Village market foundations
A foundation piece any long-form campaign drops in — the by-the-roll worksheet for rolling a village, pricing its stalls, and resolving scarcity before the session starts.
Foundation piece · three sample tables · four-axis rubric.
Excerpt · Goods & prices
Six rows from the village gate.
The full ledger lives on /tables; below is a working précis — six rows from the gate, every band defended by labor + scarcity + faction bias + regional risk.
| Good / service | Modulation | Resolved price band |
|---|---|---|
| Field wheat → loaf (2 lb) | × village bakehouse labor + water-mill toll | 2cp · 4cp unground |
| Salt-cured pork (firkin) | × smoke-curing + hog-curfew tax | 4sp · 6sp brackish |
| Tallow candle (per dozen) | × rendered locally + winter-tax | 1sp · 2sp winter |
| Ironwork hoe (per blade) | × village forge + hayfield-fair wage | 1gp · 3gp unwrought |
| Firkin of small beer | × brew at the inn + mill-grist tariff | 3cp · 5cp hopped |
| Cobbler (shoe-repair, single) | × village mender + market-tally | 4cp · 8cp heeltap |
Excerpt · NPC merchants
Five stalls and their quirks.
An NPC merchant is half ledger-row, half voice at the table. The persona, the quirk, and the bearing each bend a transaction before the player even names the price.
| Stall name | Persona | Quirk / hook | Bearing toward the party |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Salthouse | Brisk widow, ledger-bound | Sells firkins but always one short | Welcomes the party; asks after the road |
| Old Marget's Turnip-Seed | Seed-rights keeper | Trades for labor, never for silver | Wary of strangers; trades gossip for names |
| Quoin-Tap Smithy | Bellows-quiet journeyman | Dove-headed nails one week behind | Measured; names a price, holds it |
| Pilgrim-Plate Inn | Young innkeeper, potluck day | Side-meat shortage on feast days | Curious; trades a meal for road news |
| The Cobbler at the Bridge | Sole-trader, single-chair shop | Heeltap bar on a string behind the door | Friendly by default; slow to trust coin |
Excerpt · Seasonal modifiers
Four bands, one per season.
The same row reads differently in spring and tax-eve; the modifier band is the only reason the GM can defend the shift between two weeks on the campaign clock.
| Good / service | Modulation | Resolved price band |
|---|---|---|
| Spring — thaw | Labor +0 · Scarcity −1 | Loaf holds 2cp at the bakehouse; firkin drops to 3sp |
| Summer — high sun | Labor −1 · Scarcity ±0 | Hire of a field-hand softens; ironwork holds |
| Autumn — haul | Labor +1 · Scarcity +1 | Salt-cured pork bids up; carters charge per stop |
| Winter — tax eve | Labor ±0 · Scarcity +2 | Tallow candle doubles; lore-tax applies at the gate |
The samples above are a foundation piece — the worked ledgers and the generator carry the campaign the rest of the way.