The issue here is that one piece of land is not equal to another. The same square footage of fortress, field, cliff, and river will be worth different amounts!
Instead consider how easy you want it to be for the party to get the land. Is it easy, just taking most of their current wealth? Is it way beyond their reach, necessitating that they take on bigger quests or seek out treasure hordes? Is it somewhere in between?
I believe the general way the game is supposed to be aligned is around 1cp for $1 (or £1 in the UK), or thereabouts. So a beed is a few coppers, and 1gp is about £100.
From that, I would say buying a 50x50ft plot of land typically costs around £15k or so (eyeballing it), or way more if in prime location for a rich so-and-so to build a house that'll only last 10 years on it and then sell it for half a million. So 150gpish.
Of course, it depends on how you value it. If you say £1 is 1sp, then £15k is now 1,500gp, which might look more like what you're after!
The game is a bit awkward cause we DMs like to give players gold, but honestly they should be paid a lot less for their work and it should be in copper and silver pieces
An easy way to handle it is just to use the upkeep costs for a particular lifestyle. Another way is to establish how much you want to charge the PCs.
But I would avoid pricing by 5ft increments because it should be like a copper per foot or something as smaller.
In general the value of land is determined by the income you can derive from the land; a reasonable rule of thumb is 1,000x the (daily) lifestyle costs of the probable inhabitants (representing taxes/rent, less your maintenance costs, over around 15 years). A square mile of farmland can reasonably support a village of 100, most of whom are probably Poor, so we have 2 sp (poor) x 100 x 1,000 = 20,000 gp. Urban real estate will be substantially more expensive, marginal land will be much cheaper, monster-infested land may be free for the taking, depending on the value of the underlying land.
I would limit land purchases to those granted by the local rulers. If it's unlimited it can get out of hand as you won't be able top realistically model the political and economic complexities of magical medieval land ownership.
If the reason you are costing per square ft is that you are looking for rules for rules for player bases then there is the bastions unearthed arcana
Land should be unobtainable to purchase outright in most cases.
Land is a gift given by the sovereign. As such only those who have shown themselves worthy can obtain land. Worth is measured by family lineage, political connections and deeds above and beyond the average service to the sovereign. The gifted land is as much as the sovereign wants to give and in a location they want to give it. After that there is a tax levied each year that the sovereign sets. This can be as reasonable or unreasonable as they see fit. Usually it is based on the expected output of the land, as previously stated. The land deed usually has riders on it such as the use of troops on times of strife and other requests. This gift could be revoked if the sovereign has a good reason, or no reason as is their whim.
If the sovereign changes, then the land may not be the PC's land anymore. The new sovereign may re-gift the same land or different land or no land at their will. It would depend on which side the PCs loyalties lie and who comes out on top in the transition.
Search up land titles in England as examples of who got what, when and why.
It completely depends on what flavour you are going for in your world. If you want your world to feel medieval then land is own by the aristocrats / nobility and only inherited or gifted in return for significant service to them. If you want more of a modern feel you can have property routinely for sale at a cost of approximately 3-10x a typical annual salary. If you want a "colonial" feel then you can have land be under-developed but free / cheaply available.
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If a 5x5 square is 10gp, then 1 mile (aprox 5000x5000) is 10,000,000gp, which seems like a lot
If a 5x5 square is 1gp, then 1 mile is still a million, which feels still too much
If a 5x5 square is 1cp, then a mile is 10,000gp, which is more reasonable, but then they could just buy a 50x50 plot of land for 1gp
Is a mile too much for someone to buy, or is 10 million a reasonable price?
The issue here is that one piece of land is not equal to another. The same square footage of fortress, field, cliff, and river will be worth different amounts!
Instead consider how easy you want it to be for the party to get the land. Is it easy, just taking most of their current wealth? Is it way beyond their reach, necessitating that they take on bigger quests or seek out treasure hordes? Is it somewhere in between?
I believe the general way the game is supposed to be aligned is around 1cp for $1 (or £1 in the UK), or thereabouts. So a beed is a few coppers, and 1gp is about £100.
From that, I would say buying a 50x50ft plot of land typically costs around £15k or so (eyeballing it), or way more if in prime location for a rich so-and-so to build a house that'll only last 10 years on it and then sell it for half a million. So 150gpish.
Of course, it depends on how you value it. If you say £1 is 1sp, then £15k is now 1,500gp, which might look more like what you're after!
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The game is a bit awkward cause we DMs like to give players gold, but honestly they should be paid a lot less for their work and it should be in copper and silver pieces
An easy way to handle it is just to use the upkeep costs for a particular lifestyle. Another way is to establish how much you want to charge the PCs.
But I would avoid pricing by 5ft increments because it should be like a copper per foot or something as smaller.
In general the value of land is determined by the income you can derive from the land; a reasonable rule of thumb is 1,000x the (daily) lifestyle costs of the probable inhabitants (representing taxes/rent, less your maintenance costs, over around 15 years). A square mile of farmland can reasonably support a village of 100, most of whom are probably Poor, so we have 2 sp (poor) x 100 x 1,000 = 20,000 gp. Urban real estate will be substantially more expensive, marginal land will be much cheaper, monster-infested land may be free for the taking, depending on the value of the underlying land.
The other thing that's going to influence price is going to be location. Close to a city is going to be a lot more expensive than out in the boonies.
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I would limit land purchases to those granted by the local rulers. If it's unlimited it can get out of hand as you won't be able top realistically model the political and economic complexities of magical medieval land ownership.
If the reason you are costing per square ft is that you are looking for rules for rules for player bases then there is the bastions unearthed arcana
https://media.dndbeyond.com/compendium-images/ua/bastions-cantrips/BRF3GSu0nTfNu8p4/UA2023-BastionsCantrips.pdf
Land should be unobtainable to purchase outright in most cases.
Land is a gift given by the sovereign. As such only those who have shown themselves worthy can obtain land. Worth is measured by family lineage, political connections and deeds above and beyond the average service to the sovereign. The gifted land is as much as the sovereign wants to give and in a location they want to give it. After that there is a tax levied each year that the sovereign sets. This can be as reasonable or unreasonable as they see fit. Usually it is based on the expected output of the land, as previously stated. The land deed usually has riders on it such as the use of troops on times of strife and other requests. This gift could be revoked if the sovereign has a good reason, or no reason as is their whim.
If the sovereign changes, then the land may not be the PC's land anymore. The new sovereign may re-gift the same land or different land or no land at their will. It would depend on which side the PCs loyalties lie and who comes out on top in the transition.
Search up land titles in England as examples of who got what, when and why.
It completely depends on what flavour you are going for in your world. If you want your world to feel medieval then land is own by the aristocrats / nobility and only inherited or gifted in return for significant service to them. If you want more of a modern feel you can have property routinely for sale at a cost of approximately 3-10x a typical annual salary. If you want a "colonial" feel then you can have land be under-developed but free / cheaply available.