Building the Low-Tech Landscape
Part 1: Peasant Economics
for GURPSby Matt Riggsby
If the PCs become rulers, or even low-level administrators like samurai landlords, feudal knights, or Viking chieftains, this responsibility brings a number of niggling questions: Just how many people does my character, the Duke of Earl, rule? On how much land? What do they do there? How far is it to the nearest town? How big is it? These are not easy questions.
For a start, our historical data on the subject is sparse and difficult. Demographics and agricultural data before the 19th century are just this side of historical fiction. Where we do have data, it's patchy and difficult to interpret. For example, the weight of a quarter of grain, a standard unit of measure for the Middle Ages, in the west of England in 1239 might be different from a quarter in the north of Spain in 1384 in ways we don't quite understand. Indeed, a quarter in one place might be different from the next county over in the same year.
Context and Caveats
This article, an attempt to describe low-tech economy and demographics in terms of GURPS Fourth Edition, covers TLs 1-4. TL0 hunter-gatherers have a completely different basis of subsistence, and a series of revolutions in agricultural and transportation technology through TL5 render these models quaintly obsolete. You might want to read a few previous articles for background, though it's not necessary. "Low-Tech Economies" (whose prices will . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: June 9, 2006
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