Monday, March 21, 2022

Worldbuilding 5e: Village

If at all possible, I'd like to stress the idea that each part of the world represents a moment in time, in which a sequence of events have caused this place to grow and reach a kind of fruition, whereas that place hasn't reached fruition yet.  Take the two hexes shown: the type-5 on the right and the type-4 on the left.

Fifty years ago, the type-4 might still be a type-5 ... with the "village" of Dragasani being no better than the "hamlet," as we've discussed.  Fifty years from now, the type-5 may have expanded into a type-4.  But there's no certainty of either; each part of the world grows at a different rate, depending on circumstances and how much care has gone into it's development.  The consequence for the game's players is an understanding that every part of the game world should be progressive, as well as interactive.

In a video game, interactivity is limited by the game's intended representation, which is in turn influenced by how long the programmer wants to spend building interactive elements.  D&D doesn't require programming.  If the player wants to interact with any part of my game world on a moment's notice, I have the potential to immediately enable that interactivity.  Want to bash through a wall in Dark Souls?  The programmer has to think of it first.  Want to bash through a wall in my dungeon?  Have at 'er.  I'll figure out the consequence in seconds and we'll see what results.

[yes, of course many DMs prefer to treat RPG's like they're preprogrammed inviolable entities, but we don't need to be limited by them]

Therefore we can look at Dragasani's hex and see that it must have once been a type-5 ... except that now it's richer (+1 coin) and more developed (+1 hammer).  All type-4 hexes get this increase ... and the addition of a village ... leading us to define the village.

Like hamlets, there are villages and villages.  Type-4 is "entry level" ... a scattered collection of houses, hovels, gardens, nearby fields and mills — something like the image shown, but don't take such images too much to heart.  Images like this are designed to provide a general overview of different building forms ... but the ratio of homes would be far greater, the mill's wheel probably much smaller and without the magnificently built weir, and as far as manufactures not every village would feature specifically a blacksmith and a large stone house on the scale shown.  Artists have a tendency to embellish.  My goal is to convey the space found between the houses and structures, and to stress the absence of an enclosing wall.  In some parts of Europe, walls became the rage as a way to buffer sea raiders, who could row up a river and plunder towns far inland.  However, walls take time and lots of money to build and maintain — and the sort of village that occurs in a type-4 hex has neither.

There are four important advancements between the hamlets we've talked about and a "scattered" village.  The first is the making of surplus goods.  The handicrafts produced for local use in a hamlet reach a tipping point where enough of an article is being made that it's quantity is sufficient to be sent to distant parts.  Anything might be the "article" in question: tools, pots, blankets, polished gems, pressed oils, powdered dyes, frankincense, resin, honey, glass ornaments, carved bone, planks, wine, cheese, toys, ponies and hundreds of other things.  Saying this, however, we shouldn't imagine some great quantity of these things.  Two score polished gemstones of a size smaller than a pea, per year, would be a tremendous boon to a single village of 350 people.  Nor should we assume these things are made in "factories."  The making of fifty embroidered chemises a month might be work shared out between a dozen labourers working in ordinary local cottages, the work being done in parlours and bedrooms — the literal meaning of "cottage industry."  No single type-4 village is going to threaten the Potter's Guild of Delft, but as we can see from the map I've devised, there are dozens and dozens of little villages in one small corner of the Carpathian Mts. (and in real life, many more than I've depicted).  Combined, a given product produced in twenty villages and gathered together in a market town like Kronstadt or Jassy would matter on the world market.

Secondly, a village has traffic and tradeThe type-5 above has it's road (and many haven't that), but Dragasani is a minor crossroads.  Not enough to justify an inn (still only has two hammers), but certainly there are enough people passing by to create a slight demand for goods and services by outsiders.  This in turn culminates in a weekly "market day" ... which, traditionally, would happen on Sunday in Christian regions, opening once services were completed.  Sunday was best because as a "day of rest," the peasants were permitted to set down their labours, fill a cart with wares and drag them to the village greenspace.  Why this was not seen as "work" baffles me ... but the Sabbath was made for man and not the reverse, so the powers justified it somehow.  Nearby villages would agree to have different market days ... so that while Dragasani would have their market day on Sunday, nearby Strejesti (a larger type-3 village) would have two or three market days a week, none of them on Dragasani's day.  As the two villages are a mere 12 miles apart, vendors could drag their carts back and forth, benefitting from a unique group of buyers at each end of their journey ... while the locals could ask for things that a peddler might remember to bring next week or next month.

Thirdly, there's the likely presence of some kind of temple.  I don't like to say there will definitely be a singular building for this; or even that if the place of worship exists, there's certainly a priest to occupy it.  Priests pass away from old age all the time; and villages are often to poor to build more than a small shelter.  Many villages are serviced by priests who make a circuit of three or four parishes, preaching at each one no more than once or twice a month.  And some religions don't require temples in the same way that the Judeo-Christian culture does.  Therefore, there's plenty of wiggle room ... and opportunity for a player character cleric to be "assigned" to a distant village somewhere that needs a priest.  This would eliminate the need to build a temple, as the old player handbook requires.  Though this doesn't keep the player from expanding or rebuilding the local church once he or she arrives.

