Populating a game world

Saturday, 6 July 2013

(You might want to read this essay in conjunction with my older essay, Settling a game world, which covers similar ground but which this hopefully advances on)

For an economy to work people have to be able to move between occupations to fill economic niches. In steady state, non player character (NPC) males become adult as ‘vagrants’, and then move through the state transitions described in this document. The pattern for females is different.

Basic occupations

The following are ‘unskilled’ occupations which form the base of the occupation system. Generally a male character at maturity becomes a ‘Vagrant’ and wanders though the world until he encounters a condition which allows him to advance up the occupation graph. If an occupation wholly fails, the character can revert to being a ‘Vagrant’ and start again.

Occupation	Dwelling	Condition	New trade	Notes
Vagrant	None	land available and animals available	Herdsman
Vagrant	None	arable land available	Farmer	See crops
Vagrant	None	has weapons	Outlaw
Herdsman	None	Insufficient food	Vagrant
Farmer	Farm	Insufficient food	Vagrant
Outlaw	None	loses weapons	Vagrant
Vagrant	None	craftsman willing to take on apprentice	Apprentice
Herdsman	None	arable land available	Farmer
Outlaw	None	Battle hardened	OutlawLeader
Apprentice	(craftsman’s)	Qualified	Journeyman
Journeyman	None	Unserviced customers available	Craftsman	See crafts
Craftsman	See crafts	Too few customers	Journeyman
Journeyman	None	arable land available	Farmer
Vagrant	None	Lord with vacancies available	Soldier	See military
OutlawLeader	None	Unprotected farms available	Laird	See nobility

Gender dimorphism

In the paragraph above I said ‘a male character’. It may seem unfair to create a game world in which the sexual inequality of the real world is carried over, and for that reason it seems sensible that female children should have the same opportunities as male children. But games work on conflicts and injustices, and so it seems reasonable to me to have a completely different occupation graph for women. I haven’t yet drawn that up.

Wandering

Vagrants wander in a fairly random way. While vagrants are wandering they are assumed to live off the land and require no resources. Solitary outlaws similarly wander until they find a leader, although they will avoid the areas protected by nobles. Herdsmen also wander but only over unenclosed pasture. They visit markets, if available, periodically; otherwise, they live off their herds. Journeymen wander from market to market, but are assumed to trade skills with farmers along the way.

Crafts

Crafts are occupations which require acquired skills. In the initial seeding of the game world there are probably ‘pioneers’, who are special vagrants who, on encountering the conditions for a particular craft to thrive, instantly become masters of that craft.

Craft	Dwelling	Supplies	Perishable?	Customer types	Needs market?	Customers						Supplier	Suppliers	Recruits
						Solo		Per journeyman		Per apprentice
						Min	Max	Min	Max	Min	Max
Smith	Forge	Metal Items	no	Farmer, Soldier	No	6	10	4	6	1	3	Miner	1	Vagrant
Baker	Bakery	Bread	yes	All NPCs	No	20	30	12	18	6	10	Miller	1	Vagrant
Miller	Mill	Flour, meal	no	Baker, Innkeeper	No	2	3	1	2	1	1	Farmer	6	Vagrant
Weaver	Weaver's house	Cloth	no	All NPCs	Yes	6	10	4	6	1	3	Herdsman	2	Vagrant
Innkeeper	Inn	Food, hospitality	yes	Merhant, Soldier, Farmer, Lord	No	10	20	5	10	2	4	Farmer,Herdsman	2	Vagrant
Miner	Mine	Ores	no	Smith	Yes	2	3	1	2	1	1	Farmer	1	Vagrant
Butcher	Butchery	Meat	yes	All NPCs	No	10	20	4	8	2	4	Farmer, Herdsman	2	Vagrant
Merchant	Townhouse	Transport, logistics	n/a	Craftsmen, nobility	Yes	10	20	4	8	2	4	n/a	n/a	Vagrant
Banker	Bank	Financial services	yes	Merchant	Yes	10	20	4	8	2	4	n/a	n/a	Merchant
Scholar	Academy	Knowledge	n/a	Ariston, Tyrranos, General, Banker	No	1	4	1	2	0.25	0.5	n/a	n/a	Vagrant
Priest	Temple	Religion	n/a	All NPCs	No	50	100							Scholar
Chancellor	Chancellory	Administration	n/a	Ariston, Tyrranos	No	1	1	0	0	0	0			Scholar
Lawyer	Townhouse	Legal services	n/a	Ariston, Merchant, Banker	No	4	6	2	3	1	2			Scholar
Magus	Townhouse	Magic	n/a	Tyrranos, General	No	3	4	1	2	0.25	0.5			Scholar

A craftsman starts as an apprentice to a master of the chosen crafts. Most crafts recruit from vagrants, A character must be a journeyman merchant before becoming an apprentice banker, while various intellectual crafts recruit from journeyman scholars.

