My PCs have land! Now what?

[pogre]

How about an entire session on the drudgery of dealing with taxes, with petty infighting amongst the servants, with sitting in judgement of of annoying feuds between peasants, with traditions (The lord ALWAYS walks the fields on planting day, sire! Its bad luck if he doesn't!).

I take care of all the fief detail via e-mail. My players have no need to be reminded that the game is about killing things and taking their stuff!

 

[pogre]

Get the D&D Rules Cyclopedia and use the Domain rules from there. Works brilliantly.

Thanks! I'll take a look.

 

[Yair]

Well, there is Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe, by... wait, you have it, and it got mentioned like a bezillion times already. Maybe you want other ideas...

I'd take a look at Birthright if I were you, there is a free 3.5e version available at birthright.net. While it's an entire setting, the domain-management mechanics might give you an idea or two. Birthright is especially good in letting different character classes handle different aspect of the domain and have different interests.

There are lots of other domain management systems out there. I heard good things about Field of Blood (by Eden Studios) and another one by Mongoose, forgot the name... there was a thread comparing all such books, let me see if I can fish it... here.

 

[VirgilCaine]

If my experience with the video game Darklands is any indication, a Lord should have adventurers show up either squatting on his hunting lands, verbally bamboozling the game wardens into letting them stay there or have them constantly inquire as to his treatment of commoners and whether he worships an Evil deity.

 

[Imagicka]

Greetings...

Well... what are the usual feudal obligations? One of the feudal obligations in one of the provinces in my game world is that the vassal shall send the lord 6 blonde-blue-eyed boys under the age of 10 once every year. So, what's the usual for your world?

First and foremost would be military duties. What is your party doing for the count? What rights has the count given them? What are the 'usual' feudal obligations? How big is the fief? A typical fief is about 1,000-2,000+ acres (4-8 km^2).

• Protection of the serfs and vassals?
• Collection of Taxes?
• Production of Arms/Armour? Troops?
• Mining and Refining of Natural Resources? (Wood, Coal, Gems, Precious Metals)?
• Collection of Census Information?
• The Patrol and Protection of the Fief?
• Counsel to the Lord?

So, once you determine how much land/wealth the players have. Then you can determine how much the lord/count expects from them. I usually try and up the ante by telling my players that the land produces X amount, and the liege lord expects X+10% annually.

Then when the players start using magick to produce more crops, or mine more iron/coal/silver/whatever, then of course word gets out that the PCs are evil magick-using demon worshippers, which attracts the attention of the church...

Once you've determined their obligations, then you can start messing with the players. Projection of the serfs is always a good stand-by. Dire-Gophers in the fallow-fields... oh... no... they are also in the winter fields as well! The dead won't stay dead, so the occational undead pops up. Monsters wandering out of the forests and eating your serfs; which only negatively affects the production of everything.

Yair, I'm suprised you didn't mention Ordo Nobilis!

 

[Driddle]

When they come back from some random quest-adventure thingy, they discover their land is gone. Missing. Not where they left it. El voido. Nothing but a massive pit in the ground a few miles deep.

Darned if I know what happened. Just seems like a really interesting mystery to solve.

 

[Whimsical]

News of the empire east of here expanding their empire every month by conquest. At this rate, they may directly threaten the PCs' region in half a year. The buffer regions are requesting enormous amounts of aid, bringing up old alliances for obligatory assistance. This can open up how the PCs choose to handle this. Should they aid the buffer states? Should they reinforce themselves? Should they make a preemptive strike against the emporer?

 

[DMH]

When they come back from some random quest-adventure thingy, they discover their land is gone. Missing. Not where they left it. El voido. Nothing but a massive pit in the ground a few miles deep.

I like Chessboards version better- instead of a hole, the borders of the land are now in contact:

"Well y'Lordship, it's like, well, y'see, my field isn't there anymore.... No, y'Lordship, it's not flooded or sunk or aught like that, it's just, well, gone. My neighbor over the hill is now just th' other side of my animal shed, and... oh, the hill's gone too y'Lordship.... Yes, y'Lordship.... No, y'Lordship.... I really couldn't say y'Lordship. Maybe it went visiting relatives.... Sorry y'Lordship."

 

[rvalle]

I like Chessboards version better- instead of a hole, the borders of the land are now in contact:

"Well y'Lordship, it's like, well, y'see, my field isn't there anymore.... No, y'Lordship, it's not flooded or sunk or aught like that, it's just, well, gone. My neighbor over the hill is now just th' other side of my animal shed, and... oh, the hill's gone too y'Lordship.... Yes, y'Lordship.... No, y'Lordship.... I really couldn't say y'Lordship. Maybe it went visiting relatives.... Sorry y'Lordship."

There is a Terry Prachtet book like that. Pyramids I think it is.

 

[Tarek]

Greetings!

Recently, the PCs in my campaign were granted fiefs by a local Count. The fiefs were a reward, but still come with the usual feudal obligations. I previously have had PCs with business enterprises and property in cities, but this is slightly different. The PCs all have various plans for their lands rangining from the usual manor house to more intricate business designs.

My question is - what books would you use to govern the various aspects of growing a manor? I have MMWS by Xpress, but are there any other decent books that warrant my attention?

If you have some rules you have cobbled together for similar situations I would love to see them as well!

Thanks,

pogre

Rules? No, not really...

However, usually when a lord grants a fief to adventurers, he's giving them undeveloped, raw land, typically on the edges of the wilderness. Before the peasantry are going to come out there and start farming, they need to be convinced it's safe, so someone's going to have to go walkabout and make sure nothing really inimical is lurking in the hills, forest, caves, etc. The best candidate for the job is, of course, the newly minted baron/knight/whatever.

This also allows the PC to discover if there are any unique features of his lands, like an old iron or copper mine. Not all mines have to be that of silver or gold to be valuable.

There's plenty of adventures and plot hooks available that way.

The new noble will also have neighboring lords to visit to introduce himself. There are possibilities there, too. Not all of his neighbors are likely to be friendly, unless the new noble is well-known and well-liked. One of them may have had his eye on a nice section of the PC's land, and might try to swindle him out of it or otherwise get the PC to concede it. Even if the PC is well respected, people can have honest differences of opinion.

Then there's the merchants. Sooner or later, the PC nobles will have to deal with merchants wanting to set up various trade contracts. Some might be more-or-less honest, many won't be, some will be spies for other nobles and/or other kingdoms.

Then there's maintaining the lands. The world isn't static, and wandering monsters... wander pretty far sometimes.

For all this work, the PC gets a steady income, once his fief is relatively stable.