I need my players to WANT to have and manage a small fortress by themselves in my fantasy campaign. I want them to start doing this on the first session. So, how would you do it? How would you get them all motivated by that?
Inheritance and they're all related? Vengeance? Lust for power?
I realize every character must have different reasons, but it'd be cool if that could be the starting railroad
I want to play in a comfy fortress campaign too.
I wish I could like in a castle in real life, yet somehow in a practical way.
Can't you just pitch them the idea straight up?
"Hey guys, would you like to do a campain as owners of a castle with a moat?" or whatever
Also make a model of it.
I'd love it if you were my friend irl.
I have told them about it and a few of them liked it, but some of them don't even know and I don't know if they're gonna be into the idea.
That's why I wanna make it happen organically
Sound fun as long as you use it solely as plot hooks and not as bookkeeping trap which will bored everyone who isn't into accounting as a hobby.
Ignore all that and concentrate on the fun power play between factions who lust for your fortress and those that want to siege your ass.
Oh, of course. They're gonna have to deal with bandits wanting to take it, other fortresses, problems with friendly and unfriendly villages around, monsters, etc.
Hit them repeatedly with heavy attacks... but they still live. And it happens again... they're barely still alive. That's the necessity that was the mother of this invention: Castles are made for nonstop heavy warfare. Bunkers are the same thing but after artillery came onto the battlefield.
Maintenance, operating costs, poor harvests, war, monsters, merchants, royal edicts, taxation...
>I wish I could like in a castle in real life, yet somehow in a practical way.
french-property.com
You can buy a Château in Normandy for 65k (which is pretty cheap for what you get). Use it as a fallout base for raiding your neighbors, organize a crusade from there or even plan an invasion on England just for the heck of it!
Seriously though, if I wasn't poor as fuck I'd probably move to France and buy myself a McChâteau
Check out the Song of Ice and Fire RPG. I think White Wolf put it out. It revolves around the house the characters belong to and because of this their center of power(keep/castle/village/town).
Judging by the size of that dude
>The "castle" is barely bigger than a family home today
>It's all a single room probably
>There are max 8 families (max 40 people) living there
Not exactly my idea of comfy. In fact, it feels pretty claustrophobia-inducing.
When I think of comfy, I think of a huge castle with a sprawling vinyard and inexplicably happy and well-fed freemen tending to the land, happily greeting their lord as he passes by to inspect the harvest.
Few ideas of how to make it work plot wise.
- Players are part of military/mercenary/local law enforcement located in a remote, isolated border stronghold. This is rather poor area and stronghold is not important country wise. The crew is very small, fortress in bad shape, but it is very sturdy and terrain helps a lot in defence.
- Players are connected via blood, and manage to seize their birthright, which is said fortress. They are VERY determined to make is great again, but at the same time they have some internal squabbles and power struggle.
- Players are insurgents/commando unit send by another kingdom to capture the fort by infiltrating it, and after that they have to hold out untill reinforcements arrive. The enemy is very determined the get the fort back.
As for system. I would make management pretty straightforward and easy to read. For example, lets say that there is a number of things to get done (like fixing walls or gate), but one player can only do one thing (and success is not guaranteed) every week or day. after every siege shit gets broke down according to narration. This way you can get pretty good balance between action packed fighting sequences and slow managing process that will impact each other.
For example, lets say that players must chose, either fix the walls, or go to the town and buy ammunition for ballista. they decide ammunition. next assault is night ride by bandits and ballista is useless, they are pretty fuked. And to avoid being accused of unfairness, you can make "event" cards and pick them randomly to some extent, so players would not feel cheated.
Motte and Bailey castles weren't for comfort. They were for exerting control over hostile territory.
In a couple of generations, if the family fortune lasted, a permanent fortified residence could be constructed to be comfortable.
In aSoIaF the families have been in power for a long while giving many of them sweet ass homes.
The way I'm trying to handle it right now is by having the player(s) being exiled to their "reward" for their services. They're sent off to a ruined keep, told to become a lord, and basically have a huge target on their backs. They have to make themselves successful or else their rivals will finish them off.
