I'm running Lost Mines of Phandelver for a group of new players. Only one of them have every played D&D before. It's a small group of 3 and then me as the DM. They've just defeated the Redbrands and driven Glass Staff from his lair. They're now heroes in the eyes of the townspeople.
As a reward, the town leaders have given the party Tresendor Manor! It's in rough shape, more then a bit dilapidated, but my question is, What are some cool upgrades for their new base of operations? What can they add to the house to make it more like a home, and more useful to a bunch of Muder(not)hobos?
They've already decided that Mirna (the woman the Redbrands had locked up with her kids) gets the alchemy lab in the basement to get a steady supply of free potions, but we had to end the session before they could come up with anything else.
I'm going to let them do almost anything within reason, but what are some of the things your groups have found useful in their headquarters?
Base Upgrades
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MEANWHILE, at stately Wayne Manor...
Oh cool, running this too and we just got to this point tonight. I never thought to give the PC's the manor hmmm interesting. Personally I use the ideas from the 3.5 "Stronghold Builders Handbook" because it gives you room sizes based on strong hold spaces. A neat idea for paying for basic bedroom, luxury, etc and spending gold for each.
Would you happen to have a .pdf handy?
At this point I really only have the 3 core books for 5th.
I'm charging then a "clean up" fee of 150 gold if they want to hire someone to clean up the manor, make it more structural sound, and remove the old rotting furniture. I'm including the basement hideaway in that as well.
And what costs would be logical in basic upkeep of a large house?
What's the difference between a Mansion and a Manor anyway?
It's generally considered a safe bet to safe 1-3% of the home's purchasing price to cover costs of maintenance so use that as a basis. Mansions and Manors are generally the same thing, though people use 'Manor' to refer to the building and the land its built on, while mansion is building exclusive
Well there's the obvious luxury stuff they can buy, sulk sheets and all that, but it would need to be fit the players.
Maybe take a page out of Pillars of Eternity, they have a pretty good stronghold with upgrades in that game.
Ok, but they got this house by killing all the bandits hiding in it's basement. The adventure didn't have a price for the manor.
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Well you'll still need to pay a hefty sum if you want to renovate it. Kept on it's own, the thing will collapse. If it's like a big house sort of manor, then you can apply real world costs to be anywhere from 3-6k USD. Just swap 'dollars' for 'gold' if you want to make things simple. Or if it's super huge, then you can go by something more venerable in real life like Buckingham palace which has an annual maintenance cost of about $3.5 million
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A full bar!
Also staff to run things and cook and clean and shit I guess.
An orphanage is good for raising potential follower and orc baby
Are teleportation circles still a thing in 5th? Because that's always a good one
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A last bump before bed, and a thank you in advance.
first and foremost
>HOUSEKEEPING STAFF
not too many, not too few. one maidservant/butler, one groundskeeper. without them the house will fall to disrepair during adventures. the lawns would be out of control. small thieves would come and steal yo shit. dust INCHES THICK in places inside. food forgotten in the larder rotting on shelves contaminating other things that otherwise would be fine. plus it means that you come home to a hot meal, and a clean house.
>craftsmans workshop
for inter-session RP and also possible cleverness. I'll say this having grown up in a home with a dual wood-metal shop, a tinkering child(if one becomes available) can and will make some really interesting things about one time in 20 or so...a decent knife, a grapnel, some stout rope, I once made a light trailer for my bicycle using parts from a couple of broken bikes. teach a child a trade or hire an old retired tradesman to teach him and you've got a small earner for the house.
>a garden
flowers are pretty and raise the value of the house
vegetables are tasty and decrease food costs in-house
Herbs are useful for healing, alchemy, and cooking
poisons lend strength to your fights, underhanded though they may be
>a stable and paddock
horses are of value, they aid in moving goods
a place for mounts to sleep for carts to be made or stored or repaired is always good too
>a library
build an empty one, fill it with books found on adventures.
if you know a book buyer and seller the library represents an investment. because there are always rich nobles out looking for new books, mage-tomes, books of forgotten lore, etc.
