Build-A-Village

[ifdesign]

Goal:
I want to create a system that allows the PCs to build upon and expand a village. I am writing an adventure that will include both standard roleplay and combat, but also the reconstruction of the PCs hometown. I am in the process of creating a simple system for the PCs to accomplish this task and am looking for comments and feedback.

Why not use an Existing System:
The existing systems I've found don't suit the purpose I'm looking for. I want the system to be a side-quest of sorts. I don't want it to be the primary focus of the adventure. The PCs should want to build the village with their rewards, but not have to devote 100% of their treasure to it. I also want it to encompass rewards and bonuses, both for the village and for the PCs.

The Vision:
The PCs will have significant decision-making power regarding what buildings to construct and where to put them. As the work is being completed, the PCs will leave to complete adventures in order to fund future construction. Upon the completion of buildings, certain bonuses will be awarded to the village, its inhabitants, and the PCs.

What it is so far
The table below is my initial thoughts for time, cost and people required to build. I didn't spend a lot of time working on it, and will continue to update it as days go on.

Basic Table:

Structure	Cost (gp)	Wood	Stone	Pop Bonus	Time (days)	Laborers	Skilled	Revenue/month (gp)	Town Bonus	PC Bonus	Town Aspect Bonus
Homes lv 1	500	0	0	20 + 2d10	5			5			Wellbeing + 0.5
Homes lv 2	600	10	0	30 + 3d10	7			10
Homes Lv 3	700	20	5	40 + 4d10	10			25			Wellbeing + 0.5
Homes Lv 4	800	30	10	50 + 5d10	12			50
Homes Lv 5	1000	50	20	60 + 6d10	25			100			Wellbeing + 1
Lumbermill Lv 1	2000	0	0					50 + 5d10 Lumber
Lumbermill Lv 2	2500	10	0					75 + 7d10 Lumber
Lumbermill Lv 3	3000	20	10					100 + 10d10 Lumber
Lumbermill Lv 4	4000	50	25					250 + 15d10 Lumber
Lumbermill Lv 5	5000	100	50					500 + 20d10 Lumber
Quarry Lv 1	2000	0	0					50 + 5d10 Stone
Quarry Lv 2	2500	0	10					75 + 7d10 Stone
Quarry Lv 3	3000	10	20					100 + 10d10 Stone
Quarry Lv 4	4000	25	50					250 + 15d10 Stone
Quarry Lv 5	5000	50	100					500 + 20d10 Stone
Farm Lv 1	100	0	0					10 + 5d3 Grain
Farm Lv 2	200	0	0					20 + 10d3 Grain
Farm Lv 3	300	0	0					30 + 15d3 Grain
Farm Lv 4	400	0	0					40 + 20d3 Grain
Farm Lv 5	500	0	0					50 + 25d3 Grain

The Numbers
I will keep track of Resources, Population, Aspects and Prosperity. For now, I'm borrowing the Aspects from Sims Mideval, as they are a simple easy starting off point. The aspects are Well-Being, Security, Culture, Knowledge. Buildings will have an Aspect Benefit as well as a Prosperity Score. This will help give a snapshot of the growth of the village.

What I'm looking for?
I'm open to any suggestions. I'm especially looking for buildings that would be good to add to the list.

[WoLT]

Take lessons from Sid Meir's Civilization 5, it's the best system around for progression of socio-economics.

Look at all the building options, tech available and also make sure not to forget magic and arcane (because you'll add in things like wizard towers and such).

Also, remember that things like watchtowers aren't 0 revenue, they are like -50 (paying guards, upkeep on stone, etc.). Forget things like that and it will all grow out of control too quickly.

[chaosaccountant]

What range of levels is this going to be built over? Bear in mind what fabricate, true creation, wall of stone, the ability to animate an army or tireless servants who can work day and night etc etc will do to this once you're past about fifth level. As it is, it's got a very 'computer gamey' look to it. You can't build a forge and start turning out metal things - you need a blacksmith, which is much harder to come by. Taverns will only generate revenue if there are people passing through regularly. Wells can't be dug anywhere, and will need to be sunk right into an aquifer if you plan to supply water for a growing community - and even that's a stretch because of the enormous effort of rising the water up. There's a reason you won't find many pre-modern cities that don't have a river or lake.

