My Life As A Gamer: Turning Your Base Camp Into Your Stronghold Over Time

So You Want To Be The Man

Some campaigns take place in well-established settings with plenty of built-up infrastructure for figuring things out and making stuff (including gear/items) happen.

Let's say that you're not so lucky, or that you're looking to go somewhere lacking that infrastructure. What should you be looking to do with that gold you're dragging back from the monster lairs, dungeon delves, and the baggage trains of those goblinoid hordes? When should you do what?

Just like Fighters can start leading troops from 1st level, (almost) any character can start building up his infrastructure from the get-go. It is time to pull out the Dungeon Master's Guide and start looking at both the Hirelings and Structures.

Making Camp

You're going to start with a camp. As you're on the edge of Civilization (if that), this is likely your base of operations so it's a Base Camp. This is a secured area where your man, your man's Hirelings, and those of other players can rest and recover between doing whatever- raiding hostile goblinoids or giantkin, hunting monsters, delving dungeons, and so on.

This means that you need a pallisade and a layout to determine what goes where (and who goes where). A Base Camp will need a blacksmith, an armorer, a leather worker, a tailor, and a cook to handle repair/replacements for armor/weapons/equipment and keeping everyone fed (and thus in good health). These are men operating out of tents, and those tents can get quite large and elaborate as we see with Antiquity and Medieval campaign camps.

This will do well enough early on, assuming that you don't deal with severe weather or extremes of temperature; if you're doing tents in a proper Winter, you've got problems worse than any orc warband.

Welcome To Fort Greyhawk

Once you've got the funds, it's time to hire a carpenter and start upgrading your camp into a fort. That pallisade needs to have some towers built into it, the tents need to be replaced with buildings, and the physical plant may need to be expanded at this time to accomodate the (likely) larger body of men at your command.

But that's not all you've got going for you by this time.

You have enough to attract others to your fort to base THEIR operations out of. Those hirelings that make, maintain, and repair your gear can now also do the same for those other adventurering parties- and you are within your rights to charge a fee for the privledge.

The other thing to consider is that if there is plenty of mercenary action to be had at your fort, other hirelings mercenaries will also come to your camp looking for work (i.e. to be hired on by other players). Because you're providing the space to connect hirelings to employers, you can--and should--charge a fee for that also.

The last hireling to consider bringing on at this stage is an alchemist once you have a spell-caster hit 7th level and be able to make potions and scrolls.

Behold Castle Greyhawk

The big transition is when you hire on a stonemason and an architect. Making basic wood housing and stalls is one thing. Making stone halls and walls is another; that takes skill and supervision both in the planning and in the making, from quarrying stone to putting it together- and there's only so much that Wall of Stone can do at a time.

By now (a) you should be approaching Name Level and (b) you should be well on your way to taming the wilderness around your rising castle walls (and the rising town around it). Having that alchemist on hand is a huge draw in itself, as not only can your man (and his allies) get access to potions that otherwise isn't coming up in treasure hauls, but you can charge others for access to him.

Having a jeweler on hand will also be useful at this point, as you're going to run into more magical spells and items that require gems as components. In addition, having such an expert on hand means having the ability to convert massive coin hauls into something far more portable. If your man is also in control of a mine that produces raw gemstones, this is the man that turns rocks into paydays.

And again, you can charge others for access to this expert.

You're The Man Now

By this point your man should be at Name Level. All of the adventuring, the battles with hostile tribes, the cleaned out crypts and delved dungeons now places where you and your allies turn into yet more power and wealth by making use of the resources within them or as sattelite strongholds in a chain between your castle and the next step in taming that hostile wilderness.

Those expert hirelings? Add some sages now; make those adventurers come to you as the first stop in solving mysteries. Speed up the ability to connect to and from your castle with secure roads, river travel, or whatever. Make certain that you have a friendly religion set up a temple within your walls; make a deal to do so in exchange for at-cost (or better) services. Upgrade your craftsmen to master capable of making top-quality goods (the sort you can base items upon).

And all those fees you collect? That's gold in your man's purse, and with the ability to exert authority you can now get away with levying a tax.

Now you're the boss, lord of your own castle, and a leader of men. You've been playing the Braunstein end of the game the whole time while doing adventures and expeditions, but now you can get into the big leagues. Why settle for being a permanent hobo? Conan didn't. John Carter didn't. Kane of Old Mars, Elric, and many others continued to adventure after they won their crowns, their kingdoms, and their queens- even if some lost it all before the end.

Why not level up your base as you level up your man? Try it next time. You may find it far more entertaining if you do.