D&D Characters Buying RPG Real Estate in Ptolus
Watch the video and tell me if your PCs own a Home Base or any Real Estate.
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Typical D&D campaigns see the characters running all over the world, but in a Ptolus or other City focused campaign, the PCs will need a homebase, or at least a place to stay consistently unless they are going to change where they stay every night. Which, when you piss off a bunch of powerful people, that might not be a bad idea.
The Ptolus book gives us some guidance on what Real Estate should cost in the City and I also wanted to detail several permanent housing or homebase options already available in the book.
If you look at Chapter 26 : On Being a Resident you’ll see a section that covers Owning and Renting Property. That’s page 542 of the old book and 502 in the new 5th edition book.
Many of your parties will probably just start out staying at the Ghostly Minstrel, or the Welcome Inn or one of the other Inns in Ptolus. Those locations usually have the cost for renting a room detailed right inside their location’s listing.
There are some generic rates for renting in Chapter 26.
Then it details the cost to purchase a residence. The prices vary by the District because even in a fantasy world real estate is still all about location, location, location.
Now to dive into the specific locations which already have maps available that your party might end up owning.
Player Warning: If you are playing in a Ptolus campaign and NOT a Narrator then please stop watching right now because there are definitely spoilers that follow!
Toridan Cran’s House
If you’re running the Chapter 33 Adventures then one of the first places they could wind up owning – that is, if it doesn’t wind up burning down – is Toridan Cran’s House. This is a small , one-story wooden house on Nar Street in southern Midtown. If Cran is killed then they might be able to purchase the home. If he is dead and they cannot find a legal deed, then that might be an adventure all in itself like my campaign did with Shilukar’r Lair. If you wanted to make it easy on them, Toridan could have been renting and they could buy the house at a discount after a small fire.
Linech’s Burrow
Another Chapter 33 Adventures location, this isn’t just one property, but an entire cul-de-sac in the Rivergate District. There is only a map of the whole Burrow and not one of the individual buildings’ interiors, but it shouldn’t be hard to find one. Again, if Linech is killed this area might be up for grabs, or for sale. Remember, if the characters just move into a vanquished foe’s home, there might be actual Legal repercussions.
Shilukar’s Lair
Chapter 33 again, Shilukar’s Lair. If you search on my Ptol.us website map this is listed as Adventure 4 Location on Brandywine Street in the Guildsman District. Don’t tell anyone, but this is currently the home base of the characters Vogh Kath and Talin Ursalato from The Calling campaign. This location, after the combat was over, provided a TON of role playing opportunities! First, this is a subterranean complex, not an above ground residence, and it’s hidden under what looks like an abandoned lot. So the players had to forge a deed, purchase and sales papers, disguise themselves as buyer and seller under fake names, clear the debris from the lot, and even put up a big tent to hide what was under there. THEN, they had to go around to all the guilds that sold materials they would need, stone, glass, iron, etc. Yet another round of awesome role playing and a great way to introduce PCs to groups they might not automatically encounter through adventuring. Vogh even commissioned the Lyre of Building from the Dreaming Apothecary. Since she’s a bard she was able to magically construct the location. Guess what? That pissed off the Stone Mason’s guild as they lost out on labor and the PCs had to deal with some diplomacy. So Vogh and Talin actually designed the map and built the entire location as they wanted it. I had to figure out cost of materials and timelines but it turned out to be really fun and they love that they have a custom headquarters with a hidden basement.
Old Greyson House
This is yet another Chapter 33 location, but it’s from the Interlude #1 called The Trouble With Goblins. You can find it on my Ptol.us map on Passed Over Road in the North Market. After the goblins are dealt with the PCs could wind up buying or being given this house. Yet again, no owner is mentioned for this location but there is a map in the Handouts AND as a fun bonus for adventurers, they could wind up with their own personal connection to the dungeons under Ptolus through the house’s basement. Following the Chapter 26 prices, a house in the North Market should cost 5,000 gold pieces. If that’s too steep, maybe the owner gives a discount due to goblin damage.
