@@jfelipe1987 Yeah, I dig it. "And now make some noise for - Semantic Satiation !" I would visit their concert, though likely there´ll be loads of hipsters XD
Okay, but imagine: Pirate ship. It's perfect for sea faring campaigns and if the DM doesn't want you to be on your ship, there is a number of ways to reason that you can't bring your base everywhere. Not only that, a ship baston would stop you from having to go back to the same area over and over.
This is EXACTLY what I’m going to implement for my steampunk campaign. Just now waiting on the official notes to come out because (balancing homebrew is hard)
This is exactly the kind of thing I love to see homebrewed! You could have a lot of fun with rooms like a navigation room, smuggler’s hold, or armory-they’d fit perfectly on a pirate ship. Yes, please! 🏴☠
I must agree. I've realized my GM has been miserly by this metric because, as of the end of level 12 (and after backing out a few major but completely optional roleplaying flavor purchases), my PC has only accumulated 2.5 thousand. 💸😲💸
@@GinnyDi D&D has evolved so much in the past few years with tons of new tools for mechanics, but what we really need is a dedicated cozy aesthetic base-building simulator. That way we can live out our lofty fantasies like "owning property" and "having furniture that isn't from IKEA".
That sounds like a blast! And great for added rp moments 😄 I totally get that-my party has had hideouts that were basically glorified storerooms where we didn’t have to spend gold to sleep. Making them mechanically useful kinda forced the DM to get creative, so it’s awesome to now have official mechanics and guidelines to work with!
That ought to keep the customers polite. Level 3 Wanker: "Oi! Waitress!" {snaps his fingers} Level 9 Ranger: "Yeah? What?" {snaps his fingers} Level 3 Wanker: "Ah! my hand! You broke my hand!"
It'll be nice not having to rely on the DM to make up stuff about who I need to talk to for building permits and property deeds or whatever. In my current campaign, me and another player live inside their teahouse which the whole party frequents when not adventuring in the forest. And after a session where a player's character died, I bought a plot of land with the intent to start an animal sanctuary to train ranger pets for protecting adventurers, but we had other things to do that session so it sort of fell to the wayside unfinished and now we haven't been in town for a while. It'll be great to just automatically have my bastion ready without devoting time to an acquisition episode.
Is it Dragon Heist? If so, that was one of my favorite aspects of that campaign that I incorporated much more than the book. Such a cool down time mechanic. I bet that campaign alone is what made WotC want to incorporate bastions into more of a core feature.
@@5-Volt My characters became so invested in Trollskull Manor they stopped adventuring. I created a hook where Halaster Blackcloak stole time away from the players (accounting for why some players were not present at certain times as the Mad Mage snatched them from the timeline), and that was the catalyst for them to go to Undermountain.
That would be great! Having player bastions spread out across cities opens up some cool strategic options and story possibilities. It gives the group influence in different regions and could lead to fun dynamics with travel, resources, and alliances. Having them all close together creates a strong central hub but both options definitely have their perks!
@@GinnyDi Honestly, I think it depends on the campaign. Crit Role's globe-hopping adventures would definitely benefit from having Bastions all over Exandria, while Drakkenheim would likely benefit more from a central hub-type arrangement. Then again, Vox Machina had Castle Greyskull even without the Bastion system, and it became a place to touch base and refocus
@@GinnyDi I like that idea. Whatever binds players (politically) more tightly to the game world is good. 'Oh no, we have to save some random village from invading marauders !' gets boring for some, or others mights play neutral-asshole type characters, like from an 80´s dark fantasy anime - They. Don´t. Effing. CARE. But with some of their own eggs in this particular fire ? Say hello to universal motivation, without the need to start potentially world-ending events ! Might also be useful to get one of those cursed 'all-evil' grousp to work together properly. The more they have to lose, the less their players have to justify uniting their forces. Just make sure the guards in the player-owned structures are not strong enough to trivialize every threat and you´ll be golden.
@@GinnyDi I'm so glad you pointed out that this has been around forever, though with slightly different mechanics. Actually, in my current campaign the party has what might be considered a bastion. There was a a ruined fortified farmhouse that used to belong to a knight--the players worked out a deal with the local baron and they are rebuilding it to use as their base of operation. What do you do with all the extra gold? Hire mercenaries--workmen, masons carpenters, buy lab equipment for the mages and holy items for the priests to establish a small chapel, and hire henchmen to oversee the works---suddenly the vast sums of money from the treasure hoards drains away very quickly. But there are significant benefits to having a fortified base like this the party can use. Once they reach ninth-12th level and gain followers they might establish freeholds if they want or they can chose to expand the party's stronghold.
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But could you build your level nine rooms on a different location or RAW everything should be in the same place? … bastion…bastion…
An instant homebrew for me is anyone PC can get any special room, it may cost more or require a permanent or semi-permanent NPC hire, but nothing should be locked. If my 4 int orc barbarian wants an arcane study...he is going to get it despite not realizing he'll need to pay 5x the normal cost for little to no benefit. Great video
I love this! 😂 I can totally picture a martial class PC setting up an arcane study, barely understanding it, but charging the rest of the party to use it. ‘You want to use the magic books? That’ll be 10 gold per hour!'
@@GinnyDi I wasn't folding laundry at all. It's not laundry yet. I haven't finished making it. Every time I start sewing another hour-long advert starts and after a while I have to put the needle down to click the skip button.
AD&D had the following for the Fighter class: At level 9, the fighter lord may establish a freehold by building some type of castle and clearing the land in an area of a radius of twenty to fifty miles. The fighter will then attract a body of men-at-arms led by an above average fighter which will serve him as long as he pays reasonably and maintains his freehold, and will collect seven silver coins for every sentient inhabitant of the area through trade, tariffs, and taxes. Considering white box D&D originated from the Chainmail miniature rules, the bastion "scale" has been part of the game since it's inception.
Yep, I was planning on making this point. This does sound like a fun reworking of the 'player follower/base concept, but it is by no means a new thing in D&D. Very happy to see that was touched on in the video.
They had the sense to call it a castle though. Bastion is dumb name for someone whose never looked into castles at all. They describe castles and call them bastions because they think it sounds knowledgeable somehow. But it doesn't.
I’m so excited for bastions, I love the Trollskull Tavern you get in Waterdeep Dragon Heist because the concept of a home base you can customize is so fun!
Our party fought so hard over who gets which bedroom. I got the little tower on the top, and I had to access it via someone else's room which annoyed them so much.
When I ran Dragonheast I used a couple of third-party PDFs, one of which was basically just how to run the business. Within a month I would have players, at the end of the session, ask "Can we roll on the profits table yet?" and I would have to say "Sorry, it hasn't been a full ten-day yet. Probably at the end of next week." (Seriously, it was just almost three months - and a murder mystery that involved one of the major Waterdeep families - before I even got to the fireball.)
I'm going to brake the rules and give my players the Pub special facility once they complete the renovations (they're level 5 at this point). And I'm excited to see all the other options they'll get to choose from for level 5. I think this mechanic plays so well with Dragon Heist as a way of making the players feel even more at home in the City of Splendors!
As a Sebastian I think the nickname Bastian isn't as commonly used as it used to be (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). Also...Never Ending Sstttoooooorrryyyyyy Aw Aw Aw.
@@sebastianevangelista4921 Jup, not very common anymore. Was more like something in the 80´s - so it was on the top of the time ! ^^ By the way, three years ago my best friends named their first born Lysander - the German form of Lysandros. Nope, no Greek heritage there. Just two nerds XD
Can we as a community agree that we should just call the new stuff 5.5? It’s so much less confusing and so many less syllables than saying 2024 vs 2014. We collectively bullied Wotc about the ogl stuff last year, let’s make it an annual thing and bully them into calling it 5.5
Love your review of bastions. 3:17 The original D&D and 1st edition had rules for castles and strongholds. The curtain walls and buildings were cheaper, but all hirelings were paid salaries that the players had to track. Much of the rules on interior layouts were left up to the DM. I've run several old-school games where the players used these rules, and it's definitely the best way for high-level characters to spend cash. That and magic research.
Thank you! 😊 It’s so cool to hear how old-school D&D handled castles and strongholds. The added layer of tracking hireling salaries must have been... challenging. Can I hire someone to do my bastion payroll? 😅
Original D&D also had rules for hiring and equipping your own Army. For those who REALLY wanted to 'Layeth the Smacketh Down' on the BBEG. (Or just conquer the world.) No DM will have the BBEG ever ask you "Oh yeah! You and what army?!" again after your legion comes over the hill.
I've always really loved the concept of a "hub town". At early levels it's easy to keep the focus in, and around your town because that's where the story happens, but it's nice to have a way to keep your starting town relevant in the later game.
