My players just liberated Fort Rannick. They will soon be leaving to investigate Lamatar's disappearance in the Shimmerglens. However in the time between them finding the love-letters in Lamatar's secret stash and liberating the fort, they've been named lords of the land and have been granted stewardship of Fort Rannick.
I've taken the opportunity to let the players do some basebuilding and try to create a proper headquarters for their adventuringparty. They're gonna travel to Turtleback Ferry and Bitter Hollow to begin staffing the fort.
Now I'm considering what kind of finances they'd get for being lords of Rannick and I'm taking suggestions. Also I'm gonna post my own suggestion to provide a base for your inputs.
Fort Rannick Finances:
The village of Turtleback Ferry sends 200gp from the town coffers each month as payment for the fort's protection from local monsters.
The village of Bitter Hollow sends 100gp from the town coffers each month in exchange for permission for local hunters and trappers to ply their trade in Kreegwood.
The City-state of Magnimar sends 3000gp annually to help cover maintenance, equipment and staffing expenses.
Naturally my players are free to expand on, create or abandon any venue of income, but as of them taking over the fort from the Black Arrow Rangers, these are the sources of income they have.
Is this too much? too little? Your opinions, suggestions and insights are appreciated.
-Nearyn
Hi guys.
This is a copy of a thread I made in the Rise of the Runelords board yesterday. I moved the question here, since the advice board is more active than the AP specific ones, and I hope that by doing this I can get some input before the gamesession starts. So apologies for reposting, and apologies for using the wrong board.
Now with that said, here's the content of the thread in the RotRL board. Note that the following CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE HOOK MOUNTAIN MASSACRE!
My players just liberated Fort Rannick. They will soon be leaving to investigate Lamatar's disappearance in the Shimmerglens. However in the time between them finding the love-letters in Lamatar's secret stash and liberating the fort, they've been named lords of the land and have been granted stewardship of Fort Rannick.
I've taken the opportunity to let the players do some basebuilding and try to create a proper headquarters for their adventuringparty. They're gonna travel to Turtleback Ferry and Bitter Hollow to begin staffing the fort.
Now I'm considering what kind of finances they'd get for being lords of Rannick and I'm taking suggestions. Also I'm gonna post my own suggestion to provide a base for your inputs.
Fort Rannick Finances:
The village of Turtleback Ferry sends 200gp from the town coffers each month as payment for the fort's protection from local monsters.
The village of Bitter Hollow sends 100gp from the town coffers each month in exchange for permission for local hunters and trappers to ply their trade in Kreegwood.
The City-state of Magnimar sends 3000gp annually to help cover maintenance, equipment and staffing expenses.
Naturally my players are free to expand on, create or abandon any venue of income, but as of them taking over the fort from the Black Arrow Rangers, these are the sources of income they have.
Is this too much? too little? Your opinions, suggestions and insights are appreciated.
Thanks in advance mates.
-Nearyn
Rather than give the party gold if you think it will be an issue you can have them request materials and workers to improve upon or construct new buildings. They could also get supplies this way which would be taken care of by the sponsors. That way the Fort is kept up, which allows for the RP aspect to be maintained, but you don't have to worry about them getting too much money since they won't be getting any money at all directly. The players would still be free to volunteer money out of their own pockets if they wish to speed things along.
Clever! Thanks for your input wraithstrike :)
I know at some point they'll try to turn a profit on the place, what self respecting lord wouldn't?
I don't think giving them gold will be a problem, since I'm privileged with RP-minded players, who gladly go out of their way to donate lots of gold to charities, pay for expensive clothes and other essentielly useless objects, if they think it makes sense for their character. :)
I was also considering giving them a quest at some point, where they can get regular payments/goods from caravans/merchants/guilders, if they take steps to provide safe transport.
Since Mokmurrian has inspired the Stone Giants of the Storval Plateau to be more aggressive than ever, some of the former trade routes are likely not as safe as they were, anymore.
So giving the players the opportunity to increase income by providing safe passage to [insert name of city here] was an idea I tossed around a bit yesterday
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As wraithstrike said make the "money" be stone bows, swords, food, arrows that sort of thing. That and make sidequests to get things that might be useful for the fort as recommend in the Ap. Also keep in mind as the lords of the land they have to deal with anything their minions at the fort can't deal with.....
I'll definitely be using the quests in the AP. Also I fully intend to let them taste both the privilege and responsibility of lordship. :)
Thanks divineshadow
Woo hoo! Math time!
Per-capita taxation can vary wildly, but let's start at 10% for ease of calculation.
The Profession skill lists unskilled labor at 1 s.p. per day (so 6 per week), and skilled labor at half the skill check per week (around 7 g.p).
In a rural setting, we can guess around 90% unskilled labor and 10% skilled, putting the average income per capita at around 1.24 g.p. per week. Let's be generous and call it 2 g.p.
So a very quick estimate is that the total tax burden of a town is 2 s.p. per person per week. Again rounding up, say around 1 g.p. per person per month.
Now, how much of the town's total revenue should go to the fort? In an area where "without the fort, you're dead" it should be 40-50%. In an area where it's "just in case", it should be 5-10%.
So you can just take the town's population, turn it into gold pieces, and then cut it at least in half (probably into a quarter) to get a reasonable amount.
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After all that nonsense, your initial estimates look totally reasonable.
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