0.0 WELCOME

Welcome to the Castles & Ruins source book! Before Players should keep the above discussion in mind when what is found within this tome into your game, a few words of caution and warning are appropriate.

This source book is "theme" oriented. That is, everything within thisbook centers around a single theme (inthis case-castles, construction, and ruins). If the concept presented in thistheme isnot appropriate toyour game, do not use it! Do not presume that what is written upon these pages is law in the strictest sense. Instead, think of it as a text book from which you will learn how to incorporate certain new concepts into your game. It is possible that what you learn here will contradictthe things thatyou want to pursue in your game. Remember thatwhen anything is in doubt, you (the GM) and your game take precedence — not the rules.

This book is optional—everything within it is optional (the training packages, the spell lists, etc. ). As a GM, you must study what we present here and decide if the concepts are appropriate to your gaming world. Adopting the contents of this book into your game might change the power balance in your game. You (as the GM) must decide if this is good or bad for your game. Because this book is theme oriented, you will probably either adopt the theme (i. e. , the whole book), or only adopt a very few select pieces of it. If you only adopt select pieces of it(as opposed to the whole thing), be very careful when meshing it with the rest of the RMSS; all play-balance put into this book presumes that the whole book is being used (excluding one part might be excluding a balancing factor). In the end, the GM (not the players) must decide to use (or not use) the material present herein.

Players should keep the above discussion in mind when reading Castles & Ruins; the GM may decide that this theme is not appropriate for his game. Pressuring the GM to adopt pieces of this tome might not only result in a fractruring of a delicate game balance, but could weaken or undermine his concepts for the world he has created. On the other hand, the GMhas an obligation to his players to make clear what the phyisical laws of his world entail (i. e. , the game mechanics). Of course, there are always physical laws that are being discovered. A GM must strive to be consistent in his decisions and in his interpretations of the rules (this includes decisions about which rules to include and which rules to include and which to exclude). Without consistency, the players will eventually lose trust and confidence in the GM's decisions and his game. When this happens, a game loses much of its pleasure and appeal.

Note: For readability purposes, these rules use the standard masculine pronouns when referring to persons of uncertain gender. In such cases, these pronouns are intended to convey the meanings: he/she, her/him, etc.

0.0.0.1 NOTATION

Castles & Ruins uses the standard notation from the other products in the RMSS products (e. g. , Arms Law, Spell Law, Rolemaster Standard Rules, and Gamemaster Law). Those products should be consulted for speicifc references (e. g. , the spell lists all use the SL abbreviations and notation in the spell descriptions).

1.0 INTRODUCTION

"A thing of beauty is a joy forever. Its loveliness increases; it will never pass into nothingness"

— Keats, "Endymion

1.1 HISTORY & DEVELOPMENT

Castle. The word conjures images of King Arthur, Robin Hood, the crusades and many, many works of fantasy. But what exactly was a castle? It was a fortress, yes, but many other things, too. The castle was a home, a military base of operations, a seat of government, a catalyst for cultural and educational advancement, and by controlling new lands, castles paved the way for the expansion of civilization.

The modern conception of a castle with thick walls of stone and tall towers represents only the final and most advanced stages of castle construction. The earliest forerunners of the castle were built in ancient days, before the rise of the Roman Empire. These were actually heavily defended cities instead of castles, but the precedent for huge defensive works of wood and stone was set in these ancient times in places like Ur, Babylon, Jericho, Sparta, and Syracuse.

Strictly speaking, a castle is a fortified home, which these early cities cannot claim to be. Therefore, the earliest castles were just simple wooden palisades built on top of small hills. A palisade was more of a fence than a true wall or barrier. These hilltop forts were common in continental Europe, though not in England until the Roman occupation. Roman legions perfected the wooden fort and used them in their various campaigns. A Roman force could erect a wooden fortress in a matter of weeks.

The Romans would build these wooden fortresses outside of a walled city that they were attacking. This gave the Roman troops something to do during the long wait of the siege, as well as protecting the troops from sallies and attacks by outside forces sympathetic to the besieged. The huge constructions of theRoman troopswere often as impressive as the city they surrounded. The Romans were even known to build fortifications completely encircling a city in order to cut off all avenues of escape and communication. The Romans were careful to build these defenses to protect them from attacks from within the city as well as from without.

The hilltop fort was gradually improved by the Romans and even more so by later cultures. These forts began to have solid wooden walls and square towers. The area at the base of the hill was enclosed and encircled with another ditch to allow for more troops and horses. This area at the base of the hill was called a bailey. The bailey then became the first line of defense, with the keep at the top of the hill being a place in which to fall back. As a fort grew, it might have two or three separate baileys connected to the central keep.

This prototype castle was called a "motte-and-bailey" castle. The motte was either a natural or artificial hill with a steep incline. The motte (hill) was more or less round with a flattened top. The base of the mound was anywhere from one hundred to threehundred feet in diameter and could be as low as ten feet or as high as a hundred feet tall.

Later, these castles were improved with better ditches, steeper inclines, and finally by being made out of stone. Stone has the natural advantage of not burning down or rotting. Stone provides stability and strength to a fortress and was the first step towards turning the fortress into a permanent fortified dwelling. The down side is that stone castles take along time to build. The Roman legions were able to build a wooden motte-and-bailey castle in only two or three weeks, where as a stone castle of similar size could take a year or more.

The stone castle, as it is generally conceived, is undeniably linked to the Normans. The firststone castles found in England were built by Normans, and castles did not prolife ratein England until after the Norman invasion in 1066. These stone castles were sometimes built on the sites ofold hill forts. The hill forts were generally built in good locations that overlooked important towns or resources, so they were natural choices for the fortified homes of the Normans.

While castles are generally considered to be defensive in nature, this is a false impression. Most castles were builtas staging areas fork nights. The construction of a new castle signals a new offensive force in the area, an offensive force that can strike when it wishes and is safe from counterattack. Norman castles were built in England not only to protect the Norman nobles, but also to subdue the local Anglo-Saxons and Danes. This is one of the reasons that many castle construction projects had to be defended from sabotage and enemy attacks. This same method of invading a land and securing it with castles was used by the English to conquer Wales and against Scotland and France with somewhat less success.

Once castles began to be built out of stone, the nobility noticed a major problem. Stone was very effective. Too effective sometimes. Lords found that they did not have any good way of attacking a neighboring lord. Kings especially noticed this bothersome problem, because a noble in a strong castle could neglect his pledge of allegiance and declare himself independent. For this reason, kings soon saw the need for weapons to effectively attack and destroy a castle.

The earliest weapons used against wooden forts were ladders, grappling hooks (for climbing and for pulling down walls), fire, and simple battering rams. As forts were converted into stone castles, these weapons became much less effective. Ladders could still be used, but the high walls made any escalation attempt a costly affair. Battering rams were still useful on the gates, but the murder holes and arrow slits in the gate house could devastate men swinging the battering ram. Grappling hooks were not capable of pulling down solid stone walls, and climbing a knotted rope was worse than climbing a ladder. And finally, fire, though still useful, could not be expected to destroy a fort.

The weapons that developed in medieval times were renewals of ancient siege engines. Arbalests, basically large crossbows, could launch spears or stones great distances. Catapults, or mangonels as they were sometimes called, hurled stone balls at the walls in hopes of reducing them to rubble. Catapults were effective, but only after extended periods of time attacking a wall. Reducing castle walls with a catapult could take days or weeks or even longer. And as the danger of catapults became well known, castles were built stronger to with stand the pounding of catapults. Also, castles could keep catapults of their own to use against the attacking catapults. Later, trebuchets operated with catapults for much better effect. Trebuchets were immense machines capable of hurling much larger stones than a catapult, though they had poorer ranges than the average catapult. A trebuchet was much like a catapult, only instead of using the tension of coiled rope to propel a stone into the air, the trebuchet used a counterweight of up to 10 tons to sling heavier stone at a castle's walls.

Other siege engines were forced to approach the walls to be effective. They usedcovered houses, called tortoises, to protect the soldiers from missiles and fire. These machines included drills that picked at the mortar of the castle wall and larger battering rams that were supported by large frames to decrease the amount of effort the soldiers had to expend in supporting the heavy log.

These engines later led to the most impressive siege engine, the siege tower. The siege tower was a huge wooden tower that could be wheeled up to the side of a castle. Once the seige tower was next to the wall, a drawbridge from the top ofthe tower was lowered across the gap to connect the tower to the castle wall-walk. Attacking soldiers then swarmed across the drawbridge in an attempt to sweep the walls. As soldiers crossed onto the walls, more soldiers could climb ladders or stairs within the tower and along the back wall of the tower so that they too could cross over onto the castle wall. Siege towers were sometimes built to include other siege engines. Catapults and arbalests could operate inside the tower. Shutters could open when each engine was ready to fire, and close to protect the workers while the engine was being loaded.

Moving such a tower took tremendous effort. Men in a tortoise would lead the way for the tower, smoothing out the land to form a path or even laying down a split-log road to ease the chore of pushing the tower forward. The sight of such a huge machine normally ruined defender morale. Its slow approach seemed almost to be an effort to taunt the defenders as they scrambled to find some way to stop such an intimidating behemoth.

Of course, some military leaders found simpler and more direct ways of reducing a castle's walls. A few miners could dig a tunnel under a castle wall and then collapse an area under the wall's foundation. This kind of attack was very difficult to counter. In fact the only effective counterattack was to have defending miners intersect the enemy tunnel and kill the attacking miners before they could collapse the tunnel.

But for all of these ingenious methods of attacking a castle, the most popular and effective method was that of siege, or waiting. The defenders in the castle were prevented from leaving or bringing in supplies. Eventually, they ran out of food and water. Of course, castles had huge stores of food kept for just such eventualities, so some sieges could last months or in some cases more than a year at a time. Sieges were rough on the defenders and attackers alike. The attacking general had to maintain troop morale to prevent desertion and slackness in duties. Food had to be brought in for the besiegers, through long supply line sover unfriendly territory. Guards were forced to protect these food wagons and supplies from sabotage or ambush from locals or other supporters of the besieged castle.

The conclusion to such a siege was often less exciting than one would expect. Either the defenders starved or surrendered, or the encircling army was forced to retire from lack of food or disintegrating troop morale. Sometimes a besieging army had to break a siege to counter other threats in the area or even back in the army's own land. A surrender generally was under terms dictated by the besieger.

During the long waits involved in a siege, military leaders tried to break into the castle using some of the various methods explained above. Sometimes military leaders would catapult rotten food into the castle to promote disease. Sometimes the attackers would hurl bodies into the castle to intimidate the defenders. But mainly the military leaders were just trying to keep their soldiers from getting bored. Desertion was always a problem with armies that were maintained for long periods of time in foreign lands.

As technology further advanced and effective cannons were invented, castles began to decline in importance. Castles were developed to withstand cannon attack, but they were not as capable of withstanding a long siege as they had been before cannons. With cannons, the best defenses were low earthen mounds instead of tall walls. A cannonball striking a mound of earth only sinks into the soil. A cannonball striking a stone wall will either crack or shatter the stones of the wall. So the development of cannons changed the whole structure of military fortifications and eventually made the castle obsolete. Despite this growing obsolescence, many castles played important roles even up through World War I and World War II.

The fact that castles outlived their military importance proves that they must have served more thanjust a military role. Castles were built to subjugate a local population as much as to protect it. Castles were an imposing visible symbol of overlordship and dominance. When looking at the castle, the peasant and townsman were meant to be awed and impressed. This helped to keep down unrest as well as to discourage tax dodgers and outlaws.

Castles helped new settlements become permanent. By subjugating new lands, castles opened up these new lands fordevelopment, commerce, and, of course, taxation. By expanding settled lands, they were also sources of learning and education as teachers and missionaries sought to spread culture along with civilization. Castles were homes for the wealthy, who could sponsor new inventions, scholars, artists, and musicians. Many talented individuals sought to gain the favor of a wealthy castellan for the easy lifestyle and the chance of escaping the drudgery of the fields and other common labor.

1.2 PREPARING FOR CONSTRUCTION

"The other kings said I was daft to build a castle in a swamp, but I built it all the same just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one that sank into the swamp. So I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But ... the fourth one stayed up. "

—Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Building a castle was a major undertaking that involved a tremendous amount of organization and manpower. People could not just gather together on the weekends to build a castle as if it were a simple barn raising. Building a traditional stone castle with a keep, inner wall, and outer wall took several years, and sometimes it took as many as twenty years for the castle to be considered completed. More often, however, the castle grew organically. As time passed and as the castle lord grew in power and ability, he or his successors would add improvements to the castle. The earliest strong hold was later in corporated in to a much larger edifice, or else it was torn down to provide materials for the castle that replaced it.

Castle construction began only after the lord had land to build it on. Land was either bought from someone, granted by someone, or taken from someone. But just having land was not enough; a lord also needed the permission of his neighbors, or the military strength to defend against his neighbors, before constructing a castle. Neighbors would often oppose any new political or military force being established near their lands or areas of their control. Hostility often arose from other castle holders, local political figures, or even the local peasants. Men born and raised without a lord or a tax found the concept of being "a tax paying citizen" appalling.

A castle could be built in a relatively civilized land to strengthen a lord's control in that area, or it was built in new or hostile territory. When a lord wished to build a castle, he was supposed to petition his king for a license to crenelate. This was basically just a building license, so named because the crenelations or battlements were distinguishing features of a castle as opposed to a manor. When a lord built a castle without this license, it was called an "adulterine" castle. Adulterine castles were illegal and a king could seizeany such castles for his own use, or tear them down. Of course, most adulterine castles were built while a weak king was in power, so he was unlikely to have the political or military strength to take them away.

Whether a castle was adulterine or not, because castles were generally built in areas where there was a potential military threat, the castle needed to be protected while it was being built. Soldiers were generally garrisoned at a construction site for this purpose. These sometimes assisted in construction, but stood guard more often than not. Soldiers patrolled the borders of the land and watched the workers for possible saboteurs. Because of the inherent danger of a castle construction project, the lord of the castle often waited until the castle was near completion to arive; though normally the lord would oversee the construction and organize his troops while he formed the beginnings of his castle staff. The lord's family would almost never arrive until the castle was nearly finished.

Of course, lords only rarely had much knowledge in the ways of construction, so they hired professionals to design and build the castle for them. Architects in ancient and medieval times were not so specialized as they are today. An architect would be an artist, inventor, scientist, craftsman, overseer, and draftsman. The architect designed, organized, and oversaw all stages of castle construction, even though many were uneducated. An architect who could read or draw was considered exceptional, not a necessity. Drafts of castle floorplans were not common, though if they were made, the lord was generally particular about retaining those drafts so that no one could study the layout of his home and fortress.

An architect, following the directions of the lord, looked at the construction site and attempted to create the castle described by the lord. There were, however, limitations. An architect who stepped beyond his skill was likely to build an unsound structure. To avoid this embarrassing fate, lords would seek out accomplished architects with strong records. Such architects could gain great political power and prestige.

Once an architect had been hired, a work force was recruited or commandeered from the general populace. Recruiting could take different forms depending on the castle location. If the castle was being built within controlled territory (i. e. , in a friendly kingdom), workers could be recruited from towns, villages, cities and the countryside. Workers expected some cash payment, but mainly accepted shelter and food. These workers were either local craftsmen or specialized journeymen. If the castle was being built in hostile territory, the work force could expect payment in the form of farmland in the new territory, or a place within the town walls. In such invasive castles, the town and town wall were generally designed and built at the same time as the castle. This was because workmen required the security for their families before they would move them into a hostile land. Despite the possibility of danger, the lure of land and a better life was a strong temptation for peasants who had littlewhere they were.

Hiring workers was not too difficult, but hiring skilled laborers could be a problem. Many different skills and trades were required in the construction of a castle. Quarriers were needed to chop blocks of stone out of the earth. Stone masons carved the stones into the desired shapes. Carpenters built scaffolding, repaired tools, built frames for buildings and roofs. Blacksmiths hammered out all ofthe metal for the project, which included tools, hinges, nails, spikes, and torch braces. Plumbers were hired to line wooden roofs with lead to protect them from fire.

Other than the skilled work, general laborers were given many duties. Carters would load stone and carry it to the construction site. Diggers would clear the site for the castle's foundation, the moat, and the town wall. Lumberjacks cleared land and supplied wood for construction. Limers baked chalk or limestone for mortar (cement). Workers hauled stones up castle scaffolding. Workers wove wattle walls. And workers did everything else from digging wells to waterproofing the castle's roof.

1.3 DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. "

— Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self Reliance"

"Of course no one ever tried to build a castle this way. No one ever thought of it before. "

— Rayblian,
Master Alchemist of the Freeport Guild

A castle was generally created in stages. Even with a solid foundation, a castle wall could still be unstable. To fix this problem, castle walls were braced on each end by a tower or keep. A tower had great structural integrity by virtue of having close, interconnected walls, which made them very resistant to sapping and siege-craft. A keep had good structural integrity, but did not have the same close-knit strength of a tower. As architectural skill progressed, a buttress was capable of serving as a brace for the union of two castle walls or, as it was most used, to bolster the strength of a length of wall. The buttress was just a simple brace of thicker stone that ran perpendicularly along the corner of two walls or along a length of wall. This added a lot of strength to the wall for little cost in time or stone and was used simply to strengthen walls most susceptible to attack.

Castles were built in an established order. Digging a foundation and restructuring the land was the first priority, which included digging a defensive ditch and building a wooden palisade to protect the castle during construction. The depth of the castle's foundation depended on the terrain. If the castle was to be situated on top of stone, then the foundation might only be a couple of feet deep. If the castle was to be built on soft earth then its foundation could be as much as twenty feet deep to prevent the castle from settling and cracking at the foundation.

Wall construction followed a simple pattern. The inner and outer facing of the wall were built with shaped stones, called ashlar, that were fitted and mortared together with a mixture of water, lime, and sand. The inner pocket thus formed was filled with small stones, gravel, rubble, and mortar. The wall facings were builtup several feet at a time, checked for horizontal levelness and vertical accuracy, and then the pocket was filled. Following this process, the walls slowly grew, and as they did, so did the scaffolds. When the walls were of the appropriate height, the stonemasons would pave across the top of the pocket, forming the wall-walk, and then begin building the battlements. Along the inside of the wall, open stairs usually gave access to the wall, though sometimes access to the walls was only through the towers.

Towers were built in tiers in a manner similar to the way walls were built. Towers included rooms for barracks or storage. Stairs inside the tower generally provided access to the top of connecting walls. Towers were structurally the strongest sections of a castle, but not very large. Mainly towers were used to protect and support the inner and outer walls, though towers connected to a keep could provide a convenient location for a stairwell.

Towers were originally built with a square or rectangularbase. The design was simple and easy to implement, but it left some significant blind spots. An enemy approaching one of the corners of the tower was practically invisible to anyone inside the tower. Someone on top of the tower or on the wall could still see them, but attacking generals could send masses of troops to attack a castle from this blind spot providing his men with partial cover from missile fire by the tower itself. Only men on top of the tower and some of the spaces to either side of the tower could effectively target in that direction. Round towers later developed to compensate for this problem. Round towers had the added benefit of naturally deflecting or partially deflecting nearly every missile hurled at them. Round towers quickly replaced square towers once the technology became generally known.

The gate through the castle wall was a well-known weak spot in the castle's defenses. The gatehouse defenses were developed to compensate for this weakness. The gatehouse held any mechanisms required to operate the gate, but it also held a number of devious traps to protect the gate and discourage attackers from attempting to access the castle through the gate. The simplest defense provided by the gatehouse was a pair of portcullises that guarded either end of the walkway through the gatehouse. The walkway was filled with murder holes and arrow slits so that defenders could savage an intruder while maintaining full cover for themselves.

The keep was the lord's home as well as the last line of defense for the castle. The keep was comfortable on the inside, but still maintained its defensive nature. Generally, the entrance to the keep was on the second floor, accessed by exposed stairs. Sometimes these exposed stairs abruptly ended without connecting to the keep's entrance, requiring the use of a small drawbridge.

The keep itself was a convoluted construction of rooms connected to a great hall. The central location of a keep was the hall where the lord and his guests feasted, discussed affairs of court, held balls, and basically ran the land. A small keep would generally include rooms for the lord and his family, a cellar for food storage, and possibly a kitchen. Barracks for other men of the castle would be built along the inside walls of the castle. Larger keeps would hold many more rooms like a chapel, guard rooms, staff quarters, servant quarters, dining room, antechambers, treasury, archives, libraries, wash rooms, latrines, well shafts, chimneys, water pipes and cisterns, dungeons, sun rooms, and recreation rooms. Of course, the roof of the keep could contain a garden, pools, pigeon roosts, bee hives, or could just be a normal gabled roof.

Other buildings were built along the inner castle walls. These buildings generally included a kitchen, stables, barracks, or craftsman homes and shops. In self-supporting manors, most of the craftsmen were kept inside the castle walls, as space allowed. As time passed and population grew, the tradesmen were more likely to live outside of the castle and separate from it.

While the lord had to be concerned with the defensive nature of a castle, the lord was also very interested in making the castle comfortable. A castle was a fortified home. When designing a castle, an architect had to remember to place fireplaces and chimneys in many of the walls, latrines in adjacent towers or walls, and in general make the castle comfortable and impressive.

1.4 ENGINEERING

"Genius is an infinite capacityfor taking pains."

— Thomas Carlyle

While the Middle Ages are not known for innovation, many simple machines were put to work in this time. Windmills and waterwheels provided a much easier means of grinding grain. Some even operated saw blades, grindstones, wine presses, or other simple tools.

The engineers of the Middle Ages had limited knowledge, but they applied what they understood in many different ways. The pulley, the winch, and the treadmill were all well-utilized machines in the construction and defense of castles. A pulley redirected force, making it easier to hoist supplies up a castle wall. Pulleys connected to a winch allowed smoother pull and was an easier means of applying force for lifting. Finally, treadmills, much like those powered by hamsters and gerbils, were run by dogs or men in place of a hand-cranked winch. This provided an even easier means of providing lift power.

Unfortunately, most of the mechanization was limited to simple pulling against gravity. Later, more complicated contraptions using pulleys to redirect the force of lift allowed more complicated machines to be built. Still most of these were impractical, except in the form of traps. A pulley and winch helped, but after the rope was loosed, the winch had to be manually rewound. Machines were not very practical for general labor at this time, other than those powered by a more constant waterwheel or windmill.

1.5 LIFE IN A CASTLE

"A little child, a limber elf,
Singing, dancing to itself,
A fairy thing with red round cheeks,
That always finds and never seeks,
Make such a vision to the sight
As fillsa father's eyes with light."

—Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Christabel"

Daily life in a castle for the common folk was quite a different thing from the life of the nobles. The lives of the lords were the substance of politics, intrigue, war, and brief moments of nobility. The common folk, however, were more interested in cooking, cleaning, working the fields, and whatever else put food on the table and a roof over their heads.

In times of peace, the castle was a center of activity. Before the sun rose, the kitchen staff would begin preparing the lord's breakfast, and servants would begin stumbling to their posts. The castle staff generally grew out of specific chores that over time accrued a number of responsibilities. Castle staff positions became hereditary as the castle aged, which made great sense in a time when fathers taught their children their trade. Later, such staff positions were considered almost as lesser nobility. In fact, many nobles served on a king's staff and thereby strengthened their family's ties with the king's household. Staff positions could even become sources of contention, strife, and competition for the king's favor.

The most important staff position in the castle was that of the steward or seneschal. Originally the seneschal was simply in charge of the great hall; but over time he came to handle all routine legal and financial affairs for the castle, as well as directing all of the castle servants. Later, the seneschal staff position was generally held by a noble who also served as the lord's constant companion and advisor. The seneschal commanded a lot of respect throughout the castle, especially among the servants.

Most medieval castles maintained aminor chapel within itswalls to care forthe lord's soul and religious instruction. The chaplain was the priest who cared for the chapel and the religious guidance of the lord and his family. Eventually, the chaplain came to be the lord's chief secretary, as he was normally one of the only literate individuals in the castle. For this same reason, the chaplain would train the lord's children in writing, Latin, mathematics, and scripture.

The chief cook was another very important member of the lord's staff. A chief cook prepared or directed the preparation of all meals, food storage, food purchasing, and serving the food. Finding a good cook was not always easy, so chief cooks were generally given plenty of leeway by the seneschal. The chief cook was able to countermand any of the seneschal's orders when it pertained to the cook's occupation and kitchen.

The castle staff would cover every major aspect of castle life, so that the lord would not have to do everything himself. A marshal oversaw the stables and the care of all of the lord's horses and animals. He oversaw stable hands in grooming, feeding, training, and breeding the lord's animals. A captain or constable oversaw guard training, watches, and the general defense of the castle. A commander or general might be hired to lead a lord's troops into combat. A justiciar would hold court on criminal offenses and rule in civil suits too minor for the lord's attention. A fool entertained and advised the lord through wit and comedy. A healer saw to the lord's health. A hunt master saw to the care of the lord's forests and trained dogs and hawks in the sport of hunting.

Along with the principle castle staff were a number of minor servants, kitchen staff, craftsmen, pages, musicians, gardeners, guards, scouts, and whatever else seemed necessary for the daily operation of the castle to run smoothly. All of these servants cared for their functions under the watchful eye of castle staff members.

1.6 FOOD

"But man is a carnivorous production And must have meals, at least one meal a day. He cannot live, like woodcocks, upon suction, But, like the shark and tiger, must have prey."

— Lord Byron, Don Juan

The kitchen staff, under the chief cook's guidance, prepared meals for the lord as well as the rest of the castle occupants. The kitchen was busy allday long. The kitchen staff was in charge of preparing meals and preparing food forstorage. The type of food in castles varied depending on the wealth of the occupant. Military fortresses generally kept simple foods, whereas a lord in his castle expected many different foods to be availableat each meal. Almost anything could be considered food in those days. Birds of all types and sizes from ostrich to finch were eaten. Fish, eels, beef, and pork were slightly more common fare. Cheese, vegetables, bread, and sugary desserts rounded out the lord's table. Spices were liberally applied atthe lord's table, because spicy food was a sign of wealth and status. The common folk of the castle could eat whatever was left over from the lord's table, which was still better than the average peasant's fare of bread and beans.

Because ale and beer were staple drinks in a castle, a brewer might live in the castle and brew for the lord and his staff exclusively. Ale in medieval times did not store very well and it had to be brewed almost daily. Wine was a luxury that most common folk new little about. In England, wine was imported from France and that further increased the cost of wine beyond the peasant's grasp. In France wine was more accessible to the public, though still not an everyday commodity. When ale and beer were not available, most people drank milk, water, or on rare occasion juice.

Craftsmen worked long hours either in the castle baileys or in the nearby towns. Though they suffered the same long work hours—ten hours a day, six days a week—they earned much better wages than farmers or general laborers. Craftsmen of all types were needed to support a large castle and the nearby town. Important craftsmen of the time were smiths, carpenters, chandlers, potters, and various textile workers. They produced all of the goods considered necessary for living. These craftsmen made homes, furniture, tools, candles, dishes, and clothing.

Of course, it is the farmer who supplied all of the food for the craftsmen, the castle staff, the military, and themselves. Farmers worked incredibly long hours in the fields, as well as picking up a craft (to pay taxes). Farmers either owned their own land (rare), or else they worked the lord's land in exchange for a portion of the produce. This occurred in many different ways. Villages would generally work together in all acts of tilling, sowing, and reaping all of the village's fields, and each peasant received in exchange a certain number of rows in the field for his own consumption or use. Peasants would maintain gardens at home as well. These private gardens could supply all of the food requirements of the peasant's family along with a few chickens and possibly a cow or two. This left the peasant with his share of the field crop in order to pay his rents, taxes, and so forth, with basically no profit at the end of a year. In this way peasants subsisted, ever dreading the possibility of a bad year. Only in the winter did the farmer have much free time, then practicing a trade such as cobbling or tailoring to supplement the family income.

1.7 SEASONAL CHANGES

"Four seasons fil the measure of the year, There are four seasons in the mind of man: He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear Takes in all beauty with an easy span:"

— John Keats, "The Human Seasons"

In medieval times, life was strongly regulated by the seasons and the length of the day. The day was the only effective measurement of time available. Changes in the length of the day were noted and very closely calculated and predicted by astrologers, but the average individual had little concern for such things. While the sun was up, you could work. When it was dark, you rested. Simple.

Candles and fireplaces provided light, but peasants could seldom afford to spend money on candles, and a fireplace provided limited illumination. It was just easier to regulate work to fit the time that the sun would be overhead.

With this in mind, it is easy to see how the summer was one of the most productive seasons in medieval times.The day was longer; though daily wages remained the same, even though a worker might spend as much as two extra hours every day at their labor. In the winter, days were shorter and there was more time for entertainment and some relaxation by the fire.

Conditions in the castle were seldom comfortable. A limited number of windows, and these mere slits, made castles terribly hot and humid during the summer. And in the winter, the cold could be impossible to escape. Large vaulted ceilings, fireplaces, latrine shutes, and various other cracks, openings, door jambs, and the like allowed cold drafts to circulate through the castle like evil spirits. Tapestries were hung across open doorways to protect against drafts.

For the common folk, the year was divided by the planting seasons. Even those not associated with the agriculture itself were fairly aware of the events of farming. Certain foods were only available at certain times of the year. Everyone could see farmers laboring in the fields and see the progress of the crops. The farming year was comprised of plowing some of the fields in the spring for barley, oats, and legumes (beans). Some of the other fields would lie fallow or unused and were harrowed at this time. At the beginning of summer there was hay-making in the pasturelands, and then as the season changed from summer to autumn, the harvest was brought in. Bringing in the harvest was a tremendous task that required everyone to contribute. Work was long and hard until it was finally done, and the harvest festival began.

After the harvest festival, winter plowing began, and the wheat and rye was sown. The herds were brought back to town from the pasture lands and many of the beasts were slaughtered. Slaughtering animals provided meat for salting and also limited the amount of grain and hay that was needed to feed the animals during the lean winter months.

1.8 TAXATION

"To the victors belong the spoil."

— Senator William L. Marcy (1832)

Taxes were a very prominent partof a peasant's life.The lord of a castle could set any number of taxes that the peasants were required to pay. The only limit seemed to be some nebulous point that overtaxed the people and led them to revolt. Peasants tended to suffer under many taxes. They had taxes in the form of a rent paid to the lord for having a home on his land. There was a tax for gathering firewood. There was a tax for grinding flour and baking bread. There was even a tax on dying. It has been estimated that when all of the taxes were tallied together, the average medieval peasant paid around 50% of his produce and income in taxes.

Taxes were collected by sheriffs under the watchful eye of the exchequer. Sheriffs were originally village-appointed officers who oversaw all of the communal activities and made sure that all of the lord's labor services were performed. When taxation became based more on the transfer of money and goods, the sheriffs were the natural appointees for the collection of the lord's taxes.

1.9 LAW

"That government is best which governs least."

—Henry David Thoreau, "On Civil Disobedience"

Law in medieval times was divided into three main categories: the King's justice, common law, and canon law. The King's justice was overseen by a king or by an appointed justiciar. The common law was regulated by local castle and town courts. Canon law dealt with infringements of the Church's laws, generally reserved for the clergy, but all heretics were tried by such courts.

The King's justice dealt with conflicts between lords and their peers. A Court of the King's Justice was more concerned with a king's security and the peace of the realm than it was with justice. This was the highest court. Disputes settled by a king would hear no appeal. Other than disputes between the lords, the King's Court ruled on all crimes termed "pleas of the crown." Pleas of the crown were serious offenses against the King and his law. The main crimes involved were treason, disobeying direct orders of the King, killing or even injuring a king's servant, counterfeiting, arson, harboring a fugitive, ambushing, flagrant disrespect to the crown and many others. Also, justices of lower courts could be tried in the King's Court for ruling unjustly.

The most common courts were either feudal, held in a lord's court or a town court. These courts heard disputes between commoners as well as regulating minor offenses against the law. Feudal courts were run by the lord and held force against all of his vassals and servants.Town courts held sway for the town and appeals would either be passed up to a feudal court, or directly to the King's Court, depending on whether the town had its charter from the king or the local lord.

Courts had a number of ways of administering justice. The guilty could be subjected to outlawry, blood-feud, mutilated, or fined. When a man was outlawed, he was literally outside of the law. No injustice done to that man would be heard in court. Outlaws were run out of town, because a man in such an unsettled situation was likely to cause problems. A blood-feud ruling was a limited form of outlawry. The guilty party and sometimes his whole family could be assaulted or murdered by the victim's family. Whether or not a family exacted such vengeance and to what extent would reflect their honor. Mutilation came in many forms. "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" was taken to heart. Thieves could loose a hand, but most often they were simply branded. An `X' branded across the palm of a man's right hand revealed him to be a criminal. Sometimes the forehead was branded for particularly bad or repeat offenders. Anyone seeing the brand would distrust the criminal and seek to distance themselves. Obviously, the branded tended to become repeat offenders, unless they could find someone willing to hire them.

But the most common ruling of the courts was a fine. Justices had an intricate system of calculating a monetary value for each and every crime. Killing a servant cost the value of the servant, about the same price as a horse. Killing a commoner may requirere payment of two horses. Killing a noble, though, was considered an act of treason against the king, because the lord was a designated servant of the king. Treason was generally punished with a very painful death by drawing and quartering, hanging, or beheading.

Justices could supplement their income by receiving portions of any fine or settlement they negotiated. This led to a system full of bribery and corruption. Justices tried to work out a form of having a guilty party pay amends for his wrong against the victim. In so doing he could negotiate a portion of the amendment to himself. If the justice charged a fine, he still got a portion of the proceeds, but it was harder to hide the income with a fine. The money collected from fines was either paid to the lord of the castle or to the king. For this reason, the king tried to keep a monopoly on chartering towns, so that the proceeds of the courts would be his own, and not some lord's.

1.10 POLITICS

"For he who innovates will have for his enemies all those who are well off under the existing order of things, and only luke warm supporters in those who might be better off under the new."

—Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

As lords grew in strength and power they began to exercise a great deal of independence. If a lord had a powerful castle, men-at-arms to fight for him, peasants to tax, land to lord over, then why did he need a king? Lords were very much like kings, only not quite as powerful. Kings and lords sought to increase their own power and prestige whenever possible. This meant that they were either fighting to keep what was theirs, or else they were fighting to get what was someone else's.

Lords tended to play diplomatic games in the king's court, pretending to accede to the king's wishes while manipulating court politics to fit their own agendas. Even under a strong king, the lords would still seek their own advantage, except for the truly respectful or reverent nobles. Only a very charismatic and capable king managed to keep most of his lords in line and working together. All too often the lords allowed personal disputes to cloud their judgement. Pride and arrogance led many simple disagreements into petty vengeance, and from there to open battle and war. One of the most notable problems with raising nobles as warriors was that they saw battle as their birthright.

While the nobles waged war on each other, the peasants tended to watch just long enough to see who would be taxing them, and then they returned to work. The peasants were rarely attacked by other armies. Unless the attacker was a xenophobic invader, he would have considered the peasants as part of the spoils of war. This is not to say that the peasants had an easy time in war. They were forced to feed soldiers, often on both sides of the field. They were abused and forced to cater to whichever soldiers happened to be present. Peasants were sometimes forced to help work digging trenches, cooking for camps, and whatever else needed to be done. A peasant might be tortured for information by an attacker. If the peasant had sought refuge in the castle and the siege persisted, he was likely to be sent out of the gates with all of the other non-soldiers in an attempt by the castle lord to conserve food. For these and many other reasons, the peasant's job was long, hard, and thankless.

Of course, the normal day for a lord or noble was much more concerned with administration than warfare. A wealthy noble might hire out all of his responsibilities and thereby gain a life of leisure. Even so, the lord's time was required for signing documents, making final decisions on castle affairs, solving problems within his own land, and helping to maintain the welfare of the whole kingdom.

In a large kingdom, it was very important for the nobles to stay in the king's good graces. The king held great military might (through the combined might of the lords), but more importantly the king could offer titles, land, castles, treasure, responsibilities, and even positions on his own staff to reward his faithful followers. Needless to say, being on the king's bad side meant that these resources were more restricted and so were other honors of the court.

Nobles of different countries would entertain each other even a long unfriendly borders. Animosity was normally forgiven in such instances for the chance of spending time among those of equal status. Nobles would entertain each other in such away as to show off their wealth and prestige through grand feasts, hunting expeditions, tournaments, balls, and anything else that seemed expensive and impressive. These events were normally reciprocated, giving the two lords an opportunity to compare their lands, their knights, their wealth, and their people. The "winner" of such a contest threw a feast for the other lord as an attempt to prove once again that he was superior, even in generosity.

1.11 RUINS

"Ozymandias"

I met a traveller from an antique land, Who said—"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert .... Near them, on the sand, Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them, and the heart thatfed; And on the pedestal, these words appear: My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings, Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away."

— Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1818

Undoubtedly, I am able to repair the monument, however, the mending of the empire is beyond my abilities."

— Rayblian,
Master Alchemist of the Freeport Guild

All thatman makes, must one day be unmade. Nature and time are unforgiving in reclaiming even the noblest of man's creations. Castles are no different.

As time passes, people change. Maps become outdated. Major roads and trade routes become wild lands. Cities crumble and people forget. Grass overgrows the once tall walls and animals rule the fallen debris. A ruinis born.

The fallen remains of ancient buildings and monuments are romantic images. They whisper of dark secrets, hint at forgotten worlds, and remind men of their own mortality. The mysterious lure of an ancient and abandoned structure is much greater than a simple opportunity to steal treasure. Grave robbers have always plundered such buildings of their wealth, while missing the vast store of knowledge contained in the crumbling walls.

A ruin is not just a derelict building. It is more than a reduced or destroyed castle. A ruin is a forgotten piece of the past. A ruin contains many clues of the culture and people who once lived in it, worked in it, and built it. Lost knowledge of architecture, artistic styles, languages, arcane symbols, cultural lifestyles, lore, and even lost magical or religious rites could be found through a careful examination of the remains. Treasure, tools, weapons, utensils, art, and the building itselfmight be some of the physical rewards of rediscovering a ruin.

Of course, the discoverer of a ruin may learn of ancient engineering in a more personal way through devious traps left to protect the building and its treasures. Or possibly the structure is so ancient that parts of it could topple under a person's weight. Then of course there is always a chance that he will learn why the ruin was left abandoned for so long. Maybe an ancient curse afflicts those who disturb the building, or maybe the place has a guardian. It is even possible that the ruin has already been discovered and is occupied with others who may not welcome an intruder.

Mystery always enshrouds a ruin, though only sometimes are the answers found within. Sometimes there is not much left to discover, or grave robbers have destroyed what might have been priceless information or unspeakable power. Regardless of what is found inside, experiencing a ruin firsthand reveals fragments of the past and possibilities for the future.

2.0 USING CASTLES & RUINS WITH RMSS

2.1 ARMS LAW

The tables and charts presented in Arms Law are not affected in anyway by Castles & Ruins; however, Castles & Ruins does provide new rules for siege engines and small weapon attacks against structures.

2.2 SPELL LAW

The magic system provided in Spell Law remains the same in Castles & Ruins. New spell lists that more specifically deal with construction and castle defense have been provided.

Castles & Ruins also provides for a new set of spell lists called training package spell Lists. Training package spell lists are a new category of spell lists within the RMSS. All training package spell lists are classified as Restricted skills unless the character is currently associated with the training package that awards the spell list. Note that "associated with" has no firm definition. The GM should judge whether it is reasonable for the character to still have normal access to the spells or not. As an example, suppose a character was a stone mason and had received the Stone Crafting spell list as a vocational skill. If that character decided to go travelling on an adventure, he would probably no longer have access to learning new spells on that list (and the skill shifts to a Restricted classification).

All training package spell lists are part of the Spell Group (and will receive any bonuses appropriate to that group). There are two new categories that must be added to the Spell Group to accomodate these new spells: Spells • Own Realm Training Package and Spells • Other Realm Training Package. The cost to develop skills in these categories are listed below.

2.3 ARCANE COMPANION

The magic system provided in the Arcane Companion is not modified in this book. One of the Artificer spell lists deals with nodes and ley lines, as does most of the section on megalithic structures. A brief explanation of these concepts are provided in the appendix for those who do not have the Arcane Companion.

