Advanced Rulebook
SETTLEMENT POPULATION OVERVIEW
PEASANT CLASS
PROFESSIONAL TROOP CLASS
MERCHANT CLASS
RELIGIOUS CLASS
NOBLE CLASS (OFFICIALS)
ON-CALL

SETTLEMENT POPULATION OVERVIEW

The following section provides an overview of the different population types in a settlement:

PEASANT CLASS

The peasant social class covers all sorts of jobs that can mostly be easily recruited for, although it does also include skilled professions. The following are examples of different types of peasants and the jobs they do.

  • Highly skilled: The peasant is probably an apprentice and is working towards a better position in the settlement. Examples of this type are blacksmiths, stonemasons, musician, physician, etc.
  • Bureaucratic: The peasant carries out a job like tax collecting, scribe work, etc.
  • Laborers: The subcategory covers the most common jobs carried out by the peasant class. Examples are jobs like baker, builder, carpenter, farmer, etc.
  • Streeters: This is the lowest subcategory of the peasant class, covering such types as beggars, street guides, street sellers, etc. They are generally found annoying by other citizens and are often ignored.

A lack of peasants would be a very strange situation, but it would effectively mean the settlement is not producing food or items, or carrying out maintenance work.

PROFESSIONAL TROOP CLASS

Due to the expense of maintaining a standing army of professional troops most settlements generally only have about five percent of its population serving as fulltime troops in general service. When large wars start this number often dramatically increases, but the financial strain can cause serious damage to a settlements economy and general day-to-day operations. The types of professional troops are the same as the types of professions available to adventuring parties. Some of these fulltime troops work for the different Organisations in a settlement, either directly or they work for the settlement Officials and are then loaned to another Organisation as part of an agreement. There could be a few non-settlement Organisations in a few settlements that maintain a sizeable number of fulltime troops; this can be seen as a good indication of an Organisations political power in the settlement.
Due to their combat capability these fulltime troops are generally given a lot of respect by other citizens. The reasons for the respect can vary greatly. For example if the troops are generally known to harshly enforce the law or the lack of law then the respect is more fear based. Another example is in a settlement with a generally pleasant society, the troops there could be respected due to their fairness. Generally a settlement has a mix of fair and harsh troops, but the mix usually depends on the settlements religious outlook.

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A lack of soldiers can result in policing problems. With few professional soldiers available in a settlement, there will be few people to patrol the settlement and deter crime, or quickly sort out any crimes that are committed. A common question the various Organisation Officials face is whether the gold saved by employing fewer soldiers is worthwhile in the long-term, some Officials gamble that they can and that nothing bad will happen.
Possible problems caused by having too many soldiers are that they are likely to get bored if nothing major is happening (like a big war, for instance). Being in greater number can result in more disturbances around the settlement, as soldiers that are not very busy can be left to wander about and boredom could set in, or even if there is a lot of work to do the soldiers could end up getting very stressed. In short Officials have to balance the risk of whether to have lots of well trained and equipped people in the settlement and that they will not abuse their position. Since soldiers are costly to maintain, the financial strain on the settlement is normally the primary reason why lots of troops are not employed at one time.
On average, of all the professional soldiers, 50% are Warriors, 15% are Archers, 10% are Footmen, 5% are Knights, 5% are Clerics, 4.5% are Scouts, 2.5% are Gladiators, 2.5% are Paladins, 2% are Battlemages, 1.5% are Berserkers, 1% are Rogues, and 1% are Wizards. The more specialised professions are more expensive to employ for a variety of reasons, the primary one being the fact that they tend to charge more gold for being specialised.