[WoLT]

Originally Posted by chaosaccountant

What range of levels is this going to be built over? Bear in mind what fabricate, true creation, wall of stone, the ability to animate an army or tireless servants who can work day and night etc etc will do to this once you're past about fifth level. As it is, it's got a very 'computer gamey' look to it. You can't build a forge and start turning out metal things - you need a blacksmith, which is much harder to come by. Taverns will only generate revenue if there are people passing through regularly. Wells can't be dug anywhere, and will need to be sunk right into an aquifer if you plan to supply water for a growing community - and even that's a stretch because of the enormous effort of rising the water up. There's a reason you won't find many pre-modern cities that don't have a river or lake.

These are all good points but I think ifdesign is specifically looking for something computer gamey, otherwise he'd ditch the idea of a system and RP each development, hence why I suggested using civ V as a model.

[ifdesign]

Wolt is right. I want to include this as a part of the adventure campaign. I think that if I'm not careful the "build-a-village" part of the campaign could take it over. I don't really want that to be the case, so I think the computer game setup is pretty solid. I'll check out civilizations 5 and update this table accordingly.

[GrazztTheDark]

You might want to check out Pathfinder's Kingmaker Adventure Path. They basically have a set of kingdom building rules that you might want to co-opt for your game. Here is a summary that I found online. With some modification, it can be used for a single village, or you may decide to eventually expand the scope of the campaign to them running a kingdom (eventually).

[CE2JRH]

There were threads on the old WotC boards called "The Build a City Thread" and it had a version 2 and 3 as well. They were community "month by month" turns of what happened in a city; cooperative writing, nobody could write the same month twice in a row, and it was supposed to be a very normal city with PC-style things only happening 2-3 months of the year. I've worked on a spinoff for it; here's the open material (Ie, everything but the encounter charts), but mine is based on heavy activity and lots of 1 week quests and lots and lots of handwavium. This might give you some ideas, and the WotC build a city threads will definitely give you some ideas.

 

The basic concept:
On the old WotC forums, there were threads entitled "build a city." Basically; people took a 3 month period and worked on a town, writing their own changes in, around some lose rules. I plan to run this game like that, but with 0-4 (usually 1-3) challenges per month. Players will be able to shape the growth of their town based on their choices. Almost every decision will have some pros and some cons.
The challenges or events might vary in # of posts it takes to get through. Some might require roleplaying a handful of scenes. Others you might choose a moderate length dungeon crawl for. Rate of progress will vary.

Often in my RL games I try to keep my players alive unless they do something obscenely stupid. In this game, encounters will be presented in as reasonable a manor as possible. Sometimes a planes-hopping 20th level wizard will come by and ask for free room at the local inn for a few days. If you accost him, he will laugh. If you persist, he will turn you into a toad. If you're exceedingly nice and offer him your house, you might find some benefit. If you're extremely persuasive and clever in arguing for why it is unjust for him to do this, he might be impressed and grant you a boon. Or he might be angry. I'll be rolling up alignments, classes, etcetera, mostly randomly; though I'll be working on the following assumptions:
All the various planes of existence involved will be weighted towards lower levels, weighted towards smaller groups of people, will be weighted towards NPC classes, and weighted towards non-casters, weighted towards humans, weighted towards humanoids, weighted towards neutral on the law/chaos scale, weighted towards good on the good/evil scale. As such, an army of 20th level beholder wizards that are chaotic evil should be basically impossible; a 3rd level human neutral good adept with half a dozen followers (first level commoners) would be relatively common.

So think of this as Nation States + Civilization + Age of Empires + D&D 3.5E + Settlers of Cattan, plus perhaps an ounce of Dwarf Fortress and two drops of Stargate Universe or Battlestar Galactica (trying to make a new home).

