A simplified way of building strongholds and businesses for PCs, built the GP-based part of the Downtime rules. It is, primarily, a background system, intended to allow PCs to create small businesses, personal holdings and towns, rather than to develop kingdoms. And should be fairly easy to administer for both PCs and DMs.

If you want detailed developments for cities and civilized areas, that covers building entourages, armies, Military Orders, honours system, among other things - see my full Campaign System.

It is a system 'Under Development' at the moment, as I work through things. Things (including this page) WILL Change.

A Personal Holding might be just about anything. Your character might wish to retire to an inn, have a mansion, build a small town or a stronghold out in the wilderness - or some combination of those. Those are split into two distinct categories, Businesses (they earn an income) and Homes (that don't earn an income). For clarification, schools and temples are both classed as Businesses as they either charge fees or collect donations. However, they don't make quite so much profit as some other businesses.

Most development will be in 'civilized' areas. When you start, you won't be able to protect or guard holdings on the borders or in the wilderness.

There is very little work involved in running a holding - just about every building and vessel comes with a skeleton staff to do the day-to-day work for you. They do enough to keep things ticking over and running in a basic fashion. Your business will (probably) make a profit, your home will be cleaned and something will be served for dinner - however, profits and standards are low.

You can improve both by recruiting better staff. You have to pay extra to recruit them, but the quality of work improves, and you earn more profits or get a decent meal every evening.

You can find all the details here. Build Link

A home is just the place where you live, and can be built just about anywhere. If it is out in the borders or wilderness, you will have to provide guards and soldiers to patrol the area - or else you will run into trouble from thieves, bandits and monsters. If you want to build a militarized home (more than a few low level guards) you will need to seek permission from the local ruler first - they get twitchy if they think someone is 'moving in' on their territory.

You can use any building with a Bedroom as your home, including the various craft workshops (although they will not generate a profit) or you can customize many other building, by adding a bedroom.

Home Developments

This section covers anything that makes a profit - and includes Inns, Temples, Schools, Mercenary Units, Merchant Houses, Shops (Magic, Craft and Retail) and can be customized or flavoured for most things.

These are low-level businesses, staffed by ordinary people and serving the general population, and there are some simple (population based) restrictions on where you can build them. Nor will they ever create high-level magic items, as the best casters that you can hire are Level-3. They are restricted to creating (and selling) Masterwork goods, scrolls, potions and few (minor) magical items. However, other items will be available for purchase (as normal) according to the size of the settlement.

Building your own town is expensive, more so if you try to build away from civilized areas - and is best approached as a group.

The cheapest, and easiest way is to find a village or hamlet and start developing it. It is courteous to talk to the Local Lord (This could be male, female, hereditary, elected, appointed or head of a council), or their representatives, first - just to make sure that they aren't going to stand in your way, and to make sure that they understand you are prepared to pay the right fees and taxes (probably a one-off 'administrative' fee and, perhaps, a requirement to build and staff, a watchtower in lieu of taxes). That is going to be easier if you start with a home, and make sure the Local Lord knows that. After that, it then becomes 'reasonable' that you would want to build the place up, so that you can live in relative comfort, and in harmony with the local population. To make the settlement grow, you need to add housing, administrative and religious buildings and, perhaps, defensive elements. However, you could start from scratch instead. Find a piece of unclaimed land, that is within a local lord's borders, and start by building a hamlet (and a home, of course). The process is the same, you just start from a lower base.

In both examples, you are inside the Local Lord's borders, and you get occasional visits from their guard patrols. You do not receive income from any of the residents, as their taxes, tithes and fees go directly to the Local Lord. If you want more freedom, and the ability to collect taxes, you need to see the Borders & Wilderness section.

Both Borders and Wilderness are dangerous places - and what ever you build here should start with some sort of Military building, to provide defence. Unless there are defences, or the building is one of the specialist Wilderness development, your developments will be attacked and robbed by all sorts of passing Bandits, Thieves and Monsters. In the borders, you need to talk to the Local Lord, in the wilderness you can just claim the land. In the borders, you are relatively close to civilization and building costs are the same as in town, and residents pay taxes to the Local Lord, although you may get a discount on military developments and scouting forces. However, building in the wilderness costs 50% more than the book prices, but you can collect taxes from any residents - however, tax too heavily and they will leave.

Border and Wilderness Developments

Border and Wilderness Developments

You may wish to recruit new staff for your buildings, as the original staff only perform at the most basic level. Some craft shops benefit from a caster or expert, religious buildings benefit from a priest, military buildings (and vessels) need guards and soldiers. And there are plenty of other potential employees. In most cases, all the costs are paid up front as a Recruitment Fee, which includes a regular salary for the employees. In most cases, this isn't particularly great, but for skilled casters and managers it can be very high indeed - but once you have them on the staff - they (or a replacement) stay on your staff - in most cases, with no extra costs payable.

Running a business.

merchant rules Needs updating and bringing inline with the general Business rules.

Buildings

buildings_and_staff

Hiring Troops