Money to spend in D&D 5e

 

Treasure is a way to keep score within the game, but what do you do with it?  They can buy magic and stuff, however, there is not much in the game in the rules. 

Stuff

The Players can buy anything that they want with all their money and when they are finished, they will still have much more.  So, they may want to buy a legacy.  A legacy is something like a town or nation with their name on it.  Purchasing a town is purely abstract building process and there are four types of buildings: Fortresses, Towers, Temples and Establishments.  They all attract troops, and they all attract people.

Fortresses are places of strength, and they attract troops to the banner of the Lord who builds it. 

Towers are places of research and industry.

Temples provide aid to the people in the town.

Establishments provide places for people to congregate.

Level	Fortress T/A	Cost Main 10%	Tower T/A	Cost Main 15%	Temple T/A	Cost Main 20%	Establishment T/A	Cost Main 25%
1	5/1	10000	3/2	8000	2/3	8000	1/5	6000
2	10/2	5000	6/4	3000	4/6	3000	2/10	2000
3	15/3	10000	9/6	6000	6/9	6000	3/15	4000
4	20/4	15000	12/8	12000	8/12	12000	4/20	6000
5	25/5	20000	15/10	18000	10/15	18000	5/25	6000

 

Each building provides artisans, but only the best troop generating building provides troops. When an Establishment reaches level 5, it allows the player to extract taxes from the community and this is important if you want your legacy community to be self sustaining.

 

LG x2	LN x1.5	LE x1
NG x2.5	N x2	NE x1.5
CG x3	CN 2.5	CE x2

There are multiple approaches, you can create a town from the resources of a party or from individual members of the party.  Individuals will rely on the alignment of the party member and their charisma bonus, while the party approach will be more co-operative.  In the co-operative approach selection of panel of leaders for the group with the more advantageous members working together.  The most advantageous alignment can be used and the most charismatic can also be used as well as two other assisting charismas.  The idea behind the alignment modifier is about the degree of stagnation and safety of the state for merchants.  Chaotic environments are good for creativity, but good aligned locations are safer than evil locations.  The chart the results is used closely with the building that the player is building.  The Artisans that are attracted to the building(s) of the village are modified by the “alignment” of the Lord.  Artisans attracted x modifier.  Another factor for artisan attraction is about the size of the settlement and the best indicator of size is the number of levels of buildings built.  The players will also need a place to go to drum up support to charisma travel to this new place.  The effect is for every level of building built multiply the lead recruiter’s Charisma bonus and half the Charisma bonus of the aides.  These two numbers are added together and create the number of Artisans attracted to the settlement.  Example:  four characters with varied alignment create a town.  One finances a Fortress for 25000 (lvl3), one finances a Tower for 27000 (lvl4), one finances a Temple for 27000 (lvl4), and two others finance two Establishments for 24000 (lvl5).  The Artisan attraction is 3+8+12+25+25= 83.  One of the Characters is named Lord, co-incidentally the one with the most favourable alignment available NG, so 83x2.5=207.5, round up because you can’t have half a person.  The Bard has a charisma of 20, so a bonus of 5, the two aides have a bonus of 3 and 1, so contribute 4/2 or 2, together they have a recruitment bonus of 7 and 21 levels of building, 7x21=147 artisans.  Together that represents 355 artisans recruited.  Artisans come with their families and the tools of their trades, and they build their own businesses and homes on their own.  They also do the thing that artisans do and that is attract people that use their services, Farmers, Woodsman and Miners; each artisan attracts five families.  I know, usually it is the other way around, but this is a abstract settlement building system.  People come and they build their way of life in you community.  People come because of the artisans, but they also come because there is protection, for every troop in the city one more family arrives.  The Fortress attracts 15 troops, so the town gets 15 more families.  355x5+15=1790 base families, add the 355 artisans and you get 2145, consisting of 2 adults and a few children, but I suggest 3.  10,725 people in the town or small city.  The economy is the length of the year in days multiplied by the wage of the area, I suggest 1gp.  Artisans make about five times this.  The farmers spend all their money purchasing artisan goods and the artisans spend all their money buying food and supplies from the farmers this means in a place where a year is 350 days, the farmers and artisans generate a GDP of 1,247,750gp.  And the populace can be taxed, 10% would be 124,775gp per year

(Alignment x Artisan Attraction) + (Establishment level x Charisma Bonus)= # of Artisans that come

More advanced options have to do with the powers that the towers and the temples give.