>vineyard/brewery
if you've got land for it and a decent climate, a small brewery, distillery, or vineyard are some HEAVY expenses, but if you've got the land to grow the grapes or hops or other fruit you can make SOME DOSH later...
bump
Hey thanks, this is useful!
Now how much should all this cost...
Well I found something. The 5th edition DMG has a SMALL section about this kind of thing.
The Maintenance costs for a small noble estate is 10 gold a day, paid out once every 30 days. This includes 3 skilled laborers and 15 unskilled. That would cover all the housekeeping staff.
Hmm. I also have a few ideas for the mechanical benefits of each of those as well.
The Workshop could lower maintenance costs for the manor by half, if the party hires a skilled craftsman. They'd be in charge of maintaining the house and could earn small profits.
The garden could lower the costs by a small amount, like 10 gold a month or so. You said the party is friends with an alchemist, the garden could also increase how many potions they get out of her, as well as the variety.
The stable seems obvious. The upkeep costs of mounts could be "covered" while at home. Also makes selling anything else produced at the manor easier. Taking goods to market is easier with a cart or two.
The Library is not only a place to store tomes and other books found while adventuring, but it could also grant Advantage to all History checks made in the manor. Also some Investigation and Arcana checks too. It can also reduce research times as well.
And user already covered the Vineyards benefits.
Im running it, we killed the redbrands that attempted to rob us and they have a plan to trick one of the redbrands by putting one of the characters in an ale barrel and seeing if they can get them in the lair
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Wizards like Towers, right?
For starters, there are utilities, supplies, and repairs to pay for, insurance, property taxes, HOA dues, trash service, a cook, butler, maids, groundskeeper, etc.
>an apiary and Beekeeper
profits off the honey
and shenanigans if you have a poison garden(poison flowers make poison honey)
>like 10 gold a month or so
seems light, maybe 2 gold per month per living servant?
to tie it to the "it makes food" thing
does a groundskeeper or maid-servant count as skilled or unskilled in 5e?
what about a cook, gardener, or brewer?
Bump for interest
So a brewery is definitely a skilled laborer. And I'd say a good cook would be too. A Butler as well. They run the serving staff as well as serve the master of the house.
Not sure about a groundskeeper.
Focus on what murderhobos want. Catapults, walls, balistas, they'll want a fortress, not a home.
nah, that shit is boring.
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Oh man, what are they going to do with the basement?
That's pretty big. It has some secret doors, traps, a secret tunnel... And so much room for activities!
Looking for some base upgrades for a mobile base in a small cargo ship, and a large warehouse turned home base.
Campaign is post apocalyptic discovery team.
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>small cargo ship
how small?
>water distilling plant (either)
cause fresh water is fucking important. distilling salt-water makes salt which is useful on its own as well
>Volatile Organic Compounds(VOC) distillery (on land)
you distill all the things you can to make flammable compounds to use as fuel. for heating, forging, running generators, powering the ship would take all your production for a long time.
>roof garden (on land)
don't expect to just keep looting canned goods for food for ever.
>weapon emplacements (either)
MAN THE HARPOONS
or whatever is available to keep you guys up on personal defence
>medical room/connex (either)
because "try not to die" should be more than a slogan
but for game reasons, you should limit the abilities of the ship-board one.
>VAULT (land only)
not just a protection from thieves, but from the elements. delicate documents should be fine even as the building burns down around it. it should seal against flood.
>preserving system(land)
camp-followers should spend as much time is feasible preserving food by dehydration or salting
>nets, rigging, and live-hold(ship)
a trawl can bring in enough fish and fish-like things to feed hundreds of people, and if you are unlikely to fill the whole vessel with loot you might as well trawl on the way back from places to be sure your people are fed.
>troop barracks(ship)
you know what tends to fuck up a pirates day?
a small crew of dudes competent enough to repel you.
you know what REALLY FUCKS UP their day?
when the ship you get your fighters on turns out to have a 3-9 times numerical advantage.
