Number Appearing & Distribution

On any monster chart in the Bestiary, the number appearing indicates how many individuals of that monster will normally appear within a two-mile hex.  Thus, in the example on the right, the number of camels that would be foraging in a hex of that size would number 3-12.

This number will be distributed in various patterns depending on the behaviour of the monster.  These patterns include:

• Tight group: in a cluster moving closely together, usually less than one body length apart, frequently touching one another.
• Group: in a body moving one to three body lengths apart, usually in the same direction, highly conscious of one another.
• Loose Group: in a collection moving four to seven body lengths apart, generally in the same direction with stragglers.  Beta-male groups are sometimes distinct from the alpha-male with females group.
• Scattered Group: creatures gather in groups of 2-4, often out of sight or unrelated to each other, foraging or hunting over a very wide area.  Separate groups gather together seasonally for mating.
• Scattered: creatures may appear singly or in family pairs, mating with other singles or remaining alone through their lives.
• Widely scattered:  nearly always encountered as individuals.

The chances of any camels being in such a hex (because often a hex should have no monsters of that type at all) is equal to the relative power of the monster.  For that we use the following formula:

"SA" denotes special abilities, so the formula below the line for the wild camel would be 1 special ability (spit) plus the square root of 3 HD, a total of 2.73.  Then, 1 over 2 to the power of 2.73 equals 0.151, or a 15.1% chance that the two-mile hex includes a herd of wild camels.

Desirably, once we could calculate all the creatures present in a given hex, a ranger with sufficient sage knowledge would be able to explore such a hex in a few days and identify the spoor of most of the natural animals present, even if they were not actually seen.  Should a particular kind of monster with many appearing be indicated, obviously these would be quite easy to find.  However, a single highly dangerous monster might take a long time to root out ~ if its presence could even be detected.

For what monsters appear in what environments, see Range (monster habitats).

Tea Leaf Reading (occult practice)

Also called tasseography, this practice is based upon directing energy through brewing, drinking and carefully observing the patterns of tea leaves as they gather in the bottom of a tea cup.  The practice is demanding for some and simple for others ~ the occultist must be able to discern images in the cup using their imagination as a keen observer.

The tea must be brewed with tea leaves that are purchased before they are minced; for the beginner, black teas are recommended because they are easier to read.  The tea leaves are placed directly into the traditional cup, which should be made of white china and have a handle.  A strainer is not used.  As the tea steeps and the hot water cools, the occultist will take a few moments to reflect on their thoughts.  During this process, it is believed that wild magic begins to transfer its energy into the tea.

The occultist, or querent as it is called in tea leaf reading, should begin sipping the tea, contemplating a question in their minds.  When there is very little tea left in the cup, no more than a tablespoon, the querent holds the cup in their left hand and swirls it three times from left to right.  Then, without transferring the cup out of the left hand, the querent inverts the cup over the saucer, letting the water drain out.  The cup is left for a minute, then turned three times in a complete circle before it is turned upright again.  Done properly, tea leaves will cling to the cup in a variety of shapes.

These shapes will form animals, mythical beings, objects, letters and numbers ~ but the occultist must be able to physically look at the leaves and actually see these things.  Additionally, the tea cup's handle, held away from the querent, helps define if the objects describe immediate events or things relating to family, wealth, luck and so on ~ this last need not be fully investigated at this time, as this entry serves as a placeholder until such a time as a player chooses tea reading as their occult practice.

See Occultism

Tarot (occult practice)

The manner of divining events through drawing cards from a specific deck containing 78 cards, including the suits of Cups, Petacles, Swords and Wands (together known as the minor arcana), as well as 22 cards of the Major Arcana.

The cards are drawn and laid down to first deduce which card is pulled, then the orientation of that card ~ whether it is upright or reversed.  Each card that is pulled with the express purpose of divining events or characteristics of the world causes the manifestation of wild magic to occur.  This effect results whether one card is pulled or many, but only if the occultist draws the card and only if the act of drawing the card is done specifically to learn the secrets the card will tell.  The more cards that are drawn, the more complex ~ and potentially chaotic ~ the results may be.

This is because tarot cards can offer profoundly beneficial and profoundly malignant events ... and the more cards that are pulled, the more likely that a malignant event will place itself at the heart of all other events dictated by the cards.

This is not how traditional tarot works precisely ... but of course, tarot as a practice is all talk and no substance.  In terms of game, real magic results as the cards are drawn, not mere words ~ and it takes very little badness to undermine even a lot of goodness, as we all have experienced.

Descriptions for the tarot cards themselves, and what the DM is to do about them, can be downloaded through this link.  Each card comes with a phrase to give the players, which they must decipher for themselves; this is followed by a prescription for the DM's in-game response.  I do not fear the full disclosure, as obviously the tarot reader would have some idea of what was coming, and a careful DM will be able to hide their tracks well in a school of red herrings.

See Occultism

Numerology (occult practice)

An interpretation of the divine and mystical relationship between numbers and fate, through which the recognition of patterns gives insight into the manifestation of wild magic.  As role-playing is the process of generating numbers, the occult practice of numerology works in a meta-game sense to the rolling of dice ... of which the player is aware but the player character is not.

As such, we should resolve this player ~ player character conflict by imagining that while the player rolls a number than brings about a significant event in the game (say, a 17), the player character that there are 17 grommets in the enemy's belt, notices there are 17 stones on the ground next to the enemy's body or perhaps remembers there were 17 biscuits in the pan for breakfast that day.  None of which really matters; beyond the playability of the occult practice, we need give no more thought to the meta-game aspect than this.

In practicing numerology, the occultist identifies the life path and destiny root numbers for as many as are practical to track.  These numbers are calculated through the method of Chaldean Numerology, which is a method based upon ancient Babylonian practises.  These numbers are calculated by the names of characters and by their date of birth.  When these numbers emerge commonly in play, charts are consulted that indicate the significance of this number reoccurring.

Until such time as a player chooses this occult practice for their character, I prefer to leave the remainder of numerology as a placeholder at this time.

See Occultism

Astrological Chart (occult practice)

Not to be confused with the sage study, Astronomy and Astrology, the study of celestial bodies and the sky.

The making of the astrological chart is a means of divining the fate of an individual by noting the position of the zodiac, the planets, the sun and the moon at the precise moment of an intelligent creature’s birth. Astrology has no power over the lives of brute creatures, including humanoids with an average intelligence less than seven.

Tracing its roots 3,500 years into ancient Mesopotamia, the act of charting an individual’s astrological chart irrevocably sets the fate of that individual, so that events over a period of months, years or even decades will slowly compound to bring about the visitation of that fate. The fate reckoned relates to what heavenly bodies are placed in which houses, balanced by the motions of those bodies at that time, such as the phase of the moon or whether a planet is in retrograde motion. The charts of individuals may indicate they are destined to be rich or poor, popular, cursed, healthy, lucky, to find greatness or possibly die in obscurity.

Obviously, player characters may not wish to know their fate and may resist the occultist investigating these things. However, as the game world is the Earth, as astronomical charts exist to describe the placement of every planet and its movement, as the birthplace is known for each individual and as the time of birth can be determined randomly, it is possible to create an exact astrological chart for any existing character, player or non-player alike.

The exact interpretation of the astrological chart can be left for later when this becomes relevant to game play, which won’t be until a player either chooses this interest as an occultist, or a player pays money to an NPC to have their chart read (which will cost a pretty penny). Until the time when the player and DM can discuss the actual personal time the player needs to make the chart, it is enough that plenty of content already exists surrounding astrology to make a reading practical.