Pythoness House and the Apartment Complex from Night of Dissolution
Finally I’m not talking about Chapter 33 Locations. These two are at the very beginning of the Night of Dissolution Adventure and they also feature in The Calling Campaign. Both Pythoness House and the Apartment Complex are in Oldtown. Bharash, the silver dragonborn fighter in my campaign decided he wanted to buy the Apartment complex, fix it up and become a landlord to have extra income. Personally as the Narrator I was much more interested in him owning the abandoned castle Pythoness House. We worked out a story where the owner double crossed Bharash and sold him Pythoness instead of the Apartments. Pissing off a 13th level dragonborn fighter might not have been a great idea, but this is also giving us a ton of role playing opportunities. Not the least of which because Bharash is worshiped by many ratmen in the city due to his kindness in not killing many of them. You’ll have to read the play by post content from my campaign or wait for me to get to this part of the adventure in the dramatic readings of Tales Under the Spire. I read about several other campaigns where the PCs wound up owning Pythoness House. But if your PCs want to buy the apartments like Bharash intended, that would be cool too. I even created a homebrew owner for Pythoness and the Apartments – Lief de Gray – and a money lender – Grand Spire Holdings.
Temple of Deep Chaos
Again from NoD the group could potentially move into the subterranean complex under the apartment complex. They will probably need to clean out all the blood and gore first. If they bought the apartment complex, they could keep this as a bonus secret lair. But the chaos cults know about it, so perhaps they attack…?
The Manor House over the Banewarrens
Now to the Banewarrens adventure. Yet again this location features in The Calling campaign as Julia the cleric of Lothian and Parnaith wanted to take over this house to live there and protect the collapsed entrance to the Banewarrens. The Lothian church is helping her purchase it and even staff it.
Rosegate House
The Rosegate House is in the Nobles’ Quarters and was specifically created to be given to your adventurers for good deeds completed. There are good maps of the location already which you can find in the handouts section or the back of the book. Rosegate House Handout for Players.
The PCs Could Buy Almost Anything
This is an RPG, you can do whatever you want! Use the prices in Chapter 26 if they find a random place they want to buy. If they want to purchase a business, tavern, inn or anything, you can make it work. That’s one of the coolest things about Ptolus and D&D in general, right? In The Ugly Incorporated campaign they bought The Shrine of Dreams at the Docks and renamed it The Captain’s Den which they are running as a business and some are living there.
Ghul’s Labyrinth / Underground Locations
I don’t remember whose campaign it was but I read about a dwarven party that made a location in the caves their homebase. Again, your imagination is the only limit.
Epic Levels: Goth Gulgamel or Jabel Shammar
I’ve mentioned this before but our intentions with The Calling campaign is that they will clean out both fortresses on the spire. And someday far in the future, when they are insanely epic levels, I want them to redeem and live in Jabel Shammar. It’s good to have goals, right?
Staffing & Upkeep
Staffing and Maintenance is one thing that most people will probably groan at. Well, if you run a game for accountants and nerds, then you could all run spreadsheets with profit and loss statements. But if you’re… you know… normal… then you can do what we’re doing for almost all the locations in my game: We use either a monthly upkeep cost that covers everything, paying employees, maintenance, taxes, etc. For the income generating locations we figured out how much it would make each month after expenses.
Tell Me About Your Fantasy Real Estate
What are you doing in your campaign, Ptolus or otherwise? Let me know in the comments on the video, or jump on our Ptolus Discord.
If you’re the coolest person alive and you want to guarantee all your rolls come up as 20’s then you can support me on Patreon.
If you’re interested in learning more about my Ptolus Campaign you can either read all the posts, as our game is complete written (Play by post) or you can follow along as I read those posts in my series called Tales Under the Spire which I try to release every Tuesday.
Until next time, stay out of the Shadow of the Spire.
