Eventually, you and your players will reach name level and will be ambitious enough to want to rule a piece of the wilderness. Sometimes, you might just wanna give players domains straight out of the gate as a campaign premise. Or simply, maybe you want to have a starting point for a wargame with narrative flair. Sadly, not a lot of games tell you how to do this, older games assume you knew how (except BECMI/RC!), and newer games don’t really go into much detail. Supplementary game aids have been published recently to help with this. However, domain management doesn’t need to be overly complex or tedious to manage.

The Lair Of The Lich Presents:
Lords, Lands and Levies

As one’s gaming milieu expands and develops, player characters of Name Level will be able to assert control over a stronghold and claim an area of the campaign map as their territory. The instructions to do so will be detailed hereafter.

Clearing the Wilderness

The player will first discuss with their referee, what areas of the campaign map are available to control and build a stronghold, usually this is a wilderness area on a 5 mile hex map. Once the location has been identified and agreed upon, the player must venture to the selected area and clear a 4 hexes of monsters that may dwell there. Its possible that the referee’s world is not that of a wilderness frontier, but an already established kingdom, in which case, the player character would then need to prove their loyalty to the lord of those lands in order to rule a fragment of their domain, working under a feudalistic hierarchy system.

The process in which the player must accomplish this will require the player to muster a force of fighting-men and explore these hexes. This is a process which may take the group a considerable amount of gaming time, and may act as a mini campaign itself. The players will explore four, 5 mile hexes on a smaller scale map, where each hex represents .2 mile, that would be a 25 hexes from flat end to flat end; a 25 x 25 square area. The goal will be to rid the area of dangerous monsters lairs that the referee has placed beforehand. The referee may determine how many monster lairs may be found in a single 5 mile hex, usually on average of 2-3. The Referee should also, add side adventures for the party in the form of small delves in case the party wants to add some variety to their expedition. It is recommended the party establishes a camp and underline the fact that claiming a domain for the first time will be a long-term effort.

Here is a shorthand steps to clear the wilderness for a stronghold construction.

1. Determine location for stronghold on the campaign map with referee guidance
2. Muster a force of fighting-men
3. Establish a camp in one of the hexes
4. Explore four 5 mile hexes, subdivided into .2 mile hexes
5. Rid the areas of curated monster lairs placed by the referee, through trickery, combat, or diplomacy
6. (optional) explore the small delves found in the areas.

Building the Stronghold

The players have managed to clear the hexes of monsters and the area is now safe for workers to arrive and begin building the stronghold, the news reach other communities, that a character has conquered the wilderness and they will also begin to settle in the area once construction of the stronghold is underway. You may find the prices for strongholds in many different games and supplements, but you only need to build a stone Keep for now which costs 75,000gp. If the players have found a ruined castle or a castle already claimed by a different creature or man in the wilderness during exploration, they may claim that one as well paying only half as much in order to rebuild and remodel. The time that will take to build the keep is a day for every 500gp spent, that is 5 months for a new keep or 3 months rebuilding a ruined castle or refurbishing a castle reclaimed. The referee should give the players a map of the keep. with details about their immediate surrounding areas at a square of 40 feet per square/hex so they may also draw and expand upon in the future.

During this time, settlers will begin to arrive in the area and the player characters will have to leave a garrison of men to patrol and protect the area. During this time, the characters may decide to explore the delves previously discovered or allow the passage of time to advance while the stronghold is being built. In which case, the referee should roll for a random encounter once every month of construction to see if any creature attempt to disturb the construction and the players plans!

Domains and Governance

The stronghold has been built, settlers have arrived and established villages, dwellings and thorps. Your players are now rulers of this barony. Now with a domain officially established, the players may now take part in Domain Turns. Domain Turns take 3 months of game time, and allows the rulers of the domain to make choices and handle situations. More on this will be expanded later.

Once the domain has been established, the referee must now determine the inhabitants of the land.

• Roll 2d4 villages
• Roll 1d4 x 100 per village

That is your starting inhabitants with an average of 1,300. From this pool of inhabitants, the player ,may hire Retainers and claim taxes. They will receive 1gp per inhabitant per month, or 3gp per inhabitant per Domain Turn. Unlike Mercenaries that work for a period of time per contract, or Hirelings that accompany the player characters in their dungeon delving adventures, Retainers are able body men and women of your dominion that may be recruited as part of the Lord’s retinue and reside in the stronghold. You may hire up to 10% of your inhabitants as retainer, as these will come equipped with Leather Armor, swords or short bows. For example, if you have 1,300 inhabitants you may hire 130 retainers. These retainers must still be paid but will not be affected by double wages during wartime. It is worth noting that the men-at-arm prices found in games such as OD&D, OSE, AD&D are very low and we advice the referee to multiply theses monthly wages x4. These monthly wages will be paid during the maintenance step of the three month domain turn.

