What do the elves eat? Elves traditionally aren’t shown as great master of large-scale agriculture in most fantasy settings. Elves are often shown as hunters and gatherers and could surely support small mysterious populations in that manner but else’s are also shown being able to raise the occasionally army and to build great fairy castles, hunter and gatherers don’t tend to do either such thing because they can’t produce enough food to feed enough people to field armies or build castles. “So just what are the elves eating if they aren’t hunter and gatherers”? I asked myself.
Hunting is a lot of work and many forests lack enough game to support size able populations. Gathering is likewise challenging for large groups outside warm climates. Elves mayhaps can eat mushrooms and vegetation we can’t but there is also vegetation we can eat but don’t exploit on a widespread agricultural scale: the Acorn. Elven societies can harvest acorns as the means to have enough food to raise armies and build castles.
As a wild foodstuff acorns from common oaks need to be leached for upwards of 5 or 6 days to remove the natural tannin and the associated bitter flavor (and possible digestive issues and tooth damage). Elves either don’t have to worry about that, don’t mind all the work, or have learned to cultivate acorns that take much less work to process. Humans haven’t turned much attention toward cultivating oaks and hybridizing them to produce ideal acorn crops as it can take 20-30 years for an oak to start producing acorns. Humans are too short lived to put in the work to optimize food production in domestic oaks. Elves have plenty of time in a single elven life (in most settings) to hybridize and produce oaks that create a decent, fairly regular, and plentiful yields of acorns.
Just an acre of natural oak forest is said to be able to produce 6,000lbs of acorns, some varieties of mature oaks can produce 2,000lbs of acorns alone. These production figures may be high and unusual in the wild but if possible in the real world for wild crops they are surely possible to achieve in reasonable fashion as a plant cultivated by a species that can live many hundreds if not thousands of years (again depending on setting). I'm going with these yields as typical for shelled acons from cultivated Elven Oaks.
Food yield and Calorie talk: 110 calories from a ounce of acorns. 140 calories from an ounce of acorn flour. That’s real world calorie counts. With a 6000lb yield from an acre of cultivated acorns we are going to be able to feed 14 elves for a year (if adults with 2000 calorie a day diet). Medieval cereal grain yields weren’t as productive. Acorn eating elves are going to able to sustain their “hidden” populations able to field the occasional army and build fairy palaces.
For fantasy campaigns I propose 4 varieties of Elven Oaks. The varieties of elven oaks are used to produce lumber, oil, and foodstuffs.
Ironwood- the most fanciful of all is first worth mentioning, it’s timber produce wood if carefully fire treated is as hard as hammered iron. This allows the elves to produce amazing craft goods and durable tools without needing to mine. Ironwood oaks are the rarest of all and are grown for hundreds of years until they are ready to be (difficulty) cut.
Butter Nut- this variety of oak produces good-sized acorns that can be used to make flour but can also be pressed to harvest a plentiful supply of oil. The acorns of this variety are the mildest tasting. Butter Nuts acorns are mostly used for their oil but are also used to produce flour and paste (similar to peanut butter).
Honey Nut- this variety of oak produces a modest sized acorn that is sweeter than other varieties. The syrup of these oaks is also collected and processed to manufacture a sweet syrup similar to that of maple syrup. As a food stuff the must themselves are popular roasted to crushed up to make a sweet paste.
Meal Nut- this variety of elven oaks produces large acorns. They are the nuttiest tasting acorns of the cultivated oaks and are generally processed flour.
Someday I may decide to breakdown the different yields possible from different eleven oaks in different regions if I get struck with the desire for such madness but as above I'm going to go with 6,000 lbs a year per acre on average.
Products of Cultivated Elven Oaks
Ironwood- wood as hard as metal. Once properly processed a carved implement will be as tough as bronze or soft iron. Edges weapons can be produced from this material but it works best for thrusting weapons and is typically used for arrow shafts and arrowheads.
the price for ironwood goods will vary wildly depending on contact with elves but is recommend to coast 3-5 times as much if of human manufacture from supplies of the wood to maybe 20 times as much for items of elven manufacture.
Oak Butter- a nutritional paste storred in jars.
Applenut Butter- Oak Butter mixed with apples to produce a very sweet and nutrious form of apple butter.
Oak Honey- processed oak sap that is surgery sweet.
Elven Waybread- these long lasting loaves of elven bread are light and tastie which makes their long keeping nature even more wondrous. Elves keep the recipes of rite highest grades secret. Elven Waybread will last as long as 5 years and this property as well as it’s flavor gives it a high price at 10 to 20 times more than mannish made breads of the same general quality.
Oak Milk- light oil processed from the Butter Nut acorns mixed with water. Used as a beverage. Oak Milk will usually fetch price equivalent to common beer, it’s not alcoholic but it is tasty and keeps well.
Flash Oil- this flammable liquid is used to make incendiary weapons and as an means of lighting. This fetches the same prices other flaming oils will.
Elven NutMead- theirs mead is a hearty cousin to the delicate meads which are actually made from honey. Elven NutMead is made from different pressings of Butter Acorns, Honey Nut Acorns and Oak Honey itself. This mead fetches a price comparable to fine wines.
Elves may or may not keep their Acorn/Oak Cultivation as secret from men but this will much depend on the nature of the campaign and the relationship between men and elves.
In my Riperia campaign there is widespread knowledge among mankind that elves eat acorns but the true nature (and abundance)of their cultivation is unknown south of the Thornwall or much beyond the Isles of Ulthion and Arru. A few groves of the cultivated oaks can be found here and there throughout the lands and are used by local elves or are sure indications a now extinct elven people once laid claim to the land.
Showing posts with label simeconomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label simeconomy. Show all posts
Thursday, March 9, 2017
Monday, March 25, 2013
Building MOG Hexcrawl Phase 2
Demographics, who, where, how many? I've put 14 citiy hexes and 31 town hexes on my Midlands of MOG map. How many people will there be?
A 30 mile hex is about 780 square miles in size. There are 640 acres to a square mile. That's 499,200 acres per hex. Let's say it takes the folk of MOG five acres of land use to feed a person (which is not so great), a fertile while managed hex is going to support 99,840 people. That's a lot of people.
For my purposes I'm round up here for ease of math so 100,000 people in the most productive hexes.
I'm declaring those to be the city hexes of which there are 14 on the map. I'm going to halve productivity of the town hexes to 50,000 of which there are 27. Near these are the rural hexes which produce food for 25,000 and there are 53 of these, around those there is another ring of productivity of 12,000 per hex of the 78 i'm calling hunting hexes.
Let's see here 100,000 x 14 + 50,000 x 27 + 25,000 x 53 + 12,000 x 78 = 5,011,000 mouths can be fed. That's not accounting for the 108 completely wild hexes which support 780 people each (one per square mile) on the average. All told 5,095,240 "people" eating in the Midlands of MOG.
Here's a map showing all that (possibly with a mistake or two but not worth worrying about yet).
How many are 1st level or higher? If 1 in 20 folk are over 0-level there are about 254,762 that are 1st level or higher.Half of those are level 2 or higher and half each tier because I'm feeling like keeping it simple.
so here's the numerical breakdown per level halving (roughly) each step of the way
1st Level..... 127,381
2nd level.....63,690
3rd level.... 31,845
4th level.... 15,500
5th level..... 7,750
6th level.... 3,875
7th level.... 1,937
8th level.... 968
9th level.... 484
10th level... 242
11th leve1.... 121
12th level.... 60
13th level...30
14th level..15
15th level....7
16th level...3
17th level...2
18th level...1 (funny here as the highest level a PC can reach on MOG is 18)
note: that's 50,502,100 exp worth of NPCs when figured at 100 exp per level.
I know who one of the 17th level characters is, as I do 2 of the 16th level characters, I don't know who the 18th level character is yet.
