Do your PCs have homes?

[Dread October]

I've done it a few different ways. If a player write a manor house into his background, then I try and fins a layout for it and use it as often as possible. Most times the player are on the "World Tour" so it never really comes up. Some time ago in an FR game, the players were based in Daggerdale and I found a map of the Lord's Manor that I could adapt. This was pre photo shop so it was just me spending time with little pieces of paper, tape, and a photo copier.

I like when players geta place to settle down and want to map it. It means that it matters more if goblins come to burn it.

Dread October

 

[tensen]

Homes.. yes, indeed. I think I always want to have some sort of home for my characters.

Campaign #1: (Currently on Hiatus) All the party members currently reside in a rather smallish mansion that they acquired as payment for a good deed.

Campaign #2: (Currently on Hiatus) Various party members expended funds to purchase their homes spread out across various towns. Mine, happens to build a large library, with a little living quarters set aside for himself.

Campaign #3: We are fleeing for our lives... homes, families, everyone get moving quickly... the Inquisition is after us. [We used to have a military fort that we called home. Right now anything carried with us is as good as we are going to get.]

Campaign #4: (Elves, everybody loves elves) We are using Green Ronin's Village of Corwyl sourcebook... it is our home, we contact lots of NPCs involved there, but most of our time is spent exploring far as wide.


For me I never can decide whether I want more detail on the NPCs.. or the home itself.
So of course thats why I keep writing sourcebooks for the level of detail I want.
Huts, Hovels, and Homes.

 

[Mystery Man]

In my FR campaign my players wiped out the occupants of an old keep being used as a bandit/evil guy lair and took it over. Due to their high level and rep there is a small thorp growing up around it now. It's nestled in the southern foothills of the Nether mountains between the Lady's Hand Monestary and the Morueme Clan (blue dragons) territories. An uneasy peace exists (lucky for them right now) between them and the Morueme dragons and as such the Lady's Hand leaves them alone. This is balanced on a razor's edge right now and I haven't made up my mind when the shizzle will hit the fan.

I should add that during the times they return home I always try to throw in something interesting that "keeps it real" like a new NPC moving in with his/her family, a new anamoly that would be discovered (like a spark *see Magic of Faerun) for them to deal with. Orders the need filling, requests the need meeting etc. It keeps them coming back and actually using it for things.

They also hold lands awarded to them by the Marchion of Mirabar between the southern foothills of the Spine of the World and the Lurkwood.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

I think having a home improves versimillitude. It anchors the characters in the game world and gives them a reason to play nice with the neighbors.

 

[TerraDave]

In the last long-running campaign it was Castle Ravenloft, after they cleaned it out

 

[kenobi65]

The campaign I've been playing in for 23 years now has always been based in the City-State of the Invincible Overlord. Since, back in 1E, buying magic items was about unheard of, a lot of us bought real estate in the City (having nothing else to do with that cash). Of my two main PCs in that campaign, one bought a house, the other bought a bar with living space above it. We've had several PC-owned taverns, temples, houses, etc.; as the City-State set came with big maps of the city, we have a (now ancient) map with everyone's holdings drawn in with pencil.

In other campaigns I've DMed, the PCs have often pooled their cash to buy a manor house or some such, as a base of operations. I agree that it gives some verisimilitude to the campaign, and gives the PCs a (relatively) safe place to stash stuff.

 

[Sigurd]

What about adventure depletion?

Of course I never owned my own home when I was gaming 20 yrs ago. But it strkes me that players typically wander to find the next dark menace. If you have a little home at the site of your first couple of adventures how long would it logically be before trouble came finding you.

Its a different adventure when BOB your butcher comes to you and says one of his customers, you know the one, has gotten himself turned into a zombie. Could you look into it?


S

 

[kigmatzomat]

Hmmm, my players have several. They make great "feel good" rewards and provide plot hooks.

Their town of birth is a small mountain village they really didn't like that much and have only returned to once.

They adopted a mid-sized frontier town as their new home at the end of their 1st year of adventuring (~5th level) since it welcomed them and didn't mind their weirdness. They owned no property at the time but they have a favorite inn.

A few months after that they befriend an undead Paladin who'd defeated the dark priests & undead that created him. The party helps rededicate the Paladin's fortress to a good god. They treat the Paladin as their uncle; a little weird but all in all a nice guy.

After stopped a half-elf Acolyte of the Skin from unleasing a daemonic invasion during the 2nd year of the campaign (~10th level) and were awarded their first residence as part of their reward. Being in an elven community there are no "manors" as such but it's still a large house with ~8 bedrooms and stables out back.

In Year 3 they loan the frontier town money to build a proper wall and in return are granted land to build a manor. The primary structure is complete but much detail work is still to go.

Year 4 they help save a sizeable town from mega-undead. The duke grants them each 300-acre farmsteads in an undeveloped area. They have hired stewards and are in the process of clearing land and getting the first buildings completed.

So right now my players have their place of birth, two shared properties, an undead uncle's fortress, and their own farms that they can call home. It's like they just can't help but picking up the plot hooks if it's baited with a clod of dirt!

The best part is that despite the wealth represented by the land, it generally *costs* them more money to have, at least at this stage in the game. The farms will start generating income before too long. The big thing is that they own land and not some little dowager's cottage which gives them as much prestige as any border Baron. Factor in who gave them the land and why and it's a giant sign that says "I'm not just a hero, I'm a successful hero!"

 

[Darth K'Trava]

I think only in our epic game did our PCs have a home.... they rented one in Suzail and then had a castle built for them about 10 miles outside the city. They spent the rest of the campaign using that castle as their home until the end of the campaign and the demise of 3/4ths of the party, including said castle in a huge fight and an epic counterspell that leveled the whole place.