Where I Read HârnWorld, Part V: A Mail Hauberk Costs WHAT?!

You've Got Mail

I would've titled this post "Chainmail Costs WHAT?!", but as the HârnDex sternly tells us:

Chainmail
 An incorrect name for mail armour.

So. Mail it is.

Money, Money, Money

Having discussed rural and urban life, we move on to prices and incomes. Coinage is in much more common use on Hârn than in medieval Britain. Prices are based on British prices in the 13th Century, with some changes (weapons are more expensive to restrict player access, basically; wood is cheaper because Hârn is larger and more forested than Britain was at the time).

We get a picture with some good examples of silver pennies from various cities, as well a Khuzan (Dwarven) gold crown. We're told that the first coins on Hârn were minted by the Sindarin, but they were intended as keepsakes and tokens for the Elves' human servants, rather than as currency. The humans started trading and forging them, though, so regulation became necessary (just what that entailed isn't explained). Once the Elves withrew into Evael in the face of waves of human invaders, the Khuzdul were left as the sole minters of coins until the Corani Empire (again, not really explained at this point, but it's coming) started minting coins around 420 TR.

Most coinage is silver pieces. They're called "pennies", abbreviated "d" - which in the real world was derived from "denarius", a type of Roman coin, but Hârn uses the same abbreviation. There are no copper or bronze coins (or, one assumes, platinum or electrum) minted on Hârn. Only Azadmere mints gold coins. Coins outside their own territory tend to be taken at discounted rates (except Khuzan gold crowns). Monetary units are the same as pre-decimal Britain's: 4 farthings to a penny, 12 pennies to a shilling, 20 shillings (240 d) to a pound. Shillings and pounds aren't coins in themselves, though - merely convenient shorthand for quantities of pennies.

Pages 24 and 25 of HârnWorld are taken up by a comprehensive price list. We're cautioned these are retail prices, including markup by the seller, and should serve as only a rough guide, with haggling potentially altering the sale price by 25% up or down.

"Now, are you telling me that's not worth twenty pennies?"

The list is thorough, with four types of horse (cart, plough, riding, war), five types of hat (cloth, leather, linen, silk, wool), horseshoes, animals, jewelry, services (including both Courtesan (12d) and Prostitute (1d) as well as legal wills and contracts), and even slaves (again no indication this would be in Rethem or Tharda only).

Aside: courtesans are guilded, though HârnDex tells us that the guild is loosely organized. (Make your own "loose" jokes, please; this is a sober and serious blog.) There's no indication that their training goes beyond the, ahem, erotic arts, so they're not really akin to Firefly's Companion's Guild, but it would seem open to allow some Courtesans to have the broader Companion-style training if you liked. They're part of the influential Mangai, after all.

"Vote Inara Serra for Courtesan Guild Syndic!"

The price list also has an extensive range of weapons and armour. They are, as advertised, expensive; a mail hauberk is 975 d (over 4 pounds!) and a broad sword, 150 d. By way of contrast, page 26 gives us a list of incomes for guilded and unguilded professions, and a master weaponcrafter - the highest listed - would earn around 18 farthings per day, or 1,296d per year. Not that most non-aristocrats want to be caught wearing mail or carrying chivalric weapons in any event.

The income list shows wages for bonded masters, which were briefly described under Guilds.It's noted that highly skilled craftsmen (e.g. a mason building a castle) could earn fees up to six times the bonded master's wages, but this is rare. Freemasters' incomes are more variable. For unguilded workers, the wages are for experienced workers - others get paid less. An income for a "man-at-arms" is also given, but this is only for Thardic legionnaires and mercenaries, since most feudal soldiers will serve as owed service rather than for pay.

Taxes, Tolls, and Trade

Now we get a description of "hawking taxes" and "bonding fees" (remember them?) and a few other things. Again, the order things are presented is a bit problematic. Property taxe rates are given (one for businesses and one for residences), as well as rates for hawking taxes (payable on all goods brought into a city to be sold), bonding fees (for goods brought into the city for export rather than sale), maritime taxes and wharfage fees, tolls for bridges, fords, etc., and guild dues.

Page 28 is a plain, but useful, economic map of Hârn, showing where particular goods originate. (I assume it shows areas known for or reliant on that good - I'm pretty sure there are more than two regions where iron is mined on Hârn, for instance.)

...I take that back. The next page tells us that the areas on the economic map are only those that produce enough of the named goods for export. It also tells us that most regions are self-sufficient except for salt and mineral ores. Azadmere and Tharda seem to produce the most iron. The ol' salt mines seem to be on the Rethem-Tharda border.

The Elves export only glassware and musical instruments. Typical.

Land trade is by caravan - which of course means opportunities for first-level characters enterprising mercenaries. Passengers pay a fee to travel with a caravan. Caravan masters are a subset of the Mercantyler's' Guild (teamsters are an unguilded occupation).

Rather unsatisfyingly, we're told that land roads are bad, and wheeled transport is slow, so most trade takes place by water - though less so on Hârn than in other places - but maritime trade gets nary a mention. We're directed instead to the Pilot's Almanac module - which doesn't seem to be currently available on the Columbia Games website.

Lost at sea, I guess. Should've hired a pilot.

We're through about half the module by this point. Religion and History make up most of the rest. I'll start on Religion next.