Improvements

Investments provide a chance for extra income and sometimes grant a Trait or Skill check or additional Glory.

A £10 Manor (a starting Manor) allows one improvement to be built per year. If more are built, then extra outside labor must be brought in. This adds fifty percent to the cost.

The prices given are for building the item in a year or less. Extending the construction time does not reduce the cost. If insufficient funds are available, Improvements can be partially built in the hopes none of the Improvement’s benefits are realized until it is finished.

To build an Improvement, set aside the full value of the construction in the Winter Phase. Orders go out so that the next spring a master builder is hired, materials are being gathered or bought and brought to the site, laborers are coming, and the Improvement is constructed. These are all included in the Improvement’s cost: the knight need not worry about details of where his money is actually spent.

Projects can be interrupted by raiders, invaders, a bad summer for construction (wind, rains, flooding, late snow) or stopped when all the specialists are ordered off somewhere else by the king. Such events may come up through campaign play, or by Gamemaster fiat. In such cases half the funds are lost since the people have gone, but the materials remain. If the county was pillaged or plundered, the materials may be lost as well, though this is a function of events.

Standard Buildings

Hall Decorations

Decorations	Cost	Glory	Portable?
Exterior whitewash	£2+	2	No
Carved doors, lintels, corbels etc.	£1-3+	1/£	Yes
Painted interior rooms	£1+	1/£	No
Mosaic	£3+	2/£	Yes

September 21st, 2023

Secret Security

Vault

This is a place where treasure is hidden. It is an iron strongbox with locks, kept in a secret, well-hidden place. Everything possible is done to conceal its location. It might be under the floor, in a hole in the woods, under the pig sty, or wherever the lord specifies. Write the location on your character sheet or estate record. This isn’t a cash box. This is a “put it out of sight until I need it” box.

Cost: £ 4

Maintenance: £ 0

Glory: None. It’s a secret!

Benefit: No one can find the money, even if the estate is Ravaged. Write down the location. It doesn’t even matter if other players see it — no one can find this, unless the owner goes there to recover the treasure. Only visiting the location bears a chance of revealing it to someone, as determined by the Gamemaster.

September 21st, 2023 September 21st, 2023

Investments

Armory

This is a smith and smithy for the Armorer to make weapons and armor to sell, and also to repair the lord’s armor, weapons and so on.

The Armory is not for the blacksmith, whose job it is to make common tools like horsehoes, nails and other implements for both the common people and the resident noble. He has his own smithy.

Cost: £ 10

Maintenance: £ 2 for personnel, £ 2 for raw materials, charcoal, etc.

Income: £ 5

Coneygarth

A Coneygarth is a rabbit warren. The rabbits or hares are contained by a moat (rabbits do not swim) and are fed regularly. It is a source of easy meat and furs.

Cost: £ 4

Income: £ 2

Benefits: Check Cowardly and Lustful

Mellisarium

This is a honey and wax farm with dozens of beehives.

Cost: £ 6

Income: £ 1

Benefits: Check Energetic

Note: Requires space. Only one improvement that "requires space" can be built on a starting manor.

Orchard

Players should choose what type of tree is planted. Common Orchards are made of apple, pear, cherry, plum, chestnut, and walnut trees. More exotic fruits may be raised if the player provides research to back it up.

Only mature trees bear fruit, slowly increasing their yield over time.

Cost: £ 10

Income: Years 1–4: £ -1; years 5–8: 0; years 9–12: £ 1; years 13–16: £2; year 17 +: £3.

Note: Requires space. Only one improvement that "requires space" can be built on a starting manor.

Sheep Herd

Every farm has some sheep, but they are a source of income in areas that are unsuitable for farming, especially hilly lands. Salisbury, with its extensive chalk downs, is one of those areas. About half of the income from Salisbury manors comes from sheep.

Cost: £ 7

Income: £ 1

Note: Requires space. Only one improvement that "requires space" can be built on a starting manor.

Vineyard

Vineyards provide fresh fruit, raisins, and wine. Note that grapes are delicate crops and may die suddenly, even after many years.

Cost: £ 12

Income: £ -1 for the first three years; £3 per year afterwards

Complication: Each year, including maturation, roll 1d20. On a result of 20, the vines die.

Note: Requires space. Only one improvement that "requires space" can be built on a starting manor.

Weir, Kydell

This is a large fish trap. It includes simple drying and curing facilities on the nearest shore.

Cost: £5 for stone (permanent, unless broken by boatmen); £1.5 for wood and wicker, roll 1d6 each year, on a 6 it is rotten and must be replaced.

Income: £ ½ each

Problems: Multiple Weirs block passage on a river, which results in boat men destroying them.

September 21st, 2023 September 21st, 2023