See Occultism

Bone Throwing (occult practice)

A form of occultism by which wild magic is comprehended through the casting of bones or various objects.  For players with little experience in this practice but with sufficient knowledge in the occult, the bones are typically represented by dice.  A more dedicated player may, if wished, employ a more authentic collection of throwing bones ~ though players should be warned that the actual practice of bone throwing is not to be taken lightly.  For the role-playing dilettante, a simple set of dice are recommended.

The player is asked to obtain six unique six-sided dice without numbers, called story cubes or story dice.  Desirably these dice would contain images that were appropriate for the time period.  of the role-playing game (nothing anachronistic). Every image on every die should be unique, a total of 36 images. To this should be added an ordinary six-sided die, preferably with pips and not numbers.  It is important to understand that none of these seven dice should be thrown for any purpose other than rolling bones.

Of the six picture dice, one should be designated as “the self,” the die that specifically defines your game character. Obviously, the die should be chosen with this purpose in mind. Each of the other five story dice must also be assigned a meaning. These meanings can be personal, but unless the player has much experience with bone throwing, it is recommended that these five meanings should be health, wealth, relationships, magic and morality (evil vs. good, wrong vs. right).

The numbered die may then be used varyingly, as a 50/50 to designate male or female, few or many, friend or foe, yes or no and so on; or it may be used as a measure of 1 to 6 to describe importance, danger, chance of success and so on.

Much of the reading beyond this is an art form. The player must interpret the throws based on the meanings of the dice, how they fall, where they touch, the distance or lack thereof between the pieces, what falls nearest to the bone thrower and what falls furthest away. The dice must be thrown with two hands and then effectively a story is made from the results. The story must be explained and accepted as reasonable by the witnesses of the bone thrower.

Authentic Sets

If the bone thrower wants to perform a more authentic means of bone throwing, a collection of objects such as small rocks, bits of driftwood, smoothed pieces of glass, crystals, carved wood figures or whatever feels right should be collected.  Each item must have a genuine memory of location and meaning for when it was acquired, the emotional state it conveys and a comprehension for how the object falls, else a reading is not practical.

For instance, if a bit of petrified wood is included in your collection, that you gained as a child when on a journey to Arizona with your family, the wood will have a distinct shape and ways in which it will come to rest: “facing” away from you, towards you, laying on its back, pointing at another object, pointing at nothing, etcetera, as you interpret it. In this aspect it is your mother, in that your father; its relationships to other things are memories, conflicts, unresolved issues and so on. Bone reading can be extraordinarily esoteric and profoundly personal.

Ten or fifteen “bones” with these connections can make for an intricate reading, one that would be highly difficult for the non-bone thrower to see, since the pieces would be familiar to the reader alone.  Still, as long as the lay of the bones can be defended by the player, this form of authentic bone throwing can be accepted into the game.

Resolution

As ever, the reading made by the bone thrower causes events to come into being; an ill omen occurs, an expected relationship creates a compatible non-player character, enemies or friends turn up to threaten or sustain the party, while events spontaneously occur in keeping with the reading.  This can be a difficult process for the DM, who must be as flexible as the readings themselves.

Some players will attempt to manipulate the results by interpreting every reading as “good luck” or some promise of benefit or success. The DM must be cautious, designating certain pictures or patterns as clearly bad, whatever the player may say. For example, if the die symbolic of the self lands far from any other die in the throw, the player should not be encouraged to see that as “proof” of anything except the obvious meaning that the character does not benefit from the span of distance. Likewise, if the character’s self die lands close to wealth, but far from health, that too speaks to a particular kind of interpretation. Beware of players who will try to massage the interpretation as a means of controlling the results.

For this reason, bone throwing can be particularly troublesome as an occultist knowledge. Remember that it is often to the game’s benefit that the results be good; it does not mean that benefits will simply fall into the player’s lap. The DM is still entitled to create obstacles and require risks, though an occultist will have some warning of those risks.

Ether

Also spelled Aether, the medium of space that tangentially intersects between the Ethereal Plane and the Prime Material Plane.  While natural laws prohibit most animated creatures to leave Earth's atmosphere, even if possessing the means (through flying machines and various magical devices), because natural space is very cold and lacks the means to support life, it is possible through semi-planar travel to pass from natural space into ethereal space.

Ethereal space is not technically within the ethereal plane, but drifting ethereal matter interjects inself into the empty cosmos, filling the void and enabling travel through the resultant increased density.  Objects in natural space must be magically adjusted to take advantage of the dense matter, or "ether," that exists ~ though some creatures, such as the hippogriff, are able to do this naturally.

Knowledge of how to shift from natural space into ethereal space is not generally known.

See Campaign

Sleeping for Rest

Most characters need to sleep at least six hours per 24-hour cycle, if they wish to avoid negative effects from forced march, heal their hit points through rest or regain their spells.

Sleeping must be managed under reasonably comfortable conditions.  Characters cannot sleep in their armor, or while wearing anything uncomfortable; they may not sleep in the open if it is raining; they may not sleep in temperatures that cannot be properly insulated against.  Decibel levels cannot be above 40 dB.  If these conditions are not met, characters may try to sleep, but it is presumed the sleep is ineffective and not restful.

Characters that are sleeping have a chance to awake if roused or if conditions change.  These rules, as well as the sort of sleeper an individual is (heavy, normal, light) are covered under Rouse Sleeping Creatures.

For attacking sleeping persons who will not wake due to approaching stealthily, see Helpless Defenders.

When waking, a formerly sleeping character should be counted as prone and unarmed.  Until 4 action points (AP) are expended by the character to fully awaken themselves, the character should be counted as groggy for combat purposes (-2 to hit).  Rising from a prone position requires 2 AP, while rising from a chair requires 1 AP.  If the character's weapon was laying within reach or beside the character when the character was sleeping, it requires 1 AP to take hold of it, regardless of the weapon's weight or length.

See Also,
Sleep (spell)

Endurance Running I (sage ability)

Enables the physical power necessary to run very long distances, provided the character has sufficient water to drink and is minimally encumbered - that is, the character is carrying little enough that they have the full potential movement, typically 5 action points (AP).

The speed that can be maintained is equal to a cost of ⅖ AP per combat hex.  This equals a distance of 8.52 miles per hour, which can be maintained for a period of up to 3 hours.

During this time, the runner will sweat considerably, double the amount normally lost in perspiration due to dehydration.  This water must be replaced no more than every ten minutes, continuously, either by water that is found or carried.

For example, a 150 lb. character running in warm weather is losing 0.9 lbs. of water every hour, or 13.8 fluid ounces (1.72 cups, or 431 ml).  This equals 2.3 fl. oz. per ten minutes, a little more than a quarter of a cup or 72 ml.  This is about 4 swallows of water (which ranges from 16 to 20 ml per swallow).  Running in this temperature is more or less feasible.

Of course, the runner can stop at any time and search for water.  If the amount of necessary hydration is not achieved, however, movement while running is reduced to normal running speed (½ cost per combat hex) for the following ten minutes.  After that, the runner must reduce their speed to a normal pace.  Once the necessary amount of water has been imbibed to replace all that has been lost since the run began, the character may begin running again, until the three-hour limit has been reached.

See Running (athletic ability)

Fishing (technology)

The activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild, through “capture.” Wild fishing, as it is called, exists in the oceans; in game terms, any hex with a coastal village will produce at least enough fish to support the village. Large stocks of fish occur at places upon continental shelves, accessed by large boats that may travel ocean-wide distances to reach such places. In the time of the world, no over-fishing has occurred.

