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.

Happy New Year to All

Happy 2019 to everyone, those whom are reading this, those who are not, and everyone in between.

Do you celebrate New Years in your game / world?

Every now and then, I check the notes of the calendars of my world and see if its appropriate that locals are having a festival.

Festivals are important for people, to mark the passage of time, If you want to really get into this, go interview some people in small towns about their local festivals, how they plan it, how much time is put into it, and what they do inbetween time.. often its 'plan the next festival'

If we look at modern times, what with the work week, schedules, productivity and such, we've lost a lot of good ole fashioned festivals. We've managed to hang on to a few religious ones, a few non religious ones and some cross-overs.. such as Christmas, New Years and Easter.

Christmas and Easter, might be a tad hard to just plonk into your world, Maybe a great hero from a great time, might have stood for some goal, and people celebrate his birth and death, but I think its a fair call to say that marking the passage of time, the end of the year, would be universal.

So what do your folks do for New years? Local Wizards blowing off some fireworks spells?

In Estonia, we walked to the gravestones of ancestors and gave thanks, said hello. So maybe witches might summon up the spirits and communicate each year?

Russian New years is kinda like Australian Christmas, hand out pressies, eat a big meal, stay up to midnight and give your besty a hug before falling asleep somewhere that's not often your bed.

What of the aftermath, Russian New years is 10 days long, no-one goes to work, they just stay indoors, eating, drinking and so on, If your adventurers arrived in town mid-festival, would they find closed shops? full Inns? people sleeping in the street?

How about mid adventure...

"Hang on guys, before we enter the next room and solve the traps and kill the monsters, I'd just like to say a few words and count-down for New Years, about how much I appreciate you all!"