The temple's presence reflects the number of people.  I haven't said yet, but a village on the type-4 level would have between 200 and 400 residents ... though some of these would live in houses on the extreme village periphery.  Imagine instead a close cluster of 20 to 30 structures at the core, with 5-8 persons per structure ... and outlying this, a scattering of adjoined yards, paths, intermittent fields and the inclusion of wells, shrines, sawpits and all the stuff we've discussed being located in thorps and hamlets.  This greater number of people, plus those in walking distance whose cottages and hovels are definitely outside the village, makes giving a service to a congregation a worthwhile affair.  Most visitors wouldn't have any money to give; so the priest's livelihood depends on his or her ability to pull in distant people who come to hear a good performance ... creating a customer base for the village and thus a reason for the few wealthier artisans and landowners to fill up the priest's collection plate.  A poor performer wouldn't get much, for the same reason a bad circus plays to empty seats.

Finally, there is most likely the presence of some form of authority.  Not every slight village would be blessed with a "noble lord" ... but a wealthy squire is certain to have built an extensive house amidst a yard with stables, grape press, chandlery, loom and hired servants would likely be located adjacent to the village.  In fact, the squire — or the squire's ancestors — would be the reason the older type-5 hamlet became a village.  It has everything to do with that "care" I mentioned earlier.  A squire, who for general purposes we can think of as a financially liquid, educated individual with friends in high places, would have justification to provide capital to build roads, better mills and promote trade (the "coin" which the type-4 hex possesses).  He or she might be liked or disliked, but the money pouring outwardly through the neighbourhood would be taken and appreciated.  And in turn, the squire would have the power to exercise considerable will upon the locals by the withholding of that money, or the purchasing of people to deal with troublemakers.

In place of squires, we might have a baronet, invested for some service that was done to the monarchy.  Some villages may be entirely made of a single clan, so that the central authority might be a clan chief or a thane.  Other cultures have their equivalents.  It should be understood that any potentate with real clout or prestige through the land would certainly be found in a more important hex type, since their influence would increase the size and scope of the village and it's environs.  A type-4 is really a backwater among villages.

The exception is the type-4 settlement, like Vaslui here.  I've veered away from talking about settlements, doing little more than mentioning them in passing.  There's got to BE settlements because these determine the originating distribution of infrastructure, which in turn fills out the various villages, hamlets, thorps and wilderness that comprise the detailed map.  I've been asked specifically to discuss the placement of settlements, and that with other thoughts in my head deserves its own post, which I will attend to forthwith.  For the moment, consider Vaslui.  As a "settlement," it gets +1 coin, +1 food and +1 hammer.  This is more of any of these things than what we've seen so far ... and commensurately, this means more produce to be collected at harvest, special kinds of food that are produced throughout the year, a market that takes place on multiple days (like a type-3 hex), the presence of a permanent constabulary, a village hall and an inn.  More hammers means many more kinds of facility, which will need to be discussed eventually.  So, all in all, a considerable expansion beyond anything we've seen yet.  And all this for a village with a mere 665 residents.

In short, we've barely begun to discuss the enormous expansion of services and elements of worldbuilding provided by the game's urban setting ... a setting which is usually boiled down to one inn, one tavern and one market place.  As such, we have a long way to go yet.  So please understand, if it takes me five or six days to get a new post up, remember I have commitments and that I'm describing things which, honestly, I've never thought about myself on this level.  Like anyone else, I've trusted that I'll invent these things in the moment of gaming.  Structurally explaining and resolving each detail in concrete terms for the blog is a mental exercise that forces research and the expansion of my thinking.  It takes time and effort and very often, not a little doubt before I'm ready to dive in and do a good job.

And ... let me say firmly, thank you to everyone who supports me on Patreon.  It makes a terrific difference with regards to my enthusiasm and desire to work hard on this blog as often as I'm able.  You're great for helping.  Be good to yourselves and take care.  I'll try to get the settlements post up by Wednesday, maybe Thursday.  March has been something of a trial regarding my other responsibilities.

12 comments:

  1. I realize you may already plan to cover this, but just for clarification: you're saying that *settlements* come from the defined encyclopedia, and generate the infrastructure. These thorps/hamlets/villages/whathaveyou are generated *by* the infrastructure, and so they don't come into existence (in the setting, as it were) until after placing settlements and infrastructure.

    Do I have that straight?

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  2. Please delete the test comment that might have gone through, I can’t tell.

    I could use some help understanding the economic/manufacturing productivity of hamlets and villages in your taxonomy.

    In your 2019 thoughts on the assignment of hex benefits (hammers, coins, food for those who don’t know that term), I recall you gave figures for how many people those benefits might represent in the food production, manufacturing, and service industries. This was motivated by your proposal that more benefit symbols would mean higher and higher tiers of specialization and facility available related to those things. I believe the phrasing you used was that 1/2/3/4 symbols would mean the presence of Production/processing/manufacture/administration.

