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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Grydan" data-source="post: 6331696" data-attributes="member: 79401">A (possibly not all that helpful) counterpoint:How much would a castle cost? If we're talking an in place, in good repair, defensible keep with accompanying lands and supporting farms and settlements from which it derives income? Priceless. Not for sale.These are the sorts of things that are in the hands of the aristocracy, passed down from generation to generation. There's no lump-sum payment high enough to get the current residents to sell (and they may not even be allowed to even if they were willing, as the land was likely granted to their family by someone higher up the ladder who has claim to it should the existing claimants and their heirs die without issue).The costs are for building a new castle, on unsettled land. It likely has a negative net income: it takes years and a great deal of money to build it, and for a long time self-sufficiency is going to be the goal rather than profitability. Your taxes are likely collected in chickens, pigs, goats, and manual labour rather than in gold. It's not until the surrounding settlements start producing more goods than they (and those building the castle) need that you start to earn any sort of income that you measure in gold pieces (presuming that there's a market for whatever local goods they're producing).More money can speed up the process somewhat, but with diminishing returns (and potentially negative consequences). There's only so many folks willing and able to relocate to your new settlements, and cash incentives might increase those numbers, but risk pissing off neighbouring barons whose populations you're depleting. And they have finished castles, and the income to afford to be able to do something about the upstart.The ideal (if rather contrived) situation is one in which a well-maintained keep in a settled and developed area has just lost its resident lord along with all potential heirs, and the duke or king or whoever further up the chain that the land reverts to either owes the players a favour or is looking to refill their coffers and is willing to grant the lands and keep in return for a healthy donation to the cause.</blockquote>

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