Who lives in that castle?Building it is one thing, running it is anotherby Katharine Kerr

In any role-playing game set in a medie-val-style world, no matter how vaguelydeveloped, the castle has an importantplace. The very sight of a lonely keep, risingabove the mists on a hilltop, is one thatpromises adventure. In game systems thatprovide for player-character strongholds, acastle is usually the first thing a playerthinks of when his character obtains themeans to build a stronghold. And if thecampaign has important non-player charac-ters of noble blood, the gamemaster has tocreate, castles for them.

Although by using historical sources orgaming aids it�s easy to design the actualcastle buildings, stocking the castle withcharacters requires more thought. Living inand maintaining a castle requires manyservants and officials, most of whom live inthe castle with its lord. By describing thetypical medieval castle household, thisarticle offers guidelines for players andGM�s alike who need to build a castle andset up its staff.

What is a castle?A great many different buildings are

loosely described as castles, ranging fromghastly stone houses built by noveau richefilm people to walled cities or military forts.

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Properly defined, however, a castle is thepersonal fortification of either a king or amember of the nobility. The true castleserves two purposes: it is a dwelling for anoble family in times of peace, and a fort intimes of war. Thus, neither garrisons forprofessional soldiers nor public fortificationssuch as walled towns can be counted ascastles.

The true castle is always supported by theprofits from a manorial estate (also called amanor or a seigneurie). At root, the manoris simply a holding of agricultural land,worked by dependent tenants who live uponit, and granted to a fighting man to feedhim and his family while he serves his kingor some other powerful noble. From thatroot, however, grew many vast estateswhere the lord ruled in his own name andthought about the king as little as possible.At the same time, many manors were littlemore than large farms.

The land of a typical manor is dividedinto three parts. The first, the lord�sdemesne, is technically the only propertythat he actually owns. Although thedemesne is worked by his tenants, all pro-duce from these fields belongs to the lord.The second division, the holdings of histenants, belongs to them in a kind of invol-

untary lease � that is, they may not leavethe land without the lord�s permission, butneither may he expel them from theirfarms. The remaining land is commonpasture and forest, theoretically shared bylord and tenants, but in practice controlledby the lord.

The size of the manor varies so widelythat it�s impossible to give exact figures forcreating them, but in general, the morepowerful the lord, the richer his holdings.The richness of the manor depends as muchon soil fertility and climate as it does onsize. Thousands of acres of moor and fencannot support a baron as well as a modestholding of good river-valley land.

At the bottom of the scale is the small fiefof a single knight. As a rough estimate, ittakes the labor of fifteen to thirty peasantfamilies, working a holding of forty to onehundred hectares, to support one knight,his family, and his warhorse. (A hectare is10,000 square kilometers, or about 2½acres.) On such a small manor, the knightlives little better than his peasants.

Rich manors, however, cover thousandsof hectares and are worked by several thou-sand tenants. In medieval France, forexample, the average manor of a lord of thebaronial class was about three hundred

and a barbican tower. it will take at least200 hectares of land to maintain a smallcastle.

The true castle, with its rings of walls,multiple towers, and stone dwelling-houses,requires a manor of at least 500 hectaresand is thus usually the property of a lord ofthe baronial class. It may also belong to aking, who can support more castles than hecan live in by taxes from the royal demesneas well as from the manor attached to eachcastle. Such royal castles have a militarypurpose, like guarding an important bridge,and will house a castellan and his family �a nobleman sworn personally to the kingbut holding his position by hereditary right.

square miles. About one third of this estatewas under the personal control of the baronor count, while the rest was parceled out tohis knights in small fiefs of varying size.(This process of giving out pieces of amanor is called subenfeoffment.)

running his land. On any given day, he isjust as likely to be found discussing businesswith his bailiff and provosts as he is trainingwith arms or hunting. Since the lord of thebaronial class usually has the right of highjustice over his tenants and dependents, healso spends much time acting as judge andjury for every legal dispute, crime, or pettysquabble on his land, right down to argu-ments among peasants over a chicken orhog.

