In one of the episodes of The Brainstorm Podcast we recorded last night, we touched upon "home bases" for the PCs. Do you use it, hand wave it or whatever.
In my eyes, if the PCs are the usual band of merry misfits that kill things and take their stuff, being on the constant move means one has a ready supply of creatures to kill and stuff to take. A true home base, especially at early levels, kinda defeats that purpose.
Do you use home bases in your campaign? Why or why not.
Depends on the game really and sometimes the home base moves with my player's. I once ran a whole campaign where the players travelled with a band of gypsies and another where they managed to get a starjammer vessel (ancient and though to be mythical tech in the game) partially operational allowing in world movement only.
ReplyDeleteMost wandering style games I've run I typically drive the PCs forward with some greater end point goal .
My party denied they were murder hobos because they owned seedy pubs and brothels and former haunted houses and a dungeon. Then i asked where do they sleep the most which is of course on the road, in pubs, in barns and in dungeons with doors bolted.
ReplyDeleteNothing too detailed, a nearby settlement or a large city where they can return occasionally dispose of their hard earned, ill gotten gains.
ReplyDeleteIf D&Dish Fantasy: Yep. Thieve's Guild. Every adventure opening and closing takes place in the thieves' guild, like it was the opening credits in Cheers of something.
ReplyDeleteBy the fifth adventure, the thieves' guild is on fire and the rogues are being hunted in the streets.
I prefer the term, "Itinerant Expert Treasure Finders", thankyouverymuch.
ReplyDeleteThere is also the "League of Crazed, Itinerant Clerics" me and a friend always joke about.
My campaigns are usually quest oriented so the characters are usually trying to get to particular place that's difficult to get to, killing monsters and taking their stuff along the way, so no, they rarely have any kind of home base but since they are on a quest, I wouldn't exactly say they were wandering either.
ReplyDeleteAs a kid, I didn't understand the importance of a home base. Now, there has to be one. If the players decide to crap where their characters sleep they deal with the consequences.
ReplyDeleteIn my current campaign, the PCs are centered in a town, and have gone so far as to rent a house by the month (mostly because the food at the local inn is pretty bad.) They seem to be well in with the locals, and that has been driving a lot of their efforts to clean up the neighborhood. Being able to reuse NPCs and have easily available sources for plot hooks is nice. This village is also their home-away-from-home, and I imagine them getting back to the big city which is home for most of them as the need for bigger adventures arises.
ReplyDeleteA home base for the PCs is pretty key to the large or mega-dungeon games I've run.
ReplyDeleteFalse dichotomy.
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DeleteThe last group I DM'd would start to settle somewhere, but inevitably would wander off to somewhere else, so they never quite found their base.
ReplyDeleteThe did clear out a semi-ruined manor house, which they declared would be their base. Once they left the area, I had another group move into the cleared manor and claim the land for the local Lord.
That group will no longer ignore the local political ramifications when they claim something as their own.
We love home bases. Sometimes just a home town, sometimes an actual establishment. We dig getting to make our own homes and have frequently recurring NPCs in the cast.
ReplyDeleteWhenever possible, having a base of operation when one can rest, recover and reequip is amazing useful both mechanically and as a way to define the characters' relationship to the setting. And I just like building things in RPGs.
ReplyDeleteMy groups usually end up with both a town-centric home base (crucial for conflict with The Locals) and a home-away-from-home (looted ruin, cleared-out bunker, etc) to avoid prying eyes and GM-created hassles.
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