How do you get your PCs to "take root"?

[PeaceThroughWar]

I used to DM wayyy back in AD&D.. I've joined a group and am about to start DMing in an almost completely homebrewed world... (5th Edition)

Big Bad just sent a comet crashing to earth to "seed" the planet for infestation. Horror campaign. Heavy Far Realm influence complete with Sanity scores and a homebrewed Great Old One. The comet landed in a large cove a mile or so off the coast of the city which will be featured mainly through the campaign. (Levels 1 - 20)...

I plan to have this city be the major focal point of the campaign complete with it getting attacked and half of it getting destroyed... I want to have it be the jumping off point for when the characters are high enough level to approach the comet. (Level 10+ at least).

Now my question.. after all of that description... How would you experienced DMs... short of OOC... convince the party to build houses and eventually a castle in this city?

[raygun goth]

Really, everyone wants to get out of Midgar as soon as possible and there's a lot of frustration packed into that first disk.

However. Honestly? Give them land, friends, relationships in this city (not forcibly, mind you) - make some shopkeepers with names who are generally nice and like the PCs, give them people to meet and stay with. Give them friends with names. Lots of names. That always seems to work for me.

[Thinker]

Players want rewards for doing things. Even if it's not meaningful, the reward has to feel meaningful. So, create a rewards system.

Keep in mind that rewards typically do one of the following:

Improve the character in some way mechanically (XP, character points, skill bonus, etc.)
Enrich characters in some way (loot)
Give the players new options during conflict (a reach weapon instead of an unarmed attack, a crossbow instead of a reach weapon)
Give the players single-use effects (action points/fate points/etc)

So, if the players build or purchase houses, give them an XP boost per session if they slept in the house. If they get married, give them a boost to a skill based on the primary skill of their spouse. If they purchase or open a business, give them a new combat option based on the type of business (an herbalist might grant +1d4 HP when healing; a blacksmith might offer +1 AC). If they're held in high esteem within the community, grant them a bonus action point. If the nobility likes them, give a new option for action points (like being able to modify the scene in some way - fighting on a cliff, Reginald spends an action point and now there are rocks falling everywhere).

[sktarq]

A few ideas

Offer loot options - a smaller highly liquid option (gems, magic items, gold pieces) or a large ill-liquid option (lands, favors at court, noble rights)

Mini games between adventures. Take five minutes to ask what they do in downtime. Perhaps giving different advantages in the main adventure depending on their actions. Make these mini adventures -a social scene or couple questions. Directed at how they interact with the town/townies. Write up a random "encounter" table that has things like "a suitor approches", "a cleric asks you to give a sermon on the dangers of dark one corruption" etc that each player rolls on (most not getting one every time)

Leave the stronghold builder guide (or any addition equivalent) on the table for people to leaf through in down time

Have people who cannot pay gold but have an interesting lead on some dark one influence offer shares in their company or a discount on future supplies (of say steel ingots which would incentize setting up a business)

When building characters promote the craft/profession skills so that the players see the characters as more than murder/hobos. If not starting at first level perhaps offer/demand a build with NPC focus.

[LudicSavant]

I used to DM wayyy back in AD&D.. I've joined a group and am about to start DMing in an almost completely homebrewed world... (5th Edition)

Big Bad just sent a comet crashing to earth to "seed" the planet for infestation. Horror campaign. Heavy Far Realm influence complete with Sanity scores and a homebrewed Great Old One. The comet landed in a large cove a mile or so off the coast of the city which will be featured mainly through the campaign. (Levels 1 - 20)...

I plan to have this city be the major focal point of the campaign complete with it getting attacked and half of it getting destroyed... I want to have it be the jumping off point for when the characters are high enough level to approach the comet. (Level 10+ at least).

Now my question.. after all of that description... How would you experienced DMs... short of OOC... convince the party to build houses and eventually a castle in this city?

One option: Give them the deed to a really cool dungeon environment they cleared out, and then give it consequences of ownership.

[Vonwalt]

Pitch it as a city campaign. Tell the players before you start that it's going to primarily take place in and around the city

[jqavins]

Give them land, friends, relationships in this city (not forcibly, mind you) - make some shopkeepers with names who are generally nice and like the PCs, give them people to meet and stay with. Give them friends with names. Lots of names. That always seems to work for me.

Mini games between adventures. Take five minutes to ask what they do in downtime. Perhaps giving different advantages in the main adventure depending on their actions. Make these mini adventures -a social scene or couple questions. Directed at how they interact with the town/townies. Write up a random "encounter" table that has things like "a suitor approches", "a cleric asks you to give a sermon on the dangers of dark one corruption" etc that each player rolls on (most not getting one every time)
In other words, if you want them to make a life in the city, give them a city with life.

