Green Pass Campaign: Monthly Economics

The list of domain-level actions that I provided in the player packets indicates that some actions occur on an irregular or continuing basis, and some other actions occur on a regular monthly basis. The irregular actions sometimes have an economic effect, usually one that involves spending out the total wealth represented as "gold pieces" stored in the stronghold's treasury to do something (e.g., recruit, build, buy, research, etc). These are economic actions in some sense, but not part of the end-of-month sequence of events.

The Domain of Kellsvale

I regard the regular monthly actions as being part of an "economic phase" that happens in between the end of one month and the beginning of the next month. Here are those standard actions that will happen at the end of every month for any (non-thief-type) realm, and some examples of how to perform them.

Step I: Income and Expenses
Note the current population (in families). It will be used as a multiplier for most income and expenses. This is done collectively for each domain in a realm; initially realms will consist of a single domain, but might add others by conquest or colonization. If a domain has been further subdivided into "estates", then it is further subdivided into each estate when calculating land value revenues (only).

Multiply the population by (Land Value + Services + Taxes). Land Value is based on terrain, access to water, and special resource and ruins nodes, but usually ranges between 4 and 8 gp per family. Services is always equal to 4 gp per family, and functions as a baseline income for domains in any terrain. Taxes default to 2 gp per family, but you can raise or lower them as desired (which potentially affects morale).

Example: Kellsvale has a Land Value of 6.2, Service income of 4, and a Tax rate of of 2, giving a total of 12.2 gp per family. It is inhabited by 1840 families. This gives a total revenue of 22,448 gp.

Now calculate expenses by paying for the following:

• Salaries for any troops, or for hired specialists or NPC henchmen (varies based on army size)
• Stronghold upkeep (0.5% of base stronghold cost, not including any construction discounts)
• Taxes to the king (20% of gross revenues in civilized lands, 10% in borderlands, nothing in wilderness)
• Tithes to the church (10% of gross revenues)
• Festival expenses (5 gp per family)

Example: Kellsvale has 325 gp/month of specialist costs (a ship's crew), 570 gp/month of follower troop salaries (very low, since this is a clerical realm with fanatically loyal followers!), and another 4635 gp/month of mercenary salaries. This month, a new engineer specialist was hired to oversee some construction projects next month, costing another 250 gp/month in salary. This is a total of 5780 gp so far.

Not wishing to run afoul of king or church, Kellsvale pays 30% of its gross revenue (22448*0.3) or 6734.4 gp as tithes and taxes, rounding off to 6734 gp. This makes a total of 12,514 gp so far.

Finally, the strongholds in the domain cost 240,350 gp (the base cost, which doesn't reflect the discount clerics get on construction!), which means that maintenance will be 0.005*240,350 = 1202 gp (again rounding). The total is now 13,716 gp.

Finally, subtract expenses from revenues and adjust the stronghold's treasury by that amount of gold. If the amount is negative, this results in a loss of treasury funds. If the deficit can't be covered, then troops will go unpaid (your choice of which), and will be forced to make a morale check that might cause them to quit.

Example: Kellsvale has a revenue of 22,448 against expenses of 13,716. Its treasury swells by 8732 gold pieces.

If a realm has NPC-controlled vassal domains (usually by installing an NPC as ruler of a conquered domain, or by way of diplomacy) then each vassal domain supplies 20% of its own income to the realm's ruler, as a tax. Note that 30% of this vassal income is also taxed in turn by the king and church, so really only 14% of it is available. (The world of feudalism was a massive pyramid scheme!)

Step II: Population Adjustments
If a domain's ruler (or another domain hero loyal to the ruler) has adventured in a given month, the fame of his exploits will attract new families. The growth rate is given in a table in the handout. For domains with over 500 families, the natural growth rate is only 1%. For smaller domains the growth rate is often much higher, helping them to catch up. New colonies and settlements can provide a fast source of revenue! (Note: Do not do this separately for estates! You can't gain rapid growth rates by breaking up your domain into lots of little pieces, sorry.)

