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<blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 2266857" data-attributes="member: 9254">Special case.&nbsp; The party's lands are adjacent to a massive swamp in the heart of the kingdom filled with monsters.&nbsp; The swamp is too big to drain so there's a 10-15 mile &quot;high risk&quot; zone around the swamp that hasn't been worth inhabiting despite being quite good land.&nbsp; The players are on good terms with the dominant race and have been granted lands right on the border of the swamp.&nbsp; Assuming these new settlements don't get wiped out, the king will begin expanding into that &quot;high risk&quot; zone, keeping the PCs as a buffer.&nbsp; The PCs lands are relatively small, only about 300 acres each with roughly a third of it swamp land.&nbsp; I've also only given them a &quot;thanedom&quot; instead of a perpetual grant, so right now the lands revert to the kingdom on their death.&nbsp; (And adventurers have a horrible life expectancy).&nbsp; The duke over the area has taken the opportunity to use this as a dumping ground for some of the more problematic peasants, alchoholics and shirkers in particular since there's no ready ale supply and there's plenty of opportunities for &quot;accidents&quot; when the other peasants get tired of the shirkers.&nbsp; It's less of an administrative headache and it's technically a &quot;step up&quot; since they'll be assigned larger plots.&nbsp; The players are funding the road building, assarting of fields, building wells, drainage, barns, and simple fortifications on their dime.&nbsp; The tax discount doesn't even come into play unless they get the farms up and producing in the 5 years they have to recoup.&nbsp; &nbsp; Tax &quot;incentive&quot; really is the word.&nbsp; I really don't think they'll recoup their initial investment in less than 5 years and most likely it will take 10 since they aren't particularly aggressive about this.&nbsp; (The paladin's the exception; he's the only one with the organization skills and highly focused Followers.&nbsp; He's going to be profitable in 3 years but it's a little easier for a Duke to sleep when there's a paladin in charge.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="kigmatzomat, post: 2266857, member: 9254"] Special case. The party's lands are adjacent to a massive swamp in the heart of the kingdom filled with monsters. The swamp is too big to drain so there's a 10-15 mile "high risk" zone around the swamp that hasn't been worth inhabiting despite being quite good land. The players are on good terms with the dominant race and have been granted lands right on the border of the swamp. Assuming these new settlements don't get wiped out, the king will begin expanding into that "high risk" zone, keeping the PCs as a buffer. The PCs lands are relatively small, only about 300 acres each with roughly a third of it swamp land. I've also only given them a "thanedom" instead of a perpetual grant, so right now the lands revert to the kingdom on their death. (And adventurers have a horrible life expectancy). The duke over the area has taken the opportunity to use this as a dumping ground for some of the more problematic peasants, alchoholics and shirkers in particular since there's no ready ale supply and there's plenty of opportunities for "accidents" when the other peasants get tired of the shirkers. It's less of an administrative headache and it's technically a "step up" since they'll be assigned larger plots. The players are funding the road building, assarting of fields, building wells, drainage, barns, and simple fortifications on their dime. The tax discount doesn't even come into play unless they get the farms up and producing in the 5 years they have to recoup. Tax "incentive" really is the word. I really don't think they'll recoup their initial investment in less than 5 years and most likely it will take 10 since they aren't particularly aggressive about this. (The paladin's the exception; he's the only one with the organization skills and highly focused Followers. He's going to be profitable in 3 years but it's a little easier for a Duke to sleep when there's a paladin in charge.) [/QUOTE]

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