When setting up a manor to support thecastle for either a PC or an NPC, the GMmust remember that large tracts of goodland are necessary to support a lord in anykind of style. Medieval-level agriculture isextremely labor-intensive and inefficient;thus the surplus, which goes to the lord, isgoing to be small.

A word must be said about the typicalnoble lady of a castle. Although undermedieval law a woman had few rights andwas barred from most activities � she could

Kinds of castles neither own property nor bear arms, forPossessing the revenue from a large tract

of land is also necessary to build the castlein the first place. Building a large stonefortification is expensive, even when muchof the labor comes from unpaid peasantry.Let�s look at the cost of some English castlesin the 12th century. At that time, theEnglish pound was divided into 240 silverpennies, and 30 of those pennies would buya healthy ox or a warhorse. To build thesmall castle of Scarbourough cost the king656 pounds; to expand Wark on Tweedfrom a small castle to a medium-sized onecost 383 pounds; to build the elaboratecastle at Orford cost 1,222 pounds � theequivalent of 9,776 warhorses!

instance � in practice such legal cavils wereignored. Usually the lady also takes anactive part in running the estate; manyimportant officials report directly to her,and she is responsible for all the daily

The noble inhabitantsCastellans, however, are the rarest sort of

castle inhabitants. Most will be lords fromthe baronial class, which includes any nobleabove the simple status of knight � barons,counts, dukes, margraves, and so on. Dur-ing the actual Middle Ages, these variousnoble titles were considered equal in rank,rather than being graded into the stricthierarchy of later times. What truly deter-mined a noble�s status was the size of hismanor and the strength of his holdings.

accounts and doings of the servants. She isalso her lord�s hostess, which is a veryimportant job in a world where a lord�sreputation depends on his generosity.

Furthermore, the noble lady is alsotrained to hold her castle against siege whileher husband is gone on campaign. Duringsuch crises, the men-at-arms and householdknights obey her without question. Someladies have even been known to take thefield of battle, armed like men, to rescuetheir husbands from imprisonment. Thus,rather than the fragile flower depicted inmodern romances, the feudal lady is aperson with an air of command. If herhusband is the commander of their domain,

then she is his most trusted general, withtrue power over the household.

The lord and his immediate family liveinside the donjon in a small castle, or in apalais (a separate dwelling-house) in a richone. Besides his wife and children, thelord�s family includes any younger brothersor sisters still dependent on him and proba-bly his widowed mother, the dowager. Sincenoblemen lived short lives, on the whole, usually the eldest son inherited the manorbefore his siblings were grown. He was thenresponsible for raising them and eithermaking good marriages for the sisters orfinding land and a position for the brothers.(How well selfish lords fulfilled these dutiesis another question.)

Thus, not every petty knight living on amanor of 50 hectares is going to have acastle, even though possessing a propercastle is the ardent desire of every noble-man. Poor knights or PC�s beginning tobuild a stronghold are more likely to haveeither a fortified manor house or a fortalice.

Although the lord�s primary duty in life iswar, in peacetime few lords live idle lives.They are, after all, the administrators forvast estates with power over many lives,and the typical lord actively takes a hand in

The fortified manor can take manyforms, but its distinguishing characteristic isthe use of wooden defenses instead of stone.The most common type is the motte-and-bailey. A wooden house sits at the top of themotte (a mound of earth heaped up, or asmall natural hill). At the base of the motte,a palisade of heavy logs encloses the bailey(an open space useful for sheltering peasantsin case of attack). Although the palisade isvulnerable to fire, a well-defended motte-and-bailey manor can withstand siege forseveral days, long enough for some ally oroverlord to come to the rescue. Buildingand supporting a fortified manor houserequires 40-60 hectares of land; a motte-and-bailey, about 100 hectares.