We started using bastions from a homebrew or playtest version. They haven't really kicked off, yet, but at lvl 13, they are a nice addition to our 5+ year campaign. We've played out less than 6 months in-game time and a lot has happened. We basically do not take down-time and our characters are almost always on the road because the campaign villain is actively working to do evil, thanks to a mistake we made. Our characters believe, and the players understand, that breaks will give the villain time to advance and grow in power. Still cool
That's essentially why we've struggled to take downtime too. Maybe this is the push I need as a DM to actively start writing in more opportunities-or even force some downtime into the story!
@@GinnyDi Yeah. I've had the same problem too. The game has been moving absolutely breakneck as the main BBEG is moving to take his ambitions across the continent, but my plan is that when a certain someone encounters him in the Dwarven Capital, the ensuing encounter is going to *force* him to slow down, both because of likely serious injuries the party may inflict on him, and more importantly, because he's stretched his army way too thin doing this and needs to wait for them to actually finish their missions and/or replenish their ranks before he can do much more than maintain the realms he's already conquered, which are also being actively sabotaged by other players to further slow him down. Even when you can Evil Villain Teleport™ on a whim, heck, even with a Simulacrum, one man can't be everywhere at once...
@@GinnyDi The thing I like to do is sequence major events that benefit the main villain, but in a background way. The party is still putting out fires that seem and are important, but all the while the main villain is essentially playing chess while the party is playing checkers. I wait until a good story opportunity to drop the curtain for the big reveal afterwards. The party is aware of the villain as they've met underlings of them, but they aren't aware of their impact or importance straight away. You can use separate backstories from characters to slow drip information that doesn't tie together unless they all share and discuss their backstories. My example is that our elf wizard knows of someone from her elven home (someone who is kept secret by the entirety of the city), a character who doesn't know their parents and was raised by a warforged (but maybe their real parents are out there working for this secret figure) etc.
@@orokusaki1243 I definitely get that. For most of our characters, the level timing isn't much of an issue because we use XP, but leveling is still planned for by our GM. It isn't exactly scheduled, but he thinks ahead to align leveling with narrative moments and each character gets extra time during leveling to develop. It is seen less as evidence of training and more as evidence of overcoming hardship and getting better at killing and not being killed. All of our classes are magically inclined, so there is less need to allow room/time for physical development. Crafting and other downtime activities are definitely something we have neglected, but we just don't use those rules much in any of our campaigns.
I could imagine using one of the useless options as a free given. Like "Thank you adventurer for all you've done. We'd like to reward you and there's this old theatre building on the edge of town. It was damaged in a dragon attack some years ago and abandoned, but one or two of the side rooms should be still useable. With work it could be developed further too". That way they get a place with a bit more starting character and, in addition to their useful upgrades over time, they get one that is essentially flair.
The current High Rollers campaign has the party receiving a grant of land as a reward for services rendered to the kingdom. The "reward" ended up being a decrepit, haunted inn on a quarter acre of malignant weed-ridden land with a falling down shed in the back.
@@annereynolds7930 Ah, yes, the classic, offloading property disguised as a reward. I got offered a mansion once. Big place, price reduced for a quick sale. Man selling it told me it wasn't far from the luxury part of the city. "In fact, you can see it from here," he said. Yeah, I could, on a clear night. It was on the Moon!
I know how to balance out Martials for bastions. 1. Make it so that Martials get strong buffs to Defenders and other defensive assets, like they can recruit more, they are stronger, etc. Maybe just give them some for free as they level. 2. Make it so that several of the cooler facilities are VERY attractive to thieves and invaders, and will constantly get rolled while you are gone if you lack sufficient defenses for them. 3. If you aren't/lack a Martial, you could still upgrade your defenses to be strong enough, it would just cost you bonus rooms, so the remaining potential of the facility is lower. This would make it so that running those facilities with a non-Martial character is setting yourself up for constant hassles, and/or you'd want to have one in the party to help defend your stuff.
That does sound like a good way to introduce some balance to it, though I'd still want more ways to reward and support my martials for engaging with the system, rather than them just making less hassle/stronger bastion for other players. I'll keep thinking about other rooms that would have interesting mechanics for them to engage with.
@@turnipslop3822 I think the best options are for them to have better access to people, like maybe they could run caravan guards, or regional police forces. Do they have a smithy already? That should be easy enough.
This was handled better in older editions, different classes got different kinds of strongholds when they reached name level, Fighters got a "Fortress" which came with its own small army and land nearby to tax, Clerics got temples, Wizards had their towers, and Theives of course, got to open their own theive's guild, but they were different in qualia, so no class was 'left behind'
I remember in one campaign, my brother co-opted some Pathfinder rules to let me and my party run an entire kingdom (after we evacuated our home continent with most of the population because the demons that were trapped on an island hundreds of years ago were breaking free, which was absolutely not the plan for the campaign originally) so I'm very curious how much of the bastion rules will feel similar-ish to what we did there. In any case, the best place to learn about new rules is this channel, so I will enjoy the next 25 minutes immensely. Thanks for making so many videos for us, Ginny! I haven't been able to put all the DMing tips from your videos into practice yet, but I'm already way more excited to run a campaign than I ever was before, and once my brother wraps up running Curse of Strahd I have many plans.
Uh they had these rules in earlier editions. Hell the fighter or paladin used to get a tower as part of a level up in 1 or 2E. So I doubt they copied a book that might've sold well, but it wasn't clear how to incorporate it into a game.
@@KnicKnac oh yeah I know they had mechanics, Ginny even says so in the video! It just seems very coincidental that they decide to bring it back now when it hasn't been codified in the rules for many editions
The AD&D 1st edition DMG had building castles and strongholds. In order to advance past (usually) 9th level, the character had to have one. When you decide to build a stronghold, that takes hundreds of employees over years. They have to have food and supplies, so now a character has a stronghold and a small town or large village to run.
I assumed the stronghold was an option, not a requirement to level. But name level is where you are nudged to domains. You might have a bunch of retainers, a guard platoon and a bunch of workers already but now you have a claim on a hex.
@SusCalvin In 1st edition, the only way to advance past [name level] was to have a stronghold (for everyone except Bard and Monk). If you remained 'transient' then the character couldn't level up any further.
Holy cow, Ginny's videos are always funny, but this one is particularly hilarious, I've been cackling with it the whole time lol Also, I'm pretty certain that a Bastion is just what Ariel lovingly calls her little crab friend.
Thanks for the thurough coverage. Can't say im very excited about them. I cut my teeth in 2nd edition so as you pointed out strongholds were always there. I always encourage my PC to have a stronghold by 9th lvl preferably roleplaying the creation from earlier levels as, everyone seems to notice, its a great money sink. From there the PC will kinda demand some kind of reward naturally depending on the type of stronghold, a wizards tower with apprentices and library space will obviously identify items and assist in making them, a church can send healing potions, thieves den information, a fortess would have nights to send to wrap up and check in once the pc's move on or send scout ahead, ect. These seem like nice guidelines to get started but in my experience you're 100% right with a standard format this will just get min/maxed to a standard build that the dm will have to account for in campaign balance and the pcs will have to have to match that preemptive balance.
I'm a bit torn - on one side I like that they are acknowledging bases in the rulebook and give rules and guidelines for them, but I don't like how some rooms give way to much of an benefit (especially financially) while basic rooms like a bedroom or a kitchen do nothing. Also I don't like how the bastion events are random. Sometimes certain events just don't make sense, so rolling on an unflexible premade list for events can lead to weird results. Now this could all be salvaged by an experienced DM, but especially new DMs who are playing by the book, could find themselves in trouble when their players are suddenly making thousands of gold from their bastions or when they feel forced to find a way for a friendly visitor showing up in the characters hidden secret hideout nobody knows about.
The idea of having "basic" rooms that are only there for flavour, or give minor mechanical benefits but can be built indefinitely (at a cost) and strictly rationed "special" rooms that give actual significant mechanical benefits is pretty solid. It sounds like there are issues with the balance of those special rooms, but raking in cash at high level isn't really a problem - level appropriate loot allocations from a dungeon run will give a ton of cash too. A fixed random table can cause problems, but it's not immediately obvious what a better alternative would be - in general, it's easier for GMs who want less detailed mechanics, or who disagree with provided details, to adapt detailed rules to better suit them than it is for GMs who want the details to turn vague general guidelines into detailed rules (and those who are happy to generate their own detailed rules probably aren't buying rulebooks in the first place...)