And here's another idea. Start with having the characters created with more of a back story than "I came from a farm two towns over to seek my fortune." Which town? What did you raise on the farm? Have a large family? Why did you want to go? What was life like in your local village? Don't ask the players to write a book, just let them know that you expect a little bit of flavor.

Then, enlist the aid of one amenible player, and give him or her a back story with roots in the city. Perhaps a business that's been in the family for generations. Or her family are minor nobles. Or he came to the city as a refugee from a foreign war, and feels a deep gratitude for the new life he was given. Something that gives this one character a pre-existing anchor in the city. Then, assuming the party sticks together, they share that anchor. If another player starts with roots in the city too (without your collusion) there's no harm done by the scheme; it just means there are more than one.

[Aedilred]

Plan a highly and intricately detailed campaign which involves the PCs travelling from one end of the world to the other, never staying in one place for too long, pursuing foes night and day, strewn with well-fleshed-out NPCs. Create lots of maps and detailed encounters for this campaign, and scatter clues throughout the early sessions that this is the intention.

Then put in a single throwaway plot hook for a minor sidequest that will involve the PCs staying in the city where they started, bumming around doing nothing in particular but with the opportunity to grind up their power and wealth level with much less apparent effort than going anywhere else, and can continue doing so indefinitely.

Or, more sensibly, follow the advice of the people above.

[TheFamilarRaven]

It's a city, right? Shouldn't there already be houses for them to buy?

In my experience, if players are going to be spending a LOT of time in a certain area, they're going to want a base of operations.

It goes something like this, PC: "Sure, the local Inn is quaint, but godDAMN! I have a baddass floating fortress of freakin' doom!" :smallcool:

As an example, I once ran a 3,5 campaign (levels 1-13ish) that took place in around a city called New Velok. By level three, the PC's decided to call themselves the Z-TEAM (because they were the last rezort). By level eight, they decided that they needed a base of operations, despite being on very good terms with the innkeeper (free rooms for life practically, IIRC), so they requested land in loo of a monetary reward for a quest.

Another campaign, (same players), featured them buying back an inn that previously belonged to a PC's mother. It was called the "Golden Stallion". Their next project was to buy another inn called the "Pristine Tuna". Which they did, and then the renamed it the "Golden Tuna". Then they proceeded to open up inn all over the freaking continent. "The Golden dragon", "Golden Lotus", etc. They even agreed to end a war because they wanted to build the equivalent of a cruise ship called the "Golden Narwhal". None of these purchases had ANYTHING to do with the plot, ('cept for the last one).

you could argue that only those players are prone to doing that sort of stuff. But I've played with other groups that tend to gravitate towards wanting land.

Property is like loot. As I think it was said above, it is a form of enriching a character. Nothing makes the players feel more powerful than giving them the ability to influence the world. And being landowners is a good way for them to get that influence So I think it's natural for PC's want a home base.

As far as your campaign goes. If your players are the kind of players that prefer to get the quest, run through the dungeon and profit. Then having a local reagent task them with clearing out an old, nearby fortress so that the army can use it to defend against the Horrible Beings from Beyondtm, then task them with running it, that should be enough to satisfy both you and the players.

If it's more of a sand boxy campaign. Then drop clues that the PC's should claim said castle. Have rumors pop up about the abandoned castle. Mention that it's built in a strategic position. Note the geography around it that adds to it's defense/importance. You should probably have like 10 clues because PC's will only remember like, 2 :smalltongue:

edit: You mentioned the PC's having sanity points. So maybe another form of encouragement is to have "spending time in a safe, secure, a friendly place" be a means for PC's to regain sanity.

[jqavins]

It depends a great deal on the players and their general tendencies. I was in a group that got word of a cave infested with monsters (was it goblins? Orcs? Kobolds? Lizard men? Whatever.) that were launching attacks on the surrounding area within our home city's soverign region. Before storming in, we checked the city's records to see who owned the land with the cave, and bought it. Then when we went in, we were legally evicting the monsters. Once it was done we brought in builders and turned the whole place into a secure home base. The DM really wasn't expecting that, but went with it hapily; he ally was tickled by the whole thing.

My point is, if your players are inclined to put down rootss they will and if they don't want to they won't. I stand by my earlier statements about how to nudge them in that direction, but ultimately it's only up to them.

[unglitteringold]

Well, it depends on your party. Most of the time all I have to tell my players is, "I mean, you could, but it probably won't work," and they will dedicate their very souls (sometimes literally in game) to proving me wrong. My party is the petulant type, so they're looking for the obstacles to overcome.
If you have a similar party, I would recommend something of the following:
1 - at least one or two players *from* the city, one perhaps lived there as a child (nostalgia) and one more recently (dead family members/vengeance are good).
2 - build some low level encounters with a gang of a-holes stealing people's houses as they try to rebuild.
3 - in the process of doing these adventures, they come across a couple abandoned homes in severe need of repair
4 - quests to rebuild the homes helps add investment in the houses
5 - THREATEN THE HOUSES SO HARD! Mwahahahaha!

