The Wanderer

I have a question about sieges regarding this adventure... I wouldn't use the "simple siege resoultion" rules on BotE, right? Because they are very simple. 

What rules do you use for sieges? How do you run them during an adventure?

11 hours ago, Morien said:

That was the old one. I think £12 per year is too much for mercs. I'd probably drop a single year and have just '1-3 years = x4'. This would make a yearly hire £8, same as for the whole campaigning season, which kinda makes sense. I might drop the 'whole campaigning season' to x3 = £6, too. So you'd have options:

1 month: £2

2 months: £4

4 months: £6

12 months: £8

I think I will use you old list of prices but with this suggested correction

6 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

The key thing is what character is the player running for the next few sessions?

Ok here it is, the family tree (just pay attention to the names, as the ages are not actualiced...)

William (PK; with two manors, one gifted, one granted) marries Bernadette and have two children, Eduard (now 16 y.o.) and Markus.

Bernadette dies and William luckily marries Elizabeth, whose dowry includes one manor. They have four children (their eldest male son is Egbert, now 5 y.o.).

Now William is dead, and the player after playing two years with Julius (William's uncle, and also a veteran knight of his household) wants to play with Eduard as squire of another PK.

Does the widower keeps the whole manor she "provided" (as dowry) to the marriage? Or does she keeps a regular widower portion of 1/3 of each manor? What happens with the rest of the landholding until Eduard comes to age? And when he eventually comes to age? And after Elizabeth dies?

What I did, is that the widow made a deal with the uncle and countess for being maintained with 3£ for her and her children (who are the half brothers of the squire-PK). The rest of the land is stewarded by the uncle until the squire reaches the age and becomes a knight, when he will inherit everything but will have to keep maintaining her and her children until she dies or the children grow. 

The thing is that he cannot be the guardian because he is 16 and still a squire (of another PK), so the guardian will be his uncle (the brother of his father, and household knight of the manor).

Also, he is not the son of the widow, but the son of the first bride of his father.

What a mess!! 😱 Hahahaha!

Ok, seems fair enough! Thank you. I'm working on being a better GM 😄

25 minutes ago, Morien said:

What I might do is the base the Trait roll on the highest squeeze even if they are separate manors, just to keep things consistent.

I was thinking of making him roll three times (for he does three squeezes, one per manor...) is it too much?

Could a PK with different manors do different squeezes on them? For example a negligible one on his main manor and light squeezes on his second and third manors. Of course he would have to roll consequences 3 times...

Quote

In Our Campaign:

Mercenary prices (/month):
Knight: £2
Mounted Sergeant (or a distinctly poorly equipped knight): £1
Sergeant on foot AKA armored infantry (chainmail, shield, sword, shield): £0.5
Spearman or Archer (leather armor, shield & spear or bow): £0.25

Length of contract (part of the thinking here is that the actual fighting is likely closer to 4 months per year, if even that, and especially on longer contracts, much of the job is actually quite safe garrison/patrol duty):
Hire for a full year: monthly fee x 6
Hire for 2 - 3 years: monthly fee x 4 / year
Hire for 4 - 10 years: monthly fee x 3 / year
Hire 'permanently' (i.e. household knight, garrison): monthly fee x 2 / year for upkeep

Note that if the mercenaries need to travel, this counts as part of their service. For instance, if you hire a group of mercenaries in London in May to go to war in Ganis come July, they expect to have their transport and time taken paid as well, not just the raiding/fighting in Ganis from July onwards.

The supply and demand can affect the prices as well. If someone is hiring lots of mercenaries for what looks to be a long war and is paying good money for every man (say, the King is planning a war), then hiring up with the King on year to year bases sounds more attractive than a 4 year contract doing the same for less money. Household positions, however, are generally very desirable, as they are, in effect, permanent. Whereas if there is a long peace, mercenaries might be struggling to make money, and might be willing to be hired for less.

Also, the perceived risk-benefit ratio affects the willingness of the mercenaries to accept the job. For instance, a prospective employer is planning on going to fight the loincloth wearing Picts on the Highlands, famous for their horse-killing tactics, and the mounted mercenaries are certainly less eager. Whereas if the employer is planning on launching raids on a 'soft & rich' target, the mercenaries would certainly be more interested.

I saw this on the old forum archive (2013). Is it the system you're using now? I like it.

When talking about the honor loss, does that apply also if you release (or fire) a foot soldier of your mesnie? or even other members of the entourage/retinue?

8 minutes ago, Morien said:

BotM is outdated. See GPC instead.

Where are prices of the mercenaries on GPC? What page?

8 minutes ago, Morien said:

2) You are honor-bound to keep the household troops (mesnie, including the footsoldiers) in your service: they have sworn their allegiance to you, in return you have sworn that you will see to their upkeep. Dismissing them without a just cause costs Honor. Like the saying goes: a household knight is for life, not just for a summer.