Fish stocks are affected by water temperature, ocean currents, river estuaries, distance from the coast, presence of coral reefs, ocean rises and seamounts. Oceanic gyres, or upwellings, can transport nutrients to the surface so that rich feeding grounds are created. Most small-boat fishing occurs along rivers and near estuaries, lagoons, intertidal zones on the ocean coast and littoral zones on lakes. Except in hunting whales, most remaining parts of the ocean (the open sea) are impractical to fishing cultures.

Techniques include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping. There is an intricate link between various fishing techniques and knowledge about fish. Fishing folklore has produced a great many theories about how fishing is accomplished and stories of what has happened to fishing folk.

Characters with a fishing background should possess the following bonus skills: fishing sage ability; +1 with spear to hit; use of net as a bonus weapon proficiency. Fishing enables the capture of saltwater and freshwater fish, shellfish, fish fins, seaweed and sponges. These are products themselves and are related to a wide number of byproducts and services.

Examples include basket-making for fish traps, spinning and knitting to produce nets, making of hooks and other tools, and finally boatbuilding. Much fish that’s caught is never marketed and is therefore not a part of the economy; it is fish caught solely to maintain the livelihood of the fishing home or village.

The most successful fishing boat known to date is the dogger, a two-masted ketch gaff-rigged on the main-mast, carrying a lug sail on the mizzen, with two jibs on a long bowsprit. Early forms of the boat have only one mast. They typically displaced 13 tons, carried a ton of bait, three tons of salt, half a ton of food and firewood for the crew. Around six tons of fish could be carried besides this. The dogger was about 50 feet long and had a beam of 14 feet, with a draught of five feet. The dogger also carried a small open oat to maintain the lines and row ashore. Doggers were slow and sturdy.

Less advanced fishing is practiced in undecked fishing boats that are paddled or driven by sails that can be operated by a single person. Most boats like this are suitable only for use near and in sight of the shoreline. Sails are animal skins or woven fabrics; the mast is little more than a pole set upright in the boat. Shapes and styles differ by cultures and environment, including canoes, dugout canoes, rafts, reed boats, coracles, kayaks, catamarans and vakas.

Commercial fishermen usually trade through a fishmonger, who buys fish cheap and then sells or transports it to markets. Fishmongers possess a monopoly on this trade, as a guild, in most parts of the world.

See Technologies

Travel & Movement

As characters move from place to place, they will travel by various means and through a wide variety of environments.  Conditions affecting travel are many, as are the forms of travel.  On foot is most common.  The use of animals can speed movement where roads are available, and hamper movement in areas of dense wilderness.  Boats and ships can make use of oceans, seas, lakes and navigable rivers, but come with their own problems, such as currents and storms.  These things affect flight, as well ~ though this last is the most effective means of covering large distances in the shortest time.

Obstacles

Land travel is most efficient where roads are available.  Paved roads with a hard surface of stone or cement, featuring drainage and a smooth, firm purchase, provide the best ease of movement.  Dirt roads made of loose materials are even and almost as convenient, but they can be muddy and uneven, or worn away to a layer of roots, or ingrown with plants, or suffused with loose stones.  Cart tracks are little more than two ruts, often with a center mound, and often overgrown if the surrounding wilderness is not cut back.  Finally, paths, or trails, wind and follow the landscape, with the worst elements of routes already named.  Even so, all of these are better than pure wilderness.

"Wilderness" is divided into four levels of vegetation.  Steppe, including hard surface deserts lacking in stone, offers little effort to cross, as the ground is firm and dry ~ either because the short vegetation will drain or soak up rainfall, or because rainfall is absent or too scant to affect the surface.

Path & Woodland describes a variety of conditions, where some obstacles challenge movement (stony deserts and tundra, subterranean passages, soft-ground surfaces), or possessing of vegetation that is marked by trees and deep grass, yet with pathways, trails and grassy areas that enable characters to bypass dense areas.  This sort of vegetation includes savannas, veldts, wooded steppelands and open forests, as well as places where creatures have thinned out woodlands by logging.

Closed woodlands lack paths or trails, being strewn with deadfall, underbrush, briars and deep grass.  These dense forests are hard to pass through, particularly with animals, as climbing is necessary to pass though without having to physically cut trails.

Finally, jungles are rainforests so dense with undergrowth that virtually all travel can be thwarted.

Lastly, terrain can be further blocked by landforms, which are described as hills, scattered peaks and dense peaks.  Hills describe all slopes with firm purchase that can be climbed without use of hands, or circumvented if necessary.  Scattered peaks are loose mountainous areas featuring areas of gravel, scree or low ridges, which can be crossed only by scrambling (using hands) or through easy gaps that can nevertheless take hours off a day's journey to locate and pass through.  Dense peaks describe mountain ranges that must be physically climbed ~ which usually includes passes that, although lower in altitude, are little better regarding access.  Dense peaks often feature areas of permanent snow.

Walking

The table below gives the total number of hours that may be travelled in a 10-hour period (a typical day's effort).  To use the table, the characters should calculate their normal movement rate according to encumbrance.  This gives the number of action points (AP) that can be applied to movement.  This then gives the base distance travelled, as shown:

The base distance is then adjusted according to the columns under "fewer miles travelled each day due to conditions."  If a paved or dirt road, or cart track, is followed, then the columns under vegetation should be ignored.  If no road exists, then use the vegetation columns.  Elevation change for hills, scattered peaks or dense peaks is then used in conjunction with other penalties.

For example, Party A, walking with 4 action points and a base distance per day of 25 miles, loses 3 of those miles if they are walking on a dirt road, and 4 more miles if moving through a hilly area.  They would not lose any distance if the road passed through a forest.  Party A would travel 17 miles per day.

Party B, however, walking with the same action points and moving through a closed woodland, would minus 14 miles from their progress.  If they, too, were moving through a hilly area, they would also minus another 4 miles from that progress.  Party B would travel 7 miles per day.

It can be seen that there are several possibilities on the table that would produce a negative result.  For example, Party C is walking with 2 action points through a jungle, which removes 13 miles from their base 14-mile progress per day.  If Party C is also moving through hills, the table indicates that they lose another 4 from that number, resulting in a movement of -3 overall.  How is this possible?

Negative results should be viewed as fractions of a mile, indicating that the terrain is so onerous that it must be physically cut through with machetes and loads dragged over and through endless obstacles.  The minus number should be treated as a fraction's denominator, with a "1" as the numerator.  Thus, a movement of -3 is treated as one third of a mile per day.  For an historical example, I suggest this video.

This is a placeholder for further content regarding animals, water craft, movement under water and flight.

See Campaign

Dehydration

Although water weight is not an exact measure for every individual, for game purposes the amount of hydration which a body demands is equal to 55% of the character's body weight.  Thus, a 200 lb. character is supposed by the rules below to possess 110 lb. of water weight.

This weight is used to calculate how much water the character must intake on a daily basis in order to maintain ideal hydration.  If a character loses 1% of their water weight, say, through daily respiration, this would be a total of 1.1 lbs ... which must then be drunk by the character that day to maintain perfect health.

In most environments, this is not difficult; water can be obtained from wells in urban and most rural areas, or from streams in places that are well-watered.  However, where water is scarce, hydration can become a problem.