>brig(ship)
cause you might want to catch something or someone nasty and at the right moment release the monsters on your enemies.
>workshop (either)
a maintenance space aboard the ship just for the repairs under way
and a much more significant shop or collection of shops on land for the making of weapons, equipment, and armor
>Apiary/hornet horde(land)
in fantasy its a source of honey and food
in post apoc its that AND an alarm and early deterrent. they need to be remotely or trap- "triggerable" to anger the bugs
because the baddies cant get you if they're COVERED IN BEES.
>a curtain wall (land)
cause it keeps the monsters at bay unless they can fly. and it sure beats chain-link
>powder-stores(ship)
cause you might need a dry, clean, safe, spark-resistant, space to keep your explosives in
>powder mill(land)
there are ways to refine the needed chemicals but that shit needs to be done in an armored bunker with a light roof
>basic refining(land)
leather-tanning is a smelly buisiness
wood-cutting is fine, a lumber-mill is better
>crows nest(either)
for looking a great distance and making sharp-shots centrally located in both cases.
>clear-cutting(land)
around your perimeter cut down or burn plant-life so people cant get sneaky
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>a locked and warded cell
for catching mages and scary monsters in
>divination-proof meeting chamber
because the best plans are pointless if the enemy can see you make them
>trophy-room
showing off can be powerful sometimes
>hidden passages/chambers
for keeping secrets in
Hmmm... the basement ALREADY has two cells in it, but I never though of warding them.
Here's a map of the basement for those of you you haven;t played Lost Mines.
The Manor itself has no map though.
Pretty cool reward, by the way
>mines
for what?
metals?
gems?
artifacts?
man DIG THAT SHIT UP YO
>Sulk sheets
Like, a blanket you wrap yourself into when you're in a bad mood?
This is a pretty decent guide if you want something a little more crunchy.
drive.google.com
well, when you don't have an ANGRY DOME at least.
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Lost Mines of Phandelver.
The Lost Mines are Wave Echo Cave, where dwarves, gnomes, and Wizards were able to make a magical forge that produced magic items. A few hundred years ago Orcs raided and the location was lost because everyone was killed.
That's the end game of the adventure. The Redbrand Hideout is just the basement of an old Manor that was also attacked at the same time as the cave.
That's very usefull! Thank you.
But man... all that stuff is EXPENSIVE. More expensive then my level 3 party could ever afford. Oh well, I don't have to follow it exact, They can start with downgraded versions of everything.
Again, thank you
Bump
Well consider the SCALE of the upgrades in the PDF. The tavern, in addition to a common room and brewery, has rooms for 20 guests!
Rule 0.
TRAPS! Trap the hell out of the place!
traps are boring, but perhaps making it a funny house with a trap-door doorstep might be in order...
Full on fucking Scooby-Doo?
>run game for 3 dudes
>had 2 total party wipes in Glass Staff's lair
>didn't wanna ruin their first real DnD experience so I bullshitted that they were simply knocked out and woke up in the cells, twice
Is my group just bad (they did insist on making 3 "soft" characters despite me telling them that it was a bad idea, minmaxing autism aside) or should I adjust the encounters?
DO IT FAGGOT
IT'D BE GREAT.
I gave my players a "free" level. Starting the adventure at 2 rather then three.
So basically ignore the XP the adventure tells you to give, and level them up were you think appropriate.
bump
how close to the nearest major road is the manor?
if close you might consider a coaching inn, or messenger station.
a place for merchant caravans to rest, or for messenger services to keep horses on a "pony express"
its a small income, but if you do it right you could make the establishment a place to keep bug-out supplies in case shit hits the fan and the party has to run the fuck away
for that matter ESCAPE TUNNELS and EMERGENCY CACHES
if a numerically superior group is likely to come calling and the party has to leave in a hurry a sealed box(or several) of basic survival and combat supplies left out in the forest under a certain log would be DAMN USEFUL