Do you understand that you are not a passive observer in this situation? The PCs want to do this. Great. That doesn’t mean it works. Why would people move to this city? What kinds of opportunities await them there? Cities don’t just spring up without a reason. Where did the workers come from my to build the buildings? Just because they build it, doesn’t mean anyone will come. But it seems we’re past that. So have someone attack the city. Either an enemy army, or spies trying to overthrow it from within. Maybe the neighboring kingdom decides the city is actually part of its territory — either they can pay tribute or face an army. Failing all that, just say it burns down and all the survivors leave so there’s just rubble and charred ruins. Now get back to the plot.
Managing a whole city could go one of two ways, it could either be the most interesting adventure the party’s ever undertaken, or the most boring thing that ever happened to them. It really all depends on the players’ tastes and how you present it to them. If they like politics and intrigue then give it to them and they will love your campaign. Otherwise just bore them with minutiae until they’re clamoring for a quest and then give them that. Then, they can return home to discover the regent’s been assassinated or something and their rivals have taken hold of the city and now they have to take it back. There’s tons you can do with a city in D&D. But whatever you do, permanently add the city to your world. Players love knowing that they’ve contributed to the world in which their characters reside.
Agreed with Xalthu, it really should never have come to this. When players become rulers of cities, dukedom’s, or kingdom’s the actual D&D game is over and you’re basically running a civilization campaign. The best you can do is try to run them down with costs and try to force them back into Adventuring. Natural disasters are an easy way to go about it (including acts of gawd / Tarrasque), but also ask how this city is paying for itself. Did they build by a natural waterway or divert an existing one? That’s a prime source of revenue without which maintenance, supply, and even a reason to live there become questionable. Same applies to roads.
By the way: How did a Dragon’s Hoard cover the cost of building or buying an entire city?! That’s the Hoard of Smaug and the DMG very specifically provides suggestions of how to build a hoard that comes in no way close to covering that expense. Ignoring the physical structures of the city, think about the cost of the land and who would be willing to sell it / rent it. How do the rulers attract peasants, merchants, and followers?
IamSposta: What kind of things can they do to make running the city an interesting or fun part of a D&D game, you didn’t say.
You might also tell them, "and that's where your story ends. (aka congratulations, you won the game and you PC is now an NPC) The newly built city attracts adventurers, please roll up your new character..."
IamSposta: What kind of things can they do to make running the city an interesting or fun part of a D&D game, you didn’t say.
Well, I did mention political intrigue as an example. Then there’s also rivalries with neighboring city states, defending the city against great threats Godzilla style, and some people genuinely like having to actively manage a city. Those are just a few examples off the top. They could also have to specifically deal with a criminal underbelly like smugglers or dealers or something, or incursions of rat/mole people or something from beneath the streets…. All one needs do is use one’s imagination.
Building a city will take years. In the meantime there's a lot they'll need to be doing. Heck even building a village will take a long time. Buckle up there's nerdy stats ahead.
The average Iron Age round house it is believed took a normal group of Celts at least a week. A few days to weave the structure, a couple more days to assemble the roof and apply the thatch, a few more days to apply the Daub to the walls, then some extra time for doors and other features like beds etc. It's not clear if this includes the time to gather the right resources.
So far then we've got at minimum a week to clear the land and build a basic dwelling. Let's be generous and say two labourers per dwelling, they can build four basic structures per month. According to the book that's 300sp per month for a labourer, so we're at 60gp for just four basic structures. For a small city we're talking about 5000 population. Let's be generous and say two people to a structure, that's 2500 basic stuctures. That's 625 months, or 52 years worth of labour. That means 37500gp.
This is of course before we even factor in cost of materials and persuading people to come and live in this new city. If we want anything more than a basic and I mean basic set or roundhouses that cost goes up.
The highest possible amount on these tables is an average of 45000, but a highest of 72000gp. This would be for fourth tier player characters fighting an enemy of CR 17+. So unless they took on an ancient dragon they still haven't got enough to build a city. Certainly they won't have the knowhow or administration ability to populate or run the city. Which means they'll need help. They'll need to locate and hire skileld builders, they'll need to win over diplomats, seek permission from the ruler of the land.
