramp who trails a herd of cattle in the summer and lives in a line-shack during the winter (cowhand).

Generally I don't establish permanent residences for my characters until they reach higher level and can reasonably feel safe settling down somewhere - the lifestyle of an adventurer, regardless of genre, tends to mean that there is no truly safe place where one can relax without first gaining some experience and the means to provide suitable protection, from spells to alarm systems.

Of the PCs in the games I run, the legionnaires stay in the barracks when they're not on the march and the adventurers in my other Modern game all have homes in various places that none of them have seen in a few months as they've been on the run the whole time.

As GM I'm not fond of the you're-all-from-the-same-village intro - I find some other means of bringing the PCs together, and it's up to them to figure out their living arrangements.

 

[Banshee16]

Only two characters in my campaign have had houses. One is still around, though they don't visit it often, since it's on Mount Olympus.

The other was in the Market Ward in Sigil, I believe....either there or the Lower Ward, and was burned down by one of the chief villains of the campaign in an attempt to murder the PCs while they were resting. They didn't end up rebuilding it, or purchasing another.

Banshee

 

[ThirdWizard]

In Sigil campaigns the PCs have homes, costing various amounts, depending on the condition, the Ward, and such. Sometimes they're fully paid for (though taxes apply), sometimes they pay rent, and sometimes they're supplied by the Faction. It depends on the particular character.

In my current campaign, the PCs live in an Inn for the most part, but its an "Adventurer's Inn" that caters to those without permanent homes. They've just hung their hats there longer than many others who have passed through. It also has a warrior academy downstairs and used to be a Temple to Demogorgon. Homey.

Last time I actually played, my character had a home, but lost it in the first 20 minutes of the game... Eventually I got back... and found it burned down. So, I built myself another one from the ground up. HA! That'll show 'em! Too bad we were chased out of town within a month...

In a game I ran a while back, the PCs had a castle. A very large castle with towers and libraries and such. They ruled a nation of barbarians on Ysgard.

 

[Harmon]

We have a group that has squatters rights to a Tower (we fixed it up, got some followers, armed them and such).

The other group is pretty nomadic- they can usually be found in Gradsul or Greyhawk- the only two cities in the campaign world with Arcane Order charter houses. No home though, no reason to have one other then a place to put our stuff, but it would get robbed if we left it unattended and we haven't the desire to fortify something like that.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Yep. It is a magical folding door, that my wizard constructed himself. It opens up itnoa Mord's Magnificent Mansion. Only he can open the door from the outside. After saying a command word the door becomes invisible.

 

[JustKim]

Yes. They have a castle. It's a base of operations, good source of plot hooks and gives them a reason to care about what's going on in the world. When you adventure from inn to inn, views on the world tend to be short-sighted.

The PCs I play usually don't have homes because it's not feasible, the party hot potatoes across cities, continents, even planes, and even looking into buying a home takes longer than we expect to stay. When the game revolves around a location like a city I do buy a home, and a nice one befitting an adventurer's salary. In this way I definitely live vicariously through my characters.

 

[rom90125]

Sure, he has a home. But he left it to go adventureing and probably won't be back there for many years.

True for our group as well. The PC's inherited a modest keep at the beginning of the campaign and haven't been back since...

 

[TheAuldGrump]

In my OGL Steampunk game my player's characters have homes, an office, and a workshop... Two of them have mortgages.

The Auld Grump, for some reason it reminds me of Papers & Paychecks from that old cartoon in the 1st ed. DMG...

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Yeah my characters have homes. In the M&M game I run they have a mansion from where they operate. In the IK campaign I am running, they are all from different areas, in a new town and have been making their home in the inn.