Do your PCs have homes?

[Bloodstone Press]

Sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. It depends on the plot.

Some of the best games we've played involved families (wives, parents, siblings), jobs, homes, businesses, guilds, etc. We've played tavern employees, scions of wealthy merchant families, average kids from around town, watchmen, shiftless bums, runaways, and others.

We handle it pretty much like we handle everything else. We focus on what's important to the story and ignore the rest. Sometimes, that can make the plot too obvious to the players, so I like to mix it up with some red herrings now and then as well. But generally, we worry about parents and kids and jobs and such only when it has something to do with the plot.

 

[Rel]

I'm running a Sharn campaign and I've just recently gotten the PC's to settle on a place to live in Upper Dura. Prior to that they were too paranoid, saying that they were pissing off too many bad guys to settle down in one place. The finally figured that they had shaken any tails on them and could return to relative annonymity.

The funny thing is that this came right on the heels of one of the PC's joining a criminal organization and they picked Daggerwatch, the district with the largest concentration of guards in the entire metropolis. The player in question said this was, "Hiding in plain sight."

They even got a "Welcome to the Neighborhood" fruit basket on their doorstep.

Of course it was from the criminal organization and had a big bag of gold in the bottom as payment for their last job.

 

[WingOver]

I'm DMing a game with 7 players now. This is my first campaign where the PCs had a plausible need for a base of operations. They've been hired as an expedition team for a remote wilderness (actually an ocean) and the house is located in a port city on a centrally located island.

I was in a hurry so I scoured the net for ideas and found this manor:
http://www.eplans.com/planDetail.as...ostURL=&tabNum=1&pageMode=search&fromsearch=1

It fits the team because one of the players is a royal knight. They got it by helping the landlord clear out the "ghosts" infesting the house (actually kenku thieves). Tonight they get to haggle over rooms.

 

[fusangite]

In the campaign in which I currently play, the PCs are part of a Mongol-esque society and we're basically always on campaign. Our home is not so much a geographic location as our place in our clan and extended family. I guess that's the long way of saying that on the rare occasions he's not drinking and whoring in the capital or off adventuring, my character still lives with his parents.

More generally, I think that adventurers tend to be rootless/restless individuals who are generally itinerant people who go from town to town, blowing their money on fancy weapons or ale and whores.

 

[Kemrain]

One of the PC's in the game I play in is living at a school for wizards. She lives on campus, and even has to wear a (suprisingly revealing) uniform. (The headmaster is a dick, but he's an elf. What can I say?)
The other PC, mine, is living in the home of a friend, who happens to be an Archmage, with her spouse and infant son. Said Archmage is off-and-on teaching them magic and, due to a calamity in the world, is now recieving bedside care from one of them fairly constantly. (Big drain on magic, he's very ill and suddenly feeling his age.)
My character has purchased a room at an inn at the fork in the road between 2 major cities and a large military outpost, but has only gotten to use it twice in the past year. Pity, because it's a nice room, too.
Given that neither character had parents, they have no real 'home' to go back to. Mine was raised in a temple of Alerum, God of Good and Justice, and is welcome to return anytime, even though she's half-demon. (Kinda feels out of place since she got "Detect Good" at will, though.)

- Kemrain the Homeless.

 

[Hand of Evil]

They do, while it is a home it is also their business in the city. The group purchased store front to sell their wares (treasure from adventures) and live in the rooms above and in the basement. They have created access to the sewage tunnels and have a henchman that runs their business.

I then have a rogue character that has purchased a bordello where he has a perment room set up.

 

[Evilhalfling]

They always have to live somewhere.
The last campaign the party lived in a samll town for most of the game, One started with a room with her parents and eventually buying a house to keep a growning library in, and convicing her brother (an ex-PC) and captain of the guard to move in while she was away.
none of the other PCs were invited to live with her and they stayed in Inns or the local druids grove/bed. (one PC was handclasped to her, and when they both died tragically a new PC took over the job of local druid.)
They ended the game mostly living in a tower with teleportation irregularities: The Tower of Deception, by Monte Cook on Wotc Site.

Of my current game, one lives with his Sensi, and 3 live in a Hotel? called the Guest Cavern. Not much privacy but it has a tiled floor, several hearths and a bathing pool. It is free for traveling merchant groups, but when the caravan leaves the PCs will have to find somewhere else, or go with them.

 

[Cannibal_Kender]

My paladin currently is rebuilding a castle that she plans to eventually make her base of operations. The castle was falling apart (evidently the death knights who used to live there weren't big on upkeep). The castle was actually secondary in her plans though. The first part was re-settling the abandoned village near the castle.

 

[fusangite]

My paladin currently is rebuilding a castle that she plans to eventually make her base of operations. The castle was falling apart (evidently the death knights who used to live there weren't big on upkeep). The castle was actually secondary in her plans though. The first part was re-settling the abandoned village near the castle.

I found myself chuckling as I read this because it reminded me of a guy I used to game with for many years. One of his most common refrains when we attacked an enemy stronghold was that we should take the place over and "make it our base" no matter how inappropriate a base it might be. Imagine doing the Against the Giants series with this refrain running every episode.

Of course, he also had a bit of a different agenda for what sort of base it might be. Almost every character he played aspired to start a "beholder farm." We never got any structural details of how or why the farm might operate because we were usually laughing too hard. After all, superintelligent flying creatures with disintegration rays are ideal subjects for 'aberation husbandry.'

 

[dreaded_beast]

I found myself chuckling as I read this because it reminded me of a guy I used to game with for many years. One of his most common refrains when we attacked an enemy stronghold was that we should take the place over and "make it our base" no matter how inappropriate a base it might be. Imagine doing the Against the Giants series with this refrain running every episode.

While I probably never said it much at the table, I've often thought to myself "this would make a great base", as my fellow PCs would attack an enemy stronghold. For myself, I never really worried about whether or not the stronghold was inappropriate, since I figured that if it was good enough for the bad guys, it was good enough for me, LOL.

On the otherhand, the direction of the game and the likes/dislikes of the other players and the DM didn't really allow for a stronghold to be used by us, at least not in any way meaningful.

I'm just curious as to why it would be inappropriate in your game to capture a particular stronghold?

Granted, a common refrain (make it our bass) every session can walk the fine line between being amusing or annoying, LOL.