It’s assumed that a journeyman scholar, presented with the opportunity, would prefer to become an apprentice magus than a master scholar.

Related crafts

There are groups of crafts which should probably be seen as related crafts, where apprenticeship in one should serve as qualification to serve as journeyman in another. For example, there is a family of woodworking crafts, whose base is probably Joiner.

Crafts within this family include

• Boatwright
• Cabinetmaker
• Cartwright
• Cooper
• Lutanist
• Military Artificer
• Millwright
• Turner

So although I think these are separate crafts, all are Joiners; all can undertake construction joinery work; and a journeyman who has served as apprentice to any can serve as journeyman to any other. Since journeymen will typically serve under more than one master before settling down, it will be possible for one person to have served under masters in two different related trades and therefore be qualified to set up as a master of either.

A journeyman settles and becomes a master when he finds a location with at least the solo/min number of appropriate customer type who are not serviced by another master craftsman of the same craft; he also (obviously) needs to find enough free land to set up his dwelling. The radius within which his serviced customers must live may be a fixed 10Km or it may be variable dependent on craft. If there are unserviced customers within his service radius, the master craftsman may take on apprentices and journeymen to service the additional customers up to a fixed limit – perhaps a maximum of four of each, perhaps variable by craft. If the number of customers falls, the master craftsman will first dismiss journeymen, and only in desperate circumstances dismiss apprentices. Every apprentice becomes a journeyman after three years service.

The list of crafts given here is illustrative, not necessarily exhaustive.

Aristocracy

As in the real world, aristocracy is essentially a protection racket, and all nobles are originally outlaw leaders who found an area with rich pickings and settled down.

Rank	Follower rank	Client type	Clients protected		Trade in market		Followers per client
			Min	Max	Min	Max	Min	Max
Bonnet Laird	Private	Farmer	6	20	0	100	0.25	0.5
Ariston	Captain	Bonnet Laird	10	30	25	1000	0.5	1
Tyrranos	General	Ariston	10	unlimited	250	unlimited	0.1	0.5

Every noble establishes a market and, if he employs a chancellor, taxes trade in it. Crafts which ‘need a market’ can only be established in the vicinity of a market, irrespective of whether there are sufficient customers elsewhere. All non-perishable goods are traded through the markets, and merchants will transfer surpluses between markets if they can make a profit from it.

My world has essentially three ranks of nobility. The title of the lowest rank will probably change to something vaguely italianate. An aristocrat advances to the next rank when either the requisite number of clients become available in the locality to support the next rank, or the trade in his market becomes sufficient to support the next rank.

Obviously when a province has eleven unprotected bonnet lairds, under the rules given above any of them may become the ariston, and essentially it will be the next one to move after the condition becomes true. If the number of available clients drops below the minimum and the market trade also drops below the minimum, the noble sinks to a lower level – in the case of the bonnet laird, to outlaw leader.

Military

The aristocracy is supported by the military. An outlaw becomes a soldier when his leader becomes a noble. Otherwise, vagrants are recruited as soldiers by bonnet lairds or sergeants who have vacancies. Captains are recruited similarly by aristons or generals, and generals are recruited by tyrranos. If the conditions for employment no longer exist, a soldier is allowed a period of unemployment while he lives off savings and finds another employer, but if no employer is found he will eventually become an outlaw (or, if an officer, an outlaw leader). A private is employed by his sergeant or bonnet laird, a sergeant by his captain, a captain by his arison or general, a general by his tyrranos.

Rank	Follower rank	Followers		Condition	New rank
		Min	Max
Private	None	0	0	Battle hardened, unled privates	Sergeant
Sergeant	Private	5	15	More battle hardened, unled sergeantts	Captain
Captain	Sergeant	5	15	More battle hardened, unled captains	General
General	Captain	5	unlimited

Soldiers have no loyalty to their employer’s employer.