Strongholds in DND 4e - the mechanics

Costs

The base cost of a stronghold is the cost of a 15 lvl item per 300 squares of capacity. The cost of a stronghold component is equal to a magic item of the same level.

Rooms

Rooms can be repurposed, the costs are included in the price of the new component you want to place. The old component in place can be salvaged at 20% of the original price. The shape of the room is flexible as long as the indicated number of square requirement on the component is met.

Component requirements

A component can only be placed if the requirements are met. A component that is the requirement of another component can only be used once for requirement purposes, unless otherwise indicated. For example: You puchase Guards and a Gatehouse (wich requires guards). You now want to purchase another Gatehouse. The Guards you already have, are used for the requirement of the first Gatehouse. You do not meet the requirement so you have to purchase an additional Guards component.

Bonuses and DC's

Bonuses and DC's are calculated according to the standard bonus and DC tables for the apprioprate levels.

Military stuff

Guards, ballista's and other components can be bought. These are always in clusters, because managing each creature individually in combat would be a hassle. For this reason they are all formations or clusters and do area damage.

All stronghold items Example stronghold

Events

When you want to incorporate an extra gameplay mechanic with your players. You can use the Stronghold event cards. You can draw a random card and let the players resolve the situation, this can be a skill challenge, a choice to be made or an encounter. You can even use the effects for your Stronghold as an extra game element in your gameplay.

All event cards

Stronghold gameplay

If you want to enhance your gameplay and include a stronghold as a feature in your campaigns, you can use the mechanics described below. The mechanics are supposed to be simple and flexible with a clear modularity, this way the players and DM can decide how much time and effort they are willing to spend.

Modularity

How are the mechanics modular? Each feature has a clear dependency, for example: You can create a Stronghold only with the item mechanics and no additional gameplay at all. You can use the events without the stronghold benefits, but only use xp. You can use the additional gameplay wich uses the items, events and actions.

The gameplay

Your stronghold has three stats: Income, Influence and Morale. That's it. You play the game in rounds, each round can represent a Week, a Month or a Year in your campaign.

A round consists of:

  • Round start: Add base income to your current income. Modify your stats according to the current effects.
  • Start Event: Draw a random event card. The level of the event card is equal to your stronghold level. Play the event.
  • Resolve Event: Modify your stats based on the event outcome.
  • Main Action: The players decide wich action to perform.
  • Resolve Action: Modify your stats and stronghold according to the action performed.

diagram

Stats

  • Income

    this represents your current balance. Income is used as a requirement to perform actions (mainly buy stuff). Income represents your net balance (so there is no cost or upkeep stat).

  • Base income

    you have some base income. At the start of each round this is added to your current income. The base income can be calculated as the following:

    (Stronghold level ÷ 2) + Influence modifier + Morale modifier.

  • Influence

    Represents the influence you have in the world. Influence works just like a normal stat like STR. So you have your influence for ex.: 12 and your influence modifier: +1. Your influence modifier can be calculated as the following:

    (Influence − 10) ÷ 2 rounded down

  • Morale

    Represents the morale in your stronghold. Morale works just like a normal stat like STR. So you have your Morale for ex.: 8 and your influence modifier: -1. Your influence modifier can be calculated as the following:

    (Morale − 10) ÷ 2 rounded down

Council of rulers (the players

Main actions

Formula's

Magic item cost for level

Bonus plusses for item level

Skill DC for item level

Calculate hitpoints for Monstertype and level