D&D 5E How do you do Bastions?

[SkidAce]

The issue that I see is that it comes back at the appointed time regardless of the campaign's narrative. I guess you're just supposed to make something up that fits the rules as written? That's my problem with 4e all over again.

My question was just to elaborate...well... the question.

If it comes back as a narrative of being rebuilt over time, then we have no problem with that narrative being pushed back or made harder by periodical narrative attacks by dimensional flumphs per se, or even time narratively reduced by neighboring allies pitching in.

If the answer is "poof" its back, well then I guess narrative would not really effect that. Disconcerting indeed.

 

[Distracted DM]

Facilities come back automatically after one Bastion turn, which is by default one week.

Essentially, having your keep sacked means a week of lost productivity. It can't be destroyed, there's no cost to rebuild, it happens automatically. It is ultimately meant to be a sandbox safe space for the player to have the say-so in their own little world.

Yes, you can and likely will tinker with the rules if you use them. That's fine! I certainly am. I was happy to have them because they inspired a new game for me, but I'm not happy with them without hacking them up.

 

[Distracted DM]

Sure, it can be rebuilt. Can’t any bricks and mortar?

I guess I don't see what you're getting at?

You said that there weren't any rules that prevented the bastion from being leveled to the ground. The Fall of a Bastion is the only way that can happen. The attack event can result in damaged facilities... In an event where hirelings are lost, just like the Attack and facilities, everything comes back after a week at no cost to the PC. One turn of productivity is all that's lost. A Bastion being leveled would be "the fall of a Bastion," which can't happen through attacks.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The bastion reforms for free. It just kinda regenerates with 0 effort from the players. New workers just show up too.

So? The PCs surviving loyal followers rebuild it.

 

[Arilyn]

So? The PCs surviving loyal followers rebuild it.

Good reasons, ridiculous reasons or no reasons at all, the facilities will come back. The bastion system is very abstract, designed to run in the background with a few dice rolls and no GM input at all. Yes, players can add all the rpg elements they want, but as written, this has zero input on the event rolls. The facilities come from a curated list at predetermined levels. My special pub is pretty much the same as your special pub, just a different potion on tap. I can have a theatre in the middle of Waterdeep or a frontier fort and the event table is the same, (prompting me to ask why are the Waterdeep authorities allowing attacks in the middle of the city?) No GM input means no curated list.

I think that this is why it's being tinkered with. It's too barebones and, in my opinion, does not integrate smoothly with the fantasy world or player characters' lives.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Good reasons, ridiculous reasons or no reasons at all, the facilities will come back

If there is no plausible story reason why the bastion can be rebuilt, then the DM is at fault for letting the player have it in the first place.

 

[Arilyn]

If there is no plausible story reason why the bastion can be rebuilt, then the DM is at fault for letting the player have it in the first place.

The above is an example of a bit of rules tinkering. Players must have plausible reasons for their bastion events.

 

[Micah Sweet]

Good reasons, ridiculous reasons or no reasons at all, the facilities will come back. The bastion system is very abstract, designed to run in the background with a few dice rolls and no GM input at all. Yes, players can add all the rpg elements they want, but as written, this has zero input on the event rolls. The facilities come from a curated list at predetermined levels. My special pub is pretty much the same as your special pub, just a different potion on tap. I can have a theatre in the middle of Waterdeep or a frontier fort and the event table is the same, (prompting me to ask why are the Waterdeep authorities allowing attacks in the middle of the city?) No GM input means no curated list.

I think that this is why it's being tinkered with. It's too barebones and, in my opinion, does not integrate smoothly with the fantasy world or player characters' lives.

Agreed. As written it's just a complicated set of class features that have nothing to do with the setting and are functionally divorced from it. There are some good ideas there, but I would never use as a base rules set to model the concept.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The above is an example of a bit of rules tinkering. Players must have plausible reasons for their bastion events.

Or, if you think you might possibly need to remove a bastion from a player for some reason don’t give it to them.

 

[Micah Sweet]

If there is no plausible story reason why the bastion can be rebuilt, then the DM is at fault for letting the player have it in the first place.

So a rules module explicitly designed to be player-side virtually exclusively becomes the DMs problem as soon as any issues occur?