The fortalice is a step up for the wealthiernoble. Such a fortification has a simplecurtain wall of stone, enclosing a largeward, and perhaps has a fortified gate-house. Inside the wall is a simple keep �usually a tall donjon tower, either round orsquare � that both houses the noble familyand serves as a last-ditch defense if the wallis breached. A holding of around 150 hect-ares of land is necessary to build and sup-port a fortalice.

The fortalice grades into the small castleproper. Although the small castle may havea separate dwelling house beside the don-jon, most lords prefer to put the extramoney into its defenses, adding ramparting

Retainers and officialsAny good-sized castle shelters a surpris-

ingly large number of servants of varyingdegrees of rank. Since generosity is one ofthe marks of true nobility, supporting alarge household brings status to the lord ofthe household. The lord will maintain asmany people as he can feed, far more thannecessary to do the actual work. A wealthy

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�Any good-sized castle shelters a surprisingly large number of servants . . .�

baron, for example, might have three hun-dred people living behind his walls.

The most important member of thiscrowd are the retainers and officials of noblerank. In medieval society, there was abso-lutely no shame attached to performing themost menial services for a person of higherrank � to the contrary, it was an honor tobe chosen for the task. Likewise, havingretainers of noble blood increases the statusof the castle�s lord. It is the goal of powerfullords to have as many noble retainers aspossible, even for such mundane jobs asfalconmaster. Exactly how many castleofficials will be noble-born depends, ofcourse, on the castle-holder�s wealth andreputation.

Even the poorest lord has at least onenoble retainer, his squire. (Wealthy lordshave three or four squires, for status.) Thesquire is a boy of noble blood who at agetwelve or thirteen comes to live in anotherlord�s family to receive his final training inarms and courtesy. Common opinion holdsthat no man can train his own son properly,because he would go easy on the boy, ratherthan being as harsh as a warrior�s trainingdemands. While living with his lord, thesquire acts as both valet and companion.He helps his lord dress in the morning,waits on him at table, tends his personalhorses, and runs whatever errands the lordneeds to have run.

Just as the lord has his squires, the ladyhas her waiting women, girls of good familywho are usually friends more than maids.The waiting women dress their lady, takecare of her clothes, help with the children,and join her in the endless sewing of clothesthat�s such a large part of life for medievalwomen. Since a lord gains status by sup-porting many waiting women for his wife,

the usual lady has a retinue of many girlsaround her at all times. Most of these willeventually marry, but some waiting-womenprefer to remain with their lady to avoid anunwelcome marriage. Such a woman will bethe lady�s chief confidante and thus a personof power within the castle.

Other noble-born retainers act as offi-cials, coming between the lord and theactual servants. The exact number andpositions of these officials will of coursevary, depending on the wealth and size ofthe castle. A poor knight will only have oneman to scurry around and do whatever hehas time to do, while a rich baron will havethe full staff listed below.

The chief officer in a large castle is theseneschal, who has many varied duties. Heis the lord�s right-hand man, the overseer ofthe fief as a whole, the lord�s companion inbattle, and his trusted political councilor.He disburses monies or food to the otherofficials, keeps an eye on their accounts,and solves whatever disputes are beneaththe notice of the lord. In wartime, he is thesecond-in-command of the men-at-arms andvassals in the lord�s army. If only one offi-cial in a household is noble-born, that onewill be the seneschal.

The steward, overseeing the butler, cel-larer, and cooks, is responsible for feedingthe castle household � no easy job withthree hundred people at table! He overseesthe provision and storage of food from theactual farmland, sets the menus with thelady of the castle, gives orders to the cooks,and organizes any feasts or festivities. Atmealtimes, he becomes a head waiter, coor-dinating the servants who are bringing inthe food.

The chamberlain is responsible for thehousehold work exclusive of food prepara-

tion. He supervises what little cleaning getsdone, the hiring of common-born servants,the purchase and care of furniture andhangings, and the dispensing of any giftsthe lord and lady care to make. He also hasthe important task of tending to the comfortof any guests. Both the steward and thechamberlain report directly to the lady.