All of this seems like a lot of obstacles to throw in the way of an adventuring party, and that's because it is. While you can ask to try anything in a TTRPG, it doesn't always mean you can. This is akin, in my opinion, to the haggling with a trader problem. Your average village or small town commoner isn't making a profit in 5e rules as written. They're just scraping by. No amount of persuasion is going to cause them to offer your player characters a discount, largely because there is no discount to offer. Giving any money off means that the NPC goes without. Any other way around this is tantamount to robbery. Of course as we go up the scales of NPCs then sure we might see some discounts coming into play, but in a living breathing game world, sometimes the party will come up against hard and immoveable obstacles.
Make it clear the work involved in achieving their goal. Do they really want to do this? If they do, then build an adventure from it. Here's the basic adventure structure I'd use in this case:
Secure the site on which the city is to be founded.
Visit the ruler's castle and petition to be granted a deed to a large plot of land.
The ruler requires the adventurers to prove their worth before they'll grant the title.
Eliminate the biggest threat to the kingdom (prove they can defend their new people)
Secure a peace treaty with an enemy kingdom (prove that they are skilled in diplomacy)
Broker a trade deal with a foreign kingdom (prove they'll be able to manage an economy)
The ruler of the kingdom grants the party a deed to a piece of land.
Breaking ground
The land is infested by the undead/goblinoids/illithids etc - they must clear that threat first before they can break ground.
The party must now hire the builders, archetects and other skilled labours to achieve their goal.
On breaking ground a magic artefact is discover that floods the area with wild magics
An enemy group hears about the artefact and is coming for it.
The party must hide, protect or destroy the artefact and the not yet completed settlement.
The party must find a mage skilled enough to clear up the wild magic fallout.
Conclusion - By this point you've probably taken up a whole load of session and you can describe the various frustrations the party had in building the place and convincing people to come live there etc. You could play through this if you want, take a session or couple of sessions for each stage of settlement. Introduce some complications for the party to overcome. But once they place has been founded and is actually started to be build, that's the end of the campaign right there. They've retired.
I know that was a lot, and hopefully it did all make sense. Basically, your party shouldn't be rich enough to build a city after killing just one dragon, if they are, the adventure can become more political and have some twists and turns. In just what I outlined here, you could run a campaign for 20 or so sessions.
Agreed with Xalthu, it really should never have come to this. When players become rulers of cities, dukedom’s, or kingdom’s the actual D&D game is over and you’re basically running a civilization campaign. The best you can do is try to run them down with costs and try to force them back into Adventuring. Natural disasters are an easy way to go about it (including acts of gawd / Tarrasque), but also ask how this city is paying for itself. Did they build by a natural waterway or divert an existing one? That’s a prime source of revenue without which maintenance, supply, and even a reason to live there become questionable. Same applies to roads.
By the way: How did a Dragon’s Hoard cover the cost of building or buying an entire city?! That’s the Hoard of Smaug and the DMG very specifically provides suggestions of how to build a hoard that comes in no way close to covering that expense. Ignoring the physical structures of the city, think about the cost of the land and who would be willing to sell it / rent it. How do the rulers attract peasants, merchants, and followers?
IamSposta: What kind of things can they do to make running the city an interesting or fun part of a D&D game, you didn’t say.
King Solomon's condundrums are a good one if you have a party that love diplomacy (the baby who two mother both claim are theirs). In general and faced with this situation I would line up NPCs all of whom want or need something. It can range from the trivial to the world shattering. These are just off the top of my head a list of NPCs that might appear in a public audience with a town council:
Several people have gone missing in the nearby woods. (An evil cult is suspected.)
The mill burnt down due to arson, this means no more flour, which means no more bread. (Burnt into the ground wasa message 'I'm not done - your friendly arsonist')
My daughter has lost her pet cat. It's been in the family for years now. She wants to ask if you'll help find the cat. (Perhaps the cat is not a cat?)
The hermit on the outskirts of town has suddenly become sociable. (What caused this change in demenour?)
The city's high taxation rate has caused a group of citizens to refuse to pay. What are you going to do?
The city guard have been unable to apprehend a murderer, will you help?
Strange green lights have been seen in the windows of the town library at night. Can you investigate...everyone else is too scared.