In the last campaign I played, my character functionally had a bastion, sorta. She owned a farm and hired farmers to work on it, as sort of a way to rebel against her nomadic parents. Of course, she still raided and pillaged, but had those funds go to a farm rather than a caravan.
Third party people have already done this, it might be worth looking into. Check out Strongholds & Followers as well as Kingdoms & Warfare from MCDM. It is bastions for 2024's DND mixed with a recruiting an army for a showdown trope. I would actually love if you did a small video like this for those, if they tickle your fancy, so I have a video to send to my players before we start using them. Oh well, this was helpful, thanks!
I like the idea of a mobile bastion! I picture the party as introducing the first Magitech Steampunk trains into the setting, and they’re the ones laying tracks between major settlements. Whenever the next town or city is reached, they inform their Bastion-train via sending stones, and start building a rudimentary station. The train then heads to the next station, and the party gets a Bastion turn when it arrives. Then the group heads off again, dealing with whatever shenanigans the DM throws in their way.
Can I just say the purple lighting on our green Ginny Di feels perfect. I don't know why. It's like a rainbow with less shiny-distracto-multiple colors. More "soap bubble isn't gonna pop after all" color. OK so far so good back to listening about how someone's personal township builds up.
Anyone who had the AD&D DMG, with its tables of how much different castle bits cost, and who had seen the PBS + David Macauley "Castle" documentary that took you through a castle being built, and then seiged ... we were HYPE to use those rules.
I haven't gotten early access to the 2024 DMG, but this also feels very similar to MCDM's strongholds from strongholds and followers which goes over different options for each class to run, and various boons that come from having them. And the followers you gain along the way.
Ok, this sounds better than I was imagining and I can totally see this working, maybe set up as the home towns they come from. My friends are already slow enough without adding the sims / house flipper to my game. My current party have a customisable rope trick extradimensional plane space they call home, which has the advantage of being with them at all time. It's like a bag of holding but with furniture...and air. Each level it gets a bit bigger and they get to add something new based on the tools and proficiencies they have. Latest addition was a garden for the cleric to grow an extra set of good berries every in game day.
Aaaah no because my current character’s goal is literally to settle down somewhere nice with his brother (entails convincing his brother to stop being an assassin because that’s dangerous, they’ve reunited but his brother is still tempting fate with that dangerous job? No-don’t look for skeletons in his closet. Don’t open the door or else all the skeletons will fall out.) Sending this to the dnd chat because I think I need to play dnd interior design simulator with the party to make a giant apartment or something!!
Reminds me of Oxventure's Blades in the Dark campaign, where their "bastion" was an Antique Shopfront with rooms in the back (and I think they neglected a fun session just slumming it for a day). Another was Second Wind's Adventure is Nigh where they make a nightclub with integral gift/curios-shop, bakery, performance stage, and upstairs rooms; it was a perfect magnet for drawing adventure hooks to them. I imagine mine as an airship where my crew and I maintain our stocks and loadouts, trade with visiting flying merchants not to mention some 'in-house' craftsman and engineers that maintain and sell personal equipment and ship components, and when it's time for adventure, we'd load up and jump out of a bay to the surface Helldiver's style, baby!
around 4:00 we have a campaign running since almost 20 years. the ingame time that has passed is about 2 years. Its crazy what a DM can pull for story and content when the players act actively.
“…or having babies.” Thankfully that is pretty safe in my group - the youngest member of our group just turned 47 last week. (Three members of our group have been playing together for over 25 years now. Yes, “having babies” has ended multiple campaigns over the years.)
My DM kind of did that for us when he gifted our party an estate. Difference is that he let each of us (party of 4) to make a facility for the estate. Rogue started a Tavern, Ranger made a Stable, Fighter (me) started a forge, and Cleric made a church. The DM makes us pay for the hirelines running our estate, which he says gives us an incentive to continue adventuring
This is unrelated to the topic but I wanted to say i really like the pink lighting over the dark backdrop. It looks really cool and adds a different vibe to the presentation of your videos in a good way i think.
Feel like bastions shouldn't exist outside of the DM's influence any more than the character does, but really like adding this since it adds a layer of either domain play, or just expanding characters to what their physical influence in the world is, and not just what they have in their pocketses
I just wanted to say, I'm really pleased to have stumbled upon your channel. As a "long time ago" player, whose young daughter wants to get started in DnD, I can't tell you how important it is for her to see like minded people getting involved ... and geeking out. Really enjoying just hearing your points of view and ideas!
Planning on using the Bastion System for my first home-brew campaign. Basically, the idea is that the Bastion is a living entity that allows the adventurers to use it during their travels. Think Danny the Street from DC Comics* and the Tardis from Doctor Who and you get the Bastion in my campaign. I was thinking of having them just travel the multiverse killing monsters and saving people that way we can do any adventure module if we want and they can still use the same characters. *Danny the Street's teleport power warps reality so that he can fit where he goes. Like teleport to a town? The street becomes part of the town.* Personally, I think it'd be cool to have Vecna be the overarching villain as he tries to reconstruct the multiverse in his image or someone like Vecna.
I've been a fan of the idea ever since I heard Matt Colville talk about it and then when he released Strongholds and Followers I bought that. I'll probably be combining those rules with the new 2024 rules going forward.
0:41 accurate to start with! Running an ongoing calendar for your new campaign may help with encouraging bastion turns. In my current, they PCs only just hit level 4, and over 100 days have passed in game.
Yep, strongholds were around since first edition. In second edition I even had a mountain fortress sticking out the sheer cliff. Gotta love those dwarven craftsmen. Another person in our group had a big complex in Waterdeep that was basically a mall. Yep, I would spend hours and hours going through floor plans and designs for everything right down to the privies. I also love counting ammo and would insist on counting weight of coinage if my group's other players would just lighten up a bit.
Hey Ginny, Love your content, but i have to ask would you ever do an actual play series. So we can watch you dm for your players, see what your world building looks like and get a peak at what all your advice looks like when its implemented at the game table. I'm sure i can't be the only one that would love to see somethong like that.
I really appreciate you taking the time to make this (and all the jokes too). I've been having trouble deciding whether to commit to buying the new DM Guide. I have read them in the past, but never find much of use in them. While the bastion system sounds clever, I'm also thinking it could be a campaign destroyer, and there are enough of those already. A DM would really have to plan for its inclusion from the start of the campaign, which is not necessarily bad, but there are too many variables already. I think you have have saved me the cost of the DMs guide.
I was just remembering running Tales from the Loop about ten years ago. One of the first things players do is set up a kind of home base. Which, as kids, is often like a little-known room in the back of the library or one of the players’ tree houses their parents built. It wasn’t at all like the Bastion rule, but it was always cool to know that whenever things got crazy, or if the party got split up, they could all meet back at the base. It was a simple mechanic but added a lot to the vibe.
While agree that it sucks that there's only one martial specific facility, I am only so worried about it at the moment. I know the amount of homebrew people will make for bastions is going to be astronomical.
I think it's great you did an entire video about the main character of Neverending Story. I do have a question, though: couldn't you just put in a standing order for your hireling to do stuff? For example, make a blank book (that you can sell for 5-10g probably) each week unless I tell you otherwise? Unless I'm mishearing (which is always possible with me), it sounds like you have to convey that request weekly to the hireling somehow.
Yes, you need to issue orders weekly or they don't get done. Narratively it makes sense to set up a standing order, but mechanically, bastions are specifically written so that you can only issue orders when you are present, or if you have a spell like Sending that allows immediate long-distance communication. Obviously a DM could rule that differently if they wanted! But if the intention is to balance the power of these facilities and to incentivize returning to the bastion for downtime, that would probably defeat the purpose. I'd think of it much like we think about "D&D physics" - the rules aren't meant to perfectly simulate reality, they're meant to function as a game mechanic.
Think of the order not as just saying "make a blank book" to your Hireling, but as your Hireling doing most of the work to create the item, but having questions about the details that need your input, or there being some magical guardian that needs you to renew their authorisation (like those apps that require you to sign in again every so often...) Or for trading from your storehouse, your Hireling is competent to negotiate, but it's your knowledge of the local markets that gives them the edge that lets you make a profit - so you're not just saying "do some trading"; you're dictating their trading strategy. Without your input, the Hireling can continue routine operations, but the special effects require your personal touch...
ive been wanting something like this for sooo long. we used a homebrew one very shortly at one point but it was more of saving all your gold and dropping it on a building or keep or so at once. that you could just immediately choose your small options at that point. This sounds fantastic
Well timed. You uploaded this just as one of my players announced her monk's intention to open up a dojo. Some interesting ideas here. Bastions would have been really useful to have as a mechanic when I was starting my current game (which will be ending before the end of the after going from level 2 to 16). All the action was focussed around one city-state so rules for a home-base would have been a massive bonus.