The marshal; or equerry, is in charge ofthe stables, which are the core of the lord�smilitary power in a cavalry-dominatedworld. The marshal supervises the stableboys and the groom, buys or trades horsesas necessary, and assigns the horses ownedby the lord to whomever needs to use them.Since most noble lords spend a lot of timediscussing their beloved horses, the marshalusually has personal influence over the lordand thus great personal power.

Another person of great influence is thelord�s chaplain, the priest who lives in thecastle and performs religious services for allits inhabitants, noble or common. Beyondhis religious duties, the priest knows thecommon law and is expected to advise thelord when he is dispensing justice. He alsoacts as the castle�s almoner, dispensingcharity to the poor who show up at thegates. In a fantasy world with pagan soci-eties, this priest will not be a Christianfather, of course, but most lords will keep apriest of their favorite god close at hand.

A wealthy lord also maintains as manymen-at-arms as he can afford to keep in hisbarracks. Particularly if this force containsarchers and pikemen, the men-at-arms arelikely to be from the yeoman (free middle)class, but at their head will be at least onehousehold knight of noble birth. In areaswhere there is constant warfare or dangerfrom bandits and suchlike, the lord willmaintain as many household knights as he

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can afford, but in peaceful regions, he willenfeoff his knights on part of his manor.

The average household knight is a poornoble, usually a younger son with no chanceat an inheritance, who spends his whole lifein the lord�s castle for what amounts toroom and board � and the all-importantchance to prove himself in battle. Someknights, however, are vagrant adventurers� noble-born, of course, but kicked out bytheir families for one shameful reason oranother. These lesser knights own their ownhorses and equipment, rather than receivingthem from the lord, and thus are paid asmall fee in addition to their maintenance.In the castle hierarchy, these knights-errant,as they are called, come near the bottom asnecessary evils, not to be trusted unlessunder the firm control of the seneschal.

In fantasy-world castles, great lords alsohave a personal wizard or sorcerer livingwith them. Such a magician is expected touse his skills in his lord�s defense during warand to influence political events duringpeace. He also gives the lord counsel fromhis arcane lore and interprets omens thatare beyond the range of the priest. Kingsand particularly powerful nobles will have apersonal alchemist in their castle as well.

Servitors and servantsAmong the ranks of common-born ser-

vants in the castle there is a further distinc-tion � between servitors, who have acertain amount of respect and position, and

the crowd of peasant servants who do theactual daily labor. The servitors have a craftto offer, such as blacksmithing, cookery, orhunting technique. These skilled laborershold their positions by hereditary right,passing the job down to their sons or daugh-ters as long as they have heirs. Servitors aregenerally proud of their position and veryloyal to their lord if he�s any kind of adecent man at all.

The servants, recruited from the peas-antry on the manor, are treated like valu-able farm animals. Kicks and curses aretheir daily lot from those above them in thehierarchy. They sleep wherever they canfind a spot, usually on the floor or on atable in the lord�s hall, or out in the stables.For wages, they receive food, one suit ofclothes a year, and a few small coins atChristmas. Yet, odd though it seems tomodern minds, being a servant in a castle isa sought-after job. Since status demandsthat the lord have more servants than arenecessary for the work, no single servantworks more than three or four hours a day� a much better lot than breaking one�sback on the farm. Servants are also assuredof getting enough to eat, which is not thecase for other peasants.

A great castle will have close to a hun- dred servitors, counting their wives, andanother hundred or so servants. Followingare descriptions of some of the most impor-tant servitors, who will be found in anycastle of decent size.

Working under the seneschal are thoseresponsible for the security of the castle, thechief porter and the watchmen. Althoughthe watchmen are recruited nightly from themen-at-arms, the chief porter has a heredi-tary job. Usually he and his family live in agate-house, which is either just inside thegates or built into the wall over them. He isresponsible for greeting � and scrutinizing� every person who comes to the gates andfor deciding whether or not to admit them.If the visitor is noble, the porter must greethim with the ritual courtesy due his rank. Ifthe visitor is judged undesirable, the portermust turn him out � by force if necessary.Thus, porters are trained in the use ofweapons.

