New Manorial Improvments

[Atgxtg]

Here are some of the improvements from the Book of the Manor updated to Book of Estate format. My thanks to Morien for his invaluable assistance. If anyone has any questions or  spots and problems please let me know. 

 

Winery

A winery processes grapes into wine. It needs both specialized material and a wine expert to be successful. If the owner has a vineyard then he may use his own grapes instead of buying them, increasing the profitability.

Cost: £30

Income: £1 or £3 if you have a vineyard, includes the maintenance for the vintner

Grants: Check to Indulgent

Timeline Notes: Wineries would probably be more common during the Uther Period (when there are still a few old ones left over from the Romans) and from the Romance Period onward, after Arthur has conquered Rome and brought the knowledge and experts required back to Britain.

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Scriptorium

A scriptorium is a workshop for making books. Scribes carefully copy old texts onto sheets  of vellum, and bind the pages together into books with expert  care. Most scriptoriums are run by monks, but the nobility  may choose to finance  their own. The books may be  sold, reflecting the income below, given away as gifts, which earns glory, or saved  as treasure.  

Cost: £20

Income: £1 in books in treasure, income includes maintenance for the scribe.

Grants: Roll for Read (Latin)

Note: The Scriptorium is probably not common until the Conquest Period or later, when the land is more settled, and civilized.

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Olive Grove 

Olive Groves are more suited to a Mediterranean climate, ad are only included in Britain due to references of the same   during the Grail Quest. The high costs reflects the difficulty in importing and planing a grove. Due to the colder climate olives in Britain may die off. Income also reflects  the novelty and and exotic nature of native olives.  

Cost: £20

Income: £-1 for 5 years then £5 including maintenance and  the  oliver. In a more suitable climate reduce the income to £3

Complication: Each year, including maturation,
roll 1d20. On a result of 20, the olives die. This roll is not required in a more suitable climate.

Note: Requires space (see p. 76)

 

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Jeweler, Goldsmith or Silversmith

The are craftsmen who work by making jewelry,  in silver, or in gold, respectively. They make rings, torcs, pendants, necklaces,  diadems, inlays in armor, set gemstones, and other such fine work. These businesses are expensive to set up and maintain as they require a great deal of precious metals and gems to work with, but they are quite profitable. Income can be kept as treasure.

 

Cost: £20

Income: £2 in treasure. Profits include maintenance and a jeweler/smith

Grants: Check to Proud (Vanity)

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Ferry, Small

A small boar or raft designed to help move people and goods across a river. Note that many rivers have bridges or larger ferries, so this might not be an option  for all manors near a river. The income is a share of the fees charged to ferry people and goods across the river.

Cost: £5

Income: £1 (including Ferryman)

Note: Not available for all manors.  Check with  the GM.

[Tizun Thane]

The ferry is advantageous and a good bargain, for a manor near a river. In my campaign, I made a ratio of 10£/1£ of income for the ferry, and it's the reverse. No one ever buy it.

So maybe 8£/1£ of income?

[Morien]

2 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

So maybe 8£/1£ of income?

Well, it actually ought to depend on the traffic. So if you are trying to build a ferry, say, a couple of miles north of Caer Du Plain, it probably won't do much: it is much more convenient for most people to go directly through Caer Du Plain on their way from Sarum to Camelot and vice versa, rather than adding 4 miles journey on paths to use your dingy little ferry. Hence why you should check with the GM. The £5/£1 reflects, in my mind, almost the optimal situation where the ferry crossing is very useful.  So maybe that could be something to add to the notes: income would be £1 for optimal, £0.5 for locally useful, and £0.25 if it is mainly useful for your own peasants or the like (the example above).

Edited November 27, 2019 by Morien

[Tizun Thane]

14 minutes ago, Morien said:

Well, it actually ought to depend on the traffic.

Exactly, but maybe it creates too much complexity for a Pendragon Game ?

16 minutes ago, Morien said:

The £5/£1 reflects, in my mind, almost the optimal situation where the ferry crossing is very useful.

good ratio if the ferry is very useful.

[Morien]

29 minutes ago, Tizun Thane said:

Exactly, but maybe it creates too much complexity for a Pendragon Game ?

Hence Atgxtg's binary choice: Either the ferry is very useful, and provides £1 income, or it is nigh useless and doesn't provide any income and hence never gets built.

[Atgxtg]

5 hours ago, Tizun Thane said:

Exactly, but maybe it creates too much complexity for a Pendragon Game ?

Not really. It is more a matter of knowing where the traffic would be and if there is or isn't another way to cross and if it is more convenient or not.  Now there really isn't a way to know that without working up routes for every river in Britain. So I left it up to the GM.A

 

5 hours ago, Morien said:

Hence Atgxtg's binary choice: Either the ferry is very useful, and provides £1 income, or it is nigh useless and doesn't provide any income and hence never gets built.

As a general rule, I'd suspect that the closer to a city and/or the larger the river the more  useful and profitable the ferry would be, but also the greater the chance that a way to cross already exists. Conversely the further away one is from a city (or town) and/or he smaller the river,  the less useful or profitable the ferry would be, but the lower the chance that another way to cross already exists. But that is hard to quantify in game terms without turning Pendragon into Merchant Prince, so I left it to the GM. But, a little common sense and a random die roll would give us...

Very High Traffic Area ( Near Great City): Availability: 20 on 1d20; Income: £2 (it's a bustling trade center).

High Traffic Area (Near a City): Availability: 18-20 on 1d20; Income: £1, £2 id you roll a 20.

Medium Traffic Area (Near a town): Availability: 16-20 on 1d20; Income: £1, £2 id you roll a 20.

Low Traffic Area (Near a Village, the typical country manor): Availability: 11-20 on 1d20; Income: £1, £2 id you roll a 20.

Where? ( Not near anyplace, "You can't get there from here?"): Availability: 2-20 on 1d20;  Income: £0 (but it breaks even and saves you some  time),  £1 id you roll a 20 (somebody else actually uses it as a shortcut).

Oh, and you could probably build a ferry even if you fail the availability roll, but you'd either get no  income (because everyone uses the other route) or maybe partial income (say if you fail by 2 points or so), and are probably taking customers away from the  other ferry., with all the fun and role playing  potential that could cause. Maybe your neighbor raids your lands to  destroy your ferry?                                           

 

 

 

[Morien]

3 hours ago, Atgxtg said:

But, a little common sense and a random die roll would give us...

I would expect it to be a relatively flat probability, if it is a binary £1 or none: The towns have traffic (i.e. demand), but probably already have ferries/bridges (i.e. the demand has already been fulfilled). More common locations are unlikely to have loads of traffic (low demand), but if there is demand, it is likely still there. As I said, though, the £1 for £5 should already be pretty much the optimal result: high demand that has not been fulfilled. In your suggestion, it is actually likely more profitable to build the ferry in a common manor than near a town. I can understand that the competition will be less, but so will be the demand, too. If you drop the income in half for a typical manor, then it would make more sense, IMHO.

Edited November 27, 2019 by Morien