The Keep Rule

[GSHamster]

I started playing with 2E. One of the rules I loved, and would like to see brought back in some form is the Keep Rule. In 2E, at 9th level characters got a keep and/or followers.

I always felt that this gave the players something to look forward to, to anchor them in the world, and to give them additional responsibilities. It really felt like the characters were "growing up" in a way that just increasing personal power didn't.

I think the rule also helped the fighter class the most. The other classes have a lot of non-combat mechanical hooks, like non-combat spells, the church structure, skills. But the fighter, especially in 3E and 4E doesn't really have any of that. I think the keep rule helped the fighter the most, implying that the fighter's destiny was to become a leader of men.

Now, you obviously don't need a formal rule to do stuff like this. But I thought having the formal rule gave it weight, it made responsibility for others to be an expected part of levelling up. Some of my group's best adventures came when establishing their keeps.

I would like to see this rule or idea brought back in 5E.

 

[nightwalker450]

I think that it should be more of a GM/Story thing. If I'm running Dark Sun, keeps don't come that easy.

But also it could be thrown in with a Leadership/Henchmen management in a sidebar of optional rules.

 

[Gort]

Levels are such a metagame concept that getting an "in-world" reward for them seems inappropriate.

If you clear out a derelict keep at level 1, can't you have it as your stronghold? If you never stay in one place for more than five minutes at level 20, should you have one at all?

I'd say obtaining real estate is a bloody odd thing to get awarded just because you reached some arbitrary level.

 

[GSHamster]

Levels are such a metagame concept that getting an "in-world" reward for them seems inappropriate.

This is, of course, the argument against it. But I thought the rule just "worked".

And the timing felt right. At about level 9, the PCs have been adventuring on their own for a while. It felt like the right time for them to put down roots, and start building something larger than themselves.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I think this is one of those dials and nobes they keep talking about. I want to set it so that in this game fighters and warlords become barons, and wizards get apprentices and Clerics gain a flock, and rouges...ok so we have to work on the specfics a little

 

[Aldarc]

What's to stop a level 1 character of the nobility, no matter the class, from getting a keep?

 

[Hassassin]

I think this is one of those dials and nobes they keep talking about. I want to set it so that in this game fighters and warlords become barons, and wizards get apprentices and Clerics gain a flock, and rouges...ok so we have to work on the specfics a little

Rogues become spymasters, who really keep the wheels turning.

 

[Croesus]

But I thought the rule just "worked".

Agreed. Without those rules, I doubt my group would have even thought of doing this. With the rules, we started planning how to make it happen, what new responsibilities the characters would be taking on, and so forth. And it really added a new dimension to the game, which up to that point consisted of little more than excursions into the dungeon.

RPG's have evolved a great deal in the 30 years since then, so maybe there isn't such a need for these rules. But I strongly support the concept, however individual groups choose to implement it.

 

[Croesus]

Rogues become spymasters, who really keep the wheels turning.

Way back in the late 70's, my high level thief took over a thieves guild and turned it into a spy ring. Lot's of good memories there.

 

[Sammael]

Strongholds are probably best left to the storyline and out of the rules themselves.