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TurboGhast
2016-09-23, 04:47 PM
What ways are there to give the PCs a secret home base in a location of their choice quickly after they meet? I want to give them a base in a game I'm going to run soon, but also want them to not have meet before the game.

EDIT: Bolded "location of their choice" to emphasize that it's important.

Brookshw
2016-09-23, 07:49 PM
Boats, easy reason for them to be together but not know each other, mobile base. Don't know what your setup is but expeditions, starting as prisoners on a slavers ship, simple travel, short term jobs, plenty of various justifications to incorporate.

Arbane
2016-09-24, 01:21 AM
If the PCs clear some goblins/orcs/zombies out of a mostly-intact building, the local officials let them keep it?

Khedrac
2016-09-24, 01:53 AM
First and most important question - what is the game setting?

Should their base be a starship, a down-town office, a cave system, a forgotten cellar or a gypsy caravan?

Megaduck
2016-09-24, 02:57 AM
Most games assume the player wants a big complicated base like a giant castle and expect them to go for high level players with lots of money. It's easy to think smaller though.

Have them rent an apartment, house, or other structure like "Normal" people do in your game world.

Have them know the owner of an Inn, Bar, or Tavern. They pay a small fee a week, or even just chores and protection, and can use the top floor.

Have them take the place from someone else. There are plenty of reasons for the PC's to track the kidnappers, smugglers, thieves, ect back to their lair. Once the bloodstains are cleaned up the PC's can move in and take it themselves.

AMFV
2016-09-24, 03:13 AM
What ways are there to give the PCs a secret home base in a location of their choice quickly after they meet? I want to give them a base in a game I'm going to run soon, but also want them to not have meet before the game.

There is actually an old D&D adventure that works perfectly for this. In one of the Old Dungeon magazines. Basically you just have one of the players inherit a castle, give them an adventure that involves clearing out the ghosts and/or squatters living there. Possibly with a few secrets they have to find especially near the end. Then they have a base. you could even have one of the PCs hire the others to help clear out their castle, or have some sort of pre-existing relationship be a requirement.

Alternatively, you could have a local king reward them with a Castle and Land for one of their heroic deeds. Have an innkeeper who they've rescued will them his inn after he dies. Have a deed to local property contained in a treasure trove some place, that now the players have claim to.

Pugwampy
2016-09-24, 06:57 AM
Basically you just have one of the players inherit a castle

Hmm that would a nice surprise for one of the players . Not even started the game and someone owns a castle already . Have em all roll to see who wins todays jackpot . As a chaotic Dm i approve .

Haldir
2016-09-24, 10:34 AM
The sticking point I see is you want them to have it where they want. For that you'd probably need a patron or to offer them a sizable amount of currency.

PersonMan
2016-09-24, 10:37 AM
Not sure if it meets the "secret" requirement, but they could rent a room or more in some building in a city, under a false name, and use it as their base? Maybe even rent an entire building, given to them by someone for whom they did a big favor. Perhaps have a noble (or crime boss) miss a relative who they save during their first adventure, who then offers them some sort of token - a sort of "get a favor for this" bill, which they can give to someone else in exchange for access to rooms somewhere.

TurboGhast
2016-09-24, 10:48 AM
Thanks for the ideas so far, especially the note that it can start small.

Extra information that could help:

Game setting is entirely underwater, medieval-tech, moderate-magic fantasy.
Most of the societies in the setting aren't good places, and I'm expecting the base to be outside them.
I'd rather the base be immobile to make it feel more like a base instead of a vehicle.
Giving the PCs a choice in where the base is located is important because it makes the base more secure and reduces railroading.

Friv
2016-09-24, 11:15 AM
Depending on your group, you can always say, "Hey, guys, you're going to find a neat underwater base this session, and if you clear it out you can keep it. Have your characters explore whatever location it'll be in. Also, everyone give me one feature you'd like it to have. Don't go overboard. (Pardon the pun.)"

It breaks immersion briefly, yeah, but it's the fastest way to get the result you want. If your group is ardently opposed to immersion-breaking for any reason, obviously, this won't go so well.

TheFurith
2016-09-25, 05:32 PM
I know this is a long shot, but, did any of them happen to not be homeless? I mean, a house works okay, doesn't it?

Bohandas
2016-09-25, 06:10 PM
Drop a Daren's Instant Fortress as loot?