Castles and Ruins adds Gargoyle Mastery, an Arcane spell list that allows the caster to create gargoyles, or stone guardians, for a structure.These gargoyles are related to those described in Creatures & Monsters in that they are the earliest stage of creation for the gargoyle. These early gargoyles have no free will, no true intelligence, and most specifically, no spirit. These gargoyles are primarily concerned with protecting a structure from the influences of spirits. Every gargoyle prepared by this list has the innate ability to absorb and trap any free spirit that travels within a certain radius of the gargoyle. For this reason, spirits tend to stay away from structures protected by them. Every gargoyle, no matter what size or level, can safely contain up to four spirits, but once a fifth spirit is trapped within the gargoyle, the gargoyle's limited intelligence is capable of converting these trapped spirits into its own. Once a gargoyle absorbs its fifth spirit, it finds that it may do as he pleases and is no longer subject to prior commands (essentially becoming a gargoyle as described in C&M).

Of course, anyone who uses gargoyls as a form of defense is aware of this drawback and can routinely remove spirits from the gargoyles. Generally, once a spiritis freed from agargoyle, it fleesin terror, though some seek petty revenge against the gargoyle, the caster, or the building itself. These spirits are very likely to become reabsorbed by the gargoyles. Once a gargoyle has gained its freedom, it cannot be returned to its prior state, unless subjected to a Reversion spell (see Section 36.8).

Gargoyles are a handy defense because not only can they protect a structure from spirits, but they never sleep. Gargoyles are very perceptive and will follow orders to the letter. Generally, gargoyles are inert, but aware at all times. When a situation occurs, the gargoyle is capable of springing into action with spells, alarms, and weapons. A gargoyle can be programmed to be more versatile than any simple ward or enchantment, and it is this versatility that makes them such powerful defenses.

The creation of a gargoyle follows a process similar to that listed in Section 7.4 of Spell Law (or Section 9.0 of Treasure Companion). Though the gargoyle will have a limited intelligence, itdoes not have an imbedded intelligence.

Every spirit who comes within the absorption radius of a gargoyle must resist versus the level of the gargoyle or be trapped with no escape. This must be rerolled every round a spirit spends in the radius until it leaves the area of effect or else is trapped .

Every week, there is a d10% chance of a gargoyle trapping a spirit. The GM may make periodic checks to see if a gargoyle gathers enough spirits to escape before someone notices

2.4 ROLEMASTER STANDARD RULES

Listed below are the specific changes and additions to the Rolemaster Standard Rules that should be used when incorporating Castles & Ruins. If a particular rule is not listed below, then all normal rules apply when using Castles & Ruins.

2.5 RACES AND CULTURES

Each race and culture is provided with an Architectural Level, a Siege Engineering Level, and a Trap Building Level. These numbers reflect the relative technological skill each race orculture has when it comes to construction and warfare.

2.5.0.0.1 Explanation of Architectural and Siege Engineering Levels

An Architectural Level is a simple way of breaking down the technological capabilities of a society, group, or individual. When applied to the races and cultures, as above, the AL indicates the average capability of most architects in the group. Individuals also have an AL. To determine an individual's AL, sum the character's skill bonuses in Architecture, Engineering, and Military Organization (Labor) and consult the Level Determination Chart.

Like the AL, the Siege Engineering Level is just a relative measure that can apply to a society's average siege ability, or to an individual's skill at designing and using siege equipment. To determine an individuals SL, sum the character's skill bonuses in Siege Engineering, Engineering, and Mechanition and consult the Level Determination Chart.

Finally, the Trap Building Level measures the general sophistication of traps most commonly used within a society. An individual's TL is determined by summing the character's skill bonuses in Mechanition, Set Traps, and Trap Building and by consulting the Level Determination Chart.

For a breakdown of what each AL/SL/TL can do, refer to Section 5.0.

2.5.0.0.2 Skills

There are no new skills presented in this book, but a few skills are expanded for use with this book. The following skills are modified to some extent:

Military Organization—This skill may also be called Work Force Organization. This skillallows the architect to orchestrate the work on any construction project. This would include knowledge of the proper way to hire, oversee, and effectively employ a given work force.

Heraldry—This skill is not changed, but the section on Heraldry provides GMs with a lot of new material on how to handle and design heraldic signs and systems.

2.5.0.0.3 Dwarves

At various locations in Castles & Ruins, Dwarves are referred to specifically. This should be interpreted as the most advanced (constructionally speaking) race in the GM's world. (Dwarves usually fit that bill in most fantasy settings.)

3.0 TRAINING PACKAGES

The standard rules for training packages apply to all training packages presented here. For convenience, the key to the training package entries is repeated here.

3.0.0.0.1 Training Package Entries

Each training package gives a character one or more of the following benefits/disadvantages.In addition, each training package costs a number of development points (based upon the character's profession)

Time to Acquire: This is the amount of time the character needs to train before gaining the benefits of the package. This time should be modified by a percentage equal to triple the character's SD bonus (expressed as a percentage).

Example: If a character has a +5 SD bonus, he would gain the benefits of a training package 15% earlier than someone with a +0 SD bonus (i.e.,85% of the normal time). However, if the character has a -5 SD bonus, he would take 15% longer to gain the benefit (i.e., 115% of the normal time).

For starting characters, total the amount of time spent in training packages and add it to the normal starting age to determine the starting age of the character (see Section 17.1 in RMSR).
Starting Money: Some occupations (or lifestyles) have more or less starting money than others. Most packages list a modification to the "normal" starting money. This includes the starting type of coins (silver, gold, bronze, etc.). For example, if the normal starting money is 10 silver, the Adventurer package would have 10 silver plus d10 (open-ended) silver.

Note: There is one notation unique to the packages: d10 (open-ended). This means roll d10; if the result is 1 to 9, keep the result; if the resultis a 10, roll d10 again and add it to 9; continue until a 10 is not the result.

If the training package is developed after the Apprentice level, the starting money does not apply. When generating starting money, either the GM should make the rolls; or the player can simply take 51 (for each d100 roll) or 6 (for each d10 roll).
Special: The GM should make a d100 roll (open-ended) for each item, adding the number in parenthesis after the item (the items should be rolled for in the order that they are presented). If the result is over 100, the character gains the special item or quirk. After successfully gain in gone item, the chances of gaining any further items is halved (i.e.the number in parenthesis is halved). After successfully gaining another item, the next chance is halved again (repeating each time an item is gained). If no items are gained, the last item on the list is automatically gained (if the GM is unavailable to roll, the player should take the last item). If the package is developed after Apprentice level, the benefits gained here may be inappropriate (GM's discretion).

Note: The GM may choose to allow every character who develops a training package to have the last item in the list(even if previous items were gained).
Skill and Skill Category Ranks: All packages give some skill ranks and/or skill category ranks to the character. These skill ranks represent special training that comes with the occupation or lifestyle. Occasionally, the package will list Weapon/Attack. This means that the character can choose either a weapon skill rank or martial arts skill rank. In addition, a training package cannot raise a skill or skill category above 10^th rank.

Example: Carrigan takes the City Guard training package. This package awards him 2 ranks in 1-H Edged Weapons. However, he already has 9 ranks; this means that he only gains 1 more rank from the training package.
Stat Gains: Some training packages allow the character to make extra stat gain rolls. This section shows which stats get the extra rolls.
Cost by Profession: This section shows how much the training package costs (in development points) for each profession. Note that some training packages have a cost listed with a @ and a number in parenthesis. This indicates that the training package is not normally available, but if the GM decides to allow it, the cost in parenthesis should be used.

4.0 CASTLE CONSTRUCTION AND DESIGN

4.1 CHOOSING A CONSTRUCTION SITE

"It little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Matched with an aged wife, I mete and dole, Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know me not."

— Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Ulyssess"

Before thinking about building a castle, there must be land to build-it on. A castle needs more than just the land itsits on, though. A castle must also possess enough land to feed and support the servants, staff, and military housed within and around the castle and can be built near a town. A castle can buy food from local farmers, but agriculture is generally inefficient at best. Surplus food is an uncommon occurrence. Local farmers will always feed themselves first, so what will the castle do when a famine strikes? What if an army besieges the castle?It's not easy to take timeout for grocery shopping.

Generally speaking, a true castle is only built on a manorial estate, where the profits of the estate support the castle expenses. Serfs work the land for the lord of the castle in exchange for the use of some of the land. Serfs are considered tenants on the land, but are not often allowed to leave their land. Though not slaves, they are only moderately better off than slaves. Serfs are often forced to stay on the land they were born on, pay rent for the right to do so, and work long hours in the lord's fields for the right to work their own fields. All in all, the life of a serf is hard, brutal, and short.

Example: Relinsingersonlear. His friends just called him Rel. This once powerful warrior had proven to be an even better diplomat in his old age. Through charm, incisive cunning, and a sincere desire to reconcile the differences between the Crystal Heart dwarves and the Milendion Forestelves, Rel had just brought peace where none had dared dream of peace. Rel's people lived in the Cobalt Hills, which lay directly between the Crystal Mountains and the Milendion Forest. For over two hundred years his people had suffered while dwarven axemen marched across their hills in search of enchanted elven wood and elven rangers stole through the hills in desperate attempts to steal mithril or elfstones.

Rel had negotiated the peace partly for his own people's benefit, but also because he recognized the need for strong allies. Earlier this year the augurers had begun finding black bile bubbling out of the hearts of every sacrifice. Ill times were coming soon. From the flocks of strange and new birds overhead, Rel felt certain that a powerful enemy was going to approach from the north.

In exchange for arranging the peacful trade of elven wood for dwarven mithril and crystal, Rel demanded that the dwarves and elves use their talents to build him a stronghold—a stronghold greater than any man had ever seen. The peace council nearly returned to hostilities at such a suggestion, but Rel persisted.

"In exchange, " he pledged, "my people are willing to pay the Crystal Dwarves a fair wage for all of their labors in good, red gold. Considering the long lives of the dwarves, I'm sure that they would not mind us paying in installments over the next ten years."

"From the Milendion elves I desire enchantments on the castle walls, strong elven wood for the castle gates, and help in the construction of the castle. The elves will be happy to know that we can pay for their services with coal from our hills. I know how much the elves hate burning their beloved wood for simple cooking fires, so I'm sure they will be happy to have access to the coal for their ovens."

"Besides," Rel's smile broadened as he innocently looked at the two diplomatic parties, "now that trade has been opened between your peoples, you both need a neutral place to come and exchange your goods."

4.1.1 CHOOSING A LOCATION

Deciding on a site for a castle is not a simple task. Just building the castle in a high inaccessible place may be very defensive for the castle, but may render the castle useless. If a castle cannot readily affect the people in the land it controls, then it does not really control that land. When choosing a location, follow the Location Checklist. The GM may use this checklist as a rough guideline for the placement of NPC castles and fortifications as well.

By following this checklist, the GM can design an area map for the land, keeping in mind the factors of each step. For example, political boundaries should be outlined in step one, sources of water can be added in step two, terrain features in step three, and so forth. This just provides a guideline for designing an area map that will include all of the factors necessary for understanding and defining the land in which the characters will be adventuring. A GM can (and should) design the map in any way (and in any order) that works best for him.

Once an area has been mapped out sufficiently for a character to choose a relatively specific area, the player should provide the GM with a general outline of the type of area his character is seeking. The GM can then provide a few "rough" sample sites. These should just give the character a general idea of the available sites in the area. When the player decides on a site, the GM then fleshes out the site map showing as much or as little detail as the GM deems appropriate. The GM may want to make several photo copies of these maps for use in the construction interval. The GM can provide just a rough scale for the site map, but once the castle is designed and placed on the site map, the GM should use a more exact scale.

Location Checklist
		Land Size
		Purpose of Construction
		Water
		Area Terrain
		Population
		Food Production/Consumption
		Other Resources

4.1.2 LAND SIZE

The GM needs to determine the general size of the land that he expects the character to control. The size of the land affects the number of people and resources that the character must protect, as well as the amount of taxation income he can expect. The average castle can control about a ten to twelve mile radius (about a half a day's ride). The castle may claim possession of greater amounts of land, but out side of this area, the castle has a much weaker control, because knights or horsemen within the castle cannot make a round trip from the castle in one day.

The amount of land held by a lord determines the general income of the manor, as well as the lord's status among nobles. The Population Density Chart gives a simple breakdown of population per land based on the subsistence pattern of the population. The GM should modify population size to reflect the population density and relative wealth of the given land. The numbers provided represent an average population density and an average income level. The titles are only given as general guidelines (so GMs can determine a scale to measure by). Wealthy knights may own more than a poor baron, but as a general rule, a higher rank indicates greater the property.

4.1.3 GOVERNMENT

Titles will vary with the government style of the land. Many parts of this book are directed at a medieval or feudalistic society, but these rules are not limited to just that one form of government. Reflecting this attitude, the list of various government forms below provides the GM with a general guideline on some styles of government as well as a reasonable taxation range.(See section on Taxation).

When modifying these rules to fit another government type, keep in mind that most governments will have a number of similarities. The trappings and style of politics will vary with time and place, but will mainly consist of a balance between the public interest and private interests of the governing class. Though some members of government will try to help the people, most consider their station as a reward for their abilities or their birthright. Most of the governing class will only help the populace just enough to prevent rebellion.

Another factor to consider is that the fewer individuals there are involved in the actual government, the more respect and the more luxury they expect. A set number of people can only provide a set amount of taxes. If those taxes primarily support just a king, then he will live luxuriously. If that same tax base must support a twenty-five member ruling council, then they will each have substantially less luxury.

Some of the different types of possible governments and the foundation behind those governments are listed below:

Autocracy—Government by a single absolute ruler. Examples would be the Roman Empire, Alexander the Great's empire, despots, tyrants, etc..

Confederacy—A league or alliance of states or peoples for a particular purpose (i.e. for defensive purposes).This is an overlord type government that respects and includes many different and separate governments towards the accomplishment of a single goal. NATO, the European Community, and the United Nations are all examples of confederations.

Democracy—Government by the people, usually through elected representatives.This type of government requires a great deal of communication and organization. Only well-developed societies, or possibly societies with advanced (magical) means of communication should be organized as democracies.

Feodality—Government using the feudal system, which organizes all land and power from the top down. This means that all land and authority begins with a king and is passed down in the form of land to lesser nobles, who in return owe homage and service to the king. Normally, land is subdivided many times as it is passed down from king to duke to lesser noble to knight.

Monarchy—Government by a single hereditary sovereign, which may be absolute or limited by nobles under him. Monarchy might be used in conjunction with a feodality.

Oligarchy—Government by a few equal rulers who together usually have absolute power. The Roman Repulic or the government of ancient Sparta are examples of oligarchies.

Plutocracy—Government by the wealthy only. Most governments are fundimentally run by the wealthy, including a democracy . A slight difference is involved with a plutocracy, though. In a plutocracy, wealth is not held by the government, but the wealthy hold the government. Upward mobility is not generally easy, but can be accomplished. Wealth is the only marker of status, so an individual's past is of no great import in a plutocracy.

Republic—A form of government in which the head of state is an elected president and/or the sovereign power is widely vested in the people through elected officials. The republic is very similar to a democracy.

Theocracy—A form of government in which the head of state is either a deity or a representative of the deity. The church becomes the state. The Papal States are a good example of a theocracy.

Any one of these governments should work equally well with the framework of Castles and Ruins. The primary differences will be in politics, the acquisition of land, and taxation.

The acquisition of land and politics must be modified by the GM to fit his world. For example, in a theocracy, land may only be handed down to good clerics, faithful followers, saints, and the like (what determines who is good and faithful is completely up to the GM as well).

Example: Rel is the warlord (autocrat) of a loose collection of hillmen, nomads, and rural men. Rel fought a number of battles to secure his undisputed claim to this position. Since then he has used his power and position for the benefit of his people, and has thereby secured their loyalty. The GM estimates Rel's title to be equivalent to a Clan Chieftan and also decides that the 62,500 acre suggestion for the area of control sounds reasonable. The GM further decides that while the three cultures that Rel rules are Hunting & Gathering, Herding, and Slash and Burn Agriculturalist, the best approximate would be Horticulture. While none of the cultures practice Horticulture, this society could support more people than a strictly Hunting & Gathering society or a Herding society, but not as much as a Mixed economy. Consulting the Population Density Chart the GM determines that Rel rules approximately 2,090 people.

4.1.4 PURPOSE OF CONSTRUCTION

Before dreaming of high mountain castles with collapsible bridges and other forms of impregnable defenses, the character must decide why he is building a castle.

A castle (or other structure) can be built for many reasons: defensive, offensive, administrative, or the like. The first decision that must be made when choosing a location is the reason for building a castle. If seeking to conquer or settle a land, choose a central location for the castle (or build a series of castles over time). If seeking political power, then the castle should be near areas of commerce and travel; normally this means a river or coastal location (but not necessarily). If concerned with protecting a border, certainly build in a strong position along the border.

The GM should provide a general outline of political boundaries, roads, and trade routes on the basic area map, as well as any towns, cities, fortifications, and such that could influence this decision. The GM should help players define the purpose of any castle, especially if the GM already has some specific plans in mind that may have a bearing on the castle's placement.

4.1.5 WATER

Once the character has an idea of why he is building a castle, he needs to locate all of the sources of fresh water in the general area where he needs to build. Water cannot be pumped to a distant location (unless strong magic or good aqueducts are involved), so water must be available for drinking and cleaning. Fresh water sources are generally in the form of rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, and springs. Snow, ice, and underground rivers are also good sources of water. In some areas it may rain enough to provide plenty of drinking water on a daily basis, though such areas should normally have plenty of rivers and streams as well.

The GM will have to determine how large a population a given water source can supply. Generally, a lake or river should not have a population limitation. A small stream should be sufficient to support a castle and town, but the GM may determine that in periods of dry weather, water supplies become polluted. Population limits due to the availability of water certainly fluctuate with society, climate, weather, and race. Due to the high variability of this limit, it is up to the GM to determine size limitations.

A character can always modify the terrainto improve the amount of water maintained by a given area. Dams can turn streams into ponds, rivers into lakes, and so forth. Ponds can be built to gather rainwater runoff. Elaborate water and sewer systems can store water through aqueducts. And, of course, magic can always modify the water balance in a given area. Regardless, this is a loose factor that is left to the GM to resolve.

4.1.6 AREA TERRAIN

Once a character has a general idea of his castle's purpose and the various water sources available, he must look at the terrain. The water sources are only one aspect of the terrain, so a GM may design the terrain and the water at the same time.

At this stage, the GM should outline the physical layout of the land, including: mountains, hills, forests, deserts, oceans, swamps, and soon. This allows the character to see how the lay of the land will affect travel and communication. If the GM feels that the physical layout of the world should be designed first, he should feel free to start by designing the terrain and water and adding the political and civilized areas next.

The location of physical features allows a character to assess the relative value of a defensive position for his castle versus ready access to other locations from the castle's position. For example, a character may want to build a castle in the mountains, but the mountains may be in one corner of his land and far from the important trade centers of his land; therefore, the character must decide if it is worth the loss of control in exchange for the greater defensibility of the location.

4.1.7 POPULATION

Another consideration is the people of the land. If the character is going to rule these people, he may need to place his castle in an area that overlooks a large portion of the population. This stage is not just a matter of adding towns, villages, and cities to the map, but it is also an explanation of the people's values, religion, subsistence patterns, and so on.This should provide a character with enough background on the land that he will not make any obvious mistake (like building hiscastle on a sacred hill or not using the appropriate rituals for construction). The GM should also take a moment at this point to look over the people in the land and to make any last minute changes. Once the character begins ruling these people, he will get upset if they suddenly show cannibalistic tendencies for no good reason.

4.1.8 FOOD PRODUCTION/FOOD CONSUMPTION

When choosing a site, the character must be sure that a steady supply of food can be brought to the castle, and some should be grown or raised right around the castle as well. The type of food available to the castle will depend on the subsistence patterns typical in the land within which it is built. The GM should allow food production to match the population so long as there is not a large influx of people through migration or birth, a disaster that affects the food supply, or some other unusual situation. Several monthly and yearly events fall in those categories mentioned and can cause severe problems within any kingdom or land.

A castle must be able to support its inhabitants and to store sufficient food in case of siege. For example, if the subsistence pattern of the area is herding, then there must be a resident herd, or else a system of driving animals to and from the castle on a routine basis. The GM should make a character address this problem, but should not require him to account for every delivery of food. As long as the character has set a plan in motion that will provide the castle with food, the GM should only present problems with the food supplies as part of an adventure or crisis that the character needs to address. Normally, a castle holder will either raise crops on his own farmland, or else accept food as payment of taxes on a monthly basis.

4.1.9 OTHER RESOURCES

This is a final catch-all stage that covers everything of note. Other resources include anything else found or produced in the land that requires special mention .This could be anything from herbs found in the area, ore mines, unusual animals or monsters, magic weapons guild, a megalithic structure, or even just a well-known festival.

4.1.10 SITES

Once the character has all of the above information, he needs to decide on a general region of the area map in which he wants to build his castle. He character should give the GM a list of various guidelines that he is looking for in a castle site, such as: on the north bank of this river, on the south face of the mountain, near the intersection of two roads, on a hilltop. The character should give as many general details as he feels necessary. The GM then looks at the area and the details, and designs a few rough sitemaps that may contain some or all of the requested features.

The GM presents these sitemaps to the character who then decides which of these locations will suit his purposes. As soon as he decides, the GM should draw the site more clearly and to scale. This map will later be used in the design and construction of the castle.

4.2 ACQUIRING LAND

TheGM should make the acquisition of land the source of at least one adventure, and possibly many more. Acquiring land follows one of three patterns: conquest, settlement, or social acquisition.

Conquering a land seems pretty straightforward on the surface, but unless the conquered people are all slaughtered, there will be a long period of incorporating the two cultures or races. A conquered people might react to incorporation through rebellion, acceptance, or something in between. The GM might have conspiracy and rebellion threaten the land recently acquired by a conquering lord. Resentment may last for several generations, while actual rebellion may be quelled in the first ten years or so. Of course, individuals who are conquered or mistreated will almost never yield to such a state of affairs.

Settling aland involves importing people from one place to form the basis of a new society in a new land. If another people already lives in these lands, they may be incorporated. If the current inhabitants do not want to be incorporated, then periods of uneasy peace will follow periods of bloodshed, until one side incorporates the other, one side is defeated, or one side leaves.

Of course, settlement may be free of any armed conflict, but if so, the GM should have a general idea of why this land has never been settled before. Harsh climate, poor farmland, monsters, curses, natural predators, and taboo are some possible reasons for a land not having been settled. Whatever the reason that prevented past settlement might be a difficult problem with the new settler will have to contend.

Social acquisition of land can be in several forms. Purchasing land from the present owner is one of the simplest methods of social acquisition, but the most unlikely. Few estates tend to be for sale in most worlds. A break down of various land costs is included in the pricelist in the appendix, along with some sample costs and rents for common structures.

Inheritance is the primary form of social acquisition of land. The GM will have to decide the regulations and social norms on inheritance for each culture in his world, but generally the firstborn son gets everything. It is this trend of inheritance that might lead many second and thirdsons of a noble, who have no expectation of future fortune, to the life of adventuring.

Enfeoffment is the process of giving land out to a vassal in return for obligations of service. In a feudal society, theoretically, all land belongs to the king. The king gives out huge tracts of land to barons in exchange for support, pledges of fealty, pledges of military support, and various other promises. Barons then further subdivide this land to earls and knights for similar obligations, which in turn help the barons fulfill their obligations to the king. An enfeoffment generally becomes hereditary, but there are plenty of times and reasons for which a baron or king can reclaim land. Traitors automatically lose claim to their land, unless the king pardons the traitor's family and allows them to keep the property. Poor families may sell off parts of their land to cover debts and eventually may loose their land and title altogether.

If a character seeks land for a castle, winning the favor of a wealthy lord, baron, or king is the best way to do it. If a character can convince a large land holder that he would be a useful vassal, the land-holder may decide to give a land grant. A character may try to prove his worth through military service, wise advice, exquisite gifts, pleasing words, or whatever else might strike an individual lord's fancy.

If a lord does grant land to a character, he will do so with a number of obligations that the character must fulfill each year for him. Obligations can vary tremendously, but most include military service of a specified number of soldiers and their maintenance for forty to sixty days a year. Other common obligations include: presenting oneself at the overlord's court at least once a year, helping to pay for knightings and weddings for the overlord's children, and entertaining the overlord lavishly whenever he comes to visit. These obligations can become quite expensive at times, but then again, the land and everything on it is considered to be a continual gift to the land-holder from the overlord.

Land in a foreign or un settled land can be granted by a king. If a king does so, he will help provide troops and support for the initial stages of settlement. If the troops are to take over neighboring castles and land, the king will grant that land if the recipient is capable of taking and keeping the castle. Obviously, this can be a difficult military procedure, but no one said ruling was easy.

If the land is virgin soil and not possessed by any castle-building culture, the settlement generally begins with the construction of a castle and fortified town in the new territory. Peasants must be encouraged to join in the colonization attempt, but the promise of a little land or better living conditions are always tempting to the lower class. The castle might be subject to attacks from the locals during its construction, but if it survives, over time the castle's knights can subdue the locals and incorporate them into the daily life of the land.

The GM should determine which of these methods are available to characters in his campaign and tailor the adventures leading up to land acquisition. The GM should be careful to make sure that characters are ready to proceed with the construction and holding of a castle. It is suggested that a character should be at least 5^th level before attempting to construct a castle, though closer to 10^th level would be better. The reason for this is that low-level characters have not had a chance to develop strong personalities, not to mention the fundamental skills necessary to run a castle. After a player has had a chance to mature his character, he will have a better understanding of the character's personality. This is important indeciding how the character will rule his land, as well as how the people are likely to accept him.

Early adventures are also a good source for material to come back and haunt the character. Characters lead lives larger than life, which tends to call attention to themselves. Enemies may seek to even the score, allies may come to ask favors, and old friends may seek to ingratiate themselves. Once a character settles into one place, he becomes a target. For good or ill, the character has an address and people will know where to find him.

The GM should be sure to look at all of the old material in the character's past as a source for new adventures.

Example: "Move? Why would I want to move?" Rel wiped a hand across his eyes, blinking the sleep away. Solara his wife sat next to him on the bed, but she was staring out the window.

"Because, "she pouted, "this place is sooo dreary. There's mud everywhere. Sheep wander about the stronghold as if they own the place. And the only well-built building is this ancient tower devoted to that ugly rock downstairs."

"Honey, " Rel sat up next to her and pointed out the window, "this has been the home to men of power ever since men learned to lean a stick against a stick. The place sings and breathes power and prestige. Look out atthe river. Deluna sends showers of water from the mountains to bless our fields. We never lack for fresh water or food. The river itself gives us a means of transportation, while slowing the gruesome fiends of the north. We have fought the foul orcs many times and I fear them not. But I sleep better knowing that the river helps guard us."

Solara frowned.

"Now wait," Rel rubbed hers houlder, "The hill we are on has been home to kings and chiefs, it demands respect. My people come to bring tribute here and to give tithes to the Raven. That stone downstairs happens to be our god, you know. Or some thing like that; it is difficult to understand the relationship of the Raven Rock to our lord Raven. But what I want you to understand is that in all of our land, this is the best spot of land. It is high. It has water. It has a natural moat in the form of the river. And it has an unearthly power that will always protectus."

Solara smiled and punched Rel in the shoulder. "But why does it have to be so dreary. Once you start building the new castle, I think we will need to buy some nice carpets, pennants for the towers. Anything to add some color and life to the place. Don't you think?"

Rel quietly laid back down and pretended to be asleep.

5.0 WORK FORCE

5.1 HIRING CONTRACTORS

"Promises are like pie crust, made to be broken."

— Jonathan Swift

Once a site for a castle is settled on (or possibly before, in case the character wants the architect to help select the site), the character must find someone capable of designing and building his castle. An individual hired to construct a building is called a contractor, because they generally only operate under a well-defined contract. A contractor can be a normal architect, an engineer, or a dwarven architect. Additionally, spell users may be hired to assist the architect in the magical defenses of the structure or to aide the workers in difficult construction situations.

A normal architect can build any structure provided he has a high enough AL. Normal architects can command great respect once they exceed AL 5, but up until then they are considered little more than just a work boss, someone to organize workers. Lower level architects serve as work bosses under higher level architects as a form of apprenticeship and to ease the burden of larger construction projects .

A contractor must be skilled in Architecture, Labor Organization, and Engineering to have an AL value. The better the contractor's AL, the harder it is to find and recruit him. Contractors may also be skilled in Advanced Math, Architecture, Basic Math, Drafting, Gimmickry, Mechanition, Set Traps, Siege Engineering, Trap Building, and Work Force Organization. Some of these skills allow specific structural improvements to be built, while others yield bonuses to any construction rolls made on the structure. These modifications are summarized below.

Advanced Math: A successful maneuver can give a +25 to any Drafting or Gimmickry skill roll. This bonus cannot be used in conjunction with Basic Math. If the Advanced Math skill roll is a failure, then a Basic Math roll can be used instead.

Architecture: This skill represents the actual architectural ability of the character. This is reflected in thecharacter's AL.

Basic Math: A successful maneuver can give a +15 to any Drafting or Gimmickry skill roll. This bonus cannot be used in conjunction with Advanced Math. If a Basic Math skill roll is a failure, the character may not make an Advanced Math roll instead.

Drafting: A successful maneuver can give a +20 to any Architecture, Engineering, Gimmickry, Mechanition, or Trap Building roll.

Engineering: This skill is required in order to build any type of structure. This is reflected in the AL and SL abilities of a character.

Gimmickry: Using this skill, a character can design new machines or traps for use in castle construction, daily use, or siege engineering. Once designed, the character must then try to build his machine.

Mechanition: This skill is required in order to build any type of millworks, siege engine, or other simple mechanism. This is reflected in the SL and TL of the character.

Set Traps: This ability is required to set traps inside a castle. This is reflected in the character's TL.

Siege Engineering: this skill represents the character's actual ability to understand good offensive with, and defenses against, siege engines. This is reflected in the character's SL.

Trap Building: This skill is required in order to build traps. This is reflected in the character's TL.

Work Force Organization: This skill is used to manage the workers on a construction site. This is reflected in the character's AL.

5.1.0.0.1 Availability/Cost

To discover what kinds of contractors may be available, cross-index the area searched with the population density of the area to get a percentage chance of finding a contractor. The number before the slash is the percentage chance of finding a non spell user contractor and the number after the slash is the percentage chance of finding a spell user contractor, who will be able to use spells in the construction of the castle, or a spell user who can aid a normal architect. The GM should determine the availability of a dwarven architect based on his world design. In general, they should be rarer than normal architects, but probably not as rare as engineers. The level column shows the highest level of a contractor that is likely to be found in such a search. The chance of finding a lower level contractor within a territory is greater than one of a higher level, and the GM may want to reflect that in the contractors that the characters locate.

Once the character finds a contractor, he still has to convince the contractor to work for him. Use the Contracter Costs Chart as a guide line to determine a fair compensation for a contractor. Compensation normally comes in the form of money, but creative characters may find more suitable ways to compensate a well represented contractor. A contractor is more willing to help a character if it will advance his career or lead to other assignments, or if he is given some creative license. It's important to remember that though some contractors will see themselves as advanced construction workers, others will see themselves as consummate artists. Standard daily wages for various levels of contractors are included in the Wage Chart in Section 5.3. Use this as a basis, but not a set rule on wage disputes.

5.2 LABOR COSTS

"God must have loved the common people; he made so many of them."

— Abraham Lincoln

Once the contractor has been hired, the character and the contractor must hire a work force to gather material and actually build the castle. The composition of the work crew will depend on the design of the castle and the needs of the contractor. Where the work crew comes from is up to the GM. The work force can be recruited or impressed into service from the area, a professional work crew, or possibly derived from magical methods.

If the work crew is recruited from the area, an average crew may be assembled at an average cost. This is the most common source of labor for a castle project. If the work crew is impressed into service, then they may be paid less, but they will also build more slowly. The GM should regulate these modifications depending on the situation and the severity of the impressment. In general, there should be aproportional decrease in work accomplished as compared to the decrease in pay.

A professional work crew is a rare occurrence, and they will usually be tied to a specific architect. To hire a professional work crew, their architect must be hired and vice versa. A professional crew costs more to hire, but they work well together allowing them to work faster. The GM should decide if his world can afford to support such a professional work crew. Many worlds will not be able to support such a work crew, unless the setting is relatively small.

Another type of work crew is the magically created or summoned crew, including: demons, undead, golems, constructs, and elementals. The GM will have to determine the effectiveness of each of these crews in his own world. Demons should in general be of little use in actual construction, but they can help quarry stone, chop wood, haul material, or even help transport material up and down a wall. Undead creatures may be allowed to have the crafting ability of the spirit that inhabits the body. For example, the undead spirit of an ancient stone mason could act as a normal stone mason with only some deterioration of ability. Golems and constructs may be created to understand some basic techniques of construction, though in general their skill will be rudimentary. Elementals are composed of the prime element sought for aquiring the materials used in construction. Elementals are not good at construction, but they are very good at quarrying stone, digging, tunnelling, and improving the overall strength of walls once they have been built.

Another important factor in using undead, golems, and constructs as a source of labor is that they never tire. Each of these creations can work 24 hours a day. Given that they tend to work slightly slower than a normal worker, each undead, golem or construct can accomplish two mandays of work each day, assuming they are capable of actually performing the task.

Magical crafters are another important source of labor. Magical crafters can accomplish more work each day due to the aid of their spells. The amount of work accomplished each day and the daily cost to hire a magical crafter can be found on the Wage Chart in Section 5.3.

Another consideration in hiring a labor force is the use of spell users. Spell users, generally Essence users, can aid workers in various ways throughout a construction project. Spell users in the labor crew do not aid in the magical defense of the structure; any spell user who does should be hired on a professional basis as outlined in Section 5.1. Stone Wall True provides a rough wall that can be incorporated into a structure's wall, or it could be cut into stones more quickly than normal quarrying and eliminate travel time. Telekinesis, levitation, and fly spells could help workers haul stone and transport itup the wall.

The GM should determine the amount of actual labor a given spell user can accomplish as compared to a normal worker, keeping in mind the spell user'sPP limitations. If the spell user can also help in physical labor, he should be able to accomplish one manday of work plus the amount of time saved through his spell casting. If the spell user cannot aid in the physical labor, he can only accomplish work through spells. The exact effect of this is up to the GM and varies tremendously considering the spells available to the individual spell user. The GM should determine the spell user's pay as a proportion of the amount of work he can accomplish as compared to the rest of the work crew .

5.2.1 LABOR AVAILABILITY

To determine how many workers are availablein a given area, the GM should consult the Labor Availability Chart, cross-reference the area from which labor is being recruited with the subsistence pattern of the population. The result will be two numbers separated by slashes. The first number is the number of normal workers available for hire; the second number is the number of magical crafters or other spell users available for hire. The GM should determine the number and type of spell users available on his own. These numbers are based on an average population density and should be increased for denser populations or decreased for sparser populations.

5.2.2 RACIAL MODIFIERS TO WORK FORCES

Different races have different aptitudes towards construction and hard labor. The following modifiers should be multiplied by the number of workers of that race to determine the actual number of mandays of labor completed on a daily basis. In general these multipliers should be applied towards all racial construction projects (projects with a highly mixed work force can be assumed to have a multiplier of x1).

Example: After further negotiations, the Crystal Dwarves agree to design and build Rel's fortress in exchange for a delayed payment over the next ten years. Barl Stonebender agrees todesign and organize the construction. Barl's player then consults the Labor Availability Chart to determine about how many workers he can provide to the construction project.

The Crystal Dwarves have an extensive underground kingdom in the Crystal Mountains, so the GM rules that it is a Territory on the Labor Availability Chart. The Crystal Dwarves harvest mushroom fields, maintain blind fish in levied pools, and occasionally hunt the slopes of their mountains, so the GM rules this to be a mixed economy. Cross-indexing these parameters on the Labor Availability Chart, the GM determines that the Crystal Dwarves have 3,563 laborers available at any one time. The GM decides that this number is a little high, considering the fact that the dwarves are not a very populous people, so he reduces the number by 25%. This means that the dwarves have 2,677 laborers available atone time.

Considering the labor available, Barl declares that he will increase the honor of his people by providing an impressive 1,000 dwarven laborers for the undertaking. This strips the Crystal Mountains of nearly one-half of its available laborers, but in exchange for gold, a dwarf will do most anything.

Ulnor Riawe pledges to recruit elven craftsmen to aid in the construction, and to personally provide enchantments for the fortress. The Melindonian elves are a small enclave of woodelves that the GM determines to be the equivalent of a Territory on the Labor Avalability Chart. The elves are a Hunting and Gathering society, though they take special care in cultivating trees and harvesting their fruit. The GM determines that this society can support more people than a normal Hunting and Gathering society, so he uses the Horticulture column on the Labor Availability Chart instead. The resulting figure shows that the elves have 1,045 laborers available at any one time, and 84 spell users. Ulnor consults these numbers and claims that he can recruit an additional 300 laborers and 50 magical crafters of wood for the project.

Rel greatfully accepts these offers and considers the amount of labor that his people can provide as well. The GM consults the Labor Availability Chart, still using the Horticulture society column (as discussed earlier). Since Rel controls land about a third of the way between the 125,000 acres found in a Territory and the 25,000 acres found in a Large City, the GM decides use a final work force number of 488. The GM determines that 35 laborers are needed to conduct the coal mining necessary to pay the elven workers so Rel claims that he will recruit 300 men to aid in construction and an additional 35 miners.

Racial Work Force= Workers Multiplier Mandays

Common Men: 300 x 1 = 300

Elves: 300 x 0.8 = 240

Elven Magic Crafers: 50 x 0.8 = 40

Dwarves: 1000 x 1.3 = 1300

Total: 1650 1880

Common Men Miners: 35x 1 = 35

5.2.3 WORK FORCE SIZE

A contractor can only effectively control a limited number of workers at a time. Any more than this number and there will be redundancy of work, in efficient organization, and general loss of cost effectiveness. The number of workers that a contractor can organize is equal to five times his Labor Organization skill bonus. For example, if a contractor had a +45 in Labor Organization, then he could effectively control 225 workers. A contractor can attempt to organize a labor force larger than this number, but he will get diminishing returns in the form of productivity as he hires more than the number he can control .

A contractor can control, less effectively, up to twice the amount of workers that he can normally control. Multiply the contractor's Labor Organization skill by 2.5 to determine the number of additional workers the contractor can control at 75% effectiveness. These workers are in addition to the number of workers that can still operate at 100% effectiveness. In addition to both of these sets of workers, the contractor can control another set of workers at 50% effectiveness. The number of workers in this set cannot exceed 2.5 times the contractor's bonus in Labor Organization.

Example: Barl Stonebender has a Labor Organization skill bonus of 80. This means that he can effectively control 400 workers at 100%, 200 more workers at 75%, and 200 more workers at 50%. So Barl can control up to 800 workers at one time, but the manday output of the workers would be reduced. The first 400 workers would provide 400 mandays of work per day. The next 200 workers would provide 150 mandays (=200 × 0.75) of work per day. The final 200 workers would provide 100 mandays (=200 × 0.5) of work per day. So the 800 workers would provide a total of 650 mandays (=400 + 150 + 100) of work per day.

A contractor who needs to organize a larger work force will have to hire subcontractors to help organize the labor. Each subcontractor takes his cues from the head contractor and organizes part of the work force. Using a number of subcontractors, a head contractor can orchestrate the activities of a much greater number of laborers. A given contractor can have a number of subcontracters equal to the number of ranks in Labor Organization skill.

Example: For Barl to organize the efforts of the 1,650 workers building Rel's stronghold, he must recruit enough subcontractors to handle], 250 workers (in order to organize the labor to maximum efficiency). He has 10 ranks in Work Force Organization. Barl decides to hire 6 dwarven subcontractors who can organize 150 workers each, an elven subcontractor capable of organizing 200 workers, and a hillman capable of organizing 150 workers. This framework provides Barl with a staff capable of using the entire work force to maximum adventage.

The GM may want to require recruitment rolls to determine how many of the available workers are willing to work for a character. Recruitment rolls may be rolled by a contractor or the character, but not both. Appropriate skills for recruitment include: Advertising, Leadership, Propaganda, Public Speaking, or Trading. The GM should modify the roll by the amount of payment offered in exchange for the service. If the wages are equitable to the wages given in the Wage Chart below, there should be a +10 to the roll. Significant decreases or increases in wages should add or subtract appropriately, as should any special circumstances.

