In my opinion, one of the best ways to give a structure sentiment (whether or not it's actually theirs) is simply to have them spend time in it, as well as giving it certain features. Our very first adventure in our now very developed world took place in a city that I will call the White City (It has a proper name, but I don't want to get into that right now.) By describing it as having these towering, stark-white walls, guards in shining uniforms, we gave an initial sense of it being a very good place. Then the GM gave us hints that not all was as it seems -- very rarely, the guards would encounter 'Ministers' , these black-coated gestapo-like figures who detained or executed without trial, but never close to us and always in the interim, so we never had too much time to think about the moral implications. We met the king many times, eventually did work directly for him and, actually, ended up raising him to Godhood. The city became so familiar that we've actually got infamous landmarks (i.e "The Roof", an armory roof where we were being dumb and as a result accidentally started a friggin' revolution)
As always great video!!! My two cents - i had pcs turn up in town and defend the main square from a dragon attack. So much was obliterated but the dragon was vanquished. A such, the king, who was a mage without equal, used his magic to bring the ashes to life and said, "imagine a castle." he then magically built them a castle containing pretty much whatever they imagined from the debris. So now when we play and someone is like... "does the Dragonhold have a spa?" I'm like, "Yes! Lets go visit it!" Lots of improving but my god it is fun.
Interesting and allows you a lot of freedom and gives your PC's a strong base and attachment... wonder what would happen if the Dragons ashes ever became sentient from fulfilling all those 'wishes' :P
These are really helpful tips. I recently motivated the players to take out some space pirates by having the Empire show up in the city where their cool base was, due to the increase in piracy. They decided to strike a deal with the Empire to help them get rid of the pirates so they would leave them (and their special cool base) alone. I know they're invested in the place now because they're going at lengths to keep it from prying eyes... and they just bought a lot of furniture for it. I'll have them defend their base some day, but as you said it would be unfair to just have someone show up and take it over.
Haha that ending. Thank you for making these! There are so many great GM's making tip-videos on youtube, but your videos tickle my fancy in the way I appreciate the most! I started my first campaign on Sunday, and I have only had one session as a player before that... so your videos have been utterly priceless to say it mildly! And I was so scared and anxious for our start, but even the experienced players had a great time laughing, acting, discussing and... stealing babies..? Anyway, I digress. Thank you for making these, you have definitely helped me make my campaign much more interesting!
The idea of making the structure a living being sounds like a wonderful idea for a horror event in a campaign as well. Imagine if the building became infatuated with one of the party members to the point that it lashes out at anyone it believes would want to take the PC away from it in a similar vein to the woman from the movie _Misery_. Obviously, there would need to be some build up to give the turn of events any real impact on the players but if done right then the whole campaign could be turned on its head.
That's a great idea and definitely involving an attachment to the structure. Let us know how it goes if you run this campaign :) Would it be that PC's childhood home or is it a building they stumbled upon?
I love some of these ideas they were really helpful I haven't thought about putting npcs in player manors and buildings before I think it will make a fine addition
I think, from personal experience, another good way to make players invested in a place they would stay at, a keep or something like that, is not to have it CONSTANTLy be attacked, every few weeks, just because the GM feels like it. This happened way too much in the homebrew setting I played in, where every few weeks someone would somehow either invade or possess a member of the group and have everyone run around like chickens with their heads cut off. It was a very stressful experience.
Finances are a story opportunity as well, even if you don't play accountant and go by every number, be abstract if necessary - and relate to the actions of your players If they were careless, raise the difficulty on resource-related rolls for the next adventure if they had a successful money making scheme going, give them a bonus or they have to hire an accountant/seneschal, who makes sure, that the bills are paid on time, the king/tax office gets his fair share, which introduces a new NPC to have around - and things run more smoothly... it adds to a feeling of responsability for the structure you(re supposed to) care about, without making it a burden
I love your vids man! always give me good ideas I'm a new DM trying it out with some friends kinda hard at first but with your help it's going great thanks again!
