Greetings...
Well, there are always roads from one place to another. The question is, where do these roads go, and why are these places important?
First, there are some questions to consider.
- Why does the king want to colonize the Stonelands?
- What's on the other side of the Stonelands? What's so important there?
- Is there caravan routes to allow you to get to somewhere quicker and cheaper than by ship through the Stonelands?
- Is their wealth to be had in the Stonelands? Natural Resources?
- Perhaps there are plants that can only be grown in the Stonelands that are very expensive.
- Perhaps there are large pockets of ore and/or precious metals/gems that can be mined from here.
- Or perhaps the bordering kingdom is starting to feel growing pains, and wants to colonize the Stonelands for farmlands.
- What dangers are there in the Stonelands?
- Are there are any organized dangers?
After all, monsters in any untamed/wild region are going to be a problem of course. But what's even more dangerous and deadly are monstrous factions who organize and fight back.
These are only questions that the DM can answer. Also these answers might only be known to the DM. Keep the players in the dark, if the motivations of the King are a little on the shady side.
TWISI, No monarch is going to just want give out huge tracts of land and titles of peerage to subjects just because they've bothered to clean out the local orc tribe. Not when setting up a bounty-system on the heads of monstrous creatures would happily suffice. So, there has to be a good reason for his motivations.
For someone who can build a stronghold then protect and control the lands surrounding it for say, 50 miles should earn that person the title of Baronet (a little better than a knight but not quite a baron), and knighthoods for the founding cohorts. There is going to have to be a good reason for the king to hand out titles of peerage.
The way I would do it, is that King Azoun is looking to expand his kingdom. Not to mention, currently, his larger cities are starting to feel growing pains and there have been food storages. Advisors have said that at the current population growth rates, there won't be enough food to go around, especially if the country goes to war. --
You can throw in little stories such as an Earldom who controls some of the wealthiest land is grumbling and might secede from the country.
Also, if people are willing to expand the kingdom, this will be added wealth and power for the kingdom. Because 5-10 years down the road, when the barony has established itself and started to produce its own wealth. Then that wealth in the form of armour weapons and troops are going to be funnelled back to the crown. Also, if these baronies have their own natural resources as a form of wealth, lumber, minerals, precious and/or semi-precious metals/gems are found and can be harvested, refined and produced to help build a strong civilization they are going to be taxed by the crown. --
Perhaps another reason why an Earldom is possibly leading the country towards civil war. The crown is taxing it's earldoms and baronies to the point where it's detrimental to the growth of these other fiefdoms. (of course the players don't know this yet)
I would start by giving a small and obviously beneficial region to the players. Perhaps something that they would want. Such as give them a small geographical region, a valley. Which has unutilized pockets of iron ore and silver.
[In my gameworld, iron is rare and expensive, only one country has the knowledge of iron working, and the secret to making steel. Also, they alone have the suitable resources to make iron/steel weapons. Which in turn gives them a significant military advantage. After all, only knights from this country can have half-plate and full-plate armour. Even the most technologically advanced kingdoms/countries are stuck with armour of brass or bronze which makes half-plate and full-plate armours unfeasible.]
Later, when they start building up the civilization this valley is ideal farmland, great for crops and perhaps even grapes for making wine. If they want to go down that route, they could make possibly one of the best wines in all of the kingdom, or the world. In time, and with lots of effort. So, there would be short-term and long-term advantages to colonizing this region.
Now, of course come the problems. In the beginning, your little barony isn't going to be able to produce all the lovely things and amenities that your citizens are going to want. Your going to have to import them from the inner kingdom. How are your new lords going to pay for these things? Adventuring of course.
Also, how are you going to attract people to colonize your new lands? Is the king going to ship off a bunch of undesirables? Religious puritans like America, or criminals like Australia? "
Here, take these Neo-Pelorians. They've been a political/religious nightmare, interfering with the orthodox Pelorians, they are your problem now. Oh, and here...take these criminals too."