The time it takes to hire a work force depends on the size of the area from which the workers are recruited. The following times are just suggestions for recruitment times.

5.3 WAGES

The Wage Chart shows the typical daily cost per man for each worker type. In the final column there is a supply cost, which is a general cost that must be paid to supply the worker with material each day he works.

Example: Rel's chamberlain nearly fainted when he heard of Rel's proposal. Quickly grabbing a quill and some rough papyrus, he tried to determine just how much this project was going to cost on a daily basis.

First he calculated the cost of the contractors. Barl, Ulnor, six dwarfs, and a human are all part of the contractor's staff. Using the Wage Chart, the chamberlain determined the following estimate of wages for the contractors. Barl is a 10^th level dwarven craftsman/architect so his daily wages come to 80 cp. Ulnor is a tenth level Magician, so his daily wages come to 70 cp. The six dwarves are all 3^rd level, so their wages are 144 cp (6 x 24 cp). Finally, the human contractor is 3^rd level, and receives 18 cp per day. So the total daily expense for the contractors is 312 cp (80cp + 70 cp + 144 cp + 18 cp).

The labor force will require much more funding. The labor force is broken down into 1,000 dwarven workers of stone, who the GM considers to be a professional crew, 400 elven craftsmen, 50 elven enchanters, and 200 human workers. Since the fortress is to be made out of stone, all of the workers are paid the wages of stone workers, even though the elves specialize in carpentry. So the following breakdown shows the labor and supplies cost for this workforce:

Dwarven workers: 1000 x 9 cp = 9000 cp

Elven workers: 300 x 7 cp = 2450 cp

3^rd lvl Magic Crafters: 50 x 7 cp = 350 cp

(Magic Crafters will always make at least as much as the normal work crew)

Human workers: 300 x 7 cp = 2100 cp

Worker Supplies: 1600 x 1 cp = 1600 cp

Crafter Supplies: 50 x .2 cp = 10 cp

Sub-total: 15510 cp

Contractors: 312 cp

Total Daily Expense: 15822 cp

The chamberlain gasps. Quickly grabbing another sheet of paper, he calculates the expected income from the coal and gold mining operations. The GM announces that since the coal mine requires a team of 35 miners to operate, and that their daily wages should equate to wood laborers, that it costs 105 cp/day (35x 3 cp) in wages and 70 cp/day (35 x 2 cp) in supplies to operate the mine for a total expense of 175 cp/day. According to GL it takes 0.5 mandays to produce 1 pound of charcoal, so 35 men canproduce 70 lbs of processed charcoal per day. (This number is an average that takes into account all of the time required to develop the mine, transport, cut, process, etc..) Rel agrees to an exchange rate of one pound of charcoal for 20 cp, so the mine provides 1,400 cp in goods per day. Subtracting out the miners' wages this leaves 1,225 cp per day towards the construction of the fortress.

The construction will cost 15,822 cp/day.

The mining produces 1,225 cp/day.

This leaves an additional 14,597 cp/day that must be accountedfor in some way. (See Taxation).

The chamberlain swallows hard as he runs in search of the tax records from the previous year.

6.0 DESIGNING A CASTLE

"What littletown by river or sea shore, Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel, Is emptied ofthisfolk, this pious morn?"

— John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn"

"You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about, do you?"

— Soriel Took, Big Nose

Once the contractor has been hired, a character can begin designing his castle. The structures and defensive improvements that can be built are limited by the skill of the architect. As architects improve in the appropriate skills, their AL increases. As an architect's AL increases, the larger and more complex a design he can create. Each structure and defensive improvement that can be built is given below. These structures are based on historical designs and buildings. If the GM has totally unique structures in his world, then he should try to find the closest appropriate structure and assign similar AL limitations and construction time costs (see Construction).

The castle is broken down into Construction Units, which are the basic structures that, when added together, form a total structure. Each Construction Unit is a complete section of wall, tower, building and so forth. Each Construction Unit can be added to other Construction Units to form unique building designs. Think of those plastic building blocks and you will be on the right track when it comes to Construction Units. The only difference is that each Construction Unit is larger and more detailed than a simple block.

The Construction Units are listed in the Construction Unit Catalog along with the physical dimensions of the Unit, the AL requirement, the AT, the DB, the Breach Value, the Destroy Value, the Time Cost, and the Average Monetary Cost for that Unit. To design a castle, a character consults the Catalog to determine which Construction Units are permissable for his architect's AL. Any Construction Unit with an AL equal to or less than the architect's AL can be built. The GM is encouraged to modify these AL figures up or down, depending on the cultures of his world.

Important things to remember when designing a castle:

No wall can stand without a support at each end of the wall. A support can be in the form of a tower, a natural rock formation, a buttress, or a building.
Remember to provide ample room for housing staffand troops, as well as a large store room for food supplies. No one wants to learn the importance of a large food cellar in the middle of a siege.
Don't overextend the treasury. Most castles will draw an income in the form of taxes or trade, but try not to count too heavily on future income. You can always add to a castle later when it becomes necessary.
Protect your gate.
Make sure there are not many blind spots in your castle. A blind spot is an area of poor visibility that comes from having square walls or buildings; windows just cannot be placed incorners without weakening the structure. Square towers are especially difficult to place without blind spots.
If the castle is only of temporary importance, then don't overdo it.
Consider the terrain. The terrain defines the style of castle that should to be built. Use natural features to full advantage or else your opponent will use them against you.

It is important to note that though each section of the castle is being designed by Construction Units, the actual construction of the castle will be done in phases that the contractor decides on. Generally the outer walls are completed and then the inner keep is built, or vice versa. But if the character or contractor wants, both could be built simultaneously. The only exception is that any artificial mounds must be built first, and any moats should be made last (if a character insists then increase the time of construction significantly).

The basic Construction Units include: bridges, buildings, towers (square or round) and walls. In addition to the basic Construction Units, there are Structural Improvements that add to the strength, defensibility, and comfort of the basic Construction Units.

6.1 BASIC CONSTRUCTION UNITS

The following sub-sections discuss the importance of each type of Construction Unit as well as some other notes on each. See the Construction Unit Catalog (see Section 32) for more information.

6.1.1 BRIDGES

Simple bridges can be built across rivers, gorges, and from one building to another. The time it takes to build a bridge depends (even more than other structures) on the terrain. A bridge is built to provide access where there is currently none. The fact that there is no access makes bridge-building a challenging feat of engineering. A bridge can be made of rope and wood for a swinging bridge, or it can be built more solidly of wood or even stone.

A swinging bridge is simple to make and works very well in high mountain areas where it is difficult to perform most construction projects. A few ropes and wooden slats form the base of this bridge, though an even simpler bridge could be formed with just three ropes. This involves three ropes being suspended across the gap.Two are used as handrails, while the third is lower and used as a tightrope.

Building a three-rope bridge should take very little time, but crossing a rope bridge should be tricky, relatively slow, and only crossed bya few persons at a time. A swinging bridge will take only a little longer to make, and it is easier to cross, though it is still wise to only cross a few people at a time. As long as the workers have access to both sides of the gap, a rope bridge can be assembled in an hour or less.

A wooden bridge used to cross a gorge or open space will require a lot more care and effort than a rope or swing bridge, though it will be more secure, less susceptible to mishap or sabotage, and it can support more weight than a rope bridge.

If the height of the bridge is such that it is impractical to build supports down to the ground, a bridge can be made with supports that angle from the sides of the gorge. Such a bridge cannot be built across a great length, but it can work as effectively as a straight-supported bridge across short distances.

Stone and wood bridges can also be built across rivers and otherbodies ofwater. Such structures are more easily built, though they present blockage problems along rivers. The thickness of the bridge supports will force more river water through a smaller opening, which can lead to treacherous currents and greater wear on the bridge. Also, bridges that are built too low restrict the movement of boats up and down the river.

Bridges over rivers can either be straight or arched. A straight bridge is weaker and more likely to break apart, as well as being limited in the distance it can effectively cover. An arched bridge should increase in height by two and a half feet for every 10 feet length of bridge. These figures should be added into the height of the bridge.

A stone bridge is built like a wooden bridge, except that the supports of a stone bridge must be thicker. These supports further restricts movement of water under the bridge and make currents even worse. As time goes by and river flotsam collects under the bridge, the water becomes a terrible current that can break down the bridge or else the water will dam up and flood around the bridge. Clearing the debris can solve a lot of the problem.

Stone bridges built along a lazy river or pond can have massive supports that allow for long flat bridges. If such water is not available, then a stone bridge must follow the rules for a straight or arched bridge just the same as a wooden bridge.

These rules are for bridges of some significance. If someone wishes to lay a few boards across a creek or some such, then just let him do it.

6.1.1.0.1 Dams

Dams can be built using similar guidelines as a stone bridge. The only major difference is in the amount of stone required to dam up a river. The bridge takes into account a large number of gaps under the bridge to allow the passage of water. Furthermore, as the dam begins to restrict the water's movement, it will become harder and harder to construct the dam.

The size of any dam must be calculated from the average depth of the river times the width of the river, plus an additional width on either side to handle the runoff. When a river is blocked, the water will try to spill around the dam if it can't go over it. Therefore, before building a dam it is important to build up the banks of the river on both sides, unless you wish to flood the surrounding land.

The necessary height of the dam will depend on the speed of the water in the river and the height of the river banks. Another factor involved is the purpose of the dam. If the dam is meant to redirect water, then it will not need to be as high as it needs to be to restrict the flow of water through the dam. Redirecting water will require a lot of work digging a new channel for the water to flow through before the dam is completed, but once redirected the river will take care of itself. If the dam is made to stop the flow of water, the contractor needs to prepare the land for the lake or pond that will form behind the dam.

Dams will require a lot of GM and character decision making. It is impossible to provide a set of standard guidelines that covers all aspects of such terrain-changing constructions. One thing a GM should keep in mind, though, is that restricting water flows will change the ecosystem of the area. Fish like salmon that mate upstream and then leave for the ocean will be unable to return upstream after a dam has been built. So fishing may suffer. People downstream who depend on the river for the irrigation of their crops may discover a sudden water shortage. Waterwheels downstream will be all but useless. The new lake may change travel patterns and thus ruin small crossroad inns and taverns. A GM should think carefully about the various kinds of impact that a dam can have on an environment. All construction projects can modify the environment, but dams generally have a greater impact than most.

6.1.2 BUILDINGS

The most important building structure in a castle is always the keep. The keep, or donjon, is the last line of defense in a castle and it is also the home of the lord and his family. The keep is generally built with the entrance on the second floor that is accessible either by acollapsible ramp or an exposed stairway.The keep has a well dug in the basement and stores most of a full castle's food supplies. The keep has thick walls, tall thin windows, if any, and many of a full castle's defensive improvements found along walls: battlements, arrow slits, machicolations, and buttresses. Somemay even have battered plinths or hoardings, but those are uncommon. The layout of the keep should be made with great care to cover the needs of daily life in a castle without sacrificing too much of the keep's defensive nature.

The keep should have family rooms for the lord, access to a central hearth or a kitchen, a great hall, and possibly some rooms for barracks. Fancier and larger castles should include rooms for upper staff, servant quarters, possibly a library or ballroom or other needs or wants of state.

To determine the height of any internal floor, divide the height of the keep by the number of floors and subtract one foot from that number if the floors are wood and two feet if the floors are stone. The lost space is in the width of the floor, supports, and the peak of the roof. In most castles, the walls of the keep will be lined with stone flooring and ceiling. The cost for making a small hallway with stone flooring is figured in to the overall cost of the keep. These solid stone floors provide the anchoring position for wooden braces and supports for wooden floors. If the floors of the keep are all stone, then the GM should require columns to be placed throughout the rooms to support the weight. Basically, one column per 500 square feet should be sufficient for this need.

To increase the size of a keep, without exceeding the AL limitations, a contractor can build multiple structures adjacent to one another and link them on all floors. Each structuremust have all of the standard walls, but doorsand halls can connect them into a larger building.Generally, towers are used in this way along corners of a keep to offer extra protection to the keep, as well as to provide a convenient stairway for the castle.

There are times when a character will wish to design a castle that has different sized upper stories.Instead of the keep being built straight up from the ground to a single roof, the keep might have an upper story that is not as large as the lower level. The area that is not built up can either be covered with a simple gabled roof (slanted in both directions), or it can be flattened top rovide a large patio/garden area. For example, a keep can have a broad flat roof across half of the building at twenty feet in height, but the rest of the keep may rise another story, which has a gabled roof. This allows most of the keep's roof to be used as a patio or deck, while part of the keep continues to rise.Towers attached to the sides of a building also tend to have different heights than adjoining structures.

If an area of roof is flattened to provide for a patio or garden area, then either drains will have to be installed to clear water from the patio (possibly filling up cisterns for later use), or else the flattened area will have to bow outward a bit so that the water will drain to the sides. Holes in the roof ledge should allow the water to pour off of the building.

A large castle has a number of other buildings built within the baileys and along the inside of the curtain walls. These buildings serve as stables, barracks, kitchens, storage areas, homes for castle servants, smithies, and just about anything else.

These buildings may be built out of stone or wood using the construction rules for a keep or tower, but these structures are built out of even simpler material: wattle and daub. Wattle and daub buildings are cheaply builtby using a wooden framework fleshed out with wattle, or flexible twigs, pasted together using daub. Daub is a clay-like substance mixed from mud, dung, and horse hair. Once daub is dry, it is painted over with a white wash paint made of lime. The lime helps to seal the walls, making them waterproof and certainly improving the appearance of the walls. These buildings are typically gable roofed with simple thatch, which consisted of hay, weeds, reeds, heather, or bracken, depending on what is available. Thatch is cheap but highly flammable. In times of siege, these buildings can easily be reduced to clear the courtyard if it is determined necessary to do so.

The time taken to build these structures is muc less than that required for a keep, though they tend to stay fairly small. Use the standard construction rules, but no defensive imporovements can be applied to these buildings.

6.1.3 TOWERS, SQUARE

Towers are the strongest defensive sections on a castle wall. They serve three main purposes. First of all, they may serve as braces for wall support (other possible braces include buildings, buttresses, and natural stone formations). Towers can provide shelter and housing. They can serve as covered stairwells for reaching the tops of walls or the upper floors of attached buildings. Finally, defenders in towers aid in the defense of attached walls.

The reason a tower juts out from a castle wall is because it thereby allows a defender in the tower to have a clear view and shot at attackers along the base of the wall. In some cases, this allows the defender in the tower to shoot at the backs of attackers. A solid tower on either side of a wall segment allows the defenders to attack any aggressor on three sides.

A tower is normally found supporting a corner between two walls because of the above reasons, and because at a corner it gives those advantages to two different walls at the same time. Towers can be improved with arrow slits, battlements, hoardings, machicolations, and plinths.

6.1.4 TOWERS, ROUND

There are several significant differences between the square tower and the round tower. First of all it is harder to build a round tower. A round tower does everything a square tower does, but it can have no blind spots (the corners of the square tower limit visibility and firing arcs through arrow slits), and it also resists hurled stones better. The curve of the tower partially deflects all but a perfectly aimed missile, yielding a +15 DB to any round tower. A round tower can use any of the improvements found on a square tower.

It should be noted that building a round tower out of wood should not normally be allowed unless magical crafters are able to mold the wood appropriately. A round tower built of wood takes proportionally longer to build than stone or brick round towers.

6.1.5 WALLS

Walls are the mainstay of a castle's defenses. Walls prevent attackers from entering the castle, and they also serve as combat platforms for the defenders. Classic castles have two sets of walls: an inner curtain wall and an outer curtain wall. The only real difference in the two is the placement, though normally the inner wall is taller than the outer wall. With the inner wall being taller than the outer, defenders on top of each wall can launch missiles at attackers.

Walls that are built four feet thick or more can be assumed to have a wall-walk. A wall-walk allows defenders to patrol the tops of the walls and defend the walls from attackers. If a character wishes to build a wall that has enclosed walkways underneath the wall-walk, he should build that section of the wall using the Building Construction Unit.

Walls can be improved with arrow slits, battlements, buttresses, hoardings, machicolations, and battered plinths. Arrow slits on a wall are generally located on battlements. The benefit of arrow slits on battlements is that they provide full cover to half of the defenders on the wall and also allow more defenders to launch missiles from the wall at one time.

6.1.6 STRUCTURAL IMPROVEMENTS

6.1.6.0.1 Arrow Slits

Arrow slitsallow more archers tofirefrom any direction the tower faces, but with the greatest amount of personal protection.No more than one arrow slitcan be placed in any five-foot section of wall and generally they are staggered only along the highest points in the castle.

6.1.6.0.2 Battlements

Battlements are thejagged stonework along the tops of castle walls. The gaps in the stonework are called crenels, and they are sometimes made with wooden shutters for extra protection. Battlements give defenders on top of the wall partial cover or full cover depending on what their activityatthetimemay be. Standard battlements alternate between one to two foot openings separated by one to two foot blocks of stone.

6.1.6.0.3 Balcony

A balcony can be built inside or outside of a castle. Balconies allow people to view the outside, or alternatively can be placed in such a way as to allow a speaker to address a court yard. A balcony is limited in how far it can protrude from a wall. The only way to exceed this amount is to add column supports underneath it to support the weight of the balcony and anything on it. As a standard rule of thumb, any balcony that protrudes more than five feet should have column supports

6.1.6.0.4 Cisterns/Water Pipes

Some castles held cisterns that collected rainwater from the roof of the castle and stored it for use within various rooms in the castle. The water could only work with the pull of gravity, but basins in a lord's room or a chapel might have a ready supply of water in this way. A cistern collecting rainwater could be of great benefit in times of siege. When constructing a castle, the cistern and pipes should be installed in the walls.

6.1.6.0.5 Doomed roofs

A domed roof is a difficult construction that provides little benefit other than an impressive interior and exterior design. Domed roofs are status symbols demonstrating the wealth of the castle owner and the skill of the architect. Domed roofs are only possible with the use of concrete, which can be hardened in layers over wooden molds. An alternative approach is for a building to be filled with dirt to the top of the walls. Concrete can then be hardened over the mound of dirt. Once the roof is complete, then the dirt is dug out of the building. A popular method of having the dirt removed is by sprinkling coins throughout the mound of dirt as it is dumped in; once the dome is finished, children and peasants are allowed to dig through the building to find the coins.

6.1.6.0.6 Earthworks

Never let it be said that you cannot build a better battlefield. Anyone with a shovel can drastically improve the defensive nature ofa site. The motte-and-bailey castle, for example, was built on either a natural hill or an artificial hill. If it was artificial, someone had to make the motte before the castle could be built. All earthworks are based on the relocation of earth. Many castles were just a series of earthworks in concentric circles. Wooden forts can be built on top of artificial mounds with ease, but stone castles should only be built on artificial mounds with caution. As the earth settles heavy stone castles will crack from the foundation up.

Earthworks can be used in several ways. Around a castle, a ditch can slow attackers from reaching the wall, and actually itincreases the distance that they must cover in order to reach the wall (up and down is further than straight across). Some castles not only dig a ditch around the base of the wall, but also build up a rampart on the outer edge of the ditch. This forces the attacker to run uphill slightly before having to run down into the ditch. This further slows the attacker and again gives the attacker more distance to cover before he reaches the base of the wall. Ditches are a simple defense that slows a foot charge and can totally halt a cavalry charge. A few spikes in the ditch and on the defender's bank can be a nice deterrent to enemy attacks.

Along the same lines as earthworks are tunnelling and mining. A character must use these figures for building catacombs under his castle or even for building his castle if he is constructing an underground fortress. Most Orc and Dwarven constructions will involve a great deal of tunnelling, supplemented with stone carving and shaping.

When designing earthworks, the character should get fairly close approximate numbers on the volume of earth that must be relocated. These numbers will be used in the construction process (see Section 4).

A character may also consider the construction of basements and catacombs under a keep or castle. Just build the keep normally and then have the character design the underground layout. Once you do this, determine the volume of dirt and stone that must be moved to form the lower levels and record that measurement for use in the section on Tunnelling. The GM should regulate the tunnelling under a castle, because this can weaken the foundation of any and all structures above it.

Tunnels should be at least ten feet deeper than the closest structure, the deeper the safer. Large castles are more at risk to such tunnelling. Magic or a high-level contractor can be used to design and construct a shallow labyrinth without damaging or weakening the above structure.

The tunnel construction times include the time spent in setting up standard braces for the walls. Digging will not go significantly faster by using fewer braces. Each standard brace is one foot thick by one footwide and fits in a triple brace against the roof and two sides of the tunnel. The GM should limit the number of workers in a tunnel to no more than five men in a standard six-foot by six-foot tunnel (standard for human sappers or miners). Workers are assumed to rotate digging and clearing away the rubble. In a ten-foot by tenfoot passage (more permanent sized tunnel) maybe up to ten or twelve workers can fit. Smaller races have an advantage in tunnellingin that they don't have to move as much rock to have comfortable room, whereas agiant may be able to move a lot of stone, but he's really going to have to move a tremendous amount in order to get anywhere.

The GM should watch tunnels for support and strength when they begin to get too deep or if they are under stress, dug too close to another tunnel and so forth. Require Direction Sense rolls in order to realize depth and distance. Dwarves and other underground races should get a natural +25 to these rolls.

Filling up a tunnel can take quite a while as well; use the digging charts to fill up a tunnel. Remember to limit the number of workers.

6.1.6.0.7 Gates

The main passage through the castle walls isa well-known weak point in the castle defenses. If the gate is just a simple set of wooden doors, it will be a great weakness. Drawbridges and portcullises provide a stronger gateway, though they are still weaker than any other section of wall. Some castles employ gatehouses as defensive traps to limit the weakness of the gates.

A gatehouse should be built using either a tower or a building as the base Construction Unit, and then the gates and gate machinery are added to the construction cost for the gatehouse. Gatehouses are built between two strong towers that help guard the gate. Portcullises are generally found on either end of the gatehouse passage. If the exterior portcullis is up, attackers can run into the gatehouse, but are stopped by the interior portcullis. Once the gatehouse is full, defenders drop the exterior portcullis to trap the attackers within the gatehouse. Murder holes allow the defenders to shoot arrows, throw stones, and drop burning oil on the trapped attackers. Sometimes, a castle may have a series of such gatehouses protecting a single passageway into the castle.

Posterns are smaller gates or doors that are hidden in niches in walls or odd wall angles. Posterns are used by servants and staff in daily life, but during a siege they allow defenders to slip out and attack the besiegers in sorties or in surprise night attacks. Posterns are normally protected from mass attack by their small size and protective walls. The protective walls also keep the posterns safe from catapult stones.It is important to consider having more than one entrance to a castle, because while walls keep the enemy out, they also keep the defenders stuck inside.

6.1.6.0.8 Hoardings

Hoardings are temporary wooden structures built suspended out over a castle wall. These platforms allow defenders to better protect the base of the wall from attackers, because from this vantage all they have to do is drop things on the attackers. They also give defenders on the wall fullcover, as the only openings are generally arrow slits. The primary weakness of hoardings is that they are made of wood and subject to flame attacks. They generally have a covering made from animal hide or even a coating of lead as a protection from firearrows. Of course, they also don't offer a lot of resistance to catapult stones.

6.1.6.0.9 Latrines

Latrine chutes are the medieval version of internal plumbing.

6.1.6.0.10 Machicolations

Machicolations are like hoardings, except they are permanent stoneworks that allow defenders to drop stones and such directly on attackers at the base of the wall. These are called murder holes. They allow yet another form of attack from the castle walls.

6.1.6.0.11 Mills

Mills are early factories that harness the forces of nature to accomplish repetitive tasks. The most common form of mill is the waterwheel. The turning wheel spins gears inside of a building that spins a pair of mill-stones that grind grain and corn into flour. A lord of a castle often requires the servants on his land to grind all of their grain at the mill and charges a tax for the right to do so. Anyone caught grinding grain at home may be fined for the infringement.

The waterwheel improvement must be added to another structure. The waterwheel requires a building at least 500 square feet at the base, along the edge of a river.The waterwheel can be built to operate other machines, such as large butter churns, sawmills, paper machines, forge bellows, or anything else where repetitive motion is necessary.

A variation on the watermill is the tidalmill. The tidal mill is built in low areas with broad, slow-moving rivers near coastlines. The tidalmill consists of a dam that blocks up a large pond on the river, as far as a mile or more from the coast. The dam is equipped with swinging gates in the water. As the tide moves in, the natural pressure of the waterpushes the gates open and the water rises. As the tide goes out, the pressure pushes the gates closed and the water is trapped inside. The miller can open a sluice that allows the water to escape and power a watermill.

A tidal mill is only used in areas where the rivers are too slow to operate a watermill effectively. Because it requires the miller to work odd hours each day as he follows the tides, the miller is unable to get as much productivity from a tidalmill as from a waterfall. To design a tidalmill, the contractor must also design a dam.

Windmills harness the power of the winds to perform simple industrial tasks just like a waterwheel except they can be built in many more areas (i.e.,they can be built away from water). The windmill improvement must be added to a building or tower of atleast a 400 square-foot base and at least 30 feet tall.

Alternatively, the GM may allow a simple windmill design called the postmill. The postmill is a windmill that is attached to a huge oaken post. The whole windmill and machinery assembly can be pivoted about on this post to face the wind. These windmills take longer to build, but require no structures to house them (actually making the total construction time much less than for normal windmills).A small covered but or house is included in the cost of a postmill, but it is only large enough to cover the machinery inside.

So why build mills? Sure, it allows more work to get done, faster, and with fewer people, but what does it really do for the owner of the castle? It makes money. A lot of money. Whoever owns the mill gets to charge everyone else to use it. If you are the lord of the land, you can require everyone to use your mill and then charge them for the right to do so. The amount of income from a mill will vary depending on what the mill is set to do.

The numbers on the Typical Mill Income Chart are the number of potential silver pieces a mill generates in income per month. These numbers assume a steady supply of material for the mill to manipulate. If there is a shortage or an abundance of material, the numbers should be modified to reflect that. Also, technological advancements could produce better quality material or handle larger quantities of material, which again would modify the results of this chart. The GM should use these numbers as a rough guideline for assigning income.

The incomes provided by the mills should not be counted as taxes, even though technically they are taxes in some instances. The fact that a mill does provide a service balances out the increase in taxes. Add mill incomes to the monthly income of the castle (separate from taxes). Remember at least one miller and one assistant must be hired to run the mill.

6.1.6.0.12 Monuments/Stone Art

Many castles include stone relief carvings in the walls, states, or simple carved lettering. Stone carvings of small to medium gargoyles adorn the walls in hopes of warding off spirits. These carvings hope to mimic the power of actual gargoyles that can be created using the Closed Arcane spel llist, Gargoyle Mastery. Reliefs on walls may either be carved on a wall itself or on a single stone that is later installed along the wall.

Monuments may be built in a castle courtyard or outside of a castle's walls, but normally a monument is placed in a town, a crossroads, or a newly conquered land. Monuments are a sign of honor and victory. They commemorate great events and preserve the memories of events for future generations.

Monuments are important markers for kingdoms and empires. Because the printed word lasts only as long as the paper it is written on, a monument outlasts all books. Monuments are generally made of stone and can be as simple as small stones that have names carved into them, or they can be as grand as gigantic statues that portray military or religious figures. The grand Colossus of Rhodes was said to have been made of the bronze weapons, shields, and arms of a conquered army. Unfortunately, monuments made of metal are all too often melted down (for their metal) in later generations.

6.1.6.0.13 Paving stones

Paving stones prevent a courtyard from becoming a giant mud puddle in the rains or dust bowls in the dry season. Paving stones can be cut flat or used as cobblestones.

6.1.6.0.14 Plinths

Plinths are slanted sections ofstone work atthe base of a castle that add to the strength of the castle's foundation. Plinths reduce the amount of damage that sappers, pickers, and battering rams can do to a wall. The angle of the plinth makes it hard for ground troops to effectively damage the wall, because it tends to deflect part of the force of any attack made from the ground. Each wall supported by a plinth imposes a special penalty of -25 to all sapping attacks, drill attacks, and battering ram attacks.

6.2 TRAPS

Traps are devious designs that can add to the defensive nature of a castle in case of intruders or thieves, but normally only minimally so against military forces. Most traps can generally be sprung only once before they must be reset by guards, though spring-loaded trap doors and pitfalls can reset themselves.

There are many variations of traps, but most can be divided into two groups: manual and trigger. A manual trap is one that requires an individual to unleash the trap's effects. Manual traps are generally found in courtrooms, where individuals are compelled to stand in the target area of the trap when addressing the lord. If the speaker offends the lord, then he can trigger the trap with simple triggers found in reach of the throne. These traps are normally imprisoning traps, including trap doors with chutes emptying into dungeons, and falling nets or cages.

Trigger traps require no human element. Trigger traps are set of fwhen certain conditions are met, such as weight on a particular stone, turning a key in the wrong direction, removing weight from a target area, closing a door, or almost any other process that is mechanical. Magical traps can, of course, be triggered under more unusual circumstances, but they will be discussed at the end of this section.

Most traps, whether trigger or manual, have a mechanical basis and also use similar ways of initiating action, i.e. pressing a button, or stepping onto a specific step.For this reason, the only difference in construction between these two types of traps is that trigger traps are more difficult to construct (which is reflected in the TL level for trigger mechanisms).

All traps are considered to be built with a fail-safe that allows the owner of the trap to bypass it if necessary. A failsafe can be as simple as turning the key properly, a lever that deactivates the trap, or the like. If the fail-safe is not adjacent to the trap in some manner, additional time must be spent distancing the trigger for the fail-safe in the same manner as constructing a manual trigger.

Traps inside of a castle differ significantly from traps made in the wild. First of all, the castle allows for more intricate and specific traps. Secondly, the castle itself channels movement in certain directions, limiting the choices of approach an individual can make to reach any place within the castle.What that means is that a castle trap can be set in a hallway that leads to important rooms, whereas a trap that is placed in the wild may be totally overlooked as the target walks three paces to the left of the hidden trap.

Another difference is in the purpose of a trap in a castle. The main reasons for setting a trap in a castle is either to prevent someone from reaching a place, or else wounding them along the way. Killing an intruderis not always necessary, though that does prevent the intruder from stealing anything. Other uses for traps include alarms and secret passages. Alarms are traps that require a trigger, but the alarm can either be loud and obvious, or else connected to a device further in the castle so as to not alert the intruder that he has been detected.

Secret passages are not really traps, but it is necessary to treat the concealment of a secret passage doorway using the same Camouflage skills as for traps. Secret passages may be built into the original keep, but this may mean that any number of workmen are aware of something unusual in that part of the castle. More often, the lord of the castle will make sure that the walls in a specific section of the castle are built much thickerthan necessary. In that way, the lord can have the passage constructed by a small number of discreet workers and craftsmen.

6.2.0.0.1 Trap Effectiveness and Detecting Traps

When a trap is installed in a castle, the GM should determine how effective that trap will be when triggered as well as how hard it will be for a trap victim to detect the trap. To do this, the GM must have a couple of bits of information available. First, what is the Trap Level (TL) of the trap builder. Second, what is the TL of the trap he is trying to build. Other bits of useful information include whether or not the builder cares if the trap is detected and how much time he spends working on the trap.

All traps should be given an Effectiveness Rating (ER). The ER of a trap will determine various aspects of what happens when the trap is triggered. To determine the ER of a trap, the GM should roll d100 (open-ended) and add five times the builder's TL. This is further modified by a time factor. For each increment of 10% less time spent on the trap than indicated in the Construction Unit Catalog, the roll suffers a -10 (e.g., if only 95% of the time indicated is spent, the roll is modified by -10; if only 75% of the time indicated is spent, the roll is modified by -30). Likewise, for every full 10% over the indicated time spent, the roll gains a +10 bonus (e.g., if 105% of the indicated time is spent, the bonus is +0, if 125% of the time is spent, the bonus is +20). The minimum amount of time that may be spent on the trap's ER is 50% of the listed time. Look on the chart below to determine the traps, ER.

A trap with an ER of 0 will not function 50% of the time (when the trigger is pulled, the GM should roll d100 and add 50; if the resultis over 100, the trap works normally).

All traps should also be given a Detection Rating. To determine how hard a trap is to detect, the GM should roll d100 (open-ended) and add five times the TL of the trap (not of the builder). This is further modified by a time factor. For each increment of 10% less time spent on the trap than indicated in the Construction Unit Catalog, the roll suffers a -10 (e.g., if only 95% of the time indicated is spent, the roll is modified by -10; if only 75% of the time indicated is spent, the roll is modified by -30). Likewise, for every full 10% over the indicated time spent, the roll gains a +10 bonus (e.g., if 105% of theindicated time is spent, the bonus is +0, if 125% of the time is spent, the bonus is +20). The minimum amount of time that may be spent on the trap's DR is 50% of the listed time. Look on the chart below to determine the trap's DR.

The resulting DR is the type of Awareness maneuver required to detect the trap.

Note that the extra time spent (or the less time spent) on building the trap must be designated as spent on effectiveness or detectability. If the builder doesn't care if the trap is detectable, he might take 50% less time on detection, but add 50% more time on effectiveness. In no case can a builder sacrifice more than 50% of the time needed either ER or DR (even if the difference was made up with the other aspect).

6.2.1 ARROW/DART TRAPS

These traps loose a volley of darts or arrows at a specified location. Arrow traps are limited in fire, and once discovered are easy to disarm.

Arrow traps are propelled using crossbow-like contraptions hidden in false walls, while darts can be propelled similarly, or more rarely, by air power. Air can be compressed for this purpose using steam power or a manual pump. Such traps are not often found due to the ease of making and maintaining mechanical dart traps instead.

Anyone caught in the area of effect, generally one target, is subject to the appropriate number of arrow or dart attacks.The OB of each attack should be equal to the trap's effectiveness rating. The target can choose to try and avoid the attack by making a Sheer Folly moving maneuver (adding the character's Tumbling skill). The resulting number from the Moving Maneuver Table may be added to the victim's DB against the attack.

Poison on the tips of these arrows makes for a much nastier effect.

6.2.2 COMPACTING ROOM

Compacting rooms are an ingenious, yet slow, form of trap. Compacting rooms, once triggered, release huge counter weights in adjacentrooms that, through a system of grooved wheels and screws, push one wall toward another, the ceiling towards the floor, or even two opposite walls towards each other. Most compacting rooms have only one exit, and that one is generally very stout top revent trapped targets from breaking out.

Rooms with ceilings that drop down are easier to build and require less excess room for the housing of counterweights, the ceiling itself is the heavy weight that is released from its resting status by a trigger, which might involve the door being shut (and locked). The rate of descent varies, but is usually somewhere between one foot and six feet a minute. The weight of the descending roof will vary from one ton to ten tons. The descending roof should be at least one of stone or several inches of iron or steel.

Anyone caught within a compacting room will suffer attacks each round after the trap is triggered. All attacks are resolved on the Fall/Crush Attack Table with maximum results based upon the weight of the attack (Small results for up to 1 ton, Medium results for 1-2 tons, Large results for 2-4 tons, and Huge results for over 4 tons).

On the first round, all within the trap will suffer an attack with an OB equal to the ER of the trap with a special modification of -25. On the second round, resolve another attack, but this one with a special modification of -20. Continue increasing the OB by+5 each round. If the trap is descending at an unusually fast rate, the OB increases can be increased to +10 per round.

Tools, furniture, and weapons placed in the way of the wall(s)/ceiling will suffer damage and possible slow the progression of the trap.The round after an object is placed in the way of the trap, the object must make a breakage check. However, its Strength is lowered by the OB of the trap in the previous round. If the object does not break, the trap is slowed and its OB will not increase this round. If the object can survive for three consecutive rounds, the trap will stop moving (though it will continue moving if the object is removed).

Wall-based compacting rooms are based on the same rules, except space must be made in the rooms adjacent to the compacting room to house the counterweights. Wall compacting rooms are more difficult to build and offer no extra offensive capability.The reason for building a wall-based compacting room is generally a question of space. If there is no way to conceal the trap from above, then it must be concealed along the sides.

6.2.3 FALLING TRAPS

Stones, nets, and cages can be dropped from the ceiling onto a target. Falling stones and cages are difficult to conceal, unless they are made a part of the ceiling, or else hidden with illusions. Nets can be more easily concealed along the ceiling, but has a lesser effect than the cage or stone. The mechanism of a falling trap can be as simple as a trip rope that connects directly to the falling implement that is hung over a roof beam, or it can include pressure plates and wall-hidden cord.

The target of a falling trap can choose to try and avoid the attack by making a Sheer Folly moving maneuver (adding the character's Tumbling skill). The resulting number from the Moving Maneuver Table may be added to the victim's DB against the attack.

Falling stones make an attack roll on the Fall/Crush Attack Table with an OB equal to one times their ER for each 100 pounds of stone (with a maximum OB bonus for weight equal to +50). In addition, the falling stone receives a special bonus of +5 for every 10' fallen (with a maximum falling bonus of +20). If the falling stone is mounted more than 30' high, the difficulty of the target avoiding the attack should be decreased to Extremely Hard .

A falling cage does not roll an attack roll. Instead, the cage will succeed in trapping the target if the target fails to avoid the trap. Avoiding a falling cage is treated as a Hard moving maneuver (adding the character's Tumbling skill). However, this maneuver suffers a penalty equal to the trap's ER (thus, an ER of 5, will result in a -5 modification to the maneuver). If the trap is mounted higher than 30' from the victim, the difficulty of avoiding the cage should be decreased to Medium. The resulting number on the Moving Maneuver Table is the percentage chance that the target avoided the trap (i.e., roll d100, open-ended, and add this number; if result is over 100, the target avoided the cage).

A falling net (typically 100 square feet in size) makes an attack on the victim. Resolve the attack on the Grapple Attack Table (with a maximum result of Medium) with a base OB of 15 times the trap's ER (thus, an ER of 5 would havea +75 attack). The target may avoid the falling net normally (see above). However, if the result on the avoidance fails to add any bonus to the target's DB, the character has been struck by one of the net's weights. Resolve a second attack with an OB equal to half the net's normal OB.

An important side note on falling traps is that falling stones, weights and cages make an awful lot of noise and causes a lot of stress on the floor where it hits.There is always a chance of cracking or damaging the floor, as well as the target. If a falling stone misses its target, roll an attack on the Siege Weapon Attack Table with no bonuses. If the damage is higher than the crack value of the floor surface, the floor is marked, chipped, cracked, shattered, or whatever else seems appropriate. These marks may be noticed by a Hard Alertness roll. If a character makes this roll, he gains a special bonus of +25 to detecting this trap. If a character makes the Alertness roll, but fails to Detect Traps, the character only perceives that the floor is ill kept in places.

6.2.4 FLOODING ROOM

A flooding room is a variant on the compacting room, Closed doors can trap a person inside, preparing them for another trap, such as a flooding or compacting room, or they may trap a person in a room with a monster. One door can be triggered to close and lock, while another is triggered to open a caged beast. Other doors can open panels that let in a swarm of stinging insects, or floor panels for snakes or anything else along those lines. but much easier to create. A flooding room is only activated with the door closed. This can be in the form of a rolling stone/wheel trap to seal the doorway or a simple locking door trap. Once the door is sealed and the trap is sprung, water is released into the room from above. The water for the room generally comes from a cistern of water above the room or (more rarely) a tunnel connects the room to a body of water outside of the construction (e.g., moat, river, or lake).

Access to the water pipe is generally blocked by an iron grate to prevent someone from blocking the pipe or trying to escape up the pipe. A flooding room is more difficult to detect than a compacting room, because there are less likely to be suspicious gaps in the walls or ceiling. A compacting room requires at least some measure of space to separate the moving surface from the adjacent walls. A flooding room has no such problem. In fact, the flooding room has absolutely no gaps, or else the water would spill out of the room. Remember to locate the cistern on the construction map in a room above (not necessarily in the room directly above).

This trap, like the compacting room, is quite deadly. The only difference is that flooding rooms allow the victim some time to devise an escape, before they suffer damage, whereas many of the other traps have immediate effects.

It is also possible to make a flooding trap using substances other than water. Desert areas find sand to work just as well, and sand does not evaporate over time. Boiling water is another variant. Basically any form of liquid or small particle solids that can flow could be used for the same purpose.

6.2.5 LOCKING DOORS/OPENING DOORS

It is sometimes useful for a door to be shut, or open to make a trap work best. If that is the case, a door can be triggered to open, close, or lock just like any other form of trap.