Now I must admit I'm in a quandary, should the numbers above be simply "civilized" folk? I could certainly fit in food for 780 monsters/uncivilized creatures per hex without destroying the food budget for the campaign. 218,400 monsters could be out there and under there on the Midlands.
1 HD or less..... 109,200
2 HD................ 54,600
3 HD.................27,300
4 HD...............13,650
5 HD............... 6825
6 HD................ 3412
7 HD .............. 1706
8 HD .............. 853
9 HD.............. 426
10 HD............ 213
11 HD............ 106
12 HD.............53
13 HD.............26
14 HD.............13
15 HD..............7
16 HD.............4
17 HD.............2
18 HD.............1
note: 43,677,000 exp worth of monsters out there in the Midlands of MOG.
Hmmm... notice there's more exp to be earned fighting "civilized" folk if I keep to the demographic figures above?
How much treasure is out there? Good question... Well a 1st level character starts off with 105 Silver Shekels on average. In my play group everyone is still 1st level after the 3rd session but they have over 800 shekels in loot each now (well the survivors do). so let's say 1000 silver shekels per character and monster and about a dozen silver shekels in loot per 0-level and we get about 1,013,162,000 silver shekels worth of loot in the whole of the Midlands of MOG. (That would be about 84,400,00 g.p. more or less in a typical D&D setting). That's a lot of exp for treasure hunters and thieves. I'd say only about 10% of that is floating about the cities, accounting for 72 silver shekels per occupant of a city hex, most folks will seldom have 20% of that.
A whole lot of deducing to get a feel for the campaign and what the players wealth means, what their relative might means, and what is out there.
A 30 mile hex is about 780 square miles in size. There are 640 acres to a square mile. That's 499,200 acres per hex. Let's say it takes the folk of MOG five acres of land use to feed a person (which is not so great), a fertile while managed hex is going to support 99,840 people. That's a lot of people.
For my purposes I'm round up here for ease of math so 100,000 people in the most productive hexes.
I'm declaring those to be the city hexes of which there are 14 on the map. I'm going to halve productivity of the town hexes to 50,000 of which there are 27. Near these are the rural hexes which produce food for 25,000 and there are 53 of these, around those there is another ring of productivity of 12,000 per hex of the 78 i'm calling hunting hexes.
Let's see here 100,000 x 14 + 50,000 x 27 + 25,000 x 53 + 12,000 x 78 = 5,011,000 mouths can be fed. That's not accounting for the 108 completely wild hexes which support 780 people each (one per square mile) on the average. All told 5,095,240 "people" eating in the Midlands of MOG.
Here's a map showing all that (possibly with a mistake or two but not worth worrying about yet).
How many are 1st level or higher? If 1 in 20 folk are over 0-level there are about 254,762 that are 1st level or higher.Half of those are level 2 or higher and half each tier because I'm feeling like keeping it simple.
so here's the numerical breakdown per level halving (roughly) each step of the way
1st Level..... 127,381
2nd level.....63,690
3rd level.... 31,845
4th level.... 15,500
5th level..... 7,750
6th level.... 3,875
7th level.... 1,937
8th level.... 968
9th level.... 484
10th level... 242
11th leve1.... 121
12th level.... 60
13th level...30
14th level..15
15th level....7
16th level...3
17th level...2
18th level...1 (funny here as the highest level a PC can reach on MOG is 18)
note: that's 50,502,100 exp worth of NPCs when figured at 100 exp per level.
I know who one of the 17th level characters is, as I do 2 of the 16th level characters, I don't know who the 18th level character is yet.
Now I must admit I'm in a quandary, should the numbers above be simply "civilized" folk? I could certainly fit in food for 780 monsters/uncivilized creatures per hex without destroying the food budget for the campaign. 218,400 monsters could be out there and under there on the Midlands.
1 HD or less..... 109,200
2 HD................ 54,600
3 HD.................27,300
4 HD...............13,650
5 HD............... 6825
6 HD................ 3412
7 HD .............. 1706
8 HD .............. 853
9 HD.............. 426
10 HD............ 213
11 HD............ 106
12 HD.............53
13 HD.............26
14 HD.............13
15 HD..............7
16 HD.............4
17 HD.............2
18 HD.............1
note: 43,677,000 exp worth of monsters out there in the Midlands of MOG.
Hmmm... notice there's more exp to be earned fighting "civilized" folk if I keep to the demographic figures above?
How much treasure is out there? Good question... Well a 1st level character starts off with 105 Silver Shekels on average. In my play group everyone is still 1st level after the 3rd session but they have over 800 shekels in loot each now (well the survivors do). so let's say 1000 silver shekels per character and monster and about a dozen silver shekels in loot per 0-level and we get about 1,013,162,000 silver shekels worth of loot in the whole of the Midlands of MOG. (That would be about 84,400,00 g.p. more or less in a typical D&D setting). That's a lot of exp for treasure hunters and thieves. I'd say only about 10% of that is floating about the cities, accounting for 72 silver shekels per occupant of a city hex, most folks will seldom have 20% of that.
A whole lot of deducing to get a feel for the campaign and what the players wealth means, what their relative might means, and what is out there.
Sunday, September 2, 2012
A Proposed and Incomplete Farming Mechanic
A proposed and incomplete farming mechanic cobbled together after a bit more research in medieval farming. I've gone down this road a bit before and realized a little need as the PC's in my weekly game have decided to claim a village as their own.
Yield in bushels= ((1d6 per seed bushel sown)+Land Quality + Seasonal
Modifiers)/2
Roll a control die (1d6) and if this number is greater then the no of bushels sown the yield is halved.
Seasonal Modifiers haven't been fiugyure out yet but it's safe to keep them in the -4 to +4 range.
Land Quality is rated as per a D&D stat.
After each growing season a plot of land must make a saving throw
with a negative modifier equal to the bushels of seed planted. A failed save
downgrades the quality of that plot by the no. of seed bushels sown.
Land save is 10+
How much hood do people need to eat ? 12-24 bushels a year in corn (grain) and legumes (beans and peas) seems to be the answer. STR x 1.5 seems to do the trick, characters that don't each this much have an increased chance of illness.
Land can yield 1-3 harvests a year depending on land,climate, and farming techniques used.
Land recovery, each season a plot is fallow a save can be made for that plot to upgrade the land quality by 1 for a plot downgraded due to a failed save from an earlier plot season.
Friday, July 29, 2011
Areas of Hexes
Thanks to a comments in a post here: http://trollsmyth.blogspot.com/2011/07/hex-mapping-part-2-scale.html I've realized I've been making a math error in calculating the areas of a hex.
I've been using the quick and easy formula of w *(w*.86) where w is the width of a hex from side to parallel side. It gets close to the right answer but it turns out it's wrong.
The more accurate formula is (3/2)*SQRT(3)*s^2 where s is the length of a segment around the perimeter of a hex.
So here's the areas in square miles and acres of various commonly used hex sizes using the more accurate formula.
Width of Hex.....area in square miles....area in acres................segment length
1 mile................. 0.844 .......................... 540 acres .......................... 0.57
3 miles............... 7.776 ............................ 4,966 acres ...................... 1.73
5 miles............... 21.549 .......................... 13,791 acres ...................... 2.88
6 miles............... 31.103 .......................... 19,905 acres ...................... 3.46
8 miles .............. 54.975 .......................... 35,184 acres ...................... 4.60
10 miles............. 86.497 ......................... 55,358 acres ....................... 5.77
12 miles............. 124.415 ......................... 79,625 acres ....................... 6.92
20 miles............ 345.39 .......................... 221,049 acres ..................... 11.53
24 miles............ 497.65 .......................... 318,496 acres ..................... 13.84
30 miles............ 777.578 ........................ 497,648 acres ..................... 17.30
36 miles............ 1119.713........................ 716,616 acres ..................... 20.76
I know lot's of numbers or not much return in heroic adventure but if you ever want to figure out the size of noble estates and compare to real world figures for farm and estate size the numbers come in handy.
