TEXT:  
  Board Enterprises proudly presents 
  Build Your Fantasy World in  
  Small Bites 
   
   
  The Hoof Wars of the 
  Hasslem Plains 
   
  aka All About Equines 
   
   
   
   
  
  2 
  INTRODUCTION 
   
   
  Welcome to another edition of Small Bites, our 
  modular look at fantasy worlds and fantasy world 
  building.  This month our theme is Equines as seen 
  embroiled in the Hoof Wars of the Hasslem Plains.  This 
  edition is about those oh so important steeds - the 
  equines, including (but not limited to) horses, pegasi, and 
  unicorns.  Not only is it about these splendid creatures, 
  but it is about how you as a GM and world creator can 
  use standard fantasy creatures, but give them an entirely 
  different spin for your game world.  One note - We are 
  going to cover centaurs in a different edition. 
   
  What is this thing?  Well, most people are seeing it 
  as a monthly e-zine.  We’ve always seen it more as a 
  “secret box” that you open up and find tons more content 
  than you ever expected.  But our highest priority is for it 
  to serve as a means for you to communicate with us, and 
  for us to show you that we’re listening.  Case in point:  
  Hoof Wars was slated to come out much later than it is.  
  But as you, the involved and participating gamers, 
  responded to surveys and other social media, we pushed 
  it forward because that’s what you said you wanted!! 
   
  We are listening, and we want you to participate.  
  See the Conclusion section for all of our contacts, and 
  please use them! 
   
   
  Table of Contents 
   
  Introduction ..................................................................... 2 
  Fletnern Wiki................................................................... 2 
  The Sounding Board ........................................................ 6 
  Lifestyles of the Magical and Mundane ........................ 12 
  News of Fletnern ........................................................... 15 
  The Good Life ............................................................... 17 
  In Conclusion ................................................................ 18 
   
  FLETNERN WIKI 
   
   
  All of these posts are already out on the wiki and 
  you can refer to them.  We have gathered them here, 
  because we think they are valuable in a group, and they 
  all pertain to our theme for the month.  All of them are 
  also tagged as being in the category of “Equines” in case 
  you are more comfortable using the wiki instead of this 
  edition. 
   
  Bosanc Horses 
  Animal 
   
  Bosanc horses are the largest of all horses.  They 
  are bred in and near Traigar.  They are prized as war 
  horses, since they are capable of easily carrying full 
  armored knights into battle.  They have long hair 
  compared 
  to 
  other 
  horses 
  and 
  typically 
  mean 
  temperaments.  They do not survive in warm climates 
  well, though they can handle temperate zones.  Some 
  knights have been known to keep them shaved, which 
  helps in the warmer climes.  They do not take to running 
  and typically only walk, but they will charge into battle 
  without fear.  They are named for the tribe that first 
  domesticated them. 
   
  Celetye Ponies 
  Animal 
   
  Celetye ponies are used as steeds.  They are bred in 
  the Triad, and come in various colorations, including 
  pale white, gray, golden and tan.  Their silky manes are 
  always of the same color.  Their gait has a fluid motion 
  that makes them more comfortable to ride for long 
  periods of time.  They are often considered a woman's 
  steed, as they are considered the most comfortable riding 
  steed in the world.  They were named for the breeder's 
  wife who began the line. 
   
  
  3 
  Cessernante Horses 
  Animal 
   
  Cessernante horses are bred in the Southern Plains 
  and sold throughout the world as riding horses and race 
  horses.  They are very sleek with thin legs.  Breeders 
  mark two major lines:  one all black, and one all white.  
  Roan and black and white spotted are rare and typically 
  put to death.  They have long manes, but very short hair 
  elsewhere.  They drink an inordinate amount of water, 
  making them of little use in the deserts.  They were 
  named for the river where the largest breeding facilities 
  are.  They have a surprising stamina and endurance, but 
  relatively little strength. 
   
  Circle Forest 
  Region 
      The Circle Forest is a large wooded region taking up 
  nearly half of the lands controlled by the city-state of 
  Myork.  The southern border is chaotic, but the northern 
  border is clearly defined by the Yilldre Condrontra (aka 
  the West Dragon River). 
      Despite occupying the northern half of Myork, the 
  Circle Forest is remarkably low in population density.  
  While the southern region of the forest has lumber mills 
  and other forestry industry, the northern portions are held 
  entirely by the various nature cults.  Chief among these 
  cults are the druidic elves.  The Circle Forest gets its 
  name from the various tree circles within it.  While the 
  nature cults insist these are natural occurrences showing 
  the magic of nature, most of them were planted and 
  nurtured by the various religions, though some were 
  started centuries ago. 
      The Circle Forest has long been a draw to various 
  religious people and groups.  These people have harshly 
  different approaches to the world when compared to the 
  city-state of Myork with its knights and castles.  
  Throughout the history of Myork, the Circle Forest has 
  been seen as a rebel stronghold, though they have never 
  managed to completely root out all of the enemies that 
  hide within.  At the current time, there is a calm between 
  the two groups.  Only rare incidents of violence occur, 
  and these are typically between very small groups of 
  people. 
   