Closed doors can trap a person inside, preparing them for another trap, such as a flooding or compacting room, or they may trap a person in a room with a monster. One door can be triggered to close and lock, while another is triggered to open a caged beast. Other doors can open panels that let in a swarm of stinging insects, or floor panels for snakes or anything else along those lines.

Door Traps generally work without door triggers, for the quite simple fact that a person holding onto a door knob is not likely to allow the door to close. Of course, if the door trigger opens a different door (where the rabid wombat resides) that's a totally different matter.

6.2.6 PITS

Pit traps are normally placed in the floor, though with a little bit of magic, there are some uses for building them into the side of a wall. Pit traps are incredibly simple. A piece of flooring can be made to collapse if weight is placed on it, or it might be triggered by attempting to open a locked door, or even by a weight exceeding a specified amount.

Normally, there is no fancy trigger or counterweight with a pit trap. The unsuspecting target blunders on top of the trap door and falls, or alternatively the lord of the castle could require people to stand on top of such a pit when addressing him. In this way he could trigger the pit to open if he no longer wished to listen to the speaker.

When a pit trap is triggered, either by weight, manual release, or other trigger, the floor stones or boards in the area pivot on an axis or on hinges on one side of the trapped section, thereby depositing the target into the pit. Pit traps can simply deposit target creatures into a dungeon, outside of a castle, or it could drop them dozens of feet onto steel pikes, or send them sliding off of a cliff face. For every five spikes placed at the bottom of the pit, give the victim one or two spear attacks (with a base OB equal to the trap's ER). If the spikes are wooden, then roll the attack as a javelin. Add +10 OB to the roll for every 10 feet fallen up to a maximum of +50. A GM should also be sure to limit to five the number of spikes that a man sized creature can be struck by in such a fall.

Fail-safes for pit/chute traps are often as simple as sliding bolt locks discretely hidden in the floor.

6.2.7 GAS TRAPS

Gases can be manufactured by Alchemists to incapacitate, irritate, or asphyxiate. A trap using gas is generally small and easily concealed, though there is a chance of a gas becoming inert or escaping over time.

The trap requires only the trigger time to implement. The reason for this is that when the gas is created, it is compressed into a small receptacle. When the receptacle is open or broken, the gas naturally disperses into the air. The area of effect of a gas attack is fairly limited. A twenty square foot area can be affected by any given gas trap. To expand the effect, other gas traps must be set in different areas to cover more area, though they can be linked to the same trigger.

Several different types of gases for these traps are listed in the price guide.

If there is a resident Alchemist of at least 5^th level and with access to the Liquid/Gas Skills spell list, he can make many gases himself. Using standard alchemy construction times, it will take the Alchemist five weeks to produce the gas. The number of doses created is equal to the caster's level. If the alchemist wishes to make a smaller dose, then he can make one half that number of doses (rounded down) for one half of the amount of time (rounded up), but he cannot spend less than half of the time required, regardless of how little he wishes to create.

To create poison gas, an Alchemist must be 10^th level and have access to the Liquid/Gas Skills Spell list. Using a combination of the spells Work Gas and Major Poison, the Alchemist must spend 15 weeks on creating the deadly gas. The number of doses created is equal to the level of the Alchemist. Again, if the Alchemist wishes to make a smaller amount of poison gas, then he can halve the time and thedoses.

The level of a gas attack is equal to the level of the Alchemist who created it. Standard issue gas attacks are generally 5^th level attacks for sleep and noxious gases, and 10^th level for poison gas.

6.2.8 POISON NEEDLE

A poison needle trap is made specifically to punish would-be thieves. Generally they are attached to door triggers and set to stick the hand of someone opening the door, or trying to pick the lock. These are simple traps that do no damage except in the delivery of a poison that must be bought and applied using standard rules for poison.

A victim can make a maneuver roll to avoid the effects of the poison needle. However, the difficulty of avoiding the trap is Absurd (and the character can add triple his Quickness bonus to the roll). The resulting number is the percentage chance that the character has avoided the trap (roll d100, open-ended, and add the number; if theresult is over 100, the character has avoided the trap). If the trap has been detected, but not disarmed, the difficulty of the avoidance maneuver shifts to Sheer Folly.

6.2.9 ROLLING STONE

A rolling stone trap is sort of a simplified compacting room trap. A rolling stone or wheel is set to roll down a ramp and along a set path when triggered. The stone may attempt to crush the target, or block a passage, or both. The stone may be a round ball or just a thick wheel designed to roll into place and stay there.

If the stone is blocking a door, victims will have to discover a way out, wait for their captors to release them, or deal with any subsequent traps that may be concealed within. If the stone ball is set to roll over the victims before blocking the doorway, resolve the trap as an attack on the Fall/Crush Attack Table (with a base OB of 15 times the trap's ER). A victim can make a maneuver roll to lessen the effects of the trap. Treat as a moving maneuver (Sheer Folly) and add the character's Tumbling skill. The resulting number is the percentage chance that the character has lessened the effects of the trap (roll d100, open-ended, and add the number; if the result is over 100, the character has lessened the effectiveness the trap). If the character has lessened the attack, the trap will only attack with half its normal OB.

6.2.10 TRIGGERS

Triggers are what set off most traps. A trigger can be as simple as a lever that opens a pit trap, or turning a door knob in the wrong direction, or as intricate as a weighted floor panel that only triggers the trap if pressed by more than 100 pounds of weight. A trigger can be many things, but it must be mechanically possible (unless the craftsman has magic on his side).

Door triggers can be set to activate if the door knob is turned in the wrong direction, if the door is opened, if the lock is meddled with, or anything else along those lines. Weight triggers, or floor triggers, are set off if someone or something puts sufficient weight on a pressure plate in the floor.

6.2.11 WEAPON TRAPS

Weapon traps are a variant on the arrow trap design. Normally designed with spears, these traps send a number of spikes into the target area when activated. Spears can be set to descend from the floor, ceiling, or wall.

The number of attacks that the victim suffers is one per direction of the attack. For example, if a hallway is trapped with spears coming out from both walls, the floor, and the ceiling, a victim would suffer four spear attacks. Resolve the attack on the Spear Attack Table with a base OB of the trap's ER times the number of spears coming from that direction (with a maximum of +50). Thus, a wall with six spears on a trap with an ER of 5 would have an OB of+30.

The target of a weapon trap can choose to try and avoid the attack by making a Sheer Folly moving maneuver (adding the character's Tumbling skill). The resulting number from the Moving Maneuver Table may be added to the victim's DB against the attack. For every full 10' of area covered by the trap (beyond the first 10'), decrease the trap's DR by one level, but apply a penalty of -10 to the avoidance maneuver.

A variation on the spear attack isthe swinging blade or blades. Instead of spears stabbing out of the walls, sword blades slash out into the target area. Resolve the attack as before, but use the more appropriate attack table (usually the Broadsword or Battle Axe Table.

6.3 RACIAL/CULTURAL STYLES

Other important facets of the design stage of any structure are the racial and cultural architectural styles. Each culture should have various defining trends that reflect their traditions and values. A good example of this is seen in theTudor, or half-timbered building style that evolved from Germanic Fachwerk architecture. The timbers are placed in the plasterat specific angles in order to form runic shapes. These shapes were supposed to help influence the lives of those who lived inside for the better.

Every culture should have a historic style of architecture that may have evolved slowly over the years or borrowed from other cultures in new forms. These cultural style scan be simple differences in the placement of windows and doors, or they can involve total structural modifications in the building itself. The following charts can be used to develop new styles as the GM sees fit.

6.4 DEVELOPING THE INTERIOR

So far most of the design specifications have addressed the architectural and structural needs of the castle without addressing the logistics of the internal design too much. The following guidelines should help a character decide on some of the basic needs of the castle from an internal perspective as opposed to the exterior approach.

6.4.1 INTERNAL LAYOUT

Chimneys/Fireplaces: A castle must have a source of heat in all of the populated rooms (rooms where people will spend a significant amount of time. This list should include: sleeping quarters, kitchens, dining halls, libraries, and so forth. Each of these rooms should have at least one fireplace, and possibly more if it is a largeroom. The kitchen should certainly have more than one fireplace if it is to support a large staff.

The GM may not require the character to design all of the chimney ducts, though he should require that walls housing chimneys be at least one foot thick. Chimneys have ducts that link with others so that there are only a limited number of openings to the outside of the castle. During the summer, these chimneys must be thoroughly cleaned.

Dining Halls: A dining hall is generally the largest room in a castle, serving as a feast hall, court room, and meeting hall all at once. A dining hall can comfortably sit one person per 50 square feet of space, and 40 square feet per person for cramped sitting. Most of this space is taken up by table space and walking space for servants to deliver food trays.

Food Storage/Pantries: The size of the storerooms determines how much food the castle can adequately hold in reserve incase of siege or famine. Food storage is figured from an average volume that one manday's worth of food occupies. Part of this volume also takes into account storage containers and room for finding and accessing food within the storage area.

To calculate the storage capacity of a storeroom, you will have to find out how many cubic feet of space are in the room. The volume of a rectangular room can be figured by multiplying the length of the room by the width of the room by the height of the room. This should give you the number of cubic feet of space in the room. Divide this number by 3. The resulting number is the amount of room in the store room that can actually hold food. The rest of the space is used by shelves, boxes, bags, barrels, and walking and moving space.

Now that you know how much space you can fill with food, you must determine what kind of food you will fill it with. Below is a list of various food types and the amount of space that one manday's worth of food (approximately 2 pounds) occupies.

A food storeroom should always be able to hold enough food to feed everyone in the castle for at least two months, preferably three. For each castle member there should beat least 24 cubic feet of storage space for two months of food or 35 cubic feet for three months of food. The GM can vary this amount of space depending on the types of food available and the relative food requirements of a given race. Additional space, other than the store room or the kitchen, may be needed for properly preparing food for storage, such as a smokehouse.

Kitchens: A kitchen's size will vary depending on the number of kitchen servants who will be working at one time (see Section 11.1, Daily Life: Staff). Each staff member needs at least 50 square feet of space to be able to safely work. This number is approximate and very tight. If a kitchen is not well organized, tempers will flare and accidents will occur in such cramped space. A kitchen that provides 75 square feet per kitchen staff will run more smoothly. A wise builder will make the kitchen larger to provide for growth.

Latrines: Castles have indoor latrines on various floors. Seats are made of wood, and hay is used as toilet paper. Latrines are built in towers attached to the main keep that are generally well ventilated with windows. Latrine chutes can either slant to empty outside of the castle walls or in many cases into a latrine pit in the lower levels. Latrine chutes have no extra costin construction time. To designate latrines within a building, just provide space for the seat, chutes on lower floors, and either an exit slot or a cesspit. The cesspit had to be cleaned out fairly regularly. The castle servant with this smelly task was called a gong farmer.

For every 20 people living in the castle, at least one latrine should be available (or else some chamber pots). Each latrine chute should have an opening of at least one square feet. A cesspit should have a volume of 10 cubic feet per latrine chute emptying into it. Do not forget to provide the gong farmer with a place to stand while he works .

Sleeping Quarters: Everyone needs a place to sleep. Most of the servants will sleep in the dining hall, on the kitchen floor, or in the stables. Usually, only the lord's family, staff, servitors, and guards tend to have individual quarters for rest. Each member of the lord's family will have at least 200 square feet of personal quarters, though the lord will generally have extravagantly large quarters (possibly including a private latrine). Staff members should have atleast 80 to 100 square feet ofprivate quarters each. Servitors will have around 60 square feet of quarters, sharing a largerroom with several other servitors. And finally, guards need around 40 square feet of a communal room to hold a small bunk and a chest of belongings.

6.4.2 INTERIOR DECORATIONS

Once the layout of a castle is complete, the character should consider what he wants the inside of the castle to look like. A castle can be simple and utilitarian, or else it can have splendid mosaics, tapestries, and rugs thrown about with luxurious abandon.

The time costs for interior design can be quite extensive, but are always the last consideration in the construction project. The GM should just assign a set amount of time for any stone work (mosaics, tiles, carvings, etc.) that the character wants done, as he should for any wall painting, and so forth.

Furniture costs should be figured using the Extended Price List, as should any rugs, tapestries, pieces of art, and light sources. Choice of light sources can be an important decision. The GM should be sure to understand how well lit a character intends to keep his castle. If the castle is poorly lit, it may conceal enemies. If the castle is well lit, it may costa fortune in candle wax, oil, and firewood.

If a character wishes to have very ornate interior designs (intricate wainscotting, ceiling mosaics, gold plated door knobs, the GM may consider just assigning a percentage cost of the entire structure. If the GM decides to do this, it is suggested that an average interior cost about 2% of the cost for the entires tructure; a very nice interior cost about 5% of the entire structure; and avery ornate interior cost anywhere from 10% to 20% of the entire structure. These costs do not include furniture, just costs for floors, walls, doors, and ceiling decorations .

7.0 CONSTRUCTION COMMENTS & CONCERNS

7.1 STRUCTURAL DESIGN LIMITATIONS

The Construction Catalog (found in the Appendix) delineates the various structures that can be built by a contractor of a given AL. A contractor cannot build a structure with a higher AL level than his own level. If a GM has other building materials in his world, he should assign AL levels by comparing the material with the materials presented here.

The Catalog in the Appendix lists the design limitations of structures depending on the AL of the contractor. By combining adjacent structures into one building, the contractor can build a larger building, but it will take longer than just building a single structure of the larger size.

The designer consults these charts and adds the time cost for all of the Construction Units and structural improvements to get a total time cost in mandays. This number divided by the labor work rates equals the number of days required to build the castle. The character then multiplies the total time by his daily labor cost to get the projected construction cost.

The time costs provided by this method are based on the exterior design and architecture of the structure. The internal walls, stairs, and rooms are already figured into the time cost and can be built at no additional time or money cost. The GM may decide to increase the time cost if the internal design is unusual or intricate.

The catalog also lists the breach and destroy values for each unit. The breach value isthe number of hits required to break a 10 foot by 10 foot hole through a wall of that structure. The destroy value is the number of hits required to destroy that structure. For both of these values, the number in the Catalog should be multiplied by 1000 to convert into RMSS hits.

7.2 DESIGN MULTIPLIERS

Design multipliers are used for modifying the construction times based on the environment and circumstances of construction. All of these multipliers should be applied to all appropriate structures and improvements within the construction project. See the Design Factor Chart below for details.

7.2.1 AVAILABILITY AND MATERIALS

Quarry times can be avoided if material is readily available (i.e., ruins, dismantling the homes of farmers, etc.). Outside sources can be hired to provide quarrying and timber services. If this is done, then determine the time cost necessary for building materials. Multiply the number of mandays needed for building materials by an appropriate daily fee for providing stone. This fee should be more expensive than the wages needed to pay just the labor, because the merchant who provides this service will expect a share for organizing the shipments. It is suggested that a standard rate of 4 bronze per manday be applied for quarrying services. See the Design Factor Chart below for details.

7.2.2 RACIAL MODIFIERS

These modifiers assume that the work force is predominately of one race. Using the multiplier, the builder easily converts standard work times to reflect the actual amount of work that will be accomplished by that race each day. Alternatively, if the builder has a mixed crew, the GM can use the number in parentheses as the number of mandays that a normal worker of the race can accomplish in one day. This requires a bit more math, but not too much more bookkeeping. See the Design Factor Chart for details.

7.2.3 OTHER DETAILS

The GM should have the character design his castle on a piece of graph paper and to scale. This is not totally necessary, but by being exact, the GM prevents the possibility of geometric impossibilities through approximation. On the same sheet of graph paper, the character should list the heights of structures and any structural improvements that will be included in the construction. Alternatively, the Castle Construction Sheet could be used for this purpose, though it is likely that changes will occur as the castle design develops.

Also, when designing the structure, the character should keep in mind several conventions that are used throughout this book. Whenever a structure is given a size based in square feet, the square footage is calculated on the inside of the structure. For example, a square house of 100 square feet would have 10 feet to a side on the inside of the walls. The thickness of the walls should be drawn on the outside portion of these walls. This means that a square keep with 100 square feet having 1-foot-thick walls would have 10 feet to a side on any internal measurement and an extra 2 feet (1+1=2) on any exterior measurement .

Whenever two structures are builtwith adjoining walls (either to be combined as one structure, or just for the purpose of sharing a wall), the design should reflect that. If there is no modification in design, the common wall should be as thick as both of the walls combined. To get around this, a builder may build the common wall at half the normal width for the structure, thereby maintaining a uniformity of thickness in the walls. This will reduce the amount of time necessary to build the common wall as shown in the Construction section. Along these same lines, a builder may design a building to have walls of varying thickness if he so desires.

7.3 CONSTRUCTION UNIT DEFENSIVE BONUSES

The following Defensive Bonuses should be used for normal constructions. The GM may increase or decrease the DBs to reflect superior or inferior workmanship. These values are only assigned in relation to the strength of each structural design and should not be compared to the Defensive Bonuses of living creatures.

7.3.1 FINAL NOTE

As characters attempt to design unique and different castles, the GM will have to make a number of judgement calls. No set of rules could cover every possible per mutation of construction possibilities. It is up to the GM to determine what set of rules most closely approximates the desired design.A few examples ofhow tohandle unusual designs are listed below.

The cost for building upper floors to a keep that do not cover the same base area as a lower floor should be figured separately. Just compute each upper floor as if it were a separate building, then add the time costs together.

The time costfor structures with varying thickness walls can be figured on aproportional basis. Divide the base cost for each length of wall by the total perimeter for the structure.The resulting time cost for each length of wall should be multiplied by the appropriate thickness multiplier and then all of the time costs should be added back together.

For example consider a square, 10-foot-tall, stone building with a wooden roof that has 100 foot-long-walls. If the character wanted to build one wall at a thickness of three feet, one wall at two feet thickness, and the other two walls at one foot thickness, he would need to build the building as if it had 1.75 feet average thickness all the way around.

GMs are encouraged to use their own judge ment in all such decisions.

Example: Barl Stonebender arrived at Raven Rock a few months ahead of his dwarven workers. Staring at the muddy hill topped with simple wooden buildings and a single stone tower, he shook his head. "Bloody barbarians. This may take longer than I thought, " he said to no one in particular.

Over the next few days, he and Rel laid out on paper a rough sketch ofhow the new fortress was to be built. The castle design involved an inner curtain wall, a keep connected by a second floor bridge to the existing stone tower, and an outer curtain encircling the entire hill.

Barl further suggested that the dwarves redirect the flow of the river in order to forman island in the fork of the river.

The designer consults the Construction Unit Catalog and adds the construction times for each unit to get a total construction time for the castle. Each unit is checked against Barl's AL of 15. No Construction Unit with an AL requirement higher than 15 can be used by Barl. The castle at Raven Rock is broken down as follows:

Keep:
4	Round Towers (115500 mandays each) 60' tall, 2500 square feet base, 10' thick	462000
	48 Arrow slits (12/tower)	192
	80 Battlement (20/tower)	400
	(based on circumference)
	80 Machicolatins	1200
	40 Plinths	2400
total for towers: 466192
4	Warch Towers (built on top of castle roof) 20' tall, 50 square feet base, 1' thick	1400
	20 Battlements (5/tower)	100
1	Building 50' tall, 62500 square feet, 10' thick	1456000
	32 Arrow slits	128
	75 Battlements	375
	75 Machicolations	1125
	54 Plinths	3240
total for building: 1460868
1	Bridge (connecting tower to keep) Slant-Support, Stone 100' long, 10' wide	12000
Inner Curtain:
13	Round Towers 60' tall, 1000 square feet base, 10' thick	549120
	156 Arrow slits (12/tower)	624
	78 Battlements (6/tower)	390
	39 Plinths (3/tower)	2340
total for towers: 552474
14	Walls 50' tal, 100' long, 10' thick	175560
	140 Battlements	700
	140 Machicolations	2100
total for walls: 178360
Gatehouse:
2	Round Towers 60' tall, 1000 square feet base, 10' thick	84480
	24 Arrow slits (12/tower)	96
	12 Battlements (6/tower)	60
	6 Plinths (3/tower)	360
total for towers: 84996
1	Square Tower 60' tall, 500 square feet, 10' thick	11300
	13 Arrow slits	48
Gateway:
2	Portcullis 400 square feet	290
1	Drawbridge 400 square feet	300
total for gateway: 590
Bsiley Walls:
3	Walls 50' tall, 150' long, 10' thick	56430
	45 Battlements (15/wall)	225
	45 Machicolations (15/wall)	675
1	Wall 50' tall, 75' long, 10' thick	502
	8 Battlements	40
	8 Machicolations	120
6	Towers 60' tall, 1000 square feet base, 10' thick	253440
	72 Arrow slits (12/tower)	288
	36 Battlements (6/tower)	180
	36 Machicolations (6/tower)	540
total for bailey walls: 312440
Outer Curtain Wall:
43	Round Towers 50' tall, 1000 squere feet, 10' thick	1816320
	516 Arrow slits (12/tower)	2064
	258 Battlements (6/tower)	1290
	129 Plinths (3/tower)	7740
37	Walls 30' tall, 100' long, 15' thick	366300
	370 Battlements (10/wall)	1850
	148 Puttresses (4/wall)	5920
	370 Machicolations (10/wall)	4440
	370 Plinths (10/wall)	22200
37	Building (This building forms the internal passage within the walls. This cost is added to the cost for the walls to get the total cost of a wall with a wall-walk. Notice that the height of the building is added to the height of the wall. Also, keep in mind that the building's square feet and total wall thickness must fit within the same thickness as the base wall.) 10' tall, 1000 square feet, 5' thick	112221
	370 Arrow slits (10/wall)	1480
total for outer walls: 4682170
Gateways:
6	Walls 40' tall, 50' long, 15' thick	42000
	30 Battlements (5/wall)	150
	30 Machicolations (5/wall)	450
6	Drawbridge 400 square feet	1800
6	Portcullis 400 square feet	870
total for gateways: 45270
Sout Postern:
4	Round Towers 20' tall, 50 squere feet base, 10'thick	3432
	20 Battlements (5/tower)	1000
2	Walls 20' tall, 100' long, 10' thick	10240
	20 Battlements (10/wall)	1000
2	Walls 20' tall, 50' long, 10' thick	5120
	10 Battlements (5/wall)	500
2	Drawbridge 200 square feet	360
2	Portcullis 200 square feet	190
total for postern: 21842
Barbicans:
4	Walls 30' tall, 50' long, 10' thick	14520
	20 Battlements (5/wall)	1000
8	Walls 20' tall, 75' long, 5' thick	18600
	60 Battlements (7.5/Wall)	3000
8	Round Towers 20' tall, 500 square feet base, 5' thick	41600
	24 Arrow slits (3/tower)	96
	40 Battlements (5/tower)	200
1	Drawbridge 400 square feet	300
total for barbicans: 79316
South Bridge:
2	Round Towers 20' tall, 1000 square feet base, 5' thick	20800
	12 Arrow Slits (6/tower)	48
	12 Battlements (6/tower)	60
1	Stone Arch Bridge 30' tall, 200' long, 15' wide (Since there isno listing for a 15' wide bridge, use the closest listing, which is 30' tall, 200' long, 10' wide and multiply the time by 1.5 to change the 10' wide bridge into 15' wide bridge)	36000
total for bridge: 56908
North Bridge:
1	Stone Arch Bridge 30' tall, 100' long, 20' wide	24000
total for bridge: 24000
Watermill:
1	Building 10' tall, 1000 square feet base, 1' thick	29000
1	Water Mill	550
1	Mill	2450
Subtotal: 7992724
10% Anticiapted Delays: 799272
total Time Cost: 8791996

Based on this projected time of construction, Barl considers the size of his work force. Earlier he had calculated the daily output of his work force to be 1,880 mandays/day. Dividing the projected time cost of Castle Raven Rock by this labor output, Barl determines that it will take him about 4,677 days to build the castle as designed. As Barl plans on working his crews sixdays aweek with one day for rest, he projects that the project will take 15 years. When Barl calculates this sum, he includes a 10% time cost buffer to his estimate in anticipation of delays in the project at some point during the long construction period.

Barl multiplies the anticipated work time of 4,677 days by the daily labor cost of 15,822 cp to get a final cost estimate on the entire castle project. The final sum is 73,999,494 cp or approximately 74,000 gps! Grinning, Barl sends a messenger to inform Rel's chamberlain of his estimate.

8.0 MAGICAL CONSTRUCTION AND DEFENSE

It is important to consider the ramifications of magic on any construction project long before the project is finished. Magic can be a very destructive force if applied against any normal constructions. There are several ways of adding magic protection to a castle after the fact, but the most effective magical defenses must be an integral part of the construction project. Even if a castle does not include a lot of magical defenses, races and cultures that are very closely tied to magic will certainly employ it during construction to supplement skills and labor in all aspects of normal construction.

The Engineer training package lists provide the most effective defense against magic. The Structure Wardings and Perimeter Wardings spell lists specifically detail the ongoing methods an Engineer can apply to a structure. These are permanent magics that will last long after the Engineer has moved on to a new construction project.

The Alchemist base lists supply more ways of protecting a structure. Enchanting Ways can add magical defenses and resistance to castle walls. Inorganic Ways provides excellent methods of crafting and joining stones, which can increase the hits of a structure. Essence Imbedding and Mentalism & Channeling Imbedding allow an Alchemist to give walls and structures spell casting abilities or even intelligence. Imbedding spells of magic protection, cancelling, dispelling, and so forth can increase a castle's defense against magic.

Magical Crafters have a number of lists that can improve the design strength value of a construction, as well as speed up the construction project as a whole. They are unable to provide any magical defense on their own.

Very effective magic defense for a castle can derive from magic symbols. Symbols can be imbedded with constant spell effects such as protection, spell reversals, and so on. The catch to symbols in a castle is that they can only be imbedded onto a single, continuous stone slab of at least one ton in size. Most castles are built out of many smaller stones cemented together. Therefore, the Megaliths Chart gives information that can be used to adjuticate the carving and transporting of large stones. These stones can either be incorporated into a new structureor they can be placed along the perimeter of an existing structure. Once a stone is in place, symbols can be inscribed on the stones and either be given a set of circumstances for triggering, or a permanent spell effect.

One method of protecting a castle from magic is using magically resistant materials throughout the structure. This is common among non spell users. This method is very expensive and only feasible if a local mine turns up a suitable material. Such structural defenses should generally be kept secret to prevent thieves from tearing apart defenses in search of valuable goods. A list of several effective resistant materials and their respective costs is given in the Magic Resistant Materials Chart. Walls lined with these materials get an RR to all magic attacks directed at or through them. Their level (for defensive purposes) is equal to the level of the material used plus any bonuses provided by the material. These levels are only used for RR purposes.

To get the full effects of the magic resistance of any of these materials, at least one ounce of thematerial must be imbedded in or coated overeach square foot of a structure. Half effect (with half the bonus and half the level of protection) can be achieved if one ounce is used every two square feet. Remember, to protect an exterior wall, it is unnecessary to saturate the full thickness of the wall. Only the exterior of the wall needs to be protected to provide protection from exterior attacks. Another level of protection can be added to interior walls to protect the walls from interior attacks. The level may be increased by one for every extra ounce of resistant material added (per two square feet).

These materials provide extra resistance to a wall against the specified realms, as well as causing any applicable spell to make an RR versus the level of the material for the spell to affect anything on the other side of the material.

8.1 SYMBOLS

Symbols are more effective for protecting a castle than alchemy. Alchemy is a long and slow process that can be much more powerful and mobile, but symbols can provide very similar effects on a non-mobile structure at a fraction of the time cost. In fact, the use of symbols for a constant effect can be accomplished by relatively low-levels spell users, while only an Alchemist of high level can create constant effects.

This chart is based on the mass and density of normal granite. The GM can modify this chart for other stones if he determines necessary (e.g.chalk, basalt, volcanic glass, etc.)

Once a stone has been brought to the castle site, the stone can be incorporated into the construction of a structure by adding the time cost for the stone to the time cost for the structure. Stones can also be set around a structure, whereafter, symbols can be placed on the stone at any time.

Megaliths can be incorporated into a structure at no cost to structural integrity so long as there is not more than 1 ton of stone incorporated in this manner for every 25 feet of structure perimeter. If this guideline is not followed, reduce structural integrity by 10% for every 5 feet violated.

The following list of symbols demonstrates possible uses of symbols in castle defense:

8.1.0.0.1 Channeling Lists

Spell Defense—Protection Spheres can be constant. They add to all resistance rolls for the structure.

Protections—As Spell Defense.

Holy Arms—Holy Aura I can be constant. Temples and castles may ward off evil creatures with this embedded spell.

Holy Shields—Bladeturn spells can be cast daily to ward off the first ram or drill attack each day. Deflection and Aim Untrue spells can be cast daily against the first missile attack at the wall.

Curses—Can be cast daily. Excommunication, and Power Leech are particularly effective if triggered by any spell cast at the target wall, since the spell caster is likely to lose magical ability.

Dark Channels—Absolution triggered by spell activity directed at the wall can take a spell user out of the battle, possibly for weeks.

Disease—Asthma is useful on someone attempting to scale a wall. Once they reach the top, they should be easy pickings for the defenders.

Wounding—Many daily spells for discouraging spell activity around the wall.

8.1.0.0.2 Essence

Lesser Illusions—Make the walls appear stronger or weaker thant hey really are. Illusions of powerful symbols may scare off those who can read symbols. There really is no limit to illusions' usefulness.

Spell Wall—Protection Spheres (see Channeling, Spell Defense notes above).

Dispelling Ways—Dispel Spheres can be constant.They can remove glamours, phantasms, invisibility spells and flight spells. Unessence is another great symbol for getting rid of spell users, at least for awhile.

Living Change—Shrink is a fun spell to trigger on people trying to scale the wall, as are the various Change spells.

Shield Mastery—Deflections, Bladeturns, Re-aiming (See Channeling, Holy Shields notes above).

Spell Reins—Spell Bending and Reverse Spell can be triggered daily.

Spirit Mastery—Sleep, Confusion, Suggestion, and Hold can all be triggered daily. Possible suggestions include "run away", "go to front gate", "climb wall", and "protect wall".

All Illusionist Spell Lists can be used to great effect in the defense of a castle. Use your imagination.

Soul Destruction—Demonic Possession can be triggered daily and encourages dissent and fear in enemy ranks

8.1.0.0.3 Mentalism

Attack Avoidance—Deflect, Bladeturn (See Channeling, Holy Shields notes above).

Illusions—Be creative.

Mind Control—Sleep, Fear, Hold, and Geas can allbe triggered daily.

Confusing Ways—Fear, Hallucination, and Lord Bewilderment.

Mind Disease—Panic, Phobia, etc..

Mind Domination—Mind Lock, Mind Invasion, Demonic Possession, etc..

Mind Erosion—Power Leak removes enemy spell user power points.

8.2 OTHER USES OF MAGIC

A number of spells can be used to accelerate or improve the construction process. Such spells do not provide magical defenses for the castle, but instead use magic as another method of construction.

While Stone Wall True and Wood Wall True spells are obvious methods for building quick structures, they are only useful for small and crude constructions. Even with Spell Mastery, the walls are rough, uneven, and difficult to create in exactly the right place for a solid union of walls. Furthermore, the walls are made out of a single stone or single piece of wood, which means that any crack made in one part of the wall will extend throughout the whole wall. It is suggested that Wall True spells be used primarily as source of stone or timber. Wall True spells provide good stone and timber that can easily be cut into usable blocks or boards for normal construction. Each casting of Wood Wall True can save 1 manday of lumbering time, while each casting of Stone Wall True can save 15 mandays of quarry time.

Meld Wall is another good spell for use in construction. This spell can be used instead of cement for binding stones together. Because of the superior union, such constructions will resist deterioration from aging better and have 10% more Strength than a similar wall that used normal cement. Of course, this assumes that the whole wall is joined using Meld Wall. The GM will have to determine if any bonus can be applied for using a mixture of this spell with normal cement.

Mold Stone and Mold Wood spells can be used to make even stronger walls, so long as they are used sparingly. Large sections of stone molded into a single block can cause structural weakness, resulting in -10% Strength for the structure. If Mold Stone is used to better fit stones in relation to each other, 10% more Strength can be added to the structure.This is in addition to any other increases in Strength from Meld Wall or other such spells.

Telekinesis can be used to help move materials up and down a wall during the construction process. Spells powerful enough to lift 25 pounds or more are useful for construction. For each casting of Telekinesis of 25 pounds the GM should add .1 mandays to the number of mandays that the caster can accomplish each day. For example, if a 10^th level Mentalist can cast Telekinesis IV (50 lbs) three times a day, then he can accomplish +.6 mandays of work every day. If this Mentalist were also willing and able to perform normal work as well, then he could accomplish 1.6 mandays of work every day.

The GM may determine that other spells can be used in the construction of his castle to good effect and should determine the effect of each casting in the overall construction of the structure. Some other useful spells include: Leaving, Leaping, Fly, and any other spells that can help relocate materials.

Example: Ulnor Riawe frowned.

"Surely such a request isnot beyond your skill," Rel asked.

"You ask much, friend." A delicate hand pushed along black braid back over a pointed ear. "Explain to me again exactly what you desire, and I will do my best to comply."

"I want the walls of my castle to resist spells, protect my soldiers on the walls, and prevent spies from discovering our plans. I want the outer walls to glow softly at night, not much, but just enough to allow sentries to see out to the river. And furthermore, I want whatever else that you, as the expert, think we need. I don't know what you can and can't do. I just want you to make this castle as strong as possible. If it looks nice in the process, then we can all be proud of this achievement."

"You never were given to asking small favors, were you, Rel?" Ulnor shook his head.Looking out across the muddy hill, he stared off into the distance. Rel followed his gaze, yet saw nothing but the distant hills of his homeland.

Turning back to Rel, Ulnor smiled. "I will do what you ask. Castle Raven Rock will stand strong against magical attack, magical scrying, and magical assassins. Furthermore, Castle Raven Rock will be a source of a more powerful magic that I shall breathe into her, but in return I request a perpetual advisory position with due title and income as well as residence in one of the inner curtain towers. You must bind all of your heirs to abide by this decision for I will live long after your grandchildren pass on. If you grant me this, then I will protect this castle as if it were my own."

Rel reached out his hand to Ulnor. "You are a noble lord and shall make an even nobler advisor.I would be proud to have your clear advice for me and my children."

Ulnor grasped the outstretched hand. "Done. Now please excuse me so I can plan my work."

Ulnor returned to his room and opened a large leather-bound tome. Flipping through the pages, Ulnor selected his approach to enchanting the castle.

Starting with Structure Wardings, Ulnor decides to begin with an Elemental Ward II, a Strength Ward II, a Resist Ward III, a Preservation Ward III and a Seal spell for the entire castle. All of the gates will require Portal spells and he decides to make a Sentry Stone for the throne room, Ulnor's tower and for Rel's private chambers .

Next Ulnor flips to the Perimeter Wardings and decides to cast Gating Ward III, Phase Ward III, and Scrying Ward III on the entire castle, as well as around the throne room, Rel's private chambers, and his own tower.

Counting up the power points required for such enchantments, Ulnor realizes that he is going to need help. Ulnor decides to call on his family to assist him in the enchantments. They owe him for preventing a scandal back home by leaving so quietly.

Thinking of his family, Ulnor wonders if his brother could apply some of his knowledge of alchemy to improve the castle. Surely he could imbed some daily light spells in the walls. Perhaps he could bring some rularon for lacing around the throne room and inhibiting Mentalists from intruding in the chamber. Perhaps... perhaps....

Another Example: Messengers return to Aubric, Keeper of the Borderlands, with news of a wandering holy man named Tolberry Mab Gooran who would be willing to protect his mercenary fortress from magic attack. Aubric hires the Toleberry, a 9^th level Cleric to add symbol defenses around the fortress. Tolberry requires large stones to be cut and carried to the fortress, which he then has added into the middle of the outer walls of the fort about midway up each wall at intervals of 25 feet. Each stone is 1 ton in size and must be carried two miles to the fortress. One megalith is installed in each of the eight towers as well as one at 25 foot intervals along the wall for a total of 17 stones of 1 ton each.

According to the Megalith Chart it takes 18 mandays to cuteach of these stones and 48 mandays to transport each stone (because Aubric's horses are being used for patrol) for a total of 66 mandays for each stone. So the megaliths add a total of 1,122 mandays (66 x 17) to the construction project, or about 5 days.

Tolberry can only create one symbol each day and he charges his daily fee for the three days it takes for him to reach the fortress, but he charges no fee for his return trip. So he will charge Aubric for 20 days worth of work, for which he will create a perimeter of constant symbols that cast Protection Sphere I, thereby adding 10 to all resistance rolls the walls make against spell attacks, as well as providing the same protection to anyone standing on top of the walls.

This adds a labor cost of:

Tarlton: 18 cp × 5 = 90 cp

Work Force: 7 cp × 200 = 1400 cp

× 5 = 7000

Tolberry: 65 cp × 20 = 1300

Total 8390 cp or 8.39 gp

Aubric smiles while he pays the small sum to the holy man. He asks him if he'd be willing to stay on with his military force for a while. Tolberry eyes the open coffer holding the mercenary captain's gold and says, "No man with that much money can be without some sin. I will aid you and your men long enough for you to repent of your sins and part with some more of that tarnished gold."

9.0 BREACH VALUES AND COLLAPSING A STRUCTURE

The hits for structures given in the Construction Unit Catalog are based partly on the material integrity of the construction material (See appendix for Materials Integrity Chart) and partly on the strength of the overall design of a structure. The breach and collapse values are not equal to the sum of hits to be found in all of the material in the structure; when attacking a structure, the attacker's intent is to destroy the cohesion of the materials that make up the building, not in grinding the wall into dust.

The breach value is the amount of damage required to make a 10 foot wide opening in the wall of the structure. Whenever a section is breached, all adjacent sections take 10% of their remaining hits in damage. The value for the entire height of the wall is included in the breach value.If the intent is to breach just a portion of the wall or structure, the GM should reduce the number of hits in proportion to the target area.

9.1 COLLAPSES

Whenever a wall to a building or tower isbreached, there is a chance that the rest of the wall will collapse or even possibly the entire structure.The chance of a wall collapsing is equal to the percentage of the wall that has been breached. For example, if a 10 foot-wide-breach is made in a 20-foot-wide wall, there is a 50% chance of the wall collapsing.

If the entire base wall of a structure is breached on one side, then all upper floors of that wall should automatically collapse, unless the GM determines that there is enough internal support to hold them (lots of columns).

When the first wall collapses, all adjacent walls, floors, and the roof take 25% of their remaining hits in damage. When these condadjacent wall of a structure collapses, the floor and roof around the two walls should collapse. In addition, the walls on either side of the collapsed section of the structure will take 25% of their remaining hits and all other wall stake 10% of their remaining hits. This pattern of damage from collapse will continue until 50% of the structure's perimeter has been collapsed, at which point the remaining damage is applied, and the interior collapses, possibly leaving some bare walls standing.

For example, a normal structure with four walls will basically collapse once two adjacent walls have been collapsed. A five-walled structure will notcollapse until the three of the walls have collapsed. The GM may decide to allow some sections of the interior to remain standing, but the structure cannot be repaired and must be torn down before a new structure can be built on the site.

9.2 DESTROYED

The number of hits listed as the destroy value for each Construction Unit is a simpler method for ascertaining how much damage a structure can withstand than the breach/ collapse method. Quite simply, the destroy value is the amount of damage required to collapse a structure. The GM can use the destroy value in conjunction with breaches and collapses, but he should keep in mind that some buildings will stand longer by virtue of the breach/collapse method than the destroy method. Also, the breach/collapse method provides a better framework for determining how much of a destroyed structure remains in the form of ruins.

10.0 REPAIRING CASTLES

When a castle becomes damaged through natural erosion or warfare, a castle holder may need to have the damage repaired. Damage from warfare is recorded as a number of hits inflicted to each section of the walls and structures. Natural erosion and decay causea loss of structural integrity over time as well. Damage from natural decay is negated through the constant attention of maintenance workers and a monthly maintenance fee. If maintenance is performed on a monthly basis, the castle will look clean, bright, powerful, and structurally sound. If no castle servants are assigned to maintenance, or the maintenance fee is not paid, the integrity of the castle will slowly degrade. Each year that passes without at least one month's worth of maintenance being accomplished, the castle will lose 1% of its current strength on all of its structures. If a castle holder only pays for maintenance once a year, the structure will only lose 1% of its strength every 10 years.

Because the damage caused by annual decay isso minimal, it is generally overlooked, but over time it can cause serious weaknesses to form. Similar patterns of decay can be detected in ruins, as they are at the very least further decayed by the passage of time.

