House? - I'm to poor to own a house!

[Willtell]

How do you handle pc's owning houses/inn's/towers at low levels - do you consider the value of the building as part of a pc's wealth, or are they extra?.

Ordinary homes don't seem like much of a benefit at low level - they are easy to destroy, break into, Inn's are cheap. If you spend money on defenses and guards you are wasting resources that could be used elseware.

 

[kengar]

If they want to spend their cash on a house, let 'em. It's an asset, so I would rule it's part of their wealth. Don't target their house for every sneak thief in town, but if they take off on some quest for six months, the metaphorical newspapers are gonna start piling up and folks will see the place as abandoned or a ripe target. Remember the end of The Hobbit when Bilbo gets back only to find he's been declared dead and the Sackville-Bagginses are moving in and selling off his stuff?

If the player(s) don't want that kind of thing to happen, they need to take steps to protect their property. Servants, Henchmen, etc. to keep the place up and guard it. All that costs more money. If the player discovers that his spending all his swag on his house, he might decide it was a bad idea & sell it. On the other hand, it could turn into an adventure hook or two; especially town-based stories.

IMHO, YMMV, yadayadayada

 

[Tsyr]

Actualy, many players I know of own residences of some form in game.

I've found a possible reason many do not in other games though, after having played under a DM like this... Basicly, buying a house was buying a bunch of problems... For some reason, YOUR house was the one that attracted every theif, arson, vandal, etc in the city.

 

[Wicht]

If it fits the background I will allow a residence of some sort. In my last a campaign, the wizard lived with her parents still, the cleric lived in the temple and the dwarf had a shack on the edge of town. The shack was a real non-issue because it had no real value. Of course when the dwarf got money, he took the land his shack was on and started building a nicer place.

As I view it, if the characters live on a frontier type area, land has little value until it is built on and most people, if they just want a shack, can "squat" on land pretty easily. If it is in a more settled region where land has more intrinsic value, then they have to pay for the land same as anyone else. In the dwarves case though the land was out of town and valueless.

 

[Hand of Evil]

People have living expenses, this is the everyday cost of food for the most part. But can also be rent, upkeep, storage, cost of henchmen, and a lot of other stuff.

The best thing to do is devolop a list of daily cost.
Rent...
Bath/shave...I hit my player with chrisma loss the longer they go without one and a increase of lices, fleas, illness.
Boarding of horse...
Storage of equipment...Like they are going to keep stuff from their adventures in their place.
Cost of henchmen...

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

How do you handle pc's owning houses/inn's/towers at low levels - do you consider the value of the building as part of a pc's wealth, or are they extra?.

When I started my campaign, my players were amazed that I would let them build a house. (They were used to other groups where the party had to constantly travel 300 miles to complete some random quest.)

They are going nuts right now, building and decorating their house with traps and alchemist labs. The ability to meaningfully affect the game world in this way allows them to add another level of depth to their characters. That, IMHO, is a neat thing.

In my campaign, they actually spend some of their adventuring cash on property and it counts towards their wealth. As a DM, I do not target their property just to create an easy plot hook. That is like an enemy sundering a cloak.

I do not rule out natural disasters that would affect the whole town, but I use this tactic rarely, if at all...

Anyway, IMX, PCs owning buildings is fun. They only disrupt gameplay if a DM is used to railroading players into a single plotline that spans different countries or planes. Then it can be a real hassle, as the PCs are reluctant to leave their property behind.

 

[Victim]

IMHO, only significantly useful or relatively liquid assets are counted as part of the wealth guide. Owning a house isn't a big deal - but adding in an alchemist's lab is.

 

[Chimera]

I agree. PCs owning property and building houses can be a great asset to a campaign (by giving players "ownership", pardon the pun) and a great generator of adventure ideas.

Heck, we had a great adventure in the last campaign because one player was foolish enough to leave his money with a bunch of zero level (2e) Dwarf comrades, one of whom ran off with the loot. (They worked for him on a side project and he allowed them to stay in his quarters.) "The Quest for Corm's Gold" started with a ton of whining from the player in question, but ended with his character killing the bad guy just as he was turning to run away from a bitter battle. He would have gotten away to fight another day (continuing the adventure), but it ended there to the cheers of all concerned.

Another player built a Dojo for his Monk. In that new town, it meant a lot and gave the PC a lot of clout. He served 6 months as Sheriff, was involved in town politics, and retired (when the player left the game) to be one of the town leaders (and later, a Duke).

As above, property ownership is only a problem when the GM has dreams of a world-ranging campaign. But I contend that it is pure gold for GMs and players alike.

 

[Fade]

As a thief, which house are you more likely to target? The one belonging to the rich merchant with several elderly guards, or the one that belongs to an absent warrior who is known to have slain a dragon, knows a divination-capable wizard and gets really personal about his possessions?