Stronghold/town help

[tim01300]

So soon I'm going to be starting an evil pathfinder campaign. Part of what I'm hoping to do is give my players a rundown tower or stronghold early on that they can upgrade as the campaign progresses. I'm also planning on them taking over a nearby town.

So I'm looking for help with ideas or maybe a system for doing upgrades with the tower. Like forges, fighting pits, laboratory, better walls, defenses. I know there is a book with the stats but I worry that if I just have the players exchange large sums of gold it will hurt the economy balance of the game (some players spending all their coin on stronghold while others buy items).
I toyed with the thought that players cant get certain items except from upgrading their tower, to encourage them to want to all contribute. But I'm unsure. Any ideas?

Secondly is the town. Its going to start out with the players sorta strong arming their way in charge. I don't really need help here, but any ideas on what they can do with the town, directions, perks, would be helpful.

If it helps the players are fairly new to the game, pretty vanilla, about a years worth of playing experience.

[Fizban]

You say upgrade the tower, but you can't upgrade things without money. Pathfinder has a whole convoluted system of resources that basically just translates to jumping through a bunch of hoops in order to double the value of your money, at which point you then buy the upgrades (there's also a bunch of other problems with it, such as how everything is dirt cheap).

All you need to do is give the players money that can only be spent on the stronghold. DnD has the Stronghold Builder's Guide, which also includes the Landlord feat, which does this exactly. The Landlord feat cab be explained similarly to Leadership, in that the character is held in such esteem by the locals that they give materials and labor to improve the stronghold without a significant expectation of compensation.

As for what the stronghold can do for them, not actually much. A big stone building full of soldiers is a mundane defense against war and has little or nothing to do with adventuring. The sorts of settlement upgrades you see in video games are simply unnecessary in DnD, and would make even less sense than they do in their respective games. There's no such thing as a magical forge that makes better weapons, and making one up is what will break the economy. The only thing you need to make items is a caster that can make items and a room with basic tools.

What do the PCs get by controlling a stronghold? A house to decorate as they see fit. A base where followers and hirelings can be stationed, and be reasonably well defended against foes of similar level to their own. A place to store their stuff. Since they're evil, your players will probably want to tax-gouge the peasants, making the stronghold a source of income they can abuse for personal gain at the expense of their citizenry.