A lord who dispenses justice has animportant servitor in the person of thesworn executioner. Although not the mostpopular man in the castle, the executioner istreated with respect. He�s responsible forhanging or otherwise dispatching criminals,�persuading� suspected criminals to revealevidence, and putting minor infractors inthe stocks or flogging them. Oddly enough,the executioner also serves as a doctor forbroken bones and wounds. Since he�strained to break bodies, he knows a good bitabout repairing them as well.

Another person who serves as a doctorfrom time to time is the barber, sometimesknown as a barber-surgeon. Although heshaves the noblemen of the household andcuts their hair like a modern barber, he also

D R A G O N 2 5

knows much primitive medicine and candispense herbal potions for various ail-ments. His most common treatment, how-ever, is bleeding the sick, either by openinga small vein or by applying river leeches tosuck out the �bad blood.�

Since the hunt is a very important part ofcastle life, providing not only amusementbut much-needed meat, every castle has astaff of servitors devoted to hunting. Thekennelman cares for and trains the lord�shounds; during the hunt, he supervises thepack. The falconer tends the falcons andhawks; he also has the unenviable job ofraiding nests to steal young birds. Theaverage falconer will have many scars on hisface. The master huntsman tends andrepairs the special hunting weapons, trainsthe beaters and netmen, and tracks gamewhen the hunt is up.

Another crucial part of the castle�s foodsupply is the garden, tended by the chiefgardener and a crew of peasant servants.This garden supplies vegetables, pot herbs,and medicinal herbs as well as flowers. Theflowers, however, are considered a �neces-sary luxury,� because they are a bright spotof color in an otherwise drab life. Even themost battle-hardened lord will wear flowersin his hair for special events like weddings.

Even if a castle is near a town, the lordprefers to keep his own craftsmen within hiswalls. After all, one can�t send to town forsupplies during a siege! Every castle willhave a carpenter, a tinker, a potter, and astone-mason, but the most important ofthese servitors is the blacksmith. In fact, alarge castle is likely to have two smiths,who, besides shoeing the small herd ofhorses within the castle, also produce nails,bolts, arrowheads, lance heads, shieldbosses, and even chain mail. The smithsalso repair broken weapons and horse-gear.

Working cloth is another important castleindustry, because every piece of clothing orblanket used by those who live there isproduced by the household. The castle�slady supervises a large staff of women whospin wool from the lord�s sheep, weave itinto cloth, dye it with herbal dyes, and thensew it into clothes to be dispensed as wagesor gifts. The lady herself will sew her lord�sclothing, perhaps adding a touch of fancyneedlework if she has the time.

Head cook, baker, head groom, dairy-man, poultryman � all are importantservitors, and all will have lesser servants tohelp them at their work. The bailey andward of a large castle are actually a village,filled with wooden shacks and workshops,housing the people who turn the producefrom the land into the necessities and some-times the luxuries of life.

Who pays for all of this?Whether bushels of wheat or silver coins,

disposable wealth has to come from some-where, and the �somewhere� of the mano-rial economy is the labor of the tenantpeasants, or serfs, as they are commonlyknown. Although many lords have subsidi-ary incomes from bridge tolls, river rights,

2 6 DECEMBER 1983

�Every castle has a staff servitors devoted to hunting.�or town taxes, the bulk of their wealthcomes from the land.

As mentioned above, about one-third of amanor is the lord�s own land, the demesne.All produce from the demesne belongsdirectly to the lord. The tenants holding therest of the manor also work on the lord�sdemesne, usually for three days a week.This service, called the corvee, is paid onlyby the head of each tenant family, but it isstrictly enforced.