Segment lengths are how long each hex side on the perimeter is as I measured them for those into the math.
I've been using the quick and easy formula of w *(w*.86) where w is the width of a hex from side to parallel side. It gets close to the right answer but it turns out it's wrong.
The more accurate formula is (3/2)*SQRT(3)*s^2 where s is the length of a segment around the perimeter of a hex.
So here's the areas in square miles and acres of various commonly used hex sizes using the more accurate formula.
Width of Hex.....area in square miles....area in acres................segment length
1 mile................. 0.844 .......................... 540 acres .......................... 0.57
3 miles............... 7.776 ............................ 4,966 acres ...................... 1.73
5 miles............... 21.549 .......................... 13,791 acres ...................... 2.88
6 miles............... 31.103 .......................... 19,905 acres ...................... 3.46
8 miles .............. 54.975 .......................... 35,184 acres ...................... 4.60
10 miles............. 86.497 ......................... 55,358 acres ....................... 5.77
12 miles............. 124.415 ......................... 79,625 acres ....................... 6.92
20 miles............ 345.39 .......................... 221,049 acres ..................... 11.53
24 miles............ 497.65 .......................... 318,496 acres ..................... 13.84
30 miles............ 777.578 ........................ 497,648 acres ..................... 17.30
36 miles............ 1119.713........................ 716,616 acres ..................... 20.76
I know lot's of numbers or not much return in heroic adventure but if you ever want to figure out the size of noble estates and compare to real world figures for farm and estate size the numbers come in handy.
Segment lengths are how long each hex side on the perimeter is as I measured them for those into the math.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Haggling Table
Some folks just love to wheel and deal when a PC is buying or selling goods. Here's a few table to aid haggling.
Step 1. Find Opening Price
If the Merchant is selling roll here:
Merchant Selling
roll......Initial asking price
2-3...... 200% of list
4-7....... 150% of list
8-10..... List Price
11-12.... 90% of list price
The player sets the counter offer and if they don't match on to the Haggling Table
If a PC is selling have the player state price and roll here:
Merchant Offer
2-3..... 10% of List
4-5..... 20% of List
6-8..... 30% of list
9-10... 75% of list
11....... 90% List
12....... Player's asking Price...no reason to haggle
If the player doesn't agree move on to the haggling table
Step Two Haggling:
Haggling Table
2........ Refuses to do business with PC
3........ The deal is off.
4-6..... Doesn't budge on price
7-8..... Offer's 10% discount on bulk purchase
9-11.... Moves price towards PC offer
12 ...... Agrees to PC offer
Haggling ends when a PC accepts a price.
Apply modifiers for clever roleplaying if one wishes.
Refuses to do business with PC - merchant will not do business with PC now. May throw PC and friends out of shop if applicable. The PC will be -2 to haggle with this merchant in the future. the penalty will be dropped after 3 sales.
The deal is off.- The merchant can't alter his price and if the PC will not pay the right amount of coin there will be no sale. The PC will be -1 to haggle with this merchant in the future. The penalty will be dropped after 2 sales.
Doesn't budge on price- the merchant holds firm to the price as it is.
Offer's 10% discount on bulk purchase- if PC buys three or more of an item (or multiple similar items) the merhcant can let them go for 10% off of his current asking price.
Moves price towards PC offer- the merchant moves the price 1/4 the difference towards his asking price and the PCs offer. This in effect reset the asking price. (ex: A merchant is trying to sell a PC a finely Crafted sword for 50 g.p. the PC has counter offered with 15 g.p., when the merhcant moves the price towards the PC's offer the price will be lowered by (50-15)/4 to find a price of 41 g.p.)
Agrees to PC offer- the sale is made. future haggling at +1 . The bonus is lost if a roll of 2 comes up on haggling roll.
Limits on haggling: Some players will Haggle all day long on even minor purchases. If a DM allows Haggling limiting haggling rolls to 3 per deal could work fairly.
One could also limit the number of haggling rolls a player is allowed per game session to the PC Charisma score.
Step 1. Find Opening Price
If the Merchant is selling roll here:
Merchant Selling
roll......Initial asking price
2-3...... 200% of list
4-7....... 150% of list
8-10..... List Price
11-12.... 90% of list price
The player sets the counter offer and if they don't match on to the Haggling Table
If a PC is selling have the player state price and roll here:
Merchant Offer
2-3..... 10% of List
4-5..... 20% of List
6-8..... 30% of list
9-10... 75% of list
11....... 90% List
12....... Player's asking Price...no reason to haggle
If the player doesn't agree move on to the haggling table
Step Two Haggling:
Haggling Table
2........ Refuses to do business with PC
3........ The deal is off.
4-6..... Doesn't budge on price
7-8..... Offer's 10% discount on bulk purchase
9-11.... Moves price towards PC offer
12 ...... Agrees to PC offer
Haggling ends when a PC accepts a price.
Apply modifiers for clever roleplaying if one wishes.
Refuses to do business with PC - merchant will not do business with PC now. May throw PC and friends out of shop if applicable. The PC will be -2 to haggle with this merchant in the future. the penalty will be dropped after 3 sales.
The deal is off.- The merchant can't alter his price and if the PC will not pay the right amount of coin there will be no sale. The PC will be -1 to haggle with this merchant in the future. The penalty will be dropped after 2 sales.
Doesn't budge on price- the merchant holds firm to the price as it is.
Offer's 10% discount on bulk purchase- if PC buys three or more of an item (or multiple similar items) the merhcant can let them go for 10% off of his current asking price.
Moves price towards PC offer- the merchant moves the price 1/4 the difference towards his asking price and the PCs offer. This in effect reset the asking price. (ex: A merchant is trying to sell a PC a finely Crafted sword for 50 g.p. the PC has counter offered with 15 g.p., when the merhcant moves the price towards the PC's offer the price will be lowered by (50-15)/4 to find a price of 41 g.p.)
Agrees to PC offer- the sale is made. future haggling at +1 . The bonus is lost if a roll of 2 comes up on haggling roll.
Limits on haggling: Some players will Haggle all day long on even minor purchases. If a DM allows Haggling limiting haggling rolls to 3 per deal could work fairly.
One could also limit the number of haggling rolls a player is allowed per game session to the PC Charisma score.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Looking at the OD&D price list
The OD&D price list and the impact it has on the game and games that have followed.
The OD&D pricelist
Melee Weapons
Dagger 3
Hand Axe 3
Mace 5
Sword 10
Battle Axe 7
Morning Star 6
Flail 8
Spear 1
Pole Arm 7
Halberd 7
Two-Handed Sword 15
Lance 4
Pike 5
Ranged Weapons
Short Bow 25
Long Bow 40
Composite Bow 50
Light Crossbow 15
Heavy Crossbow 25
Quiver of 20 Arrows 10
Case with 30 Quarrels 10
20 Arrows/30 Quarrels 5
Silver Tipped Arrow 5
Armor
Leather Armor 15
Chain-type Mail 30
Plate Mail 50
Helmet 10
Shield 10
Barding (Horse Armor) 150
Transport
Mule 20
Draft Horse 30
Light Horse 40
Warhorse, Medium 100
Warhorse, Heavy 200
Saddle 25
Saddle Bags 10
Cart 100
Wagon 200
Raft 40
Small Boat 100
Small Merchant Ship 5,000
Large Merchant Ship 20,000
Small Galley 10,000
Large Galley 30,000
Supplies
50' of Rope 1
10' Pole 1
12 Iron Spikes 1
Small Sack 1
Large Sack 2
Leather Back Pack 5
Water/Wine Skin 1
6 Torches 1
Lantern 10
Flask of Oil 2
3 Stakes & Mallet 3
Steel Mirror 5
Silver Mirror, Small 15
Wooden Cross 2
Silver Cross 25
Holy Water/Vial 25
Wolvesbane, bunch 10
Belladona, bunch 10
Garlic, bud 5
Wine, quart 1
Iron Rations 1 week 15
Standard Rations 1 week 5
Analysis of the price list by category.