Fri
2016-09-26, 03:49 AM
I think someone else have mentioned this, but use how KOTOR give the player their base (the Ebon Hawk ship).

Like, in KOTOR at the end of the first planet you end up stealing the ship from a crime overlord, and that ship serve as your base from then on.

Have their first adventure, to somehow result in getting this base. What their first adventure depends on your game idea and the base idea.

Kitten Champion
2016-09-26, 05:02 AM
https://entresabanasyalmohadas.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/dxjv.gif?w=470

Red Fel
2016-09-26, 10:01 AM
https://entresabanasyalmohadas.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/dxjv.gif?w=470

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/nanatsu-no-taizai/images/9/9d/Hawk's_Mother_digging.gif

Yes. That's a tavern strapped to the back/head of a giant green pig.

Segev
2016-09-26, 10:53 AM
Give them a submarine that is malfunctioning to the point that it's going to crash...soon. They have a small period of time to pick where, before it becomes an immobile base structure.

Let them capture a giant underwater spider that they can use to construct a web-based base.

Give them a base on the Astral plane with a gate they can construct in a location of their choosing. Possibly from the base-side of the gate using a map.

Create a number of small dungeons ideal for the purpose and let them pick one (less location choice, but still choices).

Bohandas
2016-09-26, 10:59 AM
In Temple of Elemental Evil (or at least the computer adaptation) there's a quest given by an innkeeper early in the game that gives a free room at the inn as a reward for successful completion

Storm_Of_Snow
2016-09-26, 11:04 AM
How about a sunken ship that's intact enough to maintain air pressure (or has some magical shield to keep the water out while still allowing the PCs to go through it), and some magical device that refreshes the oxygen in the air?

JAL_1138
2016-09-26, 11:49 AM
None of the suggestions involving water will ever get a properly paranoid PC anywhere near them under any circumstances. Grognards particularly will avoid them like the plague. Actually, not like the plague. More than the plague. Plague is much safer than water. The Nine Hells are safer. The Tomb of Horrors is safer. WATER = BAD.

Segev
2016-09-26, 11:51 AM
None of the suggestions involving water will ever get a properly paranoid PC anywhere near them under any circumstances. Grognards particularly will avoid them like the plague. Actually, not like the plague. More than the plague. Plague is much safer than water. The Nine Hells are safer. The Tomb of Horrors is safer. WATER = BAD.

The campaign is underwater. Hence all these suggestions involving it.

JAL_1138
2016-09-26, 12:09 PM
The campaign is underwater. Hence all these suggestions involving it.

Ah, missed that. Still, a sufficiently-paranoid grognard will find a way to avoid water in an underwater campaign.

Asmotherion
2016-09-26, 12:17 PM
New recruits in an organisation perhaps?
Or you could just allow them to build a base. Maybe one of the PCs has a home and is willing to share it as a home base?

If you have a Wizard in the party, by level 13 you won't need one any way... You'll have Mordenkainen's Mansion for that; All the luxury of a Villa, in one spell.

MintyNinja
2016-09-26, 12:19 PM
A one use item that summons a Permanent Mordenkainen's Moderate Manse? Basically a smaller version of Magnificent Mansion that doesn't go away. Your players can even design it.

EDIT: Semi-Ninja'd.

Red Fel
2016-09-26, 12:19 PM
Ah, missed that. Still, a sufficiently-paranoid grognard will find a way to avoid water in an underwater campaign.

This.

Their home base is a small, abandoned ruin in a cavern. Plop it in a cavern that happens to be wherever they choose to explore. Aside from the watery entrance, the ruined city is entirely dry, enjoying the benefits of a trapped bubble of air which, while a bit stale, is nonetheless supported by luminescent moss or other cave plants capable of generating oxygen. Elsewhere, the cavern houses entirely airtight vehicles and armors that completely negate the risk of drowning, swimming, or even touching water ever again.

icefractal
2016-09-26, 12:49 PM
They come into possession of a castle seed, which is a powerfully enchanted fist-sized piece of coral. When brought in contact with stone for an hour, it will grow incredibly rapidly, reaching the size of a hut within a day, a decent-sized house within a week, and then continues growing (although more slowly); some seeds planted centuries ago have grown into huge structures the size of cities.

Erit
2016-09-26, 01:25 PM
I'd rather the base be immobile to make it feel more like a base instead of a vehicle.

