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<blockquote data-quote="Zilwerks" data-source="post: 6048265" data-attributes="member: 54936"><p><strong>Economy and Canals</strong></p><p></p><p>Thank you Loonook for all you incredibly researched and detailed postings. Also thanks to the rest with your questions and points. I will be using Pathfinder for most my RPG examples, with added information from Magical Medieval Society, Strongholds and Dynasties, and Ye Olde Shoppe.</p><p>I now bring up for you a great changer of medieval/renaissance/industrial age: The Canal.</p><p> </p><p>JUST HOW MUCH DOES A CITY EAT?</p><p> </p><p>When you look at RPGs in general, many generalize issues of transport but do simulate the varying technology well. Pathfinder lists your basic wagon as: Price: 35 GP, weight 400 lbs. (empty, one assumes ;-), and requiring two draft animals to pull it. Sadly the actual hauling capacity is not mentioned but history shows us it is about one ton. I will assume nice round short tons of 2000 lbs. per ton.</p><p> </p><p>Cities need supplies. If they arrive by wagons, each carrying one ton and taking one day to travel 20 miles. Modern US food per day is 4.7 lbs.; I will round it to 5 lbs. per person per day because of consumption of ale, etc. So one wagon carries 400 man/days of food.</p><p> </p><p>A city of 10,000 will consume at least 25 tons of foodstuff per day, probably much more considering animals and ale consumption. The means that there are 25 wagons per day, minimum. Alas distribution is not that efficient and harvests do not come every day but are seasonal.</p><p>From Ye Olde Shoppe, a 40 acre farm produces 3 tons of wheat, so there needs to be 3041 farms to create wheat to feed the city of 10,000 over the year. Of course, not all food is wheat - some are oats, barley, yams, etc. - but wheat is highly valued and the best grain for output. The farms necessary to support out city comprise 190 square miles. If we assume that every bit of land near the city can be farmed that is still all land in 8 miles of the city. Would be that land was that productive. I assume 2/3 of the land surrounding the city is not farmed. It is waste, roads, woods, rock, or just left fallow. Our circle has now grown to 12 miles. This makes longer wagon journeys and more wagons. More wagons, more teamsters, more draft animals. It gets expensive quickly. The distances that food has to be hauled make perishables expensive.</p><p> </p><p>Welcome to the economic miracle of the canal.</p><p> </p><p>THE CANAL</p><p> </p><p>In the 1810 it cost $100 to ship 1 ton of goods from Buffalo to New York City. When the Erie Canal was finished, it went to $10. To ship one ton of goods by wagon requires a wagon, a teamster (and probably a boy to assist), and two draft animals. A wagon can operate for ten hours a day. A canal boat requires two draft animals, one bargeman (and a boy to lead the animals) and ships 30 to 50 tons. It also moves at 3 MPH with the animal pulling the barge via a towpath. The barge usually has a front cabin for the tow draft animals that work in alternating shifts and an aft cabin for the crew, typically two bargemen and a boy or a small family. Most barges operate 24 hours a day. Unlike the bumpy and noisy wagon, you can sleep on a moving barge.</p><p> </p><p>CANAL CONSTRUCTION A LA RPG</p><p> </p><p>Building the canal is no small task but does not require anything more than hand tools and perhaps some animal power. The Erie Canal took three men with a horse, using shovels with a plow and a scraper, one year to create one mile of canal. Most of that time was spent felling trees and pulling out stumps, not digging or piling. Much of the engineering of it was trial and error; the British canal system of the same period was more advanced. A canal is basically a ditch with embankments on the sides. The water is only 4 feet deep for the small canals such as the Erie Canal when it was first built.</p><p> </p><p>Things get even better if you can afford a spellcaster or summoned being that can do a Move Earth spell. One Move Earth spell roughly does one mile of canal in four hours. A Transmute Rock to Mud spell followed by a Dispel Magic becomes an easy source of ashlar masonry blocks, useful for making canal locks, culverts, aqueducts, or reinforcing the levees. It also solves problems with digging into bedrock in rocky regions turning a strenuous mining operation into an easy shovel-the-mud operation.</p><p>Locks must be built to handle changes in elevation. Typical lock technology can only handle changes of up to 15 feet, with 10 feet being more common. Steep areas require more locks, often in a ladder-like series. Locks also require a skilled person to operate and maintain - the wooden gates require frequent repairs and maintenance. Valves are simple iron paddles and their actuators are toothed rails both of which can be made by a village blacksmith but knowing witch to throw and in what sequence is another lock keeper job. Lock keepers also monitor water levels and will seal off sections of a canal that are breached or leaking. They also collect tolls.