Standard fantasy home base: The local inn of a mundane human community.

Nothing wrong with that set up, but can you guys come up with something more unusual?

Example: The players are recently risen undead creatures who wake up in a sealed pyramid. They open the door of their tomb to discover that their original civilization has gone to dust and they are surrounded by a completely new culture. They adventure in this new world, but retreat to their tomb for necromantic repairs and the assistance of other, less mobile undead allies.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;710142Standard fantasy home base: The local inn of a mundane human community.

Nothing wrong with that set up, but can you guys come up with something more unusual?

Haven't used the "Inn" thing for decades.   It varies by party depending on unique circumstances.

In my OD&D campaign the players have recently taken over a small cave complex that was being used by cultists. It is a few miles from town and they intend to fortify the entrance, and hire some mercs to serve as guards so they have a private place to stash loot and rest.

Of course not all cult members were discovered or accounted for so they may get some interesting visitations in the future......

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;710142Example: The players are recently risen undead creatures who wake up in a sealed pyramid. They open the door of their tomb to discover that their original civilization has gone to dust and they are surrounded by a completely new culture. They adventure in this new world, but retreat to their tomb for necromantic repairs and the assistance of other, less mobile undead allies.

That actually sounds awesome.

A ship, whether oceangoing or flying, makes for a great home base. The Voyages of the Princess Ark series in Dragon magazine were a good example of a group of adventurers flying around and exploring new territories, but even a more traditional ship is ideal as a place to store wealth, treasures, supplies, captured enemies, anything that will fit really.

My ideal character would be an inscrutable mage-scholar-captain with a giant star sapphire crystal ball set in his cabin table, as his flying ship goes from place to place.

Then there's the old "hidden in plain view" home base, like say if the group come to an accommodation with a caretaker and set themselves up in a cathedral steeple or something, that might be fun. Plus the locals would take note of their piety, in and out of the church at all hours. Also it would make a great lair for the local thieves' guild.

Well last time I was a player I decided that since we were a fairly mobile troupe that I wanted a caravan wagon home as a mobile base and once I had enough gold for it. I discussed it with the GM and showed examples of real horse drawn caravan homes and ideas for how one could work for a small mobile home/base.

Buying the special locks and other securities ended up being more costly than the wagon! And the horses!

The other players characters pitched in for provisions and repairs as needed. All in all I think that was one of my favorite bases so far.

Though personally I do enjoy start towns that the PCs can range out from. Especially if they are populated with memorable NPCs the PCs might have a stake in protecting or interacting with.

Quote from: The Traveller;710147That actually sounds awesome.

A ship, whether oceangoing or flying, makes for a great home base. The Voyages of the Princess Ark series in Dragon magazine were a good example of a group of adventurers flying around and exploring new territories, but even a more traditional ship is ideal as a place to store wealth, treasures, supplies, captured enemies, anything that will fit really.

My ideal character would be an inscrutable mage-scholar-captain with a giant star sapphire crystal ball set in his cabin table, as his flying ship goes from place to place.

Ditto. For one AD&D campaign, I took a suggestion from Ray Winniger's Dungeoncraft articles in Dragon, and made the home base mobile: a large, magical (and likely sentient) airship a la Spelljammer.  The campaign world itself was "blown up" in the sense that all that was left was a bunch of continents and islands, barely held together in a spherical shape, floating in the ether.

Because fantasy

Quote from: The Traveller;710153Then there's the old "hidden in plain view" home base, like say if the group come to an accommodation with a caretaker and set themselves up in a cathedral steeple or something, that might be fun.

Right.  One time the PCs purchased a small home in a town.  They then proceeded to dig out a whole underground strong hold.  More secure than a castle.

The heroes operate from a village in a magic bottle hidden inside a giant's castle. No one knows they are there for now - it just looks like a miniature replica from the outside. They can spy through the glass and stage raids from this sanctuary. They have to be careful never to be seen magically flowing into the bottle however.

Surprised nobody's mentioned things like the magics that can summon extradimensional space.  An experienced adventuring party might take around the equivalent of their own Inn or Keep.  Things like the Instant Fortress, Rod of Security or Splendor, etc, spells like Secure Shelter or Magnificent Mansion, etc.

Quote from: JRT;710200Surprised nobody's mentioned things like the magics that can summon extradimensional space.  An experienced adventuring party might take around the equivalent of their own Inn or Keep.  Things like the Instant Fortress, Rod of Security or Splendor, etc, spells like Secure Shelter or Magnificent Mansion, etc.

Yep.  My players once had the entrace to a Magnificent Mansion (made perm) high up a cliff face.

The heroes operate from an "orbital" castle that has somehow come into their possession. It can go anywhere over the planet and has the ability to teleport them to any point directly below it and then back up again on command (with a risky delay of course). This is the most powerful asset at their disposal - they are otherwise regular low level adventurers.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;710216The heroes operate from an "orbital" castle that has somehow come into their possession. It can go anywhere over the planet and has the ability to teleport them to any point directly below it and then back up again on command (with a risky delay of course). This is the most powerful asset at their disposal - they are otherwise regular low level adventurers.

Meh.  WAY too Monty Haul for my tastes.

This Magic: The Gathering Card has the seed of a good idea in it:

http://gatherer.wizards.com/pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=143682

Obviously the giant would need to be even more enormous... hmm, kind of reminds me of that episode of Futurama where bender's body becomes the landmass that a new miniscule species builds its civilization on.

Quote from: JRT;710200Surprised nobody's mentioned things like the magics that can summon extradimensional space.  An experienced adventuring party might take around the equivalent of their own Inn or Keep.  Things like the Instant Fortress, Rod of Security or Splendor, etc, spells like Secure Shelter or Magnificent Mansion, etc.

I thought about it. But getting that sort of dimensional access can be hard to come by early on or even mid game.

That and Manual of the Planes taught me that nothing in another pocket dimension was ever safe. SOMETHING was out there...