If someone is granted a title and land... Where does this land come from?
And is it land that’s empty? Land that needs to be reclaimed? Or land that’s fully stocked with serfs and servants and warriors.
In one of my campaigns (different party from the Trobridge Inn folks, same world), the PC’s succeeded at “The Standing Stones” (3e) adventure and were left with … SPOILERS …
the village of Ossington with 1 actual human resident and around 150 “faux humans and faux halflings“ created from animals using an immobile Druidic artifact. They were heathens and didn’t have the skills to tend crops or run a village. The cleric decided to convert them to St. Cuthbert and the party stayed a few months and built a chapel, trying to teach them the skills they’d need to live as humans/halflings. The party also brought a bunch of refugees there (big war in the background) to teach the faux folks how to farm and so forth, and add to their numbers, while the fighter trained militia, the ranger trained scouts, and so on.
I had already decided the village was outside any kingdom, way out in the Dim Forest of Greyhaw, but when the cleric told the authorities of the church about it, asking for help, the church told the ruler they had served, on the mission that sent them there in the first place. (They were sent by a bureaucrat dealing with adventurers for the ruler to see why a dwarf hold hadn’t delivered weapons on time during a war. The reason was supply chain disruption at Ossington.)
The ruler declared he added Ossington to his country (Bissel in Greyhawk), with the PC cleric as Baronet holding it for the ruler and the church.
I worked with the player, who came up with a building plan for a tower, as we worked out his income and expenses, and we developed every person there as an NPC.
He got nothing from Bissel and the church sent only 1 acolyte, and owes troops and money to his lord. He did his own negotiations with local dwarfs, elves, and woodsmen - no free lunch for this title, but it is recognition for service to the realm and a respectable title, and national backing if he truly needs it. Mostly he’s way out on the frontier and has to make it real.
Ossington’s ownership is disputed by two other countries, and there was a threat from a goblin army (being dealt with by the lower level party that did the Harn scenario).
That’s how you get to be a baronet in my game - make it happen by service to the realm, and fight to make it stick.
And btw the cleric/Baronet is celibate. No worries about the opinions of princesses’ dads.