  Fennemenne Company, The 
  Group 
      The Fennemenne Company is a cartel based out of 
  Brinston.  They began as a company of mercenaries and 
  sell swords led by the elven hero Cellnit Ayundre.  
  During a mission against some trolls in the South Pot 
  Mountains, they accidentally fell on a dragon nest.  After 
  defeating the dragon, Cellnit organized the teams to 
  harvest the dragon to the best of their ability.  The team 
  made so much extra money from the dragon’s corpse that 
  they decided to do this as a career. 
      The company began to seek out and attack dragons in 
  the South Pot Mountains, harvesting them for parts that 
  were valuable to the alchemists and enchanters of 
  Brinston.  Many Marils believe that Fennemenne has 
  wiped out the dragons of the region, and while they have 
  thoroughly thinned the wild dragons, they have not fully 
  eliminated them. 
      Extinct or just rare, their prey is now too difficult to 
  find and defeat, so the company needed to find a new 
  source of income.   During their various missions in the 
  South Pot Mountains, Cellnit was crippled by a dragon.  
  A dragon bit him and carried him off, but Cellnit blasted 
  him in the eyes with a spell, causing the dragon to drop 
  him.  The fall pulverized his lower spine, beyond the 
  ability of healers to repair.  Cellnit now acts as the 
  company’s manager and administrator, staying at their 
  headquarters in Brinston, while the rest of the team leads 
  their recruits on the hunt for more dragons. 
      Needing a new hunting ground, the company began 
  running missions to Hughijen, where the bulk of the 
  dragons are.  While there, they sought out new sources of 
  income and managed to enter the Hasslem Plains through 
  the Nooggarsh Hills.  They killed and harvested a small 
  herd of unicorns, taking their horns and hides along with 
  the dragon products they had collected on that trip.   
      Though they see nothing wrong with killing unicorns, 
  a creature they see as no different than a dragon or horse, 
  they have gotten themselves in some hot water because 
  of this.  There are groups around the world that see the 
  unicorns as holy or otherwise special and they react 
  violently when hunters like the Fennemenne Company 
  harvest their horns.  Despite this, there is a market for the 
  unicorn products, and Fennemenne needed to branch out 
  from simply supplying dragon pieces. 
   
  Gnome’s Colt 
  Animal 
      Throughout the Tunnel World, the aldar use a breed of 
  pony called the Gnome’s Colt.  These animals were bred 
  specifically to be shorter than normal ponies, without 
  losing any strength.  They also have managed to survive 
  with little or no sunlight.  These animals pull carts and 
  carry packs, depending on what is needed.  The aldar 
  also use slave porters of just about any race, but the 
  Gnome’s Colts are seen as less likely to flee and 
  
  4 
  typically stronger while still fitting well through the 
  tunnels. 
      Gnome’s Colts are typically between 320-400lbs, but 
  can typically carry a pack of up to 120lbs.  They 
  typically move about as quickly as a stronger human 
  porter (faster than an ox, but slower than a horse).  
  Feeding them can be complicated as their feed needs to 
  be brought in.  Many cartels that use the colts have above 
  ground bases where the small horses can eat and get 
  fresh air, though typically only at night.  Their excrement 
  is saved, as it is a valuable fuel in the aldar slums.  When 
  a colt dies, its hide and meat will not go to waste. 
   
  Hasslem Plains 
  Region 
      The Hasslem Plains are southwest of Purity, between 
  the Tannglim Forest and the Nooggarsh Hills region.  
  The Hasslem Plains are more typically known as the 
  Thunder Plains in Purity or the Herd Plains in the Circle 
  Forest and Myork.  It is this region that is dominated by 
  the pegasi and unicorn herds.  The plains are at a 
  relatively high elevation, about 600-800’ above sea level 
  and there are a series of cliffs along the western border of 
  the region.  These cliffs make it very difficult for 
  smugglers and hunters to get into or out of the region 
  without moving through the Tannglim Forest.  The 
  number of dragons in the Nooggarsh Hills makes coming 
  in from the south a frightfully difficult task. 
      While the government of Purity has outlawed the 
  slaughter of unicorns and pegasi, they do little about it in 
  the region.  They rely on their military patrols along the 
  northern border of the Tannglim Forest to apprehend any 
  poachers.  The elves of the Circle Forest take a more 
  direct path.  Many of the elves feel a calling to the Herd 
  Plains.  These elves will travel to the plains and live 
  there, studying the beauty of the equine races from a 
  distance.  These elves will then patrol the plains, hunting 
  poachers and wranglers alike.  (The Tands have no laws 
  against capturing the animals, just against killing them.) 
      The Hasslem Plains are technically a steppe.  The 
  majority of the region receives little rain due to the rain 
  shadow effect of the Mountains of Purity.  Despite not 
  having ample rain for extensive forests, there is rainfall, 
  enough to support the grasses and shrubs of the plain.  
  There are also extensive streams and creeks that carry 
  water out of the mountains and onto the plains allowing 
  the equines of the region to having many watering holes 
  and other drinking spots.  These waterways often enter 
  the Plains in beautiful cascades and waterfalls, further 
  adding to the idyllic atmosphere. 
      There are few predators on the Hasslem Plains.  The 
  unicorn and pegasi herds have killed off most of their 
  enemies and are ferocious enough to keep the dragons 
  from attempting to set up hunting grounds.  This lack of 
  predators may be the reason the herds seem to grow 
  beyond the land’s ability to support them, bringing the 
  herds into conflict with each other. 
   