Consider something like the Grandship from Bravely Default. Giant boat that can easily hold an entire town, but it's busted up on a sandbar and so can't move. This also gives you the option of letting them fix it up at some point if you get the desire to open up the campaign world. Segev's suggestion of an imminently-crashing submarine also works if you can find a way to justify it in the low-tech-mid-magic setting.

jindra34
2016-09-26, 01:35 PM
Or the simple option of having some high on their horse noble commission a residence for them after some questioning.

JAL_1138
2016-09-26, 02:30 PM
This.

Their home base is a small, abandoned ruin in a cavern. Plop it in a cavern that happens to be wherever they choose to explore. Aside from the watery entrance, the ruined city is entirely dry, enjoying the benefits of a trapped bubble of air which, while a bit stale, is nonetheless supported by luminescent moss or other cave plants capable of generating oxygen. Elsewhere, the cavern houses entirely airtight vehicles and armors that completely negate the risk of drowning, swimming, or even touching water ever again.

This would be an excellent start, but airtight vehicles and suits can spring leaks or get crushed by pressure. And sadly, drowning or swimming aren't the only dangers. The monsters are even more dangerous, on their own as enemies but all the more so because of the restrictions water places on combat. There are krakens that can tear your ship in half and cast spells, brine dragons that can breathe corrosion, dragon turtles big enough to be mistaken for islands. You can't use bows underwater, can't build up the speed to swing a bludgeoning or slashing weapon effectively, leaving you with melee piercing weapons (unless pressurized launchers or self-propelling torpedoes have been invented). You'll have difficulty (at least) casting most spells, and won't be able to cast some at all. Facing an Aboleth on its home turf surf, in the water? No thank you.

If the Underdark exists in the setting, you could maybe tunnel into it, travel that way, and emerge where you need to go (being extremely careful only to breach the seabed in air pockets, like caverns such as the one described or in magically-protected cities, lest you die in the ensuing flood if you breach into the ocean). Or perhaps you could travel through the ethereal or astral planes. You could take the branches of Yggdrasil or walk the Infinite Staircase. Teleportation might be another possibility.

Kitten Champion
2016-09-26, 02:43 PM
Make it a really big whale!

https://cloudedanime.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/flying-witch-11-11-whale-city.jpg


If you want it static, it plops down near 'em and goes to sleep. Will remain so for a good while.

Frozen_Feet
2016-09-26, 02:52 PM
A fisherman's hut on some small isle.

A hollowed-out iceberg.

A shipwreck in the shallows.

A cavern in a coral reef.

A pocket of air under some island.

A building in a sunken city.

Nest of a sea beaver.

The abandoned shell of a giant oyster/shellfish/hermit crab/what have you.

Belly of a giant whale.

Bohandas
2016-09-27, 11:39 PM
Make it a really big whale!

https://cloudedanime.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/flying-witch-11-11-whale-city.jpg



Would it be shaped like a land animal then?

Kitten Champion
2016-09-28, 02:46 AM
Would it be shaped like a land animal then?

Oh good point, a giant pangolin!

Bulhakov
2016-09-28, 06:31 AM
"Magic dollhouse artifact" - a magic item similar to a bag-of-holding my players really liked using in one of the campaigns I ran. It's a 1ftx1ft solid crystal cube with a large handle. Holding on to the handle and speaking a key-word teleports a person to the extradimensional house inside that is made up of 18 small rooms that are 9x9ft each, connected by doors and ladders. The rooms are in typical japanese style, with tatami floors and paper walls. If someone pokes a hole in the outside wall they see a large crystal wall that is slightly transparent and shows a very blurred image of the real world from the perspective of someone tiny.

The artifact seems quite fragile, but when set on a piece of bedrock, the house blends with it and becomes nigh indestructible (this was to discourage players from carrying it around constantly, and instead moving it as a temporary base from location to location).

My players loved experimenting with it and figuring out how it works. For example the air in the house runs out after about a day for a group of 10 persons, but fully "refreshes" instantly if there are no large living beings inside (the refresh also kills and mummifies any bugs/insects/rodents that were inside, as well as dries out organic matter such as food, unless it was sealed in an air-tight container). Any objects carried by a character touching the handle are also moved inside, as well as living beings that are being touched (so it is possible, though not comfortable, to use the building as a temporary stable).