| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| blade020877 |
Posted - 09 Apr 2016 : 19:37:22
This could be a difficult question to answer…. But give it a try .
You need a background to game and pc.
Then game is based in cormyr, which is at war with undead army, sembia, pirate armada and large tribes.
I am part to a skirmish company hitting important location for the enemy.
I am a high ranking officer green dragon (Ranger) in the comryian army, I started of as a neutral character and over the time I have changed to evil because of the murder of my wife and unborn child and some other stuff that has me look for vengeance at any cost. But I would not endanger cormyr or the crown.
So my question:
My own goals are to become the richest person in cormyr as with money comes power.
A time of war what is the best way to make money or powerful ( in medieval times) Legal or illegal.
I have started with buying gambling house and brothels, there are two things I am looking for information and money.
I am doing all this under an alias so no one knows who it really is. I have leadership so all my followers I have working in my businesses so I know most of my workers are loyal.
I want to use my businesses as a spy network and money machine.
Thanks for any input |
| 9 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Korginard |
Posted - 11 Apr 2016 : 18:33:27
Proclaiming yourself "The Wealthiest Person in Cormyr" is a fast track to the grave. The Nobility of Cormyr is a nest of intrigue, political grasping, and murder. Many Noble Families would pounce on anyone who made such an audacious claim. The REAL threat would be from those smart enough not to make such claims. To actually seek to wield power in Cormyr is an ever more dangerous path. You'll be trying to wrest power from immortal schemers who have been in the game for centuries if not more. Liches, Dragons, and worse all work behind the scenes, and any attempt to grasp power will intrude upon their own planning and scheming.
You will have to learn to be subtle, and to take action without revealing your involvement. You'll have to become a master of intrigue, secrets, and stone cold ruthlessness.
Beyond the "hidden" threats, you'll also face more blatant intrigues and attacks from the established nobility. The "Old Money" of Cormyr will not simply allow some "Bumbkin" to raise himself up to their level. Another reason to keep yourself hidden and off the grid. The more wealth and prestige you garner in the public eye, the more enemies you will make.
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| Hoondatha |
Posted - 11 Apr 2016 : 06:44:11
I'm honestly not really sure how land ownership works in Cormyr. Perhaps one of the Cormyr lore-lords can shed some light.
In feudal Europe, all land was technically held by the monarch, who then parceled it out to vassals. In theory, it was supposed to come back to the monarch if the vassal died without heirs, or under other conditions. In practice, it got complicated very quickly.
So land speculation in Cormyr would work differently if unoccupied land reverted to the Crown than it would if the Crown only held specific lands and others were permanently in the public sphere.
Either way, there would have to be some sort of Crown office that tracked ownership and where copies of deeds would be filed. It would be needed just to keep the "I own this building!" "No, I do!" squabbles down. Such an office would be a prime candidate for your leverage/blackmail scheme.
But for specifics, you'll need to ask someone else. And your DM, of course. |
| Kentinal |
Posted - 10 Apr 2016 : 15:55:58
quote:
Originally posted by blade020877
quick question on this part
quote:
Second area: land speculation. War drastically changes the value of land. Fertile and expensive farmland that gets rolled over by an army can became almost worthless and/or uninhabited. Buy it for a song. Find land that's cheap but will shortly be desperately needed (for instance, somewhere that you can build iron or coal mines) and buy it, then either develop it or sell it for lots of gold.
if the owners of land are dead, who owners it then?? just plant and flag and say its mine???
Well the land belongs to the heirs if some is dead. Of course a nice evil character like yours might by the property, then kill the sellers and take the price paid back.
Of course of enemy lands of the dead, that certainly can be claimed as booty, though often because in service that claim most often is for government you serve. |
| blade020877 |
Posted - 10 Apr 2016 : 15:47:43
quick question on this part
quote:
Second area: land speculation. War drastically changes the value of land. Fertile and expensive farmland that gets rolled over by an army can became almost worthless and/or uninhabited. Buy it for a song. Find land that's cheap but will shortly be desperately needed (for instance, somewhere that you can build iron or coal mines) and buy it, then either develop it or sell it for lots of gold.
if the owners of land are dead, who owners it then?? just plant and flag and say its mine??? |
| blade020877 |
Posted - 10 Apr 2016 : 14:53:38
cheers for that, so very helpful ideas.