  Nanganant Ponies 
  Animal 
   
  Nanganant ponies are used as war steeds by 
  halflings and sporting steeds by humans.  Bred in the 
  Triad, their colorations vary but are always a true white, 
  brown or black, very seldom have any markings.  They 
  are very sleek, with a thin waist, a solid chest, and 
  seemingly over-sized hind legs (like a modern 
  greyhound).  They are extremely fast and agile.  They 
  typically have a nasty temperament which might be 
  encouraged in breeding.  They were named for the town 
  where they were originally bred. 
   
  Nooggarsh Hills 
  Region 
      The Nooggarsh Hills are a dragon infested shrubland 
  dotted with hills throughout.  It is bordered on the south 
  and east by the Mountains of Purity, on the west by the 
  Ocean Semphesteus, and on the north by the Hasslem 
  Plains.  Being such a difficult and dangerous place to 
  enter, few people have ever ventured into the region, and 
  fewer still have ever left it. 
      The Nooggarsh Hills are well known for their dragon 
  populations, but they are also filled with various species 
  of equines, the prey of the dragons.  Many legends exist 
  about what might lie behind all those dangerous drakes, 
  but there is no history of there ever having been a 
  civilization in this area, so the answer is likely that 
  nothing exists back there. 
      One likely assumption is that the Nooggarsh Hills hide 
  ample gem and precious metal resources, just like the 
  hills separating the Tandish Lowlands from the 
  Mountains of Purity do.  The geology is very similar, and 
  it would be safe to assume that if someone were able to 
  penetrate the hills and find the right gem mine, they 
  would become very wealthy very quickly - if they could 
  survive. 
  
  5 
   
  Nooggarsh Horse 
  Animal 
      The Nooggarsh “horse” is a forest dwelling pony that 
  lives in the Nooggarsh Hills.  They are most commonly a 
  light tan with patches of cream.  Sometimes these 
  patches can be so large that the pony appears to be cream 
  with small tan highlights, or they can be an almost 
  leopard print of cream on tan.  The legs are almost 
  always darker than the body, and they are reasonably 
  well camouflaged in their bushy home.  Some have been 
  known to have striped legs, similar to an okapi. 
      Adult males stand close to 14 hands tall (between 4½’ 
  and 5’ at the shoulder) and as such would be considered 
  large ponies.  They have the stereotypical wider heads 
  (often considered shorter) and smaller ears of most 
  ponies.  They are also known for their thick and bushy 
  manes. 
      They are a common prey animal for the various 
  dragonkind in the hills.  Perhaps because of this, small 
  herds can often be found wandering the mountains or 
  into various other regions, likely seeking a safe spot to 
  exist without the constant threat of dragons.  The Tands 
  have found them to be exceptional draft ponies and are 
  happy to put them to work.  They do not function well as 
  steeds, perhaps because they continue to retain too much 
  of their wild ancestry. 
   
  Plogga Ponies 
  Animal 
   
  Plogga Ponies are used for draft purposes.  They 
  are bred in the Triad and have a deep brown coat with a 
  thick, black mane.  They often have some markings in 
  white and are often considered shaggy.  They are prized 
  for their even temperament and stamina. 
   
  Rairbridair Horses 
  Animal 
   
  Rairbridair horses are some of the most common 
  horses in the world.  They are extensively bred 
  throughout the Rhoric Plains and the Central Plains.  
  They are of a medium in size, but are surprisingly hardy.  
  They are used for war, work and riding.  They are 
  typically considered to look "a little shaggy", and 
  therefore not desired by nobles and others trying to make 
  an impression.  Their colorations are always in the 
  browns and tans.  They have a very mild temperament.  
  They were originally named for the Rhoric dialect 
  spoken by the first breeders. 
   
  Robelic Horses 
  Animal 
   
  Robelic horses are bred in and around Dalavar as 
  desert steeds.  They have remarkable speed, though it is 
  usually only good for sprints.  They are able to endure 
  the desert heat and survive with low quantities of water.  
  They are quite happy outside of the desert environments 
  too, but often need to be protected from colds and flu.  
  Their strength is comparatively low, but their agility is 
  remarkable.  Temperaments vary, but stubbornness can 
  be a real problem.  They are typically black or brown 
  with white markings, but they are never a solid color. 
   
  Tannglim Forest 
  Region 
      The Tannglim Forest lies along the southern border of 
  the Tandish Lowlands and as such most of it is beyond 
  the official control of the city-state of Purity.  Despite 
  this, the Duchy of Jynyendale frequently patrols the 
  northern sections of the woodlands both for their own 
  protection and to discourage any poachers attempting to 
  enter the Hasslem Plains. 
      The forest can be a dangerous place with various 
  predatory animals, including drakes and dragons that 
  have come down from the mountains.  In addition, much 
  of the Tandish Lowlands along the borders of the two 
  regions are marshy, making travel difficult.  This is the 
  main reason that the Forest still stands despite the desire 
  for lumber in the ship building capital of Purity.  The 
  forest can be hilly, but does not have the elevation of the 
  Hasslem Plains. For this reason, some small fishing 
  villages do exist along the sea coast of the region, 
  typically in places where natural boundaries offer 
  protection from the beasts further in the woods. 
   