As rulers, players may also raise levies. These are inhabitants that must answer the call to arms adding another 10% of the population to your. These will always be equipped with leather armor and swords. These may always be raised in case of an invasion. Levies may also be raised for an offensive assault or campaign but will only participate for a single domain turn and need 1 domain turn before they can raised again.

Players can invest in their land, which will in return bring more settlers to their domain. These investments consists of things such as Road Building, Armories, Ship Building Canals, Animal Breeding, Sea Trade, Inns, Farming, Land Trade, Hunting, Fishing, Trapping, Relition, Exploration and Tourism. The system to invest is abstracted, for every 1,000gp invested, the population by the end of the domain turn increases by 10 inhabitants.

The Domain Turn

1. Roll For A Chance Of Domain Event
2. Claim Taxes, 3gp Per inhabitant
3. Army Maintenance, 3 Months Of Wages
4. Domain Action
   • Muster Levies & Hire Mercenaries
   • Investments
   • Wage War
   • Construct Stronghold
   • Explore the Wilderness
5. Repeat Step 1-4

The procedure outlined above contains the step for a Domain Turn of 3 months. The Domain actions, are major actions that will take up the bulk of those 3 months in terms of logistics, management and outcome. Lesser actions may be taken up to the discretion of the referee such as meetings, alliances, and such.

Domain actions may be taken after an adventure has been concluded. This is to say, characters may still adventure as this could help their domain prosper in order to find treasure beyond what they can achieve through their domains. For example, a group of players take on an adventure in the wilderness, they resolve the adventure and return to their domain; the domain turn then takes place afterwards they may elect to take on another adventure or continue another Domain Turn. Domains should be a source of conflict and interest that generates more reasons to adventure.

Here is an explanation of each of the domain actions

• Muster Levies & Hire Mercenaries: The player call to arms their inhabitants for battle, this battle must take place the next domain turn. The player may also call upon Free Companies or Orc Tribes to their service, they must take place in battle the next domain turn. Mercenaries may only stay under the service of a player for a single domain turn, this may be extended through further negotiation however.
• Investments: The player may invest in their land at a rate of 1,000gp per 10 new inhabitants settled in the domain. The population caps at 8,000 inhabitants until a new stronghold must be place to expand the domains.
• Wage War: The player chooses to go into battle with another force. Either another domain ruler, a force of monsters, or any threat that must be handled with an army. The player may also choose to send support in the form of men to an ally in this way. The player may recover 1/3 of their army every domain turn that were lost in battle. A player may engage in multiple battles in a single domain turn until they withdraw. They may also divide their army to deal with multiple threats.
• Construct Stronghold: If an area of wilderness has been cleared, the player may choose to set another stronghold in the area. A new keep takes 2 domain turns to finish. A ruined or reclaimed keep takes 1 domain turn to finish. Follow the previous rule to determine inhabitants. A player or NPC must be assigned to that new stronghold, since a single player cannot overlook and manage so much land by themselves.
• Explore The Wilderness: The player may send his forces to explore in their behalf. Unlike previously, where the player had to explore each 5 mile hex, a domain turn will allow them to the same. The referee, must roll for each 5 mile hex on the campaign map, on a roll of 1-2 on a six sided die, the referee generates 1-3 monster lairs for each 5 mile hex. This will allow the player to then deal with the lairs in their next domain turn. This costs 10,000gp to do.

Finally to conclude, here is a table for random events that may occur at the beginning of a domain turn. When a domain turn starts roll on a six sided die on a roll of 1, a domain event has occurred. Roll on the following table or choose the outcome:

1. An incursion of monsters have establish camp at your borders. Randomly determine the invading monsters and their forces.
2. Your domain has been visited by another domain ruler in peaceful terms. A Celebration takes place.
3. There was an assassination attempt on the ruling player or close ally.
4. Traveling caravan has brought prosperous commerce to the domain, the domain gains 1d6 x 1000 gold
5. Plague and famine has struck the domain. The domain has lost 1% of the total inhabitants
6. A retinue of travelling fighters arrive! The domain retinue adds 20 more men wearing basic equipment.
7. The domains has brought interested from local areas, the total inhabitants increase by 1%
8. A Dragon has been sighted within the domain, and is setting up a lair.