Simulationist Question on PoL

[Fallen Seraph]

I imagine small villages would offer things like; free food/housing (if the caravan is travelling far distances it would be nice to stay in a warm bed for one night), barter the iron for other things.

A good merchant could turn a pretty penny for selling a little bit of iron for some wheat, that he sells for salt that he finally sells to rich naval-captains for their ships food.

I also could imagine the villages that are poor that get the most good iron is thanks to their blacksmith, who heckles and barters the price down (like my idea on the first page of iron-auctions like fish-auctions).

 

[Surgoshan]

A merchant comes into town with a single cart full of iron stock pulled by four heavy draft horses. He leaves with four carts full of oats, hay, and legumes, each pulled by two horses. Where did the three carts and four horses come from? From the village as part of the trade.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

A merchant comes into town with a single cart full of iron stock pulled by four heavy draft horses. He leaves with four carts full of oats, hay, and legumes, each pulled by two horses. Where did the three carts and four horses come from? From the village as part of the trade.

Hmm... PoL a economic simulator?

 

[Transit]

I'm not sure that "poor villages" would even exist in a POL setting.

Settlements would HAVE to control some valuable resource that they could use to trade for whatever else they needed, otherwise they'd never survive. And there would have to be a pretty good (i.e. profitable) reason for the caravans to make the dangerous journey to visit the settlement, otherwise they wouldn't even bother to come.

And the settlements would also need to be strong enough and/or well defended enough to not only protect themselves from the surrounding darkness, but occasionally from other points of light who want their stuff.

I've been imagining POL settlements as being something like:

-A huge heavily defended keep built directly on top of an iron mine, defended by troops that are paid in armor and weapons.

-A valley sealed with a huge wall built across it that hides the only fertile farms for miles around, protected by mercenaries bought with the promise of a full belly.

-A wizard-ruled city that sits atop a source of such terrible arcane power that no one would dare attack them.

Each settlement needs to have something pretty good going for it, otherwise it's point of light is quickly going to go out. The standard charming and peaceful little village with an inn and a plot of vegetables just isn't going to cut it.

At least not in MY version of a POL setting.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Well you figure though, that there will be roads between two powerful towns, keeps or cities. So along this road smaller, poor villages can spring up to barter and trade with the merchants and caravans that crisscross them.

We also got to figure the core-PoL has lots of empires that are now long-gone. So there would still probably be well maintained roads from which merchants would travel and villages would spring up.

It would also allow for easier warning if a village was being attacked, yes probably by the time any forces came the village be destroyed but that is a chance people would take.

I imagine most small villages would be surrounded by stone walls, wooden stakes, etc. With a central stone structure which is higher then any other, like a temple from which the villagers would go to for shelter.

 

[Surgoshan]

They'd be poor by modern standards, but they'd have to be almost entirely self-sufficient. A farm might be easier to run with a good iron plough and horse shoes, but you don't have to have them. A sharpened stick will work as a plough.

 

[Mirtek]

I imagine small villages would offer things like; free food/housing (if the caravan is travelling far distances it would be nice to stay in a warm bed for one night), barter the iron for other things.

He can also have a warm bed if he just stays at home. What's the point to pay hundreds if not thousands of gold pieces just to travel with heavy protection through dangerous lands (and still risk death) just to get food and a warm bed?

A good merchant could turn a pretty penny for selling a little bit of iron for some wheat, that he sells for salt that he finally sells to rich naval-captains for their ships food.

It needs to be a pretty good penny just to pay all the sellswords he needs just to arrive alive and then he hasn't even bought his trade goods to offer once he arrives.

I also could imagine the villages that are poor that get the most good iron is thanks to their blacksmith, who heckles and barters the price down (like my idea on the first page of iron-auctions like fish-auctions).

Well, there's only so much room to haggle if the 50 veteran gaurds you needed to just make it there alive need to be paid.

A merchant comes into town with a single cart full of iron stock pulled by four heavy draft horses. He leaves with four carts full of oats, hay, and legumes, each pulled by two horses. Where did the three carts and four horses come from? From the village as part of the trade.

Not much PoL if a single merchant with just one card can savely make the trip. Make it a merchant with a single cart and 100 heavily armed guards. And the price for whatever he has in the single card has to also include the salaries for his guards.

"What? 500 gp for 5kg of iron?"
"You must understand, it's actually 20g for the iron and 480g wages to the mercenaries to get me here and back"
"Too bad, our whole village financial resources are only 10 gp 24 silver 15 copper anyway"
*guards suddenly looking grim and drawing steel* "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN NOT PAY US?!"

I'm not sure that "poor villages" would even exist in a POL setting.

Settlements would HAVE to control some valuable resource that they could use to trade for whatever else they needed, otherwise they'd never survive. And there would have to be a pretty good (i.e. profitable) reason for the caravans to make the dangerous journey to visit the settlement, otherwise they wouldn't even bother to come.

I think this it what it comes down to.

No humble homlet as lonely PoL out there in the darkness. Either the PoL is rich because of having something very valuable to offer or none of the well-guarded caravans would bother to visit it. Because being well-guarded is very expensive and these expenses have to be added to the sales cost of your merchandise (and your customers have to still be able to pay it, not good to have to tell your sellswords that you can't afford to pay them for having guarded your caravan).

 

[DandD]

The feudal japan era-setting of the anime "Princess Mononoke" (you know, that one with the wolf-girl and those giant wolves. And giant boars and other stuff, by Studio Ghibli) depicts an Points of Light-Setting, where warlords try to overrun each another, human settlements are surrounded by hostile nature (quite literally), and the one human village that is regularely attacked is atop of a wealthy iron mine. Oh, and they produce the only firearms in the entire region.

That should provide enough inspiration...

I guess I just added some "D&D is becoming too much Anime" into the fray again, didn't I?

 

[Clawhound]

What does the countryside create??????

- Wool
- Flax
- Grain
- Fish
- Horses and warhorses
- Furs from wild animals
- Cheese
- Jerky
- Tall trees (invaluable in building)
- Mined materials lucky enough to be on the land (amber, silver, gold, copper, tin)
- Magical materials lucky enought to be on the land.
- Roads (a safe road with tolls is better than an unsafe one without tolls)
- Labor (turning flax into linen, wool into tabards)

Most of the labor and manufacturing is in the countryside. Cities are the hubs of exchange and the seats of government.

 

[Surgoshan]

Try reading Terry Pratchett's Night Watch some time, there's a brief period wherein the main character ponders the relationship of the city to the surrounding countryside that is illuminating.

Plus, it's a really good book.