</p><p> </p><p>IT'S HARD TO SABOTAGE A DITCH</p><p> </p><p>Surprisingly canals are not too susceptible to sabotage, a valid concern in a land with Orcs, Goblins, and the Chaotic Evil alignment. Long level canal runs are divided into sections by gates that are closed if a section is breached, limiting the damage if a breach occurs in the levee or berm. It also limits the flooding of fields outside the like.</p><p> </p><p>ROLE PLAYING OPPORTUNITIES</p><p> </p><p>Canals also allow for interesting RPG opportunities. Barge folk are an entire community unto themselves as it is cheaper to live with your family on a barge. Towns on a canal are well connected and often specialized - with cheap access to any goods or food produced anywhere on the canal a town composed entirely of smiths is possible, or an artist’s colony or religious retreat.</p><p> </p><p>The downsides of a canal also make for colorful story opportunity. Criminals ply the waters of a canal, fleecing and robbing their victims and slinking away to the next stop. Waterborne diseases such as malaria and dysentery are common. Barges wear out quickly and are often piled up in some remote part of the waterway to become a dangerous pile of wrecks and an easy havens for undead. Prosperous cities can be devastated or starved very quickly if their canal is blocked via natural silt, unnatural magic, or enemy army.</p><p> </p><p>Canals are one aspect of transportation and fit well in most pseudo-medieval settings. The effects of canals and all transportation should be a vital consideration when dealing with the economics of an RPG.</p><p> </p><p>AND A PERSONAL RANT...</p><p> </p><p>One of the great failings, IMHO, of the Golarion campaign setting for Pathfinder is the general idea of "City in the wilderness" instead of "City with fifty miles of surrounding fields, small towns, hedgerows and fences". The authors forgot the truth that for every person in a city or town there are 5 to 10 in the rural country. This fault is especially true in their Kingmaker adventure path, but good enough for gaming I guess. One of my long running pet peeve in RPGs, especially in their maps, is the lack of the terrain type known as fields - the plowed, weeded and seeded terrain of every farm. Harn was a notable exception to this problem, as is Ars Magica.</p><p> </p><p>AND THANK YOU</p><p> </p><p>Thanks for your time. Let me know if any of my assumptions or math is wrong. Happy gaming!</p><p> </p><p>Matthew "ZilWerks" Iskra</p><p>First RPG game 1973? Continuous since 1978.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Zilwerks, post: 6048265, member: 54936"] [b]Economy and Canals[/b] Thank you Loonook for all you incredibly researched and detailed postings. Also thanks to the rest with your questions and points. I will be using Pathfinder for most my RPG examples, with added information from Magical Medieval Society, Strongholds and Dynasties, and Ye Olde Shoppe. I now bring up for you a great changer of medieval/renaissance/industrial age: The Canal. JUST HOW MUCH DOES A CITY EAT? When you look at RPGs in general, many generalize issues of transport but do simulate the varying technology well. Pathfinder lists your basic wagon as: Price: 35 GP, weight 400 lbs. (empty, one assumes ;-), and requiring two draft animals to pull it. Sadly the actual hauling capacity is not mentioned but history shows us it is about one ton. I will assume nice round short tons of 2000 lbs. per ton. Cities need supplies. If they arrive by wagons, each carrying one ton and taking one day to travel 20 miles. Modern US food per day is 4.7 lbs.; I will round it to 5 lbs. per person per day because of consumption of ale, etc. So one wagon carries 400 man/days of food. A city of 10,000 will consume at least 25 tons of foodstuff per day, probably much more considering animals and ale consumption. The means that there are 25 wagons per day, minimum. Alas distribution is not that efficient and harvests do not come every day but are seasonal. From Ye Olde Shoppe, a 40 acre farm produces 3 tons of wheat, so there needs to be 3041 farms to create wheat to feed the city of 10,000 over the year. Of course, not all food is wheat - some are oats, barley, yams, etc. - but wheat is highly valued and the best grain for output. The farms necessary to support out city comprise 190 square miles. If we assume that every bit of land near the city can be farmed that is still all land in 8 miles of the city. Would be that land was that productive. I assume 2/3 of the land surrounding the city is not farmed. It is waste, roads, woods, rock, or just left fallow. Our circle has now grown to 12 miles. This makes longer wagon journeys and more wagons. More wagons, more teamsters, more draft animals. It gets expensive quickly. The distances that food has to be hauled make perishables expensive. Welcome to the economic