Also, if you remember the Build a City Thread, they tried to keep it very mundane. This will be slightly less so, because it turns out the plane that you are all stuck on is slightly unstable and frequently opens short term (and often one-way) portals to various places.

You also won't have to worry about anything except the things that I throw at you. You're not keeping track of production, farm land areas, or anything of the like. That's all handwaved away. I'll be specifying encounters; things that happen, events. Everything else, worry not.

 

The background:
Your local lord/king/whatever you have (pick a setting you like; homebrew, 3rd party, WotC, as long as it is D&D 3.5E: no d20 modern, and as long as it is appropriate for your setting to have a least a few moderately high (10th-14th) level wizards, and knowledge of other planes); has found a portal to a new plane. It seems incredibly fertile and to have relatively little threats and inhabitations. It's the perfect place to set up a colony; and you've been ordered to do precisely that; especially after scouts discovered some gold in the area.

With the scouts goes a build team. Resources and tools are dropped off. A colony is constructed. All that is needed is people. A single builder and a single scout get left behind

Some colonists, plus a few men loyal to you, are rounded up, and go to meet the scout and builder. Unfortunately, just after you go through, the portal turns out to be unstable, and explodes. You're trapped.

And what your King/lord/mage/whatever didn't know is that this interplanar land also has other visitors, for other people and other planes discovered this one and decided that they would set up their own colonies as well.

 

Character Creation:
ECL 6, 16500 experience, and 40000gp. Maximum gold on any 1 item is 13000gp, maximum gold on any remaining items is 6500gp. Yes, I realize that this is massively above Weath By Level Guidelines. Wealth by level guidelines are ridiculous; they don't cover the items you need, much less the items you want. I will expect you to have a wide variety of capabilities by virtue of these increased resources. You might get pitted against higher CR encounters; some of which might not be defeatable. Levelling might be relatively slow.
Rolls: 2 sets of 5d6 drop two.
Sources: Everything WoTC: no 3rd party, no dragon magazine. Furthermore, homebrew is allowed if everyone in the game votes to allow it, with no discussion. You will PM me the material. I will put up an anonymous poll. Everyone will vote yes or no as they please within 3 days with no discussion (the thread will be closed, if I can do that while still allowing votes). Don't apply with a character that requires homebrew material. If player consensus allows it, then it can be included.
High Tier1 optimization is welcome. Theoretical optimization isn't. If this statement makes no sense to you, worry not, for it does not apply to you.
People will be working in parties of two. You can apply with a partner if you want.
Leadership will be given to you. Your followers will represent townsfolk that are particular dedicated to you. You are free to design and write a cohort as you please, or just have me make one for the town. You are free to design and write a followers as you please, or just have me make one.
I'll be taking 10 people running 5 colonies. If a person drops, the remaining player is welcome to find a replacement; that replacement will be one of your events for the month. If both of you drop (1 month without posting), I'll simply find a pair of replacements, who will stumble across a colony desperate for leadership after a strange interplanar mishaps.

Ultimately, this game will be very freeform. If you want to pursue constant combat and dungeon crawls, you can. If you want to go to war with neighbouring countries, you can. If you want to constantly pursue diplomacy and NPC interaction, you can. If you want to play a game of political intrigue, you can. All the options are there.

This area will have mild winters.

 

Your town gets 30d3+1d10 people, rolled when you start to develop the town (range: 31-100, avg 65). 50% rounded down of these are commoners: Basic farmers/harvesters (commoner 1). 25% of these rounded down are craftsfolk of your choosing: basic experts (expert 1). These all use standard array (13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8), and get half hit dice. The remaining 25% (avg min 7, avg 16, max 25) are your specials. You get 20 "town points" to use to upgrade them. They all start as commoner 1's and can be used as generic farmers. You can get the following upgrades:

1 TP: ---> NPC Class other than commoner 1
+1 TP: PC class
1 TP: Level increased by 1 (Max level = your level, -2)
1 TP: Increase to 28 point buy

If you do not feel like doing any of this, I will do it, mostly randomly. You'll be awarded TP on occasion to improve existing town members. Random events may also occur to townsfolk.