I have a quest line im wanting to set up for my players where they hear about a haunted meadery up in the hills. Locals claim sights of deep fog, quick, shadow cast movements, and the hurried sounds of incessant scratching. No one likes to go up there. Several adventuring parties have gone up and never returned, and even the local bandits know to avoid it. So the characters go up to check it out. Well, what actually happened was that the Gnome owners of the meadery had discovered some powerful arcane artifacts and trinkets (arcane magic is rare in my world) and had figured out how to use it to enhance the flavors of their world famous mead and ale. Well, one day there was a massive explosion set off from mishandling the arcane artifacts. It was bound to happen at some point, very few have the proper training for that. Let alone an old Gnome family in the hills making drinks. So the explosion kills the family and blows the back wall clean off the manor that presides above the vineyard and stables. Not long after, a small group of giant mountain spiders made their way down to the now quiet abode, found their way inside, and have now taken up residence. After years of living in the arcane fallout, the spiders have grown larger, acquired strange abilities, as well as a startling glow. A side note is that seeing their home desecrated in such a way, the Gnome family's spirits were unable to move on and became trapped in the manor. When the players show up to the manor, they have the ability to clean out the spiders, claim the treasure caches of the arcane artifacts and gold (one of my players is a Magus who is incredibly fascinated with the arcane and studies vigorously so hell know what to do and what not to do... i hope), and then afterwards will receive the direct thanks of the spirits of the family. The family then welcomes the adventurers that were able to calm their selves to live indefinitely in the manor. The spirits also stick around to slowly repair the damages the spiders made and return their family meadery to its former glory. After fixing it all up, of course, the spirits just sort of go into an immortal loop of living out their content lives from before the accident, preparing meals and running the meadery. So this will open up the players to some home cooked meals, a sturdy home with relatively minimal risk of attack, and servants who will aid their tasks as much as they are able (obviously they cant leave though, the spirits can only go as far as down into the vineyard to prepare the mead that will restock for the players occasionally). Would this constitute a solid home structure for the players you think?
I think it's a lovely story and yes. A great structure to give them. It will have memories of the battle with the spiders and the gnomes spirits presumably. And will have the added benefit of a meadery (Distillery?). It's a cool idea, especially of the old brewer gnome doesn't leave when the spirits are laid to rest because he has become one with the 'spirits' in the tanks. And offers friendly advice on how to brew beer (ie. comic relief and a lovable old NPC).
In our GURPS Traveller games, we never roleplay the finances of the ship operations. The merchant ship makes enough to cover expenses, the noble's yacht comes with an allowance to cover normal operation, and so on. If you take levels of the Wealth advantage, then you'll have more profit (merchant ship) or a bigger allowance (noble's yacht), so you'll have more ready cash when the adventure starts. If you take levels of the Poverty disadvantage, then the opposite will be true. But the ship finances don't need to be managed.
Do the players care when the ships are lost? All of the options in this video are presented to help build devotion to the building. As long as you are doing that then you are succeeding!
@@HowtobeaGreatGM My comment was made in response to the discussion that starts at around 11:15 in the video ("Finance or Don't"), about not bogging down the adventure with detailed financial accounting (unless the players enjoy that kind of a game). I suppose the characters in our games have been attached to their ships (after all, the ships are part of their character descriptions), but that wasn't my point. Sorry for any confusion.
I have to say I hate what I often see in movies, like the Avengers. They introduced the helicarrier and then they basically blew it up right away. It's such a cliche just to introduce something into a story, just to take it away 15 minutes later or to just make it useless right away. I know movies and games have a different pacing, but it's still frustrating and boring.
In my experience, rather than utterly destroying it, just crippling the thing bad enough to give a tertiary adventure to re-creating it is a fairly good cliche to follow in RPG's... Not that you're incorrect about wrecking something the moment it comes into play. If a game isn't going to let the players enjoy their new fortress or war-vessel, why have fortresses and war-vessels... I get that. BUT, it doesn't have to be utterly destroyed in the first infliction or "trial by fire" while the players are getting into it and testing their "waters" with it in the game. AND you can freely give the structure to them with the fullest meaning that they can really make it their own as they build, rebuild, or retro-fit it... After all, part of taking possession of something is being allowed to customize it. :o)
another example you could have brought up was Howl's Moving Castle. It's a great movie and it's a great example of how a home can be personalized. For anybody who doesn't know what it is it's a castle where he gets his magic from a trapped demon, the wizard made a pact with a demon and now the demon controls his home which is basically a walking Castle has magical doors to take it to different parts of the world. Because there's a demon literally and inside the castle has its own personality and even talks and his name is calcifer. if you haven't seen it it's worth watching. I'm using something very similar in my story where they have a sort of Harry Potter tent it's bigger on the inside and at the center has a fireplace with demon. They feed the demon magical items and in return the demon will change the tent accordingly. So if they need s dinning room they feed it a magic item and poof the tent grows and dinning room. :) just my 2 cents.
