Domain Play
This section is coming in a future update.
What Is Domain Play?
At higher levels, adventurers stop being wandering treasure-hunters and start becoming powers in their own right. They build strongholds, hire retinues, and manage domains.
Domain Play provides rules for:
- Strongholds — building keeps, towers, temples, and hideouts
- Retinues — hiring specialists, soldiers, and servants beyond simple retainers
- Domain Management — income, expenses, and the responsibilities of rulership
- Warfare — when diplomacy fails and armies march
Why It Matters
Gold is the primary source of XP in OSwR. At low levels, training costs, spell research, carousing, and tithes absorb excess wealth. At higher levels, these sinks aren’t enough.
Domain Play is the gold sink for high-level play. Building a keep costs thousands. Maintaining troops costs hundreds per month. Running a domain means ongoing expenses that give purpose to continued treasure-hunting.
Without somewhere for gold to go, the economy breaks. Domain Play completes the loop.
For Alpha Playtesters
These rules aren’t included in the alpha release. If your campaign reaches the point where characters have more gold than they can spend, consider:
- Carousing heavily — spend it on XP directly (with mishap risk)
- Commissioning expensive items — magic gear, ships, rare materials
- Investing in the community — temples, guilds, infrastructure
- Banking it — 10% withdrawal fee means it’s not immediately liquid
We’re working on full Domain Play rules for a future release. If your group has feedback on what you’d want from this system, let us know on Discord.
Placeholder — Full rules in development