I'm excited for these rules to finally enter 5e canon, Matthew Colville's Strongholds and Followers rules are excellent and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the new Bastion mechanics were inspired by his book. More players deserve to have a cool central base of power if they desire it!
I've always enjoyed imagining it. A hidden wizard tower deep in mountain forest wilderness might be interesting. I'd want a tavern near the docks at a city port though. The type of place adventurers go. Something in shipping might be nice, like passively producing oak barrels and a quality ale. It would be fun to create a tavern and embellish it over time, even using it for plot development. Come to think of it, owning a ship would be nice too.
Way way back when in ad&d 2nd edition I remember there was a stronghold feature for fighters who reached certain level and or reputation. Never used it though, I was pretty young back then.
0:45 minor addendum(?): Bastions are a part of the wall of a castle that sticks out from it in order to protect it. It’s not a complete structure like a fortress or citadel.
That's one of the definitions of the word "bastion"! But it is also used to refer to an overall fortress or stronghold. That's the fun thing about language - words can have multiple meanings 😜
Love that i am finding this while prepping my players for what IS a Bastion, when i never knew Bastions were a pre-built feature! This has cut my DM work load in HALF thank you Ginny
Bastins seem like something that would really only work with homebrews. while i haven't read deep into them, i'm planing to run Curse of Styrad or Abyss, and I don't see how you can shoehorn bastins into a module.
I mean, if your players aren’t too set on speeding through the story, you could always have them take over some space in Vallaki. Heck, after defeating Baba Lysaga they could settle in the Ruins of Berez
@@GrndAdmiralThrawn i assume these are places in Stryd? Like i said before, i haven't read that deeply into the module, and i dunno if i'm actually doing Stryd, i could be doing 'into the abyss' or whatever its called, which takes place in the underdark.
This is amazing!! In my first long running campaign we used the homebrew Strongholds and Followers system to basically get bastions! We started off sharing a castle that we'd taken over, and as we grew in level the fighter/paladin kept the castle, the rogue got a tavern with a hidden thieves' guild and my sorcerer/bard got a magic tower/library. It was really cool, but sadly we never got much use out of those later changes as the stakes were too high and we were traveling so much, but we could only really get use out of the strongholds if we had been there in person, and for my character that never even happened. I'm really hopeful that this system will work better as it is SUCH a fun thing narratively!
The fun thing would be to come up with ways to make bastions that don't look like what people would expect, like not just some stone building looming alone on an estate grounds. Druid and ranger bastions might be worked right into the landscape. You could also start out having a little section of a bigger institution, then take on more of it or move up ranks to running the whole place.
I love that you don’t ask your viewers to hit the “Like” button or give us a directive to subscribe. This video was filled with useful information, delivered in a way that shows you care enough about your viewers to really spend time on it and make it fun to watch. I’m now going to go see if I can help Tom Riddle find his spectacles….
this is really cool! I have been running a game for a while in the spelljammer space and I have set it up for my players to start up a bastion on an asteroid given to them by an NPC. I have left it very open for them and sent them this video to hopefully get their wheels turning on what they want out of it. Since I don't have the official rules yet we are running it pretty lose but have told them to think of this as a lair so if they are here and attacked they get lair actions. I am hoping this opens some of them that have only been players up to the idea of DMing and seeing that it isn't so hard or different.
Ooh~ i'll be real I haven't played dnd AND really enjoyed it for a while, but I always like looking at new materials for story ideas or oneshot ideas to run with my friends. The idea of a home base that's so functional is really fun for me because if I were to run a game, my players would ideally have a main base to upgrade and return to anyways!
I don't leave enough comments, but thanks Ginny for all your work, you definitely keep my D&D Flame going with lots of good ideas and inspiration. Thank you so much for all you do!
As someone who LOVES to draw strongholds, I am so eager to see and try out this system!! 3rd edition had the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, but it's very cool to see an update for the here and now!
I can't believe it, I was thinking about adding something like this to my first ever campaign but had no idea they are included in the DMG. This is wonderful! Thank you so much for the video 🙏
thanks for the overview! i hope it gets some support in adventures and future books. i could see them easily expanding this in the next xanathar type book. itd be great to see an adventure with built in spots for downtime.
Since I’m running a sci-fi sourcebook, I gave a party a hyper advanced/experimental ship capable of literally upgrading itself by eating other ships. The fun part is that, since it’s sci-fi fantasy, I can pull nonsense like the ship suddenly having normal sized room that some how is big enough on the inside to have a gym, an Olympic sized swimming pool, and a faux hot spring and somehow how have it feel slightly reasonable.
Hearing about bastions gives me the same thrill I got over the "territory development by player character" section for strongholds in the 1st edition DMG that I enjoyed as a 12-year old, except without the essay on wargaming theorycrafting and mind-numbing tables detailing construction and siege values. So, y'know, more fun and accessible.
the thing where you say something so much it doesn’t sound like a real word is called semantic satiation
The more you know! 💫
You are the internet hero no one knew we needed.
@@GinnyDi Indeed
great band name
@@jfelipe1987 Yeah, I dig it. "And now make some noise for - Semantic Satiation !"
I would visit their concert, though likely there´ll be loads of hipsters XD
Okay, but imagine: Pirate ship.
It's perfect for sea faring campaigns and if the DM doesn't want you to be on your ship, there is a number of ways to reason that you can't bring your base everywhere.
Not only that, a ship baston would stop you from having to go back to the same area over and over.
This is EXACTLY what I’m going to implement for my steampunk campaign. Just now waiting on the official notes to come out because (balancing homebrew is hard)
Speljammer pirate ship…. Im in
Or a TARDIS. We all want a mobile stronghold.
Or you could just do like Lindon and make it an airship.
This is exactly the kind of thing I love to see homebrewed! You could have a lot of fun with rooms like a navigation room, smuggler’s hold, or armory-they’d fit perfectly on a pirate ship. Yes, please! 🏴☠
When you said "are we having fun yet" i thought i was gonna see a clip of pointy hat yelling that at me 😂
"ARE YOU HAVING FUN YET?"
Given it was about taxation, I expected a clip from Star Wars episode 1.
Wait. Level 9 y'all have 12 THOUSAND gold? *insert "You're getting paid?" meme*
This is just based on what’s in the DMG and Xanathar’s Guide and if you’re not spending pretty much anything 😂
I must agree. I've realized my GM has been miserly by this metric because, as of the end of level 12 (and after backing out a few major but completely optional roleplaying flavor purchases), my PC has only accumulated 2.5 thousand. 💸😲💸
In my current game, we're all level 7, and I just got to 1K gold lol.
To be fair, it is a low-magic setting.
I mean, let’s face it. Not every campaign has magic item shops. Having the PCs drown in gold coins isn’t really necessary.
In the urban game I'm running, my party's level 10 characters have about 25k each. But it is a heist-based game, so that makes a difference...
My party has built our little D&D home base in Minecraft and it's super fun to hear that we can easily add mechanical function to it now! 🎉
As one of said players, yeah, it's a blast!
I love this!! I'll definitely be making my base in the Sims. Just need to get a defensive wall mod 😂
@@GinnyDi oooooo, the sims would work well too!
@@GinnyDi D&D has evolved so much in the past few years with tons of new tools for mechanics, but what we really need is a dedicated cozy aesthetic base-building simulator. That way we can live out our lofty fantasies like "owning property" and "having furniture that isn't from IKEA".
Im in a campain where we are collectively running a tavern thst doubles as our hideout - love that an "official" feature like this is being added!
That sounds like a blast! And great for added rp moments 😄
I totally get that-my party has had hideouts that were basically glorified storerooms where we didn’t have to spend gold to sleep. Making them mechanically useful kinda forced the DM to get creative, so it’s awesome to now have official mechanics and guidelines to work with!
That ought to keep the customers polite.
Level 3 Wanker: "Oi! Waitress!" {snaps his fingers}
Level 9 Ranger: "Yeah? What?" {snaps his fingers}
Level 3 Wanker: "Ah! my hand! You broke my hand!"
It'll be nice not having to rely on the DM to make up stuff about who I need to talk to for building permits and property deeds or whatever. In my current campaign, me and another player live inside their teahouse which the whole party frequents when not adventuring in the forest. And after a session where a player's character died, I bought a plot of land with the intent to start an animal sanctuary to train ranger pets for protecting adventurers, but we had other things to do that session so it sort of fell to the wayside unfinished and now we haven't been in town for a while. It'll be great to just automatically have my bastion ready without devoting time to an acquisition episode.
