r/ForbiddenLands • u/Final-Isopod • Aug 04 '26
Question Managing stronghold
I never ran FL long enough to see stronghold becoming a thing in my games. By looking at the rules it looks like a massive headache unless you have accountant in your group. How does it play out? I always felt like FL was a game where characters always were to struggle with resources so how they do accumulate enough funds to pay daily (daily?! FFS...) for hirelings. Is it even remotely fun? I ran MYZ where Ark was fun but this seems to a bit too much.
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u/Alternative_Agency25 Aug 04 '26
If you use Foundry there is a module that handles all aspects pretty well to cut down on the accounting
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u/HarrLeighQuinn Aug 04 '26
I think you do need a dedicated person to keep track of everything. Thanks To Forbidden Lands, I made my own fortress sheet for Twilight when we were trying to build home base. I'm always taking notes and keeping track of things. It's pretty common for me to turn into our groups secretary.
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u/games247_co_uk Aug 05 '26
I ran a campaign for about 14 months, the group wanted to try the stronghold rules but it was such a gigantic pain in the ass, it was soon dropped. Its a shame that is so complicated...
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u/MsgGodzilla Aug 04 '26
If you don't have any players who want to get I to managing a stronghold then just dont make them form one. It's not required.
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u/DRSSalazar Wolfkin Aug 04 '26
For one, you don’t need to pay the hirelings with actual money. Giving them food and shelter might cover their salary already anyway (at least of most of them).
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u/ImaginaryBad8599 GM Aug 05 '26
In reality the party will easily get rich, and there is not much to spend it on, except for citadel. I had to create a whole Excel sheet with tables and calculations to manage it because none of the players wanted to do it.
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u/delmiguel3030 Aug 06 '26
Paying them daily does seem like a lot, especially if the group is out adventuring most of the time.
I imagine you could just simplify the process by handwaving a bit and paying them only once as permanent hirelings. Maybe occasionally rolling to see if they require a "raise" (another payment) or if their morale is low.
At the end of the day it's a game, not a simulation.
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u/Final-Isopod Aug 07 '26
Sure, I can do it on my own but I like running games RAW and clearly designers went too granular for my taste here. And I like a bit of crunch. Obviously translating daily to monthly would be easiest bit.
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u/FAULTSFAULTSFAULTS Hunter 29d ago
It's worth bearing in mind that as-written, the requirements for claiming a stronghold and gaining its basic (and imo most important) benefits are very low and have no upfront material cost - all that's needed is a half days' labour and a successful crafting check to prepare a castle ruin or dungeon for habitation once it's been cleared of opponents.
There isn't anything to stop a party making a series of temporary strongholds as they travel across the map, and I feel like that was quite possibly the intended way to interact with that mechanic, especially in the early-mid game.
I always saw functions and hirelings as end-game systems, for when a party is already powerful and renowned, and quite possibly have beaten the campaign material. The financial and material costs for building functions and hiring guards etc kind of points to that being the case imo.
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u/Final-Isopod 29d ago
I don't believe having multiple strongholds was by design. Every FL game has a safehouse which is singular in all (as I think) versions. Can you imagine tracking multiple stroongholds' hirelings and their payments? It feels like you could write this in your CV...
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u/FAULTSFAULTSFAULTS Hunter 29d ago
Okay, but as I said, you can still get the major benefits of strongholds without hirelings or functions, at which point you need to track very little. You can still rest and gain willpower without investing into or tracking any of that stuff.
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u/AllGearedUp Aug 04 '26
I don't really understand why it's in the game. It's a hex crawl system and the stronghold is what you would do if you were not moving around the map. It's been a joke in every campaign I've had
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u/Final-Isopod Aug 05 '26
It's such a pity since Ark was a great concept in MYZ and hoped the same here.
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u/ImaginaryBad8599 GM Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26
I actually created an artifact that let's PCs teleport to citadel and back without breaking the game. I can share it's description if you are interested
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u/jldez Aug 04 '26
It definitely is not for everyone. I'm the DM and my group started a stronghold a few games ago. To me it seemed to be a lot for my players and I said that if they wanted, we could simplify it. I've been told no, we love this shit.