Medieval levies and revenues for fantasy RPGs

For a long time I use a sheet to work up revenues and troop strength whenever I needed to know that information. I developed it in the early nineties starting with various Harn materials including Battlelust, Harnmanor, and Shorkyne.

To use the worksheet you need to supply the number of manor/estates for each major settlement.  The number of urban households, and the sheet calculates the rest. You can also enter the land quality if you like. 1.0 represents average fertile soil. Lower numbers represent poor soils. Higher numbers better soils. Insert a row in the settlement portion of the sheet to add more settlements.

My general philosophy is to try to use real world units and concepts as much as possible. But use the law of averages to make something that is usable especially for something large as a entire realms.

The current limitation of the worksheet is that it is oriented towards feudal societies and would look very different in a imperial society, viking, etc. Especially in the military section. I still haven't settled in my mind how to deal with those types of societies yet.

Feudal Domains Worksheet

Money Assumptions   
All revenue is given in silver pennies   
One silver penny is equal to one D&D silver piece   
One silver penny is equal $4 of GURPS money   
One gold crown is equal to 320 silver penny    
d is the symbol for 1 silver penny   
   
Population Assumptions   
Each Manor averages 1,500 acres   
City Household are always entered by referee   
Towns average 500 urban households   
Castles average 100 urban households   
Keeps average 50 urban households   
One Rural Household per 50 acres   
   
Revenue Assumptions   
Each Urban Household averages 100d of revenue   
Each Rural Household generate 1/4d of revenue   
Each Rural Manor generates 1d per acre of revenue
Note this is the monies paid to the liege and represents net income NOT gross income.   
Different cultures will divide the net income in different ways.  The worksheet provides the base numbers to work with.   
   
   
Military Assumptions   
One yeoman per 900 acres of land   
12% of urban household has yeoman training   
A further 1 in 6 urban households has militia training   

Every manor provides a knight fee   
60% of Knight fee will be given in person   
40% of Knight fee will be given in scutage (money)   

Levies serve three months   
A Knight Fee is worth one of the following   
2400d   
1 Knight   
5 Yeoman    10% of knight's fee will send 5 yeoman instead of a knight
   
Knight's Affinty   
A Knight Affinty is his retinue of men   
50% of knights will have a heavy horse   
the rest will have a medium horse   
1/3 of knight bring a squire   
25% of Squires of a knight with a heavy horse will have a heavy horse   
the rest will have a medium horse   
10% of the knights will bring an average of 1.5 yeoman (1 to 2)   
   
Yeoman Breakdown
Medium Foot    20%
Light Foot    45%
Unarmored LongBow    5%
Light LongBow    10%
Unarmoured ShortBow    10%
Light ShortBow    10%
   
The general yeomanry is raised separately from the call up of knights.   
   
The costs are support costs   
The levy may be supplemented with paid troops   
The levy may be supplemented with the militia however this threatens the harvest   
Mercenaries use the Yeoman Chart   
Support costs are broken out to show the minimum needed to keep an army in the field.   

D&D Next, Monte Cook, and all that

I been outed several times by several individuals as being part of the D&D Next Playtest so it is a bit of an open secret. I can't comment about the mechanics of the rules. It is hard to find anything concrete to say because of the NDA. Hence the lack of blog posts.

But now the pot stirred up again with the resignation of Monte Cook and the Mike Mearls announcement that the D&D Next public playtest will commence on May 24th. 

Of the two the latter I think is more important as finally people will be have something concrete to talk about.  While I appreciate the passion that went into the various Wizards columns, they are so vague that people are reading whatever they want to see in them. With the a public playtest the conversations can be based on something concrete.

As for Monte Cook resigning I wish him the best of luck. I don't have any insider information to share.

So while I can't comment about the mechanics, I do have some observations to share about my experience with the playtest.

1) The initial playtest was a complete game. It definitely not the complete D&D Next rules. It covered basically what the older edition basic set covered. 

2) They have elements from nearly edition but D&D Next its own thing.
3) There is one new element that I really like and I think that will be the element that defines D&D Next.
4) The playtesters have only seen the core of the game so far.
5) I had no problem running the D&D Next playtest the same way I run my Swords & Wizardry/ Majestic Wilderlands campaigns.
6) Everybody will find something to complain about in the rules. It won't be what they are complaining about now.


And the most important observation, it was a lot of fun to play!


So hopefully the open playtest will allow us to speak more freely. At which point I should have some things to share.

The Return of the d20 Hairsticks

Kelly Anne, my wife, makes beautiful hairsticks and sells them on etsy, a site that specializes in hand crafted items. In addition she has a line of gaming hairsticks that incorporate d20s and other dice.  In the past the d20 hairsticks have been one of her popular items.

Hairstick D20 Teal Lime Twist In Swarovski Crystal 
 

The D20 Teal Lime Twist Hairstick features an opaque saturated teal and acid lime marbled twenty-sided die with alabaster numbering on each facet, this polyhedron joined by a sparkling opalescent aquamarine Swarovski crystal bicone, Czech firepolished faceted lime green rondelle and silver plated shining cone cap above the hand-turned birch wood stick shimmering with rich teal metallic acrylic under a clear gloss of protective polyurethane. The D20 Teal Lime Twist Hairstick is 7 1/3" long with a usable length of 6".

Also Etsy started accepting credit cards in addition to paypal.  

A Old School Wallpaper for your Desktop

I took all the monochrome module covers and made a background for my desktop. Put the icons in the four corner that are blank. Enjoy

OSR Timeline

Guy Fullerton over on the Knights and Knave Forums (focused on AD&D, OD&D, and OSRIC) has graciously posted his comprehensive spreadsheet of  nearly every release in the Old School Renaissance. It is still a work in progress but incredibly useful as is.

Hoard and Horde an OSR Timeline
Hoard and Horde List View

Miniatures or Not?

After years debating miniatures vs not, my conclusion is that simply different methods work for different people. That the best approach is to use a variety of techniques tailored for the situation, yourself, and the group at hand.

The method that doesn't work is blindly assume that your "way" is the way that going to work all the time. It simply not going to too. You need to pay attention to the players and learn what works best for that particular group.

I use generally miniatures because they allow me to effectively describe scenes in the shortest amount of time. The key trick I found is describe things as you placing stuff on the map. This minimize the time needed for any verbal followup. If a group likes detailed tactical combat I will accommodate them and take a little longer in setting up. If the group is more verbal oriented I will set up just what I think I need get the description across and just estimate range and movement. For wandering through towns I just use a large player map and counters and verbally describe things as they walk through.




I judge each of the technique simply whether it is effective in conveying needed information for the players to roleplay their characters as if they were there. If it doesn't, then I change it. Sometime I have an idea that doesn't work. Or I need to change because it a different approach works better for that group.

So I view this niniatures versus not miniatures as silly. Both sides are too dogmatic. The fact is BOTH work. Instead develop the wisdom to see which methods work and when they don't. Also remember what works best with your skills as a referee is important.

Delving into AD&D: Ghouls

Ghoul Paralyzation in the original three books doesn't have a duration. Unless the referee is feeling merciful looks like the only way to remove it is through magic (spell or item). Luckily for Boog, my half-orc fighter character, Tim of Gothridge Manor was feeling merciful.