D&D 5E Player stronghold

[Charles Rampant]

Hey all,

For my next campaign, I'm toying with giving the players a derelict castle at the start of the campaign. During my last game, which ended five years ago in-game, the player group fought their way through a Earl's castle that had been captured by Gnolls; as part of my research, I found floor plans and photographs of an actual castle, and it seems like it'd be cool to let the players use it. Now I'd have to decide on how they get it - and check that the players were actually interested in the idea! - but how would you approach this idea?

It would probably bankrupt low-level characters to try running a castle, not to mention the renovation work to be done, so presumably they would have to leave it until such time as they could afford it. And thereafter it would - like Pendragon - consume the vast majority of their wealth. This is possibly a downside, or an upside, depending on how you look at it. Benefits include having a fixed location to dick about with as a GM, which will be nice since I'm planning on running this as a long term semi-sandbox campaign. There is loads of ways that it can be turned into plot hooks, etc, and would serve to make the players feel connected to the political and cultural life of the setting.

However, you get the weirdness of five people all owning a castle together, or the weirdness of one player becoming the noble and having a sort of dominance over the other players. You need to explain why the king would allow such an important piece of land out of his grasp, and feudal obligations start to become A Thing.

What do you all think? I'm really interested to hear your opinions! Has anyone done this before, and what did you find? This is not a Single Long Storyline campaign, rather being more episodic and sandboxy at times, if that matters.

 

[Fildrigar]

The castle becomes the focus of the campaign. The party concentrates on clearing it out, making the environment safer, and then going on adventures to pay to refurbish it. The King should love having a part of his land become safer and protected by someone.

 

[Dartavian]

The Lodge of the Bronze Knight, a mercenary guild. This is a campaign I ran a few years ago using the Wayfarers RPG rule set. 9 people running multiple characters with 1 main DM (me) and 3 other DM's that ran areas when the guild expanded. The primary goal was an experiment to see if we as a group could run multiple characters and multiple DM's with a unified storyline & timeline. It worked out quite well, even with some minor hiccups along the way. campaign lasted approximately 3 years real time playing 6-8 hours one day every week. Below is the link to the forum, I hope it will help you with flushing out your campaign idea.

http://yeoldegamingcompanye.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=818

Good Luck!

Currently Playing D&D 5th Edition using the converted Birthright Campaign Setting.
Preparing to run a corresponding campaign in the same converted Birthright Campaign Setting with the D&D 5th Edition rule set.

 

[Gilladian]

I think it will work great. Yes, one character does get to be "the noble"' but it will make the pcs think about their relationships more. And that pc may need to be protected by all the others! If the castle is just outside normal demesne boundaries the king will be delighted to have his realm expand. I'm doing something similar with Cragmaw Castle from LMOP in my campaign, but my pcs are closer to 5 th level.

 

[wedgeski]

After completing LMoP, we spent an hour last session walking through the initial outlay and recurring expenses involved in the party refurbishing Tresendar manor as their stronghold in Phandalin. I used the rules in the DMG exactly as written, invented a few new NPC's to fill the "Skilled Hirelings" required to run the place (and we rp'd a couple of the interviews), accepted requests from the players for additional facilities, and so-on.

They are 5th level, and are a able to afford running the manor and its many staff due to a combination of bursaries from the town (in recognition of their great service), the income from Wave Echo Cave (paid as promised, once a month, by Gundren), and their own cash reserves.

I have rarely seen my players so engaged in anything potentially so dry. This-morning I've already received an email from one of the players, describing the various secrets she wants to build into her bedroom!

 

[77IM]

Another option: the PCs are regents to a noble who is too young to rule. This way, nobody gets to play "the" noble, yet there's a plausible reason for all the PCs to have legal authority.

 

[SkidAce]

Currently Playing D&D 5th Edition using the converted Birthright Campaign Setting.
Preparing to run a corresponding campaign in the same converted Birthright Campaign Setting with the D&D 5th Edition rule set.

I have seen character conversions, but have you see any conversions for the realm rules?

 

[Charles Rampant]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! It seems like there is the potential to excite the players there. Would you always try to make it the focus of the campaign?

 

[Gilladian]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! It seems like there is the potential to excite the players there. Would you always try to make it the focus of the campaign?

In the past when my pcs have had a home base, about half the adventures focused on home, town, npc's, etc... And the other half were more common adventures in nearby dungeons. And I always try to provide one good "away" adventure in that sort of campaign.

 

[jgsugden]

In older editions, when wealth was more of a exponential growth over levels, strongholds and keeps went from being unrealistically expensive to a cost afterthought over a few levels. 5E is much better at creating flatter wealth growth and leaving PCs with more time in which a base of operations is a relevant and realistic component of the game.

That being said, the reality of a stronghold like this is that it should be self sustaining after initial repairs. The nearby peasants should be paying for the upkeep and getting protection in exchange. What you likely want to avoid is the level of detail that turns the game from Dungeons and Dragons to Accounting and Auditing. I'd have the PCs be presented with the option of hiring someone that deals with the details for them and only presents the big issues to the PCs to address. Instead of having the PCs worry about where to get repair bids, have the advisor tell them what it will cost to fix.