That sounds good. What kind of mechanics will you use, and how will they mesh with the RPG side?
>>You can buy a Château in Normandy for 65k (which is pretty cheap for what you get)
I don't need a house for only 3 weeks a year, but thanks.
That's a fortified farming village. My guess would be the locals got raided from time to time. That big building might be the home of a knight or something, but it's no castle.
>ten NEETs from Veeky Forums Veeky Forums /pol/ and Veeky Forums pool their money together to buy a castle
>only one user can be lord
Alternatively you could build a cool castle outside las vegas for cheap because of how inexpensive the land is out there
That's just an early castle.
en.wikipedia.org
You don't really need a large stone fortress to stop some raiders from making off with your livestock / women.
.....
Yes, it's done in that style. You can tell from the buildings however it's a farming village. It's not a fort.
Which is probably why the only stone building in the picture appears to be a smithy...
Start it with a skeleton crew (literally if you like) to manage it, with a steward that turns the player's wishes into actual work orders and such. Sprinkle in refugees (of various interesting and eclectic races if you like) seeking shelter and willing to trade work for it. A pair of exiled dwarves show up and tell you that they could get the rusty old forge burning bright within the week.
a dozen kobolds show up each with a sack of (what the dwarves identify as) very high quality iron/steel/mithril/etc ore, in between annoying yips explaining that they can provide you a steady supply of it if you provide shelter for what's left of their village after the spider attacks.
An elf shows up, informing you that he'll be borrowing the room in the tallest spire for the next decade because it's in just the right position to observe a once in a millennium astronomical event. If refused he will absentmindedly offer his skills as an enchanter in trade.
A trio of gnomish brothers show up, arguing with eachother all the way up to the door, only realizing that it's shut after bumping into it. They explain that nearly two decades ago they used the castles cellar to age a dozen barrels each of fine (booze of your choice) they're coming back to finally discover who is the superior brewer, and in return for the party acting as impartial judges, will stay and continue brewing for them.
The possibilities are endless, I could go on and on but I think you get the idea.
Replace the standard met in a tavern with the Castle.
Main quest quest giver can be the local lord/steward.
They get delegated at.
Lord/steward wants a new tower built, they got to track down a skilled mason/workcrew, arrange for supplies and slaughtering any interruptions such as bandits or monsters.
Can pass into their direct control after they avenge the fallen lord the was slain by a hated foe.
Lord's LE progeny shows up and demands his birthright, despite the lord bequeathing the castle to your merry band of murderhobos.
If your players don't want to do something, forcing them will only make them even less interested in that stuff.
Deal with it, not everyone is into autistic fapping about imaginary castle, especially since this could work in vidya, but fails spectacularly in tabletops.
I really like those ideas user! I mean, my world is much more low fantasy, but I'd gladly add some odd species to create a bit more tension and shenanigans.
Here's your (You)
>Enjoy it for three weeks.
Fuck it. I want it to be my main residence not a holydays one.
> start picking them off while having NPCs mention how a fortress would've kept them alive.
>begin with the character of someone actually at the session so they get the point, don't kill the guy who didn't show up.
> take that pc aside first and tell them their character will be replaced by another just like them, only the names will be changed. indicate a reward for going along with it.
I'm certain that's a castle and units from MTW2 but it looks really odd and seems to have far too many, too well ordered troops - do you know where it's from?
Could go the Pillars of Eternity route?
Even random is kind of unfair. Don't they have scouting and intelligence?
>Kobolds instead of goblins
This meme must end.
Start them in the castle and give it a valuable resource that they'll want to protect--maybe a magic spring that heals you when you drink from it? And give them a reason to clear it out.. Perhaps they're prisoners and the game starts when they escape?
And throw in a few NPC prisoners as well, who are useful as NPCs but injured or otherwise have a contrivance to make them unable and/or unwilling to leave.
If you put them in hostile or at least wild territory they'll have a steady stream of adventuring to do, and if you give them a secret passage or two so they can still leave while surrounded then they can always adventure.
