FARMING IN CHIVALRY & SORCERY

  I can only shake my head in amazement when it comes to Chivalry & Sorcery farm income rules.  Where else can you find rules for vineyards and wine making?

  In any event, the rules first presented in Chivalry & Sorcery 3^rd edition are readily available for use with GURPS.  Chivalry & Sorcery has it such that you first roll 3 different ten sided dice.  The first two are standard percentile dice.  The third die is called a “Crit” die that determines just how well you succeeded or failed.  This approach is not too dissimilar to GURPS in that you can roll 3d6 versus a target number and hope you roll the skill number or less to succeed, or fail by rolling higher than the target number.  

When using the chart, a few things should be kept in mind.  The first is that while it may be profitable to choose nothing but vine crops – medieval farms did not just grow one cash crop.  Chivalry & Sorcery suggests the following acreage for vineyards:

Yeoman: 1 to 6 acres, Landed Knights: 10 to 20 acres.  Astute readers will note that nowhere did I include the income for wine making.  This information can be found in Chivalry & Sorcery 3^rd edition.  With any luck, future Chivalry & Sorcery the Rebirth products will contain this information – as Chivalry & Sorcery 3^rd edition is now out of print.

Keep in mind the following factors when detailing crop and/or land usage for your players:

1)      in a two crop rotation system, ½ of the land was left fallow and used for grazing animals, the other half was planted with grain crops and the like

2)      in a three crop rotation system, 2/3rds of the land was under cultivation, where ½ of the crops grown were spring crops, while the other half were fall or winter crops.

3)      These lands were meant to be self-sustaining.  In other words, while a farmer might make more money selling the proceeds from his cattle, he still needed grain crops for his daily bread, ale, and breakfast foods.

4)      Chivalry & Sorcery doesn’t really have rules for when bad things happen per se.  Historically, England’s weather made life difficult for the production of wheat such that statistically speaking, good harvests generally occurred on a roll of a 5 or less on 3d6.  Average harvests occurred on a roll of a 6 through 12, and poor harvests occurred on a roll of a 13+.  In addition, as can be seen by today’s Hoof & Mouth situation, plagues can and do affect the herd animals. 

  It is suggested for sake of realism, that peasant farmers not be permitted to grow “orchard” crops, as those require trees and are not life sustaining crops.  It is further suggested that cash crops or animals be limited to the richer class of individuals.  As can be seen by the start up costs per acre, some forms of herding may be out of reach of the less fortunate.

  RENTS:  without going into the full math behind the numbers presented in Chivalry & Sorcery, it is stated that rents for farmers is equal to 1/3^rd the crop/herd income with a minimum of $60 to be paid per acre.