Lord Tax: (a lost art) Peasants and their Heroes

 In days gone by, the King taxed the lords, not the people.

A Medieval tax system (that could work today)

a Lord was a land owner, and the lord paid a tax on the earnings of the land potential, not its actual. So the lord would need to downplay his lands worth, rocky terrain, forested ridges, valleys and peaks, all un workable land, then get as much profit from the land with as many serfs as he could afford to feed.

Fantasy Roleplay, puts our adventurer outside this system. or as children of the system, who have revolted against such a system. They go off, land and lordless, to gain riches, and in theory become lords themselves if they are successful or die trying.

But how should you roleplay the serfs? Do they look at heroes as... 'super heroes'? or as 'lawless thugs'. Well this would depend on what's happened before.

Maybe the Lord has hired the characters to deal with some issues with monsters, and they are treated as heroes, or maybe the characters failed to do their duty, or messed it up so badly, the monster had its revenge, and the townsfolk suffered, so the town blames the 'heroes' as good for nothing murder hobos. Given the success rates of some games, I'd suggest each town will have a % chance of the two variants, and will have, over the years, built up a love or hatred of heroes in general.

So how would you set this up to play?

If you are randomly determining each town & their past experience, I'd have a % roll of people who believe in the hero & % of those who distrust the hero, making for an interesting dynamic when there is a cross over of people who 'understand' that heroes are super human, yet still flawed humans.

Belief roll for the populace:

<10% little to no experience of heroes doing good deeds, so no discounts, no special attentions, 

10-25% low experience, maybe a lone person might see them for who they are and ask about their deeds from boredom.

25-50% average experience, will pay respects in taverns, maybe 5% discount on large orders, +1 to comeliness checks.

50-75% higher experience, folks will tip their hat in the street, greet with respect, base 10% discount and +d4 comeliness checks. 

75-90% very high experience, expect to see several other heroes in this town, people will treat the hero as a friend, 15% base discount and +d4+1 comeliness checks

90%+ some previous heroes saved the town so well, the expectation for the heroes will be overt, any failure to be a high ranking or powerful hero will backlash and the heroes will be specifically treated like +25% anger chart. If they manage to keep calm and cope with the adoration & expectation (15th+ hero skills) they will be praised, 20% base discount, +2d4 comeliness checks.

Anger roll for the populace:

<10% little to no experience of heroes doing bad deeds, so no discounts, no special attentions, 

10-25% low experience, maybe a lone person might see them for what they are and yell insults.

25-50% poor experience, will avoid in taverns, maybe 5% surcharge if the barkeep thinks he can get away with it, +1 to comeliness checks +1 to barbrawl chance.

50-75% v.poor experience, folks will walk around in the street, or if ranked high enough challenge openly, -10% to an discount checks, +1 comeliness checks & +d4 to barbrawl chance. 

75-90% hatred, expect to be accosted by the guards for minor infractions, plus all the above, townsfolk will openly (yet in groups) jeer at the heroes, telling them to go home. 

90%+ upon entering the town, expect the heroes to be stalked by a small crowd, as the crowd swells, they'll throw rotten fruit and give chase, chasing the heroes out of town, "We don't want your kind here".

Interesting Mixes

If you roll above 30% on one roll and under 30% on another its fairly easy to see what kind of town this will be, yet if you roll very high on both, the town itself will likely be divided, like a football team or political parties, there will be common brawls over if a hero group was loved or hated for its prior actions. the loved will focus on the good deeds, but the hated will focus on the costs of those deeds, and as GM you'll need to figure out whose side is stronger based on the rolls and the direction of your plot.

If your players suffer a massive defeat and are feeling down, maybe the next town they come across will raise their spirits and give them a reason to go on, Or, if your players are getting a bit cocky, maybe raise the anger scale, bring their humility down a few notches. Also, its not a terribly bad chart to use when your own players are staying for a while. each good deed adds another 2d6 %, but each misstep (failed or perceived to have failed) will add to the anger by d6. you can track them, maybe -1% every 3 months from both tracks, so players feel like they're earning their reputation, without needing to use the full reputation rules from the HUB book. 

