You might argue that a game that is all about hex-crawling doesn’t need to include rules about building a base. But if you live long enough, you may end up in a similar situation to many players of first edition AD&D: lots of gold, and nothing to spend it on. In AD&D the gap between having too much gold to carry, and having enough to actually build a castle was pretty much impossible to bridge. The strongholds chapter offers an entry level opportunity to take over some adventure site you have cleared out, and gradually build it into an actual stronghold.
Even so, if still not cheap, and I won’t be encouraging players to take on the responsibility early in their careers. Otherwise they may look at the costs of keeping it properly defended, and decide to stay at home rather than go out adventuring. Actually taking over a place requires work, even if you have killed every creature that once called it home. It requires at least a couple of quarter days labour, and a Craft roll to clean it out. Failure on the craft roll will leave it with persistent problem that may make you decide it’s not worth trying to turn into a stronghold at all.
There are advantages to having a stronghold though. It’s a place where you can rest and sleep (surely just sleep?) without any rolls or mishaps. It also gives you a free will power point every time to return there for the night. Apparently these benefits can be got without even a Fireplace – but I think, for humans at least, a fireplace would be one of the essential features of a stronghold, arguably even more essential than a roof. Depending on the nature of the site that you have taken over, the GM will allow you one or two features for free. But any other functions you want will need to be (re)built, with your own labour (crafting rolls) or hired-in labour.
This is one chapter that I previously read in its beta version, and I had a good deal to say on it on Fria Ligan’s forum. Like many others, I thought there was too much dice-rolling, and indeed that has been much reduced in the version. Back then, the output of pretty much every function and hireling was variable, based on dice rolls. In this version, hirelings always succeed with just one success, and the output of most stronghold functions, if staffed with a hireling, is fixed. If a PC wants to roll on their own skills, then they still can. There is also a line in the chapter which I actually wrote, which is cool. No, I am kidding, but they do paraphrase an argument I made for a more abstract way of accounting for hirelings, to acknowledge that yes, most workers didn’t get paid in coin, but that’s how they are accounting for it in this game. And of course, I have to admit that part of the reason for having strongholds in this game is to have something to spend your money on. There is one suggestion I made which they did take up though – there is now the option to have a well in your stronghold.
Even with the simplifications, reading though the functions, I feel the rules are (uncomfortably?) bridging the gap between a neat little extension for a hex-crawl game, and a Sim City type game. Some functions produce raw materials for other functions, encouraging players to spend treasure (but also game time) expanding their stronghold and finding a sustainable mix of inputs and outputs.
I don’t think is my Gloranthan fantasies showing, but Pasture seems to be a no brainer function to add. Meat and vegetables supplied by other functions need to be turned into Food by someone with a chef skill or the Inn (if you build one) but the milk the cows produce counts as Food already! (There is no dairy function.) So you can add it to your Food resource die without faffing around and go off adventuring. I can only assume these cows produce not milk but cheese. 🙂 So, were I fortunate enough to build a stronghold, these are the functions I’d prioritise:
- Fireplace: eliminates the effect of cold and darkness
- Pasture (with farmer and cows): supplies up to 12 units of Food a day.
- Shrine: an extra free willpower point for PCs
- Stables: your horses are automatically sheltered and fed; and of course,
- A well: drinking water enough for everyone, and fill up your water skins to d12 when you go adventuring.
Of course other people might want your stronghold, or at the very least, they might want to deprive you of it. So you might also want to bolster the defences. Ramparts, a moat, a portcullis and a watchtower can all help. But they are useless if your PCs are not there and you haven’t employed guards. After your first guard, hire guards in units of ten, because you always round up when calculating your defence value, so one guard is as good ten, and nine guards no better than one. Keep them well fed though, because hungry guards means one less defence die.
If the PCs are around they add one extra die, “regardless of number” it says on page 176. So five PCs only add the same to the defence as a single one. Although on page 177 is says “Each of your adventurers provides the stronghold with one point of Defense Rating.” So maybe five adventurers add five dice after all. Although the example (which generally features two characters says “The stronghold has RAMPARTS and 20 GUARDS, which gives a total Defense Rating of 5 (one for the adventurers, +2 for the RAMPARTS and +2 for the GUARDS).” So … I am a bit confused. Anyhow, you throw the same number of dice as your defence rating, and every success. Allows you to knock points off your opponent’s attack rating. There’s a chart to roll after every round to see what happens to one of the PCs. It’s only a d6 roll, so it might get a bit repetitive after a battle or two.
The chapter finishes with half a page about having armies with different attributes and skill ratings facing off against one another. I feel this is a place-holder for a battles expansion at some future point.
fictionsuit.org 