A new cavern opened up in the city's mine. There seems to be a staircase leading down forever.
This is all off the top of my head of course, but you can make a world ending problem out of anything. Maybe the lost cat is actually a transmogrified wizard who was trapped in that form to put a stop to their plans of becoming a Lich and creating an army of undead Beholderkin?
It all is seriously just about imagination. Don't forget the story isn't yours as a DM, the story belongs to the group. The world on the other hand, that's yours to build. Just because it's not a story that you anticipated, doesn't mean that you can't build a story if your world building is good enough.
So, here’s my problem my dnd campaign killed a dragon and used all his money to build a whole city and become the rulers of it.
I don’t have any idea what to do…
I'm going to differ from the rest of the respondents. Your players have announced they want to do this thing. What does it mean to them? Off the top of my head, I can think of three possibilities:
They feel like they won D&D, and it's time for the characters to retire
They want to move up a power level, into the world of politics and world-shaking threats
They just thought it'd be cool
There are probably other reasons that I'm not thinking of.
What to do here is talk to your players. They have a better idea of what they want out of the game than forum posters do. Lay it out for them:: what they want creates a significant change to the nature of the game that you're running,, and you need more feedback on what sort of game they're interested in playing. Whatever it is, it's likely going to involve a time skip, whether it be months, years, or decades.
(Also, don't forget in all of this that the game has to be fun for you as well. If what they want doesn't work for you, adjustments are going to need to be made.)
Building and running a city/town/region is moving the characters out of the normal sort of D& D no matter what. It moves the PCs to being player run NPCs. While that doesn’t mean they can never adventure like they used to it does mean that their normal is no longer that of the active agents, they have become the hirers not the hirelings. Can it be done? Sure - I’ve done it 3 times with the same characters. Everything others have suggested actually applies - they need to find a spot in your world that has the terrain to or some sort of features to make building a city there reasonable navigable rivers, road junctures, mineral wealth, rich agricultural land, major water source in a desert area, something. They will need to clear it of major threats (the dragon’s territory might be ideal with it now gone) as well as possibly make peace with nearby realms. If you’re using a world like FR then there is lots of open unclaimed area that they might settle that no one is really claiming. On the other hand there are also lots of areas that have competing claims to and the PCs may have to deal with multiple competing claims to “their” city. You will have to populate your city and that means advertising of some sort to bring folks in. Exactly how they do it is between you and them. In my final run I recruited a large number of exadventurers with skills, retiring or near retirement caravan guards, warriors, etc from along a bunch of trade routes and areas just finishing significant wars and offered them land for service so they built the region both for my PCs and themselves as they got lands and buildings and businesses, farms etc that they had built after a number of years of service. They also acted as the (semiprofessional) army for that period of service. They will have to decide on a system of government, set it up and make it work against all sorts of power hungry idjits. They will have to determine a set of taxes to bring money in to cover running expenses, set up police, courts, maybe fire, education, waste disposal, health, etc systems. And then deal with the ongoing problems that such a city may generate. It can be a major job and headache but also a lot of fun trying to do this. Have fun.
There is nothing unusual about players developing political ambitions and taking over control of cities, provinces, dukedoms or other political units. It is just a different style of game. In AD&D it was assumed that every high level character would eventually have their own keep/headquarters/base. In 5e, that aspect was left up to the DM.
In this case, there will be multiple possibilities for plot lines as the players attempt to protect and support their growing city.
However, I think the OP and their party might not understand how a city comes to be, how it is created and built, how long that process takes and what is involved in making that happen. Hint: Money is not enough, not even a dragon's hoard.
The OP said "used all his money to build a whole city and become the rulers of it" which makes it sound like they went out, spent their money, and now have a city to rule. It doesn't work that way. Even the Wish spell isn't typically powerful enough to Wish an entire city, its economy, its people, and every other detail into existence ... and if Wish level of magic is not used then the establishment of anything that could be called a city will take years.
- find and purchase the land for the city - choose a good site, close to resources, transportation for trade (roads, river, ocean typically).