Is it Dragon Heist? If so, that was one of my favorite aspects of that campaign that I incorporated much more than the book. Such a cool down time mechanic. I bet that campaign alone is what made WotC want to incorporate bastions into more of a core feature.
@@5-Volt My characters became so invested in Trollskull Manor they stopped adventuring. I created a hook where Halaster Blackcloak stole time away from the players (accounting for why some players were not present at certain times as the Mad Mage snatched them from the timeline), and that was the catalyst for them to go to Undermountain.
I already sorta did bastions, but like Skyrim where you could have a house in every city. I’m glad WOTC is adding this feature.
That would be great! Having player bastions spread out across cities opens up some cool strategic options and story possibilities. It gives the group influence in different regions and could lead to fun dynamics with travel, resources, and alliances. Having them all close together creates a strong central hub but both options definitely have their perks!
@@GinnyDi Honestly, I think it depends on the campaign. Crit Role's globe-hopping adventures would definitely benefit from having Bastions all over Exandria, while Drakkenheim would likely benefit more from a central hub-type arrangement. Then again, Vox Machina had Castle Greyskull even without the Bastion system, and it became a place to touch base and refocus
@@GinnyDi I like that idea. Whatever binds players (politically) more tightly to the game world is good. 'Oh no, we have to save some random village from invading marauders !' gets boring for some, or others mights play neutral-asshole type characters, like from an 80´s dark fantasy anime - They. Don´t. Effing. CARE.
But with some of their own eggs in this particular fire ? Say hello to universal motivation, without the need to start potentially world-ending events !
Might also be useful to get one of those cursed 'all-evil' grousp to work together properly.
The more they have to lose, the less their players have to justify uniting their forces. Just make sure the guards in the player-owned structures are not strong enough to trivialize every threat and you´ll be golden.
@@GinnyDi I'm so glad you pointed out that this has been around forever, though with slightly different mechanics. Actually, in my current campaign the party has what might be considered a bastion. There was a a ruined fortified farmhouse that used to belong to a knight--the players worked out a deal with the local baron and they are rebuilding it to use as their base of operation.
What do you do with all the extra gold? Hire mercenaries--workmen, masons carpenters, buy lab equipment for the mages and holy items for the priests to establish a small chapel, and hire henchmen to oversee the works---suddenly the vast sums of money from the treasure hoards drains away very quickly. But there are significant benefits to having a fortified base like this the party can use.
Once they reach ninth-12th level and gain followers they might establish freeholds if they want or they can chose to expand the party's stronghold.
But could you build your level nine rooms on a different location or RAW everything should be in the same place? … bastion…bastion…
22:22 Dunno if intentional, but “Ocean’s Elves” is hilarious to me. Given that the German word for 11 is “Elf”.
thatd be a fantastic one shot/short campaign idea. Group of elven workers/retired soldiers have to do "one last job" XD
@@terraglade I am stealing this idea, this is too good!
The Bastion joke one min in totally gets the like button!
"Normally only bard players get-"
An instant homebrew for me is anyone PC can get any special room, it may cost more or require a permanent or semi-permanent NPC hire, but nothing should be locked. If my 4 int orc barbarian wants an arcane study...he is going to get it despite not realizing he'll need to pay 5x the normal cost for little to no benefit. Great video
I love this! 😂 I can totally picture a martial class PC setting up an arcane study, barely understanding it, but charging the rest of the party to use it. ‘You want to use the magic books? That’ll be 10 gold per hour!'
Not for parties on the go? Time to homebrew Howl’s Moving Bastion.
Or…just a bunch of mini bastion RVs, our party is a trailer park on the go.
I really love how Ginny provides examples, humor, and her own thoughts on the content. This video was especially well done
I am infact NOT done folding laundry, but I also found it interesting. I'm excited to see how DM's and players will utilize this!
Some say they're still folding laundry to this day...
Thank you!! 🥰
There is always more laundry...especially if you have several young wyrmlings that insist on wearing more food then they eat.
@@GinnyDi You can 'do' the laundry, BUT the laundry is never done!
@@GinnyDi I wasn't folding laundry at all. It's not laundry yet. I haven't finished making it. Every time I start sewing another hour-long advert starts and after a while I have to put the needle down to click the skip button.
AD&D had the following for the Fighter class:
At level 9, the fighter lord may establish a freehold by building some type of castle and clearing the land in an area of a radius of twenty to fifty miles. The fighter will then attract a body of men-at-arms led by an above average fighter which will serve him as long as he pays reasonably and maintains his freehold, and will collect seven silver coins for every sentient inhabitant of the area through trade, tariffs, and taxes.
Considering white box D&D originated from the Chainmail miniature rules, the bastion "scale" has been part of the game since it's inception.
Yep, I was planning on making this point. This does sound like a fun reworking of the 'player follower/base concept, but it is by no means a new thing in D&D.
Very happy to see that was touched on in the video.
They had the sense to call it a castle though. Bastion is dumb name for someone whose never looked into castles at all.
They describe castles and call them bastions because they think it sounds knowledgeable somehow. But it doesn't.
I’m excited to try this feature.
Me too! Let me know how it goes in your game.
I’m so excited for bastions, I love the Trollskull Tavern you get in Waterdeep Dragon Heist because the concept of a home base you can customize is so fun!
I was just coming to say that!. Troll skull is great.
Our party fought so hard over who gets which bedroom. I got the little tower on the top, and I had to access it via someone else's room which annoyed them so much.
@@theaxer3751that’s a hilarious solution, we solved the bedroom issue by having my wizard move into the study to be with her beloved books
When I ran Dragonheast I used a couple of third-party PDFs, one of which was basically just how to run the business. Within a month I would have players, at the end of the session, ask "Can we roll on the profits table yet?" and I would have to say "Sorry, it hasn't been a full ten-day yet. Probably at the end of next week."
(Seriously, it was just almost three months - and a murder mystery that involved one of the major Waterdeep families - before I even got to the fireball.)
I'm going to brake the rules and give my players the Pub special facility once they complete the renovations (they're level 5 at this point). And I'm excited to see all the other options they'll get to choose from for level 5. I think this mechanic plays so well with Dragon Heist as a way of making the players feel even more at home in the City of Splendors!
I always thought a Bastian was that little kid with the bowl cut from Neverending Story
Why not both??
As a Sebastian I think the nickname Bastian isn't as commonly used as it used to be (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). Also...Never Ending Sstttoooooorrryyyyyy Aw Aw Aw.
german accent: sis is se bastion ;-)
@@sebastianevangelista4921 Jup, not very common anymore. Was more like something in the 80´s - so it was on the top of the time ! ^^
By the way, three years ago my best friends named their first born Lysander - the German form of Lysandros.
Nope, no Greek heritage there. Just two nerds XD
@@sebastianevangelista4921 if it helps I play dnd with a Sebastian who we sometimes call Bastian
The "While you were reading the UA I studied the Blade." comment was badass.
Can we as a community agree that we should just call the new stuff 5.5? It’s so much less confusing and so many less syllables than saying 2024 vs 2014. We collectively bullied Wotc about the ogl stuff last year, let’s make it an annual thing and bully them into calling it 5.5
I swear I see a post like this every single week with a different name that we should all be agreeing on 😂
@@GinnyDi WE WILL NEVER AGREE!!! This fight will rage for eons!
5e24 is super easy plus it's barely a .5 maybe a .2
I just say 2024 🤷♂️. Let the battle continue!!!
We simply call it One D&D at my table.
Love your review of bastions.
3:17 The original D&D and 1st edition had rules for castles and strongholds. The curtain walls and buildings were cheaper, but all hirelings were paid salaries that the players had to track. Much of the rules on interior layouts were left up to the DM. I've run several old-school games where the players used these rules, and it's definitely the best way for high-level characters to spend cash. That and magic research.
Thank you! 😊 It’s so cool to hear how old-school D&D handled castles and strongholds. The added layer of tracking hireling salaries must have been... challenging. Can I hire someone to do my bastion payroll? 😅
I am younger but still play that version (BECMI). I am pleasently surprised that WOTC includes this!
Original D&D also had rules for hiring and equipping your own Army. For those who REALLY wanted to 'Layeth the Smacketh Down' on the BBEG. (Or just conquer the world.)
No DM will have the BBEG ever ask you "Oh yeah! You and what army?!" again after your legion comes over the hill.
@GinnyDi let's see.....alchemist, scribe, blacksmith, herald..... here it is taxman......
@@tDude666 I play 1st edition primarily. I only played BECMI once but I've got a bunch of modules and packets for Expert and Companion adventures.
