[Dthclaw]

Naturally my brain-storming and drive for creativity has to strike the week before I'm going to be drowning in schoolwork again...

With all the talk about warfare and politics and factions and what-have-you in so many settings, I was thinking that maybe we should put together our own version of a Stronghold Builder's Guide, but take it to a level beyond what Wizards did with the subject. I, personally, would have a blast running and playing a campaign set in a D&D world but run from the perspective of an overlord type a la Heroes of Might and Magic, and I think that the rules for running a game like that would be fun to make.

(Granted, you'd still have the PC's there as the hero/leader unit types, but yeah...)

I know that in my Teltesh setting strategic affairs can be extremely important, and the different factions have wildly different capabilities. Along with large amounts of magic, it seems reasonable that we could move beyond the purely traditional/mundane Medieval castle.

So I'm thinking that there should be stuff on:

-Building structures
-Benefits of structures
-Costs of structures
-Stronghold Design: Space, Power, Maintenence, etc.
-Types of Strongholds and Support Facilities
-Types and stats of Stronghold compenents
-Types and stats of Support Facility upgrades and components

Anybody up for something like this?

[Raven Bloodmoon]

You know I love my war campaigns. I'm game. From your list, I think benefits of structures would be the first item to work on. From that, we can determine costs, how to build them, etc. I'll give this some thought and post something a bit more detailed later on. Just wanted to show some support. Weeee!

[Axel]

Might be useful to take a better look at assembling and maintaining armies as well. We haven't got good D&D warfare rules, or very much in the way of garrison upkeep. Not that I've seen anyway.

[Dthclaw]

Cool, thanks guys. I just finished talking with Raven and it seems that I should probably clarify my goals a little.

What I'm aiming for with this little ambition is to basically bridge the gap between pure RPG and pure TBS gaming. Players have their characters, but they're leaders - who can go adventuring but they're primarily running their holdings - and the things they build and control can offer them benefits both at the strategic level and the personal level.

For example, the players take control of a small mine that they've cleared. How much money does it take to get it running again? How much does it make on a regular basis, either in sellable materials or in usable ore/gems/etc? How much does it take to keep it running? How can it be enhanced (size, output, defenses, workforce, etc), and at what costs?

Take the example further. The players use the mine's output to fund building a stronghold. How much does it cost for the basic structure (covered in SBG)? But what about expanding it with something more than walls and the like? What about improving it beyond its military value?

And further still. The players start a city. At what cost? At what benefits?

The players start a kingdom. What kinds of strategic facilities will they need? At what costs? At what benefits? What about unusual projects, like building the planar gates I describe in my cosmology stuff?

Etc. etc.

I'm not saying that the players should be running everything from the eye-in-the-sky strategy game view. But I'm also not saying that they should view it as purely 'what does this do for me in the dungeon.'