Temples

Temple level	Temple Power
1	Each level of Temple in a town raises the amount of taxation that the populous will accept by 1%.  5 level 5 Temples will allow taxation of 35% and 1 level 1 would only allow 11%
2	Each level of Temple over 1 raises the Life Expectancy by 1 year with a base line of 50 years.  5 level 5 Temples would increase the by 20 years to 70, one level 2 would increase it to 51
3	Each level of Temple over 2 raises the #of children/family by 10% base line of 3 children/family.  5 level 5 Temples would increase the children/family by 150% to 7.5!  1 level 3 Temple would increase it to 3.3.
4	As the Temple gets larger, the effect spreads to other towns, a level 4 Temple counts as a level 2 Temple one town over.  A level 5 temple as a level 3 temple one town over and a level 1 temple two towns over.  When the temple extends to another Nation, the secondary and tertiary temples act as population draws, removing population to your Nation.
5	Each Temple ranked level 5 makes the populous more productive, increasing GDP and all related things including taxes.  5 level 5 temples cause the productivity to generate 50% more work/GDP/taxes. The example town would produce 187,162.5gp/year.

 

Temples will affect how your town grows after the DM turns off the free growth.  I would suggest that it get turned off after they build a substantial town or series of smaller towns.  Natural Growth is a combination of natural growth and natural reduction.  How many people are born and how many people die?  This is also an abstract calculation, and it is only effective if you just tell yourself that the population is spread out evenly across the various ages.

1) Apply the effects of the Temples.

2) Multiply the # of families by the number of children and divide by the age of majority, say 18 and divide by 2.  This number represents the number of new families.  Multiply by the number of children they are expected to have.  This Number is the Natural Growth rate

3) Calculate the population and divide by the age expectancy.  This is the natural decrease number.

4) Subtract the NDN from the NGR and divide by the total population and you will get the Growth Rate of the town or city.

5) If the town has new buildings and new potential Artisan spots the Population will increase to fill these and the population will increase.  Otherwise, the new population will migrate away.

 

 

Tower Level	Tower Power (many towers are dependant of resources close by and can only be built if these resources exist.  Some of these represent schools as well and may do other things instead of provide wealth)
1	A building that makes use of a local resource, a quarry, a mine, a lumbermill.  It multiplies the GDP of the region by .25% and adds that directly to the coffers
2	A building that refines the materials that are produced locally into more specialized products.  It can be a quarry, a mine or a lumbermill too, as a masonry, foundry, or a joiner or it could produce specialized mundane items.  It multiplies the  GDP of a region .5% and adds it to coffers.  Most Resources can only be processed in level 1 or 2 towers and gain no benefit to more
3	A building that manufactures a product into low level magical products like potions and scrolls for export, or expensive mundane equipment, Boats, weapons, armour etc.  It multiplies the GDP and adds .75% directly to the coffers
4	A building that manufactures top of the line mundane products, like ships and full plate-mail, or mid level magical items including magical versions of items from the last tower level.  It multiplies the GDP by 1% and adds it directly to the coffers.
5	A building that researches new and fantastical ideas that will revolutionize the world to come, or it produces magical items of rare power, or mid level magic from tower 3, or magical items produced in tower 4.  The Tower multiplies the GDP of the town by 1% and adds it to the coffers and it may potentially do a lot more.

