D&D General Need wheat. Too dangerous. (worldbuilding)

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Don't forget the livestock though....

... but again, this is yet another situation that can lead to arrangements with monsters, if they are smart enough/can communicate. X sheep per month in exchange for protection, I can see communities making that choice.

That gets too close to the old trope of sacrificing a virgin to the evil dragon to keep it from destroying the town.

 

[Fanaelialae]

If you are talking "tower watch" as if it were a stone edifice with a dozen people in it, sure (but that costs far, far more than the stone). If you are thinking of it as a wooden crow's nest with two in it, then no, not really.



To pull that off, the bandits need a whole bunch of inside information - that the tax shipment is coming, that the bearer of the stone has been set to send a go/no-go message, and so on. A stone given to ye standard farmer wouldn't likely be useful for that, as the Sheriff would ask, "Why the heck is Farmer Jessup trying to tell me about tax shipments?"

Once you have that much inside information anyway, the Stones would not be the real weak link in security - someone's already been captured and forced to talk, or there's an inside collaborator. Stones are then a lesser concern.

The Farmer's stone is probably only good for diversions, "Sheriff, there's bandits over on the east side of the river!" But you can get the same diversion by having someone beat up run into town and say the same thing.

Two soldiers in a wooden crows nest are certainly going to give bandits more pause than a lone farmer, IMO.

I mean, maybe you're right, but I'm skeptical. A lookout needs to be aware of what to look out for. The watch might not be informed of the exact itinerary of the tax payment (or whatever) but I think it likely that they would be informed that they ought to be on high alert and report any suspicious activity in the area.

Also, sending stones have limitations. IIRC, they only work once per day and they have a word limit. Potentially useful, but I don't think that it plus a farmer can really even replace the budget watch that you've posited.

Even if it can, it's still a risky proposition, particularly in the short term. Want to hurt the kingdom? Just snatch up all the stones you can. Taking a magic stone from a farmer is arguably easier than assassinating pairs of soldiers, and replacing the soldiers is much cheaper in the short term. Even if the kingdom can afford to replace them, how many times can they continue to do so? Eventually they will have to assign soldiers to guard the stones, which removes the economic incentive to have them in the first place.

Which is to say, I don't agree that a farmer with a sending stone is a suitable replacement for a tower watch. Supplementing the tower watch with sending stones could have enormous strategic advantages (even limited instantaneous communication is potent in the age of the carrier pigeon - imagine a medieval commander appraised of enemy movements in real time) but not an economic one.

 

[Ixal]

Two soldiers in a wooden crows nest are certainly going to give bandits more pause than a lone farmer, IMO.

I mean, maybe you're right, but I'm skeptical. A lookout needs to be aware of what to look out for. The watch might not be informed of the exact itinerary of the tax payment (or whatever) but I think it likely that they would be informed that they ought to be on high alert and report any suspicious activity in the area.

Also, sending stones have limitations. IIRC, they only work once per day and they have a word limit. Potentially useful, but I don't think that it plus a farmer can really even replace the budget watch that you've posited.

Even if it can, it's still a risky proposition, particularly in the short term. Want to hurt the kingdom? Just snatch up all the stones you can. Taking a magic stone from a farmer is arguably easier than assassinating pairs of soldiers, and replacing the soldiers is much cheaper in the short term. Even if the kingdom can afford to replace them, how many times can they continue to do so? Eventually they will have to assign soldiers to guard the stones, which removes the economic incentive to have them in the first place.

Which is to say, I don't agree that a farmer with a sending stone is a suitable replacement for a tower watch. Supplementing the tower watch with sending stones could have enormous strategic advantages (even limited instantaneous communication is potent in the age of the carrier pigeon - imagine a medieval commander appraised of enemy movements in real time) but not an economic one.

Farmers with sending stones would hardly be a replacement. Yes, they can call for help when they are attacked, but will help arrive in time? Unlikely unless you are high magic enough to have teleporting response squads. So bandits or monsters roll in, take what they want including the stone and kill a few farmers.

A watchtower with professional guards has the advantage of a fortified structure people can hide in until reinforcements arrive and a few people with weapons.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

What size is this kingdom and what is it's condition? Is it like the Roman Empire with garrisons and forts all over it's conquered lands while at the height of power? Or is it more like the later Roman Empire after having pulled a lot of their troops back home and leaving either empty forts or small groups of soldiers to be overrun by the locals/monsters, like in Britain?

 

[Xetheral]

I think the real danger of extensive agriculture in a magical setting is that it encourages your political enemies to research Animate Wheat in order to make you fight your own food supply....

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I'm gonna push back on #3. What's going to attack fields of wheat? Dire deer? Were-gophers? Fiendish crows?

Emus.

 

[Ancalagon]

Yeah, well, I'm playing an artificer is a small rebuilding town that has two cults trying to bust up the joint. The adventuring party is far tougher than the nominal town guards. My character would love to make and distribute a few sending stones for people to use as panic buttons when we are needed.

I am, however, playing an artificer in a game where we have found no item recipes at all...

Which makes the point - if you don't want this, don't let out the recipe for Sending Stones. Because once you do, it makes a whole lot of economic sense.

a mage that knows sending is far, far more useful to a ruler than a mage that knows fireball.

 

[Ancalagon]

Sure, but it's not the players who have to agree to it. It's NPC farmers, who agree to it because the alternative is being eaten. Then the PCs get to come in, liberate the farmers from the monsters' yoke, and be the big damn heroes.

Also, whether it's extortion depends on the nature of the deal. "Give me a sheep every week and I won't eat you" is extortion. "Give me a sheep every week, and I won't eat you, and I'll also protect you from other monsters," is not so clear-cut.

extortion, taxation... for the peasantry, it may be hard to tell the difference.

 

[Guang]

This-is-amazing! So many ideas. Thank you, everyone. This has been so helpful. I never imagined I would get 5 pages of responses and quibbles and links and jokes and.....
Anyway, thanks. You've fixed my (OP) worldbuilding problem and given me enjoyable material to read through on a tough day.

 

[Ancalagon]

This-is-amazing! So many ideas. Thank you, everyone. This has been so helpful. I never imagined I would get 5 pages of responses and quibbles and links and jokes and.....
Anyway, thanks. You've fixed my (OP) worldbuilding problem and given me enjoyable material to read through on a tough day.

I'm very happy you got useful information!

When you ask a question on a forum like this, what you get is a mixed bag... but I've found that 99% of the time, it's worth doing, because there are always good suggestions in the mixture (and EN world is better than many other places too!)