"Bob Hall" or A New Way to Think About Specific Institutions

 Much that is strange has been discovered and subsequently taken and held by various barbarians in the sea-caves known as the Ocean's Throat, north and east of Cothon. Ideas-man and renyu-friend Durham of the Ringing Anvil has taken the former pirate-hideout now called Fort Doghouse, as well as allying with the "native" renyu tribe of the Wasgo; and Citizen Sesel and his association, the Survivors of the Tel, claim to have seized some kind of further holding behind the legendary Green Doors within said sea-caves.

Well, the Survivors have begun to call their section behind the Green Doors "Bob Hall", and one Bartholomew Pettibone has been granted some kind of "stewardship" over whatever "hall" this may be.

Now, having long used Ben L.'s wonderful rules for building an institution for this game, it struck this referee that one could perhaps write something "custom" more akin to the special "relationship clocks" Ben has developed for cultivating relationships when thinking instead about institutions.

So:

Let us agree and establish that "Bob Hall" is currently "inconsequential" as an institution (rank 1); few dinars (gp) have been spent to upgrade the area heretofore, and no specific rolls have been made. It is merely the case that the adventuring-barbarians have ransacked the area and claimed it for themselves, with some scant resources allocated to ensure its security with a small garrison.

Granted! But now Bartholomew Pettibone has been set up as "steward" of the place, at least for the moment, and offers to pay up to 4000 dinars to develop the area in the caves into something more amenable to human occupation (rather than the strange green-skins that dwelt within it before!).

Rather than just have some generic "clock" to invest into, for this in-dungeon holding I'd rather have a little more buy-in, between me as the referee, and the players making the investment. So as referee, I'm going to suggest three possible uses for an investment, but also leave the end result up to the investor if they (Bart) have a different/better-explained development:

1. Spend 2500 dinars to line the walls with lead and other heavy metals, hoping to make "Bob Hall" better defensible against psionic attacks
2. Spend 2500 dinars to expand the bunkrooms and armory, and to hire fighting men to better defend against "conventional" attacks, esp. those coming from Sakkra that dwell in the self-same sea-caves
3. Spend 2500 dinars to make "Bob Hall" more comfortable for the adventurers dwelling there, and to allow for groups to strike out easily from Bob Hall, rather than "wasting" time in Cothon

Bart has suggested spending 4000 dinars altogether on the Hall; the referee proposes that Bart spend 2500 dinars for one of these improvements, and for each additional 500 dinars that he spends, up to 4000 altogether, he will receive a cumulative +1 on his roll of 2d6 (+3 altogether if 4000 is spend). Bart need only spend 2500 gp of the proposed 4000 to be eligible to roll the dice.

Having spent the 2500 dinar investment, Bart will roll 2d6 (+1 for every 500 gp thereafter up to 4000 gp total):

• 2-6 the investment fails to "grow" the institution
• 7-9 the institution grows (to rank 2 -- minor), but its growth incurs a complication (see Ben's complications at the moment, until I write my own)
• 10+ the institution grows without complication

It will be noted that this is more expensive than growing just any old institution. Indeed, I feel like an institution build inside the dungeon probably should cost something more. BUT, it is not strictly the case that these developments are all mutually exclusive; maybe Bart will be interested in both developing "psionic" and "conventional" defenses ... Perhaps he'll invest in one this month, and another the next? But once some investment is successful, the Referee will offer further suggestions for development, based on what's been done.

... This is only the beginning of a new way to look at developing certain institutions. I hope that it can be a way to differentiate/personalize developing institutions--and remember that like all Referee suggestions, these are all just such, only suggestions!--for those who want to get into some nitty-gritty details. None of this is to supersede the "normal" rules, only to add the possibility of more nuance.