Suggestions for making house-buying meaningful

[PhoenixPhyre]

Note: this is in homebrew because I want mechanical effects--how can I make different home bases different?

So my players are at the point where they're thinking of finding a home base. They have the following assets:

A big favor from the official organized crime organization
A big favor coming from the local government
Quite a bit of cash



How can I give them a meaningful side-quest (at least 1 session) of finding/buying/acquiring a home base? I'm thinking of giving them a choice (suggestions as to mechanical differences would be great) between the following:

A townhouse. No cost (paid for with the favors), no special benefits.
A fancy manor. Higher cost and upkeep, benefits ?????
An abandoned tower/fort. Requires clearing out and some refitting expense, but great benefits.


What can I do to make the higher cost ones worth it? The party loves to RP and aren't especially gear focused.

[LIST=1]
High elf arcane trickster rogue. Charlatan background, lots of false identities (mainly as a nobleman).
Human druid. Hermit (I think) background. Religious.
Half-elf GOO warlock. Slightly insane and power-seeking. Good heart, but plays bad cop a lot.
Wood elf Open Hand Monk. Only sane (wo)man most of the time.

[SilverStud]

I am a big fan of home bases! It is super fun as a DM to prepare one I know they'll love then watch them discover it.

What level of magic do you have in this world?

Anyway, to answer your question:

The players will find their choices only as meaningful as they are useful. My suggestion?

Give them two options that have different bells and whistles but are equally good. Make their choice difficult. Make them give up something good to have the other good thing.



For instance, they could choose between the townhouse and the ruined tower.

Pros of Townhouse

House is in rich neighborhood, and brings prestige
House comes with highly skilled servants who can perform many functions
House has secret passages leading out of town and to a criminal meetingplace
House has no repair costs


Pros of Ruined Tower (once renovated)

Tower is difficult to assault, due to its outer defenses
Tower has ample room for mercenaries and other servants
Tower has a dungeon for storing bad guys
Tower has many traps that can be activated if the bad guys get in


This way they are choosing between military power and social power, basically. Both places should have high upkeep costs, and you should absolutely have events and important things happen at whichever they pick. Give them a chance to host dinner parties at their townhouse, or have an orc contingent attack the tower. If they never get to use their special features, then they will never see the point.

Also, these are just examples. Make sure you tailor them to your party.

[PhoenixPhyre]

I am a big fan of home bases! It is super fun as a DM to prepare one I know they'll love then watch them discover it.

What level of magic do you have in this world?


Mixed. Relatively high spell-casters, but low on permanent magical items. Certainly no magic-mart. The tower would have the possibility of workshops/magic items/etc since all the ones that exist are remnants of earlier time.



Anyway, to answer your question:

The players will find their choices only as meaningful as they are useful. My suggestion?

Give them two options that have different bells and whistles but are equally good. Make their choice difficult. Make them give up something good to have the other good thing.



For instance, they could choose between the townhouse and the ruined tower.

Pros of Townhouse

House is in rich neighborhood, and brings prestige
House comes with highly skilled servants who can perform many functions
House has secret passages leading out of town and to a criminal meetingplace
House has no repair costs


Pros of Ruined Tower (once renovated)

Tower is difficult to assault, due to its outer defenses
Tower has ample room for mercenaries and other servants
Tower has a dungeon for storing bad guys
Tower has many traps that can be activated if the bad guys get in


This way they are choosing between military power and social power, basically. Both places should have high upkeep costs, and you should absolutely have events and important things happen at whichever they pick. Give them a chance to host dinner parties at their townhouse, or have an orc contingent attack the tower. If they never get to use their special features, then they will never see the point.

Also, these are just examples. Make sure you tailor them to your party.

Thanks! I'll take these thoughts into consideration.

[Phantos_Argent]

A few years ago I did an airship heavy Pathfinder campaign with a similar idea. Rather than the type of house providing benefits, each house could have a different number of additions depending on size and construction. High construction, which admittedly made more sense in regards to airships, provided the flat bonus to each addition with the cost being size + construction x 1500. The size was set between small (1 room, 1 sideroom) to gigantic (28 full rooms) and six sizes in between those two. They could have a number of additions equal to 2 x size. Each addition had a set amount to install and half that amount to upgrade. I think it was 1000 gold to install and 500 to upgrade, though the additions themselves had their own costs.

As I lost the doc a while ago, here are just a few additions.
Forge
Construction bonus added to craft arms and armor.
Upgraded Forge, Magic
Grants the Craft Magical Arms and Armor feat to any who qualify for it and work in that forge. Limited to +1 bonuses.
Upgraded Forge, Grand Magic
No longer a limit on magical arms and armor bonuses.
Shrine
Adds construction bonus on divine healing spells while inside. Limited to one deity.
Improved Shrine
Adds double construction bonus to all healing spells.
Improved Shrine
Clerics may cast divine spells as if they were 1 level higher while inside.
Alchemy Lab
Construction bonus added to Craft Alchemy checks.
Improved Alchemy Lab
Potions crafted there add construction bonus to all effects.
Improved Alchemy Lab
Reduces the material cost of alchemy by 1/2.