    I know that you are still yet to come up with any general solution for translating hex benefits into presence/absence of facilities, but have you made any strides in thinking about population numbers, specifically, as they relate to hex benefits? For instance, have you Been revisiting “15 PD per food unit (not symbol) at the 2 mile hex level; Five manufacturing persons per hammer unit; 100 gold of commerce per coin unit”?

    As usual when I try to ask you questions I find it takes me more effort to phrase them on paper than it did when I was talking to myself in the shower… But maybe this is enough to start a conversation.

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  3. It isn't a conversation, not really.

    Trust me when I say that if I haven't mentioned "PD" in any of these posts taking place now, it's because it didn't work. The same goes for "manufacturing persons."

    It's easy to make the mistake of thinking I'm some grand mighty wizard and that everything I've said over the years fits into some Master Plan that I comprehended entirely in 2008, and I'm only now getting around to revealing this tiny part of it. But all that's bullshit. I'm inventing and reinventing AS I GO. I've forgotten and discarded much of the material I've churned out over the years, because I'm always looking for a BETTER representative model. You'd do best Maxwell to presume that I've tossed everything about NTME and anything else I've written about food/hammers/coins in the trash prior to December 2021. Just now, I'm figuring out how the various symbols apply to existing facilities and hex design in a 6-mile system ... and even with that, I'm changing things in my head right now as I work. I suggest that if you like something from my past attempts that YOU fit them in to your system. As for me, I'm working in the present and what I've worked on in the past has no definite meaning for me.

    I know something works when, after implementing it, I'm still using it ten years later. The experience counting system. Encumbrance. The trade tables. Infrastructure calculation. Character backgrounds. Stuff like development levels and this ongoing project right now don't fit into that category.

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  4. Delightful, things continue to take more and more life, ideas form ...

    Question : how does the Squire earn money ? He must be able to gain something back from it's investment. True he can will some things to happen, but how can he gain something without due recognition of his status as leader and taxation?

    Can't wait for the settlement post ... No, scratch that. Can't wait for the next post. We've more to see bigger villages, towns, cities ...

    God, that's great.

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  5. The squire might be wealthy through inheritance, a sinecure, a benefice of some kind, through a more powerful brother, by marrying into the right family, through industry, as a friend or family member to a noble, twice or three times removed, he might have holdings elsewhere, he may occupy himself with distant trade, he may also be a judge, an ex-officer or some other grand official, or he may have wealth through the ownership of much more than local land ... the squire might be an ex-adventurer, who once with his or her friends, cleaned out a large beholder lair. We can never be certain.

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  6. Well you certainly answered my question, Alexis! Thanks.

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  7. Thanks Alexis.
    Then a Squire can't sustain his expenses by what he can gain form such a little place, right ?
    Is there any form of authority that could, or is this place just somewhere that need more investment and growth before being able to get money back ?
    Maybe that's why an outside authority is there, for the growth potential.

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  8. I can't agree with that assessment, Vlad.

    Consider: the "6-mile" hex is 6.67 miles in diameter, with a total area of 38.5285 square miles. This is more than half the area of Liechtenstein; that's 24,658 acres of farmland, timberland, grazing land, whatever we manage to use it for depending on region, development and vegetation. The squire is the dominant landlord and land owner of the hex. I don't know from where you would get the idea that a Squire couldn't sustain the property's expenses on a piece of land of this size.

    A "hide" consisted of between 60 and 120 acres of land, depending on its quality, as the true measure wasn't area but how much grain is produced: approximately 1,620 bushels. A "bushel" is a unit of volume, about 0.822 cubic feet, so that a bushel of grain weighed about 40 lbs. So, that's 64,844 lb. of wheat per "hide." Keeping in mind that a hide was how much land a "freeholder" would possess. A "Knight's Fee," supposed to be sufficient to keep an army of 25 equipped soldiers, equalled 5 hides. A squire might have between 6 and 10, or more.

    Seems like enough to maintain his or her expenses.

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  9. Ah, because I didn't understand that the Squire had the right of taxation. Per your description, I misunderstood that he was only investing, receiving due recognition for this from the population, but not recognized by whatever higher authority as the local landlords.

    Indeed with the Squire as landlord my question has no reason to be.

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  10. Ah, but I didn't say taxation. I was speaking of land the squire personally owns. He or she may have tenants on other land, enabling collection rents ... but no, the squire wouldn't technically be able to collect tax. Unless, of course, the squire was also the designated tax farmer, which happened.

    Remember also that it's likely the squire's mill, the squire's shearing station, the squire's granary and the squire's wine press representing the primary industry in the village. It's like one of those westerns where one fellow owns everything.

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  11. Oh. Ooooh, mein Gott.

    Yes, it makes so much sense now. That's why you said the Squire's ancestors were probably the reason of there being a village instead of a hamlet.

    Yes, he should be fine, financially speaking. Although some investment wouldn't hurt, in the long run. That'd be nice.

    Thank you for clearing my confusion !

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