- start building the city, accommodation for occupants, farms to grow food and raise livestock, merchants to collect the food and distribute it for sale in the city
- city watch, guards and possibly soldiers, city walls, social structure for society, local lords/guild masters to manage food production, distribution, sales as well as other industry for local consumption and trade. There are an immense number of different goods that a city needs to either create itself or import and if it wants to import them then it needs its own goods to trade. A dragon hoard doesn't last long under these circumstances.
- attract enough people to live on the farms, run businesses etc
There are a huge number of items I didn't mention. Civilization the computer game or Sim City might give an additional idea of some of the complexity involved.
Anyway, the simple answer is that, the situation as described by the OP couldn't happen unless the party takes a break of 20 years or more in which most of their efforts are focus on building up the settlement from village-> small town -> large town -> small city -> large city.
My advice is to read through the pdf of Pathfinder Kingmaker 2nd edition. Check it out on anyflip.com. That is a literal campaign about building a kingdom and the struggles involved in it.
So, here’s my problem my dnd campaign killed a dragon and used all his money to build a whole city and become the rulers of it.
I don’t have any idea what to do…
How much/what was in the hoard that they could build a whole city with it?? Even a small city would require a huge sum of gold for one group to just have a city, (clearing lands, buildings, infrastructure, attracting people, support resources like nearby farms, etc) built from scratch.
This brings back some memories from the old 2e days, lol.
As noted, it will take years to build a whole city. But let's say that they only build the foundation for the city, and let's go so far as to apply a Meta concept and suggest that the player's are using the roman model such as outlined in the book "City".
What isn't really talked about is that it took three years, assuming the typical issues and challenges, for a typical roman city fort to be built. The cost of materials is one piece. The cost to get those materials is another. The cost to pay for the laborers of those parts -- to feed them, to shelter them, in addition, if we are looking at any period prior to the 1800's -- was never low.
Even Smaug's wealth took years to be spent through to rebuild and move forward the lake side city.
yes, fantasy -- wizards and such coming out to raise walls, charging immense sums.
If you build it, they will come, absolutely -- to get paid, to be protected, to work -- a lot of which is going to depend on the neighbors, lol. Because there has to be neighbors -- and in a truly feudal system, those people are not free to just up and leave -- they will need permission to move from their Lieges, who may not appreciate the resource drain. Who may not want to help or allow some newly rich upstarts the ability to haul the stone or to use their quarries.
And let's not forget that in a Feudal system, all land belongs to the King or to a noble house, who got it from the King (or Queen). Up and just building on land because it is there is essentially a declaration of open rebellion.
And while a dragon iis tough, an Army is tougher.
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Turning D&D into a city builder is something that could be an interesting game... but D&D doesn't have the systems built in so you'd have to come up with your own rules, and if the OP had the experience to do that he wouldn't be having the problem to start with.
Turning D&D into a city builder is something that could be an interesting game... but D&D doesn't have the systems built in so you'd have to come up with your own rules, and if the OP had the experience to do that he wouldn't be having the problem to start with.
Truth, lol.
There are some rules for a lot of this in the older books (1st and 2nd edition) -- there's an entire set of tables and costs in the 1st ed, developed mostly to go along with the whole set up of creating a Keep and linked to the ideas of retainers and similar folks who were attracted and drawn to the PCs.
But 4 and 5 don't have anything for it, and it was notably intentional.
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Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities .-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-. An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more. Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
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So, here’s my problem my dnd campaign killed a dragon and used all his money to build a whole city and become the rulers of it.
I don’t have any idea what to do…
Do you understand that you are not a passive observer in this situation? The PCs want to do this. Great. That doesn’t mean it works. Why would people move to this city? What kinds of opportunities await them there? Cities don’t just spring up without a reason. Where did the workers come from my to build the buildings? Just because they build it, doesn’t mean anyone will come.
But it seems we’re past that. So have someone attack the city. Either an enemy army, or spies trying to overthrow it from within. Maybe the neighboring kingdom decides the city is actually part of its territory — either they can pay tribute or face an army.
Failing all that, just say it burns down and all the survivors leave so there’s just rubble and charred ruins. Now get back to the plot.
