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Message: <blockquote data-quote="painandgreed" data-source="post: 1854831" data-attributes="member: 24969">Ya, 13 GP per acre per year. 3 GP/acre goes to seed for replanting the next year. 3/7 goes to the lord that owns the land. 1/10 goes to the local cleric as tythes. The average family makes 260 GP/year. 60 goes to stored seed to plant next year. 111 goes to the lord. 26 goes to the cleric and in return they get free healing and such. 36 goes to feed the family for that year. So, their disposable income is 27 GP/year although that must go to new farm equipment, clothes, tools, etc. Keep in mind that at this level we're actually talking about raw agricultural products except for any crafts they manufacture over the winter and what they have that they don't eat, they barter to others or it goes to the lord who sells it to grain merchants with his share, who then kicks back the money to the peasants.You need to keep a good deal of seed to replant the next year. No seed for next year means no harvest and everybody starves. Most of this is communal and goes to silos in the keep or castle which is the main reason for having a keep or castle. When an army or other antagonist force comes through, everybody retreats to the castle and waits for them to leave. When they do, the land and their homes have been ravaged but they can replant for next year (unless the castle falls). Horses and such for planting are communal and usually paid for by the lord.IMC, like real life, everybody in a rural community pays the local cleric 1/10 of their crop. In return, the cleric helps the lord with matters of law (Know True spells) as well as dealing with issues like wandering monsters. They also provide healing and such to all those who pay their tithes, which are usually required by decree of the lord due to the agreement the cleric signs with the lord when they accept the position of local cleric. Note that if the cleric can cast Plant Growth (Plant sphere) then the crops are increased by 33% which benefits everyone. One cleric capable of casting the spell could hit 365 different villages every year for some agreed upon amount from those other villages. If you don't tithe, perhaps you're an adventurer who doesn't live in the area, then you get charged those high prices for healing because you are taking services form the people how have paid. The lord and king get their share and privide protection as well as other services such as roads and communal property.The food of a peasant is not pleasant. Mostly they have a pot that is constantly heated of peas and porridge over the fire. When you're hungry, you get some out to eat. When it starts to get low, they simply add more peas, grains, or whatever is avialable. On special occations, they might add some meat. Suppliment that with some rye bread, some honey, cheese, and whatever can be grown in a small vegetable garden that each house has not included in the above figures.From the rest, you can figure how many other services such as blacksmiths, mills, inns, and such the settlement has. In a hamlet of 400, there is a disposable income of about 10,000 GP worth of material. Figure such trained services make 1GP/day to support their families. According to standard D&D economics, one third of all such crafts and profesions goes to raw materials. Thus the total income needed for such a business is around 540 GP/year. So roughly, each hamlet has two special services. This hamlet may have the mill and the carpenter. For a blacksmith you have to go to the next hamlet over while they must come to you to use a mill. Keep in mind that inns only existed along major trade  or pilgramage routes that survived off travelers, but every small thorp had a tavern. However, usually such taverns were just somebodies house. Each household would brew up beer using their grain and then set out a shingle. People would come over and use their house or tables set up outside as the local tavern, paying what they brewer wanted. By time the keg went dry, somebody else had a batch ready to go and the tavern would move over to their house. Thus each family could turn a small profit by havinga a few ranks in Profesion (brewer) and those with several could possibly ask more for theirs. You were still talking a CP for several mugs. 1 CP (lb) of grain turns into 1 gallon of beer. Charge 1 CP per quart and you've quadrupled your money for the time and effort you've put into it. It may not be what the adventurers are used to but its what the average farmer drank.This is all for straight farming. Things like herding require different methods of figuring out such stuff but are good in areas such as highlands that aren't suitable for farming.Also keep in mind that 1/3 of all land is fallow (usually used for pasture during that time) each year, so a family may work 20 acres a year, but they really have 30 acres but 10 remain fallow. Next year, they'll plant that 10 acres and 10 acres of the  land they planted this year will be allowed to go fallow.</blockquote>

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