I feel like Augury’s version of a “Live, Laugh, Love” poster would be “Live, Laugh, M*rder but Don’t Get Caught” 😂
Live, Laugh, Loot 😂😂
@@GinnyDiOoooo, that one works better, actually! 🤣 Similar: “Live, Laugh, Larceny”
@@GinnyDi *SLOW CLAP*
@@GinnyDi Live, Laugh, Laundering or even Lie, Loot, Launder
@@GinnyDi Always, Be, Closing?
1:58 wow rlly cool lighting. Please use this location more, it’s so cool
Right? It's so cool, you'd think Straszfilms video "Identity, Gender and VRChat" was watched shortly beforehand lol
But really, I love the lighting!
I've always really loved the concept of a "hub town". At early levels it's easy to keep the focus in, and around your town because that's where the story happens, but it's nice to have a way to keep your starting town relevant in the later game.
We started using bastions from a homebrew or playtest version. They haven't really kicked off, yet, but at lvl 13, they are a nice addition to our 5+ year campaign. We've played out less than 6 months in-game time and a lot has happened. We basically do not take down-time and our characters are almost always on the road because the campaign villain is actively working to do evil, thanks to a mistake we made. Our characters believe, and the players understand, that breaks will give the villain time to advance and grow in power. Still cool
That's essentially why we've struggled to take downtime too.
Maybe this is the push I need as a DM to actively start writing in more opportunities-or even force some downtime into the story!
@@GinnyDi Yeah. I've had the same problem too. The game has been moving absolutely breakneck as the main BBEG is moving to take his ambitions across the continent, but my plan is that when a certain someone encounters him in the Dwarven Capital, the ensuing encounter is going to *force* him to slow down, both because of likely serious injuries the party may inflict on him, and more importantly, because he's stretched his army way too thin doing this and needs to wait for them to actually finish their missions and/or replenish their ranks before he can do much more than maintain the realms he's already conquered, which are also being actively sabotaged by other players to further slow him down.
Even when you can Evil Villain Teleport™ on a whim, heck, even with a Simulacrum, one man can't be everywhere at once...
@@GinnyDi The thing I like to do is sequence major events that benefit the main villain, but in a background way. The party is still putting out fires that seem and are important, but all the while the main villain is essentially playing chess while the party is playing checkers. I wait until a good story opportunity to drop the curtain for the big reveal afterwards. The party is aware of the villain as they've met underlings of them, but they aren't aware of their impact or importance straight away. You can use separate backstories from characters to slow drip information that doesn't tie together unless they all share and discuss their backstories. My example is that our elf wizard knows of someone from her elven home (someone who is kept secret by the entirety of the city), a character who doesn't know their parents and was raised by a warforged (but maybe their real parents are out there working for this secret figure) etc.
@@orokusaki1243 I definitely get that. For most of our characters, the level timing isn't much of an issue because we use XP, but leveling is still planned for by our GM. It isn't exactly scheduled, but he thinks ahead to align leveling with narrative moments and each character gets extra time during leveling to develop. It is seen less as evidence of training and more as evidence of overcoming hardship and getting better at killing and not being killed. All of our classes are magically inclined, so there is less need to allow room/time for physical development. Crafting and other downtime activities are definitely something we have neglected, but we just don't use those rules much in any of our campaigns.
I could imagine using one of the useless options as a free given. Like "Thank you adventurer for all you've done. We'd like to reward you and there's this old theatre building on the edge of town. It was damaged in a dragon attack some years ago and abandoned, but one or two of the side rooms should be still useable. With work it could be developed further too". That way they get a place with a bit more starting character and, in addition to their useful upgrades over time, they get one that is essentially flair.
The current High Rollers campaign has the party receiving a grant of land as a reward for services rendered to the kingdom. The "reward" ended up being a decrepit, haunted inn on a quarter acre of malignant weed-ridden land with a falling down shed in the back.
@@annereynolds7930 Ah, yes, the classic, offloading property disguised as a reward.
I got offered a mansion once. Big place, price reduced for a quick sale.
Man selling it told me it wasn't far from the luxury part of the city.
"In fact, you can see it from here," he said. Yeah, I could, on a clear night. It was on the Moon!
I know how to balance out Martials for bastions.
1. Make it so that Martials get strong buffs to Defenders and other defensive assets, like they can recruit more, they are stronger, etc. Maybe just give them some for free as they level.
2. Make it so that several of the cooler facilities are VERY attractive to thieves and invaders, and will constantly get rolled while you are gone if you lack sufficient defenses for them.
3. If you aren't/lack a Martial, you could still upgrade your defenses to be strong enough, it would just cost you bonus rooms, so the remaining potential of the facility is lower.
This would make it so that running those facilities with a non-Martial character is setting yourself up for constant hassles, and/or you'd want to have one in the party to help defend your stuff.
That does sound like a good way to introduce some balance to it, though I'd still want more ways to reward and support my martials for engaging with the system, rather than them just making less hassle/stronger bastion for other players. I'll keep thinking about other rooms that would have interesting mechanics for them to engage with.
@@turnipslop3822 I think the best options are for them to have better access to people, like maybe they could run caravan guards, or regional police forces. Do they have a smithy already? That should be easy enough.
This was handled better in older editions, different classes got different kinds of strongholds when they reached name level, Fighters got a "Fortress" which came with its own small army and land nearby to tax, Clerics got temples, Wizards had their towers, and Theives of course, got to open their own theive's guild, but they were different in qualia, so no class was 'left behind'
1:46 The lighting is so good!!
I remember in one campaign, my brother co-opted some Pathfinder rules to let me and my party run an entire kingdom (after we evacuated our home continent with most of the population because the demons that were trapped on an island hundreds of years ago were breaking free, which was absolutely not the plan for the campaign originally) so I'm very curious how much of the bastion rules will feel similar-ish to what we did there. In any case, the best place to learn about new rules is this channel, so I will enjoy the next 25 minutes immensely.
Thanks for making so many videos for us, Ginny! I haven't been able to put all the DMing tips from your videos into practice yet, but I'm already way more excited to run a campaign than I ever was before, and once my brother wraps up running Curse of Strahd I have many plans.
They definitely did this because they saw how well the MCDM Strongholds & Followers book did and decided they wanted a piece of the action
How different are the mechanics?
Yeah. I am pretty sure they stole that content.
@@rumuco this is a dumbed down version of it.
Uh they had these rules in earlier editions. Hell the fighter or paladin used to get a tower as part of a level up in 1 or 2E.
So I doubt they copied a book that might've sold well, but it wasn't clear how to incorporate it into a game.
@@KnicKnac oh yeah I know they had mechanics, Ginny even says so in the video! It just seems very coincidental that they decide to bring it back now when it hasn't been codified in the rules for many editions
I loved MCDM's Strongholds and Followers. Great but simple rules and charts for Strongholds that can have party wide buffs.
The AD&D 1st edition DMG had building castles and strongholds. In order to advance past (usually) 9th level, the character had to have one.
When you decide to build a stronghold, that takes hundreds of employees over years. They have to have food and supplies, so now a character has a stronghold and a small town or large village to run.
I assumed the stronghold was an option, not a requirement to level. But name level is where you are nudged to domains.
You might have a bunch of retainers, a guard platoon and a bunch of workers already but now you have a claim on a hex.
@SusCalvin In 1st edition, the only way to advance past [name level] was to have a stronghold (for everyone except Bard and Monk).
If you remained 'transient' then the character couldn't level up any further.
Holy cow, Ginny's videos are always funny, but this one is particularly hilarious, I've been cackling with it the whole time lol
Also, I'm pretty certain that a Bastion is just what Ariel lovingly calls her little crab friend.
Thanks for the thurough coverage. Can't say im very excited about them. I cut my teeth in 2nd edition so as you pointed out strongholds were always there. I always encourage my PC to have a stronghold by 9th lvl preferably roleplaying the creation from earlier levels as, everyone seems to notice, its a great money sink. From there the PC will kinda demand some kind of reward naturally depending on the type of stronghold, a wizards tower with apprentices and library space will obviously identify items and assist in making them, a church can send healing potions, thieves den information, a fortess would have nights to send to wrap up and check in once the pc's move on or send scout ahead, ect.
These seem like nice guidelines to get started but in my experience you're 100% right with a standard format this will just get min/maxed to a standard build that the dm will have to account for in campaign balance and the pcs will have to have to match that preemptive balance.
I'm a bit torn - on one side I like that they are acknowledging bases in the rulebook and give rules and guidelines for them, but I don't like how some rooms give way to much of an benefit (especially financially) while basic rooms like a bedroom or a kitchen do nothing. Also I don't like how the bastion events are random. Sometimes certain events just don't make sense, so rolling on an unflexible premade list for events can lead to weird results.
