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[mesor]

Most of them are pretty much common sense.
I didn't even read them the first time and I've had no trouble at all.

[Mullet Master]

Not if he only does it to remind me of a rule I missed, and does it for everyone.

It happened to House Wolfclaw, too. This is part of the storytelling, I am adding in bits and pieces of information about medieval life in general and there are going to be some important events, good and bad, that happen every turn. Remember the long term focus of the game...

Hey, presumably Magnum and the rest of House Draco were aware that having babies past the age of 35 would be bad, and if not they might have considered the warnings of the others. I hadn't noticed the rule so I had no idea that anything bad could happen; it came out of the blue.

I'm just asking that if some action I posted would have some really bad effect due to a rule I could have missed, say if it had been changed since the game started getting all of its rules, Mullet Master gve me and others making some such mistake a little warning saying, "Hey, X will happen if you do Y. Want to change your action?" Otherwise, it seems like Mullet Master wants me to reread the rules before I do every turn in case something's changed or been forgotten that could kill someone or do something else bad.

One could also argue that a successful family , rolling in cash - it would be logical to try to have another heir since a new child would be easy to support. This is a game, and as such, I want to give the players freedom to make choices. I have ran forum games in a very linear fashion that made every choice a "safe" choice, but that makes for a pretty boring game for the players.

I will always give you a heads up if a decision will basically mean your dynasty will die out ( such as "Both A and B are going to join the military" or "Our house declares itself an independent nation, and we don't have a military!") but I will not if it is just one character.

[Mullet Master]

Year : 1510

Cairnwall Crossing Population : 230
Cairnwall Crossing Buildings : 50 huts , 1 house , 1 church, 1 inn, 1 weaver's hut, 1 pottery shop, 1 carpenter shop, 2 metalworking shops, 1 clothesmaker's shop,
Political Climate : Anarchy
Cairnwall Local Environment : No wildlife, moderately forested
Events :
The forests are being depleted by a rash of construction and burning tremendous amounts of lumber for fuel in the winter. Approximately 75% of the old growth timber remains.
The forests are completely empty of wildlife. The new settlers have ravaged most of the available resources and now fish in the rivers and swamps.
A livestock dealer still visits Cairnwall to his yearly route.
Livestock available : cattle (9 silver ea), flock of 50 chickens (6 silver)
-The town has approximately 50 unemployed people.

50/50 are unskilled. prevailing wage : 2 sp/year each.

There are business opportunities available.

Iron Ore Mining at the edge of Galen's Bog
Quarry large amounts of stone to build town hall & walls
Construction of docks
Accomodate refugees



Government:
Burgomeister (Acting under own authority) : Doral Root - Appointed 1480 (30 years of service)
2 soldiers (work as peacekeepers except under time of war)
1 sheriff  (responsible for enforcing laws)
Local Tax Rate : 30%


News :
The Kingdom of Bethelos lost the war with the Durant Oligarchy. In battle after battle, the forces of Bethelos was defeated, and in 1509 the King of Bethelos surrendered. As terms of surrender, the Durant Oligarchy received approximately 80% of the Kingdom of Bethelos. Cairnwood Crossing is on the far reaches of the old Kingdom of Bethelos, part of the 20% remaining. Most cities of any size are organized into a new government called the Bethelos Border States(BBS).

Cairnwood Crossing is precariously close to the official border of the Durant Oligarchy, so the BBS has not extended an invitation into the BBS. The Durant Oligarchy has visited briefly, but did not classify it as a town and therefore not worthy of a government installation. With no official government, Cairnwood Crossing is officially independent as declared by the Burgomeister Root. Burgomeister Root has hired a few soldiers to protect him, hired a sheriff to enforce the laws, and is starting to form a city council.

The first city council members are representatives from the 4 large families in town.(the player characters)

The Durant Oligarchy speaks a different language than Bethelos , so there is quite a bit of problems associated with the regime change. Many refugees from former Bethelos controlled cities are streaming into Cairnwood crossing, and it is expected the town will reach 750 population by the end of 1512.  The large influx of refugees means - houses need to be built, farms developed, and larger amounts of food has to be available.

(Before we do the next turn, we will be having a brief City Council meeting)

[GreatWyrmGold]

Alright, fine. I'll take what I can get.
Sucks to be Speciosam, though. And Argentum, who now lacks a good supply of cloth as well as a mother. And the rest of the family. Magnum lost his wife, Fillium lost not only his mother but, to a lesser extent, his father. The death of his wife won't make the brooding bit any better...

And for the city council meeting.

"Alright, let's call the meeting to order. First thing we need, before laws, before codes, before anything else...we need to decide how we want this town to go. I've been here since the town was founded--we all have--and we know we can't go on like this forever. Let's hear some thoughts."

[mesor]

"Well since I am a carpenter and my son will be a carpenter with permission I will hire in a few of the laborers and begin building new houses for the refugees.

Perhaps we should look at everything this town is going to need to grow and distribute power over these jobs accordingly?

I'd be happy to take on building homes and orchards for my family if nobody disagrees with this.