Melee Weapons: if one doesn't make use of the man-to-man combat rules from chainmail there is no point at all in having the range of melee weapons provided on the equipment table beyond providing people with names for the weapons, pricing differences with no other differences between weapons are meaningless. It's all up to the DM decision making as to when different weapons will aid or hinder and player choice for image really.
Ranged Weapons: the pricing fro ranged weapons seem to take into account value of utility and game impact over actual cost/difficulty of manufacture. A shortbow is not 2.5 times more expensive than a sword to manufacture. Do lords in D&D realms impose a tariff on bow prices to discourage people poking them full of arrows?
Armor: chain and plate armor is darned cheap. At least when it compared to the cost of ranged weapons. Helmets also serve no game defined function. this is good for newly generated fighters, they can almost all afford the armor they want. It's bad because with the exception of armoring ones steed there are no purchases down the road.
Transport:
Saddles and saddle bags are really expensive. The stats for horses are at the bottom of the monster lists, a handy spot for the DM but a pain in the butt for the player.
A mule is worth 10gp more than a draft horse because are agile enough to navigate dungeons.
Ships are expensive and the only big ticket items on the equipment lists. This should encourage ocean borne adventures at least when a player purchases a pair of galleys with 60,000 gp laying around doing nothing (unless they are saving for a stronghold).
Supplies-
50' of rope for a g.p.- expensive indeed, day laborers sure aren't buying ropes in D&D.
Steel mirror vs silver mirror ? Wooden cross vs silver cross ? Are the more expensive items simply prestige purchases? If it is just a prestige based up-pricing why not have them cost even more?
Holy water....so what is this doing on the general equipment list? It' supposed to be special isn't it? If I showed up at the local church with a pocketful of $20.00 bills and plastic bottles to fill up at the font I'm not to sure that would go over well. I think I'd be able to take one small amount for free, tanking up on a few quarts would be frowned on.
Wolvesbane, Belladonna and Garlic....may have uses spelled out in the monster descriptions.But the PCs sure aren't clearly informed. If characters find this stuff in the wilderness should they be able to get even 1/2the price. Pizzas would sure be expensive in a D&D world.
Iron rations are good for use in dungeons and standard rations aren't. What about the cost, 15 gp a week for durable dungeon food seems plausible, hey it's dungeon food but standard rations at 5 g.p. a week? Who the heck is paying for all the food eaten in a campaign world?
Wine costs 1 gp a quart. What's a pint of beer go for at the local?
We are told other items cost may be calculated by comparing to similar items listed above.
Really? I'd wager you could do almost as well by rolling 1d100.
Okay seriously now, from analyzing the list above a loaf of bread would cost about as much as 1/3 a days satndard rations. That's going to give us a loaf of bread cost of 2.38 sp, let's round that up to 2.5 sp for a loaf of bread or 1 gp since nothing on the list is less then a gp.
The OD&D price list is geared to enable initial play. It doesn't provide for developing economic capabilities of PC's, they'll be able to purchase everything on the list in pretty short order (except possibly for ships but they'll be in every adventurers reach by 5th level or so). So why are bows so expensive relative to other weapons?
There are certainly gamist reasons for some of the pricing on the equipment list ( bows do provide a tactical advantage over melee weapons) . Food is expensive as heck and one of the biggest drivers of early level play taking a look at economics, PC's have to be successful bandits or dungeon pillagers to stave off starvation. Keeping a retinue of hirelings fed will cost more then hiring the men at arms and torch bearers.
The OD&D pricelist
Melee Weapons
Dagger 3
Hand Axe 3
Mace 5
Sword 10
Battle Axe 7
Morning Star 6
Flail 8
Spear 1
Pole Arm 7
Halberd 7
Two-Handed Sword 15
Lance 4
Pike 5
Ranged Weapons
Short Bow 25
Long Bow 40
Composite Bow 50
Light Crossbow 15
Heavy Crossbow 25
Quiver of 20 Arrows 10
Case with 30 Quarrels 10
20 Arrows/30 Quarrels 5
Silver Tipped Arrow 5
Armor
Leather Armor 15
Chain-type Mail 30
Plate Mail 50
Helmet 10
Shield 10
Barding (Horse Armor) 150
Transport
Mule 20
Draft Horse 30
Light Horse 40
Warhorse, Medium 100
Warhorse, Heavy 200
Saddle 25
Saddle Bags 10
Cart 100
Wagon 200
Raft 40
Small Boat 100
Small Merchant Ship 5,000
Large Merchant Ship 20,000
Small Galley 10,000
Large Galley 30,000
Supplies
50' of Rope 1
10' Pole 1
12 Iron Spikes 1
Small Sack 1
Large Sack 2
Leather Back Pack 5
Water/Wine Skin 1
6 Torches 1
Lantern 10
Flask of Oil 2
3 Stakes & Mallet 3
Steel Mirror 5
Silver Mirror, Small 15
Wooden Cross 2
Silver Cross 25
Holy Water/Vial 25
Wolvesbane, bunch 10
Belladona, bunch 10
Garlic, bud 5
Wine, quart 1
Iron Rations 1 week 15
Standard Rations 1 week 5
Analysis of the price list by category.
Melee Weapons: if one doesn't make use of the man-to-man combat rules from chainmail there is no point at all in having the range of melee weapons provided on the equipment table beyond providing people with names for the weapons, pricing differences with no other differences between weapons are meaningless. It's all up to the DM decision making as to when different weapons will aid or hinder and player choice for image really.
Ranged Weapons: the pricing fro ranged weapons seem to take into account value of utility and game impact over actual cost/difficulty of manufacture. A shortbow is not 2.5 times more expensive than a sword to manufacture. Do lords in D&D realms impose a tariff on bow prices to discourage people poking them full of arrows?
Armor: chain and plate armor is darned cheap. At least when it compared to the cost of ranged weapons. Helmets also serve no game defined function. this is good for newly generated fighters, they can almost all afford the armor they want. It's bad because with the exception of armoring ones steed there are no purchases down the road.
Transport:
Saddles and saddle bags are really expensive. The stats for horses are at the bottom of the monster lists, a handy spot for the DM but a pain in the butt for the player.
A mule is worth 10gp more than a draft horse because are agile enough to navigate dungeons.
Ships are expensive and the only big ticket items on the equipment lists. This should encourage ocean borne adventures at least when a player purchases a pair of galleys with 60,000 gp laying around doing nothing (unless they are saving for a stronghold).
Supplies-
50' of rope for a g.p.- expensive indeed, day laborers sure aren't buying ropes in D&D.
Steel mirror vs silver mirror ? Wooden cross vs silver cross ? Are the more expensive items simply prestige purchases? If it is just a prestige based up-pricing why not have them cost even more?
Holy water....so what is this doing on the general equipment list? It' supposed to be special isn't it? If I showed up at the local church with a pocketful of $20.00 bills and plastic bottles to fill up at the font I'm not to sure that would go over well. I think I'd be able to take one small amount for free, tanking up on a few quarts would be frowned on.
Wolvesbane, Belladonna and Garlic....may have uses spelled out in the monster descriptions.But the PCs sure aren't clearly informed. If characters find this stuff in the wilderness should they be able to get even 1/2the price. Pizzas would sure be expensive in a D&D world.
Iron rations are good for use in dungeons and standard rations aren't. What about the cost, 15 gp a week for durable dungeon food seems plausible, hey it's dungeon food but standard rations at 5 g.p. a week? Who the heck is paying for all the food eaten in a campaign world?
Wine costs 1 gp a quart. What's a pint of beer go for at the local?