Example: Kellsvale currently has a population of 1840, and the recent military campaign of Lord Proprietor Dermot Bac Kellag (despite ending in defeat!) earns him a reputation as an active and able ruler. He attracts another 18 families to Kellsvale.

Every domain always gains and loses 1d10 families each month, to reflect random gains from births and deaths. Usually these effects will average out to maintain a roughly constant population. Rolls of 10 for either births or deaths will "explode", resulting in another roll, which itself could be another 10 and cause another roll, and so forth. (Very small kingdoms, under 100 families, only gain or lose 1 family, and only on a roll of 10.)

Example: Kellsvale rolls a 5 for population gain, but a 10 for population loss. Another roll gives a 9. The total population gain is 5, and the loss is 19, for an overall loss of 14 families. A trade ship must have brought back the plague! The total net gain is now only 4 families.

If a domain has "social" resources, it can gain additional 1d10 rolls for growth. Certain random events can also add or subtract growth rolls. Additionally, a domain can always spend multiples of 1000 gp to invest in agricultural infrastructure, in effect "buying" another 1d10 roll for each 1000 gp.

Example: Kellsvale decides to spend some of its net revenue of 8732 gp on agricultural growth. It spends 2000 gp to roll 2d10, and gains another 7 families. This means the net gain is now 11 for the month.

If a domain has been divided into smaller estates, population adjustments are done separately for each estate. A domain can decide in which domain to apply an agricultural investment, but birth-death adjustments must be applied separately to each.

Finally, settlements can be founded or expanded using the same rules. An investment of 1000 gp can allow a settlement to grow by 1d10 families; this will eventually allow the domain to have its own market for purchasing or trading goods and recruiting hirelings. If a settlement has access to ruins in its hex, it can reclaim building materials from the ruins to reduce this cost to 500 gp, but only until the settlement has grown by a category..

Example: Kellsvale decides to found two small settlements, both in hexes with access to ruins (two different ancient settlements). Each is allotted 1500 gp for urban development, allowing a 3d10 roll. The first settlement attracts 9 families as a starting population, and the second settlement gets 12 families. Note that these are tracked separately from the domain population.
 
Step III: Experience Gains
Certain activities (earning income from domain management, commanding a merchant ship or caravan, building structures, and conducting research) can allow characters to gain experience. Heroes gain 1 xp per 2 gp spent on construction, and gain 1 xp per 1 gp spent on any other activity. If the activity took multiple months to complete, it should be divided by the number of months to find the average gp per month invested in that activity. All activities except construction have a level-dependent threshold, a minimum number of xp that must be individually subtracted from the xp total in each category (management, merchantile, or research). This may result in no actual gains, if the threshold is not exceeded.

The new "estate" rule also allows for the building of a manor house in each newly created estate, a civilian building of arbitrarily large cost which can function as a training ground for new heroes. A manor house will require 10% of its total value in maintenance every month, and this 10% is converted into experience for any one hero who is occupying it as its manorial lord -- presumably from doing routine administrative tasks and practicing martial or magical skills in leisure time.

Step IV: Morale Adjustments (every third month)
After every third month (i.e., once per "season"), the domain's morale can change. This increases or decreases the amount of divine power available to the domain's heroes for magical research; remember that you can always research in excess of divine power if you have enough special components (monster parts!) The procedure for this is based on tables given in the handout packet.

The easiest way to improve domain is to keep taxes low and to provide a large garrison of troops to make the population feel secure. If domain morale is very high, the domain will grow rapidly. If it is very low, families will leave or go into revolt as bandits. Domain morale becomes very important if the domain is invaded by an enemy force, since it will determine if the population remains loyal to the ruler during the invasion's morale check phase.

Step V: Random Incursions and Events (house rules for the campaign)
Each of these require a random roll on tables. A single common roll is made for incursions, and each domain individually rolls for an event. (This is currently being done at the group session on Saturday night.) Incursions are invasions by enemy forces from beyond the gate at Green Pass. Events can be either beneficial or harmful, and generally will be better (and more easily resolved) if the ruler is present in person to manage domain affairs.