  Pegasus and Unicorn Wars 
   
  The title of this edition is The Hoof Wars of the 
  Hasslem Plains.  There is a reason for this - over the 
  millennia that the pegasi and unicorns have existed 
  together on the Hasslem Plains, there have been times of 
  drought when there is less food for all of the herds.  Even 
  if the drought is fairly localized, it can cause the herds in 
  that particular area to believe that their food sources are 
  in danger, and this causes the two species to battle each 
  other. 
   
  Would two herds of pegasi or two herds of unicorns 
  battle each other?  Possibly, but they are going to be far 
  quicker to attack “the others” than to attack rivals of their 
  own species.  If the food sources become scarce, they 
  may attempt to intimidate their peer herd out of the area 
  instead of going to war with them.  But food shortages 
  (sometimes caused by overpopulation and not by 
  drought) do cause these two creatures to go to war. 
   
  This does not mean that either of these creatures are 
  “evil”, no matter what your game rules require for two 
  groups to battle each other.  Both herds are led by 
  stallions who want to provide the most food they can for 
  their families.  If there is enough food and water, they 
  can live in peace with the other breed. 
  
  6 
   
  THE SOUNDING BOARD 
   
  Royal Divinity 
   
  What are the myths about your royal lines?  This is 
  more likely one of those things you have thought about.  
  Do they have the blood of dragons in their line?  
  Descended from the gods?  Talk to angels?  Have the 
  power of an ancient line of magic?  What, besides being 
  royalty, sets them apart from the rest of their race? 
   
  The royals and the nobles always want the people to 
  be completely terrified of them, to know that they are 
  different and cannot be equaled.  So what stories do they 
  tell?  The myths can be powerful, especially if the people 
  believe them.  Even if they don’t, the myths serve as a 
  means of inspiring the people.  You don’t need to believe 
  in Pegasus and Bellerophon to find them majestic or at 
  least “cool”.  Think of the art.  Think of the stories and the 
  songs. 
   
   
  Think too of the rivalries.  Is one noble house 
  descended from the constellation of the cobra and another 
  use the mongoose in their crest?  OK, that was too blatant.  
  Maybe the dragon and the angels?  You get the point.  
  Sometimes the myths are used to tell the truth, when the 
  truth cannot be spoken.  Then again, it is a fantasy world.  
  Maybe the king really is descended from dragons. 
   
  Does it matter?  In a high fantasy game - absolutely!  
  Kings with even a little divine blood should have serious 
  advantages when trying to get the attention of the gods.  
  Royals with dragon blood may be immune to fire.  (Not all 
  of the family as many people have seen in a popular TV 
  show.)  The noble line protected by the spitting cobra may 
  be immune to poisons.  The ideas for having a little 
  “family magic” are countless. 
   
  Let’s take a completely different approach - 
  TREASURE!  A royal family that has been protected by 
  unicorns will have ivory unicorn statues throughout their 
  holdings.  Or they will have paintings of the famous 
  unicorn sightings.  Or they will have silver unicorns inlaid 
  into their gold signet rings.  Or they will have whatever 
  wood is closest to white inlaid into their tables in the form 
  of a unicorn.  Their staves will have unicorn heads.  Their 
  swords will have unicorn pommels.  Let’s go with “all of 
  the above”.  I am unquestionably a fan of cool treasure, 
  and ideas do not always just fall out of the skies.  Knowing 
  the heraldic symbols and legends of the locals gives you 
  countless ideas for cool, artistic treasures; treasures that 
  hopefully the players will appreciate, right before they turn 
  them in for a boring number of coins. 
   
  Animals of Fletnern 
   
  In a previous post, I mentioned that simply saying 
  "horses" is not a sufficient answer.  So what are you to do?  
  Well, I thought about horses (and related animals) when I 
  was first crafting my world of Fletnern.  Link to this page 
  to see some of the animals I established.  Obviously this is 
  not all of them.  In fact, I have charts for most of the 
  regions of the world listing the various different types of 
  animals there.  Each area needs predators (including an 
  apex predator who is often a "monster"), as well as 
  herbivores that do not entirely interfere with each other 
  and other prey animals.  It was fun for me to do this a 
  couple of times, but trying to get this done for all the 
  regions has proven more work than I have found the time 
  (and will) for.  For example - where I have marsupials, 
  there are no wolves, only animals based on some of the 
  extinct marsupial carnivores.  Also, since my Central 
  Plains region has relatively few wooded areas, I felt deer 
  animals (including moose or elk) were the wrong way to 
  go, but I wanted the Barons of the Council to be big game 
  hunters, so I moved the kudo into the Central Plains.  No 
  reason I can't do that in my world.  It makes for a little bit 
  of fun confusion, plus, and this is great for most of you 
  GMs:  If you can say to the players, "No, there are no deer 
  in the Central Plains.  The major hunting animal in the 
  Central Plains is the various kudo, " then your players get 
  the feeling (right or wrong) that you know everything 
  about your world and they get a little impressed or 
  intimidated.  OK, probably an exaggeration, but it is kind 
  
  7 
  of impressive when you know stuff like that.  It makes the 
  whole thing that much more real. 
   
