D&D 5E Buying the Farm - Claiming the Ruin - Occupying the Dungeon

[Lanefan]

Costs: Building stone stuff new typically costs thousands to tens of thousands gp. Wood in the hundreds of gp, low thousands for a really big building like a large barracks. Repairs will cost a fraction of that. A keep in fairly good condition like the Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands cost hundreds of gp IMC, as did blunting the points from the wall spikes in the Stonehell level 4 evil pain cult dungeon & turning it into a luxury resort inn for dungeon dwellers.

For followers I tend to use the 1e AD&D DMG rules as a base. But most followers are recruited in play, eg my son's high priest of Yig PC seeks to recruit any lizardmen, troglodytes, yuan-ti etc encountered to join the swelling ranks of his temple forces.

The 1e DMG also has some vague guidelines on pricing for stronghold construction. The cost to build a full-ride stone castle with outer curtain wall etc. can easily get into six digits.

 

[Gilladian]

Every campaign

Yup. I rarely know what place they willchoose - sometimes late in the game, sometimes quite early. A hunting lodge, a ruined castle, a weirdly time-stopped house, a caravan, once a flying boat with extradimensional rooms. My players love that stuff.

 

[Ancalagon]

There is a pretty good blog entry on this here: (not by me)

OSR: Building Castles

Everyone wants to build castles. Nobody has good rules for building castles. ACKS takes a very typical approach and gives prices for gatehou...

coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com

Interestingly, he considers the value of stones from a dungeon being used into a castle.

 

[S'mon]

The 1e DMG also has some vague guidelines on pricing for stronghold construction. The cost to build a full-ride stone castle with outer curtain wall etc. can easily get into six digits.

And those costs should probably be doubled for 3e-5e, which work off 10 sp per gp rather than AD&D's 20 sp per gp.

 

[Lanefan]

And those costs should probably be doubled for 3e-5e, which work off 10 sp per gp rather than AD&D's 20 sp per gp.

Or you just say a "new" s.p. is worth twice what the old one was, thus leaving the gold value unchanged.

 

[haakon1]

The 1e DMG also has some vague guidelines on pricing for stronghold construction. The cost to build a full-ride stone castle with outer curtain wall etc. can easily get into six digits.

Yes, we used those rules when a PC wanted to build a stone church with a tower in Ossington.

 

[S'mon]

Or you just say a "new" s.p. is worth twice what the old one was, thus leaving the gold value unchanged.

I think sp value has stayed pretty constant while a 3e-5e gp is more like a BECMI gp.

 

[Ancalagon]

a quick aside on the value of money.

Prices in D&D often... don't quite make sense. It's very useful to pick one price and say "that one is correct" - and the unit I strongly recommend using is the cost of one day's laborer's work. It used to be 1 sp, but it is now 2 sp in 5e. I like it because it is a very "real" value - if a laborer earns 2 sp a day, then a loaf of bread can't be 3 sp!.

Once you have that one "correct" price nailed down, then other prices can be adjusted (IF NEEDED - it's a lot of work!).

For a much more detailed analysis: Your economic yardstick - the laborer

 

[S'mon]

the unit I strongly recommend using is the cost of one day's laborer's work. It used to be 1 sp, but it is now 2 sp in 5e.

Inflation strikes even in D&D land!

 

[kigmatzomat]

I have done it for years. It often starts out as a small house or apartment in a village they cleared of some evil. It then often progresses to space in a city, a warehouse that was infested by undead, then lands on the border with some "civilized monster" the heroes made friends with.

Supplements to look into:

XRP's Magical Medieval Society:Western Europe has a very robust, and probably overkill, system for constructing....anything. Roads, fortresses, temples, dungeons, farms, etc. It was for 3e but its easily adapted to other editions/systems as it is more guidance on how magic/items would impact construction. I think Drive-thru has just the building system chapters as a separate pdf but the whole book is awesome.

Tome of heroes - fairly simple system targeting estates that generate profit/loss as well as plot ideas from complications. It is probably worth it for a fairly rules-light approach.

 

[Ancalagon]

Inflation strikes even in D&D land!

I also wrote about inflation The Treasure Trove and Inflation

 

[S'mon]

I also wrote about inflation The Treasure Trove and Inflation

20% non tax payers: this include people too poor to pay taxes, criminals, children etc
50% poor: their income is 2 sp/day
20% modest: income is 1 gp/day
8% comfortable: 2 gp/day
1% wealthy: 4 gp/day
1% aristocratic: 10 gp/day.

I think having 30% of the population operating in the 'gold piece economy' is very high for an ancient or medieval type setting, but works for a setting like Eberron (it might work for an exceptionally wealthy fantasy city state, too). And you seem to have hardly any children. From what I recall of Roman empire economics, typical daily income was around £25 per day equivalent. I use 1 sp = £10 so that's around 2sp-3sp average income. That's about what I use. I tend to use the BECMI rules as a base for dominon stuff, with a typical farming family of 5 on good land having a family income of 1gp/day.

 

[jasper]

I've seen a tongue-in-cheek dungeon as a business operated by intelligent monsters (beholder, mind flayers and drow), where a young goblin was the main character in a solo adventure. The guy running that game made a cartoon story of the adventure. They invested various treasures and magic items throughout a dungeon full of traps, monsters, that are prepared by a crew (resetting traps, healing the injured monster threats through the place.) A success for them was when visiting adventures end up as TPK, those are the most profitable...

Had a group wanted to operate a tavern for a short while, it only lasted a couple sessions before all but one player got bored with it...

Barry Beholder, "Excuse me dear sir. That was not a TPK. In the business we call it organic, refreshable, dungeon dressing and loot drop."

 

[jasper]

I though that is the best thing when you beat Halaster, claim Undermountain for yourself.

He cheats. He just gives out cheap ill fitting t-shirts now.

 

[Clint_L]

20% non tax payers: this include people too poor to pay taxes, criminals, children etc
50% poor: their income is 2 sp/day
20% modest: income is 1 gp/day
8% comfortable: 2 gp/day
1% wealthy: 4 gp/day
1% aristocratic: 10 gp/day.

I think having 30% of the population operating in the 'gold piece economy' is very high for an ancient or medieval type setting, but works for a setting like Eberron (it might work for an exceptionally wealthy fantasy city state, too). And you seem to have hardly any children. From what I recall of Roman empire economics, typical daily income was around £25 per day equivalent. I use 1 sp = £10 so that's around 2sp-3sp average income. That's about what I use. I tend to use the BECMI rules as a base for dominon stuff, with a typical farming family of 5 on good land having a family income of 1gp/day.

It is kind of depressing that this medieval fantasy wealth distribution somewhat resembles the current world economy...except that the the disparity with the top end is even worse in the real world.

 

[Cergorach]

As one of the players who wanted this, it kept me busy between sessions designing and upgrading homes. Many floor plans and illustrations were drawn for the stuff I wanted to build.