The other members of the family are thentechnically free to work their own land fortheir own profit, but in practice, the lordskims off a large share of their labor. Forstarters, each peasant has to pay an annualhead tax, the chevage. If the lord has justicerights over the peasants (and most do), eachfamily pays a further annual tax, the taille.Whenever the head of a family dies, his sonmust pay the lord a further tax to inheritthe land.

Most onerous of all, however, are thebanalites, duties and fees that must be paidconstantly in order to live daily life. Peas-ants must grind their grain in the lord�smill, bake their bread in his ovens, use onlyhis bull and stallion to stud their cows andmares, cross only his bridge at the stream� on and on, and all for a fee. Thesecharges are enforced by physical violence,such as floggings or even maiming.

The French historian George Duby hasestimated that the total charges upon apeasant amounted to 50% of his family�stotal output, and this is over and above thecorvee. (And you think the IRS is bad?)The average peasant family, therefore, livesclose to starvation. Their clothes are tornand filthy; their hut is tumbledown anddrafty; their children die with heart-break-ing regularity from malnutrition and smallfevers. Most peasants also live in a state ofsullen resentment that at times breaks outinto open rebellion, but the lord�s armedjustice is swift to torture, maim, or kill anyprotestor. At its most basic level, the mano-

rial system resembles nothing so much asthat well-known gangster ploy, the protec-tion racket.

To keep the peasants in line and to extortall these fees, the lord requires a number ofmanorial officials, sometimes noble-bornbut more usually middle-class servitors,again holding their positions by hereditaryright. At the top of the hierarchy is thebailiff, who might live in the castle, but whomore likely lives in a farmhouse on theestate. The bailiff is the working overseer ofthe estate, making his daily rounds onhorseback to collect work-gangs for thecorvee, make decisions about plowing andplanting, and supervise the collection oftaxes and fees. Since they must makedetailed annual reports to the lord and theseneschal, most bailiffs can read and write.

To help him, the bailiff has a varyingnumber of assistants, the provosts. (Somelords dispense with a bailiff and have theprovosts report directly to them.) The pro-vosts directly supervise the corvee, andsome do actual physical work as well, suchas loading the taxes onto carts or tendingthe lord�s horses when they are broughtoutside to graze.

Two other important estate officials arethe forester and the game warden. Theforester keeps track of all firewood cut fromthe lord�s forest and of course imposes a feeupon the peasant for cutting it. The gamewarden�s primary duty is to make sure thatno one poaches any wild game from theestate. All deer, rabbits, and boars are thelord�s property; any peasant who kills somuch as a rabbit, even to protect his crops,will be summarily hanged.

The player character�s castleNow that the GM understands the

requirements of a working castle, he is in abetter position to supervise any players whowish to have their characters build strong-holds, a process far more complex than themodern procedure of buying a piece of real

estate and hiring a contractor. At all stages,the GM should retain firm control of theprocess and put plenty of realistic obstaclesin the character�s way. In a sense, the GMwill be role-playing the entire medievalenvironment and property system.

The first problem is acquiring enoughland � not merely for the actual castleitself, but also for the manor to support it.Most players will protest that their charac-ters don�t need a manor, because they planto support their castle with the coin fromadventuring. Unfortunately, all the coin inthe world can�t buy food that isn�t there tobuy. Medieval agriculture is so inefficientthat it�s highly unlikely that the neighbor-hood peasants will have any food to sellafter fulfilling their obligations to their lord.

Besides, their lord will probably outrightforbid any sale of food to the adventurer inthe neighborhood because any new castle isa rival for power. Even free farmers will sellonly what food they can spare, leaving thecharacter�s castle vulnerable to bad har-vests. Thus, the PC�s castle requires amanor to feed it.

Buying land outright for coin is unheardof in a medieval-style world. At the most, aPC could obtain a small amount of land ona perpetual lease by paying a money rent,but it is far more likely that any manorialestate will come enfeoffed or entailed in oneway or another. There are two kinds of landavailable for new manors: virgin territory,or farmland from a great lord�s alreadyexisting manor.

