Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer Creatures
Frozen Sick
D&D Beyond Basic Rules
Basic Rules (2014)
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Monstrous Compendium Vol. 1: Spelljammer CreaturesFrozen SickD&D Beyond Basic RulesBasic Rules (2014)Sign in to view your library & saved favorites.
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It's also worth mentioning that giving each and every defender a name and backstory doesn't make them immune to being killed in an attack and then needing to be replaced. It could even be an interesting story beat for the player character to deal with if the DM and the player want to handle it that way. But that risk is just part of the life for a professional soldier or guard, and giving them names and backstories won't save them from that. Dealing with those consequences of an attack on a bastion doesn't mean you're treating them like cannon fodder.
Yeah this is a little off topic, but Bastion defense sessions can be pretty fun, and in anticipation of that that fun, pouring money and Resources into a bastion's defenses makes sure those orphans or displaced town's people you sheltered stand a better chance against the undead horde.
He/Him. Loooooooooong time Player.
The Dark days of the THAC0 system are behind us.
"Hope is a fire that burns in us all If only an ember, awaiting your call
To rise up in triumph should we all unite
The spark for change is yours to ignite."
Kalandra - The State of the World
Good point. In my Bastion, I want to be able to say that Alicia is a fine cook and a decent bard rather than simply say that minion is a cook. As for disregarding back stories of a soldier, that is unacceptable. My cousin lived from 1944 to 2008, during his life, he was a US Army paramedic in Vietnam, then in civilian life, he was a fire fighter and a registered nurse. Which part of that story is unimportant?
If you really want a banking system so that player characters have some place to plop their cash, and to earn some interest on their deposits, then you need an accountant to advise you. You will also need a tax agency to collect a tax on wealth.
As for myself, I assume that included in the various lifestyle expenses is a tax on my apparent wealth to support the town and such.
LIke literally every other aspect of D&D, the bastion system has two independent aspects. There is the purely mechanical aspect and the roleplay aspect. If players and groups only want to interact with the mechanical side of bastions, that’s fine, and it isn’t your place to judge someone for how they want to interact with what is mechanically little different than a very limited shopbuilding simulator.
But if you want to do more with your bastion, that is fine. No one is stopping you from giving every single soldier in your bastion a name and backstory. That is what I do - each of my bastion workers has at least a page write up on who they are (because I am mostly a forever DM, and making NPCs is my addiction).
In fact, the official rules encourage that - it was a stated goal of the bastion system to get players to do things like generate NPCs to help onboard them into DMing.
You also did not actually read the post you are responding to. At no point did ApplePaladin say that one needs to disregard backstory or that backstory was not important. To the contrary, they actively said you were welcome to include such. All they said is that backstory does not confer plot armor. You can give the soldier a name, a history, a wife and child, and love them as a character… but they still have a chance of dying, and that’s both mechanically sensible and might lead to good roleplay opportunities.
Lastly, this thread is not really about bastions. It looks a lot like you are trying derail the main thread to express your frustration with the bastion system (frustrations that seem more based on incorrect readings of the system than reality). If you want to complain about bastions, maybe start a new thread to do so?
In what moment anyone say that you should disregarding the back story of the minions?
I suspect this discussion has wandered off the path of what players ought to do with their loot, so I think I will simply retire to my cozy Bastion, request the bar tender to conjure a cold, frosty root beer float (the dwarves in the pub are glaring at me as I utter this request), request the resident bard to play a song or two from Heart and Fleetwood Mac (the elves and halflings approve of these choices) and just let my part of this thread end.
As for banking.
Keep it pretty simple. Not all banks are full service banks. We pretty much made them fit the size of the community.
Very small communities wouldn't even have a bank. At best the local bartender would only be able to work out of his till. And he might not even want to do that. When drinks are a few coppers changing a gold piece might not even be possible.
And flashing cash just brings in the criminals. Pick pockets, prostitutes looking to drug you and take your money, criminal city guards looking for a shake down. The list goes on.
Plus add in market place mark up once its known the group has a huge amount of cash. All those little kids asking for change are passing on the word of your wealth in hopes the local shop owners give them a tip for the information.
So many ways to lose the wealth long before you even find a bank to switch it into easy to hide items or denominations.
Bastions are fine but if you want to invest your treasure in them you need to get it home first.