  Why did I do all of this?  First, because I was sick of 
  people saying they wanted to buy a “draft” horse.  Could a 
  Clydesdale be a draft horse or a war horse?  and if so, why 
  were they different prices?  (well trained etc., but that is 
  not what this one is about)  But also (second), I was 
  working on the continent of Hughijen and needed to 
  explain why the dragons could survive around the Dragon 
  Lakes.  At first I said they were raiding the Anglic regions 
  for cattle, but that did not entirely make sense.  Eventually 
  the Angles would move their ranches farther and farther 
  from the Lakes in order to make it too far for the dragons 
  to range for food.  (Which they did.)  And the idea of 
  dragons eating mountain goats annoyed me to no end.  It 
  seemed undignified.  Well, the region is known as “the 
  Dragon Lakes”, so are they fishing those lakes?  Why not?  
  Honestly, it was on my honeymoon (in Alaska) that I saw 
  what can only be described as a vortex of eagles - 
  probably 90-120 - circling together and taking turns diving 
  into one area and coming out with fish.  There must have 
  been a massive school of fish right there, because the 
  eagles (some bald, some golden, many I could not identify 
  from the distance) just kept hitting it and then flying off 
  with fish.  Why couldn’t the dragons do that too?  OK, not 
  the vortex thing, just getting tons of fish.  But I did have to 
  add some big freshwater fish to the lake, but with a little 
  study on Lake Superior, that was pretty easy. 
   
  OK - for you gold farmers out there who see 
  absolutely no point to this post:  Here is what you can take 
  away from figuring out what the dragons eat:  You now 
  can figure out where they fly to hunt (from their caves to 
  the lakes).  You can now figure out that an old dragon 
  (let’s say sick because we know that other game thinks 
  elderly dragons are unstoppable) unable to compete with 
  the others for fish might be forced to move his lair into the 
  Anglic cattle regions, making him a target of the next 
  adventuring party.  (This really makes me think of Shere 
  Khan.  If you haven’t actually read Jungle Book - you 
  don’t know what you’re missing.  I love Disney, but the 
  book is phenomenal and not necessarily for kids.)  Since 
  you know what the dragons are eating, you can sort of 
  think of some of the treasure and garbage that would be 
  found in their lairs - fish bones, perhaps caviar that might 
  still be fresh enough to be of value, fresh water pearls, are 
  there any fresh water monsters in your game?, don’t forget 
  that there probably would be some mountain goats and 
  their horns, etc. left here too, because of geography, in 
  Fletnern, this leads to the strong possibility of a unicorn 
  horn or two as well.  I know I keep pounding on the idea, 
  but figuring out the mundane really does set you up to 
  know things that spawn adventures and help you while 
  you’re writing them! 
   
  Added Comment:  I did not think this deserved an 
  extra post, but notice the way I keep ending my sentences 
  in prepositions?  I have heard people say that this is 
  indicative of the fact that I grew up in the Midwest, maybe 
  even the northern Illinois/southern Wisconsin area.  I don’t 
  notice it, but it might stand out to you guys, especially 
  those of you from Canada or the UK.  No, I have not 
  developed these types of regional dialects for Fletnern, but 
  it would be really cool if you did stuff like that for your 
  world.  I have (as GM) assumed that these things existed 
  and allowed really smart guys to use it:  The bartender 
  asks you if you’re from the Triad, because the only folks 
  who pronounce that word like that are all from the Triad.  
  Anyway, that’s why Locality skills in LEGEND QUEST aid 
  in Language skills. 
   
  Getting to Work (literally) 
   
  We have talked about getting to and from work in 
  your fantasy world and how that differs for the common 
  folk and adventurers.  If you look at that idea and say “on 
  a horse”, you’ve screwed it up.  Now, you can start with 
  “on a horse”, but then you have to think about a number of 
  things:  If people are riding horses to and from work in a 
  major city, where do they “park” them?  Where do they 
  park them at home?  Are there that many stables in major 
  cities?  How do they feed all these horses?  Do the wagons 
  filled with hay, straw (for bedding) and oats wander the 
  
  8 
  streets?  Do the clean up wagons collect the horse manure 
  at night?  Can simply craftsmen afford to own horses (I 
  mean the feeding and housing, not buying a cheap one)? 
   
  OK - So I can’t just say you’re doing it wrong and 
  not offer the way to do it right.  Honestly, this has been an 
  issue with me from the first time I started mapping out the 
  city of Rhum (about 35 years ago).  I had residential 
  neighborhoods in one part of the city and industrial stuff in 
  another.  Now I have shifted things around (before 
  publication) and I have sort of surrounded the more 
  industrial area with residential neighborhoods, so the 
  workers don’t have to walk more than 10-20 minutes to 
  get to work.  I think that’s pretty reasonable.  That covers 
  the factory workers, and yes, I have factories in my 
  fantasy world.  Maybe not what you are thinking, but 
  breweries, brick makers, ceramics factories where some 
  guys set up the clay, some throw the items, and others fire 
  them in the kilns.  Most of the other craftsmen live very 
  close to their shops - often above them. 
   
  But I also had an issue with the Farmers’ Market.  
  The farmers don’t live in the city, so how do they maintain 
  their farms, get to and work in the market, and get home at 
  night before the gates close?  I had to think about that one 
  a lot!  I surrounded the city with some smaller farms, so 
  that farmers could still get into the city and back home 
  every day.  I started altering who was in the market - not 
  the farmer himself, but instead his wife or daughter.  I also 
  had to start thinking about the concept that farmers in 
  fantasy worlds aren’t selling watermelons all year long, 
  just at the end of summer.  So some of the Farmers’ 
  Market stalls are empty on certain days.  This also led me 
  to start thinking about things like:  pickled vegetables, fruit 
  preserves, apple cider and other things farmers would sell 
  to get people through the winter; the fact that there 
  probably was no fresh milk in cities without refrigeration; 
  and how do farmers make all of their money at one time of 
  the year (after harvest) and yet survive the rest of the year 
  hopefully avoiding bandits. 
   