Any virgin territory within a kingdom isconsidered the property of the king; squat-ters will have a war on their hands. Legallysettling virgin territory requires a royalcharter granting and establishing the newmanor. In the case of manorial land, thelord who has rights to it must be persuadedto subenfeoff it to the PC. In both cases, thegranter of the manor will wangle as manyobligations as he can from the PC.

To obtain a manor from an overlord,whether king or baron, the PC has toacquire the lord�s favor and convince himthat he will be a loyal vassal in the future.Here�s where all those coins and jewels cancome in handy. Besides giving lavishpresents to the overlord, the PC will have tobribe his important officials to get them onhis side and perhaps even to get an audi-ence with the overlord. Once the grant ofland is offered, the PC has to swear homageto his new overlord, or suzerain, as it wasoften called.

In homage, the PC promises to becomethe overlord�s vassal for the rest of his life(the PC�s life, that is) and to perform cer-tain services in return for the land. Theminor ones can be widely varied, but themost common small obligations are to visitthe overlord�s court once a year, to entertainhim sumptuously whenever he appears atthe vassal�s castle, and to help him with theexpense of wedding or knightings of thelord�s children when they come of age.

The major obligation, of course, is mili-tary service. The vassal must provide a

specified number of soldiers and their provi-sions for forty to sixty days a year. When-ever summoned, the vassal must personallyfight at his lord�s side. In some cases, it�s possible to get out of this service by payingscutage, a money payment sufficient to hireand supply as many men as the vassal isfailing to provide. The GM should decidewhether the overlord in question will acceptscutage. In a real emergency, the overlordwill not.

If the PC has received a grant of mano-rial land that�s already being farmed, he canproceed to building the castle. In the case ofvirgin territory, however, the PC will haveto find farmers to work on the new manor.Peasants on an existing manor are usuallywilling to become colonists if they receive abetter deal than they�re already getting �an easy enough matter, considering theirlot. It was common for colonizing lords toallow � reluctantly, of course � theircolonists to lease the new land with rentsdue instead of full feudal service.

Since serfs are legally free men, notslaves, buying them out of serfdom is aticklish business. While trying to keep upappearances, their former lord will try toget as much coin as possible per head.Lords will never risk underpopulating theirown lands, of course, and thus will probablyonly allow 10-15% of their serfs to leave atany given time.

Once the farmlands are settled, the PCwill also have to acquire servitors from the

middle classes and whatever noble officialsor henchmen he can attract. To build theactual castle requires skilled, well-paidcraftsmen brought out from towns. Mostfantasy-game systems have prices in theirrules for the actual cost of building. Crafts-men will demand to be paid in coin, notproduce, but they will take part of thewages in living expenses while actuallyworking.

The process of settling a manor andbuilding a castle should take game-years,not months. The PC isn�t slapping up amodern condominium of lath and sheet-rock, but building in stone for the ages. TheGM will probably have to rule that the PCdoesn�t have the resources to build hisdream castle all at once but must eitheradventure again or wait until the landbegins producing enough revenue to finishthe work.

Most PC�s, in fact, will have to start astronghold as a fortified manor or fortalice.Although players will gripe about this, theGM should hold firm. After all, a recurringproblem in long-running campaigns is therich and incredibly powerful PC who unbal-ances the game by his very presence. Firstbuilding, then maintaining a castle is anexcellent way to drain off not only wealthybut playing time from such a PC.

First of all, the PC will have to spendplaying time fulfilling his obligations to hisoverlord. The military service will alwayscome due in summer � prime adventuring

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weather. An overlord�s visit will cost a greatdeal of money for the lavish feasts andentertainments that are necessary to keepthe overlord�s good favor.

Second, running a large manor takestime. If the PC is away from home toooften, the officials are likely to turn dishon-est and begin stealing revenues, or turn soruthless that they cause a peasant revolt.The PC must also maintain a court of jus-tice and be at home to receive taxes andhomage from those below him.