Damage from warfare is more serious and more difficult to prevent. Castle walls are generally repaired after major battles at the soonest opportunity. Damage from structural decay and from battle must be repaired in the same way. If the damage done to a structure is less than 10% of hits, no repairs can be made. Infact, it may be difficult to even perceive this damage, as it may be due to internal fractures in the mortar. If the damage is 11% to 50% of the full hits value of the structure, then the structure can be repaired up to 10% damage for 1/10^th of the normal construction time and cost of that wall. Any damage beyond 50% requires that the structure be torn down and replaced. Use the normal construction time for that structure, because the time spent in tearing down the wall is compensated by the large number of precut stones and supplies.

There are a number of spells that can repair a wall beyond the 10% damage value such as Heal Stone, Mold Stone, and Solid Shaping. These spells allow a spell user to actually repair the minor cracks and fractures in the wall. Generally, the GM should allow these spells to repair the final 10% damage, but require normal construction efforts to repair the wall up to the 10% damage value.

11.0 DAILY LIFE

11.1 POPULATING A CASTLE

"Can wisdom be put in a silver rod? Or love in a golden bowl?"

— William Blake, The Book of Thel

"Nay, butfor a little silver and a little gold, I'll speak thee words of wisdom on the subject of love."

—Jean-Marc Dulam

Building a castleis important, but a castle is useless if no one lives there. A lord must hire a staff, servitors, and servants. Staff members are the key officers of the castle who organize all important affairs of state and general administrative tasks. Staff positions are often filled by lesser nobles and younger brothers and sons. Staff positions may become hereditary in well-established castles. Lesser nobles seek such positions as a means of serving a greater lord, thereby becoming more important as well.

Servitors are well groomed and mannered employees. Servitors tend to have very light duties consisting of maintaining a wardrobe, entertaining, serving food, and so forth. Mainly servitors are common people who are trained to be the friends and confidants of nobility. Ladies-in-waiting, squires, pages, food tasters, messengers, criers, valets, and bards are all servitors. Servitors are not a necessity for a castle, but are status symbols and luxuries. In well-established castles, servitors should be considered a necessity.

Servants are the common folk who do all of the work in the castle. Servants cook, clean, repair walls, chop wood, tend fires, make candles, brew ale, serve food, and basically everything that is considered menial. Servants have a lot to do, but many castles will maintain many more servants than necessary. The more servants found working in a castle, the greater a lord is perceived to be. For this reason servants tend to have a lot of free time. Servants do not often have specific quarters. Some castles may provide a common room, but just do not even account for servants. This leaves many servants sleeping on benches in the great hall, in the hay loft of the stable, on the floor of the kitchen, or anywhere else that they find sufficiently restful.

11.1.1 THE STAFF

Long before a lord finishes building his castle, he will want to assemble his castle staff and have servants to care for him during the construction process. Once the castle is complete, the lord must hire certain staff members, although some are optional. The following staf fpositions are based on medieval Europe, but the same general guidelines can be used for any culture. The GM may consider modifying some of the expectations of each position depending on the culture. For example, in a halfling society the head cook may be the most important staff member, holding the highest reverence and respect.

Many of the staff positions can be advisory. These staff members give the lord ideas on ruling the land and handling problems as they arise. Each advisory member gives the lord of the castle the level of the advisor in AV points. AV points can be spent each month anyway the lord sees fit. At the end of each month the AV points replenish. AV points cannot be saved for future months. AV points can be spent on any roll that will affect the castle, politics, or the military of the castle. This includes random events, public speaking, diplomacy, tactics, and so forth. The lord must announce how many AV points he is spending before making a roll, or else he has made his decision without listening to his advisors. Exactly which staff positions are advisory should vary from castle holder to castle holder.

Staff members and their duties are listed below.

Chamberlin: The chamberlain is in charge of all of household work that does not involve cooking, which includes cleaning, laundry, hiring common labor, furniture care and replacement, handing out gifts, and caring for the comfort of any castle guests. A chamberlain is required once a castle household exceeds 50 people. The chamberlain generally reports to the lady of the castle, not the lord of the castle.

Chaplain: A Chaplain is a respected clergyman who serves in the castle. This is a political choice that sets the state religion and can cause or solve problems, depending on the choice. The chaplain will expect room and board and a tithe to his faith. A chaplain's income varies, depending on his religion. If the local population or nobles are of the same religion, then increase the public opinion by one level (See Section 13.0). If the locals are of differing religions, then decrease the opinion by one or two levels, depending on the discrepancy of views. If the locals are of an opposing religion, then reduce the opinion level by three or four.

The chaplain also has an important role as the lord's alms-giver. A lord is expected to give money and food to the poor on a regular basis. Generosity is considered a characteristic of nobility, and the people are normally mollified by the scraps of charity given out by the castle. The lord's chaplain is generally responsible for distributing these alms.

The chaplain is an advisory position. Theoretically, the chaplain provides the castle with his deity's blessing. This should reveal itself in whatever magical assistance the chaplain provides, but the GM is free to have a deity interfere as little or as much a she sees fit. Another side benefit of having a chaplain is on-staff healing magic. Also, during times of war he can attempt to improve morale through sermons and religious dogma.

Chief Cook: The chief cook oversees all of the cooking, feeding, and food storage within the castle. The chief cook insures that feasts run smoothly and that servants treat guests properly. The cooking staff that the chief cook oversees includes bottlers (butlers), cellarers, bakers, poulterers, saucers, brewers, curers, distillers, wine makers, slaughterers, fruiters, and even wafer-makers. Each of these sub-cooks will have a few young servants who help in the preparation of their specialty. The chief cook generally answers to the lady of the castle instead of the lord.

Commander: The commander is in charge of the castle's military. He trains the military and drills them in warfare techniques. A strong commander can maintain a large army for even the weakest of lords, until he decides to overthrow the lord. Weak lords are often suspicious of their commanders because of this threat of military power.

Constable: The constable trains the guards, organizes the defense of the castle wall, oversees the maintenance of the castle defenses, and modifies effectiveness of any Guard Watch Roll by his level. The constable increases the likelihood of a spy being caught inside the castle. Any Spy Rolls made in a castle must subtract five times the level of the constable from the final roll. If no constable is present, then a spy only has to subtract two times the level of the highest level guard.

Contractor: A contractor is an architect. He can build a castle and he can direct castle maintenance. As the master builder, the contractor can be a great boon if the castle is attacked. The contractor can repair walls, build new defenses as the old ones crumble, or help organize counter-sapping activity.

Exchequer: The exchequer is the financial consultant to the castle owner. He is accountant and treasurer. He pays out all wages, but he can also be asked to invest the treasury. Each month he makes an invest rollon the Very Hard Column of the Movement Maneuver Table. If he exceeds 100, then the amount over 100 is the percent increase of the amount invested (treat results above 120 as 120). The GM should modify the results based on local economy and feasibility of such results. If the number is under 50, then the amount under 50 is the percent decrease in the amount invested. The exchequer is necessary once the castle staffexceeds 100 people, else the castle owner would have little time for keeping track of anything else. Once the castle exceeds 500 people, a cofferer must behired to aide the exchequer. The cofferer oversees the actual treasury, including plates, goblets, and utensils. The exchequer then must go through the cofferer to gain access to the treasury. This provides a form of double-blind accounting that supposedly discourages theft.

Fool: A fool is an entertainer for the court, but he is also an advisor for his lord. The fool maintains perspective for the nobles. The fool keeps the nobles in line with mockery and insult. He keeps himself in line through self-mockery, which keeps the nobles from killing him outright.

The fool is a misunderstood profession. The fool can help resolve problems brewing between nobles. The GM will have to role play the fool carefully. Some fine examples of good fools can be found in William Shakespeare's King Lear or As You Like It.

Healer: A healer is a non-magical practitioner of the healing arts. They are herbalists, surgeons, and barbers. Their bene fit is quite obvious, but a castle lord may prefer the magical healer. Most non-magical healers practice for the poor only, unless they have access to more useful herbs.

Hunt Master: A hunt master organizes the castle's hunters and scouts and protects the lord's forest land from poachers. In large castles there will be many huntmasters. There will be a falconer, a kennelman, and the like for other animals used for hunting.

The exact role of the hunt master will depend on the land and the culture. In less cultivated lands, he will decrease the food cost of the castle by supplying fresh meat. Roll on the Movement Maneuver Table for each hunting party of five men (subtract 20 from the roll for each man short of five). Plentiful game will allow a Light Maneuver roll, while scarce game will be Hard or Very Hard. The amount of food gathered by each hunt in mandays is equal to 10% of the number achieved on the Movement Maneuver Table. Each manday of food the hunters bring in can reduce the monthly food cost by 3 cp.

In more cultivated land, the huntmaster is more likely to protect a forest than hunt it. He tries to preserve the balance of game in the forest so that the lord of the castle can entertain guests and be entertained by hunting. The Hunt Master would then seek to prevent poachers and trappers from entering the forest.

Another role the hunt master performs in addition to his normal job isthat he polices the wildlands around the castle. This can alert the lord of bandit activity, enemy troop movements, or other developments in the wildlands. For more complete information, a commander or constable must organize military personnel into scouting parties.

Justiciar: The justiciar is the most important advisory position within a castle. He helps set government policy, law, and oversees the justice system. The lord can override the justiciar's decision if necessary, but does not interfere. The justiciar provides two times his level in AV points.

Marshal: A marshal oversees the care and grooming of all of the creatures kept by the lord. A marshal is required if more than four animals are regularly kept at the castle. The marshal can heal injuries and even selectively breed stock.The marshal does not just care for horses, but also pigeons or any other creature that may need care. The marshal has great influence over a lord, due to the importance of animals for a lord to support his knights and maintain his position of power. Stablehands and grooms work under the marshal's supervision.

Seneschal (Steward): The seneschal (or steward) is the lord's constant companion. He oversees the estate, especially the castle itself. The seneschal disburses money to all of the other officials and watches their accounts. The seneschal handles all servant and staff disputes if possible. Also, as the seneschal is in charge of the greathall, he is also the head waiter at most meals. The seneschalis almost always of noble birth in established castles.

Sheriff: The sheriff serves many functions, though not technically a part of the castle staff. He generally lives outside of the castle. However, a particularly effective sheriff may be granted a place in the castle. The sheriff collects taxes from the people and maintains the castle's presence in the local towns and countryside. The sheriff will generally travel with a few guards when collecting taxes. The sheriff also settles simple disputes between peasants and polices the area to a limited degree. The sheriff maintains the peace as a service to the public, as well as for the protection of the lord's taxes.

In larger towns this positionis divided into two: a Revenuer, who collects taxes, and a sheriff, who polices the town. One sheriffis required for every 5000 taxable people. A sheriff will need at least one guard (deputy) for every 1000 taxable people. A higher level sheriff is more capable of handling public unrest and is less likely to be robbed of his tax money .

Spell Users: Spell users can be of great benefit to any lord. Every spell using class can be considered an advisory position. Spell users are hired for advice and occasional service (one week out of every four), or in case of emergency. Spell users exchange their services for money, a protected work environment, supplies, and a lot of study time. The monthly costs for Spell users are based on such arrangements. Few Spell users will wish to give up much study time, but if they are hired to work on something that coincides with their interests, they are more lenient. If a spell user is hired for a temporary position, his fee will certainly increase.

Spy: A spy is not exactly a staf fposition, but is employed by a castle lord. Spies can gather information about neighboring civilizations or the towns within a lord's land. They are also capable of less civilized acts such as sabotaging building operations or magical rituals, or assassination. If a spy fails in an activity and is caught and identified, it will cause a rift in the diplomacy between the two lands. The extent of change depends on what the spy was caught doing and how well he lies.

11.1.2 SERVITORS

Servitors are not necessary for a castle to run properly, but they are necessary for a castle to run diplomatically. A castle without servitors will never recognized as anything but a large house by other nobles. A noble without servitors is likely to be overlooked in social circles, ignored by the overlord, and considered easy pray to the larger barons.

Servitors are petty nobles or talented artisans who lends cavility and nobility to the true nobles. A true noble would not dream of being served by a foul-smelling, grimy-looking, poor-mannered peasant. A lord who maintains such a staff will not last long in the political arena.

Servitors include squires and pages, who are children of other nobles sent to a castle for proper training in the arts of war. It is generally considered that no parents can train their own children properly in the arts of war, because parents are too likely to go easy on their children. Sometimes lords exchange children to seal a treaty and to insure non-aggression between the lands.

The following brief descriptions of other duties handled by servitors:

Artist: Artists include sculpters, painters, musicians, and composers . As a patron of the arts, the lord of the castle gains honor and prestige, as well as many paintings/art work in the form of "gifts," which could be everything the artist produced or as little as half.

Knights: Knights are lesser nobles who have sworn to provide a certain amount of military duty every year. Knights may own a castle, or they may live permanently within another lord's castle. Knights are kept on hand by the king in order to increase his prestige and safety.

Lady-in-Waiting: A lady-in-waiting is expected to help the lady of the castle with her chores of sewing and directing the seneschal at his duties. Ladies-in-waiting are the daughters of lesser nobles or pretty peasants. The ladies-in-waiting keep the lady of the castle entertained, especially while the lord is away at war or other affairs of state. In some lands, a lady-in-waiting may not marry without the castle lady's blessing.

Messenger: Education in diplomacy and manners allows the messenger to mingle with nobility without drawing much attention to himself. A messenger is expected to travel hard and fast to deliver a lord's messenges. In lands without much literacy, messengers remember messenges and later repeat them. In such conditions it was wise to treat a messenger well in order to assure he does not edit the letter.

Teacher: Normally a castle teacher is for the instruction of the lord's children only, though other nobles in the castle can send their children to the resident teacher.

Valet: They help a noble or staff member dress, bathe, and clothe themselves. A valet will often be held in confidence, because it is hard to lie about some things to the person who sees you naked everyday.

11.1.3 SERVANTS

Servants do all of the less notable and dignified acts in the castle. Servants cook, clean, repair walls, sit in watch towers, man the main gate, and clean out the cesspits. Servants can include any of the commoners who actually work in the castle to the craftsmen who live in shops along the curtain wall. Some of the various crafts and trades of these commoners could include chandlers (candle makers), gardeners, herders, farmers, stablehands, watchmen, executioner, bailiff (oversees a lord's farms), tailors, spinners, weavers, potters, millers, scholars, butterers, scribes, cobblers, dyers, glass blowers, blacksmiths, carpenters, wood cutters, and so on.

11.1.3.0.1 Staff Size

The following guidelines provide a simple breakdown of how many servants are needed for each duty in proportion to the rest of the castle staff.

Chief Porter: The porter and his family live in the gatehouse. His main duty is to decide who may or may not enter the castle. A bad decision in either direction always means trouble. Every chief porter should have at least one or two servants to alternate watches with.

Cleaners: one per 20 people in the castle (figure this number before determining the number of cooks in the castle).

Cooks: One per 20 people, in the castle (figure this number after determining the number of cleaners in the castle).

Craftsmen: Many lords keep craftsman on hand at all times. Almost every castle will need a carpenter and a blacksmith. Others will vary.

Educators: At least one for every two children in the lord's family. A generous lord may also educate the children of staff or even some servitors.

Entertainers: Varies. At least one or two.

Guards: At least one for every 100 feet of castle wall. This assumes that only one guard will be on duty for every 200 feet of castle wall at anyone time. These guards will be posted throughout the castle and not just on the walls.

Hunters: At least four if there is a hunt master. Beyond that they should be hired in groups of five.

Maintenance: One for every 50 people in the castle.

Servants: Other than those specifically listed, as many as the GM determines are necessary

Servitors: At least one for each member of the lord's family and at least one for each staff position. Larger castles should have any where from three to ten servitors per family and staf fmember.

Stable Hands/Grooms: One for every five horses in the stable.

Staff Assistants: At least one for each staff member. Larger castles will require as many as five or ten for each staff member.

11.1.4 STAFF MEMBER WAGES

The wages listed in the Servant Wage Chart are a general indication foran average person capable of holding a staff position. If a position is filled by a person incapable of adequately performing their position, their AV points should be subtracted from the AV point total and all of their activities will tend toward mishap if not outright failure.

The GM should work with a player to determine an actual form of payment.The lord of a castle generally feeds his staff and servants at least one meal a day. This should be considered part of their monthly wages. If the lord of the castle provides a private room for a staff member or servant, then this also is considered part of payment. The player should modify the wages above to fit the circumstances of employment for figuring the total monthly wage. Free room and board does not cost the lord much to supply, but this saves his staff money and therefore such savings can be counted towards their wages.

Example: Rel has a staff that includes, a chamberlain, a chaplain, a chief cook, a huntmaster, and a sheriff. His servants include 10 guards, 4 hunters, 10 soldiers, 2 cooks, 2 cleaning servants, and a maintenance servant.

Currently he pays:

Chamberlain 3 gp

Chaplain free

Chief Cook 1 gp

Huntmaster 1 gp

Sheriff 1 gp

10 guards 30 sp

4 hunters 12 sp

10 soldiers 40 sp

2 cooks 2 gp

2 cleaners 10 bp

1 maintenance 5 bp

Total 16gp, 3 sp, 5 bp per month

Rel decides thathe will need to hire more servants once the castle is complete. Furthermore, Rel realizes that he does not have enough people in his kingdom to support such a monstrous castle. Leaving the early development of his castle in the able hands of Ulnor and Barl, Rel and his entourage set off for the south lands, where Rel hopes to recruit new people to settle in his lands.

11.2 SUPPLIES

A castle needs more than just people to operate. A castlemusthave tools, fuel, food, furniture, light sources, and hundreds of little things from toiletries to cooking utensils. Supplies are divided into two groups: routine and special. Routine supplies might include food, firewood, cloth, normal tools, cooking utensils, and so on. Unique supplies might include an anvil, special herbs, magic items, and soon.

The supplies associated with mundane tasks are assumed to be covered in servant's wages, or are produced by other servants in the castle. Craftsmen actually produce a lot of the supplies necessary for the daily operation of a castle.

Even though the cost for food supplies is figured into the monthly cost for the servants and staff, the lord of the castle should keep track of the food stores. With a good staff, the lord need never worry that his supply rooms are full. Assume that any established castle will have enough food to feed everyone in the castle for one month. Most castles will have enough storage room for three months of food supply. If the lord wishes to utilize this extra room, then he should pay to have more food prepared for storage.

Special supplies should be purchased on an individual basis and the player should record where they are used and by whom in the castle. This allows the GM to have an idea of some of the more important items in the castle and an understanding of how they relate to the castle. This aids the GM in incorporating even minor items into a story.

12.0 TAXES/OTHER INCOME

Once a character has decided to hire a staf fand attendant servants, the character needs to be sure that he can afford to pay them all. Some players may have gained a dragon's hoard of gold and plan to coast on that for a while; let them be warned that without a steady income, a castle will rapidly deplete a treasury.

The most common type of income for a castle is taxation. A castle can generally tax the people in the surrounding areas with some efficiency, though successfully taxing outlying areas is very difficult. For a feudal society, taxes came in a multitude of differing fees and charges for various daily activities. Most societies will tax income, possessions, charge a standard fee for the right to live on the land, and so forth.

The base taxation rate for each form of government is listed below. The base taxation rate is given as a percentage of the monthly income of the resident population. This is a simplified tax system and should not be considered a flat income tax rate. The given percentages reflect a multitude of taxes that can include any of the many forms of taxation.

If the GM wishes to detail a tax system, he can assign all of the individual taxes a set percentage of the monthly income of the resident population. These numbers should be added together and used as the base tax percentage for simplicity. It is not suggested that GMs design a detailed system of taxes and incomes foreach separate tax, but if he wishes to do so, then compare the resulting values to the values on this chart to determine a reasonable average income form a given area.

The GM should use the average rate as a default, modifying the number depending on how benevolent the ruling class is. Again, these are not straight income taxes, but simplifications of total taxation systems.

The following charts provide a quick reference for population size and average monthly income for the purposes of taxation based upon the subsistence pattern of the local population. The average monthly income is multiplied by the tax rate to determine the monthly tax income for a castle.

The average monthly income should be modified by a multiplier reflecting the average standard of living in the land. The following modifiers can be applied tothe average monthly income for a given society and can also be used to modify the income of individuals. For example, Gamemaster Law states that the common laborer generally earns 1 or 2 copper pieces each day. In a wealthy societyor culture, the modifier is +20%. This means that the range of income a common laborer can expect in a given dayis 12 to 24 tin pieces. The difference may seem minor, but over time can make a significant difference in the average person's finances. Of course, that laborer will tend to have slightly higher expenses as well. The cost of supplies in the land may be increased inthe same proportion. Characters who are interested can set up a number of trade routes based on variances in standards of living and needs.

Example: Rel's chamberlain decides to look over the accounts one more time before Rel leaves. Pulling out the simple scroll ledger he reads:

Income

2029 population

Taxes 25% of 3668 sp = 92 gp/7 sp

Total Income: 92 gp/7 sp

Expenses

Staff/Servant wages 16 gp/3 sp/5 bp

Feast/Entertainment 10 gp

Miscellaneous 5 gp

Total 31 gp/3 sp/5 bp

Monthly Profit 61 gp/3 sp/5 bp

Castle Stores:

Cattle (2000 head) 16000 gp

Silverware & plate 500 gp

Jewelry 400 gp

Gems 100 gp

Furs 1000 gp

Gold Bars 1000

Minted Coin 3000 gp

Sighing in relief, the chamberlain sets aside his accounts. The stores will hold fine, but once the construction begins, the money will dwindle rapidly. Hopefully, the stores will last until a larger tax base be established.

Income
2029 population
Taxes	25% of 3668 sp = 92 gp/7 sp
Total Income:	92 gp/7 sp
Expenses
Staff/Servant wages	16 gp/3 sp/5 bp
Feast/Entertainment	10 gp
Miscellaneous	5 gp
Total	31 gp/3 sp/5 bp
Monthly Profit	61 gp/3 sp/5 bp
Castle Stores:
Cattle (2000 head)	16000 gp
Silverware & plate	500 gp
Jewelry	400 gp
Gems	100 gp
Furs	1000 gp
Gold Bars	1000
Minted Coin	3000 gp

Generally, there will be no taxes on private possessions. Most taxes focus on charging and regulating the everyday activities of common people. The following list of taxes include a number of actual medieval taxes and other suggested forms of taxes.

Agistment—Also called pannage. This was paid for the right to pasture swine in the woodland. Swine were easy to keep and could find food in the woods on their own. For this reason it was cheaper to pay this tax than for the peasant to gather the food on his own.

Assart—This was a fee paid for the right to clear part of a Royal Forest. This decreased the king's land and increased the clearer's land, so it was heavily taxed.

Boons—These were labor services required by the lord, above and beyond the lord's usual labor service requirement. The peasants required to work these boons were repaid with food or drink, but it also lead to neglection of peasants' fields.

Chiminage—This was paid for the right to carry goods through the lord's forest.

Dues—A king required a lord to pay a portion of all of the produce of the castle's estate. This meant that the lord had to pay to the king a certain percentage of everything produced in the field, raised in the pastures, or mined from the hills. The lord of a manor generally passed this tax burden on to the peasants on the manor.

Foddercorn—Peasants were required to supply the lord's horses with this grain.

Herbage—This was a tax paid for the right to graze animals in the lord's pastureland, which mainly included the land around the castle walls. This tax was generally steep. Even so peasant's eagerly sought this right because the lord's pasture was the closest and easiest pasture to use. Herbage might even be included as part of a peasant's rent, even if he had no animals to graze.

Heriot—When a peasant died, his best animal was taken by the lord. Death and taxes used to be an even more cynical phrase back then.

Labor service—This was a required service of a peasant living on a lord's land. Each peasant on the lord's manor had to work a certain number of days a week on the lord's fields. Sometimes this was as many as three days a week.

Merchet—This was a tax paid to a lord when a peasant's daughter married. The tax may be raised if the daughter was being married off of the estate.

Mortuary—This was a tax paid to the local church when a peasant died. This was considered payment for a proper burial.

Multure—This was one of the most hated taxes that the peasants had to endure. First of all, peasants on a lord's estate were required to grind their grain at the lord's mill. In exchange they had to give a portion of their ground grain (usually 1/16 to 1/24) to the lord. The miller received a portion of this grain as his payment, and so millers were tempted to tamper with the scales in his own favor.

Relief—This tax had to be paid for a son to receive his inheritance. This was a significant tax that could vary from a few coins for a peasant's home and acres to thousands of gold for a lord's estate.

Scutage—Payment given a lord in place of providing military service. In the feudal system knights were granted land and manors for dues and for military service. Generally, each knight was required to provide for the provision of a set number of men for forty days out of a year. The payment of scutage only had to be paid when the lord demanded service, which was generally only once every couple of years or so.

Tallage—This was the rent a peasant had to pay for his land, home and animals. Originally alord could tallage whenever he liked, until a regularized payment schedule was worked out.

Tithe—Ten percent of a peasant's produce was expected to go to the church. The tithe was sometimes optional, but social pressures forced at least some amount of payment to the church.

Wood-penny—This was a light tax paid for the right to gather dead wood from the lord's woodlands for firewood

12.0.0.0.1 Other Suggested Taxes

Export duties—Paid as a % of the value of goods that are removed from the land or city for sale elsewhere.

Gate Tax—Toll paid for passing through a gate to a walled city.

Guild License—This is a tax a guild must pay to be licensed as such. Guilds seek to pressure lords to limit new inventions that could decrease the profits of the guild, so the lords invented this tax as a form of regulated bribe.

Import duties—Paid as a % of the value of goods that are brought into the land or city for sale.

Income tax—Payment is based on social status, size of herd, size of arable farmland, or the volume of produce from a mill.

Magic License—This is a tax on people who practice "dangerous" forms of magic. This tax is charged due to the extra care and trouble that may be caused if a powerful spell goes awry. Generally, this tax would be limited to city locations or other areas with dense populations.

The GM should impose many such taxes during adventures, because player characters must pay taxes too. The GM should charge a gate tax for entering a town. When the adventurers approach a town with hard-earned treasure, charge them a percentage for the right to sell the goods in town.

12.0.0.0.2 Castle Income

The player and GM should assign a standing tax rate for figuring out the monthly income of the castle. The standing rate should be based on the previous ruler's tax rate. If the castle holder wishes to raise or lower this tax rate, that can be one of his first actions as ruler. See Section 13.0 (Public Opinion) for a discussion of the effects of raising or lowering taxes.

On the Castle Record, the player should record the population of his land, their average monthly income, and the taxation rate in the appropriate blanks. Multiply these numbers out to see what the monthly tax income will be. Compare this income to the amount of money that you will need to spend each month on staff and servant wages. The result is the amount of money added to or subtracted from the treasury every month.

Of course, taxation is not the only form of income. A lord could demand tribute from a conquered people. Or he could invest in trading ventures or own mills. A lord could create toll bridges to add to his income, though this may be included as part of the taxation system. If a bridge is necessary for an area to grow, assume that bridge is included in the taxes, because it is already paying off by helping the population to grow. If a bridge is convenient, but not necessary, a modest toll could add to the lord's monthly income. Whatever the source, the lord will need to watch his finances closely at first to determine what exactly he can and cannot do.

Wise rulers can rapidly save a lot of money, which allows them to support large armies and attack neighboring lands, but there are other ways of spending surplus cash: historical, scientific, or magical research, trading ventures, exploration, art, monuments, festivals, balls, tournaments, and engineering projects that improve the lives of the people. Of course, war is the most popular method of drying the coffers.

13.0 PUBLIC OPINION (PO)

"At length burst in the argent revelry with plume, tiara, and all rich array Numerous as shadows haunting fairly the brain, news tuf'fd, in youth, with triumphs gay of old romance."

— John Keats, "Eve of St. Agnes"

"Yeah, yeah, so it was a good party.Why don'tcha just say that? "

— Urkaman, Prince of Urfwynd

Public opinion (PO) is a rating assigned to a castle that defines the overall attitude of the common folk towards the lord of the castle. Public opinion is more than just a modification to public relation rolls. It should be a basis for NPC reactions, storylines, and an indicator of how well a lord is liked.

Most established castles will have an initial public opinion rating based on the previous ruler, though the GM may modify the number based on the public's initial reactions to the new ruler. In new castles, the GM will have to determine a public opinion level based on the situation. For example, a conquered people will have a very low PO, while a group of settlers may have a high PO .

Each PO level has an associated modification that will affect all rolls that the lord or any of his staff make in relation to the public. This includes any Acting, Public Speaking, Trading, Duping, Propaganda, and Seduction skill rolls.

Each PO level has a descriptive word associated with it that should be used as a guideline for understanding the general feelings of the public towards the castle ruler. This should help the GM understand many NPCs, though the GM should keep in mind that while the general opinion of the public may be good or bad, each individual will have a personal opinion that may differ from the common perception. A good way for an NPC to stand out is by being outspoken about an unpopular opinion.

The PO can be raised or lowered by various actions of the castle lord and his operatives. PO should generally only change levels because of important events (victory in battle, large tax cuts, extravagant festival, etc..), or as the result of an altered trend of activity towards the people by the government. The GM should not allow a castle ruler to fluctuate public opinion too much. If a castle ruler tends to follow good news with a sudden in crease in taxes, the people will notice the trend, and PO will not rise much in the future. The GM can reflect this as a penalty to the chance of increase, or just disallow some attempts to raise PO.

The basic activities that can potentially increase or decrease the PO include changing taxes, military activity, change in standards of living, festivals or feasts, tournaments, religious activity, and an overall sense of comfort and safety or unrest.

Whenever a lord attempts to raise taxes, he must attempt to justify the increase in taxes to prevent PO from dropping. Likewise, if the lord lowers taxes, then he must announce the decrease effectively in order to raise the PO. Public Speaking and Propaganda are the two most appropriate skills for making such announcements, and AV points can modify the skill roll.

The GM must decide the significance of any factor on a given political situation. Loss of a border patrol may not affect the PO at all, while losing a large section of land to enemy forces may drop PO by two or three levels. Religious events can greatly enhance a leader's appeal, but only so long as the leader is favored by the deity or religious sect.

Festivals and feasts are very important to the common man. Considering that many cultures have a six day work week (assuming seven day weeks), holidays and festivals are necessary and well-earned breaks for the people. A lord who fulfills his part in maintaining feasts and festivals according to tradition can expect to maintain a positive public opinion. If a lord throws extravagant and elaborate festivals, then the public opinion may rise. Use the rules presented below to determine the success of a feast or festival.

The GM should not allow the PO to fluctuate too rapidly. Changes should be gradual or tied to unusual events. In most fantasy settings, there will not be a free press and nearly universal access to political polls and problems as seen in our world. Leaders are not subject to as much steady abuse or review in most fantasy worlds. This means that most people will know few details of events that do not immediately affect them, and so are less likely to form detailed opinions about events in a castle. People will only modify their opinions ifan event is truly large, or else it affects them personally. The following list provides guidelines for changing the public opinion.

Option: The GM may decide to have two or three separate listings of PO. The GM may decide to keep a PO for the common folk, the nobles, and the clergy. If a GM decides to use this option, then each of these social classes should be rated individually on the PO scale and the average of these modifiers should be used as the PO modifier.

This method more accurately reflects group dynamics and provides a more interesting portrayal of politics and society within a land.

13.1 RAISING/LOWERING TAXES

13.1.0.0.1 Raising Taxes

An Influence maneuveris made to prevent a drop in PO. If the result is a failure, the PO will drop one level. If it is an absolute failure, the PO will drop two levels.

13.1.0.0.2 Lowering Taxes

An Influence maneuver is made to determine if there is an increase in PO. If the result is a success, the PO will increase by one level. If the result is a failure, then no effect. If the result is an absolute failure, the PO will drop. This roll is optional. A character can lower taxes and not attempt to raise the PO.

13.2 FESTIVALS/FEAST DAYS

The difference between a feast and a festival is one of scale. A feastismainly a meal with limited entertainment of some sort. A festival encompasses food, entertainment, games of skill and chance, exhibits, and so on. A feast is generally either sponsored by the lord of a castle or is provided by each family bringing something tothe general feast. A festival is generally a combination of a lord's generosity and travelling carnivals.

Feast days were rare breaks from the daily monotony of medieval life. In most fantasy worlds, as well, feast days will be awaited with much excitement and anticipation. Some feast days are just a day off of work, some are festivals, and others are great religious events and observances. There are two kinds of feast days. The first kind of feast day is a day of rest and revelry, celebrated separately by the common folk and by the wealthier folk. Every second feast day is generally the lord's feast day. On this day the lord is expected to supply most of the feast and entertainment. All social classes will mix to a limited degree on the King's feastday. These are the days when a lord wins his subjects love, often by warming their hearts with ale.

The importance of feast days should not be overlooked or dismissed. The common work week is six days long, with only one day during the week for rest or religious observation. A day or so of no work lightens the hearts of the people and gives them much needed rest and joy. To cancel a feast day is an ominous act. Furthermore, if a lord tries to be too frugal for the lord's feast day, the people will notice and public opinion may drop. On the other hand, a ruler can mollify much unrest with generous feasts and festivals.

The amount a lord spends on a feast day varies. A general rule of thumb should be 1 copper piece per person in the land. Obviously that can get expensive, but it is also one of the few services that the lord must give his subjects in exchange for taxation. A lord may pay more than that for larger or more important holidays or feasts. Religious holidays may have any number of rites, customs, songs, dress, food, or symbols to celebrate or re-enact each year.

Festivals are celebrated less often, about once or twice per year. Generally, they are held either in the spring, before work begins in earnest, or in the fall, after the final crops have been brought in for the winter. A festival brings hawkers, acrobats, dancers, animal trainers, exotic displays, and men who seek contest. Festivals are traditional times for tournaments, jousts, contests of wit and comedy, and challenges of minor arcana (powerful wizards tend to scoff at such showy demonstrations, have more important things to do, or have nothing to prove).

Feasts and festivals generally surround important turning points for the land. These turning points could be religious in nature, seasonal, historical, or just plain frivolous. Some examples of holidays from our own world provides ample basis for holidays that can be adapted for other worlds, like: Christmas (religious), New Year's Eve (seasonal), Independence Day (historical), April's Fools Day (frivolous), Halloween/Samhain (religious, later frivolous).

Most religious holidays will involve a communal act of faith in action or a communal affirmation of faith. A sense of community is always strengthened by holidays and festivals

Feasts and festivals provide great environments for role-playing. Such scenes a rein constant motion. Characters can interact or just watch as people swirl past them in gaudy colors and raucous laughs. They can enter into contests of strength, skill, or magic. A Bard can gain an eager and enthusiastic audience that may provide local fame or notoriety depending on each performance. Booths at festivals may provide hard-to-find items, like charms, herbs, and amulets, just so long as they are wary of charlatans and crooks.

Furthermore, the events at a festival, especially if religious in nature, can give characters clues that maybe important in later adventures. Festivals provide good times for characters to gain recognition from castle lords or other dignitaries. There are not many times when the lord of a castle interacts with the people, so characters may find a festival a great way of getting closer to a castle lord, regardless of their intentions. The reis also plenty of story potential in and around the hawkers and entertainers of a festival. They might be locals, but if they are a wandering carnival, they may have intentions other than simple entertainment and showmanship. Perhaps they are spies. Perhaps they are fairies in disguise, wandering the land to protect the silly humans. Maybe they harbor a monster. The possibilities at a festival should border on the infinite.

To determine the success of a feast or festival use the Feast/Festival Static Maneuver Table 29.2.

Example: The GM determines that Rel's people have a 5 PO. Many of the people under Rel still hold resentment from days of previous warfare, but Rel's equity has won the hearts of most of the conquered people, especially those who were given titleand land in the newly formed country.

Before construction begins on the castle, Rel holds a large festival celebrating the end of elven and dwarven hostility, as well as the start of a new era for the fledgling land. Rel has no seneschal, so he has his chief cook organize the whole affair. Half of the elven and dwarven work crews arrive in time for the festival and nearly half of Rel's people are expected, for a total of 2,150 attendees for the festival.Rel wants this to be ajoyous and memorable occasion, considering all of the work to come, so he decides to spend 30 tp per person each on food and entertainment.

2150 × (30×2) tp = 129000 tp
or 129 sp

Rel's player gets to add 40 to his festival roll for the extra food and entertainment provided over 20 tp/person. He rolls a 75 for a total of 115 (40 + 75). Consulting the Feast/Festival Static Maneuver Table 29.2 he finds that the festival was a success and that word of the party will travel to other lands. Rel determines that now is a good time to set out to those other lands to recruit more people.

14.0 DIPLOMACY/FOREIGN RELATIONS (FR)

"And their sun does never shine, And their fields are bleak and bare; And there was all fill'd with thorns; It is eternal winter there."

— William Blake, "Holy Thursday"

"And truly they threw terrible parties."

— Bacchus, The Satirical Satyr

Like public opinion, the diplomatic or foreign relations of a castle are a great influence and concern for the castle lord. Every adjacent land and every land that has trade with a kingdom will have diplomatic relations of some sort. The Foreign Relations (FR) scale is a general measure of how well the two lands get along as well as a modifier for every roll relating to diplomacy.

The FR modifier should be used for Public Speaking, Diplomacy, Propaganda, and so forth. Like PO, FR should be used as a general guideline for relations and the reactions of NPCs from a given land. Again, some people and even nobles may disagree with the general state of relations between nations. Such disagreeable people make notable NPCs and can add to plot development tremendously.

Most established castles will have an initial FR based on the previous ruler, though the GM may modify the number based on the initial diplomatic actions of a new leader. For new castles, the GM will have to determine a FR level based on the situation. For example, if the new kingdom was carved out of another kingdom, then the FR should be very low between these lands.

The FR with another nation can be raised or lowered by various actions of the castle lord and his operatives, because of important events (assassinations, treaties, generous gifts, belligerent activities, etc.). The GM should not allow a castle ruler to fluctuate FR too much. If a castle ruler tries to manipulate diplomatic relations, then other lands will be more suspicious and tentative of support of his actions.

Basic activities that can potentially increase or decrease the FR include: hostile acts, religion, tournaments, treaties, balls, spy activity, and trade.

The GM should rate any changes of FR based on the significance of the event and the overall outlook of the two governments involved. Tournaments and balls can be treated along the same lines as a festival, though the sponsor of the event should spend a lot more money. As a rule of thumb, a tournament should be ten times as expensive as a festival, and a ball should be ten times as expensive as a feast. So the base cost per person for a tournament is 2 bp and the base cost for a ball is 1 bp per person.

Trade will increase goodwill between lands so long as it benefits both lands. If one land only exports and never imports, the neighboring lands generally take offense. For good relations, two lands should each have something the other wants and both must be willing to trade goods at reasonable prices.Trade should not affect the FR unlessa trade imbalance grows over time. This effect may be increased depending on the importance each land places on trade.

It is possible for two lands to have differing FR levels for each other. For example, the Grey Hill Dwarves may have a low opinion of their neighbors the Silverwood Elves, and thus their FR level with the Elves is only 3. The Elves are more open-minded about the Dwarves, though, and have an FR of 4 with the Dwarves. This means that on the castle sheet for the dwarves the FR will be listed as a 4, because any rolls they make against the elves will be fairly well received, but the elves will have a 3 listed on their castle sheet. The FR rating is the measure of how well the castle or land is seen in the eyes of the foreign land and not how the castle lord sees other lands.

Example: Adjacent to Rel's lands are the Crystal Mountain Dwarves to the northwest, the Melindion elves to the southwest, and the Nadreen Republic to thesouth. Rel's land has a FR of 7 with the elves and dwarves, but only an FR of S with the Nadreen Republic. None the less, Rel decides that he will begin recruiting in the Republic first because it is a very densely populated land. Farming and trading are the primary concerns of the Nadreeni. Rel enters Nadar, the capital of the Nadreen Republic, in his most regal attire and with his soldiers in full parade dress.

Staying at a fine inn, he begins spending his money freely, while his soldiers begin spreading rumors that the King of the Cobalt Hills is offering free farmland, cattle, and titles. As the ensuing weeks follow, Rel meets with groups of beggars, young enthusiasts, mercenaries, merchants, petty nobles, and local bureaucrats. Rel explains that he has land that need stilling, and that he will give this land away in exchange for pledges of fealty and acceptance of his lordship. To the petty nobles and merchants, he offers land and title in exchange for pledges of fealty and promises of military service. To the mercenaries Rel offers food, shelter, status, and a land to call home.

