How would you DM a players kingdom-building?

[loopy]

Hello all. In a D&D game I'm running at the moment, my player has expressed an interest in building a small village into a mighty kingdom. Now, as the setting I'm running is the 'points of light' style, so it really shouldn't be that much of a problem.

Have any of you ever done anything like this before? If so, how did you do it? Did you use maps and resources, or just kind of RP'd the advancement of the village/town/city as you went along?

I'd be very interested in suggestions as to how you could run 'nationbuilding' as part of a D&D campaign.

[Ozreth]

Is he staying in the village while the building all happens? Is he taking part in the building?

[Masaioh]

Before I say anything else, I'm not familiar with Points of Light.


I really don't see how it would be any different from normal RPing. Assuming your players are at a somewhat-high level, say 14+, they are powerful by themselves and they are already making decisions that affect hundreds, thousands or even millions of people.

[loopy]

Is he staying in the village while the building all happens? Is he taking part in the building?

Well so far its looking like he is going to get exiled from the kingdom along with a bunch of other subversives and sent to a far off land with only the tools needed to survive. Obviously, he'll want the people sent with him to thrive and prosper so he can take revenge on those that exiled him.

(Well, thats the plan, haha)

And he's planning on setting himself up as the leader of whatever village he ends up ruling, helping them grow, etc.

[Arutema]

Spoilers for anyone playing Pathfinder's Kingmaker adventure path:

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The above-mentioned Kingmaker adventure path has rules for just this kind of nation-building. City-building starts in the second module "Rivers Run Red." It should be easy to adapt those rules for your own use. Just be warned it sort of assumes you'll be skipping forward months at a time while things are built.

[Ravens_cry]

Spoilers for anyone playing Pathfinder's Kingmaker adventure path:

Spoiler

Show

The above-mentioned Kingmaker adventure path has rules for just this kind of nation-building. City-building starts in the second module "Rivers Run Red." It should be easy to adapt those rules for your own use. Just be warned it sort of assumes you'll be skipping forward months at a time while things are built.

Spoiler

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Also, if you don't want to spend the boodle to buy an adventure path for a fairly small part of the actual text, this may please.