MERCHANT CLASS

This social class covers the different types of citizens like shop owners, highly skilled craftsmen and service providers. The citizens that are considered merchant class tend to have well-paid jobs and can also have some political influence due to their reputation as well as their gold. It is nearly always the case that a merchant is a member of the Bankers & Merchants Guild, although the vast majority of members have little power or influence in the Guild.
There is a common scenario with some members of the merchant class were they act like they are part of the noble class, in these cases many citizens of the peasant class have to deal with obnoxious merchants on a regular basis; this does not mean that all merchant class citizens act all-superior.
Most Settlement Officials actively try to encourage merchants to trade in their settlement, as they are a lucrative source of gold. The result is that members of the merchant class can exert what is to some citizens surprising amounts of political pressure, due to their wealth and long-term ability to generate more wealth.
A lack of merchants in a settlement will likely result in a shortfall of tax funds. Another problem is that trade items will likely be left in warehouses, as there are fewer merchant class citizens who are able to distribute, deliver and sell goods. If trade items are not being sold to the citizens, then it is going to be hard to maintain a reasonable level of citizen morale.
If there are too many merchants, it is possible that the merchants will start to struggle as competition will likely result in the price of items being lowered, and the long-term result of this sort of event is that many merchants could go out of business. Another side effect is that, as merchants turn over less gold, they will be paying less tax, so it is not in most of the settlements interests, and generally for other Organisations, to allow this scenario to occur.

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RELIGIOUS CLASS

This social class covers all the different Priests, from those that work with a specific temple to those that follow an independent path by paying homage to all Gods. With the potential backing of a God, most citizens treat members of the religious class with respect, in many ways similar to the professional troop class. However as the Gods rarely give any power other than the common miracles to their followers the various Priests have to be careful about using what power they have and not overstepping their capabilities.
A common scenario in a lot of settlements is that the Priests working for one Temple that is dedicated to a specific God spend a lot of their time trying to gain more power over the other Temples. Some Priests carry out this political manoeuvring believing that it is best for everyone, whilst other Priests do it for more selfish reasons. The neutral Priests have the option of taking any ideological path so it is hard to know how they will react to things without getting to know the Priest in question better.
Due to the need to keep the masses happy, religion is a very important part of a settlement, but more so is the ability of a God to show favour or disfavour in a settlement. These two factors make dealing with members of the Religious Class tricky, as it is all too easy to get pulled on to one side of a religious argument whilst facing the possible problem of divine wrath being instigated by a spurned God's Temple.
A lack of Priests can result in religious problems such as citizens having a crisis of faith. With fewer Priests spreading and maintaining the presence of their God, citizens could lose their passion and devotion to a God in question, and possibly all the Gods. This makes some citizens easier targets for conversion to other settlements.
Having too many Priests is generally not possible, unless the temple they work for is very rich. Possible problems for too many Priests is that the citizens could end up being told lots of slightly different viewpoints from the same temple, which could undermine the citizens' faith.
Members of the Magic Cyrcle are often put into this social class, but in some places members of the Magic Cyrcle are treated as a separate class entirely, but even then the end result tends to be quite similar.

NOBLE CLASS (OFFICIALS)

The noble social class is just about always the smallest class in a settlement. The main factor in determining who is a member of the noble class is how much obvious power someone has; this normally means that settlement Officials are at the top of this social class. In a lot of settlements there are families that have long and rich histories intertwining them with the settlement Officials, and this system has created some problems as some families claim to be of noble class due to their history and not their current situation. More often than not members of the other social classes are elevated temporarily if they become important Organisation Officials in a settlement, no matter the Organisation they belong to.
Another factor that can determine who is a member of the noble class is wealth. When someone has not just a lot of wealth but a ludicrous amount they can effectively gain the social rank of a member of the noble class, which usually results in a lot of complaints from other citizens.

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ON-CALL

An important factor of each settlement's military capability is the number of troops that are On-call. The On-call category exists due to the cost of running large armies and the sizeable number of peasants who have some military training, in addition to normal skills. These citizens form the backbone of a settlements army in the form of peasant levies, which in the advent of a large army being raised are very important. Although they tend to be equipped with simple equipment such as spears and light armour some peasant levies are quite skilled and as they often operate in large groups they can be quite deadly.

There are also other citizens in a settlement that are On-call for other roles in an army such as scouts, Priests and wizards. With adventurers being a common and important part of society many citizens have the relevant experience to be called on when more troops are required.

The class types are generic in that they are partly due to the person's income and partly due to the perceived social importance.

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