Campaign benefits

[Arkusus]

So I'm finishing up setting up a campaign for some people to play in, but instead of the typical 'wandering adventurers' campaign I figured it would be fun to try a Nobles campaign.

I set a few house rules, and campaign settings so the party can play somewhat wealthier and well-to-do nobles, but one area I'm still having trouble with.

Each party member rules some area in a large empire, but I can't figure out what benefit they should be able to receive FROM that area. I don't want to just give them something that directly gives them a mechanical bonus in fights and the like.

Ideally the benefits would be able to improve over time, as the players expand their territory, or otherwise funnel wealth into it.

Basic ideas I've had so far that would work are things like:
Looted item buyback prices. The party might be able to get better than the usual 50% buyback rate from their own merchants.
Wizard Tower spell-purchasing
Cleric Temple buff-purchasing/holy item-creation
Crafters who can craft items from various crafting skills

But I'm curious if anyone can think of anything else I might be able to include.

[BowStreetRunner]

While I never went forward with it, I did contemplate a noble-based campaign many years ago. In order to avoid the advantages of extreme wealth that might come with such a background, I had all of the nobles' domains be highly indebted ones. Each domain had a number of estates whose benefits were locked up until the debts were paid off. This worked sort of like mortgaged properties in the game Monopoly, except that each year the cost to get the estate out of hock would rise if not paid off. Once the debt against the property was paid off, the PC could recover any incomes or other benefits from the estate going forward.

Most of the benefits in my game were merely financial ones - rents paid by tenant farmers or tolls from roads and such. (Of course, there were always problems like wolves and worse attacking the sheep or brigands on the roads that the PCs had to deal with if they wanted to keep earning their incomes.) However, I like your ideas about benefits from each estate as well. I would just make sure they have to clear some level of debt for each one before they can receive the benefit. The greater the benefit, the more starting debt on the estate.

You might add a few of these ideas as well:


Mines with Mithral, Adamantine, or other rare materials. Price these metals exorbitantly high for everyone else, but he PC who own the mine can ge it 'at cost'.
Men-at-arms of various types. One of the earliest forms of payment to a liege-lord was military service - make good NPC followers, cohorts and such hard to come by unless you have an estate. An elven estate can provide elven archers while a dwarven estate might provide dwarven infantry.
Free transit - if you put up No Tresspassing signs and Toll Roads all over the place, having an estate somewhere that gives you access to frequently visited locations without having to pay would be helpful.
Wondrous beasts - access to good mounts, especially ones that are better than horses, could be a great benefit too.