Settlement Building

by Michele Marieschi

The party has been given ownership of an abandoned settlement in southern Ostelliach that you can invest in, build up, and make into a home base--or a safe place for all weary and wanting that pass by, if you like.
At points along the campaign, the group will unlock resources like building materials, workparty volunteers, or blueprints for new structures that can be built. The party can choose to invest gold or other resources to help speed up the settlement building, as well.

You are Here.

Below are (some of) the building options the party can unlock and choose to devote resources to building as time goes on. The party is also welcome and encouraged to propose other options, or put time into things that provide no mechanical benefit but enhance the feel of the settlement (such as decorating).
Before any building can happen, however, the party will need to devote time to the cleanup of the ruins: removing plant overgrowth, hauling out rubble and broken building parts, cutting down trees and clearing the land etc. Plus, there'll need to be surveying of the area done to find out what resources and dangers you can find. You can also take some time to decide some things about the settlement, like:

• What's its name?

• Who is welcome? Who is not welcome? Is this a private neighborhood to wall off, or do you want to be the next big town name?

• What do you want your settlement to be known for? What values should people there hold? What are the rules?

• Do you want to make or export something? Are there things you'll need imported, connections you'll need to make?

• What NPCs along the way would make good contacts or recruits to come work in your settlement?

Feel like too much to worry about? Then don't! Nothing says you have to develop this ruin into a home. Some players may be more engaged in this than others, which is fine too. This is just one more option for exploring the world and your impact in it. If it isn't fun to you, then don't do it!

The Mechanics of Building

As the party meets more people, performs more good deeds, and increases their influence both in the Guild and abroad, they will be able to unlock more resources and connections to increase the settlement. On an out-of-character level, this will be measured by Settlement Points (SP), which are earned by completing deeds and quests or working with people and are spent on new projects to invest in your settlement.

Earning SP

The DM will determine an amount of SP that the party earns as they go through completing guild contracts, world quests, or simply helping people. Anyone you meet from the tavernkeeper to another adventuring party, a blacksmith, a street urchin, or wild dog may have some connection that can yield SP.
Each time will be unique, although roughly speaking a dedicated guild contract with a client paying you will earn more SP than a random encounter...That said, you never know what good deeds will net later.
Additionally, if the party were to take a darker turn and begin making poorer decisions, they might either lose SP...or start attracting people who bring complications for the settlement. After all, the company you keep says a lot about who you are.

Spending SP

Project Management

When spending SP to start something new, whether you are recruiting an innkeeper, scrounging up resources, or building a barn, you'll need someone in charge of the initiative.
This project lead will help determine the efficacy of the project. Spending the SP will get you what you need, but it may take longer or be more costly if the people leading the initiative don't know what they're doing. So, project leads are elected for their knowledge and skill in an area.(For example, if recruiting someone to the town, someone with high Persuasion. If shoring up natural defenses, Survival.) Depending on the bonuses this leader has (measured by their modifier in said skill), the project may complete quicker than expected, be better result than expected, cost less resources, or have surprise benefits.
In general, each point into a skill (ex: +1 vs +5 to Survival) will have increasing returns on the project, although you can always pitch to the DM why a specific person's points into a skill are even more valuable, such as specific training in the exact area the project involves. (Much like with regular skillchecks, you can also propose a different skill to be relevant instead, so long as you can sell the DM on it! There are multiple ways to approach a problem, after all.)

Example:

Bob wants to build a ranch. The DM sets the base SP investment at 50 SP, because Bob's pitching a pretty elaborate setup here.
Bob has a +5 in Animal Handling. This allows him some options on how to improve the project, such as:

• Reducing the SP cost, where each point into Animal Handling is a 5 point reduction, up to 25 points for his +5.

• Completing the project more quickly, where each point into Animal Handling reduces the time by 20%. (The DM is pretty loosey-goosey with timelines for things, so smaller numbers may matter less when we're not literally checking a calendar every day, but with a +5 that means it can get done in half the time!)

• Adding extra features that he otherwise wouldn't have bothered with, like heated floors in all the barns. Fancy!

Important to note here is that the party does not have to be able to explain the minutae of a project (e.g. where they get their lumber or which carpenter they hired to build something) unless they want to/have a specific idea in mind. Having SP is essentially a story handwave to say "don't worry, you figure out how to do it" rather than us roleplaying out you touring a lumber mill, recruiting contractors, overseeing construction yourself etc.

Gold Investments

The party can also seek investors or patrons to support their efforts. To start, Ourelios Heia Eefissa (the original owner of the land) is giving the party a 1000 GP stipend each month for the settlement! This money is specially reserved for settlement upgrades, no embezzling to your pockets allowed, and the number may go up or down depending on how happy the patron(s) feel about the settlement and party. You could even theoretically really get into the economy and pitch to investors for increases in funding!
Mechanically, Gold and SP can be used interchangeably for most things, where Gold is a classic capitalist exchange and SP is calling in favors, making friends, social engineering, barter economy vibes. If you don't have someone in your network that can help with a problem, money can usually get it done.

Roughly speaking, the exchange rate is that 100 GP is equal to 10 SP. You can mix and match what means are used to achieve a goal, as well, where maybe the party is slightly short on SP so they invest a bit of gold. Gold can also be used to help expedite a project or get other benefits, TBD with your DM.
Going back to our Bob example above, in practice this could look like Bob investing 200 GP to not cash in that IOU to his carpenter friend, because he wants to be able to use that for another project later.

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But really, let's talk the fun stuff! What can you build with SP? What can you accomplish?

Buildings and Amenities

The examples below are just that: examples. The possibilities are endless, so discuss with the DM what your character would do and how they would go about it. Speaking of going about things, the way you attempt to solve a problem may use more or less SP and the more resources your project would take (a full-scale irrigation system vs building a well) also impacts the SP, representing the investment you must make in time, materials, and effort.

• Food production: a mill, brewery, bakery, farm plot, grain silo, livestock ranch, grazing pasture, chicken coop, berry bush patch...anything your people would need to get sustenance!

• Science, research, learning: a library, alchemy lab, inventor spaces, experimental greenhouse, windmill

• Crafting and creating: an artificer's lab, tinkerer bench, blacksmith forge, art studio, concert hall, theater stage, tanner's hut, loom and dyes

• Services and support: a hospital, orphanage, mental health clinic, school, employment center, creature adoption agency

• Amenities and conveniences: Comfier beds, a lovely public park, an art gallery, flowerbeds, magitech advancements, printing press, firework shows

• Defense and protection: Walls, traps, paid militia, an armory, training for the guards, magical warding, a fire force, Guild representation, a police force and prison

• Commerce and trade: Roads, advertisements, merchant contacts, a shopping mall, portals to nearby trade centers, stables and wagons

• Recruitment and people: Bringing in people! Specific types of people such as particular skills, aiming for a specific size of population etc. And of course, the homes they need. Apartments, inns, taverns, individual houses, commercial real estate for their buildings etc.

The population

Along your travels, the party may meet people in need of a safe place to stay or solid work. You can always try to recruit them to the settlement, provided there's room. In addition, you can spend SP to recruit a specific role and the DM will spin up an NPC to fill the need. You'll have an easier time of this the more renown you build for your good deeds as well as the more amenities you can advertise for.
You get it, you've played a town sim before, right?