Side Note:

Modern Taxes, why is it that the poor pay both a tax to the govt, and a tax to the land lord (rent) Have we gone backwards since medieval times? Surely we should have figured this out by now, that only land owners pay tax.

Some Magic Items, are not cursed, just.. expensive..

Looking at some of the movies and the artefacts they give us, can influence or create ideas:

StormBreaker: the Cursed Axe

Our Hero, finds this massive axe, finding he has the strength to wield it, he enters battle, and mid fight, when the player rolls a double 12, the GM determines that this "double bad" can mean the discovery of the "curse" of the axe.

The GM asks the player, you know this is bad, so I'll get you to roll a d6, but I'll let you add a number to it of your choice, which will affect the power of this axe. The Player chooses 10, and rolls a 5. 

The Axe flies from his hands, lightning crackles from its metallic sheen, the axe embeds itself into the opponent, taking 225 damage, yet microseconds later, the opponent disintegrates the axe slowed, still continues its arc into the ground, and within a 15ft radius, all creatures take 15 damage, they are mostly killed.

The character though, our hero, is drained by 15 magic points, magic he doesn't fully have, this, according to magic rules, causes some physical damage, and severely hampers his ability to regain magic (the negative modifier cancels out any natural regeneration rate, and % chance to learn)

Stormbreaker is just a regular axe, mostly. It only becomes dangerous when you try to actually channel power through it.

Captain America was able to swing it, when needed, as a plain axe, no lightning going off.

Thor understood that the Axe would drain off power, to cause its effect and thought "their bodies would crumble and their minds collapse" 

Mjolnir, has its own, internal MP to enact its powers, but Stormbreaker conjures lightning bolts and open portals, siphoning off your own power.

If you have no MP to give Stormbreaker, you’d be literally draining your lifeforce (blood magic). Your very natural essence would be drained away, and you would die.

For a god like Thor, or anyone else who has loads of energy stored inside of them, that’s no problem. The weapon would just amplify and project whatever power you normally produce without it.

But for non magic users, it’s very dangerous.

This gives GMs a whole set of 'effects' that create magic items, that act like curses. Draining the life force of a person, causing negative effects, where else have I seen that?

Harry Potter, carrying the Horcrux, he and his companions, magic users at least, were being constantly drained, and an effect of it was a poisonous effect on their mind. Doesn't need to be a 'curse' effect that is laid upon a player, instead its a result of the negative MP score. 

The story might have a magic item, something like a bracelet, that makes the player 'feel more powerful' maybe bestowing a +1 STR value, BUT each time the STR component might be needed, the GM imposes a -1MP modifier, the object is draining the players magic to 'cause' it to work. if the player is not a magic user, the effect is recorded by the GM but the affected hero would feel the results.

any Strength task that is at least half of the STR value of the character, would trigger, minus a MP from them, and slowly, be draining their life as per blood magic rules.

The player would only get informed of the modifier once they reached the -1 effect to their character sheet. Taking the bracelet off won't affect the drain, since the drain is on the character, The player might think they are cursed, go to a shaman or healer, and have the curse lifted. no effect. the player, unaware or unsure, but put the bracelet back on. 

Only if they put the bracelet on a magic user, who then uses their strength to perform an action will notice the subtle change, the MP cost, and realise, the 'cursed' character is actually just magic drained.

The Beauty of this, the players have discovered a negative, they search out the negative, and if they experiment with the bracelet, they'll stumble on the clue and realise what's happened. The MP can be restored with rest & channeling from the mage, the players all learn something about the rules of magic, the players figure it out for themselves, instead of the GM force-feeding them the knowledge, and it can last several sessions, the 'fighter' being "ill" for several sessions, not knowing how / why, but in effect being a whole level worth of stats lower than usual, forcing the group to rethink their game plan for several sessions.