We are told other items cost may be calculated by comparing to similar items listed above.
Really? I'd wager you could do almost as well by rolling 1d100.
Okay seriously now, from analyzing the list above a loaf of bread would cost about as much as 1/3 a days satndard rations. That's going to give us a loaf of bread cost of 2.38 sp, let's round that up to 2.5 sp for a loaf of bread or 1 gp since nothing on the list is less then a gp.
The OD&D price list is geared to enable initial play. It doesn't provide for developing economic capabilities of PC's, they'll be able to purchase everything on the list in pretty short order (except possibly for ships but they'll be in every adventurers reach by 5th level or so). So why are bows so expensive relative to other weapons?
There are certainly gamist reasons for some of the pricing on the equipment list ( bows do provide a tactical advantage over melee weapons) . Food is expensive as heck and one of the biggest drivers of early level play taking a look at economics, PC's have to be successful bandits or dungeon pillagers to stave off starvation. Keeping a retinue of hirelings fed will cost more then hiring the men at arms and torch bearers.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Land Measurements and a sim-economy.
I went off on a tear last time I brought up to topic of SIM economics. I threw out a lot of numbers and reveled in math and I'm going to do it some more. A lot of building a medieval economy (even a fake one) ties in with the land. Us modern folks still depend on the fruits of the land but most are removed from that to the point it isn't really part of our everyday language. We may use the term acre, but most folks don't really know what an acre is or have a real reference of how much land is required to feed us.
A lot of the old time measurements were tied to the land. That's what was worth measuring after all.
An Acre is a basic unit of land measurement. It really has no fixed dimensions but is an area of 4,840 square yards. An easily measured acre is one furlong long and one chain wide (660ft x 66 ft). The old definition of an acre is how much land a pair of oxen can plow in a halfdays worth of work , actually a whole day: Oxes are a pain to work with and must be fed and watered and rested to keep them healthy and fit for plowing so that half a day is really still a days work for the ox team.
There are 640 Acres in a square mile of land. I'll get back to that later.
Moving up from an Acre we find ourselves with an Oxgang (or bovate). An oxgang is how much land a single ox can plow in a season and still allow the crop to get sown. The actual area of an oxgang can vary by the demands and difficulties of the local terrain, for ease of math I'm going to go with 15 acres. Oxen weren't usually kept as lone animals as they were often kept in teams of eight oxen and a pair are normally used to plow which causes the identification of a unit of land that two oxen can plow in a season as a Virgate (or Yardland) of 30 acres. As the ox were kept in teams of 8 that gives us another unit of area known as a Ploughland (or Carucate) which is the land a full team of 8 oxen can plow in a season (120 acres).
The units of land and how important they were are part of the language that defines the land, economy and population. A person who occupied, worked or was responsible for aVirgate of land would be know as a Virgater. A person rsponsible for 1/2 that much land would be know as a Bovater. The tax levied on a carucate was called a Carucage.
The Carucage is the taxation levied on a single household as defiend for manorial property and taxation purposes.. So a Caricate of 8 Bovates (120 acres) is how much land is needed to support a household. This land was also known as a Hide.
A Knight's Fee of five hides is enough land to support a fully equipped knight. This Scutage , being the money that could be raised from 5 hides of property is what it takes to support 1 Knight in a traditional feudal setting. A person would be allowed to work that land by supplying the Knight or the coin that would hire a knight from the proceeds of those 5 hides.
A Fief is the holding that allows Knights to be maintained. A fief could of course be smaller then a Knight's Fee and could be as small as a a Hide (or Caricate) as that land is intended to support a household.
So in an ideal situation a typical Fief would have 5 Caricates (for a total of 600 acres). This land is supposed to be enough to support a Knight, support his family, keep him armed and stable a warhorse in addition to paying other taxes, duties and expenses the Knight would incur.
600 acres to a Knight's Fee (or Fief) is awfully close to a square mile. For campaign economy building purposes I'm going with 5 hides to a square mile for ease of accounting.
Those 5 hides have to support: A Knight, his wife, children, other family members, retainers, servants and farmers along with warhorse, other steeds and oxen to work the land.
Above the Hide there are other units of land. There is the hundred (which is measured at a size of 100 Hides). This is the land adequate for 100 households. A hundredman (or hundred elder) would be responsible for administering the territory and maintaining the troops drawn from it which could number 100 soldiers or 20 knights. A hundred could be split into 10 tithings of 10 families. Within each of the hundreds there is ideally a formal meeting place where then men of the hundred meet to discuss local matters and a hundred court of sorts could be held.
Above the hundred we have the Shire. A shire was administered by a Shire-Reeve (or Sheriff). A shire can vary wildly in size and may or may not be considered a County. A shire need no be manged by or owned by a Count.
A hundred (which supports 100 households) will cover 20 square miles as that is the area of 100 hides. the shire will have no fixed definition here. A hundred is able to support 100 soldiers or 20 knights, the knights families, their retainers, staff, farmers, warhorses, other steeds and oxen.
For ease of accounting later in life of this rpg sim-economy I'm going to have each hundred ideally support 50 soldiers and 10 Knights (1/2 of the total possible of each alone)
How many knights and soldiers can then be supported on the Hexes of the average RPG map?
How much land does a hex actually cover? Measured in a width (W) from hex edge to hex edge the area a hex covers is W x W x .86.
For later ease of reference here are common hex sizes with area and hides along with Knights and soldiers (50% total knight possible and 50% total Soldiers possible) for each hex.
Hex Size....area in square miles....Hides .... Knights/Soldiers
5............... 21.5 .............................. 107 ....... 10/50
6............... 30.96............................ 154 ...... 15/75
8............... 55 ................................ 275 ....... 27/ 135
10.............. 86 .............................. 430 ....... 43/215
12.............. 123.84 ........................ 619 ....... 61/305
20............. 344 ............................. 1720 ..... 172/860
24............. 495.36 ........................ 2476 ..... 247/1235
30............. 774 ............................. 3870 ..... 387/1935
These figures by hex are only possible in good temperate clear hexes. In areas of more difficult terrain reduce the population possible. Possibly: In Areas of hills reduce Hides to 2/3 the area. I cool areas reduce the number of Hides by 3/4 again. In Forested Areas reduce the Hides to 1/3. In Mountainous or Swamp land reduce to 1/6 if occupied at all.
It's going to take a little work to get this working with my 4cp-large loaf of bread calculations from the earlier post. That will lamentably have to wait for yet another post.
A lot of the old time measurements were tied to the land. That's what was worth measuring after all.
An Acre is a basic unit of land measurement. It really has no fixed dimensions but is an area of 4,840 square yards. An easily measured acre is one furlong long and one chain wide (660ft x 66 ft). The old definition of an acre is how much land a pair of oxen can plow in a halfdays worth of work , actually a whole day: Oxes are a pain to work with and must be fed and watered and rested to keep them healthy and fit for plowing so that half a day is really still a days work for the ox team.
There are 640 Acres in a square mile of land. I'll get back to that later.
Moving up from an Acre we find ourselves with an Oxgang (or bovate). An oxgang is how much land a single ox can plow in a season and still allow the crop to get sown. The actual area of an oxgang can vary by the demands and difficulties of the local terrain, for ease of math I'm going to go with 15 acres. Oxen weren't usually kept as lone animals as they were often kept in teams of eight oxen and a pair are normally used to plow which causes the identification of a unit of land that two oxen can plow in a season as a Virgate (or Yardland) of 30 acres. As the ox were kept in teams of 8 that gives us another unit of area known as a Ploughland (or Carucate) which is the land a full team of 8 oxen can plow in a season (120 acres).
The units of land and how important they were are part of the language that defines the land, economy and population. A person who occupied, worked or was responsible for aVirgate of land would be know as a Virgater. A person rsponsible for 1/2 that much land would be know as a Bovater. The tax levied on a carucate was called a Carucage.