Throw in some buried portions of the castle (aka most of it) and early on have them meet settlers-- maybe a monster tribe that's friendly, or rescued captives.
To make them want to stay, just keep cool things going on there. If they're slowly excavating while defending from external threats, you can reasonably throw all sorts of things at them.
Maybe they find a new monster/treasure/hint while excavating. Maybe they need to roam outside the walls to find a resource to repair a discovery. Maybe they dug too deep and woke something, or the original inhabitants came back.
I mean it doesn't have to be high fantasy races or anything. I'm just a fan of the super varied outcast society, but it could just as easily be humans.
I'm pretty sure one of the might & magic games involved giving the party a small castle with many collapsed and damaged sections that slowly be repaired and cleaned up. That probably could be mined a bit for ideas.
World of Xeen. Fuck, I haven't thought about that in a long time.
Staple of my childhood right there
This movie might be useful to you
>Players manage to seize their birthright. They are VERY determined to make it great again
...and their symbol is the red peasant cap they wear, embroidered with their motto?
The duke gives the players tax free ownership for 30 years of a small abandoned keep if they can restore it and keep the pass and traderoute clear in the area from marauders, bandits, and orcs.
The potential plot and obstacles write themselves.
>siege engines placed almost right up to the walls
what a pleb artist
Another user here with a crunchy question:
Is there a relatively simple system I could use with/tack on to a preexisting rpg to handle resource management of running a small fortified village?
I would like to run this, giving players scenarios and options that could affect the future of their fortress.
I could fiat it all, but I would feel so much better if there were a system in place.
I have never played ttrpg game like this that works on this level and scale .
Give temporary boosts to one of their chosen stats for every night they sleep there, like plus one dexterity. That wears off in 12 hours. The more they invest in the fortress and build it up the higher and longer the boosts last.
EVERY ENGLISHMANS HOME IS HIS CASTLE SHITLORD.
bumperoo
They all own a fief, which if properly managed gives them a very large salary of gold. If they manage it poorly, they get very little.
If the PCs play their cards right they could wind up with a full on castle that gives boosts such as plus 12 dexterity for 48 hours. Not to mention they could have a greenhouse dedicated to growing medicinal/alchemist ingredients, NPCs to farm/log the local land to make profit for the PCs, their own personal blacksmith to make them custom armor, a local wizard/mage/whatnot to enchant items for them, etc. etc. etc.
>Alternatively you could build a cool castle outside las vegas for cheap because of how inexpensive the land is out there
>building an entire castle from scratch, including plumbing, wiring, and taxes
>cheap
Fun fact. During the invasion of England, the Normans assembled one of these in a single day.
Compared to building a castle anywhere else in the world? Yeah, I'd say building it in Nevada would be pretty damn cheap.
Son of a bitch, linked wrong post.
Supposed to go here
That sounds comfy as fuck.
Have them conquer or discover an abandoned fortress.
check out kingmaker. its a dnd campaign that focuses on claming land and building up a kingdom. I dont know if it fits the idea of managing a fortress, bu you could maybe take some ideas from it
Any suggestions for a fortress resource management game?
Fortress equals power and wealth. A fortress means you're rich enough to afford a fortress. It means you can impose power and convince people to side with you. It means that you can't be killed easily. Fortresses are basically the ICBMs for most of history; rarely actually used, used to enforce political will and expensive as fuck, but worth the price.
The whole point of the motte and bailey was to be a portable oppression fortress while the Normans were occupying England after Hastings.
I'd have the players be either supporters of or part of a family split into two sides; the side they're on has just allied with not-Charlemagne and are being pushed into power while the other side is being fucked and has no support. Now they've got the castle they've always wanted but it's in poor shape, the social connections around the area have degraded, people aren't getting the rights and privleges they deserve from the peasants to the local aristocracy and you need to settle and tame this new demesne of yours while also securing your own political future.
