I have a fairly good idea of what to expect with the characters working their way through the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure here and want to plan ahead as best as I can.
One thing I can clearly foresee already will be the characters desire to 'claim' Tresendar Manor for their own and set it up as a home base. There is little doubt about the condition of the manor above ground, and no doubt that some 're-working' will need to be done on the underground level to suit the characters needs and/or desires.
With that in mind (and knowing we have to wait a while yet for the new DMG), does anyone have any suggestions for costs related to rebuilding the manor such as: materials costs, labour costs, time estimates, etc.?
The only useful reference I actually have on hand is this text and chart from the mid-80s BECMI Expert Set. How much alteration would you all suggest to the prices and times shown to make it fit in well with a 5th Edition setting?
Note: I have been boosting the amount of treasure in the Lost Mine encounters knowing that these characters will have little problem in spending it on 'interesting' items and/or endeavours such as this.
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Costs and Time: The following costs for typical structures are average. The DM may adjust the amounts for special circumstances; a nearby dwarven mining town might supply plenty of stonework at lower cost or supplies might have to be brought in for a greater cost.
The time required for construction is one game day for every 500 gp spent. This assumes the land has already been cleared and prepared and all the materials are on hand. For every 100,000 gp (or less) in costs, one engineer must be hired.
Constructions in settled areas (such as a home, tavern, or barn of stone) cost about 40% of the given amounts. The costs for wooden structures in such areas are about 20% of those given. The DM may round off costs to the nearest convenient figure to make record keeping simple.
Vokarius wrote:
I'm hoping the DMG can give some guidelines on this.
For now, there's a table which lists the price per day for hiring a skilled worker in the PHB.
There's also a table of ships that could at least get you going in the right direction price-wise.
Unfortunately the Trade Goods table doesn't have listings for stone and lumber.
Otherwise I'd use that, plus the skilled worker's pay to determine how much it would cost.
sailoroswald wrote:
That plan of yours sounds awesome!
I had actually never heard of players taking ruins and making them a homebase until I got to the forums.
My old DM way back in highschool basically "taught" everyone to play like the stereotypical murder hobos.
I'm hoping to dangle the carrot over my players as it were.
I'm hoping to show my newbies that this game allows for just about anything.
But back on topic.
If they use local materials that are begging to be taken away, I'd definitely use the price of a ship (whichever seemed appropriate).
I'd give them a few options if they couldn't just pay for it outright.
Essentially say, "If you want it built in X amount of time, it'll take Y amount of workers a day, which will cost Z amount of gold a day."
And have multiple offerings of that kind.
And since the PHB has weekly/monthly Lifestyle Expenses, you can tack the payments onto to that.
You could even make it easier and say, "To rebuild this structure, you'll need to pay X level Lifestyle Expense for Y number of weeks/months."
sailoroswald wrote:
You could also require the use of an architect/general contractor at double the cost of a skilled worker. Tell the players the new structure won't be sound without the added cost.
Then there's the matter of the original owner's crypt, which is still located beneath the manor. That could be a touchy subject with the locals, requiring the services of a cleric, for a free will offering, of course.
gregsc wrote:
So we finished this module and had a blast. The group wants to establish a home base on Phandalin and rebuild Tresendar manor. They decided to finance it with their 10% revenue from Phandelver Mine (you can follow that discussion here http://community.wizards.com/forum/dungeon-master-help/threads/4110156) which works out quite handily. I appreciate the insight from everyone.
OohOuchOh wrote: