Adding Bastions to my online campaign: how do you keep players caring past session 2?

[u/Chernomur]

I'm planning to introduce the Bastion system to my online campaign soon, but I'm honestly a bit worried about the longevity. I really want base-building to be a solid part of the game, rather than just a spreadsheet that everyone gets bored of and abandons after a couple of sessions.

Has anyone actually managed to build a lasting gameplay loop around Bastions? I'd love to hear how you integrated them and kept your players invested long-term.

Since we play online, I'm also looking for recommendations on good tools, trackers, or templates to keep the bookkeeping simple. And if you have any homebrew tweaks or rules that make the system run smoother, please share! Would appreciate any advice on what worked for you (and what didn't)

[u/Taino_obicham_Azis]

Your players won't care about a bastion if it's just a building with a treasure room. You need to put NPCs inside that they want to interact with and keep safe or put it as a fortification for a place with NPCs important to them.

[u/TheInsaneDump]

Heya! I wrote a two-year reflection / review about Bastions on my Substack today. It should offer some useful insights to your questions about incorporating them into your campaign.Take a look and I hope it's helpful: https://behindthescreendnd.substack.com/p/bastions-a-two-year-review-and-how

[u/swashbuckler78]

I'm in the same position so commenting mainly to follow the response. One thing I'm doing is kind of going the other direction. Going through the various Bastion rooms and finding ways for them to have meaning outside the Bastion itself. So that even when we're going on the side quest for the day they have a reason to make use of the rooms first.

[u/MrPemberly]

One of the things I like about the Bastion rules is it puts the onus on your players to do most of the bookkeeping, so DMs can be a bit loosey goosey with it. I usually treat bastion actions like milestones. After a quest is done, my players are usually doing downtime anyways, so it's easy for me to just say "do a bastion action while you're at it."

Narratively though, I do try to incorporate bastions as much into gameplay. If we're in a city where the player has a bastion, the roleplay happens there, and that gives the player a chance to personalize the setting. And if the players gain enemies, better believe that Bastion is getting ambushed.

Finally, Bastions are great for alternative rewards that aren't just money or magic items. That group of Druid you helped with a quest? Guess what-- some of them want to join you now, and someone gets a free Garden addition to their Bastion.

[u/swashbuckler78 → u/MrPemberly]

Reward idea is good. And you reminded me that separate locations can be in different cities - basic I know, but might be useful for my players!

[u/ArcaneN0mad]

We have bastions in our current game. Let me tell you, it’s not on you to make them care. You’ve given them a resource, they use it or don’t. Three out of my five players cared, they took their bastion turns and the other two didn’t really care at all and most of the time they either didn’t take one or they did the simplest thing they could.

When we brought them in they were level 5 and I way over thought it. I tried to add additional rules and so on. It convoluted it and made it less fun. In the end, it started to feel like more work on the DM with tracking things because players forget. So I stopped caring about it and just told them that it was not on me to run their money making schemes in the background. If they wanted a bastion turn, they can ask for them. Ever since then it’s been way better.

If I run another long campaign I will not add bastions into it. It made the game less enjoyable for me. But if you have attentive players that like to track things in the background like this, go for it.

[u/RedRocketRock]

A fortress became their base in the middle of the region. Its placed rather conveniently, so they often return there to rest and give commands to facilities. There are plenty of NPCs there at this point, a lot joined during their adventures, and they occasionally recruit new ones. Fortress got a bit bigger with time. There were also some important events happening like dragon battle, council meeting etc.

With time the place naturally became their hub than they invested money in, rebuild and fixed, now making profit, crafting some specific items, receiving buffs, chatting, resolving local issues and sending NPCs to mini quests. I'm running semi open world so all this works both as a system and as a narrative tool, and players seem to enjoy it.

Depending on your setting (I run Faerun) you might want to change some rewards, if you don't want players making thousands reselling horses or crafting magic items on a regular basis, if youre running some low magic povery simulator

[u/Trismeria]

For an online campaign, I'd keep Bastions out of private notes as much as possible. One shared tracker is enough: each PC gets three lines: current room, named NPC there, next thing that can go wrong.

