My employer has sent me home for what may be the next couple of months, since I’m in a “high-risk” category for COVID-19 (over 50 and with a chronic health condition that might complicate if I come down with the disease). So here’s a great opportunity to work on EIDOLON and some of the world-building for The Curse of Steel. I may be posting a lot more frequently for a while . . .

For today, here are some notes I’ve put together over the past few days. Here I’m starting to puzzle out how the EIDOLON “extended character” will work in practice. I’m working with the home society for The Curse of Steel here – the Tremara or “Mighty Folk,” a tribal Iron Age culture somewhat reminiscent of pre-Roman Celts. These notes aren’t polished rules material, but if you refer to last week’s post you may get some insight into what I’m working on here.

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In Tremara society, the smallest monetary unit is the copper penny (cp). A copper penny is roughly the value of a pound of barley.

As a practical matter, most Tremara tribes don’t coin copper pennies. Most transactions at that level are handled through barter or exchange of favors. The most common coin in circulation is the silver penny (sp), which is worth 12 cp. Very wealthy Tremara sometimes use gold coins for big transactions; these are either obtained in foreign trade or minted by the richest tribes. The gold piece (gp) is worth 20 sp or 240 cp.

Tremara agriculture is based largely upon barley. A bushel of barley weighs about 48 pounds, and so is worth about 4 sp.

Assume an average person requires 600 pounds of barley per year. This constitutes a subsistence diet, without much variety or luxury, but enough to support a healthy life. This comes to 600 cp per year or 50 cp per month. Assume another 10 cp per month for other expenses (clothing, tools, maintenance of housing, and so on). Hence the bare minimum for subsistence living will be 60 cp (5 sp) per month, or 720 cp (60 sp) per year.

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Proposed rule for Social Standing in EIDOLON:

In any EIDOLON setting, the benchmark figure for Social Standing is a cost-of-living equal to the bare minimum for subsistence living in that setting. Social Standing for any individual equals log-2 of (his personal cost-of-living expenses, divided by the benchmark figure), rounded to the nearest integer.

Social Standing can be modified by conditions of legal or social privilege, although these modifiers will not normally amount to more than plus or minus 1.

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Tremara Agriculture

Tremara characters can own several Assets related to agriculture:

• Crop Land (measured in acres) – cleared flat land of good quality that can be used to raise barley. Only half of the Crop Land is planted each year, the other half being left fallow.
• Pasture (measured in acres) – cleared land that doesn’t have to be flat or of the best quality, which is set aside for grazing. Can also include land left forested for pigs to forage.
• Horses
• Cattle
• Small Animals – some combination of sheep, goats, and pigs.

These Assets are operated by three classes of Workers:

• Farmers – a character serving as a Farmer must have the Professional Skill Farmer at +2 or better.
• Herdsmen – a character serving as a Herdsman must have the Professional Skill Herdsman at +2 or better. Each Herdsman is assumed to work with a pair of dogs trained for animal handling.
• Farm Laborers – a character serving as a Farm Laborer needs no specific Professional Skill, but must have Strength, Dexterity, Vitality, and Intelligence at +0 or better. A Farm Laborer provides unskilled labor, which is often seasonal in nature (grain harvest, shearing, milking, herding pigs, and so on). Farm Laborers may be slaves.

Agricultural Assets must be supported as follows, or else they can produce no profits:

• One Farmer for every 24 acres of Crop Land (round up)
• One Farm Laborer for every 12 acres of Crop Land (round up)
• One Cattle for every 6 acres of Crop Land (round up)
• One Herdsman for every 80 Horses or Cattle, or for every 120 Small Animals (combine fractions and then round up)

Farm animals must be supported by Pasture: 0.5 acres of Pasture for every Small Animal, and 4 acres of Pasture for every Horse or Cattle. Any animals not supported by Pasture are lost.

Each year, Agricultural Assets will produce profits:

• Per acre of Crop Land: 210 cp (350 pounds of barley, of which 140 pounds must be set aside for next year’s planting)
• Per Horse: 150 cp (loan or sale of animals, possibly stud fees)
• Per Cattle: 100 cp (milk, leather, meat)
• Per Small Animal: 20 cp (milk, wool, leather, meat)

Each year, the farm workers must be paid:

• Per Farmer: 2,700 cp
• Per Herdsman: 1,800 cp
• Per Farm Laborer: 900 cp

Example: A Prosperous Farmer

An independent Tremara land-holder maintains his own small farming settlement:

• 48 acres of Crop Land
• 60 acres of Pasture
• 12 Cattle
• 24 Small Animals

The land-holder himself is a Farmer. His wife and eldest son serve as Farm Laborers, without needing to be paid (they are supported by his profits). He has also hired a second Farmer and a Herdsman as farm-hands, and he owns two slaves who serve as additional Farm Laborers. All his labor requirements are met. He has enough Cattle to support his Crop Land.

The land-holder’s farm produces 11,760 cp per year (10,080 cp in profit from the barley harvest, 1,200 cp from the Cattle, and 480 cp from the Small Animals). He must pay his labor 6,300 cp per year (2,700 cp for the Farmer, 1,800 cp for the Herdsman, and 1,800 cp for the two Farm Laborers). He makes a clear profit of 5,460 cp per year. Divided among himself and his four dependents (including his elderly mother and a daughter too young to work), this comes to 1,092 cp per year per person. His Social Standing rounds up to +1.

Example: A Chariot-Lord

A Tremara chariot-lord owns three small farming villages, scattered across several miles of countryside. These amount to the following Assets:

• 1,000 acres of Crop Land
• 1,400 acres of Pasture
• 40 Horses
• 260 Cattle
• 400 Small Animals

None of the chariot-lord’s personal Company (his household) are working as Farmers, Herdsmen, or Farm Laborers. He needs 42 Farmers, 84 Farm Laborers, and 8 Herdsmen to maintain his lands. He has more than enough Cattle to support his Crop Land.

The chariot-lord’s lands produce 250,000 cp per year (210,000 cp in the barley harvest, 6,000 cp from his Horses, 26,000 cp from his Cattle, and 8,000 cp from his Small Animals). He must pay 203,400 cp per year for labor (113,400 cp for his Farmers, 75,600 cp for his Farm Laborers, and 14,400 cp for his Herdsmen). His annual profits are 46,600 cp. Divided among himself and three dependents (wife and two children), this comes to 11,650 cp per year per person. This chariot-lord’s Social Standing rounds off to +4.

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Some final comments:

So far, I’ve been working mostly on the left-hand side of the diagram in last week’s post: the income and profits generated by a character’s Assets and Workers. I haven’t done too much yet on the right-hand side: the hirelings and support staff that can make a wealthy character’s life better. I’ll need to develop both sides before I can lay out what a wealthy Tremara chariot-lord’s household really looks like! More on that as my enforced vacation continues.