The Carucage is the taxation levied on a single household as defiend for manorial property and taxation purposes.. So a Caricate of 8 Bovates (120 acres) is how much land is needed to support a household. This land was also known as a Hide.
A Knight's Fee of five hides is enough land to support a fully equipped knight. This Scutage , being the money that could be raised from 5 hides of property is what it takes to support 1 Knight in a traditional feudal setting. A person would be allowed to work that land by supplying the Knight or the coin that would hire a knight from the proceeds of those 5 hides.
A Fief is the holding that allows Knights to be maintained. A fief could of course be smaller then a Knight's Fee and could be as small as a a Hide (or Caricate) as that land is intended to support a household.
So in an ideal situation a typical Fief would have 5 Caricates (for a total of 600 acres). This land is supposed to be enough to support a Knight, support his family, keep him armed and stable a warhorse in addition to paying other taxes, duties and expenses the Knight would incur.
600 acres to a Knight's Fee (or Fief) is awfully close to a square mile. For campaign economy building purposes I'm going with 5 hides to a square mile for ease of accounting.
Those 5 hides have to support: A Knight, his wife, children, other family members, retainers, servants and farmers along with warhorse, other steeds and oxen to work the land.
Above the Hide there are other units of land. There is the hundred (which is measured at a size of 100 Hides). This is the land adequate for 100 households. A hundredman (or hundred elder) would be responsible for administering the territory and maintaining the troops drawn from it which could number 100 soldiers or 20 knights. A hundred could be split into 10 tithings of 10 families. Within each of the hundreds there is ideally a formal meeting place where then men of the hundred meet to discuss local matters and a hundred court of sorts could be held.
Above the hundred we have the Shire. A shire was administered by a Shire-Reeve (or Sheriff). A shire can vary wildly in size and may or may not be considered a County. A shire need no be manged by or owned by a Count.
A hundred (which supports 100 households) will cover 20 square miles as that is the area of 100 hides. the shire will have no fixed definition here. A hundred is able to support 100 soldiers or 20 knights, the knights families, their retainers, staff, farmers, warhorses, other steeds and oxen.
For ease of accounting later in life of this rpg sim-economy I'm going to have each hundred ideally support 50 soldiers and 10 Knights (1/2 of the total possible of each alone)
How many knights and soldiers can then be supported on the Hexes of the average RPG map?
How much land does a hex actually cover? Measured in a width (W) from hex edge to hex edge the area a hex covers is W x W x .86.
For later ease of reference here are common hex sizes with area and hides along with Knights and soldiers (50% total knight possible and 50% total Soldiers possible) for each hex.
Hex Size....area in square miles....Hides .... Knights/Soldiers
5............... 21.5 .............................. 107 ....... 10/50
6............... 30.96............................ 154 ...... 15/75
8............... 55 ................................ 275 ....... 27/ 135
10.............. 86 .............................. 430 ....... 43/215
12.............. 123.84 ........................ 619 ....... 61/305
20............. 344 ............................. 1720 ..... 172/860
24............. 495.36 ........................ 2476 ..... 247/1235
30............. 774 ............................. 3870 ..... 387/1935
These figures by hex are only possible in good temperate clear hexes. In areas of more difficult terrain reduce the population possible. Possibly: In Areas of hills reduce Hides to 2/3 the area. I cool areas reduce the number of Hides by 3/4 again. In Forested Areas reduce the Hides to 1/3. In Mountainous or Swamp land reduce to 1/6 if occupied at all.
It's going to take a little work to get this working with my 4cp-large loaf of bread calculations from the earlier post. That will lamentably have to wait for yet another post.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Building a Sim-economy
last night i went a little nuts and did a little work on scraping together a slightly more realistic economy for D&D-esque campaigns. It's all based on reworking food to be affordable in a still cash heavy society where workers are grossly under paid. I'm nowhere near "done" with the idea yet but I felt like sharing.
It's all based around the cost and production of a large loaf of bread (2 lb, 2200 calories, a man could live on this many calories).
I set a low but noticeable price for a baker to charge for a large loaf of bread of 4cp.
the 4cp price assumes the costs of making bread roughly based on real world home baking costs.
1 lb of flour = 1 cp
1 tsp salt = 1/100 cp
yeast = 7/100 cp
fuel = 1/2 cp
costs to make a large loaf of bread= (2 + 0.02 + 0.14 + 0.5) = 2.66 cp
the darned baker makes a darned profit of 1.34 c.p. per loaf of bread! But of course he also has to pay for his own bread, drink and shelter out of profits.
I also worked out a 1 lb loaf of bread to have a purchase price of 2.5 c.p.
The baker likely saves a lot on fuel because he has a good oven that fits lot's of bread but I don't want to go too crazy figuring out prices of things.
Someone baking at home can likely produce their bread cheaper then buying it at the bakery if allowed to do so legally (and might be factored in sometime somehow, eventually).
So where does that flour come from to make that bread? Well it's milled from grain harvested on a farm of course.
A bushel of grain will produce enough flour to make 30 large loaves of bread.
An acre of land can produce 30-50 bushels of grain (the yield of modern non irrigated wheat, in the 19th century some folks were managing far more but the 30-50 bushels and acre figure feels safe and I'm going with it)
Using an average of 40 bushels an acre of land produces enough grain to be ground into flour so folks can bake 1200 large loaves of bread from the produce of one acre. That will keep a no-farmer alive for 39 months (assuming the grain and bread doesn't spoil before it can be eaten). A farmer is likely going to need twice as much food so really we're feeding a farmer for about 19 months from that yield (if he got to keep an eat all of it). Of course if the farmer eats all of it it never goes to market or feeds a lord or his men-at-arms.
What's the grain worth from an acre of land? It produces enough flour to bake 1200 large loaves so that's , 2400 c.p. worth of flour. But it isn't flour until it's milled so by totally arbitrary fiat I set the price of grain to 1/2 that of flour so that's 1200 c.p. worth of grain. But that's at market square prices, in mass quantities and wholesale rates that grain is going to go for as low as half that so 600 c.p. worth of grain harvested in an acre of land. That's 6 g.p., farmers would be loaded...but of course they have to eat themselves and pay/trade for help not to mention the taxes and fees of the local lord.
What are folks drinking anyway? In pre-modern times water wasn't the safest thing to drink, the common drink was beer (or ale whatever the locals call it and the local recipe produced).
One gallon of beer takes about 4 lbs of "sugars" (we'll use grain here as a raw and sane measure). So with an acre producing 2400 lbs of grain (40 bushels x 60 lbs a bushel) we've got enough grain to make ourselves 600 gallons of beer.
A pint of beer has about 200 calories in it and it can get you drunk too. A pint of beer with a market not too far from production would cost about 1 c.p.
An acre of land would be producing the ingredients (other then water) for 4800 pints of beer. That's 4800 c.p. for the village local (too bad he doesn't get his beer for free).
A large loaf of bread and 2 quarts of beer will supply a man with his calories for a day (just barely). So it costs this unspecified meager diet worker 8 c.p. a day to eat and drink. That's 56 c.p. a week or 2912 c.p. a year. Assuming one get's their bread and beer at market prices. Baking at home (if legal) will save 487 c.p. a year (if paying market prices for ingredients) so the homebody laborer needs 2425 c.p. a year to eat and drink in minimal form.
Folks back on the farm, and that's about 90% of everyone there is, is getting grain at 1/4 the price of the not too far off market place. Of Course they have to pay to get that grain milled to make flour (but not necessarily to make beer) so let's say they lose 10% of their grain in milling fees. Folks back on the farm can manage to bake their own bread with flour that costs them (assuming they had to "pay" for their own grain) much less so they can produce a large loaf of bread for 1.215 c.p. (assuming fuel costs are as much as in the market place). The farming family baking at home and brewing beer (which I'm pricing at 2/3 market rates because I'm lazy) is going to be able to keep a man in a meager poor diet for 3.88 cp a day, it costs a farming family 1412 c.p. a year to feed a man for a year.
