Hi Jeremy.

> So!, getting to my point, since Alaroine has no real cities, he'd like
>to build his own city from scratch. Can anyone help suggest guildlines for
>cost and how much time (a few years, I imagine) it will take?

Unless he really wants to build every house in the city, I suppose all he
has to do is the fortifications. Once the walls are up and the avenues
paved, people will naturally build according to his plan. So the cost is
the cost of the fortifications.

Now, if your player has A LOT of gold, you can take his city plan, the 1st
edition DMG or the Castle Guide and calculate the cost of each building in
the city. That would probably make the price go up to the 100,000s gp.
Fifty Gold Bars, minimum!

> Finally, a question about the ruling up the level of the province. How
>exactly does it work? (In a real life analogy, not game terms) If you
>increase the population of that province, the addional people must come
>from somewhere? (If you just encourage people to have more kids, you won't
>notice that for years and years).

... especially true with an elven or dwarven population. I figure the level
of the province is NOT the population level, but the development level. By
ruling a province up, you build irrigation systems, inter-muiciapal roads,
a library network, mills, etc. Then the people arrive, attracted by the
jobs offered and the better lands. They may come from the surrounding
provinces, but also from farther away. Some years later, the population
finally reaches the population level indicated by the Rulebook for a
province this size.

That brings us back to your player who wants to create a city from nothing.
Perhaps the cost of the successive Rule actions he'll have to make
represent the construction of buildings at his own expense.


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