Gold! Treasure! Strongholds?

[Scalding]

I've been working up a campaign to play when 4e comes out, and I've come across an interesting dilemma. Unlike in Indiana Jones, when the characters take the nifty artifact from the temple, it does not collapse around them. I suppose magical ones might, but most do not, and are probably not structurally damaged from the character's sacking the place.

So what do I do if they decide they want to keep it? A wizard's tower, an ancient temple, or a secluded fortress would all make great strongholds for the characters, and are potentially worth several hundred thousand to millions of gold pieces! It seems, depending on the exact location, the place might have returning monsters, but if the players clear it out once, they could probably defend it easily. Suddenly we're playing Dungeon Keeper, which is not the game I have in mind.

 

[hong]

Err... what does this have to do with 4E?

 

[Stoat]

At this point, everything has everything to do with the 4E.

To the OP:

If the players want to convert a dungeon they'd cleared into a home base, I'd let 'em. IME, it gives them an investment in the game and encourages them to pay a little more attention to the campaign. It's also kinda neat to be the proud owner of a haunted deathtrap. I've had players go nuts thinking about traps and wards to install on their little lairs.

You don't have to let the game turn into Dungeon Keeper. Just figure that most monsters know better than to mess with the PC's. Keep giving the players an incentive to adventure outside their new lair, and they'll do it.

Generally, I don't sweat the gold piece value of any dungeon the PC's might reclaim. I assume there isn't much market for out of the way ruins or abandoned towers, and frankly, I've never had a player try to sell something like that.

 

[FourthBear]

While it's not exclusive to 4e, it is an interesting problem. I've seen this issue crop up in several campaigns, sometimes where one or more PCs love the idea of administration and building up a stronghold and the others find nothing more boring. Here are some ideas:

1) Simply tell the players that you'd rather not have the players to take over the stronghold. Keeping everything out in the open has the advantage that you can learn why they like the idea.
2) Let them have it as a secure base and have more adventures take place far from it. As long as they don't gain significant advantage from the stronghold while on adventures (it automatically teleports them out of danger or similar powers), it's not likely to be unbalancing. Just try to minimize any tedium or boredom in running the stronghold.
3) Go ahead and blow it up. Hey, there's a reason that so many fantasy stories and CRPGs have the place come crashing down after the adventure is finished. To help keep things moving along and to "clean up" any lingering after effects. It's not original, but do you really always need to be?

I typically try to plan out a good potential stronghold for a party when I plan out a campaign. I find there's almost always at least one player who loves the idea enough that they'll be looking over all locations as potential bases anyway.

 

[Byronic]

I thought that the OP wondered whether the keep/tower/ruins should be counted amongst the usual heaps of gold that the adventurers are supposed to have every level.

I wouldn't be worried though, if anything it just makes your game more realistic and it gives the players something to spend their money on. Perhaps they can even put their loot, books etc in the keep and hire guards to guard it while their gone?

 

[Kristian Serrano]

Stronghold Builder's Guide covers this.

 

[thundershot]

Hell, back in 2E, I was shocked when they finished DRAGON MOUNTAIN and they characters decided to clean it out and turn it into their base. They were really high in level, and they had lots of followers, and they turned it into their base of operations. They even had a dock for their spelljamming ships...



Chris

 

[Stormtalon]

Oddly enough, I haven't run into this sorta problem. Last tower I had my party go clear out got leveled. Iron Construct + Enlarge + High-damage crit to something while fighting on the 4th floor equals DM going, "Umm, guys? Remember how I said this tower is 100,000 or so years old? The floor just collapsed under the warforged due to that blow, and it looks like he's gonna keep going down for a while...."

Bull in a china shop, only replace "bull" with "Tarrasque."

 

[NebtheNever]

If we want to get realistic, I think the PCs would discover that clearing out and maintaining an entire keep is a huge monetary drain, and they might decide it's just not worth it when they could be buying magical items and rituals and the like.

 

[Korgoth]

If we want to get realistic, I think the PCs would discover that clearing out and maintaining an entire keep is a huge monetary drain, and they might decide it's just not worth it when they could be buying magical items and rituals and the like.

"Boy, ya' know whut they say a Dungeon is, dontcha'?"

"What's that, old timer?"

"A hole in tha' ground ya' throw money into! Heh heh heh heh..." *coughwheezehack*