Rel makes a number of influence rolls for all of these interactions. These rolls are modified based on the FR of Rel's land, which is 0, as the FR is average. Furthermore, the GM decides to modify the FR of the Nadreen Republic by -1, because some of the officials are not happy to see Rel skimming off of their resources. Rel notices this change in attitude and decides to move on. Rel sends his new recruits north with one of his soldiers along with sealed documents vouching each man and family a certain amount of land or status. The GM informs Rel's player that the total number recruited is 1,000, including women and children. Lookingat the population for Nadreen, this causes a minor drop in its population.

15.0 HERALDRY

Heraldry is a lore based on the recognition and design of symbolic images of status or rank. The Heraldry skill allows an individual to recognize the various coats-of-arms, blazons, and symbols of a given culture. In medieval days, this skill was important for war, diplomacy, and social status. The heraldic crest of a family was worn with honor by knights and nobles alike. In war the ability to recognize heraldic signs allowed a noble to know who he faced in battle. In diplomacy and social settings, heraldic signs reveal an individual's rank and possibly the amount of royal favor the individual has.

A simple symbol or design added to a family crest may signify the relationship of a specific bearer to the head of the family. Often, this was limited to signifying the birth order of the bearer. The first son would have one symbol, the second son another, and so on. The patterns for distinguishing family members may be regular throughout a kingdom, or it may be unique for each family.

A ruler can also grant augmentations to a family crest as a reward to loyal knights and nobles. Generally, such honors are granted sparsely, because an augmentation modifies a family crest forever. Some rulers may provide a backhanded compliment by granting an augmentation that ruins the artistic style of an existing family crest, because the nature of the modification is always the ruler's choice.

Heraldry can be expanded to encompass many other frameworks of social stratification and symbology. Decorative tatoos, feathers in a headdress, specific weaves of cloth, jewelry types or designs, or almost anything else can be used as a similar method of showing social status or royal favor. The GM should play with various styles and use them to add flavor to his existing lands. A little knowledge of heraldry should be considered an important survival skill for adventurers in most lands—often more important than the ability to read.

The technical language describing the art and symbology of heraldry is called the "blazon. "The blazon puts in formal terms the appearance of a crest. The blazon has regular terms to describe colors, divisions of color, and the location of any symbol on the face of a shield. The following guidelines provide a brief breakdown of some typical blazon terms and the shields they describe. For more detailed information, check the local library for detailed guidelines on heraldry.

15.0.0.0.1 Colors

In medieval times, each shade was associated with a planetary body, a precious stone, and a concept. Sades were divided into colors and metals. Historically, one could not place a color on a color, or a metal on a metal (e.g., you cannot place a Blue (Azure) symbol on a Red (Gules) field, or a White (Argent) symbol on a Yellow (Or) field). The following breakdown provides the blazon term for the color, the planet, the stone, and the concept each color symbolized. Each color and metal is listed by both its modern and its heraldric name.

GMs and players who wish to illustrate their blazon in black and white can use the following illustration as a guide.

15.0.0.0.2 Symbols and Augmentations

When a ruler wishes to truly honor a knight or noble for services above and beyond the call of duty, he may consider giving the knight an augmentation to his family coat-of-arms. The ruler chooses a design to add and specifies where the modification will be on the knight's current shield. The ruler can provide a totally new design, though this will not happen often, and may not be happily received anyway.

Augmentations are generally symbolic of the act of service provided by the recipient. For example, if a knight slays a dragon for his liege, then the ruler may add a dragon's head, a silhouette of a dragon, or some other symbol linking the knight's family to the act that led to the augmentation. Other times, a ruler may add landscape pictures, new colors, a new stripe, a symbol of the crown to show royal favor, and so forth.

The Shield Division Key on the Field Division illustration provides GMs and players with the names traditional heraldry assigns to each location on a shield.

The following symbols and creatures are historically found on shields for one reason or another:

Symbol/Creature	Concept
Parts of human body	Religious connection
Lion	Royalty
Mythical Creature	Incredible accomplishments
Dog	Cunning
Bear, Boar	Strength, warcraft
Deer	Speed, honesty
Bull	Power, endurance
Fish/Dolphin	Religious connection, wisdom
Eagle/Falcon	Freedom, nobility
Flowers	Purity, nature
Trees	Steadfastness
Astrological symbols	Related to the star sign

15.0.0.0.3 Field Divisions

Neglecting the many different styles of physical shield designs (round, square, elliptical, pointed, etc..), the way that colors and metals are divided on a shield provides the major distinction between heraldic crests. Most coats-of-arms are just a few field divisions on a shield, though augmentations may provide creatures, symbols, and scenes to a coat-of-arms.

The Field Division illustration provides examples of many common ways to divide up a shield. The GM should consider providing new division types to be particular to various cultures in his world.

15.0.0.0.4 Shield Divisions

To describe the location of each symbol or color on a shield, heraldry developed labels for each section of the shield. These terms were academic, used only in the blazon. See the Shield Division Key on the Field Division illustration.

15.0.0.0.5 Shield Division Key

Dexter Chief
Pale Chief
Sinister Chief
Dexter Fess
Sinister Fess
Dexter Base
Pale Base
Sinister Base
Honor Point
Fess Point
Nombril

16.0 THE CASTLE RECORD

The Castle Record provides a convenient way to organize all of the information needed to run a castle on a monthly basis. Every page of the Castle Record specifically addresses information described in the previous section, except the final optional page. The final page provides a breakdown of the economy of the castle and the land it presides over.

16.0.0.0.1 Optional Information

On the optional page, the first section provides a breakdown of occupations in the populace as a percentage of the population. This allows the GM to customize surrounding land and provides a likelihood of each town or area of having members of specific occupations. For example, if only 5% of the population is comprised of merchants, then most encounters will probably not include a merchant. These few merchants may be too busy to talk to pushy PCs, or they may be desperate for any advantage in a highly restricted economy. The GM should have some of these considerations in mind when he helps assign an occupational breakdown.

Next comes a section that many GMs may want to skip. This sections shows a simple production scale that demonstrates the amount of raw trade goods that are produced each month, and how many traders are available to convert those goods into more useful products. This section helps the GM decide if a land must import food or trade goods to maintain the current standard of living, or if it has a surplus that allows it to increase the economy of the area through exports.

To find out how much food is produced in a land, determine the number of farmers in the land. Multiplying that number by the production value of the land gives the amount of food produced in the land each month. Each food unit thus calculated is enough food to supply the needs of one person for one month. The production value is dependent on the agricultural techniques used and the richness of the land itself. In a standard agricultural area with ox and plow (or equivalent), use a production value of 3. The production value should generally vary from 1 to 9. A production value of 1 is appropriate for a hunting and gathering society, while the number 9 is a highly advanced society with high technology, magic, or both. Other forms of food production can be added for completeness and for the GM to further define the food resources of the land. For example, a herding society should have very few farmers, but the food production from animals will be much higher.

Use the same method with craftsmen to determine the number of trade goods produced each month. The production value should be around 6. For more primitive lands or techniques, he should use the number 3 or 4. For highly advanced societies, or lands that have many magically assisted craftsmen, then the number could go as high as 9 or 10. This number reflects the amount of tools, crafts, and utensils produced each month. The GM will have to determine how to distribute craftsmen, as well as laborers to gather raw materials for the craftsmen to work on. Each laborer can gather 6 wood units or 3 ore units. Each craftsman will use up one wood or ore unit for each craft he produces.

The amount of food required in the land each month is equal to the number of people in the land. The amount of tradegoods needed in the land is determined by the GM. A primitive society may need only .2 tradegoods per person, where a standard agricultural society will need 1, and more advanced societies will need 2 or more. The standard of living modifiers should also be applied to reflect the greater expectations of a more affluent society. In other words, if the GM determines that an agricultural society needs 1 tradegood per month per person, he would then look to see how affluent the society was. If it was a wealthy area, then the 1 tradegood per month would be increased by the +30% standard of living increase to 1.3 tradegoods per month. If a land cannot achieve this higher tradegood need over several months, then the standard of living may drop.

Merchants can supply food and trade to a society that cannot produce enough of its own. A typical merchant can supply one trade unit per month. Each trade unit allows a society to convert one tradegood in to one food point, or vice versa. To further complicate things, the GM may keep track of neighboring lands and see if they have a shortage in food. If so, they will not trade and may compete with a character's kingdom on the market for enough food to feed everyone.

If a region has insufficient food, then people will be hungry. The extent of this depends on how short the area is on food. When a nation is established, the GM should ensure that there will be at least enough food for 90% of the population. That means that if the food production number is 3, then at least 30% of the population should be farmers. If more than 10% of the population is without food, then public opinion will drop one level and people will begin leaving the land or dying. Thievery will become an increasing problem, and banditry will grow. People will not necessarily starve with a shortage of food. They will stretch what food is available and find new resources, but they will be unhappy about it. Of course, the old and the weak always suffer the most in such times, because they do not have as much reserve to carry them through the hard times. If food shortages continue several months at a time, then people will move away, thieves will run wild, the courts will swell, and sheriffs will be subject to ambush and abuse. The GM should be able to illustrate the suffering of the subjects and encourage a player to find a solution to the problem.

If there is a shortage in trade goods, then nothing happens at first. Trade goods generally replace broken tools, provide cooking pots, saddles, swords, and everything else that a developing society needs to continue. If there is more than a 10% shortage in tradegoods in a month, then public opinion will decrease one level. Craftsmen will also begin to produce less tradegoods, because their tools need replacing. To reflect this, the GM should decrease the amount of trade goods produced in any following month there is a shortage of greater than 10% by that same percentage. In other words, if 100 tradegoods are needed each month, and only 80 are supplied in a given month, then next month the number of trade goods produced are reduced by 20%.

This is a quick breakdown intended to define a land in terms of economy, agriculture, people, and so forth. A GM can use this page to quickly decide modifications to price charts. If there is a huge surplus of food, then food should be cheaper than usual. If there is a huge deficit in metal goods, it will be harder and more expensive to find a new sword.

In a larger campaign, this can be used as a resource for traders to setup trading routes or for castle holders to locate new resources (or new lands to conquer).

The final section of page 5 of the Castle Record allows a player to keep track of any special trade goods that his land produces, or any trade routes. This gives the GM more material for story ideas, as well as expanding the depth and scope of the nation in the mind of the player. The more a player writes down about his castle and land, the more story ideas the GM will be able to link directly to the interests of the player and the nation.

Example: Rel's player finally decides to put some information on the Castle Record. The GM asks him to record the information as if the castle was complete. Furthermore, the GM informs him of the size of the population at that point in the future (since at least fifteen years will pass during construction.)

On the first page, he sketches out the entire castle, labelling each unique construction unit. These numbers correspond to the numbers on page 2 of the Castle Record, where he records the physical characteristics of each of these unique structures. Under "Special" he records all of the Structure and Perimeter Wardings on the castle. Since on of the wardings doubles the hits of each unit, he doubles the hits on each structure as he enters it.

On page 3 of the Castle Record, he records the size of his army as he wishes it to be in 15 years. On page 4 the GM helps him fill in the future tax base, while the player addresses the staff and servants that he desires at that time

When Rel's player finishes the Castle Record, it looks like this:

17.0 FOOD COLLECTION AND HARVESTING

"And every tongue, through utterdraught, Was withered at the root; We could not speak, no more than if We had been choked with soot."

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Rime of the Ancient Mariner"

A typical castle gets most of its food from the farmlands its owner rules. A farmer and wife with three children will need at least 10 acres of land to farm in order to pay bills, feed the family, and have a few coins left over for new shoes or clothes each year. This assumes that the farmer uses a three-field system of farming that provides both winter and summer crops. Given this model (and a production value of approximately 4.5) ten acres of arable land produce about 5000 light meals a year in the form of vegetables and grain.

One cow can produce up to 120 to 150 gallons ofmilk a year. Each gallon of milk is worth about 1bp.

Geese typically raise 5 goslings a year.

A sow farrows twice a year, producing anywhere from 5 to 8 piglets each time. A pig is large enough to eat in the second year. Pigs are particularly efficient animals to raise because they can feed themselves if allowed to root in the forest for acorns.

Sheep produce about 0.75 pounds of wool each year as well as around 50 gallons of milk.

A chicken can produce twelve to fifteen eggs each month.

Slaughtering animals can provide a supplement to the produce of the farm, as do eggs and milk. The following chart gives the number of mandays of food that are available from each animal.

Meat	(In Mandays of Food)
Goat/Sheep	16 mandays
Cow	100 mandays
Hen	2 mandays
Pigeon	0.75 mandays
Dog	12 mandays
Cat	3 mandays
Horse	80 mandays
Pig	20 mandays
Milk:
Goat/Sheep	0.75 mandays/day
Cow	2 mandays/day

18.0 SIEGECRAFT

"Fiend, I defy thee! With a calm, fixed mind, All that thou canst inflict I bidt hee do, Foul Tyrant both of gods and human kind, One only being shalt thou not undo."

— Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Prometheus Unbound"

Inevitably, peace degrades into war. When this happens, all of the costly castle defenses show their worth. This book does not provide comprehensive rules for dealing with mass conflicts (this will behandled in another book). What these rules do provide are some simple guidelines for a creative GM to use for castle conflicts.

Castles are generally captured or destroyed through siege. A siege issimply the process of blockading passage from and to a castle. Basically, a siege is an attempt to starve out defenders. While a besieging army is doing this, it generally builds siege engines to try the defenses of the castle. Only in extreme circumstances will an attacking army actually attack fully defended castle walls. Sometimes it becomes necessary as a matter of pride, supplies, time, or religion, but tactically it is a risky undertaking.

Of course, the GM should consider other methods of involving a castle in warfare besides all out attacks. First of all, it is possible for the GM to have characters circumvent castle defenses through creative gaming and story-telling. Perhaps a few saboteurs are needed to sneak into an enemy castle and incite a rebellion, assassinate a key leader, or simply open the main gate. Such methods are great story lines and can lead to many interesting adventures. What if the people in the castle are relieved of a tyrannical lord by an assassin and they pledge to make the assassin their new lord? Will the player be willing to give up that power, or will he lead his new kingdom against his former allies? How will the other players feel if one of their number gets all of the credit? Maybe they will maintain their loyalty to their lord and continue their mission by assassinating (or at least removing from power) their fellow PC. There are many ways that a GM can have the actions of a few players decide the fate of a castle from within. The exact way that a GM designs a story will, of course, depend on the world and the characters involved.

Another method of handling castle combat is for the GM to use the siege engines in this book. If an army attacking successfully isolates a city or castle, the castle defenders will be forced to either attack the besiegers or surrender to avoid starving to death. Also, if attacking catapults are able to reduce several walls, and the attacking army is significantly more powerful, then the castle must probably surrender. Of course, both of these methods assume that an attacking army is able to maintain morale and supplies in enemy territory, where the local populace may hide soldiers, spies, and saboteurs. The GM should punish armies that do not keep busy. Idleness will destroy an army's discipline and spirit.

A final method of handling mass combat is for the GM to role-play the story of the combat. The GM can setup some basic stats for each army and make attack rolls on various combat charts to get a general idea of how well each side compares to the other and the amount of damage they can deliver and sustain. If the GM feels that that is too cumbersome, he can just tell the players what happens. If this last option prevails, the GM can base how well the battle goes on the players' actions.

Regardless of the size of the combat involved, the defensive values of a castle apply to any siege.

Magic can greatly increase the effectiveness of attacks on a castle. Simple spells like Cracks Call and Stone/Earth have obvious effects, but enchanted catapult shots, or even a Spell Mastered Stun Cloud that is confined in a bottle and then hurled over a castle wall can be potent. A list of spells and potential siege uses are below. This is by no means a complete list, but provides a sampling to get players and GMs thinking.

Steps for a Standard Siege
	Blockade
	Dig In/Fortify
	Scout
	Reduction/Sapping
	The Long Wait

18.1 BLOCKADE

This first step is simple, but necessary. An attacking army should scout the land and set up sentry posts for watching the castle and the land around the castle. If a PC is leading the army, have him make a Military Organization roll. If the roll exceeds 100, then the army sets up as he ordered. An especially good roll may result in bonuses to sentry rolls made by the guards due to better placement.

A blockade is necessary to prevent supplies or reserve troops from reaching the castle. The blockade must also protect the army from saboteurs and assassins who may try to slip in from the land around the castle.

18.2 DIGGING IN

Once the initial camp is established and the castle is encircled, an army should begin building fortifications of its own. These may be simple ditches and palisades around portions of important personnel, or it could be as huge as the battleworks designed by Caesar around the city of Alesia. In this historical example, Caesar encircled the city of Alesia, over 25 miles of ramparts with a palisade and towers, and a veritable mine field of spikes and traps that faced both directions! The Romans had Vercingetorix, the leader of the Gauls, trapped in the city, but they were also in danger of attack from the rest of the Gaulish forces who sought to save Vercingetorix. Unquestionably, it was the Roman defensive works that saved the Romans from their otherwise threatened position and even led to the capture of Vercingetorix.

Digging in includes constructing defenses, supply lines, and siege engines. Defensive construction should be handled as detailed in the Castle Design section of this book. The work force generally consists of the attacking soldiers, who are already under salary; and supplies can be taken from the land and any peasant homes or town buildings that can be dismantled for material, so the cost of building these defenses is often negligible. Furthermore, siege buildings are generally made of earth and wood, so they are quick to implement as well.

Supply issues are normally arranged before the march, but once an army settles in for a long siege, it is vitally important that it makes sure that it can support itself. It takes a lot of food to feed an army, and locals may set fire to food stores or fields in their land so that an invading army cannot steal it. In such a case, wagon trains of food or some means of securing supplies must be implemented. Wagon trains should be guarded against attacks that may come from those who would aid the castle. Wagon trains can provide interesting plot material for a GM. Lone PCs may find that they can actually save their castle by preventing food from reaching a besieging army.

Siege engines require assembly and placement once an army surrounds a castle. If attackers have brought mechanisms and sub-assemblies for catapults, towers, and so forth, soldiers must put them together. It can take weeks before an attacking army actually launches its first assault on the walls of a castle.Not until an army has dug in, setup siege equipment, and gathered ammunition for catapults will the first assault begin. The time ittakes to build siege engines is listed in the Extended Price Lists in the Appendix.

18.3 REDUCTION/SAPPING

Once attackers have fortified their position and built siege engines, they generally begin attacking the walls with stone-casters, drills, sappers, and anything else that might destroy the walls of the castle. The GM should determine if there is any danger of return fire from the castle, which may have siege engines of its own. If castle defenders can, they should try to destroy enemy catapults and other engines first.

The catapult and trebuchet are devastating weapons that wear away at castle walls from a safe distance. If a castle has no weapons that match such ranges, the defenders will either have to result to night sabotage or a counter attack with weapons that can burn or destroy the siege weapons. Minor damages can be repaired on siege engines, and it takes a full hot fire to prevent the siege engine crew from putting out the flames.

If the besieged castle is unable to affect the catapults, they have to hope that the castle is able to withstand the barrage from the catapults. A catapult is limited in the size of the ammunition it can launch by its size and the engineering skill of the siege engineer. The ammunition itself will be limited according to the size of the stones sought and by the terrain surrounding the castle.

18.3.0.0.1 The Long Wait

If siege engines and sappers are unable to significantly affect a castle, the besieging army can try to swarm the castle (a costly affair) or starve the castles' inhabitants. A true siege actually involves waiting for one's enemies to run out offood. Everything else, from sapping to catapults, is necessary more for killing time than anything else. The long wait can be tedious for both armies. The main factors in the length of a siege are food stores, weather, and will power.

The stores in a castle should hold for at least a month or two, but as the supplies dwindle and claustrophobia sets in a leader may discover that a shortage of food is not the only problem. Close quarters and poor hygiene can lead to infectious diseases and short tempers. Enemy armies can make it worse by hurling rotten meat into the castle or even grisly showers of human heads to decrease morale.

18.4 SURRENDER

A castle may surrender if the lord can expect noble or just treatment. After surrendering a castle, the lord may still be ransomed and returned to service, where as an unnecessary fight may only bring about his death. A surrender is a great relief to both armies, though is strongly dependent on the armies involved and the general treatment each army has given to other prisoners.

19.0 CASTLE DEFENSES

The following sections deal with the defensive aspects of siege warfare.

19.1 DEFENDING THE CASTLE

19.1.1 MANNING THE CASTLE

Defenders on the castle walls serve two purposes. One is to kill attackers, but more importantly they must protect the walls. This is not obvious at first, but anything that damages a castle wall is a serious threat to the lives of everyone within the castle. Killing attackers is most effective when the number of attackers is small. Generally when an army attacks a castle, there will be a large number of attackers outside the castle (probably at least three or four times the number of defenders inside the castle).

No matter how many defenders are in the castle, only a certain number can guard the walls at any given time. Each length of wall can only be manned by one guard per 5 feet of length. If the wall-walk is at least ten feet wide, a second line of archers can shoot from the wall. Archers on the second line of a wall can only make volley arrow attacks and not direct line attacks.

Ift here is an inner wall, defenders on that wall may use missile fire against attackers so long as the inner wall is taller than the outer wall. Archers on an inner wall can only target attackers that are at least 1.5 times as far away from the outer wall as the outer wall is tall. For example, if the outer wall is 30 feet tall, then archers on the inner wall could only target attackers further than 45 feet away from the outer wall. This accounts for the blocking effect of the outer wall.

Guards on a wall can only attack in the direction that the wall faces. Guards on top of a tower can attack in any direction it faces (therefore men on around tower can attack in all directions). A player or GM may decide to factor in the maximum defensive strength for each direction a castle faces on a copy of the castle layout. To figure the defensive strength of each wall, the player should calculate the number of guards allowed to each wall, tower, or building. Then the player should mark a firing arc for each castle structure.

A firing arc is the ninety-degree arc that each side of the castle faces. Each wall will face in one direction, each square tower should face in two or three directions. Inside each of these arcs, the player should record the maximum number of men that can fire in this arc.

Once done, the castle layout should have a number of overlapping firing arcs that show the maximum number of attacks available in each direction. If the castle is ever attacked, the player or GM will have to decide how to place troops in the castle; the actual number of soldiers placed on each structure should be used to determine the defensive factor in each firing arc.

19.1.2 DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENTS

19.1.2.0.1 Arrow Slits

Arrow slits allow archers to fire while maintaining full cover. Arrow slits hinder an archer's skill somewhat. Firing through an arrow slit with any bow other than a crossbow incurs a -15 OB. This is because the narrow slit reduces visibility and range of motion. A crossbow can still be used at full OB, because the design of the crossbow allows it to get closer to the opening without being obstructedby the rest of the wall.

19.1.2.0.2 Battlements

Battlements provide defenders on the wall with partial cover. Soldiers standing behind the raised crenellations should not be considered targets, so long as they stay close to the wall.

19.1.2.0.3 Hoarding/Machicolation

Both of these defenses allow defenders on a wall to drop stones and other weapons on top of enemies at the base of the wall. Treat this as a +20 Large Fall/Crush attack. Skill can be developed in this form of attack.

Hoarding also increases the amount of standing room at the top of a wall, as it hangs out over the wall. With hoarding in place, it is possible to have three lines of soldiers on the wall. One set in the hoarding fires through arrow slits and drops stones, while two more lines behind that can fire volleys over the hoarding (these would be volley attacks by necessity).

Burning oil, glass, heated sand, and other objects may be dropped through hoarding and machicolation as well. Treat each of these attacks as Fireball attacks. Burning oil is resolved as a +30 Fireball attack. Heated sandisresolved as a +10 Fireball attack. Glass is treated as a 5'radius, +0 Fireball attack with Slash criticals (instead of Heat criticals). Other items dropped from above should be assigned an appropriate attack chart and criticals as necessary .

19.1.2.0.4 Earthworks

Earthworks can cause many different kinds of problems form as sed troops. Ditches stop horse charges, unless the riders make a movingmaneuver to jump the ditch. Spikes imbedded in the far side of a ditch discourages such attempts, or teaches the foolish horsemen a lesson on caution. Ditches force enemy ground troops to climb down and then climb up a slope. The defending troops gain the advantage of higher ground and possibly partial protection from a palisade or spikes.

The difficulty in leaping a ditch by foot or on horse depends on the width of the ditch and on whether or not the far side of the ditch is higher than the near side. See RMSR for rules on jumping. If the far side is higher than the near side of the ditch, increase the difficulty of the jump by one level for each foot it is higher than the near side of the ditch. If spikes are on the far side, increase the difficulty by one more level. If a horseman (or footman) fails to make the leap, he will fall against the far side of the ditch and most likely into the bottom of the ditch. The charging horse or foot man may take damage depending on the speed of the leap, as determined by the GM. If the far side of the ditch is spiked, the failed leaper will receive one Spear attack per 10% failure of the moving maneuver with an OB equal to half of the movement rate of the target. If the roll is successful, the jumper may continue normally. If the far side is heavily spiked, the GM may determine that a second maneuver roll must be made to avoid being struck by the spikes even if the leap itself was successful.

Rather than jump, footmen and horsemen may descend a ditch and climb up the other side. If they do, they fight with -25 OB until they make a successful maneuver to climb out of the ditch (which could be lined with more spikes to slow advance). Do not forget that attacking targets in a ditch will generally give position bonuses to the attackers.

Moats are generally too wide to leap. Even if it was possible to leap to the other side, the attacker would only be able to stand and stare at the castle wall. Soldiers not wearing heavy armor may swim across a moat, but will be under constant attack from the defenders.

Generally attackers attempt to fil the moat up with debris before the trying to cross. This is normally done under the protection of a tortoise. The time it takes to fill in a moat will depend on the number of workers available. To fill in a section of moat, figure out the volume of earth and rock it would take, then find out how long it would take to dig that amount of earth (using the castle construction rules of this book). Then multiply that number by 1.5 to find the total number of mandays that it will require to fill that section of moat. It takes longer because the workers work slower while under archer fire and because some care is taken to place the earth in a particular way to form a land bridge. The land bridge is normally covered with sawed off logs to form a road-like pass over the moat.This makes it easier for wheeled siege engines to approach the wall.

19.1.2.0.5 Barricades

There is often little time to erect more than make shift defenses before fighting starts. Streets can be barricaded just as well as a breach in a castle wall. Barricades can be as simple as an overturned wagon, or as complex as a spiked wooden construction complete with braces, ready to attach to castle walls. A barricade serves as a simple wall that slows enemy forces, exposes them to archery fire for just a while longer as they break through the barrier or push it aside. Attacks on soldiers pushing aside or attacking a barricade are made with a special bonus of +5 to OB and are fully occupied. Spiked barriers can Spear attacks on troops trying to break through (treat as +5 OB Spear attack). These simple spikes find targets often because soldiers under fire tend to be hasty, and they push soldiers infront to encourage them to move .

19.1.2.0.6 Palisade

A palisade can prevent movement like a simple wall if the spikes are set close together. If they are more spread out and pointing out, they serve as a barrier that must be climbed over and around while defenders attack from relative safety. Attackers penetrating such a palisade must make a Light moving maneuver roll or a +5 OB Spear attack. Until an attacker pushes his way through the palisade, all attacks against him gain a bonus of +25 to OB.

19.1.2.0.7 Cranes

Cranes are an unusual advance in siege engines. They are generally kept near a gatehouse, where there are already a number of mechanical cranks and pulleys setup for the operation of the portcullis, gates, and drawbridge. A crane can be used to pickup siege engines and drop them back to the ground. Even if the crane is not powerful enough to lift an attacking machine, it might be able to impede a machines damage on the castle. For example, a crane can grapple one end of a battering ram and prevent the soldiers from swinging it against the gate. Skill at using a crane should be developed justas any other siege engine. The crane does not make attacks, however. Instead, the GM should declare adifficulty rating for each maneuver and use the Movement and Maneuver Table.

19.1.2.0.8 Other Defenses

Thickets of thorns, undergrowth, trip holes, traps, thick mud, fire, and other such creative obstacles can provide useful, and subtle, defense of a castle.

Thickets will slow troops moving through it. The first unit to move through a thicket moves at one-third normal rate. The second moves at half its normal rate. The restare at normal movement as the first two units are assumed to have broken through the thicket and cleared paths, though if following closely, will be limited by the leading unit's speed.

Thickets of thorns and briars can cause stinging attacks on the units passing through them. A +0 OB Stinging attack should affect all troops who do not take extra time to cut through briars. If a unit spends one full round, it can clear three feet of briars. This kind of defense may be made more effective if the plants are poisonous or provide nesting areas for stinging insects. Druids find such defenses very rewarding (though difficult to repair after battle).

Trip holes are small holes dug throughout a stretch of field or road. These holes are camouflaged. Depending on the density of holes, the GM may want to assign a percentage chance that a hole will be stepped in. Once a hole has been stepped in, it is less likely to affect someone else, as it becomes visible. These holes may be filled up by attackers when time permits. Any horse stepping into a trip hole must make a Very Hard maneuver modified by its speed to prevent injury to itself. If the maneuver is successful, the horse manages to escape with no injury. If not successful, the horse will take a +50 Fall/Crush attack. Horseman whose horse steps in a trip hole must make a Very Hard Riding maneuver to not be thrown from his mount. Either way, the horseman will take a Fall/Crush attack. If he remains mounted, he will only take a +0 OB attack. If he is thrown from his horse, the attack will be +25 OB attack. A successful Tumbling maneuver can lessen this damage.

A wet field with deep mud can occur in marsh lands, after a rain, or if defenders intentionally soak a field with water. Thick mud slows the advance of all troops by one-third. Furthermore, wheeled siege engines may find it impossible to move in thick mud, especially heavy ones like siege towers. Depending on the severity of the mud, the GM should decrease the movement of all siege engines such as tortoises, siege towers, trebuchets to at least half their normal rates, possibly immobilizing all such constructions.

The GM should assign a reasonable solution to any new form of siege offense or defense. Spells and new races allow for new tactics that can range from extensive underground combat to aerial battles. Use the examples above to help develop new guidelines.

19.2 ATTACKING THE CASTLE

The castle's defenses give the troops in the castle a decided advantage over ground troops. A commander will have to employ siege methods (as listed previously) to reduce the walls or otherwise breach the wall ifhe wants to avoid an attack by escalation.

19.2.1 ESCALATION

Attempting to take a castle by escalation is one of the most dangerous and foolhardy approaches to castle conquest, but for some reason it persists as a siege tactic. Troops may not attempt escalation without grappling, hooks, ladders, or spell effects. Grappling hooks are easy to carry and use, but harder to climb than a ladder, but a ladder is obvious from a distance allowing the defenders to brace for such an approach.

Setting a hooked ladder should fall under the same category as a grappling hook, but all difficulty levels should be reduced by two. While climbing a ladder or knotted rope, the attacker is subject to attack from any defender on the same section of wall. Soldiers on the wall have a +20 to all missile attacks against opponents on a ladder and +10 to all opponents on a knotted rope.

The standard climbing rates given in RMSR is 10'/round. The GM should only allow one climber per 10' length of rope. Soldiers on the walls can cut ropes or use forked sticks to shove ladders away from the walls. The amount of damage required to cut a rope can be figured using the Materials Integrity Chart. Ropes used for this purpose may have wire woven into the strands to make it harder to cut the rope.

Once a soldier climbs a rope or ladder, he must cross over onto the wall. At this point, the attacker is fully exposed to the defender and must spend one full round (100% activity) to cross onto the wall-walk. Attacks against someone crossing over onto the wall are made with a special bonus of +30 and a defender gets no Quickness modifications to DB. The first attackers to successfully move onto the wall should attempt to protect other attackers seeking to cross onto the wall-walk.

19.2.2 ENTERING THE BREACH

After a breach has been formed in a wall, the ground troops can move into the opening and attack the defenders inside. Troops moving over the rubbled remains of a castle structure move at half normal rate and operate at -10 to all actions. Once troops have breached the walls and begin fighting in the court yard, military formations tend to break down into an open horde, though some units may attempt to resume other formations.

19.3 SIEGE ENGINES

A lot of the difficulties an attacking army will find are listed above (under Defense Improvements). What you will find in this section is the defensive weapons that the attacker can employ, mainly siege engines. Siege engines developed more slowly than the defenses of the castles, but they always followed. As new forms of defenses are applied in a game world and campaign, new siege engines should later develop to circumvent each defense. The same follows for new siege engines. As new forms of attack develop, new defenses should be invented to counter them.

The first class of siege engines are the missile hurlers. These are the ballistae, catapults, and trebuchets. Their functions have already been detailed.

The second class of siege engines are more defensive in nature. These are the mantelets, tortoises, and siege towers. Each of these, in some fashion, mimics some portion of the castle. The mantelet is a portable battlement or arrow slit. It allows an attacking archer to have nearly the same defensive capabilities as an archer on a wall. The tortoise is a covered structure that grants soldiers inside the protection of walls and a roof. While inside, they can fill up moat or use a drill or other offensive siege engine. The siege tower provides cover from enemy fire as well as eliminating the height advantage of castle walls, allowing attacking soldiers to swarm over the wall without being exposed to attack from the wall.

The third class of siege engines are the wall bashers. These are the battering ram and drill. Each works best in conjunction with a tortoise. Both of these engines are simple and straight forward in that they are pushed up to a gate or wall and repeatedly bashed into the target to wear it away.

19.3.1 MANTELETS

A mantelet provides partial cover to archers behindit. If a mantelet has arrow slits, half the normal allotment of soldiers can use the mantelet for full cover just as a defender uses the arrow slit on the castle wall. A mantelet can be pushed by its allotment of occupants at half their normal movement rate.

19.3.2 TORTOISE

A tortoise provides complete cover for its occupants. They can not be attacked until they open the tortoise, or the tortoise is broken or destroyed. When the occupants open the front panel of the tortoise, which is generally hinged at the top, they are afforded partial cover. This includes any time that is spent filling in a moat or such. Such can smooth out a path for a siege tower without exposing themselves.

19.3.3 SIEGE TOWERS

A siege towers provides its occupants with complete cover, unless they are using arrow slits or opening panels in the tower to use siege engines within. However, troops pushing the tower only get partial cover. A large number of troops are normally required to push these monstrous towers forward, and many of them are fully exposed to enemy fire, especially as the tower gets closer to the castle walls. Generally a tower is pushed into place, because there is no room in front of it to have a covered space for anyone to pull. It takes at least 150 soldiers to push a small tower into place, 600 soldiers to push a medium tower into place, and 1500 soldiers to push a large siege tower. Once a tower is in place these troups can then climb ladders along the back of the tower so that they can join the fray atop the wall.

Siege towers can be built to include ballistae, catapults and battering rams. The time for building such engines in a tower is one and a half normal time cost for the engine. This allows for the extra engineering required to combine structures. Any fumbles made by siege engines inside of a siege tower must roll an attack against the siege tower itself (except for battering rams).

19.3.4 WALL BASHERS

Battering rams and drills must be wheeled up to a wall or gate, but once there they can operate until destroyed or wheeled back away from the wall. They attack on the Catapult attack table using the weight of the ram/drill as the size of the ammunition. This form of attack can be relentless and more devastating than catapult fire, though the engine and its operators are exposed to a much more severe climate (as a gatehouse or well is generally well equipped to fight off battering rams).

19.3.4 DAMAGING AND DESTROYING SIEGE ENGINES

Siege engines cannot easily be damaged by normal weapons, such as arrows and swords. Siege engines are mainly susceptible to fire, stones, magic, and large attacks. This means that siege engines can always damage each other with only one exception. The arrow ballistae can do no damage to other siege engines with just arrows (though an incendiary arrow always has a chance of catching an engine on fire.

Each siege engine has a number of hits. An engines' AT will depend on the construction material, which is generally some form of wood. The chance that an incendiary attack will ignite wood on fire is 5%. Each successive attack has a cumulative chance of setting the wood on fire. If the target wood is covered in hides or is wet, reduce this chance to 3% per incendiary attack. If the target is covered in hides and is wet, reduce this chance to 2%. Of course, some troops in the machine are likely to try to do use the flames. For each soldier doing so, reduce the cumulative chance of fire by 5%. Soldiers do using fire are exposed and have no cover. If the engine does catch on fire, it will slowly spread and inflict a critical each round. The fire will deliver an `A' Heat critical in each of the first three rounds of burning to the engine. The next three rounds, it will deliver a `B' Heat critical, and so forth. If the engine is covered in hides, reduce the increase rate of critical severity to one every five rounds.

Soldiers in a burning engine can come out and try to extinguish the fire. Each man doing so has an additive 10% chance of putting the fire out, modified by the severity of the flames. A fire delivering `A' Heat criticals will be -10 to be extinguish. A fire delivering `B' Heat criticals will be -20 to extinguish, and so on. If the engine begins taking `E' criticals, then it must be abandoned, due to extreme heat and smoke. Anyone inside a siege engine taking `E' heat criticals takes a +10 Fireball attack each round (with no DB mods).

Once a siege engine takes more damage than its breaking point, it is useless (but repairable given time). If the siege engine takes more damage than its destroy value, it is irreparable.

19.4 SIEGE EQUIPMENT

Note that the attack tables for siege weapons can be found in Section 34.0.The attacktable provided foreach type of weapon is based upon the data for a "light" weapon of that type. Refer to the Siege Weapon Modifications Chart forheavier weapons.

Ballistae (Arrow) — Ballistae use a windlass and bow string to hurl a large spear-like arrow a great distance. These arrows are anywhere from 4 to 6 feet long, tipped with an iron head, and weigh 4 to 6 pounds. These arrows may be fired on siege towers, other engines, and personnel. When used against other engines, these arrows are often set on fire in hopes of catching the enemy engine on fire. A common defense against ballistae is a huge net of cabled cord that either deflects or entangles the arrows.

Ballistae (Stone) — Similar in operation to the arrow-throwing ballistae, the stone-throwing ballistae instead hurls rocks.The stone-throwing ballistae will throw a 25 to 50 pound stone ball a fair distance with the accuracy decreasing rapidly at more extreme ranges. These engines are anti-personnel weapons, but may be employed with limited effectiveness against wooden structures and siege engines.

Catapults — Also called mangonel, catapults are built on a heavy frame and stable platform. If the platform is wheeled, it must be stabilized with wedges and spikes before use, or else the catapult will have double its normal fumble range. The catapult arm is held at a pivot end in tightly twisted rope and drawn down by a windlass. It will hurl rocks of up to about 65 pounds out to a maximum range of approximately 700 yards. If the catapult is armed with a cup rather than a sling, the maximum range is cut by 25% and the fumble range is reduced by 1. Several catapults working in tandem can reduce all but the stoutest of castles (so long as ammunition remains available). Another use for the catapult includes hurling burning substances at enemy structures or inside castle walls, hoping to catch barracks or other structures on fire. Finally, the catapult may also hurl dead animals into a castle in hopes of encouraging disease in the tight castle quarters. A frightening twist to this attack involves hurling dead bodies or heads into the castle as away of demoralizing the defenders.

Trebuchets — A more advanced form of catapult, the trebuchet uses a counter weight to hurl its ammunition, as opposed to releasing tension from the catapult arm. The trebuchet uses an arm up to 50 feet in length. When the sling end of the arm is released, the counterweight (up to 20,000 pounds) falls, yanking the sling forward.This action will throw a 300 pound rock up to 375 yards. The impact of a trebuchet stone is sufficient to shatter stone walls.

Battering Rams — These are huge (usually iron-tipped) poles that are used to pound on a door or wall until it breaks. A ram can be carried and held by the troops that swing it. Alternatively, one can be placed on a wagon or other wheeled cart to free soldiers from having to support the weight of the ram itself. For even greater efficiency, the ram can be suspended from a frame that supports the weight of the ram while allowing an easier and smoother swing. This final technique is most effective when used inconjunction with a tortoise, or as part of a siege tower.

Drills — Also called a mouse or a bore. These are sharptipped screws or levers that are used to attack the foundations of walls. Troops use drills to pick out mortar from between stones in the walls and eventually pry out the stones themselves. A drill is most effective if protected by a siege tower or tortoise.

Mantelets — These are wooden barriers mounted on wheels. A mantelet wheeled to within bow range of a castle's walls provides partial or full cover to archers in the field. They can also be used to protect spell users, allowing them to safely cast spells, or sappers trying to start a tunnel.