Water Loss

The water weight a character possesses can be lost through a variety of mechanisms, as shown on the right.  These are involuntary mechanisms that the character must counteract by drinking water in some form or another.  On average, typical defecation will occur on 4 out of every 6 days, with a mandatory bowel movement happening on the fourth day if the body skips three days in a row (again, this is close enough to common experience for game purposes).  If the character is ill, treat all bowel movements as "diarrhea."  Roll a d4 to determine how much diffusion through the skin occurs.  Roll a d3 for urination.  Typical healthy loss merely indicates the probable amount that is lost, if the DM does not wish to specify.

Perspiration depends on the actual temperature.  To understand the table below, see Temperature Grades.

The hour of perspiration loss should be counted if the character is moving about, travelling, working, or resting directly under the sun.  If the character is resting in the shade, the total body water lost should be reduced by 60% (so that in a baking ambient temperature the water loss would be 2% per hour).

The effects of dehydration, if water is not replenished, can be severe, even enough to produce death.

The water loss column above indicates the present time circumstance of the character ~ which is to say, if the character has lost 3% of the water weight, without replenishing it in this exact moment, then the effects associated with a 3% dehydration will be in place (-1 ability stats, -1 attack die, etcetera) until the character actually drinks enough water to counteract the effect (and a 5 to 10 minute effect rule might be considered).

The character's effective temperature indicates how hot the character feels ~ it does not show the actual temperature the character's body is subject to and therefore there should be no recursive effect between the character's perceived comfort and the actual temperature.  The dehydrated character at -5% during a balmy day may perceive that the day seems sweltering, but the character will continue to perspire at 0.8% water loss per hour.

The ability stats symptom is applied to all stats indiscriminantly.  If, due to dehydration, any of the character's ability stats drop to zero or less, the effects can be severe.  A zero or less strength, constitution or dexterity will indicate that the character has laid down and died.  A zero or less intelligence or wisdom will indicate that the character has gone mad.  They will wander away, gibbering, and most likely make errors in judgement that will amount to death: falling off a cliff, drinking poisonous standing water, eating sand and so on.  A zero or less charisma will cause the character to commit suicide to end their misery.

Thus it can be seen that any character with any ability stat less than 17 will not survive a water loss of more than 25%, even for five minutes.  Most characters will die at a 20% loss.  Many will not survive more than a 15% loss.  With this system, a bowel movement can kill you (though the body may not have sufficient means to defecate, apply the water loss just the same).

Attack rolls and saves work normally.

See Water Discipline

Water Sources (bioregion)

Ponds are bodies of standing water judged to be no larger than 20 acres in size. While it is true that many bodies of water called ‘ponds’ are larger than this, these are more properly designated as lakes for the purpose of these rules.

Ponds are capable of yielding up to 50 lbs of fish food content per acre, per season. Once a pond has been depleted to half this amount, trained anglers must begin to roll a d4 on their primary die just as untrained anglers do, and a d6 on their secondary die. Untrained anglers must roll a d8 on both dice. Once a pond has been depleted to one quarter of its full yield, all dice rolled to catch must be d8 ... but the amount of catch remains unchanged until the pond is fully depleted. Still, a depleted pond this season will nevertheless yield the full amount the following season.

Fishing Ponds are rich sources of fish capable of yielding up to 100 lbs. of fish food content per acre, per season. Success at fishing or amounts taken per day remains unchanged.

Lakes that do not appear upon the pregenerated maps will generally measure up to 2 miles across, or approximately 500 to 2,000 acres. They yield fish at the same level as ponds, for what they make up for in total water volume is diminished by the proximity of that water to the angler.

Fishing Lakes do not increase the likelihood of catches, but where a ‘1’ is rolled on the secondary die for exceptional catches, twice the number of fish are caught and twice the yield are taken (roll d4 or d6 as before for the number of fish, but double it ... no need to worry about all results being even).

Inshore will be areas of the sea or ocean up to three miles from land, typically including areas partially protected by spits, banks or capes. They will yield similarly to ponds with no possibility of depletion.

Outshore Banks will yield as fishing lakes with no possibility of depletion.

Village Leader (title)

An official position associated with a small community of less than 1,000 persons. A village leader is a singular entity or one of a number of village elders who are permitted to establish local legislation for the village and surrounding environs, collect rents, collect taxes on behalf of the local lord and pass judgement upon petty and capital crimes committed by lesser persons residing in the community. Very often this extends to outsiders if the outsider cannot demonstrate their worth or status within the local land to be of importance. Where more than one village leader is present, majority vote decides matters.

To become a village leader, characters must apply to the local noble, monarch or emperor within the land in question. The character must own 100 acres of arable land, upon which must be located a house or shop of no less than 1,000 square feet in size. The character must dress and act outwardly in a dignified manner and must be able and prepared to pay a yearly stipend of 100 g.p. for the improvement of the community.

See Encounters

Precise Hit

The following rule is suspended for game testing [placeholder].
On a precise hit, the target takes damage as normal and must choose either weapon, shield, armor or item (carried or held). The chosen item breaks. Armor does not break but becomes damaged. Each instance of damage to a suit of armor imposes a 1-point penalty to its protective value. When the armor's protection equals 0, it's broken.

If one of the combatants is a warrior, he may choose the item to break/damage with this effect. If both combatants are warriors, the higher level character gets to choose; if tied, the option goes to the defender.

A broken item, weapon, shield or suit of armor may be repaired by a skilled smith (though some circumstances make it impractical).

See Puissance

Near Hit (opportunity)

The following rule is suspended for game testing [placeholder].

An attack roll that equals 1 or 2 points less than the to-hit value required is said to be a near hit.

On a near hit, the target may decide to grapple (wrestle) with the attacker.

If one of the combatants is a warrior, he may choose to declare a grapple on an attack roll between -2 and +2 of the target to-hit value. The warrior chooses regardless if he's attacking or defending. If both combatants are warriors, the higher level character gets to choose; if tied, the option goes to the defender.

If one of the combatants is a monk, he may choose to declare a grapple on an attack roll equal to the to-hit value -2, or above. Monks trump warriors when deciding which combatant may declare a grapple. Resolve the choice between two monks as between two warriors.

Monster Behaviour

This is a placeholder for content which needs to be organized on this subject.

See Bestiary

Modern History

History world-wide relating to the last 150 years. Principal features are the expansion of empires throughout Africa and the rise of the European slave trade, the religious wars of Europe and the expansion of Moscovy, the hegemony of the Ottoman, Safavid and Moghul empires, the steady decline of the Ming dynasty in China and the expansion of European power in the New World.

Present day begins 1650.

See History

Wish (spell)

This is a placeholder for further adjustment and elaboration.
Original Player Handbook Description:A 9th level mage spell, enabling the caster to wish for something. The spell is intended as an augmentation to the limited wish spell, allowing players to, once again, restore hit points, resurrect a dead creature, escape from a situation and ~ though it is implied but not stated ~ somehow affect reality. The spell includes a punishment of 2-8 days of bed rest and -3 strength for using (does a mage care about strength?) and a strong rejoiner about the DM's discretion. Somehow, the wish spell shouldn't be used to wish some other creature dead, though this is completely possible using the 6th level death spell, which does not provide a saving throw for the intended victims. It is also stated that there could be consequences by way of the DM interpreting the words of the spell, so that "the exact terminology of the wish spell is likely to be carried through."

This seems a shoddy, reprehensible means of trying to curtail the player's use of a high level spell, which cannot be obtained at all except after a tremendous gain in experience. Clearly, the game designer, having conceived of the spell, is immediately terrified of what the spell can do and thus seeks to punish the player by demands of protocol and weakness for daring to use (or pick) the spell, attempting to curb the proliferation of the spell through fear rather than a reasonable limitation.

