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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 2024344" data-attributes="member: 9254">Thanks.  I've tweaked my DL campaign to use this format for Solamnia.  it works well as the home setting since it's sufficiently close to the modern ideal of a euro-centric fantasy monarchy.  it also helps throw the variances in other regions into higher contrast.By my quick math, ~2gp is about equal to the 24sp an unskilled laborer makes over four 6-day workweeks.  Since the soldier's have been given room & board they have significantly more income than the typical masses.  IMC only about 10-15% of the full military fighting strength is a "standing" army and even that is the sum of the nobility's troops.  About 75% of it is in the form of militias, particularly in the form of peasants who pay their taxes through national-guard type service.   the remaining 10% are professionals, artisans, landless nobles (like the Knights of Solamnia) able to buy their way out of militia service during peace time but available during wars.This works out for a couple of reasons, at least IMC. Most of that standing force will be your elites and officers, by throwing the bulk of the grunts back into the general workforce and you keep peacetime costs low and increases the taxable population.  Since my campaign has a high "base" level (around 4th level for a typical 25yro craftsman) this creates a bit of in-game class distinction.  The peasants not only toil and have little cash, they also find themselves doing grunt military work while the guildmembers have ready cash and don't deal with the grubby tasks of hunting rabid bears or chasing bandits but when they do get called up they have their own swords and armor.  The guilds charge a lot of money for apprenticeship and can justify it in a multitude of ways.  It only works for gov'ts that that aren't afraid of being overthrown by the masses, though.  I have other regions IMC where the populace is either unarmed or there is a very expensive standing army to maintain the disliked ruler's iron grip.</blockquote>

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