I Accidentally Built a Real Estate System for My D&D Campaign

The 2014 Fifth Edition Dungeon and Dragons DMG (Dungeon Master’s Guide) lists a house at 5,000 gold. It doesn’t specify how players attain one, and it’s easy to hand-wave what we don’t understand. Unfortunately for my players, I’m experienced in real estate.

Buying Property is Complicated and Risky

I imagine some referees might handle acquiring property like this: "You find an abandoned tower. It costs 5,000 gold to restore it. Okay cool, you own it now."

And that works. But talk about missed opportunities…

The Sandbox

I aim to engage my players by bringing my world to life. Focusing on the “small stuff” makes the world feel real. We forgo the messiness of real life when we hand-wave things.

Philosophically speaking, being literally a game, TTRPG’s must hand-wave many things; for if we were to focus on every trivial detail, we’d be simulating real life, and that’d be impossible. For example, consider “hit points” and “damage” in combat. Or healing. Or how players (and movie characters) never mention going to the toilet. We can’t simulate real life, and we don’t want to either.

Abstracting away complexity and hand-waving tedious trivialities is a feature of games and TTRPG’s, not a flaw. We game masters think to hand-wave what we deem irrelevant or a net-negative to having fun at the gaming table. And, many game masters, knowing nothing about the many ways a real estate transaction (let alone simply owning a property) can go wrong, simply hand-wave finding, buying, refurbishing, improving and maintaining a property.

But that’s now how things work in real life. I would prefer to have hand-waved the countless hours I spent looking at and evaluating properties, going back and forth with real estate agents, dealing with bankers and loan officers, and negotiating over broken sewer pipes, faulty wiring, haphazard structures partially destroyed from foundational water damage, and other problems galore.

The sandbox style of play uses the tedium of real life to build a sense of verisimilitude.

Ways Real Estate Can Go Wrong

The hand-waved real estate acquisition goes like before: “The DMG lists a house at 5,000 gold. Ok, I’ve marked 5,000 gold off your sheet; here’s your house.”

Here’s what’s being skipped:

1. Are there even properties for sale? Or that can be “acquired” via some quest? Real estate brokers and agents come into play here.

2. For a given property, who’s selling it? The seller can be a quest hook, and at least a roleplaying opportunity.

3. For a given property, is there anything wrong with it? Will the players haggle or negotiate the price? Will the seller try to hide critical property issues from the players? Maybe the house is cursed, or in a flood zone, or has a termite infestation, or gets unbearably hot in the summer, or is in a bad part of town, or has plumbing issues (if plumbing is a thing)?

   1. And what about the property’s title? Title insurance exists for a reason. Maybe the seller owes back-taxes and didn’t disclose it to the players. That could be a lot of gold. Or maybe the seller made a bet in another town and lost, and put the house up as collateral. What will the players do when loan shark thugs come to sell the house and have a valid claim to the title? Or maybe the seller is a squatter and doesn’t even have the house’s title, or lies about it or forges the title, and the real owner returns after the players have paid the scammer. That’s a whole lot of conflict characters can’t hack and slash their way out of.

4. Once the players buy a property, does it need to be fixed up? Do the players want to improve it? Finding laborers or craftsman for the task can be a roleplaying opportunity where new NPCs can be introduced. Maybe the players want to build something that nobody in town can satisfactorily build. Or maybe the players hire someone who claims to be an expert stone smith, but they’re actually an amateur and produce shoddy work. How are the players going to handle that? That’s non-combat conflict.

5. Security? How safe is the property? Will anyone be hired to maintain it? Does it have a lawn or other greenery? If so, who’s mowing it and trimming it? Or will the house become overgrown and result in the city or town levying a fine?

I’m glossing over the surface here. There are so many things that can go wrong. Each and every mishap can be a quest full of roleplaying. Using real estate as a way to bring the world to life is great because there are so many ways things can go wrong. Most people never buy a house, and so as a game master, I can bring my real life experience into the game in a way the players won’t expect.