Now this could all be salvaged by an experienced DM, but especially new DMs who are playing by the book, could find themselves in trouble when their players are suddenly making thousands of gold from their bastions or when they feel forced to find a way for a friendly visitor showing up in the characters hidden secret hideout nobody knows about.
The rules don’t seem very well thought out to me either.
The idea of having "basic" rooms that are only there for flavour, or give minor mechanical benefits but can be built indefinitely (at a cost) and strictly rationed "special" rooms that give actual significant mechanical benefits is pretty solid. It sounds like there are issues with the balance of those special rooms, but raking in cash at high level isn't really a problem - level appropriate loot allocations from a dungeon run will give a ton of cash too.
A fixed random table can cause problems, but it's not immediately obvious what a better alternative would be - in general, it's easier for GMs who want less detailed mechanics, or who disagree with provided details, to adapt detailed rules to better suit them than it is for GMs who want the details to turn vague general guidelines into detailed rules (and those who are happy to generate their own detailed rules probably aren't buying rulebooks in the first place...)
In the last campaign I played, my character functionally had a bastion, sorta. She owned a farm and hired farmers to work on it, as sort of a way to rebel against her nomadic parents. Of course, she still raided and pillaged, but had those funds go to a farm rather than a caravan.
Bastion is the wrong name for what they intend. Your player had something more appropriate.
Third party people have already done this, it might be worth looking into. Check out Strongholds & Followers as well as Kingdoms & Warfare from MCDM. It is bastions for 2024's DND mixed with a recruiting an army for a showdown trope. I would actually love if you did a small video like this for those, if they tickle your fancy, so I have a video to send to my players before we start using them. Oh well, this was helpful, thanks!
As someone who's about to start a Pirate campaign, this sounds like it would translate pretty well into my party's ship!
I like the idea of a mobile bastion! I picture the party as introducing the first Magitech Steampunk trains into the setting, and they’re the ones laying tracks between major settlements. Whenever the next town or city is reached, they inform their Bastion-train via sending stones, and start building a rudimentary station. The train then heads to the next station, and the party gets a Bastion turn when it arrives. Then the group heads off again, dealing with whatever shenanigans the DM throws in their way.
I was obsessed with the 3.5 Stronghold Builders Guide, and this was THE thing I was looking forward to for the new DMG
Can I just say the purple lighting on our green Ginny Di feels perfect. I don't know why. It's like a rainbow with less shiny-distracto-multiple colors. More "soap bubble isn't gonna pop after all" color.
OK so far so good back to listening about how someone's personal township builds up.
Anyone who had the AD&D DMG, with its tables of how much different castle bits cost, and who had seen the PBS + David Macauley "Castle" documentary that took you through a castle being built, and then seiged ... we were HYPE to use those rules.
Bonus points if you read Pillars of the Earth and understand how long/hard/disaster prone major construction was.
I haven't gotten early access to the 2024 DMG, but this also feels very similar to MCDM's strongholds from strongholds and followers which goes over different options for each class to run, and various boons that come from having them. And the followers you gain along the way.
25:48 just makes me think of The Never Ending Story!
Ditto
Ok, this sounds better than I was imagining and I can totally see this working, maybe set up as the home towns they come from. My friends are already slow enough without adding the sims / house flipper to my game. My current party have a customisable rope trick extradimensional plane space they call home, which has the advantage of being with them at all time. It's like a bag of holding but with furniture...and air. Each level it gets a bit bigger and they get to add something new based on the tools and proficiencies they have. Latest addition was a garden for the cleric to grow an extra set of good berries every in game day.
Aaaah no because my current character’s goal is literally to settle down somewhere nice with his brother (entails convincing his brother to stop being an assassin because that’s dangerous, they’ve reunited but his brother is still tempting fate with that dangerous job? No-don’t look for skeletons in his closet. Don’t open the door or else all the skeletons will fall out.)
Sending this to the dnd chat because I think I need to play dnd interior design simulator with the party to make a giant apartment or something!!
Reminds me of Oxventure's Blades in the Dark campaign, where their "bastion" was an Antique Shopfront with rooms in the back (and I think they neglected a fun session just slumming it for a day).
Another was Second Wind's Adventure is Nigh where they make a nightclub with integral gift/curios-shop, bakery, performance stage, and upstairs rooms; it was a perfect magnet for drawing adventure hooks to them.
I imagine mine as an airship where my crew and I maintain our stocks and loadouts, trade with visiting flying merchants not to mention some 'in-house' craftsman and engineers that maintain and sell personal equipment and ship components, and when it's time for adventure, we'd load up and jump out of a bay to the surface Helldiver's style, baby!
This could be interesting combined with some organic ellements- Baba Yagas style walking house - turning into Howl's moving Castle!
around 4:00
we have a campaign running since almost 20 years. the ingame time that has passed is about 2 years. Its crazy what a DM can pull for story and content when the players act actively.
“…or having babies.” Thankfully that is pretty safe in my group - the youngest member of our group just turned 47 last week. (Three members of our group have been playing together for over 25 years now. Yes, “having babies” has ended multiple campaigns over the years.)
Don't think of it as ending a campaign, so much as giving you new players for another one down the line ;)
My DM kind of did that for us when he gifted our party an estate. Difference is that he let each of us (party of 4) to make a facility for the estate. Rogue started a Tavern, Ranger made a Stable, Fighter (me) started a forge, and Cleric made a church. The DM makes us pay for the hirelines running our estate, which he says gives us an incentive to continue adventuring
While being a fortress, a Bastion is also one of the best indie video games I've ever played. Highly recommend
“Proper story’s supposed to start at the beginning…ain’t so simple with this one.”
This is unrelated to the topic but I wanted to say i really like the pink lighting over the dark backdrop. It looks really cool and adds a different vibe to the presentation of your videos in a good way i think.
Feel like bastions shouldn't exist outside of the DM's influence any more than the character does, but really like adding this since it adds a layer of either domain play, or just expanding characters to what their physical influence in the world is, and not just what they have in their pocketses
I just wanted to say, I'm really pleased to have stumbled upon your channel. As a "long time ago" player, whose young daughter wants to get started in DnD, I can't tell you how important it is for her to see like minded people getting involved ... and geeking out. Really enjoying just hearing your points of view and ideas!
Ginny’s blade skills must be impeccable with how much she has studied it
Planning on using the Bastion System for my first home-brew campaign. Basically, the idea is that the Bastion is a living entity that allows the adventurers to use it during their travels. Think Danny the Street from DC Comics* and the Tardis from Doctor Who and you get the Bastion in my campaign. I was thinking of having them just travel the multiverse killing monsters and saving people that way we can do any adventure module if we want and they can still use the same characters.
*Danny the Street's teleport power warps reality so that he can fit where he goes. Like teleport to a town? The street becomes part of the town.*
Personally, I think it'd be cool to have Vecna be the overarching villain as he tries to reconstruct the multiverse in his image or someone like Vecna.
6:13 that hit a little too close to home. Are you okay? Am I okay? I need a hug.
I've been a fan of the idea ever since I heard Matt Colville talk about it and then when he released Strongholds and Followers I bought that. I'll probably be combining those rules with the new 2024 rules going forward.
One of the best part of Ginny’s channel are these sets. Just a beautiful and cozy aesthetic
Thank you! 😊 I’m so glad you like them
@@GinnyDi How long do they take to set up?
0:41 accurate to start with!
Running an ongoing calendar for your new campaign may help with encouraging bastion turns. In my current, they PCs only just hit level 4, and over 100 days have passed in game.
THE SETTTTT 💚💚
Yep, strongholds were around since first edition. In second edition I even had a mountain fortress sticking out the sheer cliff. Gotta love those dwarven craftsmen. Another person in our group had a big complex in Waterdeep that was basically a mall. Yep, I would spend hours and hours going through floor plans and designs for everything right down to the privies. I also love counting ammo and would insist on counting weight of coinage if my group's other players would just lighten up a bit.
Hey Ginny,
Love your content, but i have to ask would you ever do an actual play series. So we can watch you dm for your players, see what your world building looks like and get a peak at what all your advice looks like when its implemented at the game table. I'm sure i can't be the only one that would love to see somethong like that.
I really appreciate you taking the time to make this (and all the jokes too). I've been having trouble deciding whether to commit to buying the new DM Guide. I have read them in the past, but never find much of use in them. While the bastion system sounds clever, I'm also thinking it could be a campaign destroyer, and there are enough of those already. A DM would really have to plan for its inclusion from the start of the campaign, which is not necessarily bad, but there are too many variables already. I think you have have saved me the cost of the DMs guide.
