Town Building!

[PnP Fan]

Okay, in a few weeks I'm going to start a new campaign with my buddies. It's going to be what we call a "town builder". For those unfamiliar with the term, the idea is that the players are the rulers of some piece of land and basically make top level decisions regarding the use of resources. If they make wise choices, and if random events (i.e. DM encounters) don't affect things too badly, the town/barony grows in population/influence. If they make poor decisions, then they may eventually lose their peasant workers, etc.. ..

here's the clinch.. . I've never run a game like this in my life (17 years of DMing, 20-ish years of gaming), I've only heard people talk about them. So I'm looking for general suggestions and ideas about what to do with this. I'm not in a panic or anything, and I've got some ideas, but I'm looking to use other folk's collective brain power too.

So . .. let's hear what you've got!
:-)

[Matthew]

It's almost certainly worth getting hold of a copy of A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe

[Ethdred]

Sounds like a fun idea, but I think you'll have trouble playing it as straight D&D. You'll have to bring in some of your own mechanics - eg, how to determine population growth, how much wealth is generated etc. It will be more like an RTS or Civ style game in that sense. You don't need anything complicated but need to have something written down so it's consistent. Then people know that, eg, building a pub will generate xGP tax/month and attract Y adventurers who will clear out low level nasties. Are you going to have a feudal style hierarchy? Ie, will they be beholden to a higher lord for services, gifts, influence etc (and can people appeal over their heads to higher authority). So if they finally slay the dragon and capture the Relic of Uber goodness, will the seneschal of their tenant-in-chief come along and remind them of the need to pay regular tribute, and oh, that Relic would look lovely on Lord So-and-so's wall.

Do you have much experience of town builder style computer games?

[Rigeld2]

This is kingdom building as opposed to town building, but...
http://www.birthright.net/

[Premier]

The Companion set of Mentzer's BECMI series contains a bunch of rules for running dominions - stuff like population growth, income, the ruler's popularity, etc.

Also, you'll probably need to build a keep to guard the village at one point. Rather than buying whatever splatbook 3.5E has for that, you could just download the 2nd edition Castle Guide from the WotC website for free, (if it's still up there), and use that as a base to build your house rules on.

[Indon]

Personally, I'd see if you could get ahold of the World of Warcraft RPG book. The last chapter has a comprehensive stat/feat/skill system for towns, with which to easily model how a town develops and such. It's rather complex, really, and would take a while to get a hang of, but it's the best rules I've spotted for that sort of thing (despite being from a different D20 system, heh).

[Golthur]

Well, one thing that worked very, very well in a town-builder campaign I played in was the "rival town". Another town, close by, that's always competing with the PCs' town for resources, favours from the king, mercenaries, craftsmen, whatever.

It's also very good if the rival town happens to be sitting on a gold mine, or something similar, so they have more resources than the PCs do.

[Marius]

Personally, I'd see if you could get ahold of the World of Warcraft RPG book. The last chapter has a comprehensive stat/feat/skill system for towns, with which to easily model how a town develops and such. It's rather complex, really, and would take a while to get a hang of, but it's the best rules I've spotted for that sort of thing (despite being from a different D20 system, heh).

I'm DMing a WoW town building campaign right now and the rules are good but I feel that they aren't complex enough. There're no rules for the results of the heros actions. So if the heros decide to do X thing the DM has to figure what's the result.

[Matthew]

Well, one thing that worked very, very well in a town-builder campaign I played in was the "rival town". Another town, close by, that's always competing with the PCs' town for resources, favours from the king, mercenaries, craftsmen, whatever.

It's also very good if the rival town happens to be sitting on a gold mine, or something similar, so they have more resources than the PCs do.

Very good idea, that. Like the rival Adventurers, but Town Sized. Great.