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

Lanefan

Victoria Rules
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.
 

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Ancalagon

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


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

S'mon

Legend
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.
 


haakon1

Adventurer
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.
 


Ancalagon

Dusty Dragon
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
 


kigmatzomat

Adventurer
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.
 


S'mon

Legend

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. :LOL: 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

Rotten DM
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."
 


Clint_L

Hero
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. :LOL: 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

The Laughing One
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.
 

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