An interesting side-note, only one player can be the 'baron'. But of course, the other players can take on important titles as well. Sheriff who is going to have to deal with keeping the peace of the citizenry, dispense justice. The Sheriff is usually appointed by the king who is responsible for the public business of the locality. Also, there are other titles, such as Seneschal and Bailiff and Chancellor.
Perhaps the king isn't going to officially grant a title of baron and give them a barony until they have held the land for 20 years, and have given a suitable tithy of 50,000 gp to the crown and 5,000 gp for every year held. So, the king might waive the whole 20 year thing, if the players come up with the 50,000+100,000 on the spot and only had it under control for five years.
So, some possible problems, which I think can all be interested in themselves to create stories/adventures/roleplaying situations around:
- Attracting new colonists. (Low/no taxes?, Religious/Social Rejects?)
- Are there existing colonists living in the religion, who are aren't monstrous? Elves, Dwarves, Fey?
- Setting up needed resources.
- Government; how are you going to govern? Going to get someone to run it for you?
- Law-Enforcement; who do you hire to protect the citizenry? How many people you going to need/hire?
- Military; the king is going to want arms and troops sooner or later. Also, your going to have to protect yourself from bands of orcs/goblins/bandits/etc.
- Courts of Justice; people are going to start having problems and disputes and are going to look towards the leaders to solve their problems.
- Transportation of raw materials and/or finished products back to markets. How are you going to get your wines/silver ingots/whatever to the larger markets of the inner parts of the kingdom?
- How are you going to protect not only transportation to and from your region, but also protect your citizens?
- Organized Resistance
I think this deserves it's own little discussion. I touched on it earlier. Nothing can be more difficult than organized resistance. Just ask any occupying force. Ask the Isrealies, the Russians, the British. Sure, you can clear a region of bugbears, owlbears, dire-wolves, wolves and whatever else. But what happens if the orcs, goblins, kobolds who you've systematically tried to drive from the region start fighting back? Nothing can be more difficult than trying to remove/suppress/defeat an organized resistance.
Now, genocide against all the kobolds is one thing. But, what if the dwarven population in the area has a faction which wants you out? But the rest of the dwarves are quite happy to have you there, and are good trading/business partners? They will be happy to help you with your mining operations, you just give them protection, political and military. With their eye to future citizenship into Azoun's kingdom.
Things that could happen there:
- Acts of Terrorism
- Guerrilla attacks on out-laying villages and colonies, caravans
- Political Assassination attempts
- All out rebel military-organized attacks
- Rebel Military build-ups towards organized attacks
Setting up a series of military-protected stops along a road is an interesting idea. This is how the Knights Templar (The Poor Knights of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon) got their start. By protecting pilgrims on the roads of the Holy Lands, and holy sites.
But of course, the logistics and organization it would take to build up a series of beacons, and protected villages, inns, and such for travelers would be tremendous. Is there reason, and financial/political gain enough to justify this undertaking? Now, I can see someone wanting to organize such a thing because it's part of an industry. You mine large amounts of silver which is refined and then are then made into ingots, and then shipped to the inner kingdom. It makes sense to protect your investments. Which in turn, supplies and other amenities are shipped back. But unless there are sufficient motivation/reason, why bother?
Also, there are the problems after the fact, once the barony has been established.
- Taxes and Tithes to the king
- Political problems and summons to court
- Population growth, needing sufficient food and homes and industries
- Various political/religious/social factions all wanting/needing help
- dwarves want a say in local politics
- the neo-pelorians are feeling that religious traditions aren't being upheld in the society -- they want a holiday
- half-elves say they are being socially persecuted
- Surrounding neighbours who infringe upon your resources.
- Another group of adventures sets up shop creating their own barony and starts:
- Mining/collecting resources that you haven't gotten around to utilizing yourself
- Dams up rivers that your farmers need
- Bullies your citizens demanding tolls on their roads
- Claims that your citizens are in their territory and demands taxes from them.