[kopout]

Make sure to water them immediately after transplant and frequently over the following few days.

[Talion]

Having things that the players themselves are attached to in the city is a useful option, including family, their personal history, their existing workplace, and other factors, but may not solve all of the issues in getting them to settle down there/use it as their base. Which means we go into the economic and logistic sides of things:

If the party starts to build up before the city gets damaged, the damage done to their homes, friends, and livelihoods will certainly get them adventuring. They may not want to come back. However:

1. With a large part of the city destroyed, land prices in the area are going to drop. It's a known risk area and things will likely only get worse. This, in addition to anything they may have already spent (and preferably have some means of proving ownership to) means they can come into a lot of territory.

2. As major landowners, they now have a vested interest in keeping the town alive. As they deal with the threat, there will be three primary things happening. The town will continue to be damaged. The common folk will, if possible, likely flee to safer areas. Finally, mercenaries, heroes, and assorted other combative folk will move towards town smelling profit/a chance to do good. Or ill. The overall population will likely take a hit, but once the threat is over the city will most likely recover, barring special circumstances.

3. The original city clearly wasn't prepared for this assault. This will create distrust in the government unless it acts quickly to do something. This, again, has multiple possibilities but can be generalized into 1) they will try to deal with the threat themselves, and likely fail, which will cause even more discontent, leading to 2) offering a sizable reward for anyone able to repel or remove the threat. This reward doesn't have to be specifically money. This could be more land, titles, taxation exceptions, and other, less tangible benefits, in any combination.

4. With a little negotiation, the party should be able to set themselves up with a sizable prize dangling in front of them. However, with money off the table (it is likely being used to fund other, less capable mercenaries and deal with the housing, food, and medical crisis) they are now setting themselves up to become permanent citizens of the city.

5. Once the threat is over, the party may consider selling out and moving elsewhere. This would actually be against their best interests:

As part of the city, their base/castle and surrounding territories produce the opportunity to generate tax revenue for themselves. This requires minimal effort for the players, while creating a steady flow of coin.

Depending on negotiations, part or all of the maintenance for the castle and surrounding territories by be dealt with by the government, though this will come with at least a slight fee in the form of a tax.

As the city recovers economically they'll be able to rent out or sell their accumulated land to others, generating even more revenue. The value will scale relative to the population growth, which may be quite explosive.

As part of the city, it has some obligation to aid in the city's defense. However, the city also has an obligation to defend the castle, assuring a bit of mutual protection you wouldn't see in an isolated super fortress. Functionally, they would have their combined powers and resources as a party, plus that of a growing city that is/was attracting adventurers of all levels.

They'll have actual political power relative to their holdings, which again works in their favor in the form of tax negotiations, preferential treatment in trade, getting the attention of prominent figures, and so on. This will require some amount of work on their part, since they'll technically be part of the government at that point, but it grants additional benefits. While this might not seem much as level 20, it means that they can save their real power for things that require it, and send other people to deal with matters too trivial for them. This also means they'll have access to the local guilds/schools and their respective abilities (such as getting a free spells from apprentice mages or young clerics in exchange for some advise or even nothing at all, if not a reduced cost).

If the government seems like a problem at this point, though it really shouldn't, they're also poised for a hostile takeover. This will put a lot more work into their hands, but gives them the political clout of the entire region, as well as ownership of its resources. In either case, they also have the reputation and backing to be able to marry into or be formally inducted into other government families, which would also increase their holdings further.

All in all, it's very lucrative, if they're willing to play the game.

[jqavins]

Having things that the players themselves are attached to in the city is a useful option, including family, their personal history, their existing workplace, and other factors, but may not solve all of the issues in getting them to settle down there/use it as their base. Which means we go into the economic and logistic sides of things:

If the party starts to build up before the city gets damaged, the damage done to their homes, friends, and livelihoods will certainly get them adventuring. They may not want to come back. However:

1. With a large part of the city destroyed, land prices...
This is an excellent analysis. The fly in the ointment is that adventurers (and their players) often do not act in their own economic best interests. They'd rather be free to fight the next dragon or whatever without being tied down. They often know that this is not in the economic best interest, but consciously and rationally choose to give that up for something that will make them happier.

So the key isn't how to make putting down roots the logically best move, but to make it the most desirable move. That is, it's not enough to make then oughta, you have to make them wanna. Strike that; you can't make them wanna, the best you can do is give them a setup in which they're likely to wanna. For some, their economic best interest will do that, but my gut feeling is that it won't for most.

[sktarq]

Another thing-don't talk too much about otther places as a possible adventure site. Let the players know that investment in the city won't be rendered worthless by suddenly needing to up and move.