[mesor]

(( Mullet if my head of house supervises 10 unskilled laborers while they are building houses will his carpentry skill make them build better? ))

[GreatWyrmGold]

Hold on, Fenix. The good of the town comes before we worry about our own properties. We need to assess what we have and what we need.
What we need, for starters, is a large orchard and plenty of farms. If we can export food while the price is still high, Cairnwood Crossing could be the richest town in the region. We can't do that if 20% of our labor is working on building things for you, 20% for me, 20% for Kappel, get cetera. For now, I think we need to get farms organized and get silviculture active for WHEN we run out f forest.

[Nirur Torir]

Maria attends the meeting as House Kappel's representative.

"I wasn't here when Cairnwall was built, but I did grow up with the town. Seems we're being forced to grow even further. We can't just turn the newcomers away. We can't.

But we can't feed them all right now. Before anything else, we need to -- all of us -- organize the refugees to clear more farmland. There's naught left to eat in the forests. We might have a few lean winters, but God would demand nothing less than keeping everyone fed.

We should build docks quickly. We might need to buy shipfulls of food to survive."

[mesor]

"I intend to begin building orchards as well but having several hundred people living in tents is likely to lead to disease which could cripple this town. We have laborers who need work and we need houses so I intend to hire 10 of them and then over the course of the year I intend to build 20 basic homes. It should be close to enough to house all of the refugees coming in and in the long term 20 new families is 20 more sets of hands to work for the good of the town.

With all of our families we have enough people and money to hire more for us to cover all of the towns needs, food may be a small problem but we should be able to afford to buy more in the short term."

(( A basic house costs 1 gold coin correct? ))

[GreatWyrmGold]

"Docks? We're in a forest! How many ships will come here? Rafts, perhaps, but not enough to justify a dock when we need farms and orchards!
We need to put the refugees to work. Give each an acre, give them seed, make sure they can live."

Fenix, we can't expect to afford to import food at this time. It's too expensive. We've all of us--all four of our families-we all have lots of crops. Let each family make its own homestead, we'll make sure they don't starve and give them a tent. When everyone's on their feet, we'll ship food to the starving rest of the kingdom and use that money to make sure everyone has housing. Fair?"

[mesor]

"If we provide housing they can all set to work on farming straight away, and building is my family's strength it would be best if we stuck to it. We can make a lot of money providing housing to them and then in 10 years time we will have a far more prosperous town and I will have a lot of money to devote to this town and to getting everything up and running.

What else would we do? Building is my family's specialty."

[Mullet Master]

Burgomeister Root is a fat old man with curly white hair rolling down his back. He wears an ancient uniform of the Bethelos army, which is faded purple in color with yellow piping around the collar and sleeves. He's nearing 65 years old, but seems to be fairly alert for someone his age.
" My friends, we are at a great turning point. We are on our own out here, at least until we figure out of the Durant Oligarchy is here to stay. So, for the next few years, we must form our own government and try to maintain order. I have hired two men-at-arms from my own personal fortune, as well as a Sheriff. I have posted on the walls of the inn, as well as my own house, the tax rate is now 30%.

Here our own main talking points today, gentlemen.

One. We know that many refugees are coming our way. We need to house them, and this is an evident fact. But once we have them housed, we cannot feed them unless we get some trade or vastly expand our current farming capabilities. We have two potential ways of doing this :

1) Clearcut forest to make room for farms. Draft incoming refugees as peasants in service to Cairnwall Crossing. Peasants will farm and our town will be self sufficient.
2) Employ peasants in an iron ore mine at Galen's Bog. The iron is relatively easy to get to, and peasants can do this a free men and earn a working wage. We will have to pay 10gp this year, but it will be self sustaining afterwards. We will have to then make a choice on who to sell the iron ore to - the BBS will be closer but pay less, but the Durant Oligarchy will require opening official diplomatic channels. That may very well mean they come in and take us over.
Please cast your votes and we will proceed to the next topic"

The vote is : Choice #1 or #2 to employ the majority of the incoming refugees.

A little background information on the Durant Oligarchy :

Your people speak Common, and the Durant Oligarchy speak Kofete, which is a pretty difficult language to learn. The Durant are not an extremely warlike people, but they are pretty harsh on conquered people who choose not to integrate. You are also very, very far away from the capital - it is very likely that they will not care that much about the affairs of Cairnwood. Overall, they have a very strong economy and very strong military.

A little background information on the Bethelos Border States
Some of the more wealthy border colonies of Bethelos founded these states after the dissolution of the Kingdom of Bethelos. Their military is weak as is the economy, but they speak Common. The land is remote and filled with large amounts of natural resources. The overall governmental attitude is exceedingly pro-merchant and pro-entrepreneur with low tax rates. The only problem is the lack of unification makes towns in the BBS subject to constant struggle with bandits, pirates, and other minor city states.

[mesor]

"I vote in favor of the first idea with one small change. By all means draft them but I suggest we draft them by giving them each 1 plot of land. We assist them with building a house and then let them work. It seems to me that it would make them feel more welcome and if they are happy they will integrate faster and be much more willing to work with us."

[Nirur Torir]

"Where is this money you intend to line your own pockets with by housing half-starved refugees coming from, Master Fenix?

I support mass farming. The less the Durant notice us, the better."

[mesor]

"The refugees will make money as they grow, I will charge them a small fee for the house each year say 3 silver coins. Small enough that it will not influence them greatly but over time it will cover my costs and allow me to make some profit to devote to the town."