- A tribe of orcs moves into the territory and starts taking up wildlife food supplies -- oh wait, no...it's elves, not orcs.
- Existing nobles and royalty that see these new upstarts as not true nobility, but ones who had to buy their title
- Won't trade/do business
- Politically players may need their help
- (The Earl of Blackthorne controls the markets who make the best sail cloth and rope in the entire kingdom, which are needed for your ships and caravans.)
- Being given the title of baron allows your character to sit in the House of Lords in the court of King Azoun and can make political change. Some resent this, some might use your characters seeing them as politically naive/ignorant.
- Resources are starting to wind down. The mines aren't producing like they used to. The forests are growing thin.
- Perhaps the best trees in your territory (and all of the kingdom), which are the biggest and best for making the masts for King Azoun's warships, are in the forest of Imagicka which are controlled by the fey. Are they going to just let you chop them down? The king wants that lumber! He needs his warships!
- New resources have to be utilitized. New industries created.
How big is a barony? A little bigger than a county/shire and smaller than a parish. But seriously. I would pick a geographical region, such as a valley, the mountains surrounding it, and any geographical features it may including. Such as...forests, the plains up to the rivers in the north, to and including the lakes in the south, and of course, east up to the Earl of Blackthorne's land holdings.
Of course, the players won't be able to hold/control the entire region. So, there is room to grow. The king of course doesn't expect his vassals to hang out on the border of Earl of Blackthorne's lands, and make little stabs into the wilderness. He wants you to move about 50 miles into the valley of Zweist and establish trade routes back to the inner kingdom as well as trade/peaceful relations with the dwarves in the mountains around Zweist.
This could be any size. Now, I don't know if your existing campaign settings have maps and thus examples of geographical and political regions, such as earldoms, baronies and dukedoms. But I'd figure out how many dukes, earls, and existing barons you want in your kingdom to begin with, and then divide up the Azoun's kingdom accordingly. Of course, dukedoms are going to be the largest tracts of land next to King Azoun's private/personal holdings. Then the earldoms, and baronies. Also, don't forget the viscounts and marquess if you want them.
From there, you can determine how big the tracts of land are in the inner kingdom, and how big a barony would be. After all, you can think of it like a state or a province, and some of them are very large compared to others.
Building a stronghold might be a good start. But, who built it? Was it magically erected? If you had masons and carpenters and such build it, then there must be a village to support the workers. If it was erected by magick overnight. Well, aren't there going to be monsters in the region who are going to object to a bunch of adventurers 'squatting' in what they see as their home and territory? After all, the last thing a dragon or lich or whatever wants is a bunch of adventurers camping in it's territory, taking up resources, and eventually harassing them, just because it's the sort of thing that adventurers do. It's time to go and smash that stronghold. Or perhaps first, send some goblins to test the strengths of this stronghold.
As for how long this establishment of a barony would take? I can see building an entire campaign around this. With adventures and stories to fill up the characters lives, even after their own lives, and for generations to come.
There are obviously different stages of development here.
- Initial Plantation. Getting a foothold in the area and fighting off any dangers long enough to build some sort of settlement there.
- Establishment of Industry. Utilitizing natural resources and building profitable industries around them.
- Establishment of Civilization. Building towns, villages and protecting the citizens who is the backbone of your industries.
- Establishment of Local Government, Military, Protection of Citizens
- Expansion of Initial Territory and utilizing other natural resources.
Of course, you also have the normal adventures to deal with. Along with:
- Stories of treasure/great magical items to be gained
- Wandering monsters terrorizing the population
- Bandits who victimize travelers on the roads
- Criminals who think that this new barony might be a push-over
- Organized crime
Ultimately, this sort of thing will only work if you have players who like this sort of problem-solving and roleplaying game. But you could also entice them into it if they are into RTS games. Those resource management games. You like warcraft? You like civilization? You like stronghold? Well, we're going to play that...big time!
Hopefully, I have sparked your imagination enough, and given you enough food for thought to let you feast for a few hours, and entertain your players for a few years.