  OK - That’s not so bad for the common folks, but 
  how does this affect the adventuring party?  A couple of 
  minor points:  I now know that near the city are small 
  farms, while away from the city are the huge plantations.  
  For Rhum, I knew this was barley and other cereal 
  plantations, but before thinking it through I did not think 
  that the plantations could afford to be at a distance, while 
  the small farmers could not.  In thinking about the 
  adventurers “getting to work”, I had to make sure that I 
  had established roads that go from one city to the next.  I 
  had that.  I had to think about what happens when a slow 
  moving caravan is blocking the road, either for another 
  slow moving caravan or for the fast moving adventurers.  
  OK, I came up with the proper etiquette for that.  I had to 
  figure out how long it takes to get from one city to the 
  next.  Ok, maybe I didn’t have to do this, but wasting 
  game session time trying to figure out stuff like this is not 
  where I want to be, so I made up a chart for my world. 
   
  What else?  hundreds of things!  Do your roads have 
  signs that direct travelers to the next city or town on the 
  roads?  How good are the roads?  Who maintains the 
  roads?  Are there tolls?  How bad are the bandits in 
  different sections?  Why are there bandits in the different 
  sections?  What’s wrong with those governments or are 
  those just lawless parts of the world?  Where do people eat 
  and sleep along the way?  Are there inns or campgrounds?  
  How safe are these?  How expensive are these?  How do 
  the inns get their food and supplies?  Does it come in on 
  caravans or from locals, and does that make a difference?  
  probably makes a big difference in pricing.  What do 
  people ride?  Horse is not specific enough.  Mules, 
  Donkeys, Horses, Ponies, something far more fantastic?  If 
  someone is riding a carnivorous steed, can the inns help 
  them?  What happens if someone is using a flying steed? 
  Are there laws about flying over certain places - I’m 
  thinking mainly city walls here?  What different breeds of 
  horses are there and what are they used for?  Are the 
  adventurers riding war horses, riding horses or draft horses 
  and what is the difference in traveling?  Should they be 
  riding one type of horse and trailing their battle steed?  
  What do they haul their stuff in?  Do they wear armor in 
  the saddle while traveling?  Where are they getting their 
  water from and does it cause them any issues?  Can they 
  let their horse munch on grass along the way or does that 
  upset the locals? 
   
  OK, we’re starting to beat a dead horse here, yeah 
  pun intended even though it wasn’t a very good one.  You 
  can have one of two attitudes towards that list of 
  questions:  1) No one cares about the mundane stuff or 2) 
  You know I hadn’t thought about some of that stuff 
  before, but there’s something in there that sparks an idea 
  for me.  Maybe it was the idea of a carnivorous steed 
  causing trouble at an inn or a water elemental causing 
  trouble at an important watering hole, but there are 
  adventures mixed in with the mundane stuff.  Every time I 
  think through the mundane stuff, I come up with the 
  foundations of adventures, and I think good GMs do the 
  same.  Otherwise you may as well be playing some MMO. 
   
  Common NPC Ideas (and why you care) 
   
  You might be wondering why you care about NPCs 
  that aren’t enemies to be killed.  Let’s run some examples: 
   
  Non-Role-Playing Game - The player wants to buy a 
  war horse.  He looks at the equipment chart and it says a 
  warhorse is 200 “money”.  He subtracts 200 from his 
  money and writes down a warhorse on his character sheet.  
  He gives his war horse the maximum attributes allowed by 
  the game rules and feels justified in doing so because he 
  paid 200, where a “riding horse” is only 100.  Oh, and he 
  probably never paid for the saddle, tack or other 
  requirements, nor did he ever bother to figure out how 
  much it would take to feed and stable said warhorse.  He’s 
  only good with game money when it is being added to his 
  character sheet. 
  
  9 
   
  Minimalistic Role-Playing Game - The player tells 
  the GM he wants to buy a warhorse.  GM looks at the 
  book and sees that it costs 200.  GM rolls (or has player 
  roll) a Scrounging skill task and the roll shows a success.  
  So the GM says the PC has found a war horse in town.  
  The two write down how much the saddle and gear will 
  cost, assuming that the horse seller sells saddles and gear 
  as well.  Depending on how good the Scrounging roll was, 
  the GM assigns some reasonable stats to the horse, and 
  they go on, forgetting about the war horse, unless the PC is 
  charging someone in combat. 
   
  Far Better Role-Playing Game - The player tells the 
  GM he wants to buy a warhorse.  The GM asks him what 
  he’s looking for: highly trained, young, huge, strong, 
  mare, stallion, gelding?  The GM knows that war horses 
  aren’t just sitting around in small towns, so he makes the 
  player roll a highly modified (downward) Scrounging task, 
  and it is a failure.  GM says, wait until you’re back in the 
  big city. 
   