So in a rural village one can hire a man for 1 s.p. a day for short term work as this is providing enough coin for 2.5 days worth of food (this feeds a man, his wife and a child for a day). Long term labour costs more if one is hiring a man away from a great deal of work and upkeep of his home.
In a market town that man is going to cost more to hire then his purely rural counter part as he has to pay much more for his food (and his shelter, be getting there sometime). Paying a man for 2.5 days worth of food and drink as a guide to cut rate short term employment is going to cost at least 20 cp (or 2 s.p) a day. This will likely only be buying the labor of unskilled youths,bachelors or old men with no families or residence of note to maintain.
In a market town 1 g.p buys one a low skill labourer for 5 days. This laborer will be able to scrimp together 34 c.p. a week if he doesn't have to pay for his housing and clothing. If he has to pay 1/2 his post diet income he'll be shelling out 17 c.p. a week for housing, that's a lot for a market village (it's paying to feed the owner of the residence, his wife and a child for 44 days, assuming they are paying market prices for a meager diet). If clothing costs half of what's left the poor labourer is going to spend 442 cp a year on clothes and shoes. Assuming he's frugal and can keep 1/2 his money safe after taxes,fees and upkeep the unskilled bachelor will be able to save up 2 g.p. a year. But he's not, he's human, he wants to drink and eat better so that fellows saving at best 5 s.p. a year.
That puts the 105 g.p. average adventurers start out with in perspective. That's enough to support a young bachelor day labourer for 4 years, it'd take that poor sod 210 years to save up those funds.
How much does it take to hire a skilled labourer in a market town who has a wife and a child?
The fellow would need food for 2.5 people. He'd need to clothe them and provide shelter. shelter wouldn't cost 2.5 times as much it might only cost twice a much (and that is high) as it did the unskilled bachelor. That's 1768 c.p. a year for housing.
1/2 that for clothing and other material household goods so another 884 c.p. a year there.
Next is food. He'll want to eat and drink better then the young bachelor or widower codger so that's 10 c.p. a day for him. 8 c.p. a day for the wife and 4 c.p. a day for the child, requiring 6864 c.p. a year for the family food.
Let's not forget taxes and fees which we'll access to be at least as much as cost of clothing and other goods. so another 884 c.p. a year. Townsmen that don't make a lot get off easy on taxes.
So the Skilled labourer has to make 10,400 c.p. a year or 33.1/3 cp a day to make ends meet. Since the wife can cook at home the price for food is actually less but since there is a desire to eat better then barely at all the cost of food is still 3/4 the calculated level but this frees up 1716 c.p. a year. If 1/4 of that can be saved (4g.p., 3 s.p and 9 c.p.) the skilled labourer is saving up the average adventurers starting funds in a little over 24 years.
Hiring the skilled labourer for but a day would actually cost one about 8 s.p. as they'd need to compensate for other trade they may lose.
Now we come to a skilled artisan. They are more expensive. A skilled artisan is going to need to earn more then a skilled labourer to pay for upkeep of household, apprentices and household. Making twice again as much as a skilled laborer will mean a household income of 20,800 c.p. a year. Taxes and guild fees are taking 20% of that in a year so the artisan is still going to have 16,640 c.p. a year on hand to house and feed family and apprentices. 14742 a year to feed 4.5 people (Artisan, wife, 2 apprentices, child) ... how does an artisan make ends meet? From the benefit of the apprentices labour which rakes in an extra 2912 c.p. a year (taxed at same rate as master) so the true income with a master and 2 apprentices is 4659 c.p. a year for a grand total after tax income of 22,129 c.p. a year. Giving a savings of 923 c.p. a year. Providing a young adventurer with his starting funds in 11.5 years.
Such an artisan could be hired away for short term work at 10 g.p. a week.
Unusual crafts and trades can earn 3 to 5 times as much.
What about the very small rural free farmer? He owes 1/4 his produce to his local lord.
To feed 2.5 people a very small rural free farmer would have to maintain a farm of 4 acres. Those 4 acres will supply 160 bushels of grain. The farmer gets to keep 3/4 x .9 of that for a remainder of 108 bushels. The farmer will need to keep 90 of those bushels for seed and to feed the 2.5 people. Leaving 28 bushels for sale out of the 4 acres of land giving the rural free farmer 420 c.p. a harvest in cash to provide for clothing, tools and sundries. if 1/4 of 1/4 can be saved that's 26 cp a year in savings.
Peasants get to keep 1/2 the grain they produce in a year. Peasants would have to work 6 acres of land to feed 2.5 people.
To feed 1 lord, 1 lady, 3 children, 1 lady in waiting at twice the common standard and 4 household servants and 10 soldiers and half again the common standard would require 96096 c.p. a year (let's not worry about horses for now).
To collect that much from produce of sales of grain raised on the land would require over 320 acres worked by serfs.
Now let's add on horses. 2 quality Riding horses for the lord, 1 quality horse for the lady, 4 ponies for lady in waiting and the children, 1 war horse for the lord and 5 hackneys for the men at arms means 9 bushels worth of grain a day. An acre of land produces 40 bushels so it takes the production from an additional 162 acres to feed the horses for a year. Let's not forget grooms now that's 4 more mouths to feed for the estate. A smith would also need to be employed that's another 4.5 mouths for the estate. That's another 19 acres of land so a total of 500 acres for the estate to feed the lord, his family, dedicated servants and a retinue of 10 soldiers. 3/4 of the land is farmed by serfs the other 1/4 by freemen means the total population of the estate will be about 124. With no cash surplus. oh dear the lord need more land to earn enough to maintain his retinue ... (to be continued)
----------
All of that from setting a price of a large loaf of bread at 4 c.p.
It's all based around the cost and production of a large loaf of bread (2 lb, 2200 calories, a man could live on this many calories).
I set a low but noticeable price for a baker to charge for a large loaf of bread of 4cp.
the 4cp price assumes the costs of making bread roughly based on real world home baking costs.
1 lb of flour = 1 cp
1 tsp salt = 1/100 cp
yeast = 7/100 cp
fuel = 1/2 cp
costs to make a large loaf of bread= (2 + 0.02 + 0.14 + 0.5) = 2.66 cp
the darned baker makes a darned profit of 1.34 c.p. per loaf of bread! But of course he also has to pay for his own bread, drink and shelter out of profits.
I also worked out a 1 lb loaf of bread to have a purchase price of 2.5 c.p.
The baker likely saves a lot on fuel because he has a good oven that fits lot's of bread but I don't want to go too crazy figuring out prices of things.
Someone baking at home can likely produce their bread cheaper then buying it at the bakery if allowed to do so legally (and might be factored in sometime somehow, eventually).
So where does that flour come from to make that bread? Well it's milled from grain harvested on a farm of course.
A bushel of grain will produce enough flour to make 30 large loaves of bread.
An acre of land can produce 30-50 bushels of grain (the yield of modern non irrigated wheat, in the 19th century some folks were managing far more but the 30-50 bushels and acre figure feels safe and I'm going with it)
Using an average of 40 bushels an acre of land produces enough grain to be ground into flour so folks can bake 1200 large loaves of bread from the produce of one acre. That will keep a no-farmer alive for 39 months (assuming the grain and bread doesn't spoil before it can be eaten). A farmer is likely going to need twice as much food so really we're feeding a farmer for about 19 months from that yield (if he got to keep an eat all of it). Of course if the farmer eats all of it it never goes to market or feeds a lord or his men-at-arms.