>If your players don't want to use X, then you weren't forceful enough
Here is your (You) too
Read One of the Living for All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Simple factions & needs system you could tack onto any setting/ruleset.
Giants attack out of nowhere. They throw huge boulders and destroy everything, every survivor gets inside.
Turns out the baron/lord/captain/etc who's supposed to be in charge wasn't there at the time, so it's a game of survival where people first need to determine who decides and how.The giants/trolls/whatever (the "menace") is still lurking out there and supplies are running low, so do you open the gates and charge them ? do you go for sneaky runs to bring food/bring in (important) survivors ? Like if people knew someone was out there who could be of great help (someone who know the fortress like their pocket, or say a druid that could brew up a poison against giants), would you take the risk ? How would you go about convincing the less courageous survivors it's worth it ?
AND, since everyone is constantly panicked, disputes emerge daily over silly shit, and you need to bring order to everything because now is not the moment. Everything must be perfect and well organized inside, lest the monsters outside make small work of you.
sorry if it's not original, but if done well I'm sure this could make for an interesting and diverse campaign (combat, diplomacy, stealth, maybe even magic...)
I have some questions:
How many people lived in a small castle?
How many were soldiers?
How many enemy forces could they stand?
What kind of solider they were?
Figure out who likes RTS or turn-based strategy in the group. Now just leave him to it.
Be warned, a true strategist will be asking a lot of logistical questions. Be prepared to answer.
If the castle is simply a wooden one as then it wasn't a proper fortification, it was simply to keep out anyone who wouldn't bother to either siege it and starve them out or attack with the proper equipment to either scale or damage the walls.
Once you get up to this then you could easily resist ten to twenty times the men, assuming the men inside are properly trained and in sufficient number to man every part of the walls and have their own crossbows, ballista, and other sorts of equipment to help repel an attack.
The usual method was simply to surround and then starve them out.
>you could easily resist ten to twenty times the men, assuming the men inside are properly trained
So, how many men do I need?
?
Obviously that depends on the fort or castle. It wouldn't be unusual in times of peace for smaller ones to have only two or three dozen men.
By the same token, it wouldn't be unusual in times of war to have a thousand or two.
en.wikipedia.org
Read about the section on the garrison to get a better idea of numbers.
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neat
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I'm actually running a campaign about 6 soldiers managing a small fortress (see map), before we named the campaign it was just known as fortdnd lol. The way I did it was by creating a mystery plot that lends itself to keeping them bound to the fort, they all black out after a certain hour and always mysteriously wake up in their bunks in the barracks, the forest that surrounds the fort is foggy and mysterious and while they can spot landmarks from the wall and travel to them whenever they try to venture beyond the forest they always circle back to the fort.
I actually have a recording of our first session if you want to check it out (there's a part 0 primer of sorts if you want more context and exposition):
youtube.com
The players were also given unique roles that involve tasks covering different areas of fort upkeep.
The Baron has to manage the other 5 players and has top authority.
The Marshal has to patrol the walls and escort players outside of the fort walls such as
The Chaplain who has to keep morale up via prayer and stuff, he also has to go to the chapel outside the fort walls to bless the graves
The Peddler does stock take and is in charge of inventory
The Mason does fort matinenece and upkeeps,m particularly outer wall integrity but can also build helpful structures and whatnot inside like stables for horses and stuff
The Warlock is counsel for all things unholy and has knowledge of dark magic and how to counter it, although when establishing the world we made it clear to the players that Warlock's are not trusted or liked in the slightest in this world and the players jumped at the chance to berate and bully him for being a Warlock.
We wasn't sure how it was going to go but the players were really good about performing their tasks and seemed to enjoy the experience, so maybe try giving them all handouts that just have a list of duties specific to each player from a higher authority like a king or general. Without any other leads or incentives they'll probably just start performing the routine and then you can introduce quests and whatnot on top of that once they get used to their new jobs.
I've been wanting to run a game where the players are the hands-on lords of a fortress, building defenses for an unknown threat that is rumored to be coming.
But I can't be assed to design fortress defense mechanics.