Tortoise — Also called a testudo, a sow, a penthouse, a cat, or a rat. A tortoise is a wheeled shelter that protects advancing footsoldiers from archer fire. It is named for the rate at which it moves as well as for the protective shell it provides. A tortoise may also be used in conjunction with a battering ram or a drill. A tortoise can protect soldiers and workers as they begin sapping or filling a moat with rocks and soil. Once enough debris fills a moat, soldiers can lay split logs across the debris to form a crude bridge.

A typical small tortoise is approximately 20 feet long, 8 feet wide, and 6 feet tall. A typical medium tortoiseis approximately 35 feet long, 12 feet wide, and 7 feet tall. A typical large tortoise is approximately 50 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 8 feet tall.

Siege Towers — These fearful engines put attackers on similar ground with defenders of a castle. From these engines, attackers can creep forward slowly and remain heavily defended. Once a seige tower reaches a wall, a drawbridge can be lowered from the top of the tower to the top of the wall and soldiers inside can step across and engage the defenders in hand-to-hand combat. A siege tower can hold a number of soldiers on various levels, which may allow archers to attack as the tower advances. Ladders along the back of the tower allow more soldiers to swell up the tower and overwhelm castle wall defenders rapidly. Advanced towers can have catapults or other siege engines inside that can fire through shutters. At the siege of Kenilworth Castle in 1266, for example, 200 archers and 11 catapults operated from one huge tower.

A typical small tower is approximately 30 feet tall, with a base of 20 feet by 20 feet, and fully loaded weighs 20 tons. A typical medium tower is approximately 60 feet tall, with a tower base of 30 feet by 30 feet, and fully loaded weighs 100 tons. A typical large tower is around 80 feet tall, with a tower base of 40 feet by 40 feet and weighs approximately 300 tons fully loaded. Obviously, these structures are extremely cumbersome and require a lot of force to move. A tortoise generally precedes a tower to give troops an opportunity to smoothed out a path (or even make a road) for the tower using split logs.

Cranes — Cranes were first used in defense of walls by Archimedes. Archimedes designed immense cranes for the walls of Syracuse. These cranes were used to defend a wall that faced the sea. Ships attacked the wall only to find that the crane was capable of grappling one end of the ship and lifting it high into the air, before dropping it back into the water with devastating effect. Cranes can be used to lift up siege engines attacking a gate or wall. Even if a crane is not strong enough to lift an engine, it is possible, for example, for the crane to snare one end of a battering ram and impede its swing.

A light crane has a maximum load of 1 ton. A medium crane has a maximum load of 10 tons. A heavy crane has a maximum load of 50 tons.

19.4.0.0.1 Other Siege Equipment

Ladders, grappling hooks with knotted ropes, shovels, picks, sacks, wheel barrows, incendiary material, buckets, animal hides, and plenty of construction tools are all useful during a siege. Ladders and grappling hooks can be used to scale a castle wall. This is considered a desperate measure because soldiers on such a climb are fully exposed and most ladders and ropes can be broken, burnt, or shoved away all too easily.

Shovels, picks, and other digging tools are used by sappers to dig tunnels under castle walls or sometimes even to dig a tunnel into the castle itself. If a tunnel is dug under a wall and collapsed (generally by burning the tunnel's wooden support braces), there is achance that the collapse will destroy part of a castle's foundation and thereby weaken or collapse a section of wall. Sappers can also advance with infantry and attack the base of the castle wall by trying to dig and pick at the base of the wall. When they do so, they generally carry sturdy wooden slats that they can prop against the base of the wall. By bracing the slats against the wall, the sappers form a cover under which they can begin slowly digging. The most common methods for clearing sappers from the base of a wall are pouring fire on top of the slats or lowering pots of burning sulfur to smoke them out where they can be shot.

Incendiary material such as oil is required for making flaming arrows, for hurling fire at a castle, and for setting fire to soldiers, gates, and engines. The simplest defense against fire attacks is animal hide. Wooden structures like hoarding or tortoises are generally covered in wet animal hide to lessen the damage that can be caused by incendiary attack. Also, the main gatehouse generally keeps water available top our onto the gate itself in case it is set ablaze.

Again, other siege tactics and tools can be invented and employed. Any thing that offers protection or a new avenue of attack against the castle or the castle's defenses is viable. One other classical example involved vast construction projects to redirect rivers either to remove a moat or flood a castle or city. According to Herodotus, Cyrus conquered the city of Babylon by rechannelling the river that ran through Babylon's walls and then he was able to march his armies through the openings in the wall where the river once ran. The means of conquering a city or castle should be considered carefully on its own merit. There are many tactics that can be employed, and there are some that can only work in certain situations. A good general will consider the land and the politics of the land as well as the size of the walls when lining up his forces for an attack.

Other siege engines can operate in a fantasy setting. Magic opens any number of avenues for enhanced engines or even new forms of siege and combat engines.

19.5 AMMUNITION

Some siege engines have simple ammunition needs, like mall boulders for a small catapult, while others require crafted arrows or unwieldy stones and such. Weapons that require crafted ammunition like stone and arrow ballistae normally have a limited amount of ammunition that is carried to the battle by the attackers, or stored in the castle by the defenders. Other weapons require work teams to seek out and relocate large stones and boulders. Smaller stones are not too hard to find, but there is rarely an unlimited supply of 200-pound stones lying around.

In mountainous or rocky terrain, there is (for most purposes) a nearly unlimited supply of stones of almost any size, either lying around or waiting to be carved from larger stones. A marsh would on the other hand have few stones and it would be difficult to carry them through that terrain as well. In hills, plains, or forests, there is a limited number of stones readily available for use. To determine how many stones can be gathered, an attacker must assign work parties to gather ammunition. These work teams consist of ten soldiers each, presumably with appropriate tools and carts. Each work team can make one roll (using the Moving Maneuver Table) per day spent gathering ammunition. Divide the number found on the table by 10 to determine the number of suitable stones found by the work team. The level of difficulty of the maneuver depends on the size of ammunition sought and the terrain they are searching. Below is a list of typical modifiers to this roll. If a siege is prolonged, the GM should make finding ammunition increasingly more difficult as an area is depleted of stones. Of course, work teams could be sent to gather used ammunition from the base of the castle, too.These stones will always be less than half the size of the stones that were originally hurled against the walls.

As ammunition runs low, attackers may need to be more creative with what they throw at the castle. In cold climates, ice can be effectively employed against wooden or ice structures. Burning wood or hay can be hurled over a castle wall. Dead animals can be hurled into the castle to increase the chance of disease striking the castle defenders. The heads or bodies of dead defenders could be thrown into the castle to decrease morale. It may even be possible for a catapult to launch constructs, elementals, or golems into a castle as a sort of invasion. For any material a catapult hurls against a wall it should be remembered that a material that is more than two ammo types (AT) weaker than another material on the Materials Integrity chart will have a much lessened effect on impact. In most situations the GM should ignore damage done to a wall by anything of two AT levels weaker than the wall. Any damage done by a material one level weaker than the wall will only do threequarters normal damage to the wall (with critical results reduced by one level).

A catapult can also be filled with gravel, glass, heated sand, or other substances and hurled at enemy troops. These anti-personnel attacks should be resolved as modified Fireballs. Gravel and small stone attacks should do damage as a +0 OB Fireball with Crush criticals. Glass attacks should do damage as a +0 OB Fireball attack with Slash criticals. Heated sand should do damage as a +0 OB Fireball attack (but defender gets double DB modification).

20.0 SAPPING ATTACKS

Sappers attack castles in several ways. They can dig mines towards and under castle walls and attack the foundation. They can dig tunnels into a castle in an attempt to give soldiers a secret entrance into a castle. And finally, and most risky, they can approach a side of the castle and begin digging at the base of a castle wall or structure.

When sappers attempt to collapse walls, they work in small teams clearing dirt and rock from a low tunnel.They brace the tunnel with thick wooden braces. The braces hold the earth to either side as well as hold the roof in place.These braces help prevent the tunnel from collapsing on the sappers. Once the sappers have dug a tunnel under a castle wall or structure's foundation, they fill the tunnel with brush and oil and anything else that will burn hot.By igniting such materials, the braces burn causing the tunnel to collapse.If the tunnel collapses under the castle's foundation, the foundation may crack or collapse, though it may hold strong.

The GM may require sappers to make Siege Engineering maneuvers in order to see if they have placed a tunnel properly, or if it is excavated in the proper way. If the roll does not exceed 100, then the sappers will have to determine in what way they have missed the target and then compensate. The sappers will know if they reach a castle's foundation, unless they have dug too deep.

The GM may also require the sappers to make Siege Engineering rolls to see how soundly the tunnel is being made. If the roll fails then the tunnel may partially or totally collapse trapping the sappers and possibly killing them. The time it takes to excavate a tunnel can be determined using the Tunnelling Chart under the Earthworks portion of the Castle Construction section (xxx). The excavation processmay provide a lot of dirt and rock for siege engines or for filling in a moat as well.

If there is a moat around a castle, the difficulty for sapping the castle increases dramatically. If the sappers dig too close to the moat, the tunnel will collapse and flood the tunnel, killing all of the sappers. The only way to avoid that fate is to dig deep into the earth and then tunnel up under the castle. It takes a lot of time and skill to succed at such a task. Make all Siege Engineering rolls at -50 and require the sappers to have an SL of at least 5.

Once a tunnel is complete and set ablaze, the sappers make a Sapping Attack roll to see what happens to the castle structure. The Sapping Attack roll uses the digging team's Siege Engineering skill (uses the highest skill bonus in the team and add the number of ranks, not the rank bonuses, of all the other team members) as an OB and is modified by the quality of the castle's walls and the terrain.

When sappers attempt to dig a tunnel into a castle's walls, they still use the tunnelling rules. Of course, now they do not collapse the tunnel, but attempt to break into one of thecastle's store rooms or dungeons. How well they dig and how accurately they tunnel to where they wish to go can be determined by using the Siege Engine Accuracy Table. The GM may require the tunnellers to make accuracy manuevers at reasonable intervals to see how close they achieve their goal and so that they can try to compensate for any errors while digging. Any result that says they fall short of their target means they dug more deeply than they wanted or made less forward progress. Any result that says they overshot the mark means they dug too shallow and that there is a chance that the cave collapses in this shallow part. If the GM determines that it does collapse, he will decide if it is causes damage to the sappers or just exposes them to defenders on top of the walls.

Castle defenders should be aware that sappers are at work if they see an excavation entrance, or even if they see new piles of dirt or men hauling dirt. Once they are aware that sapping is being attempted, the castle may use several methods for trying to determine where the sappers are. Bowls of water can be placed in the lower levels of the castle; when digging occurs nearby, ripples will appear in the closest bowls. The castle will then be aware of the general location of the sappers.

The defenders may wait to attack the sappers as they break through into the castle, or the defenders may tunnel out to where the enemy sappers are and attack them underground. This second method is the only effective defense against collapse attempts on walls. The water bowl method of sapper detection is a little more difficult along the walls, but can be used just the same. If sappers are found, the defenders may tunnel out and kill the sappers before they can collapse the tunnel.

The final method of sapping castle walls involves sappers reaching a castle's walls above ground and then digging at the base of the wall. This method is much more dangerous than regular sapping, but is much faster as well. Sappers generally brace a large shield, mantelet or some other wooden cover against the wall to provide protection from rocks and arrows from above. While under such protection, the sapper tunnels in to the castle wall. The sapper can attempt to breach the wall in this manner, or he can attempt to weaken the wall's strength.The sapper must declare which he is trying once he starts.It will take him standard tunnelling time to breach the wall. Ignore the Structural Threshold for breach attempts. In essence the sapper is not attacking the wall, but unbuilding it.

21.0 SIEGE CONCERNS

21.1 SCOUTING & PATROLS

Border patrols allow a castle to have prior warning of any advancing threat or army. Border patrols can also be used to test the readiness of troops across the border. If border patrols are able to move into neighboring lands without detection, they can gather useful information or even prepare for a military advance against that unwary neighbor.

Whenever a border patrol is in an area with hostile armies, monsters, spies, or criminals, the patrol has a possibility of discovering any threat. Of course, a border patrol will have to be aware of what and who to look for in the case of spies and criminals. Generally, they police a nation's border and are the first to discover tracks of intruders or the intruders themselves. Any border patrol that is composed of hunters or rangers may gain +10 as a unit for any Awareness maneuvers that the patrol unit makes.

Whenever a patrol is in a situation in which it might discover something, the GM can make an Awareness manuever for the patrol. If it discovers anything then the patrol will either look for more information, report the findings, or both (by splitting up the patrol). The GM should determine what the patrol does, informing the castle-owner only if the patrol survives to report. Alternatively, the GM can use the WatchTable (xxx) to determine the effectiveness of the patrol.

A hunt master or constable must organize border patrols, and the effectiveness of the patrol may be improved or worsened based on the organizer's Military Organization skill. Using this method, the GM can find a percentage chance that a patrol will discover something based on the number of soldiers patrolling each day compared to the distance covered by each patrol.

These modifiers are applied to any Awareness maneuver made by a patrol. The skill of the huntmaster or whoever is in charge of these patrols will modify the above chart by one row shift down for every five ranks of Military Organization skill that he has. The organizer must have at least one rank of Military Organization for every five patrols that he organizes at one time.

Any other modifiers, such as from poachers covering their tracks, should be applied, and then an Awareness maneuver is made. The chart above helps to take into account the distances covered by patrols and the likelihood of stumbling into anything important. The Awareness manuever uses this modifier to help determine if a patrol notices anything unusual or not. If a patrol is actually tracking an individual or such, this chart should not be used. The Boarder Awareness Modifications chart takes into account the patterns of normal patrolling necessary for vast areas of land.

21.2 SPIES

Spies can be hired to gather information, sabotage enemy activities, or assassinate a target. Spy activities can either be roleplayed or solved on the Movement/Maneuver Table. The GM should make a skill roll on the Movement/Maneuver Table, adding the Spy's appropriate skill bonus. The level of difficulty is based on what the spy is trying to accomplish, modified by any special situations as determined by the GM. The following guidelines should be applied to spy attempts:

21.3 WATCHES

Watches and patrols along a castle wall or camp enclosure are important for detecting attacks and saboteurs. The following chart gives guidelines for the effectiveness of any given watch. For the purposes of this chart, the word "target" refers to anyone or anything approaching the area being watched. If a target enters the watched areas and the watcher(s) makes the required manuever, the target is detected. The GM may use the level of success of a roll to determine how quickly a target is detected.

This table should be used for wall watches and military camp watches and in no way should be used to replace the standard Awareness manuevers for PCs.

Stalk Skill: Subtract 100 from the sneaker's Stalking skill roll (if above 100) and subtract the remainder from the watch roll.

Torchlight: No modification.

Night: Add one level of difficulty

Dusk/Dawn: No modification.

Day: Subtract two ofdifficulty

Distractions: Add 1-3 levels of difficulty

Organization: Subtract 100 from the Military Organization skill roll (if above 100) of the watch organizer and add the remainder to the watch roll.

22.0 DISEASE

"And he is lean and he is sick, His littlebody's halfawry; His ankles they are swollen and thick His legs are thin and dry."

— William Wordsworth, "Simon Lee"

Disease is aproblem in every city and castle. Sanitation in medieval times was basically ineffective. Castles were equipped with latrines that emptied into lower level sof the castle. These cesspits were regularly emptied by maintenance servants (called gon of the walls). Furthermore, many latrines also emptied directly onto a pile of refuse that would lie against one wall of the castle.

The stench from such refuse piles could be quite overpowering at the best of times, and they also bred flies, rats, and disease. During a siege, these conditions worsen. Soldiers camp in a very restricted areas. Open wounds are exposed to dirt, grime, insects, and other unhealthy substances, making them more susceptible to infection, especially if there is no healer. Even with a healer, infections are a serious concern, because the importance of an antiseptic environment will not likely be understood.

The Disease Infection Chart details the basic chances of disease outbreaks, and includes a number of modifiers for different situations. The GM should roll once a week during a siege and once a month during normal conditions. If a disease breaks out, the GM should roll to see the type of disease, the strength of the disease, and the number of people infected. Minor diseases, such as the common cold, can generally be weathered. More serious illnesses will require serious intervention to avoid great loss of life.

The severity of the disease (and thus the recovery time) is listed in the next section of the chart, modified by conditions surrounding the castle. If healers are present, symptoms will not persist as long, will be less severe, and the number of people infected will be lower. Healers can prevent minor illnesses from becoming worse, and moderate illnesses from killing many residents of a castle.

Most of the diseases that will occur as a result of these rolls will be bubonic or pneumonic in nature.

Other modifications may be made to this chart as well, considering the environment and so forth. For example, a castle may have a chapel devoted to a deity of cleanliness or healing. If such were the case, then the GM might choose to subtract 15 or 20 from the roll, depending on the power, influence, and faith of the castle dwellers. Other factors such as rigorous sanitation and germ control could result in a -10 or -15 modification to rolls on this chart.

If a disease outbreak occurs before a prior one has passed, it is a re-occurrence of the same disease. The GM should roll on this chart only to determine the number of new victims and should ignore the type of infection, using the old disease instead, even if the old disease is much weaker than the second disease rolled.

23.0 FOOD STORES

Food stores should be accurately assessed at the beginning of a siege. Once a lord knows how many mandays of food he has and how many people are in the castle, he can determine just how long food supplies will last in the castle. The Castle Record has a space for recording the amount of food stored (in mandays). Next to this is the maximum amount of food that can be stored in the castle's storerooms. Food can be held in rooms not designated for food storage if more reserve food is needed.

Once a siege begins, the castle lord should begin making decisions about how food will be distributed and whether an eventual shortage is likely. If stores are stocked and the chances of ending the siege seem more imminent then a food shortage, there is no problem. If it looks likely that the food stores may run out while the enemy is still surrounding the castle, there are a number of ways a castle lord can decide to stretch food stores.

The most obvious decision is to make everyone eat less. This generally is a wise tactic, but it should not be taken to extremes. Food stores hold a resource that must be conserved, but cannot be indefinitely saved. People must eat. For each day that an individual goes without food, he will be at -15 the day after each fast. For each day he eats normal rations after this, he can remove -5 from the penalty.

An alternative to eating a normal day's requirement of food or not eating at all is the half-ration. People can live on half-rations for a week before they begin to accrue penalties. The second week of half-rations will cause a -5 penalty. The third week will impose an additional -10 (for a total of-15). The fourth week inflicts -15 more (total -30) and so forth. Each week of normal rations will reduce the acumulated penalty by a weeks worth of half-ration penalties. Troops living on half-rations alternated with full rations will therefore never take apenalty, though they may grumble a bit. Lack of food seriously depletes morale. Observe the modifiers on the Siege Morale Chart for half-rations and no rations (See Section 29).

Without using magic, there are a number of ways to feed defenders of a castle even after food stores have been depleted, though most are distasteful and will likely hurt morale, possibly leading to religious retribution. Some of these methods include cannibalism (friendly dead or the enemy, though more friendly dead will be nearby), eat horses, or even kill off the old and weak (or even all of the non-fighters) early on so that they will not consume the soldiers' food. Late in a siege when no food is available, almost any organic material becomes a target for food, including shoe leather, grass, moss, and so on. Some of these makeshift foods are scarecely better than nothing. The GM will have to decide how effective such substances prove to be in each instance, though the effects on morale will rarely be good, unless a lord orgeneral invents a totally new way offinding food.

There are a number of ways that magic can aid in gathering or conserving food. Sustenance spells, summoning spells, and the like can all feed a few people.

Another concern in a siege is the quality of food. If food is stored for too long, it can spoil. Most food types can be stored for a period before spoiling. Food eaten after this safe time frame has passed may cause food poisoning. The base chance of an incident of food poisoning occurring in a castle is 10% if food is eaten after its freshness date. For each week beyond the freshness date the food is kept before it is eaten, the chance of an incident of food poisoning is increased by 15%. To find out the extent of poisoning, roll on the Disease Infection chart. Anyone affected by food poisoning will suffer from a mild to severe chemical disease. See Section 22 on disease for more information.

While individuals need plenty of food, they also need plenty of water. In fact, the average human needs about eight pounds of water each day, as compared to two pounds of food. Water is generally supplied through casks, wells, moats, and rain. In particularly arid climates or in severely overcrowded situations, accurate accounting of water can be more critical. In most cases, assume water is available so long as the castle made reasonable preparations and there is no unusual dry spell of weather. This does not mean that there is plenty of water for baths, washing the family goat, or hosing down the side of the castle walls. Frivolous use of water should be admonished with shortages and possibly a mandatory call for recycling all water consumed in the castle (which should increase the chance of disease within the castle by 5%, decrease morale, and give everyone in the castle bad morning breath).

24.0 SIEGE MORALE & MAGIC

24.1 SIEGE MORALE

Siege Morale maneuvers should be made once a week while a castle is under siege. The morale roll reflects the fatigue and despair that can wear on troops as days wear on. Soldiers inside a castle are trapped with nowhere to run. They have a diminishing supply of food and water. They must wake up every morning to the sight of armed forces moving about in the morning haze. They go to bed at night with bonfires sparkling in the surrounding terrain like stars in the heavens. Waiting often wears away at a soldier's nerves worse than the fighting.

Siege Morale maneuvers must be made by an attacking army as well. These soldiers receive +10 to all morale rolls, because they are not trapped, and they are generally kept busier than the soldiers barricaded in the castle. Attackers, though, must wake up in cold beds in a land far from (or at least not close to) their homes and wives. They eat second-rate food and grow envious of the defenders, who sleep in beds and siton real benches and chairs. They are assaulting a fortress, a physically impressive structure that is generally regarded with awe by the commoner.

There are a number of modifications to a morale roll. Advisor points may be spent to increase morale. Short rations, disease, and the severity of war itself can subtract from morale manuevers. Successful Leadership and Public Speaking skill checks can prevent penalties, but they cannot yield positive modifiers to morale rolls. These skills reflect a leader's ability to sway morale and public opinion in hard times. A GM may choose to allow the bonus from such manuevers to affect morale only if the speaker reveals propitious information that the listeners do not already know. For example, if arrow-proof, dancing demons are still stomping the turf and hurting morale, the speaker could inform his guards that the castle was built on the remains of a temple that still retains enough power toward off demons. It is for that reason that the demons cannot attack, instead dancing in frustration before the gate. Once again the GM must make a judgement on such issues.

24.2 SIEGE MAGIC

All of the rules so far cover non-magic siege warfare. Magic has the potential to change the boundaries of battle. Of course, in worlds where magic is limited, moderate, or at least guarded against, magic should only be a limited avenue of attack. Why use only strength of arms when you have access to magical arts? By the same reasoning, why use only magic when you have access to physical means of attack? In high-powered magical campaigns, it may actually be easier to tear apart a castle with magic than to just tear down one wall and let an army enter. If such is the case, that is probably the approach many attackers will pursue. Of course, if magic is that powerful, and has always been so, defenses would have been engineered to counter such attacks. Just as in the real world, any new advances in offensive capabilities are met with new advance in defenses, and vice-versa.

Magic opens up many possibilities for both sides in a siege. Consider the ramifications of conjurers who can summon demons and set them loose on an encamped army or besieged castle. Healing spells return warriors to the fray quicker. Magic defenses can protect troops, or invisibility spells or illusions can allow saboteurs easy access to castle walls. When battles include strong magics, there are no simple rules. The GM will have to grapple with all of the ramifications of any new magic tactic and how it relates to standard rules.

In general, subtle magic will aid an army much more than a simple Stone/Earth spell, which, although it can ruin a portion of wall, exposes the spell caster to enemy fire. Invisibility, however, can allow spies to slip into a castle unobserved. Spies on the inside can open gates, kill guards to allow others to approach a wall unobserved, or just wait inside for a suitable moment to strike.

Several illusion spells that make the enemy believe your army is stronger and better prepared will make the opponent reconsider attacking. Players should reconsider the overall applications of all spells at their disposal, because it is often the overlooked spell that can save the day.

25.0 RUINS

"What in the midst lay but the Tower itself? The round squat turret, blind as thefool's heart, Built of brown stone, without a counterpart In the whole world."

— Robert Browning, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came"

There is something romantic about a crumbling ruins on a bleak hillside or the remains of a once tall castle. A humbling sensation creeps up on even the proudest heart when it views the ravages of time on the strongest architectural works. A ruin tempts the adventurous, romantic, and curious natures of viewers, because the ruin is a puzzle on the grandest scale.

A ruin is a mystery with many secrets. Though a hardened adventurer may not have the time or the inclination to search out all of the mysteries, the unknown factors of the ruins make them quite intriguing. For what was the original structure built and used for? What happened to the people who built the structure? Why hasn't someone else explored the ruins yet? Or maybe someone else has. If so, are the ruins still abandoned, or do they house creatures suited to the decaying atmosphere of the ruins? There are many questions to be answered in regards to any ruin.

A ruin is generally a partially destroyed or decayed structure, but for the purposes of this work, an abandoned structure will also be considered a ruin. The structure itself can be almost anything from a peasant's hovel to a high king's castle. Temples, monuments, shrines, elaborate tombs, and even cities can all be types of ruins. Basically, any structure that is no longer used or is in an advanced state of disrepair is considered a ruin.

25.1 DESIGNING RUINS

A GM should detail a number of items before presenting a ruin to character inspection. These details are separated into four categories:

Structural details—Structural details involve designing a layout for the ruin, the AL of the original creators of the structure, artistic styles used in construction, traps, and anything unique about the ruin. Is it magical? Was magic used in its construction? A few details about the construction can include racial or historical construction styles that may have bearing to the larger issues of the GM's campaign or world.

Purpose—What was the structure originally used for? Was it a temple, and if so, who worshiped there? Was it used by different people at different times for different purposes? It is very possible that early fortresses could be converted into monasteries or temples, or vice-versa. The purpose of the structure will give the GM an idea of what types of equipment or items may be laying about the ruin, as well as the likelihood of any traps or magical devices.

Event—What happened to the people who built the structure? Why is the place abandoned and falling down? Did a disease wipe out the populace? Did war reduce this once-mighty castle? The event is one of the dominant mysteries to the ruin and it is a question that the characters are going to be interested in. The more involved the explanation for the event, the more story potential the GM can place within ruined walls.

The event will also help explain the structure's current state. If the building caught on fire and burned to the ground, there would be plenty of evidence of this fact. If the building was attacked and burned to the ground, then the fire damage would be obvious, but the actual form of attack may be more difficult to discern. The event will also help explain what remains can be found within the ruins. If the building was sacked to obtain the High Staff of the Sun, it is not likely that the High Staff of the Sun is still inside (unless itis very well guarded).

Status—The status represents the current state of the ruin. Has it been explored before? Is it creature-infested? The ruin obviously has a past, but it also has a present that needs to be taken into account. The present status of a ruin may simply be that itisempty, in which case itis even more important to consider the original purpose of the structure and the event that caused the current empty status.

25.2 PATTERNS OF DESTRUCTION

The event for a ruin defines what caused a structure to become a ruin, but what physical evidence is each event likely to leave on a structure? The following guidelines provide a brief description of the kinds of damage a structure is likely to experience due to each event or by natural decay.

Decay—As described in the section on castle repairs, a structure that receives no maintenance will take1% of its hits every year. This damage comes in the form of crumbling mortar, shifting stones, decaying supports and so forth. The first thing to collapse in a structure is easily a thatch roof, but after that goes a wooden roof, wooden floors, and then all other wooden supports and furniture. When the roof collapses, the inside of the structure is exposed to rain, and will actually collect large stagnant pools of moisture. This moisture speeds the decaying process and encourages plant and animal life to move into the structure.

Over time, stone roofs will eventually collapse, as will stone columns and supports. The mortar between stones will crumble to sand and the stones will be more likely to fall loose. Finally, this leads to portions of walls collapsing due to the blowing wind and driving rain.

Patterns of decay along these lines will normally be present in most ruins along with any other clues to the damage caused by the event of the ruin.

Fire—Damage from fire can be quite devastating in the case of wooden structures, leaving behind little but charred wood an dash. Any metal objects or nails may be melted and warped.

Brick and stone buildings that are destroyed by fire tend to collapse in sections from the intense heat of wooden roof supports, furniture, straw, cloth and the like burning on the inside. These structures will have large areas still standing, but weakened and subject to sudden collapse. Lower levels are more likely to remain standing. Cellars especially should escape most of the worst effects of fire and subsequent structural collapse.

As time passes, natural erosion and decay will wash away ash, but those with enough knowledge of stone or brick will recognize the cracks and scorch marks that remain on some of the remains.

Epidemic—Structures are untouched by epidemics, though people may burn structures in an attempt to control the spread of disease. Generally, structures that are ruined through epidemics are infairly good shape and only have experienced natural decay. Many of the burnable items owned by these people are likely to have been burned along with the bodies of the dead. Mass graves may contain the ashes and remains of the dead.

War—Structures damaged in war tend to have crumbled sections of stone of a mixed variety, representing the stones from the walls as well as the stones hurled at the walls. Walls collapsed by catapult stones will tend to have most of the collapsed rubble on the exterior side of the wall, because most castle walls are built leaning slightly outward. Most structures destroyed by war will be looted of all portable treasure, and the rest will be burned.

Wooden structures are generally burned to the ground in war, and stone structures may be marred or even collapsed by rams and catapults. Skeletons may be found around such a ruin with possible evidence of smashed bones and the like as further evidence of the battle.

Natural Disaster—Damage from natural disasters is generally quite extensive. Hurricanes and tornadoes will collapse a structure, often by hurling trees into them or by just blowing walls over. Evidence of a hurricane or tornado is generally obvious by looking at the condition of surrounding trees (smashed or leaning at odd angles).

Earthquakes will leave walls and structures collapsed in scattered directions, while volcanoes may bury a structure in ash, scattered rock, or cooled lava. Patterns of lava should be easy to trace. The damage lava does to a non-wooden structure will vary tremendously, but will tend towards collapse in the direction of the lava flow.

Monster—Damage from monsters will vary by creature. Dragons might give great evidence of firedamage and hurricane force winds. The GM will have to determine what method a monster used to ruin the structure, and keep such tactics in mind for any later encounters with such a monster.

Magical Mishap—Spell users manipulating forces they cannot fully control can sometimes cause explosions, summon creatures much too large to fit in a building, or make various other mistakes. The damages caused by spells gone awry will vary tremendously, but will tend to have a concentrated effect at the point of origin, with a diminishing effect away from the immediate area of effect.

25.3 WHY EXPLORE A RUIN?

There are basically four reasons why characters would be interested in exploring a ruin: knowledge, treasure, shelter, and duty. Each of these reasons incorporates a number of variations that are explained below.

Knowledge—A ruin could contain lost information in books, cultural artifacts, architectural styles, and other items within. Characters seeking treasure in a ruin tend to be blinded to the true wealth of a ruin - cultural evidence of an ancient society. The structure and the common items within can reveal the subsistence pattern, religion, lifestyle, government, and other information relevant to the original occupants of the structure.

Scholars may be willing to pay for such information or physical evidence, especially if about a previously unknown culture or society. It is possible that ancient builders were able to build with higher ALs than in modern society. Any structure showing such advanced techniques would be a source of admiration and study by architects seeking to mimic the skill of the ancients. A GM should not limit his rewards to standard portable goods alone. Knowledge is highly portable, and can lead to many more interesting encounters.

Treasure—Forgotten structures and forgotten lands mean forgotten treasure. Characters can be lured into dangerous situations for the promise of a little gain. A ruin may have coins of ancient minting, gems, jewelry, art, and magic items. Also, items of historical significance may be found in a ruin, such as a kingdom's original signet ring or a lost heirloom of a prestigious family. These items may have little intrinsic value, but a lot of sentimental value for individuals or families. Characters should always keep such secondary values in mind when looking at treasure, and a GM should always have a brief history in mind for some items, in case the characters seem interested in exploring such avenues.

Shelter—When the weather dumps three feet of snow on unsuspecting travelers or they happen to be hiding from Baron Bloodsucker's elite guard, an old abandoned ruin may be the only refuge. Sometimes a ruin must be investigated just because the characters wish to camp near it and want to be sure that no foul creature lurks within, waiting for the dark of night. Characters seeking shelter in or near a ruin tend to have a pragmatic view of the world and very likely have a secondary goal of investigating the potential wealth and knowledge within the ruins.

Alternatively, characters may find the ruin in a convenient spot and wish to clean it out for their own use. In this case, the characters begin their initial exploration of the ruin with an eye for real estate and a base of operations. A GM should pay particular attention to the details of the structure's history if the characters are planning on staying for a prolonged period of time.

Duty—There are any number of reasons why a character could be required to investigate a ruin. A military leader may send scouts to investigate an area for hostile threats, a religious character may feel obligated to cleanse an evil ruin, or even characters following the orders of a prophecy may feel obliged to enter a ruined structure. In the case of duty, the GM generally sets up the situation to play off of a character's nature, or else the GM uses a superior to direct the investigation. Either way, the GM should tailor the ruin to fit the specific situation.

25.4 ITEM VALUE

Items found within a ruin can be valuable in different ways. Mostly, value is a fluctuating number assigned to a product or commodity. Most of the prices in RMSS reflect the utility of each product, but there are other forms of value. There is historical, cultural, and sentimental valueas well as the normal utilitarian value of each item. A silver coin found in the ruin could be worth its weight in silver, or it could be worth a lot more as one of the last minted coins of the First Age of the Dalmavion Empire. When characters discover an item, they will have to determine if any of these secondary values exceed the primary value of the item. If an item has historical value, the players will have to appraise the item's worth with that approach in mind to get an accurate appraisal. For example, if a player appraises a sword for its quality and normal value, he will determine the value of the sword as compared to other swords in terms of quality. If that player does not appraise the value of the sword in terms of historical value, he will not be able to determine that the sword is an early Timborian cutlass, easily worth ten times a normal cutlass to an arms collector.

The tricky part of historical, cultural, and sentimental value is that an item will only have this potentially inflated value in certain limited quarters. Discovering a secondary value for an item is only a start. Finding someone who appreciates the secondary value can often be more costly than the secondary value of the item. For a character to make a secondary value Appraisal role, he must have an appropriate History or Anthropology skill. The character averages the appropriate skill with the Appraisal skill and makes a normal Appraisal roll. Of course, the GM must determine the actual value for the item before the roll. To determine a secondary value for an item, the GM should add all of the appropriate modifiers below and then multiply that number by the normal cost of the item.

25.5 STRUCTURAL COLLAPSE

Consult this chart whenever the characters are entering a particularly degenerate structure, crossing an ancient bridge, etc. The chart below lists the percentage chance of a floor collapsing under a character's weight (include armor and equipment). The percentages can be used for larger and smaller objects, but they should be modified depending on the density of the object as compared to the average man-sized creature on two legs. For example, halflings should receive no modification on this chart, but a dog should divide the percentage in half for distributing his weight over four legs instead of two.

If a roll indicates that the floor around a character is collapsing, the GM should check to see if the nearest wall(s) collapses as well, using the same percentage chance as that of the floor caving in. If a wall collapses, use the same percentage and check to see if the whole section of the structure (or possibly the whole structure) will fall as well. Once the GM has determined the extent of the collapse, he can determine the character's fate.

Catching oneself from a collapsing floor will require an escape maneuver similar to escaping a pit trap. Escaping a collapsing floor and wall require two escape rolls: one to escape the fall, and another to avoid the falling wall. A falling wall can be treated as a falling trap. The target of a falling wall can choose to try and avoid the falling material by making a Sheer Folly moving maneuver (adding the character's Tumbling skill). The resulting number from the Moving Maneuver Table may be added to the victim's DB against the attack. Falling stones make an attack rollon the Fall/Crush Attack Table with an OB equal to one times their ER for each 100 pounds of stone (with a maximum OB bonus for weight equal to +50). In addition, the falling stone receives a special bonus of +5 for every 10' fallen (with a maximum falling bonus of +20). If the falling stone is mounted more than 30' high, the difficulty of the target avoiding the attack should be decreased to Extremely Hard. If the whole structure is collapsing, the GM should require a series of maneuvers for the character to either limit the damage from falling attacks or else one attempt to escape the structure completely. The GM should only allow an escape attempt if an open door or window is nearby, and then the manuever should not be less than Very Hard in difficulty.

The GM should make one roll for each character entering each room or weak area. If the roll indicates that the floor held, that character does not need to roll again that day no matter how many times he enters that room. If a character begins any activity that the GM feels deserves a second roll or, a shift to the right on the charts difficulty (e.g. jumping up and down, riding his horse), he should certainly require another manuever. In general, the GM should not overuse this chart and just require manuevers when characters begin to take adventuring life for granted, or when the GM determines that there is at the very least a 5% chance of a collapse occurring. Otherwise, the GM should probably indicate the creaking and weakened nature of the structure and only make rolls when characters do not take even minimal precautions.

The GM may allow characters to make an Adrenal Balance maneuver roll to reduce the chance of collapse. With a successful Medium maneuver roll, the character may reduce his equivalent weight by one hundred pounds (for the purposes of this chart only). Each increase in difficulty over Medium can reduce the character's equivalent weight by another one hundred pounds, though the minimum weight of a character is always 50 pounds.

If multiple characters are standing in the same area, then the GM may determine their effective weight for the purposes of this chart by using the weight of the heaviest character plus half of the weight of each of the other characters.

25.6 SPECIAL RUIN SITES

A GM should finally consider the importance of the ruins in the overall scheme of his world. Are the ruins just another adventure location, or do they serve as the starting point for a whole campaign? Do the ruins answer or pose questions for the characters? The GM needs to decide how the ruins will affect the characters, the campaign, and the world he has created.

The GM may decide that the ruins are of minor importance, in which case he only needs to be sure to situate the ruins in a minor location. If the GM wants the ruins to be a focal point for adventuring, he needs to place them in a central position, or else prepare the characters for a lot of extended journeys. If the GM wants the ruins to bring to light evidence of an ancient and secret society, then the ruins should be in a place that would have been exposed to the society in the past, but is still far enough away from the society's control that the ruins have slipped the society's attention.

A GM should always keep in mind the historical significance of any ruins he creates. Ruins present ways to relate the history of a world to characters. If the GM spends an hour explaining the importance of the Paradox Wars in the history of the planet, the players may or may not remember anything the GM says. However, the players will remember the Paradox Wars if their characters uncover evidence of the destruction, documents from the war, and are then attacked by the enchanted armor of a Paradox warrior

Finally, the GM should consider flipping through a few history books for some ideas on specific structural details, political motivations, important discoveries, unique inventions, and recurring motifs. History provides a vast array of purposes, events, and current uses for ruins. The Discoverers and The Creators by Daniel Boorstein are particularly informative sources for many different structures and details.

26.0 ADVENTURE IDEAS

The following section provides a number of adventure and story seeds that a GM can use in full or inpar twhen designing campaigns. These kernels are divided into two categories: Castle owner and Castle Servant. Castle owner adventure ideas are based around the construction, defense, and rule of a castle. Castle Servant ideas include adventuring for a castle owner, attacking castles, exploring ruins, and other adventures centering around castles.

26.0.0.0.1 Castleowner Adventure Ideas

Castle Construction—There are a number of adventures that can ensue during the construction of a castle. Most castles will be built in hostile territory that will require a future owner to provide defense for his workers as well as potentially sending out forces to subdue an enemy. The GM can roleplay any military actions against the enemy. Most military functions will make for small skirmishes, which can be role-played and can provide a character with prisoners to question. Captured prisoners may provide clues about the enemy's desires, his weaknesses, or locations of enemy hideouts.

Mysterious Saboteur—Someone or something is sabotaging the construction project every night. Despite a doubled or tripled guard, the saboteur cannot be located. The character must determine the source of attacks and stop it. The saboteur may be a Magent or Dabbler who has a huge buried treasure in the area and wants to run off the construction project. If things persist, the Magent or Dabbler may begin silently killing guards and important personnel, but at firs the will just attempt to scare away the workers. Other possible sources of attacks are shamans, demons, spirits,rural fairy folk, or an underground race with a nearby entrance to the upper world.

Recruitment—The GM may require the castle lord to search for a competent architect to build his castle. Finding an architect of noted skill is generally difficult, because they tend to be busy working for someone else. Instead of waiting five years for the architect's calendar to clear up, the character may try to bribe him, kidnap him, ensorcel him, or otherwise convince the architect to join him. Even if the architect is willing to accept the character's project immediately, his current employer is not likely to let him go without completing the project, so the GM should have the noble NPC try to regain the architect. This could be the source of an ongoing rivalry or excuse for war between these lands later on.