miracle of the canal. THE CANAL In the 1810 it cost $100 to ship 1 ton of goods from Buffalo to New York City. When the Erie Canal was finished, it went to $10. To ship one ton of goods by wagon requires a wagon, a teamster (and probably a boy to assist), and two draft animals. A wagon can operate for ten hours a day. A canal boat requires two draft animals, one bargeman (and a boy to lead the animals) and ships 30 to 50 tons. It also moves at 3 MPH with the animal pulling the barge via a towpath. The barge usually has a front cabin for the tow draft animals that work in alternating shifts and an aft cabin for the crew, typically two bargemen and a boy or a small family. Most barges operate 24 hours a day. Unlike the bumpy and noisy wagon, you can sleep on a moving barge. CANAL CONSTRUCTION A LA RPG Building the canal is no small task but does not require anything more than hand tools and perhaps some animal power. The Erie Canal took three men with a horse, using shovels with a plow and a scraper, one year to create one mile of canal. Most of that time was spent felling trees and pulling out stumps, not digging or piling. Much of the engineering of it was trial and error; the British canal system of the same period was more advanced. A canal is basically a ditch with embankments on the sides. The water is only 4 feet deep for the small canals such as the Erie Canal when it was first built. Things get even better if you can afford a spellcaster or summoned being that can do a Move Earth spell. One Move Earth spell roughly does one mile of canal in four hours. A Transmute Rock to Mud spell followed by a Dispel Magic becomes an easy source of ashlar masonry blocks, useful for making canal locks, culverts, aqueducts, or reinforcing the levees. It also solves problems with digging into bedrock in rocky regions turning a strenuous mining operation into an easy shovel-the-mud operation. Locks must be built to handle changes in elevation. Typical lock technology can only handle changes of up to 15 feet, with 10 feet being more common. Steep areas require more locks, often in a ladder-like series. Locks also require a skilled person to operate and maintain - the wooden gates require frequent repairs and maintenance. Valves are simple iron paddles and their actuators are toothed rails both of which can be made by a village blacksmith but knowing witch to throw and in what sequence is another lock keeper job. Lock keepers also monitor water levels and will seal off sections of a canal that are breached or leaking. They also collect tolls. IT'S HARD TO SABOTAGE A DITCH Surprisingly canals are not too susceptible to sabotage, a valid concern in a land with Orcs, Goblins, and the Chaotic Evil alignment. Long level canal runs are divided into sections by gates that are closed if a section is breached, limiting the damage if a breach occurs in the levee or berm. It also limits the flooding of fields outside the like. ROLE PLAYING OPPORTUNITIES Canals also allow for interesting RPG opportunities. Barge folk are an entire community unto themselves as it is cheaper to live with your family on a barge. Towns on a canal are well connected and often specialized - with cheap access to any goods or food produced anywhere on the canal a town composed entirely of smiths is possible, or an artist’s colony or religious retreat. The downsides of a canal also make for colorful story opportunity. Criminals ply the waters of a canal, fleecing and robbing their victims and slinking away to the next stop. Waterborne diseases such as malaria and dysentery are common. Barges wear out quickly and are often piled up in some remote part of the waterway to become a dangerous pile of wrecks and an easy havens for undead. Prosperous cities can be devastated or starved very quickly if their canal is blocked via natural silt, unnatural magic, or enemy army. Canals are one aspect of transportation and fit well in most pseudo-medieval settings. The effects of canals and all transportation should be a vital consideration when dealing with the economics of an RPG. AND A PERSONAL RANT... One of the great failings, IMHO, of the Golarion campaign setting for Pathfinder is the general idea of "City in the wilderness" instead of "City with fifty miles of surrounding fields, small towns, hedgerows and fences". The authors forgot the truth that for every person in a city or town there are 5 to 10 in the rural country. This fault is especially true in their Kingmaker adventure path, but good enough for gaming I guess. One of my long running pet peeve in RPGs, especially in their maps, is the lack of the terrain type known as fields - the plowed, weeded and seeded terrain of every farm. Harn was a notable exception to this problem, as is Ars Magica. AND THANK YOU Thanks for your time. Let me know if any of my assumptions or math is wrong. Happy gaming! Matthew "ZilWerks" Iskra First RPG game 1973? Continuous since 1978. [/QUOTE]
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