What's the grain worth from an acre of land? It produces enough flour to bake 1200 large loaves so that's , 2400 c.p. worth of flour. But it isn't flour until it's milled so by totally arbitrary fiat I set the price of grain to 1/2 that of flour so that's 1200 c.p. worth of grain. But that's at market square prices, in mass quantities and wholesale rates that grain is going to go for as low as half that so 600 c.p. worth of grain harvested in an acre of land. That's 6 g.p., farmers would be loaded...but of course they have to eat themselves and pay/trade for help not to mention the taxes and fees of the local lord.
What are folks drinking anyway? In pre-modern times water wasn't the safest thing to drink, the common drink was beer (or ale whatever the locals call it and the local recipe produced).
One gallon of beer takes about 4 lbs of "sugars" (we'll use grain here as a raw and sane measure). So with an acre producing 2400 lbs of grain (40 bushels x 60 lbs a bushel) we've got enough grain to make ourselves 600 gallons of beer.
A pint of beer has about 200 calories in it and it can get you drunk too. A pint of beer with a market not too far from production would cost about 1 c.p.
An acre of land would be producing the ingredients (other then water) for 4800 pints of beer. That's 4800 c.p. for the village local (too bad he doesn't get his beer for free).
A large loaf of bread and 2 quarts of beer will supply a man with his calories for a day (just barely). So it costs this unspecified meager diet worker 8 c.p. a day to eat and drink. That's 56 c.p. a week or 2912 c.p. a year. Assuming one get's their bread and beer at market prices. Baking at home (if legal) will save 487 c.p. a year (if paying market prices for ingredients) so the homebody laborer needs 2425 c.p. a year to eat and drink in minimal form.
Folks back on the farm, and that's about 90% of everyone there is, is getting grain at 1/4 the price of the not too far off market place. Of Course they have to pay to get that grain milled to make flour (but not necessarily to make beer) so let's say they lose 10% of their grain in milling fees. Folks back on the farm can manage to bake their own bread with flour that costs them (assuming they had to "pay" for their own grain) much less so they can produce a large loaf of bread for 1.215 c.p. (assuming fuel costs are as much as in the market place). The farming family baking at home and brewing beer (which I'm pricing at 2/3 market rates because I'm lazy) is going to be able to keep a man in a meager poor diet for 3.88 cp a day, it costs a farming family 1412 c.p. a year to feed a man for a year.
So in a rural village one can hire a man for 1 s.p. a day for short term work as this is providing enough coin for 2.5 days worth of food (this feeds a man, his wife and a child for a day). Long term labour costs more if one is hiring a man away from a great deal of work and upkeep of his home.
In a market town that man is going to cost more to hire then his purely rural counter part as he has to pay much more for his food (and his shelter, be getting there sometime). Paying a man for 2.5 days worth of food and drink as a guide to cut rate short term employment is going to cost at least 20 cp (or 2 s.p) a day. This will likely only be buying the labor of unskilled youths,bachelors or old men with no families or residence of note to maintain.
In a market town 1 g.p buys one a low skill labourer for 5 days. This laborer will be able to scrimp together 34 c.p. a week if he doesn't have to pay for his housing and clothing. If he has to pay 1/2 his post diet income he'll be shelling out 17 c.p. a week for housing, that's a lot for a market village (it's paying to feed the owner of the residence, his wife and a child for 44 days, assuming they are paying market prices for a meager diet). If clothing costs half of what's left the poor labourer is going to spend 442 cp a year on clothes and shoes. Assuming he's frugal and can keep 1/2 his money safe after taxes,fees and upkeep the unskilled bachelor will be able to save up 2 g.p. a year. But he's not, he's human, he wants to drink and eat better so that fellows saving at best 5 s.p. a year.
That puts the 105 g.p. average adventurers start out with in perspective. That's enough to support a young bachelor day labourer for 4 years, it'd take that poor sod 210 years to save up those funds.
How much does it take to hire a skilled labourer in a market town who has a wife and a child?
The fellow would need food for 2.5 people. He'd need to clothe them and provide shelter. shelter wouldn't cost 2.5 times as much it might only cost twice a much (and that is high) as it did the unskilled bachelor. That's 1768 c.p. a year for housing.
1/2 that for clothing and other material household goods so another 884 c.p. a year there.
Next is food. He'll want to eat and drink better then the young bachelor or widower codger so that's 10 c.p. a day for him. 8 c.p. a day for the wife and 4 c.p. a day for the child, requiring 6864 c.p. a year for the family food.
Let's not forget taxes and fees which we'll access to be at least as much as cost of clothing and other goods. so another 884 c.p. a year. Townsmen that don't make a lot get off easy on taxes.
So the Skilled labourer has to make 10,400 c.p. a year or 33.1/3 cp a day to make ends meet. Since the wife can cook at home the price for food is actually less but since there is a desire to eat better then barely at all the cost of food is still 3/4 the calculated level but this frees up 1716 c.p. a year. If 1/4 of that can be saved (4g.p., 3 s.p and 9 c.p.) the skilled labourer is saving up the average adventurers starting funds in a little over 24 years.
Hiring the skilled labourer for but a day would actually cost one about 8 s.p. as they'd need to compensate for other trade they may lose.
Now we come to a skilled artisan. They are more expensive. A skilled artisan is going to need to earn more then a skilled labourer to pay for upkeep of household, apprentices and household. Making twice again as much as a skilled laborer will mean a household income of 20,800 c.p. a year. Taxes and guild fees are taking 20% of that in a year so the artisan is still going to have 16,640 c.p. a year on hand to house and feed family and apprentices. 14742 a year to feed 4.5 people (Artisan, wife, 2 apprentices, child) ... how does an artisan make ends meet? From the benefit of the apprentices labour which rakes in an extra 2912 c.p. a year (taxed at same rate as master) so the true income with a master and 2 apprentices is 4659 c.p. a year for a grand total after tax income of 22,129 c.p. a year. Giving a savings of 923 c.p. a year. Providing a young adventurer with his starting funds in 11.5 years.
Such an artisan could be hired away for short term work at 10 g.p. a week.
Unusual crafts and trades can earn 3 to 5 times as much.
What about the very small rural free farmer? He owes 1/4 his produce to his local lord.
To feed 2.5 people a very small rural free farmer would have to maintain a farm of 4 acres. Those 4 acres will supply 160 bushels of grain. The farmer gets to keep 3/4 x .9 of that for a remainder of 108 bushels. The farmer will need to keep 90 of those bushels for seed and to feed the 2.5 people. Leaving 28 bushels for sale out of the 4 acres of land giving the rural free farmer 420 c.p. a harvest in cash to provide for clothing, tools and sundries. if 1/4 of 1/4 can be saved that's 26 cp a year in savings.
Peasants get to keep 1/2 the grain they produce in a year. Peasants would have to work 6 acres of land to feed 2.5 people.
To feed 1 lord, 1 lady, 3 children, 1 lady in waiting at twice the common standard and 4 household servants and 10 soldiers and half again the common standard would require 96096 c.p. a year (let's not worry about horses for now).
To collect that much from produce of sales of grain raised on the land would require over 320 acres worked by serfs.
Now let's add on horses. 2 quality Riding horses for the lord, 1 quality horse for the lady, 4 ponies for lady in waiting and the children, 1 war horse for the lord and 5 hackneys for the men at arms means 9 bushels worth of grain a day. An acre of land produces 40 bushels so it takes the production from an additional 162 acres to feed the horses for a year. Let's not forget grooms now that's 4 more mouths to feed for the estate. A smith would also need to be employed that's another 4.5 mouths for the estate. That's another 19 acres of land so a total of 500 acres for the estate to feed the lord, his family, dedicated servants and a retinue of 10 soldiers. 3/4 of the land is farmed by serfs the other 1/4 by freemen means the total population of the estate will be about 124. With no cash surplus. oh dear the lord need more land to earn enough to maintain his retinue ... (to be continued)
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All of that from setting a price of a large loaf of bread at 4 c.p.
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