See Mage 9th Level Spells

Limited Wish (spell)

This is a placeholder for further adjustment and elaboration.

Original Player Handbook Description:
A 7th level mage spell, enabling the caster to wish for something. The spell is limited in that it will not change major realities and it will not bring wealth or experience for the asking. Effectively, the spell has the ability to reproduce the effects of a lot of other spells: restoring hit points, reducing hit probabilities, adjusting a magical effect, charming a creature, obtaining information ~ and for all these relatively minor effects for a 7th level spell, there is the threat that "Greedy desire will usually end in disaster for the wisher."

On the whole, a poorly written spell that clearly seeks to limit the player's ability to use it for any unique purpose. Needs improvement. See Wish (spell).

20-mile Hex Map

Describes the most common hex-sized used to create maps in Alexis' game world. Each hex measures 20 miles from side to side, or a total of 259 square miles per hex. Most area references use the number of hexes that a region covers rather than the number of square miles, as it is easier for players to envision that a circular area covers seven hexes and is 60 miles wide that it is for them to envision 1,813 square miles, a region larger than Rhode Island.

See Sheet Maps

Dev Level 6

Regions with this level of advancement will be mixed agricultural and nomadic clans supported by primitive agriculture, animal husbandry, the availability of the wheel, archery and mining, supported by hunting, fishing and foraging for food. Philosophy, religion and thought will follow complex interpretations of mysticism (animism and mantraism). The family clan continues to be the primary social authority. Clothing is dependent upon skinning and trapping. Luxuries consist of fine tools, prize animals, weapons and shaped metals.

These regions fit into five geographical types. Two types possess readily available wood: boreal forests (cold, northerly, including mixed forest) and wooded steppe (temperate). The remaining three lack the availability of wood: desert (tropical to temperate), wooded steppe (temperate) and tundra (arctic). Archery, the wheel and deep mining tend to be lacking where wood is rare, though isolated copses of trees (from oases, river banks) will be appropriated for these techs whenever possible.

Some technologies will not have penetrated into the regions due to geographical obstacles. Issykiang and Trakhan are mountain kingdoms above 8,000 feet in the Tien Shan and Himalaya mountains, high above the treeline and virtually impassable by road or cart; trade is accomplished by donkey and mule. Boreal forests and tundra enable the herding of reindeer but not most traditionally domesticated animals.

Entities

Occupants of these regions will possess three motivations: personal freedom, communal survival and the quest for power. In terms of encounters, this will translate into distinct groups: bands, clans, drovers and tribes:

Bands
Clans
Drovers
Tribes

Encounters

Of the four factions described, bands are the most dangerous, with the least to lose. They are very dangerous to parties, as a band of humanoids are likely to prefer raiding or ambushing strangers to parley. Clans will tend to be very passive, preferring to trade information and goods. Drovers will be very protective of their herds and view strangers as probable thieves, acting to drive strangers away and adopting a very aggressive posture in order to ensure this happens.

Tribes will welcome strangers into a town, though a tribal warrior is certain to approach the party and ask what their purpose is, where they have come from, what they expect to do - and to challenge one of them to a one-on-one duel either out of respect (to match abilities) or to correct bad behaviour (if the player has broken a cultural norm). In the village, these combats are never to the death and rarely even involve weapons. Players who use weapons or kill warriors will be seen as cowards or as evil spirits, deserving of the whole village eradicating them and their friends for the good of all.

If food is abundant, the players may be offered three to five days worth of provisions freely. In scarce times, strangers will be threatened to go away. During the winter, most of the population will largely hibernate in their homes. Desert peoples will loll during the hottest months or during the hottest times of the day.

Training & Weapons

Because there is no formal training or education, levels occur among those only because they have had obtained experience through direct combat. Warriors will be of 1st to 3rd level. 1-2 of the elders will be shamans, equivalent to 1st to 2nd level fighters. The chief will be 2nd to 5th level. Every leveled combatant will be proficient with the club and the short bow (except that most desert cultures will prefer a sling to the bow). In addition, the remainder will prefer either a spear or a javelin.

Animals will not be ridden into combat but may be used as transport to the battle, camels in the desert and horses in steppelands. Dogs will be domesticated, so that there is a 50% chance that a band or a clan will have 1-4 trained war dogs with them.

Most combats in the wild will be defensive and concentrate upon ranged combat rather than attempting to close for hand-to-hand (primarily because melee weapons are lacking). Ambush is always preferred to a straight-up fight. If there is no significant effect against opponents after three or four volleys, combatants will give ground, preferring to wear the enemy down over several days with guerrilla tactics, before asking for tribute to end the harassment.

Villages will close together and all persons will aggressively fight to the last individual rather than give up their villages.

Agriculture

With the expansion of herding and agriculture, the inhabitants diets are primarily founded on meat, milk and staple crops: grains and other starches and tuber vegetables. Because of a lack of irrigation, crops must be sturdy and able to survive weeks without rainfall. Most years produce just enough food for the community, as much of the food supply is lost due diseases among animals, poor weather (including violent storms that destroy crops), insects and drought. Approximately one year in seven will produce an bountiful crop that is stored in clay or crude stone granaries. When food is abundant, the herds are allowed to increase in number; when food supply grows scarce, a larger part of the herds is usually slaughtered.

Much of the food supply still comes from hunting and gathering, though this will be limited to within four miles of the cultivated fields. Thus, the supply of fish in the rivers, wild fruit, nuts and honey in the forests, hay from the meadows and so on is carefully managed rather than wholly depleted, which could mean the death of the settlement.

Shifting cultivation is the norm for the fields. Any piece of land that is farmed will become devoid of nutrients entirely after five or six years, with yields declining. Thereafter, farmers will abandon the old field, clear a new plot and allow the forest to reestablish itself through flooding or fire. Desert dwellers may abandon a depleted oasis and move to another, or spend a year digging out an oasis in the hopes that it will replenish itself. It may take 10-20 years for a used plot to become worthy of farming again. Where farming is the norm, a farmer's field may be as far away as a mile from their home.

Settlements

A substantial settlement will exist among the fields, with fixed wooden buildings when wood is available, clay structures in desert climes. Some regions will still employ tents as a primary dwelling, though these will be fixed around a reliable oasis or other natural food supply. Low brick walls, the sort that will not need engineering to build (three or four feet high) will surround all settlements. Houses will usually not include doors, nor lintels, wooden roofs (woven wood and thatch). Homes will be small, designed only for sleeping, with much of the resident's lives being lived outdoors.

These settlements will be scattered rather than tight in form. A single village of 500 residents may cover an area up to a mile in diameter. Individuals will raise small crop gardens around their homes and allow most animals to move about without pens (though larger animals may be tied off to trees or to the houses themselves). Settlements will be quiet and unoccupied during the day.as most of the population will migrate outwards to the fields, or to herd their flocks, in the morning, not returning until night. Most cooking and eating is done outside.

There will be no market, no money exchange, no services of any kind, nothing that can be bought or for the most part no work available for those seeking employment.

Organization

There is enough food in tech 6 regions that groups to slowly grow large and subdivide. Clans will produce multiple clans that will continue to identify as 'tribes' even though they may not live together in settlements - these disparate clans will make arrangements to meet one another at times of the year ('festivals') and help one another. Clans will spawn bands. Settlements will form when a tribe finds an area that can support several clans. A single tribe may include both settlement-dwellers and migrant clans.

