These are from way back, like so many years ago, when I had my bardicchef blog for Prianna instead of this new one. We also had this as a free PDF for Birch + Bat Studios before we shuttered in 2021.
How these are used: Players who decide to carouse roll on the d100 table, and find out the next morning what they got up to! I usually make custom ones for every area in the games I run, and these were made for specific locations + "holiday episodes" - there's also a festival maker table. I hope you all enjoy!
I may post other former Birch + Bat Studios PDFs later, but just the ones I made myself.
You can download the PDF version free from my Ko-Fi here.
As always of late, Tumblr has mangled the formatting of this post if you view it in the dashboard. Open it in the browser instead to see the table and the list as imagined.
Our language on Strongholds is about the end-game: you win. For as long as you keep playing, you can recruit henchfolk for free if you have a place for them to stay. But it seems that we have some appetite for more of an economic domain game after all.
The best domain rules I've seen are those in Kevin Crawford's Wolves of God. They have the right time-scale, being seasonal, and better yet they are grounded in a political economy, unlike Crawford's usual faction systems that are purely abstract game-pieces as in Worlds Without Number. In short—they rule. The second part of these rules (to follow) will be adapating and rewriting enough of that system to take it beyond dark-age england into our D&D non-time, a flattened ahistorical medieval that is every time between the year 600 and 1300, all at once but unevely distributed. Lots to do.
But first, what about everyone else? If I wanted to really build from scratch a game with this kind of grounding in political economy, I'd need either Wolves of God's curtailing of character types, or else an expansive view like Skerples' classic posts on Taxation and the Estates. But, a complex background system, more decisions at character creation, and entanglements with the world before a character is fully drawn are not things I am looking for in my drop-in friendly, low barrier game.
Becoming a citizen
The desperate characters we roll up at the table, who delve into dark places and criss-cross the landscape, are essentially members of the outlaw class. They are displaced persons, travellers from distant lands, or runaways making their own way. This is why everything they know about the region is probably from a rumours chart, and why nobody seems to remember them before they show up for an adventure. This is also why even when they meet civilized folk traveling the countryside, a few bad reactions can lead to bloody battle.
As Skerples puts it: “you owe no taxes, but you have no rights”.
As long as they continue their simple lifestyle of plundering tombs, travelling from place to place, and drinking towns dry, they stay this way. But at a certain point, they will want to put down roots: to establish a home base for magickal research, to swear a bond to a lord or holy order, or to establish a small church. Or simply because they find the building charts more friendly than the carousing ones for spending their money.
When a character enters the service of a lord or holy order, or establishes a home or place of commerce in town, they become a Citizen.
The Season Turn
On each Solstice or Equinox, or whenever a character returns to adventure in a place where they are a Citizen and one or more of those dates has passed since their last appearance here, they must settle their taxes. There are three steps to this:
Announce how much silver you have earned this season. Be sure to let your friends at the table know if you think your tally is accurate, and if your character is honest about it or not.
See how the local lord favours you—describe how your relationship has been with them, and roll a Reaction (2d6+Cha).
On 2–6, the spoils of your outlaw's life, in the dungeon and the wild, are judged to be ill-gotten gains, surely the rightful property of the lord. You owe it all, plus 10% tithe to the local church. There's likely an Accusation going around about you, depending on how much evidence there is of your profligacy or dishonesty on the numbers.
On 7–9, folks see you as a fine enough member of the community. But you have obligations. You owe 10% to the church, plus 50% to the local lord, or bishop for Clerics. The rest of your earnings, you'll be awarded as an allowance.
On 10+, you can avoid paying—if you'll use your high stature in the community to do a Service for those above you.
d6 Accusations Services 1 Witchcraft A gift of magic 2 Blasphemy Military conflict 3 Thievery Mediate a dispute 4 Robbery Tutor a student 5 Murder Manage some business 6 Treason Marriage
Try to get out payment!
There are several ways one might avoid ones debts. Here are a few:
If the lord himself, or whoever is above you in the church, owes you a favour, cross it off
If the lord's superior—the Duke, or the King, is known to be your ally, then the first season of arrears is likely to be ignored. Calling in their favour could get you out of several's worth of debts.
When you Carouse, mark down those you bring tribute to or celebrate with. Can they be called to vouch for you—deepening your debts for next season, but buying you time to find the gold?
If you are a Knight, sworn to service of your lord or a holy order, your needs are predictable: to Carouse at their hall, and to do a Service, each season.
If your peer is a Knight—they might be able to take you into their service, as long as you don't bring them into disrepute. But do you want to give them that power over you?
If you know the local lord personally—because they are a player character who has built a stronghold and remains in play—you can negotiate your own terms.
If you've done a Famous Heroic Deed beneficial to the realm, you can completely ignore the result of any one season in the year that follows.
Notes for next time:
How do we apply the Wolves of God domain rules more generally without losing their groundedness? How can we expand the "Found a Hamlet" move there to the development of towns and villages? And, what about wizards?
For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.
1 Peter 4:3
The divinely inspired apostle now gives some examples of what it means to spend the rest of our lives here on earth devoted “no longer for human passions” (4:1-2). Before we…
