 |
| Horses (from the blog les-verts-tacots) |
This is a
question which arises in many situations during a game, and many settings
propose guidelines or even price lists. But in an economy based on exchange, it
is difficult to set any price list, and in an oral culture, accounting
documents are missing. We are therefore obliged to extrapolate from reports
written by foreign visitors. The following guidelines try to give a
comprehensive estimate of numbers to be found among nomads, either for exchange
or to estimate the size of an encounter. I based these numbers on reports from
visitors or on the amount of beasts sold every year at the town market in
Bukhara.
The
following numbers are very rough, may vary widely and are only given as
guidelines to create an encounter or as background elements for player
characters.
Size of a camp
The camp of
an important Bey can be as small as 50 yurts, split in groups of 3-6 yurts,
each one housing a family. Such a camp would have 5-6000 heads of sheep and
3-600 horses. Goats, cows and camels are less numerous. The usual ratio between
animals could be the following:
10-20 heads
of sheep / horse
50-100 heads
of sheep / goat
1 cow / 10
horses
1 camel / 5
to 20 horses (depending on the area)
An average family
consisting in 6 members is expected to have 4 yurts and take care of 40 horses,
400-head flock of sheep, a few goats, 4 cows or yaks and 4 camels. In desert
areas, increase the proportion of camels. Since camels and cows have a similar
usage, it is possible that an isolated family lacks one of them.
Costs of goods
These can
widely vary according to variety, scarcity or quality. The BRP rule using item
value levels instead of money is therefore well suited to this setting. One can
use sheep as kind of reference, if not as currency.
Cheap items
are supposed to be made by the Nomads themselves.
One sheep
is an “inexpensive” item.
An average
item like an average horse costs about 10 inexpensive ones (sheep).
An
expensive item “costs” at least 10 horses or 100 heads of sheep. For example camel,
slave, metal armour, high quality silk dress, or wolf fur coats. Of course,
there is no price limit to expensive goods.