Managing a whole city could go one of two ways, it could either be the most interesting adventure the party’s ever undertaken, or the most boring thing that ever happened to them. It really all depends on the players’ tastes and how you present it to them. If they like politics and intrigue then give it to them and they will love your campaign. Otherwise just bore them with minutiae until they’re clamoring for a quest and then give them that. Then, they can return home to discover the regent’s been assassinated or something and their rivals have taken hold of the city and now they have to take it back. There’s tons you can do with a city in D&D. But whatever you do, permanently add the city to your world. Players love knowing that they’ve contributed to the world in which their characters reside.
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Agreed with Xalthu, it really should never have come to this. When players become rulers of cities, dukedom’s, or kingdom’s the actual D&D game is over and you’re basically running a civilization campaign. The best you can do is try to run them down with costs and try to force them back into Adventuring. Natural disasters are an easy way to go about it (including acts of gawd / Tarrasque), but also ask how this city is paying for itself. Did they build by a natural waterway or divert an existing one? That’s a prime source of revenue without which maintenance, supply, and even a reason to live there become questionable. Same applies to roads.
By the way: How did a Dragon’s Hoard cover the cost of building or buying an entire city?! That’s the Hoard of Smaug and the DMG very specifically provides suggestions of how to build a hoard that comes in no way close to covering that expense. Ignoring the physical structures of the city, think about the cost of the land and who would be willing to sell it / rent it. How do the rulers attract peasants, merchants, and followers?
IamSposta: What kind of things can they do to make running the city an interesting or fun part of a D&D game, you didn’t say.
You might also tell them, "and that's where your story ends. (aka congratulations, you won the game and you PC is now an NPC) The newly built city attracts adventurers, please roll up your new character..."
Do they know how to pick a good location for a city?
Why would the city be a success if no one lives there now?
What opportunity for personal/wealth development are uniquely on offer by this location?
It might be fun to spend a session or two watching them ruin themselves with a vanity project (queue evil DM laughter)
PS Your dragon hoards are too large and too easy to get ;-)
Well, I did mention political intrigue as an example. Then there’s also rivalries with neighboring city states, defending the city against great threats Godzilla style, and some people genuinely like having to actively manage a city. Those are just a few examples off the top. They could also have to specifically deal with a criminal underbelly like smugglers or dealers or something, or incursions of rat/mole people or something from beneath the streets…. All one needs do is use one’s imagination.
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Great!
Building a city will take years. In the meantime there's a lot they'll need to be doing. Heck even building a village will take a long time. Buckle up there's nerdy stats ahead.
The average Iron Age round house it is believed took a normal group of Celts at least a week. A few days to weave the structure, a couple more days to assemble the roof and apply the thatch, a few more days to apply the Daub to the walls, then some extra time for doors and other features like beds etc. It's not clear if this includes the time to gather the right resources.
So far then we've got at minimum a week to clear the land and build a basic dwelling. Let's be generous and say two labourers per dwelling, they can build four basic structures per month. According to the book that's 300sp per month for a labourer, so we're at 60gp for just four basic structures. For a small city we're talking about 5000 population. Let's be generous and say two people to a structure, that's 2500 basic stuctures. That's 625 months, or 52 years worth of labour. That means 37500gp.
This is of course before we even factor in cost of materials and persuading people to come and live in this new city. If we want anything more than a basic and I mean basic set or roundhouses that cost goes up.
The Dungeon Master's Guide has some tables for generating how much treasure one finds Treasure - Dungeon Master’s Guide - Sources - D&D Beyond (dndbeyond.com)
The highest possible amount on these tables is an average of 45000, but a highest of 72000gp. This would be for fourth tier player characters fighting an enemy of CR 17+. So unless they took on an ancient dragon they still haven't got enough to build a city. Certainly they won't have the knowhow or administration ability to populate or run the city. Which means they'll need help. They'll need to locate and hire skileld builders, they'll need to win over diplomats, seek permission from the ruler of the land.
All of this seems like a lot of obstacles to throw in the way of an adventuring party, and that's because it is. While you can ask to try anything in a TTRPG, it doesn't always mean you can.