Women will work alongside men and children will often be carried along or left at the edge of fields where they will be cared for by other children. Finding a group of untended children will not be unusual, but these will usually flee if approached.

Tribes, whether scattered or organized in a settlement, will typically be led by chiefs. By tradition, the chief of one of the largest or oldest tribes in the region will be responsible for choosing the monarch or overlord of the whole region (sultan, orkhan, subahdar, count, sheik, etcetera). Some regions, such as the Don Cossacks or the Zafara Bedouins, have no nominal heads of the various tribes. In such cases, joint policy is carried on by council. Typically all the tribes pay a tribute (spices, incense, mined gems, weapons) when a monarch of some kind exists.

Some regions will have ongoing blood feuds between specific tribes which have gone on for generations.

See Development Levels

Pogroms

Pogroms are attacks perpetrated against religious congregations or temples that are not part of the accepted social culture - defined as any religious group not represented among the elite classes in local authority. Religious persecution may occur in any part of the world and may take many forms, so that pogroms may be carried out against pagan cults, the religions of foreigners, missions founded upon the fringes of animistic societies and schisms within the same religion.

Famous subjects of pogroms would include the Jews of Europe, the Cathars, Gnostics, both Sunnis and Sufis and Christian settlements in Africa and America, Protestants vs. Catholics and Christians vs. Presbyterians . . . but in effect any minority congregation may be targeted for its isolated beliefs. It should be noted that the more successful - and therefore visible - an outside religious congregation is, the greater the perceived threat and the more likely a pogrom will occur.

To be counted as visible, a religion contrary to the social culture must have its temple located in a hex group of IV or less. Otherwise, the temple is considered to exist on the fringes of the culture and therefore can be safely ignored. Congregations existing in hex groups of V, VI or VII need not roll to see if pogroms occur. However, should such a hex increase its number of inhabitants to where its infrastructure becomes a IV, then that temple and congregation would have to begin rolling the chance of a pogrom occurring each month.

This chance is quite low. The character overseeing the local temple must roll against the % of potential worshippers within the local 2-mile hex. Note that the actual worshippers are not the measure, since it is a perceived threat, not an actual threat, that will initiate the pogrom. Note also that the participants in the pogrom will probably not be persons local to the congregation's hex - but rather, outsiders who have indirect ties to the locality (they may originate from any part of the political region - and may in fact be soldiers directed to commit the pogrom by the kingdom's elite).

If this percentage is rolled on a d100, the character then rolls 2d6. If a two results - snake eyes - then a pogrom results.

(Content for determination of pogrom form to be added later; this is a placeholder.  List should include arson, mass murder and forced migration - though the last does not fall technically under the definition of the word 'pogrom,' in game terms the word pogrom is being used to cover negative action being used against outsider religions)

Feeding the Poor (charity)

Feeding the poor is a means to gain access to unskilled labor while at the same time promoting good will in a community, primarily for the purpose of reducing the chance of a pogrom.

The total number of potential poor that can be so fed is a percentage of a 6-mile hex's inhabitants based upon the infrastructure (thus, a greater pool than the cleric's congregational locality).

Thus, if there were 4,000 total inhabitants within a hex group with a designation of IV, 200 of those would be poor. To benefit from feeding these, the character must provide half their sustenance. Because families are fed and not individuals (comprising both children and adults), a monthly average of 78 lbs. of food must be provided on average to each family (counted as an average of 6.25 mouths to feed).

For every family so fed, the feeder of the poor may rely upon 2 labourers giving a total of 30 days of donated labour, which must be performed kically (within the 6-mile hex where the family resides). For every 4 families fed (a total of 312 lbs.), thc chance of a pogrom occurring (based upon a cleric's congregational percentage) is reduced by 1%. In the example above, 200 persons would equal 32 families; if all were fed, the total chance of a pogrom would be reduced by 8%.

The food provided may be the cheapest available, so long as it conforms to the following: 6 lbs. of meat; 9 lbs. of fruit; 14 lbs. of vegetables; 46 lbs. of grains or tubers & 24 fl. oz. (counted as 3 lbs.) of beer, wine or spirits.

A cleric may pick and choose when to feed the poor - it need not be every month, or even the same number of persons every month. The chance for a pogrom and the provided labour will be gained whenever a month of food is provided for the requisite whole families.

Congregations (religious)

Having contructed a temple of sufficient size, the number of potential worshippers will depend upon the number of inhabitants surrounding location of the temple, the local infrastructure, the charisma of the cleric, dimensions of the temple and the amount of ornamentation that has been incorporated into the temple's design.

Begin with the group designation of the hex where the cleric has gained permission to build. This refers to the pre-existing infrastructure of the area. Hex groups six miles in diameter are rated in value from I to VIII (using Roman numerals), where I possesses the highest level of infrastructure and VIII possesses no infrastructure at all. Hex groups with designations of VIII have no inhabitants. Those with VI or VII have few inhabitants; those with I or II have many.

Note, however, that the cleric does not draw from the population of the entire 6-mile hex group. Each group is divided into seven 2-mile hexes - it is the inhabitants of this local 2-mile hex that is used to determine the cleric's potential congregation.

The cleric's charisma is expressed as a percentage multiplied by the infrastructure designation. The DM will be able to calculate the total number of inhabitants in the hex. Where the population is very high (densest levels will be more than 20,000 persons per 2-mile hex), there will be competition from other temples that will lower the cleric's draw. Each 1,000 population will reduce the cleric's charisma by 1 point.

Thus, a cleric with a 15 wisdom, building a temple in a hex group designated V would draw a base 75% of the inhabitants of the 2-mile diameter hex surrounding the temple. If, however, the total inhabitants numbered 3,000 persons, the cleric's charisma would be reduced to 12 and the calculated percentage reduced to 12 x 5 or 60%. If this number is reduced to zero, then the cleric's charisma and temple alone is not enough to draw worshippers in the area.

If it happens that the potential congregation is greater than 100% of the area's inhabitants, this will mean that additional worshippers are being drawn from other surrounding hexes, beyond the location of the temple.

Increasing the size of the temple [placeholder] and ornamentation can add bonuses to a cleric's charisma.

Where the temple itself is not be large enough to accommodate the whole potential congregation, clerics may rely upon a full congregation weekly. Where the reverse is true and the congregation is actually smaller than the temple, then efforts such as expanding the temple's size would be superfluous.

Note that the numbers above describes only the potential worshippers. To actually gain a congregation, a cleric must sacrifice 1 week in personal communication with the residents to build 10 weekly attendants (see Proselytize). Thus, if a temple had a capacity of 200 worshippers, the cleric would need to spend 20 weeks total to bring that temple up to its full capacity weekly.

To retain a congregation, the cleric must deliver a service once per week. Each failure to appear will reduce the total congregation by 15% - whereupon more weeks of personal communication must be sacrificed winning these worshippers back. This pressure can only be relieved by obtaining a lesser cleric to jointly manage services - but this cleric too must also communicate with the locals, in effect building a parallel congregation using the same base temple, based upon that lesser cleric's charisma.

While the balance of weekly parishioners will offer tithes of 1 or 2 c.p. per week, or even none at all, the balance of wealthier worshippers will balance this so that the cleric may count on 2 s.p. per attending worshipper per week (a random die roll is suspended due to the potential of needing a hundred or more rolls). Moreover, if the cleric attends their temple for four weeks in succession, if the cleric succeeds in a charisma check then the cleric will receive a gift will be received of 20-80 g.p. Roll a d20 to determine the form: livestock (1-3), land (4-9), food for the poor (10-13), a contribution for expansion/ornamentation (cleric's decision) of the temple (14-15), a legacy in the form of coin (16), furniture (17), incense (18), a silversmithed object (19) or clothing (20).