Ancient Disease—An unusual disease strikes many members of the castle owner's staff and servants. The disease resists all known cures and spells. A local scholar or wise man recalls a story of a similar disease wiping out the original inhabitants of this land and theorizes that perhaps information pertaining to the cure of the disease may lie in the ruins of this ancient kingdom.

The owner may announce rewards for such searches in other ruins, but knows that his castle was built on top of an ancient castle. The lower catacombs of the ancient castle were sealed off during the construction of the current castle, but no one remembers why. The owner decides to lead a party into the depths of his own castle in search of any clues to the cure for this disease.

The catacomb ruins were sealed off because the workers who came down into the catacombs all became sick with bizarre symptoms and died. Anyone entering the catacombs is exposed to a level 20 disease. Symptoms will develop for at least one week. The catacombs will have a number of burial chambers for kings, and ritual chambers full of wards and circles. Dark magic permeates the atmosphere. Somewhere in the ancient clutter and chambers lies the source of the disease. Once the cause for the disease is discovered, the cure for the disease may be developed.

Meet the Neighbors—A neighboring land's ruler is hosting a ball and the characters are invited.This is a chance to make some political connections and hob-nob with other nobles. Once there, it becomes obvious that there are two factions of nobles present. Each side is trying to persuade the character to join their cause with threats, bribes, or promises. The source of contention may be loyalty to a king, hostility towards each other, religion, magic, or even something as frivolous as the proper etiquette for addressing fellow nobles. Whatever the choice, enemies and friends will be made. The GM may have instant ramifications come of this encounter in the way of attacks on the character as he returns home, requests of aid from new-found friends, or antagonism that may lead to a duel.

Carnival of Surprises—A travelling fair comes to the land during a local festival. Spirits are high until a major staff member disappears along with some important items from the castle (magic items, documents, rare jewels,etc.) The castleowner sends other staff members to neighboring lands to search for any signs of treason, while he himself decides to investigate the carnival. The closer the owner looks at the carnival, the more sinister it appears. Performers show him great respect, but also smirk whenever he passes. Accidents begin happening around the owner as he continues the investigation of the true nature of this carnival. The carnival may actually be an international spy ring, run by an evil magician, or the missing staff member may have hired the carnival to help hide his treasonous activities.

Trade Negotiations—A number of trade delegations come to petition the castle lord for sole rights to a particular product regulated by the castle. The lord must decide which offer is most beneficial for his country. Each delegation will have various financial limitations that are counter balanced by the military strength of the nations they come from, the current foreign relations between the lands, and other side benefits of improved relations with whichever nation wins the trading privilege. While negotiations continue, the source of this trade good (mine, garden, craftsman, etc.) will be subject to attack, theft, and destruction.

Deadwatch—The dead have begun rising from their graves at night. The castle lord must lead soldiers against this rising menace, but must also discover the reason for these occurrences. Wise men suggest a unique confluence of the stars, a new wizard, a punishment for the sins of the people, or the like.

Kingship—The land has been torn apart by petty warfare for decades since the true king was slain in battle. No new king can be established until the king's signet ring is rediscovered. Whenever a line of kings dies out, this artifact disappears to a secret tomb of the kings. The castle lord must discover the location of the tomb and claim the ring first. Some lords are also searching for this location, while others are plotting to conquer and subjugate opposing nations. The race is on.

26.0.0.0.2 Castle Servants Adventure Ideas

Spies—The characters are hired by a lord to infiltrate a neighboring land's castle. The purpose of the infiltration may be to gather information, steal an important item, kidnap a staff member, assassinate the lord, or otherwise sabotage the neighboring castle.

Outlaws—A tyrannical lord is taxing the poor into starvation. The characters become outlaws by hunting in the lord's forest for food for their fellow villagers. The characters are soon hunted by the lord's guards, while they still seek to aid the poor villagers. (Think Robin Hood).

Invasion—An enemy army approaches. The local lord selects a small group of specialists to perform guerilla operations against the enemies' supply lines. The characters must hide from the enemy forces and then resurface to destroy food supplies as they are carted to the battle site. They should also do anything else they can to discomfit the invading army.

Guards for Hire—A spell user has determined the approximate location of an ancient arcanus. He wishes to hire the characters to help him investigate the site. The spell user wishes to eventually rebuild the arcanus. He will offer a promise of pay and a share of the loot, though he will retain primary power over allocation of treasure.

Monster Infestation—Characters are hired to find the source of a new monster or ore invasion and destroy it. Neighboring lands may also be affected by this infestation, or possibly a neighboring land is aiding the invaders.The characters may find that this is not just a monster attack, but an alliance of monsters with enemies of the land.

Cattle Mutilations—Sheriffs have reporting a number of disturbing of cattle mutilations. The cattle membered and severely ripped though none of the cattle are even partially eaten. Sometimes itappears that the cows were dragged to new locations after dying. The sheriffs can offer no explanation for the incidents. Characters are hired to investigate these disturbing reports.

Trade Routes—Characters are hired to act as emissaries for the land in a trade negotiation deal. The trade negotiation is in an exotic location that will have drawn the attention of many nations. All trade delegates are quickly embroiled in deadly conflicts with one another. Assassins are hired and no one can sleep easily until the trade deal is negotiated and settled. Not only are the other delegates secretly fighting against each other, there is some disturbing evidence that the host of the trade negotiation may also have a hand in some of the delegates' disappearances.

Countdown—A castle lord has had visions of his own death, and wise men interpret the dream to mean he has one month to live. In exactly one month's time, the lord has scheduled a counsel session with the leaders of three neighboring lands. The lord needs the characters to investigate all three lands to determine where the source of danger is coming from and stop it. He will not cancel this meeting because he cannot afford to lose face in front of his peers, especially since he spent a lot of effort convincing these lords to agree to the meeting in the first place.

27.0 CONSTRUCTION RANDOM EVENTS TALBE

Roll d100 and add contractor's AL once every month during a construction project. Read the result from this chart. This roll may be rolled in addition to the normal monthly random events or instead of the normal monthly random events (GM's discretion).

28.0 BI-ANNUAL EVENTS TABLE

Roll d100 (open-ended) and consult the table below. The GM should roll on this table once every six months instead of rolling the normal monthly event, or roll on this table in conjunction with yearly events as described in Gamemaster Law.

This table provides many sources for story ideas and can be used top rovide challenges for a castle lord or as a backdrop for activities in a kingdom where an adventure is taking place. This table can help spice up any adventure idea by adding a little more depth. If a lord wants to add (or subtract) some of his AV total to this roll, he must spend the points before the roll is made. This roll should also be modified by the PO and FR modifiers.

29.0 OTHER TABLES

Other bonuses and penalties may apply, depending on the world and the siege itself. If hordes of demons stomp on the ground in front of the castle laughing as arrows bounce harmlessly off their hides, it is probably reason able that the troops are going to take a penalty to their morale roll. On the other hand, if the avatar of a lord's deity comes down and hands him a special holy artifact, morale will get a quick boost. In such extreme times, the GM may find it more appropriate to dictate the actual morale of the troops, as opposed to a random roll.

30.0 RANDOM RUIN GENERATION

The following charts and tables allow a GM to quickly generate many of the basic details for a ruin. These charts should not be used exclusively. The GM should tailor each ruin to fit the history of his world. A ruin is a great place for lost knowledge to berevealed to characters. What the players do with this knowledge can be the source of many following adventures.

30.1 STRUCTURAL STYLES

30.2 PURPOSE OF STRUCTURE

The following table gives a general purpose of the structure. It is up to the GM to fill in the pertinent specifics, such as the race of the peasants that lived in the farming village, the historical time frame, the society, etc. Roll d100 (not open-ended).

The status modifier should be applied to the status roll on Table 34.4. The item/trap/magic numbers correspond to the appropriately numbered tables below. When rolling for the presence of each of these items, the GM may make rolls on any number table that is represented for that structure. For example, a peasant house only allows rolls on Item Table 1, where as a shrine allows rolls on Item Table 4, Trap Table 3, and the GM's choice of Magic Tables 1-3. These tables can help the GM determine the lifestyles of the original occupants of the structure.

Peasant House—A peasant house can be anything from a thatch hut to as mall wooden house. There is not likely to be much of interest in such a structure, unless the owners of the hut were known.

Farming Village—A farming village is a small tight-knit community that farms the lands around the village, but sticks together in the village for protection and society. Basically, a collection of peasant huts, a few craftsman homes, and probably an inn or common meeting hall.

Wooden Fort—A wooden fort is like an outpost, except that it is made of wood. A wooden fort could also be the remains of fortifications placed around a castle wall during a siege.

Mansion/Manor—A mansion or manor house is a large wood or stone dwelling that housed a person of authority and/or wealth. Many additional structures generally are found around a manor house, such as a kitchen, servant quarters, barns, etc.

Watch/Signal Tower—A watch/signal tower is generally found atop a high hill. These were used to watch the surrounding land and either by fire signal, carrier pigeon, or horseback messenger could report any military movements within the surrounding land.

Outpost—An outpost is a solid fortification of stone that guards a borderland or some other location of potential invasion. Outposts are generally not castles in that they are strictly military in nature. Several buildings can be contained within the thick curtain wall of an outpost, including barracks, stables, storehouses, and the like.

Monument—A monument is not actually a structure, but the remains of ancient monuments can be just as enriching as many other ruins. A monument reveals the artistic style of the time it was created, it generally lists a military or civil achievement of some great leader, and it may provide clues to other lost structures in the area.

Shrine—A shrine is a holy location dedicated to a deity or the site where holy relics are held. A shrine can be a sacred spring, an ancient oak tree, or a small chapel. An outdoor shrine should only be classed as a ruin if it was shaped or molded in some way by some intelligent race. Stonehenge would be an example of an outdoor shrine that is a ruin.

Temple—A temple is a large and elaborate structure that is supposed to imply the power and prestige of the god it serves. Traditionally the temple is not just a home to the clergy, but it is the actual home of the deity. A temple is rarely found in isolation; however, the homes of local people may have been completely destroyed over time.

Small Castle—A small castle is a fortified home built of stone that contains at least a keep and one outer wall, though it may contain more structures within. A small castle is unlikely to have walls thicker than eight feet, or taller than fifteen feet. The area enclosed by the curtain wall is less than 10,000 square feet.

Tomb—A tomb is the final resting place of someone wealthy and important enough not to be thrown into a simple hole in the ground. A tomb by its very presence suggests wealth and excess. Of course, tombs are also more heavily trapped and guarded than most other ruins as well. A tomb can be as simple as a granite mausoleum in a graveyard or as grandiose as the Great Pyramid of Egypt.

Enchanted Castle—An enchanted castle can come in two flavors: the magical and the exotic. A magic castle is built along the normal lines of construction, but is heavily enchanted with magical defenses, conveniences, and foci. An exotic castle is the rarest form of construction. An exotic castle is built contrary to the laws of physics. Castles of glass that are strong enough to repel trebuchet stones, castles built of solid fire, or castles built on air are all examples of exotic enchanted castles. Enchanted castles can only be constructed through powerful magics.

Underground Fortress—An underground fortress is generally found in mountainous areas, though not exclusively. Underground fortresses are generally outposts for underground races to protect their homes from the above ground world. The GM may also roll a second time on the chart to determine a different form of underground structure if he does not wish to use a standard underground-type fortress.

Large Castle—A large castle should include an inner and an outer curtain wall, a keep, secondary buildings, and the inner wall will enclose over 10,000 square feet Any large castle will have a rich history and is very likely to have inhabitants of some sort even in its ruined status.

City—The ruins of a city are a rare find. Only isolated and uninhabited areas can hide the remains of such a large find. City ruins are very likely to have inhabitants of some sort, and will definitely have a great number of items.

Library—A library can either be a private collection or a royal library. The books inside are likely to have deteriorated horribly and may be destroyed irrevocably if moved or disturbed. A library may include books on magic and is likely to contain a lot of lost information. A lost library provides for the reclamation of lost knowledge, yet includes the definite loss of much more information.

Museum—A museum is like a library in that it contains pieces of history, only it tends to have more physical objects than literary works. A museum may be devoted to a particular culture, item, or race. The GM should take some time to determine the nature of a museum. A museum is either part of a private collection, in which case it may be found in isolation, or it will be found near a population center.

Arcanus—Anarcanus is a center for magical study and experimentation. Only a powerful event could cure the ruination and loss of anarcanus. Depending on the event, the ruined arcanus may have a number of random magical fluctuations and events. Experimental rituals and enchantments may have gone awry, or even been perverted over the centuries to bring about new and unexpected results.

30.3 EVENTS

The status modifier on the Event Table should be added to the roll made on the current status chart (Table 34.4). The object and trap modifiers should be applied to every roll on each of the appropriate charts below. Also, if a magic item is to be found in the ruins, the object modifier can also be the percentage chance that the magic item was damaged in some way by the event.

Fire—A fire will generally reduce a wooden structure to ashen timbers and coals. Some items can be found in the soot and ash, but it will be difficult to discern much in the way of culture or past from such a structure. Stone structures can be destroyed by fire as well, though the damage is generally much less structural in nature. These fires can ignite wooden floors and supports within the structure, and leave only partial walls standing.

Epidemic—An epidemic is a virulent plague that wipes out all of the inhabitants of an area. An epidemic leaves structures unharmed, unless some are burned down in attempts to contain the disease. Areas that have suffered such terrible epidemics may be avoided out of fear of the disease and later folk tales and myths may obscure the reason for avoidance with tales of monsters or curses.

War—War can obviously cause a lot of damage to structures and populations. War may be the direct cause of a building being burned to the ground, reduced by catapults, or the inhabitants of the structure slaughtered. The GM should determine the reason for the conflict and the manner in which the war affected the structure, and try to place the event within an appropriate time period in his world's history.

Environmental Shift—An environmental shift can cause changes in weather patterns and subsistence patterns. If an environmental shift is profound enough, then people may migrate to a more appropriate climate or be forced to adapt to the new environment. If the new environment cannot support the same number of people, large areas may become depopulated and abandoned. Most portable items and tools will be carried off with those migrating in such cases, excepting items that can easily be replaced.

Natural Disasters—Natural disasters include volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods, tidal waves, hurricanes, and so forth. Natural disasters can cause massive amounts of structural damage and loss of life. The exact manner of the destruction should be appropriate to the disaster. For example, volcanoes can cause tremors that can knock down buildings, they can bury structures with stone and ash, they can overflow structures with molten lava, or they can even kill the population with poisonous gasses.

Forbidden/Condemned—A lord, king, or religious leader can condemn a structure for political or religious reasons. A lord may condemn a structure if it was built illegally. A religious leader may condemn a structure that was once devoted to a rival deity. These structures are destroyed at the time of condemnation and then forgotten. Few items will remain, but rumors and folk lore tend to gather around such structures with stories of evil magics and troubled spirits. Some of these stories may even be true.

Economic Shift—Economy can dictate many things. An inn at a crossroads will do great business until a better method of travel is discovered. Once people stop travelling through an area, the merchants stop supporting it. Structures that are abandoned due to economic shifts are generally reinhabited by the locals, unless they were temples or were otherwise considered taboo. Of course, the new inhabitants may know very little about their home or the items found within.

Cursed—Occasionally, a curse may be laid on the original inhabitants of ruins. This curse prevents them from dying or leaving the area, until someone can release them from the curse. The structure is protected by the original inhabitants, who have lived in misery for centuries or more and only wish to keep their shame a mystery. These people (or single person) may try to scare off visitors or just kill them to keep the secret. The GM will have to determine some method for the curse to be removed, generally something that the cursed individual would not have been able to accomplish.

If a structure itself is cursed, then anyone entering it is exposed to the effects of the curse. Somehow this curse has destroyed everyone who has tried to use the structure, or caused such misfortune that others have avoided it. To remove a curse from a structure is much more difficult to remove than from an individual, because time reinforces the curse. Destroying the structure is the most obvious method of destroying the curse. The GM should give the structure a +30RR versus all curse removing spells.

Monster—Sometimes rumors of monsters and boogie men are true. When a monster creates ruins, may leave the damaged structure(s) behind or turn the structure(s) into its lair. The original creature may have raised children or even been replaced by generations of progeny. If the GM decides that a monster or his progeny are still in the ruins, then he may choose to avoid the status roll.

Haunting/Evil Presence—An active (possibly intelligent) spirit causes misfortune to all those entering a haunted structure. Generally, such a haunt is limited to a structure and a short distance around that area, but over time it may overcome this restraint. A ghost or spirit only haunts an area if bound to the location by spells or by a great purpose such as revenge, unfinished work, repentance, etc. It is also possible that an evil influence has overtaken the structure and that it has become a beacon to things undead. Such locations must be purified to remove this influence. Even if the structure is destroyed, the location will be a magnet for creatures until the area is cleansed of the evil influence. To cleanse the area will require rituals of cleansing or other appropriate measures by a devout Channeling spell user to an appropriate deity.

Magical Mishap—Magical mishaps can include a wide array of potential ruinous events. Magical mishaps can be magically induced explosions, induced natural disasters, plagues, demonic summonings gone awry, magical experiments and creations overcoming a master wizard, and so forth. The GM should determine what went wrong and what other effects this could have on the ruins and the surrounding area. The effects of a magical mishap may have been noted by people nearby and attributed to various causes in the locallore. The GM should determine the nature of the spell caster and the spell to determine what kinds of effects may have been accidently created.

30.4 RUIN STATUS

The Item Condition modifier is applied to all Item Condition rolls for items found in the ruins. The terms listed under Structure Condition are used as a general indication of the structure's current condition and will be used for any rolls for Structural Collapse. Structural conditions may be modified by the GM to fit his view of the ruin's event and the current status.

No Remains—There is nothing left of the structure other than a few foundation stones. Nothing can be learned or gained from this site, unless an archaeological dig is attempted to discover ancient items.

Little Remains—Almost nothing remains of the structure. The general outline of the building can be traced and some other indications of civilization, such as a partially paved road, an old well, or irrigation ditches still exist. There are not likely to be any items in the ruins. An archaeological dig may turn up some ancient items, though.

Tottering Structure—A few walls of the structure remain, but do not look very sound. Anyone entering the structure should roll to check for collapsing floors or walls on the Structural Collapse Table. Some items may remain inside, though they will have been exposed to the elements, and are not likely to be in very good condition

Wild Animals—The structure is exposed to the elements, but still offers some protection. A family of wild animals has taken advantage of this protection and made the ruins its home. The animals are likely to try to protect their home and any young animals inside. The structure itself is only slightly better than a tottering structure, and appropriate rolls should be made on the Structural Collapse Table.

Being Rebuilt—The structure has been discovered by others and is being fixed to suit their needs. The rebuilding group should have a reason for being in the area, and the GM should give them a detailed history and purpose. They may be scholars seeking to learn from the ancient building, peasants seeking to fix up the hovel, adventurers seeking a base of operations, or whatever.

Peasants—Peasants with nothing may sometimes settle in areas far removed from the rest of society and make a hard life out in the wilds. Any peasant found living in a ruins is likely to be anti-social and very possessive and protective of his home. Dealing with such a hermit may be very difficult to say the least, because he may not think in logical or materialistic ways.

Monster&mdashlA GM may choose to use this as the current status if the event of the ruins was a monster attack, or it may be that a monster settled into the ruins long after the event. Either way, the ruins have become the monster's lair. A lair will likely contain a monster, its mate and any children, or possibly a whole pack, depending on the lifestyle of the monster in question. Monsters may not always be intelligent, but they will know their lair very well and have many escapes and methods for defending their lair.

Race—A racial group that is not normally found in the area has taken up residence in this secluded area. The purpose of these settlers could be anything from a simple settlement to advance scouting for an approaching army. The GM should play up the unfamiliarity of this race and their methods in any encounter with player characters to increase the suspense and to keep the characters guessing as to the exact reasons for members of this race being in the area.

Untouched—The structure remains untouched by time. No dirt, no debris. Either the site was built on an earth node, or powerful ley lines intersect at this point. The GM should determine exactly why the ancient structure was untouched and what other effects this might have on the area. The GM may roll again to see what other status the structure may have.

Bandits—The structure remains in a degenerate state on the outside, but the inside has been renovated by bandits as a camp. Any historical items the bandits found in the place may still be within the structure, either in use by the bandits or in a refuse pile, depending on their opinion of the utility or value of each item.

Cursed—This is the state of most structures that had curse events in their past. Other structures may have become cursed for other reasons. Treat this the same as the Cursed Structure event.

Haunted—If the event was a haunting, then there is still a good chance that the current status of the structure is haunted, though other structures could have become haunted after or because of the event. Ghosts and undead from the event will seek in some way to resolve the event that destroyed them and the structure, or else seek revenge for their loss.

Submerged—A submerged structure is totally submerged or buried under water, earth, or ice. As time passed, or because of environmental shifts, the original structure has been covered by earth or water since its event or as its event (i.e. volcanoes, floods, sand storms, etc.). The ruins may be found through scholarly research, or perhaps the top of a structure peeks over the tops of waves or knolls. Searching a structure submerged in water can be complicated further by strong tides, monsters, wild animals, and so on. The GM may roll a second time on this chart to determine other factors in the current state of the ruins.

Avatar—An avatar of the structure's dedicated deity resides within. The avatar will seek to recruit anyone who enters the structure. The avatar can reveal much knowledge, but will ask for service to the deity first. Any promised services will be reinforced with a Quest spell. If attacked, the avatar will gain +25 to all rolls while in the shrine or temple.

30.5 OTHER REMAINS

Once the GM has determined the nature, purpose, event, and status of the ruins, he then has to decide on what items, traps, and magic can be found within the structure. The following charts provide some basic item lists. Refer to Section 33 to see which of these charts should be used to determine items found within the structure. The number of items found in a ruin will depend on how generous the GM feels. A small structure will have anywhere from 1 to 5 items in it, while a large structure may have anywhere from 10 to 100 items in it. A GM should not roll for every item in a large structure, but roll a few times to get a general idea, and then include other items that correlate with the first few items rolled.

For example, if a character discovers the ruins of an old stone manor, the GM should roll on Item Charts 1-4, Trap Charts 1-2, and Magic Charts 1-2. If the GM's rolls indicate several farming implements, a plate, a sword, a shield, and some rotten food, then the GM may decide to make the other items be things such as wheelbarrows, rotten seed, goblets, a few more weapons, and some cooking utensils. These charts are provided only to help spark the GM's imagination in adding items to ruins not to supplant it.

Also, the Item Condition chart in this section determines the condition of the item. The GM should roll once on this chart for each item or type of item found in the ruin. This chart provides very general information. The GM should describe the condition in a way appropriate for the item and the surrounding conditions. For example a knife is found in a submerged ruin. The GM rolls on the Item Condition Chart and determines that the knife is in very poor condition.The GM tells the player that the knife is covered in a dark red rust and that the handle has rotted almost away.

Any traps or magic items may also use the Item Condition chart to determine the general effectiveness of the trap or likely effectiveness of the magical item. The modifier next to each condition descriptioncan be used as a percentage chance of a trap failing to operate properly or that a magic item is ruined.

Alternatively, the GM can apply the penalty to a trap's EL. Also, the GM can apply the penalty to any Attunement rolls for an item or require a character to roll percentile dice every time they use the item. If the character rolls under the condition modifier, then the item breaks after resolving the spell result.

31.0 EXTENDED PRICE LIST

32.0 CONSTRUCTION UNIT CATALOG

This section contains a catalog of all the construction units that a GM should need in designing a structure. See Section 4.0 for details on how to use the information provided in this section.

33.0 SPELL LISTS

This section lists all of the new spell lists for use with Castles & Ruins. All of the standard rules, restrictions, and notations from Spell Law are appropriate for these spells. For convenience, the spell description key is repeated here.

THE SPELL DESCRIPTION KEY

Several types ofcodes may follow the spell names in the listings: area of effect, duration, range, and type. In addition, some descriptions will explain that a particular spell has an RR Modification (shown with the notation [RR Mod: #]). This section presents a key to those codes.

SPECIAL SPELL CODES

[RR Mod #] - Any RRs against the effects of this spell are modified by #.

^* — Instantaneous; spell does not require preparation rounds.

^• — Spell does not require power points.

^‡ — Part of a set of spells that must be thrown in conjunction with other spells continuously to be effective (or fully effective).

SPELL TYPES

E — Elemental spell. These spells use the force ofthe spell to manipulate physical elements (heat, cold, wind, light, water, earth, sound, smell, taste, touch). These elements (and not the spell) are used to either create a phenomena that can affect the physical environment of the target (e.g., a "wall" spell) or the sense of the target (e.g., an "illusion" spell). Because the elements are real, no Resistance Rolls are normally allowed.

BE — Ball Elemental spell. These are elemental spells that attack an area with one of the physical elements.

DE — Directed Elemental spell. These are elemental spells that directly attack a target with one of the physical elements. Such attacks are resolved on one of the "bolt" attack tables.

F &mdesh; Force spell. These spells involve the direct manipulation of matter, energy, the elements, or living beings through the use of a spell's force. If the spell has a target capable ofresisting, the caster make an attack roll on the Spell Law Basic Spell Attack Table 5.1 to determine the RR modification for the target. Determine the type of armor the target is wearing and roll on the appropriate column of the table (using the Other column if nothing else applies). After determining the RR modification, the target makes an RR (on Table 5.10 in Spell Law, using the target's level and the attacker's level as the indices).

P — Passive spell. These spells usually only indirectly or passively affect a target. Thus, if an RR is allowed (GM' s discretion), its purpose is only to determine if the target is aware of the spell. Many detection spells are of this type.

U — Utility spell. These spells only affect the caster, a willing target, or a target incapable of resistance. Thus, RRs are not usually necessary. A willing target who is capable of resisting may still be required to make an RR (GM's discretion), but it is modified by -50 (i.e., he mostly likely will not resist successful). Most healing spells are of this type.

I — Infomlational spell. These spells involve gathering information through means that do not require RRs.

SPELL SUB-TYPES

s &mdesh; Subconscious spell. These spells are capable of being cast (or triggered) by the subconscious. The caster can always cast a spell of this type as a normal spell; and ifhe is unconscious (or is asleep or in a trance), a spell of this type can be cast by the subconscious as necessary (starting with the highest level spell needed). An exception to this is the Stun Relief spell. This spell may (at the option of the caster) be cast by the subconscious while the caster is stunned.

m — Mental Attack spell. These spells affect the target's mind and are subject to mental defenses.

SPELL AREAS OF EFFECT

x target(s) — The spell affects x number of targets.

x target(s)/lvl — The spell affects a number of targets equal to the caster's level times x.

distance R - The spell affects all within a radius equal to distance in size.

distance R/lvl — The spell affects all within a radius equal to distance times the caster's level in size.

area — The spell affects all within a fixed area of effect. Sometimes area will be specified as a specific target (e.g., 1 herb, 1 limb, etc.).

caster — The spell affects only the caster.

" — " — The spell has no area of effect.

varies — The exact size of the area of effect depends upon some other aspect of the spell.

SPELL DURATIONS

time — The spell has a fixed duration equal to time.

C — Concentration is required. Concentration takes 50% of the caster's normal activity. The caster cannot cast any other spells while concentrating.

duration (C) — Concentration is required, except the period ofconcentration cannot exceed the duration given. The caster can stop concentrating and the spell effect will stop. If the duration has not expired, the caster can concentrate again and the spell effect will resume.

P — Permanent. The spell has a permanent effect (in the sense of creating a "permanent" physical or mental condition). The effects of permanent spells that manipulate matter and require concentration will disperse according to the normal physical laws once concentration is no longer applied (e.g., a frozen body of water will melt normally, a bowl of boiling water will cool). A spell with a permanent duration may be affect by outside forces. For example, the spell may be dispelled, cured, or otherwise disturbed by enchantment, physical force, etc.

varies — Variable. The exact duration depends upon some other aspect ofthe spell.

" — " — No duration. The effects of this spell required no duration and are applied immediately.

time / level — The duration is the time multiplied by the level of the caster.

time / # fail — The duration is based upon the difference between the target's modified RR and the minimum roll required to resist the spell (see RMSR Section 23.6). The duration is equal to this difference divided by # and then multiplied by time.

Example: 1 rnd/10 fail would mean that ifthe RR is failed by 20, the spell would lastfor 2 rounds.

SPELL RANGES

self — The spell can only be cast upon the caster himself

touch — The caster must touch the target to create the effect.

distance — The caster can be no further than distance to the desired area of effect.

distance/lvl — The distance to the area of effect can be no further than distance times the caster's level.

unlimited — There are no limitations placed upon the distance to the area of effect.

varies — The distance to the are of effect depends upon some other aspect of the spell.

WHAT'S ON A SPELL LIST

Spell List Name — The name of the spell list appears in two places on the page; above the descriptions and above the listing.
Spell List Number — Each spell list is given a unique identifier that combines its classification and a the equivalent of a section number from Spell Law.
Listing — In one of the upper corners of the page is a listing ofall the spells on the list, sorted by level. This listing also shows important spell parameters.
Check Box — Beside each spell in the listing is a check box. Use this box to indicate the level two which your character currently knows spells on the list.
Spell Level/Name — The level and name of each spell appears in two places on the page; in the listing and in the descriptions. In all cases, if the name of two spells are the same (except for perhaps a roman numeral), the spells should be treated as the same.
Area of Effect — This is the area affected by the spell. If "varies" appears here, check the description for the exact area of effect.
Duration — This is the duration that the spell will remain active. If "varies" appears here, check the description for the exact duration.
Range — This is the range from the caster to the area of effect. If "varies" appears here, check the description for the exact range.
Type— This is the type of spell. The type of spell will determine what kind of resistance roll the target of the spell will get (if any).

34.0 ATTACK TABLES

The attack tables presented in this section are presented exactly as an Arms Law attack table. However, there are a couple major differences in the way they should be interpreted. First of all, these tables presume that you are using the missile artillery tables to attack structures (i.e., basically, non-moving targets). See below for information on how to use these tables against people. Secondly, it is presumed that you are using the Construction Unit Catalog to determine the number of hits a structure can withstand before a breach or destruction occurs.

34.0.0.1 HOW TO USE THESE TABLES

To resolve an attack against a structure with a siege engine, the attacker must roll a high open-ended attack roll. If this attack roll (before modifications) is within the fumble range of the weapon, the attack is a fumble and the attacker must roll again on the appropriate fumble table. Otherwise, apply all modifications to the attack roll and cross-index the result with the defender's armor type.

There are three possible results on the tables: a miss (i.e., "—"), anormal hit (e.g.,"3"), or a critical strike (e.g., "5B"). If the result is a miss, the attack fails. If the result is a normal hit, apply the number in the table as damage to the defending structure (i.e., subtract the number from the structure's hits). If the result is a critical strike, apply the number portion of the result against the structure's hits and apply further concussion damage based upon the critical result (in addition, sometimes a critical result can indicate special effects; for example, to set a building on fire might require a critical result of `C' or greater). Use the chart below to deter mine what extra concussion damage is delivered by critical results.

Note that a drill can attack a structure, but its attacks are resolved on the Ram attack table (see Section 19 for more specific information about siege weapon attacks).

34.0.0.2 NORMAL WEAPONS VERSUS STRUCTURES

Normal weapons will not deal damage in the same way that a siege engine will. To get a comparative amount of damage, multiply the siege weapon damage by about 500 (i.e., 1 point of siege engine damage is roughly equivalent to about 500 concussion hits on a man).

A siege weapon is designed to do massive amounts of damage over a fairly broad area. Normal weapons can do damage to structures, but on a much smaller scale. But more importantly, the effects generated by a normal weapon are different. For example, to breach a 10'long stonewall takes approximately 288 hits from a siege weapon attack. Obviously, a man with a pick is going to take a very long time to accomplish the same effect. But a man with a pick probably does not want the same effect. He does not need to tear down a 10' section of wall, when all he really needs is a small hole.

Most attacks on a structure made with normal weapons can be resolved using the rules presented in Spell Law (Section 7.1.13).

34.0.0.3 SIEGE WEAPONS VERSUS SIEGE WEAPONS

Siege weapons are basically designed to attack structures. If the target of a siege weapon attack is another siege weapon, the attack should suffer a penalty of -25 (in addition to any other modifications).

34.0.0.4 SIEGE WEAPONS VERSUS PEOPLE

Because siege weapon are designed to hit large, basically immobile targets, itis very difficult to target something as small as a person. Should someone want to fire a siege weapon at such a target, the attack should suffer a penalty of -50 (in addition to any other modifications).

In addition, the target should be allowed to make a maneuver roll to avoid the incoming attack. The GM should use the chart below as a guideline in assigning the difficulty of the maneuver. The target may add the result from the Moving Maneuver Table to his DB (e.g., if the result generates a 90 on the table, the target gets to add 90 to his DB against the attack). If the maneuver fails, the target gets only his normal DB against the attack.

However, should the attack hit, multiply the concussion damage delivered by 100 and resolve the critical hit as a Slaying critical on the Large Creature Critical Strike Table.

34.0.0.5 INDIRECT DAMAGE TO PERSONNEL

If there are personnel without a 10' radius of an attack on a structure, those people are subject to potential collateral damage from the attack. To resolve such damage, the base damage is equal to the damage done to the structure (both concussion and critical damage). This damage is modified by the following. Each target should make a maneuver roll (difficulty based upon the target's ability to take cover and the target's awareness of the attack; normally, this should be an Easy maneuver). The result from the Moving Maneuver Table should be subtracted from the total concussion damage delivered.

The level of critical hit done to the wall can also be applied to potential targets. Resolve the critical against the target as an Impact critical (though some GMs may want to use Krush criticals instead).

A-1 CLOSSARY OF CASTLE TERMS

Aid—A special obligation of a vassal to provide money for his lord's ransom, daughter's weddings, and son's knightings .

Allure—Wall-walk passage behind the parapet of a castle wall.

Arrow slit/arrow loop—A narrow vertical slit cut into a wall through which arrows could be fired from inside.

Ashlar—Squared blocks of smooth stone cleanly formed by freemasons, generally they form the outer and inner surface of castle walls.

Bailey—The ward or court yard within the castle walls.

Bailiff—Manorial official, overseer of the manor.

Ballista—Engine resembling a large crossbow, used in hurling missiles or large arrows.

Barbican—Outerworks of the castle, particularly with respect to added defenses around the gateways.

Bartizan—An overhanging corner turret along a wall.

Bastion—A small tower at the end of a curtain wall or a tower that juts out of the middle of the outside wall.

Batter—The angled bottom portion of a castle wall.

Battlement—A narrow wall built along the outside edge of the wall-walk that protects the soldiers on the wall from attacks.

Benefice—Grant of land from a lord to a vassal.

Berm—The flat, open land between the castle wall and the moat.

Buttery—Kitchen room where wine is stored and dispensed by the butler.

Castellan—Governor of a castle.

Cat—Assault or siege tower.

Catapult—Stone-throwing engine, usually employing torsion.

Chemise—Inner walled enclosure of a castle.

Cesspit—Room or space where waste from latrines accrues, also known as a Garderobe.

Curtain wall—Stone wall surrounding a bailey.

Corbel—A projecting block of stone built into a wall during construction.

Crenel—The low portion of the battlements that allows soldiers to look out or launch arrows .

Crenelation—See Battlements.

Curtain—A castle wall enclosing a courtyard.

Daub—Mud formed from clay, excrement, and hair, used to thicken and seal walls made of wattle.

Demesne—Land held directly by its owner.

Donjon—A large tower or keep. The last line of defense in the castle.

Drawbridge—A heavy timber platform that can be raised or lowered from a gatehouse to span a moat or ditch.

Drum tower—A round tower.

Dungeon—A jail, usually in the lower levels of the keep or in a tower.

Enceinte—The area enclosed by the castle walls and fortifications or the exterior enclosing wall of a fortification.

Embrasure—Low segment of the battlements. See Crenel.

Escalade—Scaling of a castle wall.

Fief—Land or revenue-producing property granted by a lord to a vassal in exchange for service.

Finial—Slender piece of stone used to decorate the tops of the merlons.

Fore building—An extension built onto the keep to guard the entrance, contains the stairs to the main entrance.

Garderobe—Either a latrine built into a wall, or the pit where the waste collects at the bottom of the latrine. See Cesspit.

Gatehouse—The complex of towers, bridges, and fortifications built to protect an entrance into the castle.

Glacis—The inclineor slope descending from thecastle,which acts as a defense against attackers.

Great Hall—The building in the inner ward that houses the main meeting and dining area.

Half-timber—The frame construction of a daub and wattle house.

Hoarding—A temporary wooden balcony suspended from the top of a wall that allows defenders to drop missiles directly on top of attackers.

Inner curtain—High wall surrounding the inner ward.

Inner ward—Open area in the center of the castle, often spaced between the gatehouse and the donjon.

Keep—Strong stone tower. See donjon.

Loophole—Slit in the wall used as a window, allowing air and light into the castle (and sometimes used by archers).

Machicolations—Stone balcony along the top of a wall that allows defenders to drop missiles on attackers.

Mangonel—A form of catapult.

Merlon—Part of abattlement, thesquare "sawtooth" between crenels.

Mesnie—Military personnel of a castle household.

Meurtriere—An opening in the roof of a passage where soldiers could hurl missiles into the room below. See murder holes.

Motte—Mound of earth on which a tower or castle was built.

Murder holes—Openings in the stonework of the gate passageway that allows protected defenders to hurl missiles on attackers in the passageway.

Oilette—Round opening on either end of a loophole.

Oriel—Projecting room on an upper floor; a bay window.

Oubliette—A tiny dungeon room, where a lord would place individuals best forgotten.

Outer curtain—Wall that encloses the outer ward.

Outer ward—Open space between the inner and the outer curtains.

Palisade—A sturdy wooden fence usually built to enclose a site.

Parapet—Protective wall atthe top of a fortification, around the outer side of the wall-walk.

Peel—Small tower.

Portcullis—A heavy iron bound, timber grill that protects the castle entrance that can be raised or lowered from inside the castle.

Postern gate—Small, sidedoor to a castle, often obscured by walls and towers. Also called a Sally-port.

Putlog—Beam placed in holes in the wall for supporting hoarding.

Putlog hole—The hole where a putlog is placed.

Quintain—Dummy with shield mounted on a post, used as a target in jousting.

Ram—A seige engine designed to pound against a portion of a fortification (usually, the fortification's main entrance).

Reeve—Manorial overseer, usually a villager elected by tenants of the manor.

Revet—To face a surfacewith stoneslabs for added strength.

Sapping—Undermining a castle wall or structure.

Scaffolding—Temporary wooden framework built next to a wall to support workers and materials.

Screens—Wooden partition at the kitchen end of a hall, protecting a passage leading to the buttery, pantry, and kitchen.

Shell-keep—Stone-walled keep built on the top of a motte.

Solar—Private room of the lord and his family. Originally a room above ground level.

Springald—A form of catapult.

Trebuchet—Stone-throwing war engine employing counterpoise.

Truss—One of the timber frames built to support the roof over the great hall.

Vassal—A person granted the use of land in return for homage, fealty, and military service.

Villein—A non-freeman, owing heavy labor service to a lord, subject to his manorial court, bound to the land, and subject to certain feudal dues.

Ward—Courtyard or bailey.

Racial Work Force=		Workers	Multiplier	Mandays
	Common Men:	300 x	1 =	300
	Elves:	300 x	0.8 =	240
	Elven Magic Crafers:	50 x	0.8 =	40
	Dwarves:	1000 x	1.3 =	1300
Total:		1650		1880
	Common Men Miners:	35x	1 =	35

Dwarven workers:	1000 x 9 cp =	9000 cp
Elven workers:	300 x 7 cp =	2450 cp
3^rd lvl Magic Crafters:	50 x 7 cp =	350 cp
(Magic Crafters will always make at least as much as the normal work crew)
Human workers:	300 x 7 cp =	2100 cp
Worker Supplies:	1600 x 1 cp =	1600 cp
Crafter Supplies:	50 x .2 cp =	10 cp
Sub-total:		15510 cp
Contractors:		312 cp
Total Daily Expense:		15822 cp

Tarlton:	18 cp	×	5	=	90 cp
Work Force:	7 cp	×	200	=	1400 cp
		×	5	=	7000
Tolberry:	65 cp	×	20	=	1300
	Total		8390 cp or 8.39 gp

Chamberlain	3 gp
Chaplain	free
Chief Cook	1 gp
Huntmaster	1 gp
Sheriff	1 gp
10 guards	30 sp
4 hunters	12 sp
10 soldiers	40 sp
2 cooks	2 gp
2 cleaners	10 bp
1 maintenance	5 bp
Total	16gp, 3 sp, 5 bp per month