  Next week and the party is back in the big city.  
  Player reminds the GM, but misses this roll too.  So the 
  PC goes to the stable near his apartment and asks the GM 
  about the stable hands.  GM improvises that there is one 
  who is seemingly in charge, young guy about 20-22, 
  reasonably fit, laid back.  “Johnnie”  So the PC talks to 
  Johnnie (Carousing roll - success), and Johnnie likes the 
  PC.  PC says, I’m looking for a war horse and gives him 
  the same kind of specs they talked about last week.  
  Strength more important than size, a good, compact, 
  reasonably well trained war horse.  Johnnie says, I don’t 
  know of any in town right now, but let me ask around.  PC 
  tips Johnnie nicely, and Johnnie likes him even more.  GM 
  rolls Scrounging for Johnnie.  Johnnie succeeds, because 
  he really knows this town and the horse traders in it.  The 
  next game day (probably same gaming session), GM tells 
  PC that Johnnie has found him his horse.  Johnnie and the 
  PC go over to the horse trader and Johnnie helps him 
  negotiate the price down a little.  But this is an excellent 
  war horse - near max attributes.  They settle on 275 for the 
  horse.  On the way back to the stable and apartment, 
  Johnnie stops by a tack shop and the two pick out the best 
  war saddle, tack and saddle bags for the horse and the 
  adventurer.  PC goes back to his apartment, and Johnnie 
  makes sure the horse is comfy in the stable he runs. 
   
  How is this better?  Well, first off, now it is a role-
  playing game, because the player has to role-play 
  important things, and buying a war horse is a pretty 
  important thing.  If any of you bought a car by simply 
  showing up at the dealership, taking the first one you saw 
  where you liked the color, and paid cash flat out for it, 
  then you won’t understand.  The remaining 99.999% of us 
  know that this is a big deal.  The player now knows what 
  kind of horse he has.  He knows what kind of tack he has.  
  This is important because otherwise the player will choose 
  whatever is best for him later on in the campaign when 
  something here becomes material.  You know it!  You 
  probably did it too. 
   
  But what else?  Well the player now has a contact - 
  Johnnie the stablehand.  When the PC returns from 
  missions, he can say - I drop my warhorse off with 
  Johnnie, and both PC and GM know where the horse is 
  and how it is being maintained.  This method costs the PC 
  more.  He wasn’t able to cheat on the tack.  He is going to 
  have to pay to feed the horse and stable it, though Johnnie 
  might make that a little easier on him. 
   
  A lot of gold farmers are out there right now rolling 
  their eyes and thinking, “See, this is stupid.  They just 
  wasted money that they didn’t need to.”  OK, we’ll ignore 
  that the other way is cheating and focus on game play.  It’s 
  six months (real time or game time) later and the city is 
  under attack.  Does the gold farmer say, I get on my 
  armor, I get on my war horse and I ride to where there is 
  fighting?  Do GM’s allow that?  When you don’t know 
  where the stable is, you can’t let them get to the war horse.  
  Even if you did, the gold farmer would need to saddle and 
  prep his horse on his own, where the guy who role-played 
  with Johnnie might be able to assume that Johnnie got the 
  warhorse all prepped for him, saving precious combat 
  turns.  Outside of a fight, Johnnie can also be a source of 
  information, the victim of a crime and therefore the reason 
  for a new mission, getting married to allow the city life to 
  appear as if it is going on with or without the PCs. 
   
  Look, I’m not against war games.  If you want to 
  spend a certain number of points, build a military unit and 
  then test strategies by battling other military units, by all 
  means!  But we’re talking about role-playing games here.  
  Seems like there should be some role-playing. 
   
  Is a horse just a horse? 
   
  The time will come when as a GM (or a player) you 
  just want to call something a horse.  You don’t want to 
  call it by the name of a breed, or what it does, or 
  whatever.  It’s a horse.  It’s probably a “mutt” horse and 
  thus of no particular breed anyway.  It’s just a horse! 
  
  10 
   
  And that’s OK!  Look, we have all sorts of breed 
  names for horses.  We have stats for horses, and stronger 
  or faster horses are going to be better than average 
  horses.  When you’re getting deep into cavalry battles, 
  these types of details can be important.  But guess what - 
  It doesn’t always matter.  Sometimes a horse is just a 
  horse and not a Rairbridair heavy draft horse. 
   
  This is true of far more than just horses.  There is a 
  point at which all the details we seem to be including in 
  everything we publish are in the way.  We give our 
  customers as much detail as we can cram into a book, but 
  we do so hoping that GMs are not going to bother getting 
  into that much detail with their players. 
   
  Case in point - The party is walking down the road 
  and sees a farmer leaning on the fence.  They say, 
  “Which way to Rhum?” and the farmer points over his 
  right shoulder.  That should be the end of that encounter!  
  The party does not need to know that Benjamin 
  Mackersson is having trouble with his wife or that his 
  children are now 38, 37 and 34, or that he enjoys fishing 
  and rye whiskies.  They don’t need to know that the 
  horse in the field is his plow horse, or that he bought it 
  six years ago for 80sc and a promise of six dozen eggs.  
  Even if we put all of that in one of our books, don’t use 
  it!  It’s there in case the party comes down the road and 
  says, “Our friend will die if you don’t sell us your horse 
  right now so he can be raced to the nearest town.”  Now 
  the GM has an idea of what Ben thinks the horse is 
  worth.  Or if they say, “Hey, what’s your name?”  “What 
  do you do around here?  We’re looking for someone 
  willing to make us dinner for a gold coin - how good a 
  cook is your wife?”  OK, hopefully our level of detail 
  makes more sense that that, but details are not always 
  necessary. 
   