If a cleric has gathered more than 100 worshippers and commits contractually to giving services no less than three times per month, the community/local lord will pay a stipend of 50 g.p. per month to the cleric. If the coin is accepted, the cleric will be asked occasionally to take actions which will pacify the local population (speaking out against violence, encouraging the peasants to know their place, feeding the poor, etc.).

If the temple exists in an area where the cleric's religion is part of the accepted social structure, the cleric will be asked to contribute 10% of the tithes received to superiors - this payment does not extend to gifts received nor the cleric's monthly stipend. If the cleric's religion is isolated from the community, this percentage of tithes need not be paid - but should the cleric wish to seek out the appropriate superiors and pay it anyway, there are benefits from this.

For example, a subordinate cleric may be requested from the religious establishment, to be assigned to the cleric's temple. This subordinate will act as a completely loyal follower, who will serve and defend the temple as able.

See Pogroms.

Mixed Forest (bioregion)

A type of vegetation charaacterized by mixed broadleaf deciduous and needleleaf evergreen trees. Vegetations of this type occur in mesothermal, microthermal and montane climates.

In the northern hemisphere, characteristic trees include oaks, beeches, maples and birches mixed with pines, firs and spruce. The uppermost layer of the canopy will range from 100 to 200 feet. Below the canopy is the three-layered 'understory' that will be 30 to 50 feet shorter than the canopy, consisting of the sub-canopy, shrub layer and ground cover.

There are - designated areas where mixed forests occur.

In Asia

• Caspian Hycanian Forest, south shore of the Caspian in Persia (cfa/humid subtropical).
• Caucasus Forest, surrounding the high Caucasus mountains (warm mesothermal).
• Han Forest, central China surrounding the middle Yangtze Basin (warm & moist mesothermal).
• Himalayas Forest, from Kashmir to Sikkim (cfa/humid subtropical).
• Luzon Highlands, a tiny area surrounding Mount Pulog (moist tropical).
• Manchurian Forest, from the Greater Khingan Mountains to the Sea of Japan (warm & dry microthermal).
• Nihonkai, from Kyoto to Aomori on Honshu Island (warm & moist microthermal).
• Pontus Mountains & Galatia, in central Anatolia (cfa/humid subtropical).
• South Hokkaido Island (cool & moist microthermal) (cool & moist microthermal).
• Zagros Mountains, from Cappadocia to western Persia (cfa/humid subtropical).

In Europe

• Bakony Forest, from the Alps to the Sava Basin (warm & moist mesothermal).
• Balkan Forest, covering northern Greece and Ruthenia (cfa/humid subtropical).
• Baltic Forest, from the Carpathian Mountains to the Baltic Sea, reaching east as far as Zerrwen and Podlesia (cool & moist mesothermal).
• East Apennines Forest, shrouding the east side of the Apennines mountains above the narrow coast (cfa/humid subtropical).
• Pyrenees Forest, covering the Pyrenees Mountains (cool & moist mesothermal).
• Russia, from the Baltic Sea to the south Ural Mountains (cool & moist microthermal).
• Svaeland, in central Sweden (cool & moist microthermal).

In North America

• Birch Mountain Forest, from the MacKenzie Mountains to Lake Winnepegosis (cold & moist microthermal).
• Blue Ridge Forest, from Delaware Bay to the Tombigbee Basin (warm & moist mesothermal).
• Cascade Forest, between the Coastal and Cascade ranges (cool mesothermal).
• Iroquois Forest, from the upper Mississippi to Nova Scotia (cool & moist microthermal).
• Oachita Forest, from the Arkansas Mississippi river fork to Galveston Bay (warm & moist mesothermal)
• Sierra Madre del Sur, including both north and south ridges above the Balsas Basin in Mexico (dry summer montane).
• Sierra Nevada & Coastal Forest, encircling the Sacramento valley (dry summer mesothermal).

In Oceania

• South Tasmania (cool & moist mesothermal).
• North Island Forest, New Zealand (cool & moist mesothermal).

In South America

Chonos Forest, a small zone of the Chonos Archipelago and surrounding Moraledo Channel (cool & moist mesothermal).

Balkan Forest

A bioregion of mixed forest found in southeastern Europe.

The region extends northwards from the Aegean Sea primarily through the lands of Kosovo, Macedonia, Ruthenia, Serbia and Slavonia. A tongue of the forest reaches into the central highlands of upland Greece (eastern Epirus and western Thessaly). The climate is humid subtropical, with wet winters.

Forests are dominated by oaks and beech mixed with pine, fir and spruce. Biodiversity includes wisent, wolves, lynx, bears (brown), foxes and stags, eagles, owls and vulture.

Original United Nations Statistics (trade)

The following are production figures from the United Nations, 1988, gathered from the Industrial Commodities Year Book and the Food and Agriculture Organization. I originally used these numbers to build the amount of production of various products in my world, filling in details for products not included in these volumes by painstakingly hunting them down one by one. This, however, gives a good idea of how much raw product the reader may want to include in the trade system they are building.

The FAO (food & agriculture) statistics have been broken into two tables:

The ICYB (industrial) statistics have also been broken into two tables:

Pricing Equipment (trade)

Once we have obtained prices for undeveloped and manufactured goods, we are ready to use weight and workmanship to create individual prices for goods that would appear on an ordinary equipment list.

This is a very easy process. For example, we have already determined that the cost for a pound of manufactured pottery is 18.685 copper pieces, or approximately 19 c.p. per lb. We need only determine how heavy a given object made of pottery weighs, multiply that against our ratio and then judge for ourselves how carefully worked the object is.

Let's take something very simple: an earthenware pot, the sort of object that might be used every day and be churned out in large numbers, for ordinary use around the house - such as would be used for flour, cookies, buttons and so on. We already know that the pot is fired, as this was part of the process that increased the cost from mere clay to being pottery. We can add that the capacity of this pot is about a pint.

Let's establish the weight of the pot at ½ a pound. Let's also establish that because the pot is very ordinary, the workmanship is 1.0. This makes the cost of our pot equal to 18.685/2*1 (in excel calculation), or 9.343 copper pieces. For the players, we will round that out to 9 c.p. That's a reasonable price; an ordinary household may have half a dozen of such pots. An orc lair might have a hundred or more.

By why limit ourselves to ordinary workmanship? There is such a thing as 'art pottery,' some of which is spectacular in design and color. We can well imagine establishing a set of perameters for pottery of greater workmanship, based on quality of clay (the best material is reserved for the best pots), additions such as handles and lids, color, sculpting, quality of sculpting and so on, so that workmanship for a given piece can be rated as x 2 (fair), x 4 (ornamental), x 8 (fancy), x 16 (artistic), x 32 (quality), x 64 (excellent) and x 128 (exquisite). Thus, a truly exquisite pot (still the same weight) can now be rated at 1,152 c.p. (or about 6 g.p.).

That's nice - but the party isn't likely to get excited about 6 g.p. (though a household of such objects might make someone take notice). Still, we can always enlarge the pot. Our one-pint pot is about 7 inches tall (23 cm); how much would it be worth if it were, say, 14 inches tall?

In such a case, we need to multiply all the dimensions by 2: height, width and thickness of the material (though the latter may not be necessarily true - it is up to us). This would mean our 14-inch tall pottery vessel would be multiplied by 8 times and be worth 48 g.p.