This is akin, in my opinion, to the haggling with a trader problem. Your average village or small town commoner isn't making a profit in 5e rules as written. They're just scraping by. No amount of persuasion is going to cause them to offer your player characters a discount, largely because there is no discount to offer. Giving any money off means that the NPC goes without. Any other way around this is tantamount to robbery. Of course as we go up the scales of NPCs then sure we might see some discounts coming into play, but in a living breathing game world, sometimes the party will come up against hard and immoveable obstacles.
I'd advise that you go back to the Dungeon Master's Guide and re-read the section Between Adventures - Dungeon Master’s Guide - Sources - D&D Beyond (dndbeyond.com). There's some good information that are rules as written.
Make it clear the work involved in achieving their goal. Do they really want to do this? If they do, then build an adventure from it. Here's the basic adventure structure I'd use in this case:
I know that was a lot, and hopefully it did all make sense. Basically, your party shouldn't be rich enough to build a city after killing just one dragon, if they are, the adventure can become more political and have some twists and turns. In just what I outlined here, you could run a campaign for 20 or so sessions.
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King Solomon's condundrums are a good one if you have a party that love diplomacy (the baby who two mother both claim are theirs). In general and faced with this situation I would line up NPCs all of whom want or need something. It can range from the trivial to the world shattering. These are just off the top of my head a list of NPCs that might appear in a public audience with a town council:
This is all off the top of my head of course, but you can make a world ending problem out of anything. Maybe the lost cat is actually a transmogrified wizard who was trapped in that form to put a stop to their plans of becoming a Lich and creating an army of undead Beholderkin?
It all is seriously just about imagination. Don't forget the story isn't yours as a DM, the story belongs to the group. The world on the other hand, that's yours to build. Just because it's not a story that you anticipated, doesn't mean that you can't build a story if your world building is good enough.
[Edited for clarfication and spelling errors]
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I'm going to differ from the rest of the respondents. Your players have announced they want to do this thing. What does it mean to them? Off the top of my head, I can think of three possibilities:
There are probably other reasons that I'm not thinking of.
What to do here is talk to your players. They have a better idea of what they want out of the game than forum posters do. Lay it out for them:: what they want creates a significant change to the nature of the game that you're running,, and you need more feedback on what sort of game they're interested in playing. Whatever it is, it's likely going to involve a time skip, whether it be months, years, or decades.
(Also, don't forget in all of this that the game has to be fun for you as well. If what they want doesn't work for you, adjustments are going to need to be made.)
Building and running a city/town/region is moving the characters out of the normal sort of D& D no matter what. It moves the PCs to being player run NPCs. While that doesn’t mean they can never adventure like they used to it does mean that their normal is no longer that of the active agents, they have become the hirers not the hirelings. Can it be done? Sure - I’ve done it 3 times with the same characters. Everything others have suggested actually applies - they need to find a spot in your world that has the terrain to or some sort of features to make building a city there reasonable navigable rivers, road junctures, mineral wealth, rich agricultural land, major water source in a desert area, something. They will need to clear it of major threats (the dragon’s territory might be ideal with it now gone) as well as possibly make peace with nearby realms. If you’re using a world like FR then there is lots of open unclaimed area that they might settle that no one is really claiming. On the other hand there are also lots of areas that have competing claims to and the PCs may have to deal with multiple competing claims to “their” city. You will have to populate your city and that means advertising of some sort to bring folks in. Exactly how they do it is between you and them. In my final run I recruited a large number of exadventurers with skills, retiring or near retirement caravan guards, warriors, etc from along a bunch of trade routes and areas just finishing significant wars and offered them land for service so they built the region both for my PCs and themselves as they got lands and buildings and businesses, farms etc that they had built after a number of years of service. They also acted as the (semiprofessional) army for that period of service. They will have to decide on a system of government, set it up and make it work against all sorts of power hungry idjits. They will have to determine a set of taxes to bring money in to cover running expenses, set up police, courts, maybe fire, education, waste disposal, health, etc systems. And then deal with the ongoing problems that such a city may generate. It can be a major job and headache but also a lot of fun trying to do this. Have fun.
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There is nothing unusual about players developing political ambitions and taking over control of cities, provinces, dukedoms or other political units. It is just a different style of game. In AD&D it was assumed that every high level character would eventually have their own keep/headquarters/base. In 5e, that aspect was left up to the DM.
