What makes a good party base of operations?

[Templarkommando]

Exactly like the title says. I'm curious what sorts of bases of operations your parties have had in your campaigns? Or what do you think would just be a spiffy pad for your adventurers to hang out in?

Here's my list:

On a small boat usually anchored in a port.
A casino
A former robber baron's manorial estate
The cliche`- A tavern

[Traab]

The cavern in which you recently evicted a tribe of troublesome kobolds. Leave the traps intact to avoid unwanted guests, just remember where they are. :p

[gbprime]

• A townhouse, near the mage's guild with the teleportation circle network
• An airship
• A ruined manor house they cleared out and started repairing

[kaomera]

Best one I've seen yet: the moon.

[Silva Stormrage]

A stronghold. Funded through the landlord feat . You can get quite impressive keeps if the entire party takes that + leadership and has their cohort take landlord

[kieza]

A few of my campaigns have involved the players setting up a base of operations. In one, they took over protecting a small town and keep after kicking out the previous landlords, a cabal of opportunistic wizards. They rebuilt the neglected defenses, trained a militia, and started trade negotiations with neighboring towns. The tower itself, which is where the party stayed, had a teleport circle, and alchemist's lab, and a library that the party wizard kept adding to. And there was a worn-out golem in the basement, which the party spent a while refurbishing.

In another, which was set in a city, one of the players got a really nice apartment cheap after he laid the ghost of a former tenant to rest. It didn't have a lot of amenities, but the party decided to use it as a headquarters, although the rest of the party lived elsewhere. This was a campaign with more intrigue, so they put up some anti-scrying and anti-teleportation spells, put an Arcane Lock on the door, and then researched a ward that was intended to knock out anyone who broke in. I think they might even have had a couple of Leomund's Secret Chests in the closet, too.

For a while, a third party had access to an airship--it wasn't theirs, but the government that owned it put it at their disposal once or twice. It had the teleport circle-library-lab combo (small scale but effective), and it also had cannon and a cargo bay that the party once airdropped out of using potions of Feather Fall. At the end of the campaign, they worked out a way to teleport it to the Feywild, and then (as it was pretty badly damaged) couldn't figure out how to get it back.

[suhkkaet]

A wagon (well, more like a huge trailer), pulled by two Gorgons (MMI, they had been given a lobotomy, and were therefore more like huge oxes).

Inside were both a library and an alchemist's lab (with suspensions to avoid shaking), and a room for my druid to do (close to) whatever.

It was awesome.

Edit:
Later in the campaign, we had some wizards make us a private plane.

[Knaight]

1) A large military space station that was usually in orbit around a white dwarf.
2) A well garrisoned keep with several villages under its protection.
3) A walled city that included some land used for agriculture.
4) A cave, full of mammoth furs and with numerous paintings.

[DoctorGlock]

You want something inconspicuous and well defended, this is what I have used over the years

1) Space Station (D&D 3.5)
2) Transdimensional Bar & Grill/Divine Realm, complete with flashing neon signs and no defenses. Seriously, if you thought about the place any door you open could lead right in. (D&D 3.5)
3) Genesis Demiplane (D&D 3.5)
4) Arby's (D20 modern)
5) We also squatted in an abandoned apartment after clearing out hobos in d20 modern

[Tengu_temp]

A magitech police station.

A futuristic police station.

A military base crossed with a small city located on a remote island.

A giant plane that doubles as the carrier for the party's mecha.


I really like when the party has some place that they can call home. Bonus points if that place actually can move on its own.

[TheCountAlucard]

Let's see...

