Question about the lyre of building (3.P)

[JoeYounger]

The book says that with a successful perform check, 30 minutes of playing can create the same amount of work as 100 humans laboring for 3 days. My question is, what does that mean? I'm completely ignorant of how long it takes to build stuff, but I can't imagine it taking that long for 100 humans to build some stuff assuming that all of the material is there. Or am I being ignorant?

In my campaign, we're running a trading outpost population of about 400 iirc, how long would it take me to rebuild the whole place if I was playing 24/7? (go go gadget pocket cleric casting restoration!) What if I wanted to build up the city to be even bigger? Maybe go for full on metropolis?

Are there rules for this anywhere? Or is it just gunna come down to me and the DM haggling?



Thanks <3

[ahenobarbi]

My question is, what does that mean? I'm completely ignorant of how long it takes to build stuff, but I can't imagine it taking that long for 100 humans to build some stuff assuming that all of the material is there. Or am I being ignorant?

Roads take a lot of time to build for example. House may take a lot of time but this depends on how you are building it (simple wooden house will takeless time then fancy manshion).


In my campaign, we're running a trading outpost population of about 400 iirc, how long would it take me to rebuild the whole place if I was playing 24/7?

Well building a house takes about 3 months with about 10 people working on it, so it about
10(workman)*3(months)*20(work days in a month) = 600 work days
half hour of playing produces

100 (number of workers) * 3 (days) = 300 workdays

every half an hour, 600 workdays/hour so you could build about one house every hour.


Are there rules for this anywhere? Or is it just gunna come down to me and the DM haggling?
It will.

[TypoNinja]

It will.

Not necessarily.

the Stronghold Builders Guide Book gives labor as a cost percentage of final build price and simply assumes you hire the correct number of people. I'd have to double check but I think building is done at a rate of 10k GP a week. (so 6 weeks to build a 60k keep).

They Lyre would give you a discount for a magical workforce, and a speed bonus on construction time as well. On any structure decently large the Lyre will pay for it self on labor savings in short order.

[watchwood]

Well building a house takes about 3 months with about 10 people working on it, so it about
10(workman)*3(months)*20(work days in a month) = 600 work days
half hour of playing produces

100 (number of workers) * 3 (days) = 300 workdays

every half an hour, 600 workdays/hour so you could build about one house every hour.
A modern house would take that long - but modern houses have things like electrical, plumbing, drywall, and all kinds of other conveniences that simply don't exist back then. A half dozen men can bang out a simple one room log cabin in the space of a couple days - it won't be pretty or fancy, but it'll do the job.

[Yahzi]

Are there rules for this anywhere? Or is it just gunna come down to me and the DM haggling?
The simplest rule would be: 300 workdays = 300 gp worth of construction.

[Tyger]

The one thing you have to factor in is the magic issue. Sure, it probably takes three months for a crew of 5-6 people to build a house (say that's your average) but a lot of that is because they can't get in each others' way to do various projects. When you have 100 people working together in perfect unison, who are incapable of getting in each others' way (because they don't actually have bodies) you have to factor that in. You also have to factor in, as was mentioned above, that a lot of the reasons that modern houses take so long is the plumbing, heating and electrical work that has to be done - none of which would be in your typical D&D building. And, of course, the need to do everything to various building codes is also eliminated. So there is another time savings.

Habitat for Humanity holds the world record (I think this still stands) for building a house at three hours, forty one minutes. You can see a time lapse of it HERE on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwEcW6hH-B8) which shows what can be done by a large group of people with the right motivation.

On a less techie level, the Ahmish put up barns "the old fashioned way" and can get a huge one up, without much if any in the way of technology, in about ten hours. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Pg_vpy2mxg)

I think it would be pretty safe to say that the barn example is a fair one to use for any D&D setting appropriate building - no tech, no special tools, just good old human power coming together. So if 100 Ahmish can build that barn in 10 hours, i.e. one day, the Lyre should be able to build three of them in one half hour.

[ahenobarbi]

A modern house would take that long - but modern houses have things like electrical, plumbing, drywall, and all kinds of other conveniences that simply don't exist back then. A half dozen men can bang out a simple one room log cabin in the space of a couple days - it won't be pretty or fancy, but it'll do the job.

It's true that modern houses are more complex, but you also have better tools and better "raw" materials so I used it estimate for building d&d-style house.

Anyway I think using TypoNinja gave good advice on handling this simply.