 

Some towns are located near mines, multiple mines and one tower must be built for each resource.  If the resource is then made into something, then a new tower must be built.  Each tower that is located at a resource will contribute export capitol—0.25%, if it is possible to refine that resource a more complex tower can be built and increase the amount of export capitol—0.5%.  Iron ore, Tower level 1, Steel Foundry, Tower level 2.  This would result in a .75% income boost.  If the town built a Weapon Smithy, a level 3 Tower, the town would have a boost of 1%, .25% for the ore and .75% the weapon smithy.  If the town had four mines, they would get four extraction boosts and 4 refinement boosts. 

 

 

Creative Policies

Sometimes a player wants to offer bonuses to the people that would come to their new town, they can do that.  The bonus can be directed towards getting more artisans (which would also increase the farmers) or Farmers.  Bonuses for artisans would be tax breaks or cash incentives applied to all the people that come, not just the ones beyond the expected numbers.  Bonuses to Farmers, Woodsman and Miners do not include free land, because that is expected already, but if they are of something a farmer might consider valuable like a free cow for every settler to the area would attract more people.  Any deal meant to attract more Artisans must be a level more substantial than the one that is offered to Farmers, because 1 artisan includes 5 farmers.  A cow costs 15gp, so the value of the gift for an artisan would have to be at minimum 90gp.  No taxes for a year (5%=100gp) would do it, as would a free home and business. 

 

 

Extra Stuff

Each settlement must be connected to another, so you either build a road or you build boats, boat building is a tower (level 3 or 4), and it only works if there is a river big enough or a lake/ocean, but roads are not.  They are an abstract concept and cost 5000gp for a basic road, stone roads will cost more, but require the first road to be built, so another 10,000gp.

Palisades can be built around any settlement with forests near by and cost 1000gp and provide one additional troop for the town, walls cost 2000gp and provide two additional troops.  Earthworks and ditches can be added for 1000gp and provide one troop as well.  The earth works can be combined with a palisade easily

Expenses
roads	Basic:+5000gp	Cobblestone: +10,000	Paved: +10,000
walls	Earthworks: 1000gp	Palisade: 1000gp	Wall: 2000gp

 

Trade

Another advanced concept which is also abstract is trade between towns in the area.  It depends on connection points and other large nations connected to.

Transport	Free trade %	Tariff %
Basic Road	/.05	/.00625
Cobble Road	/.1	/.0125
Paved Road	/.5	/.0625
River/waterway	/.15	/0.01875
Trade market external	/.5	.0625

 

The GDP, once all the bonuses has been tabulated there is one additional bonus: trade.  The Trade bonus depends on the connectivity of the towns in the area.  All the transportation routes in the nation and external destinations are added up (treat cardinal directions as one destination if there is a way to get there) with the understanding that it will be free trade or tariffs on trade, road tolls etc.   the totals can be mixed and matched of course.  Then the resulting trade percentage is used, multiply the GDP of the city and that is the external trade bonus that is accrued, and your tax rate is applied to that.  If you are the one that is applying the toll, then you calculate the value for the toll as that value again and apply it directly to your coffers.

Example the town above has a GDP of 1,247,750gp.  If it has three roads and a harbour and two nations trade with your city and impose a tariff on your goods and a tax on exports to your port and you impose road tolls at one bridge per roadway, you will have a total trade % of 0.14375% trade x GDP for 1793gpx 10% tax rate for 179gp, and 233gp for your tariffs.  If all trade were free, it would be  taxes of 1435gp.  But if only the roads were tariff free it would be after taxes 343gp.  If both destinations put tariffs on the route, the route becomes unprofitable and closes.  It is an interesting aside for players that might want to micromanage their community.  It also illustrates a measure of how free trade works and how tariffs work too.  The greater than half reduction is meant to simulate trade hesitancy in the populace, why trade with the people down the road when there are tariffs or reduced trade because the trade increases prices.

If you build many towns and connect them all you will create a much larger trade network and therefore more trade gold accumulated.  In the community that I created these rules for they had 19 roadways and 4 external markets and a few other connections that allowed the accumulated trade to be a substantial 3.5% and if the above example were connected to them, it would generate 4367gp in more taxes. 