Now, that's something. But let's not stop there. Let's suppose the party stumbles into a big lair and finds that the chieftain sits between two massive pottery urns, each 49 inches tall (about a meter and a half, for all us moderns who aren't familiar with imperial measurements). And let's say that the workmanship is magnificent (x 256). How much would they be worth? From a usual game standard, we're just guessing - but now we don't have to guess. 49 inches in height is 7 times our original pot's size; we're increasing the size in 3 dimensions, so the urns are 343 times as large, or about 172 lbs. each in weight. The base cost, size multiplied by the value of ordinary pottery, is 3,204 c.p. The workmanship, however, increases that value to 820,346 c.p. In my game, that's 4,273 g.p. Those are pots that are very definitely treasure!

By this method, we can logically determine the precise value of any pottery object in a way that is consistent with all other pottery objects. We can do the same with metal goods, horses, leather work, ale or anything we like. We need only establish the difference in "workmanship" between an ordinary ploughhorse and a heavy warhorse to give us a range of possible prices all based on the same original price we generated for horses.

If this isn't precise enough, we only need to create another set of references for a particular kind of metal, horse, leather or beverage, running through the same system we've already built, to produce another set of numbers we can use to price things.

And always remember, the price for one market in our world always has the potential for different prices, both higher and lower. Where is the best place to sell those big pottery urns?

How heavy is something? We have the whole internet to use as a judge. In fact, we can find specific objects on the internet and say, "such and such a pottery jug, in this picture here, weighs this amount and I'm calling the workmanship this." In reverse, the player can present an object, describe its dimension and ask what the price would be and we can work it out in a few seconds, without worrying about whether or not it would 'break the system.'

For those who would be interested in going on the 'net to find the weights for objects, I have a hint: search for 'shipping weight.' Most sites will be very unclear about how much a depicted object weighs, even on sites that are selling things - but those that ship objects are always interested in specifying weight; often distinguishing the difference between shipping weight and 'actual weight.' This can save a lot of hours wandering about trying to determine how much a telescope, a ship anchor or a pair of boots weighs. For historical objects, such as swords, museum sites are often very helpful.

I have priced more than 1,300 objects in this manner; my blog has many examples of equipment tables, some of which do give the exact weights of objects. As I write this, I am upgrading my prices table, reorganizing it to make it easier to expand and to more deeply adjust for the price of an object. I do plan to make this table - in excel - available for users, but only those prepared to invest $10 per month in my patreon account.

We're not done, however. This more or less describes the skeleton of the whole system. Having described it thus far, I can now begin detailing specific elements of the system, such as how to build structures that will calculate trade distances between multiple cities, organize hundreds of different references at the same time, splitting and handling more specific references, calculating out things like different products, adding wages and performed services (from getting a shave to hiring a berth aboard a ship) and so on.

We have a lot of things yet to expand. [placeholder]

See Trade System

Manufactured Goods (trade)

Goods that are manufactured have their prices based upon the value of the original raw material plus labour. It is less important how much of a particular product exists (chasing the supply and demand model) that it is to ascertain how much more valuable the product is to the worker after labour has been added.

The synthesis of labour and raw material cost is achieved through a formula - which we will, as with undeveloped goods, use excel to calculate. There are two processes in which this formula applies, which I shall call one-for-one and extraction. In all cases, I will continue to use Marzabol numbers, though of course the same process applies for whatever market we're calculating for.

One-for-One Process

This describes a situation where end result from processing equals the amount of goods produced. For example, it may be remembered from describing the quantity of goods that I wrote that the weight of 'ore' described the metal content only - waste rock is not counted (there are ways of calculating how much of this there would be, for mining purposes, but that is not important to our purposes right now; I will address this later).

This means that we can say, approximately, that one pound of unprocessed ore will, once labour is added, produce one pound of processed ore. Similarly, since the amount of clay that is made into pottery isn't lost in the process, we can say one pound of pottery equals one pound of clay plus labour. This isn't strictly true, of course - there is always waste. It isn't worth our accounting for it, however, so we can discount the waste as not being counted either before or after processing.

Extraction Process

This describes a situation where the amount of material manufactured differs from the original source. There is a great variance to how this can manifest. For example, how many sheep does it take to produce a ton of wool? How much meat exists in a cow or a sheep? How much grain does it take to produce a gallon of beer? How many grapes does it take to make a bottle of wine?

In each case, we need to determine the total cost of all unprocessed material necessary before we can determine its final price. For example, it takes 2.6 oz. of grapes (+.47 oz. of sugar) to make 1 fluid ounce of wine (the internet can provide all sorts of detail on this, with varying amounts for different wines). We don't have sugar in our system, so we're not going to overlook it for now, but if we did add sugar we would want to account for all materials.

For Marzarbol, we determined that grapes were 42.16 c.p. per lb, or 2.635 c.p. per ounce. This means to make a fluid ounce of wine our starting raw materials will cost 6.943 c.p.

Conversely, let's consider sheep. Using research from medieval times (sorry, I did not bother to save the source - I did not need to, I'm not writing a university thesis), an average sheep produced about 26.45 oz. of 'greasy' wool per year. A modern sheep produces much more, but it has the benefit of understanding genetics and careful breeding. Such things did not exist 400 years ago.

We can therefore set the initial value of wool as 1/26.45th of a sheep. After all, the sheep isn't doing anything else but producing wool so this is a fair equivalent. When we slaughter the sheep, we can use the same calculation to determine the price of its meat. Our price for a sheep in Marzarbol was 54.36 c.p., so our base price for greasy wool is 2.055 c.p. per ounce.

Let's use this last to get a price for refining wool.

Making Wool Cloth

There are two steps towards making cloth, which we will later use to make garments for the players. The first is the process greasy wool cut from the sheep into clean, carded wool that is ready for the spinning wheel. The calculation for doing this is to take our cost for greasy wool obtained from sheep (2.055 c.p./oz.) and divide it by the total references in Marzarbol (1 reference). The product of this calculation is the labour cost. This cost is thus added back to the original cost for greasy wool, making clean wool worth 4.11 c.p./oz. In excel I make a small table that looks like this:

Note that I have created this new table right underneath the old one. This way, I can have cell C23 = cell L16 - so that if I change the number of references for sheep it automatically recalculates the cost for clean wool, as shown. In time we will create a table that keeps track of all our references - but as ever, we leave that for another day.

The fewer the number of references for wool, the more expensive the labour will be. If we consider Crow's Nest, where the number of references for wool is only 0.2, the increase in the cost of labour would make the final price six times the original - and this would be the selling price in Crow's Nest, regardless of whether the cloth is produced there or brought from Marzarbol. Always assume that the price in a given market already accounts for things like demands, competition and so on! Trying to adjust further for these things will only spoil the elegance of the system.

Very well. We can now determine the cost for cloth in precisely the same way. Cloth is based on wool just as wool is based on sheep - except that we use cloth references instead of wool references. Once again, cloth has 1 reference, so the result is the same: the price of cloth is double that of clean wool:

Like the wool from sheep or the fluid ounces from the grapes above, there are various distillations that have to be tracked down one by one (if earth-like accuracy is sought for; otherwise, an individual user can make up numbers as necessary). Below is a list of prices calculated for Marzarbol based on the information accumulated thus far in the tutorial. As before, I'm including an excel table that can be downloaded so that the various calculations can be examined.

In time I will be addressing the problem of adding new data to the above table (since at the moment it would be painstaking to add new references individually), but before we get there, we want to move on to the pricing table: how to determine the price of individual items on our equipment table.

See Trade System