Finally, a powerful PC on a rich manor isgoing to cause envy, and thus emnity,among his neighbors. Petty feuds and envi-ous disputes are common in a medieval-style society, and they�re always settled bythe sword. Fighting a local war is a muchbetter use of a powerful PC�s talents than isstripping hapless dragons of their wealth.

The castle in the campaignSince building and maintaining a castle is

such a difficult proposition, castles aren�tgoing to exist in every hex of the campaignmap. The common pattern, in fact, will beone powerful castle for every, two or threehundred square miles, surrounded at inter-vals by the fortalices of the rich lord�s vas-sals. Royal castles will be even rarer. In akingdom with a weak central government,there may be no royal castles at all exceptfor the king�s personal dwelling.

Because of the large number of servants,servitors, and retainers who live in a castle,drawing up a castle minutely for an NPC isas much work as creating a small town.Fortunately, unless the NPC has a crucialcentral role in the campaign, or the GMwishes to run a series of scenarios in a par-ticular castle, there is no need to createevery single inhabitant and give them fullstats. After all, unless the player party is abunch of murderous brigands, they areunlikely to engage in combat with the black-smith�s wife or the pig-boys.

As a starting point, the GM should writea descriptive paragraph for each trulyimportant inhabitant in the castle, such asthe lord and his family, the noble officials,the chief household knight, and such servi-tors as the player party is likely to meet,such as the chief porter. Here�s an example

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of such a sketch: �Sir Gervase, the sene-schal, is a strong middle-aged man withgreat skill with weapons. He uses his quickwits and considerable worldly wisdom loy-ally in the service of his lord.� Then, if statsare necessary at some later time, the GMcan either roll them up or simply decidethem within the parameters of the sketch.

Lesser servitors and servants can bemerely listed and noted, for instance:�twelve serving wenches, two very pretty,�or �Hubert the blacksmith; lives in thebailey; strong arm with war hammer.�

When it comes to running the castle,impressionistic story-telling will fill a lot ofgaps. For example, let�s suppose a playerparty is entering a castle for the first time.After an actual encounter with the chiefporter, they go through the gates. The GMcan say something like this: �Out in thebailey, you see a large number of woodensheds and huts. Servants hurry aroundcarrying food and firewood; a couple ofgrooms are currying horses by the mainwell; you hear the clang of a blacksmith�shammer over the general din.� Such ascene-setting gives the feel of castle lifewithout stats and continual dice rolls.

When mapping out the manor for animportant castle, likewise, the GM shouldindicate where the peasant villages are andhow many families live in them, but it�sunnecessary to make a detailed placementof every hut and field. The map can indi-cate the lord�s forest, major streams, andother such natural features on a simple hex-by-hex basis. If the player party is the sortthat�s likely to get into trouble, by poachingon the lord�s forest preserve or robbingsomeone, then the GM can set up the dailyroute of the bailiff, provosts, and game-keeper and give them some combat stats.

The time spent working up a realisticallypopulated castle will pay off in the fun ofrunning it. All these assorted NPC�s pro-vide opportunities for encounters and char-acter interaction beyond the usual combats� love affairs, resentments, friendships,diplomatic squabbles � all in a fantasysetting that will still seem �real� to theplayers. A truly well-realized setting addsenormously to everyone�s enjoyment � andthat�s what fantasy role-playing is all about!

A note on further readingGM�s and players who are interested in

more detail about castle life can find manybooks available these days, some in paper-back. One of the best is Life on a MedievalBarony by William Stearns Davis (Harperand Row, 2nd ed. 1953). Serious role-players, especially Chivalry and Sorceryfans, will find that reading this or somesimilar book adds enormously to their fun.Hard-working GM�s who want more infor-mation about the manorial system and thesizes and population of average holdingsshould gird their loins and attack The Cam-bridge Economic History of Europe, Vol-ume I: The Agrarian Life of the MiddleAges, edited by M. M. Postan (CambridgeUniversity Press, 1966).