Building a Town

[AmayaElls]

Our team is pretty keen on building ourselves a homestead and growing it into a town. However the pricing in the DMG doesn't really seem to support this.

Do you know any Homebrew that has an in depth list of costings? Do you know any that might also support the attracting of NPCs to a place who build their own things?

[Scathain]

The downtime section in the PHB (or DMG, AFB ATM) gives a good idea on time and money building the biggest of the things in your town, most likely. As a DM I'd use that as a basis for the rest of it. Perhaps a townhall is equivalent to a guildhall or something along those lines. Anything else you could scale up or down to your liking.

As for NPC's doing it, the downtime section also outlines how long it takes laborers to build without the PC's (I believe it takes double time). If that sounds about right, you're set.

As far as letting people know to come to the homestead? Not a clue. Perhaps put a gold amount and time (similar to downtime) to pass information around. Maybe give them a quest to get the favor of a person of importance to spread the word for them in the proper circles.

[Laereth]

Our team is pretty keen on building ourselves a homestead and growing it into a town. However the pricing in the DMG doesn't really seem to support this.

Do you know any Homebrew that has an in depth list of costings? Do you know any that might also support the attracting of NPCs to a place who build their own things?

The Kingmaker adventure path for Pathfinder (published by Paizo) contains rules that might interest you.

I believe they published an open version of those rules on the Pathfinder SRD.

[ClintACK]

1. Economics.

Open a business of some sort -- an iron mine, a lumber mill, a cattle ranch. Hire people. Give them land to build homes on and money to spend. Open a tavern. Hire caravaners to haul off what you produce. Then give it time. (This works especially well if you are of a long-lived race like elf, and you're willing to spend years on it.)

Honestly, if you're making enough money adventuring, you can skip the business part. Build a keep. Hire staff. Hire others to farm and build things. Trade with merchant caravans -- hire the caravans if you have to. Stake someone the money to open an inn. If you're spending cash, and paying above-market prices, people will come to take your money.


2. Refugees.

You know it's going to happen. Sometime in your adventuring career, there will be a community destroyed by orc raiders or ankhegs in the fields, or a nasty dragon infestation. Sometimes, the damage is just too extensive to rebuild. (Like -- after a serious green dragon breath attack, how long does it take before it's safe to grow crops again?)

Voila -- you want people to live near your keep, they want somewhere to live. Win, win.

Help them build (Wall of Stone, Move Earth, Fabricate, Conjure Elemental, Planar Ally... there are some really great spells to speed things up) -- spend some money -- watch your town grow.

3. Get granted title to a small village, as a reward after you save the kingdom. Then learn why that particular village was available to be given away. (Dun, dun, duuuun. Plot hook.) When the problem is solved, help them build, spend some money, watch your town grow.


But mostly, talk to your DM. And assume it will be very, very, very expensive. And hard work. But maybe not as dangerous as adventuring.

[RickAllison]

A good wizard or bard will go a LONG way towards accomplishing this goal. Wall of Stone can assemble in ten minutes what might take a team of laborers days or weeks, while Fabricate with appropriate skills allows for saving and making money on tools, locks, and anything else that is high-detail, low-volume work.

Druids can use Plant Growth to make your fields more productive (and attract farmers who want that), and anyone with Mold Earth can till the fields at record speeds. A rogue skilled at breaking into places can plan out the defenses by trying to break through them. Bearbarians can probably do the work of four commoners (double the Strength, doubled capacity from Bear) and thus accelerate the process. Rangers, Fighters and other martials without skills to help build can scout and clear the countryside. Monks can leverage their maneuverability to create a parkour post office. Warlocks make fantastic guardsmen, actually, as their spells are good for interacting with people and capturing nonlethally while their short rest capabilities and at-wills mean they are always ready for action.

Institute co-op programs to get other adventurers/useful NPCs to help. An academy of magic could bring in a generation of wizards ready to collaborate and advance your society, while also attracting clerics of Knowledge and Arcane domains as well as warlocks studying Eldritch lore. Bring in an order of Druids, Rangers, and Nature clerics by setting aside space for a nature reserve that you would like them to preserve as a beacon for the wonder and beauty of nature. Rogues are a little hard to cater to, but setting up an order of spymasters could be a fun and darker side of the world you make.

Maybe not what you were looking for, but some thoughts for building a town.

[Coidzor]

Are your characters making names for themselves? Is the location desirable or on a trade route?

If so, people are going to cluster near them naturally as they provide a good bit of protection/insurance against raiding/sacking the town.

[Fruitbat1919]

I believe all my retired PCs still live in a keep we built. I even made memorials for the ones that died in memorable ways - Jake, my first ever character. He was a fighter who lost many limbs and eventually died by being reformed inside a dungeon wall by a nasty lich. One day I may send an exhibition to bring that dungeon wall back and have his ghost come home to rest😛

Look out for many of the 1st and 2nd ed books on building, the money system is pretty much still the same in most books.

[Bharaeth]

Do you know any Homebrew that has an in depth list of costings? Do you know any that might also support the attracting of NPCs to a place who build their own things?

Here is a link to a bit of homebrew I found while looking for homebrew for building strongholds. I think there is some cross-over: https://geekchicery.me/2015/06/29/modular-stronghold-design-dd-5e/

Also, this isn't any of my work, so I can't claim credit, I just thought it was cool