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| moonbeast |
Posted - 10 Apr 2016 : 02:04:14
quote:
Originally posted by blade020877
A time of war what is the best way to make money or powerful ( in medieval times) Legal or illegal.
In medieval times (and also modern times), the Mercenary business is often profitable. Because your character is not a soldier (not a Warrior/Fighter officer) he does not really need to be a commander of a mercenary company. He just needs to be the businessman who operates it. You can start by hiring a few experienced fighters/warriors to be the leaders, and then recruit fighters from there. Since your character is evil alignment, this gives you GREAT flexibility, since you can take advantage of every side in the conflict. You can offer your mercenary battalions to the Good Guys, but you can also hire them out to the Bad Guys. |
| Kentinal |
Posted - 09 Apr 2016 : 22:55:10
"gambling house and brothels"
I have done some work on these. As to how legal of course becomes an issue.
If you run an honest gambling house the House odds are a profit in the range of 8 to 12 percent of bets. It clearly depends in part the games being run. So in part it depends on how many will gamble and how much money they have. The odds for profit increase of course if the games become unfair. There is is the cost of protection if gambling is illegal. There are many variables, if you can get nobles to gamble in your houses, the size of the bets will be larger and they with offer some protection for the operation to protect themselves at no (or lower cost to you).
The running of brothels of course is a little different and many ways to go with that. I did devise a minimum price and legal protection for the workers and taxed the legal operation of official operations. I even included health care provisions and laws that made client responsible for excesses. I could offer the basic idea if the business is legal.
The illegal operation clearly is harder to define, however clearly you need workers and some type of fee arrangement of splitting profits (unless the workers are slaves, thus not paid). You will have costs of maintaining the workers, also protecting them. You also would of course want the competition to go away. As to how much money can be earned, like gambling it depends on how much money is available and how many wish to participate.
One thing as an officer you might allow a house to become camp followers of troops under character control as non combatants, and when you troops are not fighting might be adding to your other business.
As in many things it depends on many factors, the year, the population and the competition all are some of the factors. There also might be thieves guild that might not like a new player, or not like an existing player becoming too large.
It clearly appears the Realms does have a market for both endeavors so indeed money can be earned from them. The current times however clearly can effect how much income can be earned as profit from them. |
| Wooly Rupert |
Posted - 09 Apr 2016 : 22:17:06
War can also drive up prices of a lot of things not directly related to warfare, like food and certain precious commodities. |
| Hoondatha |
Posted - 09 Apr 2016 : 20:27:14
You're off to a good start. Wars are fabulous places to get rich, if you're positioned right (having no scruples also helps).
There are a couple of areas you could look into expanding. Probably the easiest, especially if your PC is still something of a Cormyr loyalist, is to get into the arms business. Cormyr in full-scale war is going to need a mammoth amount of war supplies, and the supplies to create the war supplies.
You would want to gain control of the smiths who are churning out weapons, the mines that are supplying coal and iron, and wherever possible the trade routes bringing them in. If you can open your own trade route that can bypass whatever interdiction Sembia is setting up (ie: through the local Underdark, connecting with dwarven holds that supply you weapons, etc.), so much the better. Then use the information and blackmail you're gathering to ensure lucrative Crown contracts.
Incidentally, this is exactly the way the Zhentarim became such a major player.
Second area: land speculation. War drastically changes the value of land. Fertile and expensive farmland that gets rolled over by an army can became almost worthless and/or uninhabited. Buy it for a song. Find land that's cheap but will shortly be desperately needed (for instance, somewhere that you can build iron or coal mines) and buy it, then either develop it or sell it for lots of gold.
Third area: black market. In a major war there's going to be a large black market, since there will be shortages of basically everything. Supply luxuries to the nobles, food to the commoners, and if you're really adventurous, set up a reciprocal arrangement with black marketeers in Sembia. There will always be things that one nation makes that another wants. All war does is make the cost much higher.
And that's not even touching the "legitimate" military routes to fortune, like attacking and looting enemy supply dumps. With the right magic, and perhaps a somewhat larger strike team, you could steal and entire supply dump and then turn around and sell it to the Crown. That only works if you're not in the army, though, or can hide it from the army. Otherwise they'd just give you a bounty, which is usually about 10% of the total value.
Anyway, there are a couple of ideas. Hope they help. |
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