That's awesome, thank you for sharing. Yes, useful but not world changing is something a great solution to getting PC's to fall in love with structures. The tent item sounds lovely!
My last game sessions my group assisted a large town by causing and funding the rebellion vs a vile Duke, after the 3 nights of battle they won. The town was badly damaged so the characters took it over and have spent 600k gold building a wall and repairing the town and making some business purchases of their own. Another group that liberated the dwarven gold mine nearby killed a necromancer/slaver, freeing the slaves and killing all the rest of the orc tribe. But in there curiosity they released an even greater undead evil in the mine. This undead killed several townsfolk and characters and got away. Now both groups are working together to protect the town and mine from the Queen from another kingdom who is pissed we killed her nephew.
As someone who is currently dealing with the nightmare of trying to keep a modified Sandcrawler (Our Beautiful Russet Star) space worthy, Shitty star ships makes for very memorable structures.
A higher ranked noble or lord wanting to take your home seems like could lead to a interesting adventure about lying, forging documents and blackmailing people to keep your house safe.
Every 9 months (adjust as necessary) something goes wrong and the group needs to do something relevant to maintain the upkeep of the strtucture... however, success returns a greater reward than was expected and the structure gets a nice little boost. Maybe it's a drunk old mechanic or armourer who decides to stay (who has a tendency to oil their armour whenever they visit... without remembering to ask first). or maybe whilst repairing the walls, they are extended slightly to increase the training space. Or, perhaps a small group of gypsies (slash goblins slash pirates slash dwarf exile slash whatever) that gave the party vital information drop by once a year to peddle wares/scab mead/share stories. or maybe, when repairing the balista/void cannon the replacement tortion wire/focusing crystal gives +1 to crit or something. Helps to keep the party interested in "upkeep" when they learn to associate it with nifty little long term upgrades and not just maintenance and drudgery... especially when it leaves little reminders of old adventures.
In a sense maybe it can be an extension of the DM or the space/city were ever it is. Actually it looks like I will have a large group (gulp 7 or 9 players thank any god you care to worship you made that vid.) and they might need that hall /old castle that changes (if you can get your hands on a Charles deLint novel, he is the author, the building is made out to be a secondary character & does very much what you said). You have germinated an idea as well to go into my story and an adventure to boot! They will need a place to stay...
The only "diorama class" tilescape I will be making is the main tavern that I expect to be the main center of operations fr the PCs. 3D printed bar and tables and floor tiles and... everything I can think of that belongs in the tavern/general store/Inn. Dwarven brewery, kitchen and bakery back rooms. A single set of upstairs rooms, with note that there's 2 more duplicate floors of rooms for rent. (not going to bother making the other floors) And the main cellar. If the players decide t not make that the base of operations, its fine. But this is the place that will have all f the non-magic items in stock. Other places??? Depends on the situation as to what is available. NO MAGIC SHOP. Finding someone that makes and sells healing potions will be a challenge. If they want a magic item made... they have to find all the components and the people to craft and enchant it. (good luck...) Pay the costs... then there's the roll to see if it worked properly. (after however long it took to craft it.