15:44 Maybe he lost them because one of the main parts of wearing spectacles is them resting on your nose.
I was just remembering running Tales from the Loop about ten years ago. One of the first things players do is set up a kind of home base. Which, as kids, is often like a little-known room in the back of the library or one of the players’ tree houses their parents built. It wasn’t at all like the Bastion rule, but it was always cool to know that whenever things got crazy, or if the party got split up, they could all meet back at the base. It was a simple mechanic but added a lot to the vibe.
While agree that it sucks that there's only one martial specific facility, I am only so worried about it at the moment. I know the amount of homebrew people will make for bastions is going to be astronomical.
I have so much trust in this community thinking up awesome additions! The books practically write themselves 🤩
This was exactly the summary I needed! I’m so stoked about this mechanic. I can’t wait to start a bastion for all my characters!
I think it's great you did an entire video about the main character of Neverending Story.
I do have a question, though: couldn't you just put in a standing order for your hireling to do stuff? For example, make a blank book (that you can sell for 5-10g probably) each week unless I tell you otherwise? Unless I'm mishearing (which is always possible with me), it sounds like you have to convey that request weekly to the hireling somehow.
Yes, you need to issue orders weekly or they don't get done. Narratively it makes sense to set up a standing order, but mechanically, bastions are specifically written so that you can only issue orders when you are present, or if you have a spell like Sending that allows immediate long-distance communication.
Obviously a DM could rule that differently if they wanted! But if the intention is to balance the power of these facilities and to incentivize returning to the bastion for downtime, that would probably defeat the purpose. I'd think of it much like we think about "D&D physics" - the rules aren't meant to perfectly simulate reality, they're meant to function as a game mechanic.
Okay now I want Ginny to do a Neverending Story video for real!
Think of the order not as just saying "make a blank book" to your Hireling, but as your Hireling doing most of the work to create the item, but having questions about the details that need your input, or there being some magical guardian that needs you to renew their authorisation (like those apps that require you to sign in again every so often...)
Or for trading from your storehouse, your Hireling is competent to negotiate, but it's your knowledge of the local markets that gives them the edge that lets you make a profit - so you're not just saying "do some trading"; you're dictating their trading strategy.
Without your input, the Hireling can continue routine operations, but the special effects require your personal touch...
ive been wanting something like this for sooo long. we used a homebrew one very shortly at one point but it was more of saving all your gold and dropping it on a building or keep or so at once. that you could just immediately choose your small options at that point.
This sounds fantastic
yes i want a lair for my characters and their pets
Well timed. You uploaded this just as one of my players announced her monk's intention to open up a dojo.
Some interesting ideas here. Bastions would have been really useful to have as a mechanic when I was starting my current game (which will be ending before the end of the after going from level 2 to 16). All the action was focussed around one city-state so rules for a home-base would have been a massive bonus.
Babe! Wake up! The new Ginny Di just dropped!
I'm excited for these rules to finally enter 5e canon, Matthew Colville's Strongholds and Followers rules are excellent and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the new Bastion mechanics were inspired by his book. More players deserve to have a cool central base of power if they desire it!
Im really early. But that's okay because BASTION
I'm so happy you went through Bass Djins. I love the Little Mermaid and Aladdin and this just brings it all together.
Charlie's Aasimar... XD Nice.
I've always enjoyed imagining it. A hidden wizard tower deep in mountain forest wilderness might be interesting.
I'd want a tavern near the docks at a city port though. The type of place adventurers go. Something in shipping might be nice, like passively producing oak barrels and a quality ale.
It would be fun to create a tavern and embellish it over time, even using it for plot development.
Come to think of it, owning a ship would be nice too.
Ugh, I work making videos for people who sell courses and talk about dropshipping, so all those passive income jokes got me good!
Way way back when in ad&d 2nd edition I remember there was a stronghold feature for fighters who reached certain level and or reputation. Never used it though, I was pretty young back then.
1:21 What the fu... oh it's The Sims. Cool cool cool. 😂
The information was helpful and easily explained but tbh my favorite part(s) were your commentary!!!
0:45 minor addendum(?): Bastions are a part of the wall of a castle that sticks out from it in order to protect it. It’s not a complete structure like a fortress or citadel.
That's one of the definitions of the word "bastion"! But it is also used to refer to an overall fortress or stronghold. That's the fun thing about language - words can have multiple meanings 😜
Love that i am finding this while prepping my players for what IS a Bastion, when i never knew Bastions were a pre-built feature! This has cut my DM work load in HALF thank you Ginny
Bastins seem like something that would really only work with homebrews. while i haven't read deep into them, i'm planing to run Curse of Styrad or Abyss, and I don't see how you can shoehorn bastins into a module.
Or really any published adventure. It feels like the rules really weren’t very well thought through.
I mean, if your players aren’t too set on speeding through the story, you could always have them take over some space in Vallaki. Heck, after defeating Baba Lysaga they could settle in the Ruins of Berez
@@GrndAdmiralThrawn i assume these are places in Stryd? Like i said before, i haven't read that deeply into the module, and i dunno if i'm actually doing Stryd, i could be doing 'into the abyss' or whatever its called, which takes place in the underdark.
Your Geocities reference blew my mind : it took me back. It was my first email address (around 1997) and web site. RIP Geocities, I loved you.
This is amazing!!
In my first long running campaign we used the homebrew Strongholds and Followers system to basically get bastions!
We started off sharing a castle that we'd taken over, and as we grew in level the fighter/paladin kept the castle, the rogue got a tavern with a hidden thieves' guild and my sorcerer/bard got a magic tower/library. It was really cool, but sadly we never got much use out of those later changes as the stakes were too high and we were traveling so much, but we could only really get use out of the strongholds if we had been there in person, and for my character that never even happened.
I'm really hopeful that this system will work better as it is SUCH a fun thing narratively!
The fun thing would be to come up with ways to make bastions that don't look like what people would expect, like not just some stone building looming alone on an estate grounds. Druid and ranger bastions might be worked right into the landscape. You could also start out having a little section of a bigger institution, then take on more of it or move up ranks to running the whole place.
I love that you don’t ask your viewers to hit the “Like” button or give us a directive to subscribe. This video was filled with useful information, delivered in a way that shows you care enough about your viewers to really spend time on it and make it fun to watch. I’m now going to go see if I can help Tom Riddle find his spectacles….
this is really cool! I have been running a game for a while in the spelljammer space and I have set it up for my players to start up a bastion on an asteroid given to them by an NPC. I have left it very open for them and sent them this video to hopefully get their wheels turning on what they want out of it. Since I don't have the official rules yet we are running it pretty lose but have told them to think of this as a lair so if they are here and attacked they get lair actions. I am hoping this opens some of them that have only been players up to the idea of DMing and seeing that it isn't so hard or different.
You can still find the UA Bastion rules on dndbeyond, if you want to see them before the DMG is released.
Ooh~ i'll be real I haven't played dnd AND really enjoyed it for a while, but I always like looking at new materials for story ideas or oneshot ideas to run with my friends. The idea of a home base that's so functional is really fun for me because if I were to run a game, my players would ideally have a main base to upgrade and return to anyways!
I don't leave enough comments, but thanks Ginny for all your work, you definitely keep my D&D Flame going with lots of good ideas and inspiration. Thank you so much for all you do!
@2:58 There was also a pretty similar-spunding mechanical function during the Adventurer's League season for Eberron with the Salvage mechanic
Genuinely impressed by how understandable the motor mouth section was, that's a skill right there.
As someone who LOVES to draw strongholds, I am so eager to see and try out this system!! 3rd edition had the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook, but it's very cool to see an update for the here and now!
I can't believe it, I was thinking about adding something like this to my first ever campaign but had no idea they are included in the DMG. This is wonderful! Thank you so much for the video 🙏
thanks for the overview! i hope it gets some support in adventures and future books. i could see them easily expanding this in the next xanathar type book. itd be great to see an adventure with built in spots for downtime.
This video was great! It really help me to understand bastions and their uses! I would love to see your breakdown of the adventures chapter!
Since I’m running a sci-fi sourcebook, I gave a party a hyper advanced/experimental ship capable of literally upgrading itself by eating other ships. The fun part is that, since it’s sci-fi fantasy, I can pull nonsense like the ship suddenly having normal sized room that some how is big enough on the inside to have a gym, an Olympic sized swimming pool, and a faux hot spring and somehow how have it feel slightly reasonable.
Hearing about bastions gives me the same thrill I got over the "territory development by player character" section for strongholds in the 1st edition DMG that I enjoyed as a 12-year old, except without the essay on wargaming theorycrafting and mind-numbing tables detailing construction and siege values. So, y'know, more fun and accessible.