 

Troops

Military unit table

01-20	Archers regular
21-45	Infantry regular
46-60	Cavalry regular
61-66	Archers seasoned
67-80	Infantry seasoned
81-83	Cavalry seasoned
84-85	Archers veteran
86-88	Infantry veteran
89	Cavalry veteran
90-91	Archers special
92-94	Infantry special
95	Cavalry special
96-00	Siege
101-112	Archery elite
113-122	Infantry elite
123-128	Cavalry elite
129-133	Archery super elite
134-135	Infantry super elite
136-140	Cavalry super elite

 

Fighters add levelx2 to the roll, other martial classes add their level, and non martial classes roll unmodified.  Doubles are added together to create larger units, but units can only get so large before they become unmanageable.  If you want to play with your units you can have a lot of fun with a creative DM and there are rules to do this all over the place. 

Why taxes?

Because it is fun.  It is great to have money, right?  But then when you have a town or a castle you must pay the expenses that accumulate from running it, those buildings will start to fall apart unless you do repairs and pay the maintenance cost.  The maintenance cost is on the chart for buying the building.  And then there are the troops that you have, you need to pay for the people and the maintenance of the equipment.

Troop	Green	Regular	Seasoned	Veteran	Elite	Super Elite
Archers	1000	2000	3000	4000	5000	10000
Infantry	1000	2000	3000	4000	5000	10000
Cavalry	2000	3000	4000	6000	7000	14000
Siege	1000	2000	3500	5000	6500	13000
XP to next stage in battles	2	4	4	8	16	32

 

I like to assume that troops come in groups of 25 and units can be up to 125 people strong.  The costs are per 25 soldiers.  Again, these are abstract numbers, and the pay is per year.  Super Elite Cavalry sounds great, but a unit of 125 would cost 70,000gp a year to maintain and that comes right out of taxes.  Let’s use the town above again.  A level 3 Fortress, a level 4 Tower, a level 4 Temple and 2 level 5 Establishments. 

	Fortress (3)	Tower (4)	Temple (4)	2 Establishments (5)
Cost	25,000	29,000	29,000	24,000
Maintenance	2500	4350	5800	6000

Building maintenance for the town is 18,650gp

15 troops are generated, and the lord of the fortress is a 10^th level fighter: IR3, AS2, 2 IS3, CS1, IV1, SiegeR1, AE1.  First, 6 Infantry Seasoned were rolled and that is too large a unit, so they are split into 2 units of 3.

Units	IR3	AS2	2xIS3	CS1	IV1	SiegeR1	AE1
maintenance	6000	6000	18000	4000	4000	2000	5000

The total maintenance is 45,000gp  for a grand total of 63,650gp maintenance and the taxes are 124,775gp leaving a nice 61,000gp for the characters to spend each year how they will.  But if the party had decided to construct a level 5 fortress and build a wall around the town, the costs would have changed greatly, with an additional 3500 in building maintenance and potentially tens of thousands of more troop maintenance (12 more troops rolls). 

 

Full Example

The city of Hamletshire: Fortress (3), Tower (4), Temple (4), 2 Establishments (5), and a road, 355 Artisan families, 1790 Basic families. 375 soldiers.  Total maintenance 63,650gp GDP of 1,247,750gp, Tax rate 14% 174,685gp.  Life Expectancy 53 years, children 3.6, Pop. 12,012, Natural Growth Rate 4.6 %

There is a local industry that generates 12,477.5gp direct to the coffers.  Free trade with the next town over generates an additional 873gp per year.

If the players add additional 355x4.6% (16) spots for artisans in the first year, the town will continue to grow by 553 people in the first year (4.6%).  Which should be easy because the city generates 124,385gp more than it spends.  The five players split the pot evenly and have about 25,000 apiece.  They could afford to build another city of like size every couple of years if they could populate it, remember only the first city is free to populate.