How do you deal with Real Estate in your campaign?

[Kealios]

Ive heard it mentioned that many DM's assist their players in buying real estate (farms, holdings, etc) because real estate is the best way to manage their wealth.

Do you have any reference books that would list these kinds of things, such as cost and yield, upkeep, etc? If I open the world of purchasing land to my players, I'd like a grasp of what it will entail.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Kealios

 

[Treebore]

Magical Medievel Society: Western Europe. That kind of book should have come out years ago.

 

[BSF]

A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe, by Expeditious Retreat Press, will answer a lot of the questions on how to maintain a manor. Purchasing land is a not covered since it assumes a feudal society. Generally speaking, I do not have my players purchase holdings. I have holdings be awarded by patrons of some sort. Or, they can go out in the wilderness and carve out a little place of their own.

For land, I would consider distance to a major city/kingdom and then decide on a general cost per acre. Some types of terrain won't have much value, and there might be others that have more value than is apparent to our modern-day perceptions.

If you are not familiar with terms of measurement for acres, you might want to brush up on that before you begin. As a point of reference, 640 acres is a lot, but that is just one square mile. You will want to have a firm grip on those distances before your PC's with a 20 acre manor post sentries at the edge of their holdings to warn of possible attack. In terms of distance to travel, an acre isn't very far. In terms of clearing an acre to farm, and then farming the land, an acre is a lot of work.

A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe is available in PDF format, or in paper format and I would suggest visiting the Expeditious Retreat Press site for more information.

 

[Chimera]

I'd say that a very great deal of it depends on your economy and location location location.

Lands within 3-5 miles of a town (walking distance) will go for the most, with the closer, the more expensive. Being along a major road might go for more, depending on how often the caravans and patrols decide to camp in (ie, trash) your wheat field or cut your fruit trees for firewood or repairing their wagons (or building pallisades).

You could buy one farm and rent it to a single tenant and that'd be fairly straight forward ("Heh, adventurer landlord? Just hold on long enough and the guy will vanish without a trace. Then it's mine!") But more than that would probably require having some kind of property manager. This is a 'Position of Trust', so I wouldn't allow them to hire this person in a day (seemingly at random) without possible dire consequences. This person could easily sell the property and and/or abscond with the rents.

For in-town property, it's back to that 'locationx3' thing. A great spot on the edge of the market square will go for a great deal more than an entire block in the slum.

It's all up to you. Sorry if that's vague, but read it this way - your question is as open as asking about owning property in the real world. Lots of variables. A small lot on the edge of Times Square can go for more than an entire ranch in South Dakota. And it would be an entirely different thing to develop, rent and/or manage.


One of the things I've always allowed PCs to do is purchase "great tracts of land" of questionable value (because they're undeveloped, off the road and/or infested with monsters) for development as their future "baronies", ala OD&D. A great way for local lords to take in a bundle of coin with little risk.

 

[jmucchiello]

We hold our hands up and wave them. By the time any one in our games has ever expressed interest in owning a house/farm/town, they've had enough money to do so without much fuss. Likewise, no one I play with is foolish enough to want to own land (as a lord) that must be defended.

 

[Arnwyn]

I designed a basic land-price system for use in my campaign. (Sadly, I'm at work, so I don't have it available).

It's based on the concepts of what Chimera has posted, above. The price varies depending on the location from a settlement. Land in walled cities is crazy expensive, then gets cheaper in an unwalled city, etc etc until a certain distance from the settlement, in which it is free (and must be defended on your own). My recommendation is for you to set a standard price for x size of land in a walled city (a price that works for your particular campaign), and then set percentages for "less valuable" locations (listing out all the different locations you think your players would be interested it and that might have an effect on the price). Unless your players are realtors or pedantic wonks, you'll probably do fine with about 6 - 10 different "location types".

For holdings, I use WotC's Stronghold Builders Guide for the buildings, and for the land mangement portion I'd use either A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe for small-scale holdings, or Eden's Fields of Blood for a slightly larger domain management system - depending on what your players' plans are. (For my campaign, I usually stick with Fields of Blood.)

 

[mercucio]

1. Stronghold Builder's Guidebook. Definitely worth the purchase price if you plan on owning property. Contains price modifiers based on the size of the settlement near your and your distance from it. Owning a home or townhouse is a great way to divert money from players purchasing magic items. Castles are even better for this. =)

2. A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe. Great for explaining the manor system and medieval cities. *Hugely* useful background.

 

[adwyn]

I use a simple rule of thumb and generally set land prices at ten to twelve times the total annual rents. If I don't have rents for the area, I figure them at 50-60% of the total household income(s) in crowded areas (like anything inside a city wall) down to 40% for rural areas. For productive ground such as crop land, harvestable forest, or meadow (grazing) I usually set the rents at 50% of the total annual yield.

During times of distress prices can fluxuate some, but historically most invaders leave land claims intact (they'd rather tax than own) so land can be a reliable piece of wealth that can survive many catastrophes.

Long lived non human races such as dwarves will likely appreciate a longer return on their money, and for such areas I raise the rent multiplier to fifteen or sixteen, twenty in the most extreme cases.

 

[S'mon]

If land supports 100 peasants per square mile and you can tax/claim rents off them for 5sp/person/month (subsistence income in 3e is 3gp/person/month, so 0.5gp revenue sounds about right and is close to the 1e income figures) then you get 50gp/month per square mile of land, or 600 gp/year. If the cost = 12 years' rents (sounds reasonable) that'd make a 1 square mile manor worth 7,200gp.

 

[S'mon]

In 1e AD&D PHB income for developed territory was listed as between 5sp and 9 sp/month per inhabitant, depending on the Lord's character class (!) - highest for Clerics (thanks to tithes I guess), lowest for Wizards (no idea why), 7 sp for Fighters. That was with 20 sp = 1gp.