Li's Manor

[BSF]

OK, I have done up a little map of Li's manor. As it works out, he is directly responsible for ~118 acres. That includes an orchard, fields, the manor house, etc. The manor itself has been vacant for roughly 8 years. There are no tenants on the land, the fields are fallow and the orchard is not in the best condition. Not that you guys should be very concerned about that. You are adventurers, not farmers or manor lords.

The map covers a 5 mile by 6 mile area. This is, essentially, Lord Tannerson's SouthEast border. His lands end at the stream to the East. The Southern border is a little more vague. It might end at the creek that empties from Morgus Pond. Strictly speaking, the area within the purple boundary is Li's holding. Li can do whatever he wants with that area. Lord Tannerson's manor is roughly 8 miles along the road leading North.

To view the map, you will need to download the free viewer/printer from Profantasy.com. (Download link) Install that and then download the attachment. Li's manor is down near the pond.

For reference, keep in mind that this map is only 5 miles by 6 miles. Most of us could leave the manor and easily walk off the map within 2 hours on the road. On a horse, we could comfortably be off the map within an hour. In a hurry, we could get there much quicker. Morgus Pond is over 100 acres in size. It is pretty large. This is not a large scale map. Nothing is really all that far away, even if you are in a corner. You couldn't just run down the street to get something, but think about how far the drive is to my house.

 

[Macbeth]

How much control does Li have over the manor Lord Tannerson gave him?

The reason I ask is that I jus picked up Magical Medieval Socity: Western Europe, and it got me thinking what more I could do with the land. I've already effectively appointed the widow of the gaurd we killed as my Steward, and I'm interested in the possibility of turning the manor into a real manor.

I have no idea what arable land would be around there, but at present, assuming Li is allowed to do this, I am thinking about honey and grain mostly. Li would use this garin and honey, along with a baker and brewer, to make bread and mead. Hopefully he could make a slight profit from selling excess grain, honey, bread and mead, enough to earn the party a little more gp.

If Li is allowed to do this, could I retroactively say that LI left instructions with the widow to undertake certain tasks, to get the manor running? Basically she would be responsible for finding some workers, and overseeing them getting fields started.

Anyway, I'm not even sure if Li is allowed to do this, but I figured I would ask.

 

[BSF]

*big smile*

Isn't MMS:WE a great book? All sorts of that stuff going on down near Stormhaven.

Oh, I merged two threads here so we could keep a lot of Li's Manor stuff together.

On the outside, this is a great idea and touches on things I want to happen in the campaign. Implementation in-game is a little more convoluted, but that is part of the challenge, right?

OK, Li is technically a land holder. He also has free reign with his holdings, small as they may be right now. Lord Tannerson is obviously willing to listen to ideas and offer advice if it is asked for. (He doesn't want to set anybody up for eventual failure.) But he will also hold his tongue if advice isn't asked for. (He does want people to show their own initiative.) Strong success may entitle Li to more holdings with time.

Unfortunately, the widow (her name escapes me at the moment - anyone have it written down?) is not adept at being a full-blown steward. Could she learn? Well sure. Growing that type of responsibility from the manor itself has an advantage in that you are empowering a person so they have a lot of vested interest in what they are doing. You might also have benefits from the perspective of loyalty. The disadvantages are that things won't always run as smoothly as you may have hoped.

She could handle some of the initial tasks without much problem, but finding people to work the land, tenants, is not going to be easy right now. You have an absentee Lord in a manor that has been neglected for 8 years. Ostensibly, Lord Tannerson also offers oversight and protection for this area, but few people will be ignorant of the implications of Li being given a small holding at the furthest edge of Tannerson's holdings. There is a challenge to overcome that will not be easily handled by the widow.

You can ask her to do these things, but don't set your hopes too high immediately. There isn't a very compelling reason, at the moment, for many people in Greerson to seek being a tenant on Li's holdings.

Of course, part of the issue is that Greerson doesn't practice proper feudalism. There is no single arbiter of all laws in Greerson. Madame Grulzak is the Magister. Lord Tannerson is a local Lord. These two, plus many other folks sit on the governing council. It gets complicated, so treat it as basic feudalism, except there are no true serfs.

 

[Macbeth]

Okay, would it be possible for Li to hire a properly trained Steward to get things running, and to train the widow to take over eventually? I would like to give her some responsibility, but I would also like her to be competant.

As far as operating expenses, HOw much does Li have to pay up front? It doesn't specifiy when things are payed for when a manor is set up. MMS:WE assumes that you pay expenses when you get profits (i.e. end of each year), but what start up costs would this entail?

And, just an idea I'd like to toss out: could Li attract people by offering a week of martial training for all his tenants? This would be a good way to get poeple, and to form the basis of Li's academy he would someday like to start.

 

[BSF]

In this case a lot of the up front costs are non-existant. Land has been cleared, an orchard has already been planted, the manor house already exists, etc. Mostly there is a cleaning and repair cost. Until you repair some things, you can't actually use them. The first year or two in a neglected manor are a little rough because you are making do with limited resources and trying to repair as much as you can as quickly as you can.

Though, in the case of an adventurer that can come with a fat purse, you can mitigate that initial pain.

I will have to look over MMS:WE and see exxactly what kind of conditions you are dealing with to figure out what kind of up front expenses will be important. But my initial thought on finding a proper steward is that you really want to wait until you get back there. You guys spent a lot of time training and then in the Festival right before you left and there really isn't any dead time we can backfill with Li trying to find a Steward. The Steward will need to be paid in some manner as well, and until the manor is productive, that is likely to be hard coin to buy food and clothing.

 

[Macbeth]

That's cool. I can wait. I just wanted to through the idea out now, cause I just read the section on manors and it stood out to me. I have no problem with waiting.

 

[Kultar]

What if we were to offer to some of the people we rescue down here a place to live that is much safer then here as well as land to farm? It solves two problems with one answer. We help save the people and get them to a safe place as well as fill our man power shortage.

 

[Macbeth]

If it's alright, I'd like to retroactively have Li offer the survivors we've found so far a place to live. I know they're at the Merinthian Manor now, but I don't think it's that big a deal if Li offered them a position, and some time to think on it.

Before we leave the manor, Li will take a moment to speak to the survivors (a one armed women, a one armed child, and two one armed men, right?). "I know all of you have lost so much to the armies marching across your land. The gnolls have done grevious damage, and I do not know if this land will still be liveable after the gnolls move on. Since your old homes are gone, I would like to make you an offer. I own a small manor near Greerson, to the north, and I would like to offer you all a place there. I ask that you work for me, managing small parts of the manor, or farming the land. The pay will not be great, at least not at first, since I only recently recieved the land, and it is not yet being worked. As soon as I get back, I intend to find able men to work the land, and attempt to make a profit. Since you have no home to return to, I would like to offer you a place there."

"I know this is a large decision, so please, take your time. Once we defeat the gnolls, we will return here for you, and you can return to my manor with us, if you like."

With that Li bows and waits for any questions.