So I am thinking about a campaign I am doing(3.5)

[slaydemons]

This campaign is about settling islands, do you guys think I should work hard to flush out the mechanic or keep it simple. Also besides stronghold builders guide is there any sort of good book that is about making villages or fortified places and such?

Edit: upon intimidate thought I decided to keep it simple for sanities sake
Edit2: also would make a campaign journal if players were a bit more serious

[Kazudo]

Well, DMG and (I think) DMG2 have a few things to say about it, as well as (again, IIRC) Stormwrack, but really the Stronghold Builder's Guide has the best slap-together of various rules needed for that kind of thing. Now, a magical item that I created to facilitate the players' occasional need to kick doors in and get mad lewtz and buy stuff was actually a Window of the Settler, which was a small magical circle no more than, say, two feet in diameter made of a magical material native only to their homeland that, when activated, held open a very selective portal to wherever the other Window was connected permitting the transfer of any nonliving material through it. Plant matter was still permitted, as was nonliving organic material (I fudged the rules a bit, sure). It was fluffed as a method of keeping commerce alive as well as transferring any nonliving specimens of newly discovered creatures through the window, without the risk of any exceptionally dangerous creatures being able to get through and cause havoc. They were low level, and no high level wizards would DARE go on such a risky venture, so there was no real possibility of any of the Gate extrapolations coming up.

Other than that, each ship was followed by a cargo ship that had "prefabricated buildings" on it that were easily put up and constructed until real buildings could be built. They were too flimsy to stand up to a real storm and were very small and uncomfortable (not to mention flammable). We did some really interesting island hopping, balancing the RTS and RPG elements pretty easily until one day their cargo ship was attacked by a Kraken and destroyed, leaving them to have to pretty much settle the next island without any home comforts. It was a good game until half of the players graduated.