Cost for a nice home in D&D?

[NewJeffCT]

The players just saved a town and rescued the duke. As a reward, the duke awarded the players the ownership of a home that used to belong to a knight, but who had died in combat and left no family.

It's a decent-sized home, but not a mansion/villa/manor or anything like that - probably a very nice home for the medieval era in that it is about 1,200 square feet.

I saw a price in goods & gear that said:

Grand House: 3,000-6,000 gp (4-10 rooms, thatched or wooden roof)
Grand Inn: 10,000-25,000 gp (9-32 rooms; wooden roof)
Mansion: 75,000-125,000 (no fewer than 10 rooms; slate roof)

Are those realistic totals at all? I was thinking the home to be somewhere closer to Grand House, but better than that.

The Stronghold Builder's book would require me to design the whole house and add up 50 or so different components.

 

[Mark]

Go with the Grand House but let them give you some ideas of how it might be designed and furnished, then map it out between games.

 

[Celebrim]

The players just saved a town and rescued the duke. As a reward, the duke awarded the players the ownership of a home that used to belong to a knight, but who had died in combat and left no family.

It's a decent-sized home, but not a mansion/villa/manor or anything like that - probably a very nice home for the medieval era in that it is about 1,200 square feet.

Square footage doesn't tell you much. That could be a wattle and dung single room thatched house with a bare dirt floor covered with straw. It might be little better than a barn for people. In fact, sometimes the animals might share the house.

Construction materials are the big difference between the houses of the wealthy and the poor. The king might live in chambers little larger than a peasant, with scarsely more comforts than warm clothes, but he has a tile floor and stone walls, plenty of firewood, and the space to himself rather than 12 people crammed into a room.

Grand House: 3,000-6,000 gp (4-10 rooms, thatched or wooden roof)
Grand Inn: 10,000-25,000 gp (9-32 rooms; wooden roof)
Mansion: 75,000-125,000 (no fewer than 10 rooms; slate roof)

Under the gold peice standard, you can imagine 1gp ~ $50.

So...

'Grand House: $150,000-$300,000'
'Grand Inn: $500,000-$1,250,000'
'Mansion: $3,750,000-$7,250,000'

Are those realistic totals at all?

No. Are they reasonable given the described economy of D&D? Yeah, probably so.

The gift of 'a house' is kinda wierd. It's the kind of thing you might give a widow or a mistress who either didn't need money or whom you didn't want to have an independent source of revenue. To a vassel, or potential vassel, you'd give a manor - a house plus attached lands and the serfs or tenants that go with it. The lands would pay for the upkeep of the house (so that giving the subject the property didn't amount to a 'white elephant'), plus you'd get a portion of the revenue back in the taxes owed on the property. The fact that your vassel, or potential vassel, had revenue producing lands on your land was presumed to be incentive for the vassel to protect your property as well.

If you haven't already specified that no lands go with the house, I'd reconsider not just because its more 'realistic' (and calculated on the part of the Duke), but because it is a very good hook for getting your players involved in politics, the doings of the peasants that look up to them (or not!) and so forth.

If you have specified that no lands go with the house, have it ultimately turn out that the reason the Duke is so glad to rid himself of the property is that some subtle curse is associated with the house. You can do subtle curses in a variaty of ways.

a) A curse that manifests itself only after lengthy inhabitation - say every six weeks save or be cursed.
b) A curse that is subtle, and unlikely to be noticed by a PC (or linked to the house) initially like sterility, all diseases gain +4 DC, greater chance of catching mundane diseases each month, healing magic targetting the cursed person is at -2 caster level, penalties on travel time, or all investments return 30% fewer funds. Naturally, removing the curse from the property requires doing some small quest.
c) A ghost or other dangerous being that manifests to haunt the house only infrequently, such as only on nights of the new moon, only during thunderstorms, only on the anniversay of the person's murder, etc.

Personally, I'd go with 'all of the above'.

 

[The Grumpy Celt]

A grandhouse is about right. The property can include grounds, such as fields, a barn, garden, orchard or something similar.

And it might be haunted, or there could be some other reason the noble wants to get it off his hand.

 

[Gilladian]

If the house is located in a town or city, and you want to give the PCs an income with it, it might come with "rents" to other nearby properties attached. In other words, they own the one house, and several other houses around it as well, which are leased out and the PCs receive the income. That would cover the expenses of keeping up the house, and could get them involved in all sorts of plots.

In my campaign world, I'd have such a house cost somewhere around 2-3,000 sp (I run on a silver standard, so convert to gp for regular dnd). This assumes it has wooden walls, 5-10 rooms of good size, solid floors, a good solid roof and is connected to the local sewer system.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Celebrim is quite correct about the manor gift versus that of a a house, unless the house is on the outskirts of the populated city and is a 'fortress' house or strong point; at which point though no land, the house acts as an armory and rally point for a local watch, militia or other small (5-15) military force tasked with defense of the city, particularly the area around the house. The title becomes Esquire and money is subsidized through a collection of taxes in the area (usually 1 - 2 % of the take with and addition 2 - 4% going to the King (with the Duke pulling his take out somewhere in the middle)).

This is a later period practice and not all that common, but if you had promised a house with no land, it might be a good excuse (in addition of course to all the great ideas to screw with the party as suggested by Celebrim).

 

[Tewligan]

Out of curiosity, why do you need to know the value? I hope they aren't planning to sell it - that would be mighty rude!

 

[S'mon]

The Mansion cost is ridiculous even for D&D. I suggest a grand (ie brick or stone, not mud!) 2-3 story town house should be in the 3-6,000 gp range. This might also work for a good rural manor with fields, orchard, outbuildings etc.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Out of curiosity, why do you need to know the value? I hope they aren't planning to sell it - that would be mighty rude!

The house has been unoccupied for about two years. I was going to give them a percent of the cost/value as a cost to clean it up, do the repairs, put on a fresh coat of paint, etc.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Was hoping to give them a base of operations and also for them to have a place of refuge when they return to town. It will also serve to keep them involved in town politics, as they will have to hire NPCs to care for the home when they leave town, which they will be doing within a day or two in game.