In this case, there will be multiple possibilities for plot lines as the players attempt to protect and support their growing city.
However, I think the OP and their party might not understand how a city comes to be, how it is created and built, how long that process takes and what is involved in making that happen. Hint: Money is not enough, not even a dragon's hoard.
The OP said "used all his money to build a whole city and become the rulers of it" which makes it sound like they went out, spent their money, and now have a city to rule. It doesn't work that way. Even the Wish spell isn't typically powerful enough to Wish an entire city, its economy, its people, and every other detail into existence ... and if Wish level of magic is not used then the establishment of anything that could be called a city will take years.
- find and purchase the land for the city - choose a good site, close to resources, transportation for trade (roads, river, ocean typically).
- start building the city, accommodation for occupants, farms to grow food and raise livestock, merchants to collect the food and distribute it for sale in the city
- city watch, guards and possibly soldiers, city walls, social structure for society, local lords/guild masters to manage food production, distribution, sales as well as other industry for local consumption and trade. There are an immense number of different goods that a city needs to either create itself or import and if it wants to import them then it needs its own goods to trade. A dragon hoard doesn't last long under these circumstances.
- attract enough people to live on the farms, run businesses etc
There are a huge number of items I didn't mention. Civilization the computer game or Sim City might give an additional idea of some of the complexity involved.
Anyway, the simple answer is that, the situation as described by the OP couldn't happen unless the party takes a break of 20 years or more in which most of their efforts are focus on building up the settlement from village-> small town -> large town -> small city -> large city.
Tl;dr
My advice is to read through the pdf of Pathfinder Kingmaker 2nd edition. Check it out on anyflip.com. That is a literal campaign about building a kingdom and the struggles involved in it.
How much/what was in the hoard that they could build a whole city with it?? Even a small city would require a huge sum of gold for one group to just have a city, (clearing lands, buildings, infrastructure, attracting people, support resources like nearby farms, etc) built from scratch.
This brings back some memories from the old 2e days, lol.
As noted, it will take years to build a whole city. But let's say that they only build the foundation for the city, and let's go so far as to apply a Meta concept and suggest that the player's are using the roman model such as outlined in the book "City".
What isn't really talked about is that it took three years, assuming the typical issues and challenges, for a typical roman city fort to be built. The cost of materials is one piece. The cost to get those materials is another. The cost to pay for the laborers of those parts -- to feed them, to shelter them, in addition, if we are looking at any period prior to the 1800's -- was never low.
Even Smaug's wealth took years to be spent through to rebuild and move forward the lake side city.
yes, fantasy -- wizards and such coming out to raise walls, charging immense sums.
If you build it, they will come, absolutely -- to get paid, to be protected, to work -- a lot of which is going to depend on the neighbors, lol. Because there has to be neighbors -- and in a truly feudal system, those people are not free to just up and leave -- they will need permission to move from their Lieges, who may not appreciate the resource drain. Who may not want to help or allow some newly rich upstarts the ability to haul the stone or to use their quarries.
And let's not forget that in a Feudal system, all land belongs to the King or to a noble house, who got it from the King (or Queen). Up and just building on land because it is there is essentially a declaration of open rebellion.
And while a dragon iis tough, an Army is tougher.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds
Turning D&D into a city builder is something that could be an interesting game... but D&D doesn't have the systems built in so you'd have to come up with your own rules, and if the OP had the experience to do that he wouldn't be having the problem to start with.
Truth, lol.
There are some rules for a lot of this in the older books (1st and 2nd edition) -- there's an entire set of tables and costs in the 1st ed, developed mostly to go along with the whole set up of creating a Keep and linked to the ideas of retainers and similar folks who were attracted and drawn to the PCs.
But 4 and 5 don't have anything for it, and it was notably intentional.
Only a DM since 1980 (3000+ Sessions) / PhD, MS, MA / Mixed, Bi, Trans, Woman / No longer welcome in the US, apparently
Wyrlde: Adventures in the Seven Cities
.-=] Lore Book | Patreon | Wyrlde YT [=-.
An original Setting for 5e, a whole solar system of adventure. Ongoing updates, exclusies, more.
Not Talking About It / Dubbed The Oracle in the Cult of Mythology Nerds