In the simplest terms to coerce players to "fall in love" with practically anything... (at least in my experience) 1. Make them EARN it. Even if they just walk into an office and drop a load of cash, there are ways to insist some adventure toward making this place or thing their own. It can be infested with something, or stuck in the crossfire of some feud or another, or even just falling to pieces because THAT'S how you get a "good price" on anything these days... (don't ever forget the lolz) 2. Fill it with idiosyncrasies. It doesn't have to be absolutely and infuriatingly stupid. But somehow there's got to be a UNIQUENESS in its "hook". The starship is (in point of fact) probably THE MOST RELIABLE contraption to ever have life put into it... That doesn't make it fast or cheap. It doesn't mean the thing's got guns to rival much of anything, and they don't even have to work most of the time. BUT it just doesn't quit. It never quits. Even on those occasions that the engines rev to life only to start "spinning down" a few love-taps with a very large hammer (or equivalent fiat by GM) and it kicks right back to function again... It just takes a whipping and keeps plunking along... OR... Every single time one particular feature is attempted, it takes no less than three to five attempts just to get it to work. Nothing necessarily so critical as to cause more than irritated concern, but... "Some day we're really going to have to fix that thing..." could be a marvelous (if comical) montra... 3. Actually GIVE them the damn thing! Once they take up residence, even in the Enchanted Great Hall of Marvelous Marvin the Magus... It should be THEIR great hall. Let them piss away fortunes and customize the bejeezus out of it. Once they OWN a structure, they should be rightfully able to do as they like to it. Sure, there are story-based and legitimate argument why they might not want to do so, but if it's a popular consensus that "this would be better", then hang all the ghosts and hoodoo, and let the players play... Sometimes the idiosyncrasies can turn sour, so they'll switch it around and "fix" it. That's alright too. :o)
Great tips. My players didn't really "earn it" they bought their base dirt cheap. However it was all broken down and empty. They've earned it by adding more and more to it and fixing it up. So there's a couple of ways to earn what they have. If they had bought a fully furnished place, I bet they wouldn't have cared as much.
RobotsPajamas, It looks like you're well into at least two of those "good tips" so far... You've made the players "earn" what they have by the customization and collaborative effort part. As long as it's an effort by the group, that's what matters... Without the "investment", these things are just like money (IRL) "easy come and easy go"... You seem to have honestly "given" the thing to them, too. That's another very important part of it. As with the "great hall" analogy I put together, it's authentically their space to figure out for themselves. AND... here's a novel tip... That investment they made... all the customization they're doing... THERE'S the "idiosyncrasies" invented into the personality of the place FOR YOU... lolz. (never make GM-ing any more difficult than it has to be) The players are perfectly capable of making something UNIQUE all on their own. SO... they won't soon forget about it. :o)
This video is very useful since next week my party is going to live in their new home (a little castle). By the way: In one of your videos (don't remember which one sorry) you said that players using their phones is not always a bad sign, while a passive player surely is bad news. I'm wondering if there are other signs or behaviours that tell me if my players are enjoying the adventure and get some instant feedback (even if I ask them directly every time after the game).
It is tricky - the whole feedback from players thing. Generally I count them coming back to the table for the next session as the very best sign. Better still is when they chat about the game during non-game related times. Let me see what I can come up with - perhaps there is a video there?
Thank you, and there is a patreon option for one on on one skype sessions - if you head over the page you can find it as our $30 tier for a hangout with myself or any of the players in our Bacon show. Those are not really one on one but can be used for basically anything - including training :) Unless there is a demand for one on one, then we could add it.
Oh my words! Those sessions are a thing? Seems like a wish come true! Would you be motivated/interested/inspired by the topic of historical roleplaying? I have so many questions on the matter that I feel only a close conversation could bear its fruits.
What should I as a player do to encourage my GM to do something with my castle that I'm building from scratch? Just throw the link of this video at him? Or does anyone (Be it Guy or anyone ells) have other suggestions? Or is that a solid idea. Or will someone smite me for daring to invade the GM section whilst being a lowly PC? :P
Hahahaha... you are most welcome here anytime! All GM's were PC's once! It's a good question. I think the critical thing is to talk to your GM and ask her/him if they are ok with the castle construction. If your GM has given you enough loot to build a castle then that was probably their plan all along. But chat the GM and see. And it never hurts sending people to the channel, even if it's so they can get some inspiration for other things.
If nothing ells it was my plan all along seeing as what I did with my money was invest it in a mine that gave enough during a 21 year long downtime to build it. :P
It's not so much that I have any sugestions/requests, rather that I'd like to invite him to maybe come up with something cool for it with me. Or even keep it secret from me untill my character discovers it. I'll have a talk with him and get back to you. ;)
