[CONAN] d20 Rules for Running a Shop? A Village?

[Supplement Four]

I'm brainstorming about the future of my campaign. I try to listen to what my players are into and then give them the type of game they want.

Well, my players are really "into" this campaign I've set up--their characters are young barbarians growing up in a village.

One of the PCs has become the apprentice weaponsmith in the village, and the player is really getting into the crafting rules.

The other player's character is a trapper, but he has thoughts of one day becoming clan chief--maybe even expanding the clan's territory or uniting with other clans.

That's way down the road. My campaigns tend to be very long, multi-year, affairs. Hopefully, we'll get there.

But, what I'm thinking about now is maybe giving the players an opportunity to establish the clan's second village. My campaign is a semi-sandbox, so what I'd do is throw out a "hook". At this point, I don't know what that hook would be, but the players would have to bite. If they did, I'd develop the idea futher.

What I'm thinking are the PCs, setting up a new village, out at the edge of the clan's holdings, expanding the frontier. They could set up trade with other clans. I bet they'd butt heads with some clans. And, I could find all sorts of cool storylines with the PCs centralized on this town that they're building.

I've never run a campaign quitel like that before--especially a swords & sorcery campaign. This kind of stuff is more at home with games like Traveller, where there's all kinds of rules for setting up planets and building starships and running empires and such.





That's a long intro to ask a question. Are there any good d20 books out there that focus on the PCs running a shop? Setting up a village?

 

[carthaginian]

Well... I've never actually ran a shop in a campaign.
I've 'invested' in several, though.

One particular campaign was Forgotten Realms and I was a cleric/rouge of Selûne. The DM put a 'roadside shrine' which had fallen on hard times in a town we frequented early in the campaign. After a particularly lucrative haul, I made a rather ample donation to the temple. When I returned a level or two later, the local shrine had used my donation to build a small hostel for travelers. I gave another donation, and the next time I showed up, the hostel was now more than just a wayfarer's rest stop- a forge had been installed, they made silvered weapons to fight lycanthropes, and selling these weapons made the site self-sufficient. This continued for some levels; by 10th (or so) the shrine was now a training ground for lycanthrope hunters, and a Sword of the Lady was stationed there.
It was very rewarding to see my efforts cause the area to blossom like that. It cost me a few hundred gold, but it made the town go for a backwoods nowhere to a 'going concern' to my deity.

I've often invested in WW games... purchasing shipping and industrial concerns, financing banks and moneychangers, and otherwise putting my cash into the kinds of long-term investments that pay off for wise Kindred. If we invest in our group, our GM allows is to roll a D% with a 1% chance for every (amount adjusted by inflation and currency) that we invest; if we make our roll, then our investment pays off and we get an extra dot of Resources... if not, we loose a dot of Resources. If you ace the roll and get a natural 100, then you get two dots.

You could work something out along either of those lines- either a donation of money or crafted goods could cause a major impact on the surroundings, or the players could actually invest in the store with a similar amount of money or goods and earn a profit in return.

 

[Supplement Four]

Yeah, I could easily wing it, using the characters' Diplomacy skills and what not. Empires of the Hyborian Age provides costs of buildings and time for construction.

I'm most interested, though, in the economics of the PCs running the smithy, first, and the village, second.

I understand that AEG's Empire is a book to look at, but I think it's more macro, like Empires of the Hyborian Age.

Then, there's WotC's Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, but I know little about that one. I'll have to investigate it.

I hear that Mongoose's Book of Strongholds & Dynasties is pretty good. I might buy that if I can find a hard copy. I don't really want a pdf. I understand it's got good rules for the economics of building--the land, the local resources, things that can go wrong. That sounds like something I could use.

And, I hear that A Magical Medieval Society - Western Europe is also a book that might suit my needs. It's supposed to have a strong economic system, which is what I'm looking for.

 

[chris_valera]

D&D Dungeon Master Guide II has rules for city adventure in Saltmarsh and starting a business.

--Chris
http://www.chrisvalera.com

 

[chris_valera]

Oh, also:

The ancient module Keep on the Borderlands has a keep on a hill that's essentially its own city-state. The players live there when they are not dungeon basing the Caves of Chaos. The module is considered a classic, if you ignore certain elements of nitpicky realism.

Saltmarsh is in DMGII, but is also based an ancient module The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, which has city adventure, of a sort, and has received positive reviews.

--Chris
http://www.chrisvalera.com