You also get the following fixed characters:
Builder: 1rd level expert.
Scout: 2nd level ranger; race, your choice

 

Str 12, Dex 15, Con 14, Wis 14, Int 12, Cha 8.
HP: 16.5, AC: 16 (Touch 12, FF 14). Saves: 5/5/2.
1st level feat: Skill Focus, Survival. Favoured enemy: Your choice. Track. Rapic Shot
Skills: Search +6, Spot +7, Listen +7, Survival +10, Hide +7, Move Silently +7, Knowledge Geography +6.
Attacks: +5 Masterwork Composite +1 Longbow, 1d8+1. [+3/+3 rapid shot]. +3 Mundane Longsword, 1d8+1.

 

Most of this is going to be handwaved away.
The town has 45 small houses. The builder can construct a new one every 2 months; 1 month with 2 others assisting.
The town also has an Inn/Tavern with 12 small single rooms on the second floor, and a large room for drinking and eating on the first floor.
The town has proper facilities for whatever sort of experts you so choose to have.
The town has a 3 story stone "keep"; on the ground level; Entrance room, kitchens, mealhall. On the second floor: 6 small bedrooms and on the third floor: 3 larger bedrooms, with roof access.

Events chart:
Each month, players would have to deal with 0-4 events, with a weighting on the rolls to 2 events. 1 event and 3 events would be slightly less likely, with 0 and 4 events very rare.

[ifdesign]

Wow! That is extremely extensive. I'm going to look into that more in depth. Thanks for the info!

[Silent Tiger]

There was also a 3.0 splatbook that had rules for making a base for the characters called the Stronghold Builder's guidebook. You might be able to use some stuff from that or modify things in there to fit your campaign. I didn't see you mention what rules system you were using.

[Unbutu]

It's extremely interesting ! I would love to participate in a campaign where this side quest takes importance. It could give a great sense of progression.

I would suggest making objectives that are obvious late game objectives, and hint as to how to get the requirements for it. Want your village to host... a bard's school ? Well, you need yourself to be a renowned bard + you need this big of a town to draw people to the school, ect. And the bonus is x (a retainer-ish feature ? , a bonus to performance from stealing ideas ? , whatever) As a player, it would look for those, in order to decide my character's long term goals.

Good luck with this ! I'll keep an eye on progress :-)

[WoLT]

Originally Posted by Unbutu

It's extremely interesting ! I would love to participate in a campaign where this side quest takes importance. It could give a great sense of progression.

I would suggest making objectives that are obvious late game objectives, and hint as to how to get the requirements for it. Want your village to host... a bard's school ? Well, you need yourself to be a renowned bard + you need this big of a town to draw people to the school, ect. And the bonus is x (a retainer-ish feature ? , a bonus to performance from stealing ideas ? , whatever) As a player, it would look for those, in order to decide my character's long term goals.

Good luck with this ! I'll keep an eye on progress :-)

You'd probably really enjoy playing the civilization games. I highly suggest them to you.

[RonarsCorruption]

Ubuntu, what you're describing is a lot like the Kingmaker adventure path, where you do your adventuring to protect the city you're founding. It uses a slightly different set of rules from the above,

[ifdesign]

Based on your suggestions I started working on a new system. I'm really grateful for the pointers, and will continue to update the table and system as it grows. I'll let you know when I have a rough-draft version of the system available for critiquing. Thank you all so much!

[Sevestron]

Building suggestions:

Defences:

Walls (Palisade -> Stockade -> Stone wall)
Towers (Wood -> Square Stone -> Round Stone)
Fortresses (Holdfast -> Motte and bailey -> Stone Keep -> Castle)

Administrative buildings: (Village Hall -> Town Hall -> City Hall)
Secondary production: (Blacksmith, carpenter, mason)
Pub/Inn (obviously)

[Le Noir Faineant]

*Subscribing, commenting later, when I have more time to type.*