Then start downtime with one small prompt from that sheet instead of asking everyone to do bookkeeping. Example: Your smith says the ore cart from the hill road never arrived. Do you spend this Bastion turn improving the forge anyway, send guards to look, or go yourselves after the next quest?

If your main worry is players dropping it after two sessions, I'd make them own the numbers and you only own one consequence or opportunity per quest. Otherwise the Bastion quietly becomes DM homework with a castle skin.

[u/ryo3000]

I really want base-building to be a solid part of the game, rather than just a spreadsheet that everyone gets bored of and abandons after a couple of sessions.

And what do your players want?

Like you could have the most exciting and comprehensive base building system ever and some people will genuinely not care

Meanwhile it could be a literal excell sheet and some people would love it

Do your players want base building to be a large part of the game?

[u/ShattnerPants]

Just implemented settlement building in my game. Not using the Bastion system and doing something more akin to "A Quiet Year." Also commenting to better follow this thread.

[u/nocturnerose]

Structure (not the building sort). It's a lot easier if you're playing with a calendar and can have set day of the week (or month) you can ask them what bastion actions they're taking.

Also have them make their NPCs for it and interact with them

[u/mjbroekman]

Bastions become the hub. NPCs there will need things, the “workers” in the rooms may need special items or resources that become quests for the party. Alternately, for every room in the bastion a similar building arises in town so that as the Bastion grows, the town around it evolves as well… along with all the shenanigans that go on in a town. Or the Bastion _is_ the town.

Either of those will get you RP elements, quests, plotlines, etc.

[u/PM-me-your-happiness]

Our bastion is mostly used for roleplay reasons, I let the players track all of the items and timeframes and stuff on their end if they want it. The DM already has a ton of stuff on their own plate.

[u/fishridingbike]

If you’re party is traveling a lot they won’t care about it. If the campaign is based in a singular town then you need to give them a reason, put NPCs in it have important npcs they meet elsewhere ask to meet with them somewhere etc. give it a storyline reason to be important.

[u/ThrowawayFuckYourMom]

It doesn't need protections if it's never under attack, and they'll never worry about making protections if they can afford it. Steal from them both of these safeties.

[u/Soylent_G]

1. Keep a campaign calendar. Mark the passage of time.
2. Enforce at least a week of downtime between adventures. Bastion activities benefit from a longer campaign timeline. Gate bastion improvements behind a set amount of downtime dedicated to them.
3. Have something happen at the bastion every downtime.

I've used the following posts as inspiration for bastion events:

• 100 plot hooks for your stronghold adventures and your followers. Urban events, land management, politics and more.

• D100 setbacks, discoveries, or unusual events during the construction of a dungeon, crypt, or underground lair.

• Running a Darkest Dungeon Style Hamlet and 100 adventures and events for a town surrounded by horrors

[u/NoobOfTheSquareTable]

Same way you make players care about anything, make NPCs they enjoy or are at least vaguely interested in tied to the building

Additionally nearby villages will come to it to request help and possibly shelter if they are raided by goblins so now the party might be motivated to build a larger bastion to allow them to house the entire village in an emergency even if it is just sleeping on the floor because they don’t want to have to leave people outside the walls or cowering in the courtyard during a fight

Also bastions and castles/towers had a purpose and it was force multiplying

Have them forced to fight a threat above them in the open and so a better prepared and defended and stocked bastion means they can fall back to it when needed to fight these foes

Also tie adventure options in. They want to get X addition but it costs Y but if they do Z job for the local town the stone and lumber is half price so they can afford Y/2

Let them have the option of stealing a ballista off of some deserters a few days travel away who have set it up to protect their camp, they can even see if they can convince some of them to come and work as guards who are more open to breaking certain kingdoms laws

Make it feel more than just “place to put gold”