D&D 5E Landholds, what do you want out of it?

[LordEntrails]

I would enjoy a system like this if there was a system for random events to come up. Large noble party settles in for a few months straining your resources, drought, nearby war and you are obligated to send troops, monster incursion, con man fleecing your villagers, etc. Of course, there would be good events as well, such as finding stash of valuables, surplus of crops, rise in prestige, land grants, etc.

I believe Kingdoms (forgot the publisher) addresses much of this. Though I have heard the 5E conversion of it is... sketchy. The concepts should be there at least.

 

[guachi]

Whatever the Companion Set for BECMI had in it was a good basic system. Or ACKS.

 

[Arilyn]

I believe Kingdoms (forgot the publisher) addresses much of this. Though I have heard the 5E conversion of it is... sketchy. The concepts should be there at least.

Wouldn't want sketchy. Something like this needs to be really full with long random tables to roll on!

 

[Arnwolf666]

I use the rules from PF Kingmaker AP modified for 5E, It's also in Ultimate Campaign with some changes. I borrow a few concepts from RC and BR.

 

[MechaPilot]

For those of you who are mentioning other landhold systems that are already out there, can you please mention (in very broad strokes) what things they cover that you feel are essential to a bare-bones landhold system (apart from attack & defense). I appreciate your references to other systems that you feel are good, but I do have a limited budget, and I am trying to make my own thing here. So, I am much more interested in what aspects of landhold management you find necessary or highly desirable than I am in what system you would refer me to in lieu of creating my own.

I will post the above as an edit to the OP to reduce further confusion.

 

[aco175]

I would like to see something like you are trying to put out here. I think I would like to have some record keeping but simple enough that it is not a chore. A bonus is that it generates adventure ideas.

Maybe have a 2d6 roll to make less percentage on the ends. Roll a 2 and bad things happen. Roll a 12 and good things happen. Vary the degrees of good and bad as you work to the center where there is another boring month.

Is there a way to give landtypes and other resources a means to grow and gain value. Say my town or keep sits on the coastline, farmland, and forest. Can I invest in building in building a dock or planting an orchid. Does it need to be specific, or can I just throw 1,000gp at my coastline and that be good enough? Also bringing in NPCs that boost your standing. A priest that can raise dead, a druid that can bless crops, a master ship captain that can increase trade and traffic.

 

[LordEntrails]

Thinking about this, I think a system like this needs a general dial/scale or such taht the GM can set.

For instance, a global number +5 or such so that the self-sustainability or profitability or troubleness can be set.

For instance, If I want a holding to generally (statistically) just break even, then I have some set value I can add/use etc (or table to roll on). Then if I want it to be very profitable, I can just add +10 to the base monthly events table.

Also a way to track how troublesome or how much risk is involved. Maybe if I want it to always have interesting things happen, I roll 4d20 on the monthly events table, but if I just want it to be boring and low-risk I roll a 1d6...

So, at least two dials; one for profit, the other for risk/reward.

 

[cbwjm]

I'm thinking of just using the keywords from dungeonworld as the basis for landholds rather than anything too complicated. I do like complicated, I really like the system in the RC and ACKS but simple keywords to describe a settlement might work better for me. If you have a barony and you want to improve it, you might invest in discovering mineral wealth and open a mine which makes you barony: prosperous (increased wealth from the mine), growing (population moving into mine), lawless (bandits after your wealth).

Looking forward to see what you come up with.

 

[Igfig]

For me, I think the single most important quality a new subsystem can have is that it minimizes the number of new mechanics. As much as possible, it should work with existing game concepts: d20 rolls; ability scores; characteristics and inspiration; hit dice; money in gp; the magic item rarity scale; monster stat blocks; rolls on random tables using 1d20, 1d100, or 1d12+1d8. (Just throwing out some examples of mechanics that I could see potentially relating to land management.)

Any new mechanics would need to be so simple and intuitive as to be barely recognizable as an actual mechanic. Ideally, they'd come down to something like a binary "you do or do not have this thing", or an obvious "your town's population is 600."

 

[hastur_nz]

So, I'm working on a landhold management system for 5e. It takes influences from Risk, Axis & Allies, and Civ V. [...] Assuming you wanted a simple landhold system, aside from conquest and defense (which I already have worked out), what aspects of managing a landhold would you consider essential enough to warrant inclusion in a very bare-bones management system?

I'd be most interested in what the AIM / GOAL of this landhold management system is.

For example, in Risk the aim is to win by destroying your enemies, and to do so you typically don't just play your own game you also form alliances to help weed out one or more players, then break your alliances when you feel you can screw over the remaining players best. If that's the kind of landhold game you're looking for, you may or may not want some rules for helping out with alliances, given the players will likely be working with various NPCs, factions etc. Or, as DM you run the bulk of the 'players' in the game, but that risks one person monopolising play time. Or do you put the players against each other, and you are mostly just referee?

So, what do you want to achieve in your D&D landhold management system - give the players something for their PC's to do in "downtime", a mini-game to play in between adventures where success can give some kind of material rewards they can use in later adventures, or is the landhold game actually the main focus of the game and adventuring is a side-line activity? Are the players expecting to "win" the landhold game e.g. rule a kingdom / empire, or is it just a pleasant diversion?