Ancient metropolis built by our past incarnations, buried in the sands for over a thousand years, powered by a giant robot in desperate need of maintenance, and surrounded on all sides by roiling chaos (Exalted, we spruced up the place a bit, of course)
Hunting lodge sitting atop a cloud (3.5, though the PCs eventually ended up selling it)
Abandoned mining facility that dug too deep and unleashed unspeakable horrors (Exalted, after some necessary pest control was done)
The 24-hour fort (3.5, basically all the party casters devoted their higher-level spell slots to "Wall of Stone")
A massive black fortress-manse, constructed on the back of a miles-tall, half-dead behemoth enslaved to the will of its owner, staffed by armies of war-ghosts and Oblivion-maddened nephwracks (Also Exalted, though we never actually took it for ourselves... )
A handsome apartment complex, with high-end Matrix security set up by the party hacker/rigger, and literally more trideo channels than our street sam could count (Shadowrun, was a fairly nice place)

[Flaming Nun]

Best one I've ever run - one of the PCs was the owner of a bar/strip-joint. However, he was an illusionist, and to cut down on costs, all of the girls were illusionary.

...and because he wasn't human - snakeman naga type - he got the anatomy of them wrong. The only customers he ever had were unsavories who were looking to talk where no one was likely to be there to listen.

The first session adventure hook was, "We have to go pay his property taxes." Strangely enough, that was one of my more successful campaigns.

[Anderlith]

An old keep on the riverfront that the party personally cleared enemies out of.
An instant fortress with all of the things you need.
An airship.
The TARDIS.

[boomwolf]

Inside an overly sized party member...

[Seharvepernfan]

What makes a good party base of operations?

That I can think of:

-a place they "own" (whatever that means)
-somewhere well defended and/or hidden
-that is accessible to the pcs but hard for others to get into
-where they can rest/craft/hide/store stuff

What kind of places? A dungeon works pretty well...

However, as a few have already said:
-a covered wagon
-a ship
-an airship
-a space station
-a demi-plane

Personally, I've always had this idea that a high level/epic party of adventurer's having a tricked out airship that has a portal back to their tricked out flying tower/castle/island (or all three). All of which is hidden and protected by magic, guardian beasts, servants, etc.

(I thought I was unique for having thought up a space station dungeon )

[Knaight]

(I thought I was unique for having thought up a space station dungeon )

In my case at least, it was during a space opera game. There were space stations, space ships, powered armor, plasma weapons, so on and so forth. Think Star Wars, but without the force and with marginally more attention paid to physics.

[Seharvepernfan]

In my case at least, it was during a space opera game. There were space stations, space ships, powered armor, plasma weapons, so on and so forth. Think Star Wars, but without the force and with marginally more attention paid to physics.

Mine was an elven high-magic glassteel/living crystal space station orbiting around the earth. It was as old as the elven presence on my world.

It was run by a green star adept elf diviner/loremaster/high mage, who made sure it was secure and well defended. He spent his time with its epic-strength scrying/long distance spell crystal, watching the earth, keeping an eye out for threats and acting very subtly in world events. It also held elf and half-nymph/elf ghost sorceresses and one elf ghost fighter (with ghost touch weapons and armor), they were its main guards. It had glassteel golems.

It functioned as a vault/armory/prison/arboreum/zoo, and held some prime examples of the elven race (and a few other races/creatures) in temporal stasis "just in case" (similar to noah's ark). It had a few smaller orbiting satellites that were basically intelligent traps that fired transdimensional disintegration rays at anything that came too close.

Since its epic, I haven't had a chance to use it yet. I planned for a neh-thalggu to infiltrate it if pc's ever showed up there.

[Esgath]

Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.

Although, all of them are defined upon addition, so you just need that.

[The Reverend]

In a peanut butter jar. Mage the ascension game and its creator had was a cult of ecstasy member, located on the top shelf of a pantry behind a box of boo berry cereal in a rundown apartment, always went back if moved. inside was a 20000 square foot fully equipped chantry.

[The Reverend]

In a peanut butter jar. Mage the ascension game and its creator had was a cult of ecstasy member, located on the top shelf of a pantry behind a box of boo berry cereal in a rundown apartment, always went back if moved. inside was a 20000 square foot fully equipped chantry.

[Noedig]

A warded, super secure tower in the center of a ruined arcology that had a 5 block radius of open ground. We kicked out (read: assassinated) the previous street shammy owner after he screwed us. Made a great, easily defensible base. Best session of SR3 I've ever played.