Where does it say that in the rules? I cannot find it.

8 minutes ago, fulk said:

To save money in the off years.  Realistically, in some periods, I think lords would be likely to maintain large a mesnie due to the general unrest.  In others, they would want to save money for manorial development or whatever. It would depend on the level of unrest and potential for armed conflict.

But mesnie is cheaper. If someone would like to save money they wouldn't hire mercenaries, as they are very expensive!

Yet another question...

Since mercenaries are much expensive (according to BotM, as I coudn't find them anywhere...) than mesnie... why would anyone hire mercenaries for one month instead of upkeeping soldiers for one year, for almost the same price? 🤔

Ok, thank you very much for your kind responses!

4 minutes ago, Morien said:

-5: Army (i.e. the knight himself, squire and 3 footmen) drop to ordinary, and the rest of the family follows suit.

How could they drop to ordinary if they are already ordinary? I think I'm missing something... 🤔😅

On 9/9/2019 at 10:02 AM, Morien said:

IV.3.) Economic Circumstances: Grade of Maintenance / Standard of Living
All the bonuses and penalties are removed as the first thing. Instead, living at a higher rate than ordinary (£4 unmarried knight and £6 married with kids) is simply conspicuous consumption, at +10 Glory per extra £1, up to 100 Glory, and after that +1 Glory per £1. The lower Maintenance I would penalize thusly: (paid/normal)*Annual Glory (note, this lowers the rate new Annual Glory is gained, it doesn't lower his Glory Total). If the knight goes below half of his normal (£2 or £3), then hard choices have to be made, since he can no longer support his horses. Time to start selling them, and I would not let them be automatically replenished. Granted, a knight who has gotten into this dire straits should start squeezing his peasants, and/or asking his friends and liege lord for help. That being said, I have never seen a PK go Impoverished. Finally, I would also give a penalty to Court rolls for poor attire, -1 per £1 maintenance missed or some such. I ignore the Clothing Value: the normal wardrobe and keeping it up in style is already included to the Maintenance. However, if the PK has spent money on some lavish clothing (conspicuous consumption again), then that value might decrease from tear and wear.

Sorry but I don't understand how do you penalize the lower maintenance.

Also, I don't know what do you mean when you say this affects the annual glory but not the glory total. Isn't the annual glory each year adds to the glory total?

So, if they are ordinary by default, then ... is there no damage to the standard of living of the family until -5 lots (when they drop to poor)??

I don't know if I understand it well 🙈

I think I will not bother the PKs with their moms right now, because if I didn't do it before there's no reason for doing it now... but I will apply it with the next generation of knights

Ok, you convinced me with your example hahaha

25 minutes ago, Atgxtg said:

Let's see. First off the knight would lose his discretionary funds, then the knight and his lady would drop down two standard of living (probably down to poor) and all his servants, troops, and court officials would be poor.

I think, that if they are already living as ordinary and drop down to standard of living they go down to impoverished, not poor...

On 11/30/2019 at 12:19 PM, Morien said:

Lots  Effect
-1       Lose Discretionary Funds.
-2       Servants drop down to Poor.
-3       The Lord and Lady drop down one level in Standard of Living (minimum Ordinary). The officers' bonus pay is reduced.
-4       The Court drops down to Poor.*
-5       The Army drops down to Poor. The Lord and Lady drop down another level (minimum Poor).
-6       Servants drop down to Impoverished.**
-7       The Court drops down to Impoverished. Sale of raw materials.**
-8       The Army and the Lord and Lady drop down to Impoverished.**

How would yo apply this to "basic" knights with only one or two manors (and therefore they live as ordinary knights)? With -5 lots they're impoverished?

(Every time I see this "shortage consequences" I see it applied to rich knights)

So...am I understanding well... the beginning PKs don't have DF because of his mother being alive? In that case I did it totally wrong 😅

Ok, basically any thing that doesn't give them other benefits than the glory itself should be counted as conspicuous consumption. I get it!

Ok... well, it looks too much for me... I think 5:1 would be better (more balanced?).

One question... when they spend money on other things (treasure, armaments, horses, construction...) do they earn 1 glory per £1 spent, or glory is only earnt with conspicuous consumption (such as feasts, etc) ???

3 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

If she is a widow then she isn't an heiress

She is a heiress of her own father, and the widow of her husband! I didn't express it well, sorry!

...

With all this dower and widow's thing... then, when the PKs begin the campaign, when their father die and they inherit one manor... then the manor only gives them £6.5 right? as 1/3 (£3.5) goes to her mother as the dower!! 😰😱 I didn't realised 'til now!!

On 9/2/2019 at 1:53 PM, Morien said:

I would use any excess spending as Conspicuous Consumption: 10 Glory per £1 extra used, so someone living as Rich (£9) would get extra 30 Glory.

Where does it say conspicuous consumption earns 10 glory per 1 libram used?? I thought it was 2 glory pero 1 libram (BotE)...