Expanded Holdings

[robert_pat]

A thread in the General forum got me thinking about how the rules for holdings could be expanded to accommodate Companies who wish to found or run substantial settlements, rather than just a single business or homestead. I posted this idea there, but I'm making this thread to expand upon what I said before and to solicit opinions or other ideas for how this could be accomplished.

For the purpose of this thread, I'll refer to three levels of player controlled settlements. A holding sticks to the scope of the original rules, a village is a settlement comprised of many holdings, and a kingdom is a settlement comprised of many villages. For example, Dale could be seen as a Kingdom comprised of five distinct parts: the businesses of Dale, the residencies of Dale, the army, and two divisions of outlying settlements. While not all of these would be "villages" in the traditional sense, they could be seen as such for the purposes of running them. Likewise, the way the Lake-town guide splits up the city essentially breaks a kingdom up into several villages.

The PCs could control every settlement in all the levels, or they could control only a few. They might, for example, be responsible for a village, but not the holdings that make up that village. They may split the various holdings among themselves, or delegate some to NPCs.

Different events could occur when rolls are failed at different levels of settlements. Failing a roll on the hunting lodge sub-holding of an Eotheod village might mean there's a shortage of food, or that some fearsome beast is slaughtering game. Failing a roll on the village might mean that an orc band is going to attack, or that the villagers are grumbling about leaving for greener pastures. Failing a roll on the kingdom that the village belongs to may mean a group of Trolls has made their home by a major byway, or that the leader of a neighboring kingdom is threatening to cut ties.

Throw in an adventure or two about drumming up support for a new settlement, an adventure or three about clearing the immediate area of threats, and you have yourself a solid campaign based on founding and sustaining a village. A few adventures to unite several villages, or build a village up to a city, and you have yourself a kingdom. You could even periodically make it harder to maintain these settlements, as they did in DoM, to make it very difficult to sustain the settlement all the way to the War.

[Robin Smallburrow]

My reply on the other thread about founding of new settlements applies here also: there needs to be some external reasons why a settlement grows other than the actions of the PC's - the settlement is located on a ford across a river, or at a road crossing etc. (If you wish the settlement to grow into a substantial town).

Robin S.

[robert_pat]

Yes, good point, location would be key. A village situated in the middle of nowhere is very unlikely to grow into anything more than an isolated thorp. Perhaps the locations could be worked into the settlement's initial rating, making it harder for a poorly placed settlement to survive and grow. And the LM could tailor events around location so that there are more growth opportunities for well placed settlements.

[Blubbo Baggins]

Great ideas, I hope C7 also Expands the RAW Holdings rules, as well. But building up a village, city or kingdom would be really cool.

[Terisonen]

Indeed... But I think it is beyond the scope of TOR, which is about the history of a Company.

[Finrod Felagund]

I sent this to Robert_Pat privately, but as I've seen a few messages about holdings, I reproduce it publicly:

Hi Robert_Pat

Re: your expanded holdings thread

I don't know if we're allowed to mention other games so thought I'd send this privately. Pathfinder has developed a set of rules regarding developing kingdoms. They are copyrighted but may help provide some inspiration.

I have to say that they look complicated, involve a lot of work, and are potentially very tedious (tax collecting - yuk!). The rules are here (scroll down):

http://www.d20pfsrd.com/gamemastering/o ... m-building

Hope this helps

FF