A rundown nobles mansion in the rich district we got for saving the city from an invading army by using a combination of bluff/diplomacy. Fixed it up, warded it, and we were going to get a library/lab/circle but we sort of put the game on hold. 3.5

A run down 5 story hotel with a helipad, astral warding, a shamanic lodge, a vehicle repair garage and a wall running the perimeter. We kept the party werebear (me) on the bottom floor if we suspected gangers might try a little B&E.

[Covah]

A couple cities and keeps. Our party basically took over a region. One guy rebuilt a town that was mostly destroyed, another fixed up a keep that was in ruins, I built a new keep, and another guy got elected as mayor of a city because he built a thieve's guild that doubled as a merchant caravan company.

A keep on the side of a mountain.

[veven]

It wasn't a very big space but my halfling unseen seer lived in the shell of a gargantuan Dragon Turtle. For 17 sessions it was the only creature that actually did any physical damage to him and he respected that.

Eventually he turned it into a tavern named after himself.

[DoctorGlock]

In a peanut butter jar. Mage the ascension game and its creator had was a cult of ecstasy member, located on the top shelf of a pantry behind a box of boo berry cereal in a rundown apartment, always went back if moved. inside was a 20000 square foot fully equipped chantry.

I think you just won. It is next to impossible to compete with the peanut butter demiplane

[Othesemo]

A few of my campaigns have involved the players setting up a base of operations. In one, they took over protecting a small town and keep after kicking out the previous landlords, a cabal of opportunistic wizards. They rebuilt the neglected defenses, trained a militia, and started trade negotiations with neighboring towns. The tower itself, which is where the party stayed, had a teleport circle, and alchemist's lab, and a library that the party wizard kept adding to. And there was a worn-out golem in the basement, which the party spent a while refurbishing.

Is the Neverwinter Nights 2 reference intentional? Or is it just a coincidence?

[Belril Duskwalk]

For PCs starting out on the cheap:
My Pathfinder group currently uses a caravan of nomadic Varisians as our base of operations. With a little luck we just might convince them to move the caravan with us.

[JonRG]

A lowlife who thought I was secret police fled his apartment in the dead of the night. It was paid up for several months, so our party claimed it as a spare safehouse. There, we could conduct activities that our less... adventurer NPCs might frown upon.

[Ossian]

Abandoned necropolis (as long as you REALLY clear up the area from ghosts and wraiths, tough tenants to evict....). 99% people won't bother coming within a 5 miles radius due to reputation alone (which can be easily kept with permanent images and permanent sounds). When you can afford an actual guardian, a Spectral Hound will do just neatly. I also like statue-themed guardians (Shield Guardians, golems in General, gargoyles that are also pretty badass...) Refurbish and redecorate the interior of the main complex (or the largest family chapel) and you are good to go.

Also, build a safe exit towards the more civilized world, say, a villa, with a nice garden, and just a few well paid NPCs to keep it for appearances sake, let'S say 8-10 miles away from the main keep, connected by permanent gate, so you can trade and have a social life.

Hmm....come to think of it, have you ever heard of a guy called Bruce Wayne?

[Rejakor]

We were planning to set up shop in a vampire coven's mansion located in a forgotten underground area underneath the city whose political campaign we were screwing with. (3.5)

Massive ancient cistern periodically infested with aquatic trolls. (3.5)

Ancient gigantic combination mining/processing behemoth bigger than some planets, and armed to the teeth with proscribed weapons. (Dark Heresy)

A rigged up undead beholder head (as a party of pixies). (3.5)

A floating turtle island. (3.5)

Flying ship carved from granite by a particularly quixotic dwarf. (3.5) (and later customized with some sweet golden carvings we stole from the past)

A room above a bootmaker's, rigged to hell and back with all kinds of magitech defences. (3.5)

A teashop. (Wushu)

[Endarire]

-A conjured castle.
-An airship. A very fancy airship with an onboard casino (to finance the thing) and basically a flying fortress with plane shifting abilities.
-The trade hub of the world, which was a small village about 100'x100'. (Feet, not miles.)