  There are different styles of play, and there are 
  different players.  Some role players want to know what 
  the farmers are wearing, and some couldn’t care less that 
  the farmers exist.  Overdoing the detail is a mood killer!  
  We’ve mentioned it before, but I will never forget the 
  time (I was playing, not GMing), that upon arriving in 
  town, the party wanted to go into the bar.  We saw the 
  sign with the beer mug and went in - or so we thought.  
  The GM kept describing the door to us.  We wanted to 
  know our characters were inside drinking and flirting 
  with barmaids and he kept telling us the dimensions of 
  the door, what wood it was made of, how the bolts held it 
  together.  Don’t be that guy!  Your players will never let 
  you live it down, and the entire session that night was a 
  mess. 
   
  Horses, deer or antelope?  Why world building 
  matters 
   
  A sane GM would ask why I spend so much time 
  figuring out things like cuisine, clothing fashions, and 
  art.  The quick answer is simple:  Because this is high 
  fantasy. 
   
  This is high fantasy.  There are orcs, elves, dwarves 
  and far crazier creatures like centaurs, vampires, and 
  minotaurs, not to mention dragons and giants.  Are orcs 
  humans with green skin?  Are elves humans with pointy 
  ears?  Are dwarves short humans with beards?  If so, 
  what is the point of even having them?  If this is high 
  fantasy, then the subtle differences between a human and 
  an elf will have to have an impact on their culture and 
  their lifestyles. 
   
  Let me take the easiest first:  animal locations.  I 
  expect that took you off guard, but I think it has the 
  biggest impact on everything.  There were no horses on 
  the continent that the titans (and giants, and humans, and 
  halflings) came from.  So there were no cavalry units in 
  the days where the titans ruled.  That makes sense, 
  because there aren’t any giant or titan sized horses on my 
  world.  Horses (all equines) come from Hughijen.  Once 
  humans moved to Hughijen, they started domesticating 
  horses and pretty quickly formed cavalry units.  Actually 
  they started with horse riding explorers because they 
  needed to cover ground quickly, but an explorer with a 
  bow is a soldier, or an adventurer. 
   
  So horses from Hughijen, antelope from Drentae, 
  and deer from Koaluckssie.  Ignoring the domestication 
  of the horses, these are relatively similar animals - large 
  herbivores that act as prey animals for large carnivores or 
  packs of carnivores.  But the elves came from 
  Koaluckssie (that is a hugely long story and greatly 
  debated).  So did they domesticate deer and use them as 
  steeds?  Yes, they did.  Steeds rarely, but beasts of 
  burden more commonly.  But the elves don’t plow fields, 
  so the idea of a beast of burden should probably only be 
  seen as a pack animal and not as a vehicle engine. 
   
  This becomes important in that all of the horses on 
  Drentae were imported at some point.  Sure, there are 
  wild horses there, but they are like the American 
  mustangs - descended from domesticated horses that 
  escaped.  There were thousands of years in which this 
  could have happened, not just the several hundred Earth 
  had, so it is entirely plausible.  But the dominant prey 
  animal on Drentae is the antelope.  So when the Barons 
  
  11 
  of the Council of Baronies go hunting, they are going out 
  after antelope, not deer. 
   
  Does it matter?  Well, let me get into the whole 
  ‘they are all different’ thing again.  The elves actually 
  imported deer so they would have something to use as 
  pack animals and to hunt.  So an elven adventurer will 
  most likely have venison pemmican as the meat of his 
  rations.  A Velesan from Parnania (where they breed 
  hogs) would have pork sausage or salt pork.  From the 
  Council?  beef jerky.  From Scaret or Brinston?  those 
  are sea ports, so expect to have salted fish.  Does it 
  matter?  Maybe not, but there is a difference between 
  humans and elves, and between different humans. 
   
  What else?  Well, the Lats live farther south and 
  have trouble growing “bread wheat”.  So they grow 
  “pasta wheat”.  So while a Rhoric will likely have hard 
  tack in his rations bag, a Lat is going to have dried pasta.  
  Meanwhile, the dwarves have trouble growing any 
  grains, and most of theirs are imported (traded for metal 
  goods).  Because of this, their government basically mills 
  and blends the various grains together to form a more 
  uniform “meal” (because they are communist and believe 
  in that sort of uniformity).  Meanwhile, the Bortens are 
  growing corn and having cornmeal mush for their 
  morning meal.  They make too much so that when lunch 
  rolls around, they shape the leftovers into patties and fry 
  them up. 
   
  Does it matter?  Again - they are different.  The 
  cultures are different.  If you come from Traigar, you 
  probably drink mead.  If you’re Rhoric, you drink beer.  
  Lat = red wine; Marilick = white wine.  but how does 
  this affect the games? 
   
  Here are some ways this all affects the games:  The 
  Rhorics love cinnamon, but it doesn’t grow anywhere 
  near them.  So caravans transport the cinnamon from 
  Caratok to Rhum and Snobist (and Rock Cove).  Now 
  you have an idea of what might be on a caravan.  Silks 
  come from the Quassim Islands and Dalavar.  Now you 
  know what might be on the ships crossing the oceans.  
  Knowing imports and exports often helps GMs design 
  guard quests. 
   
  An antler handled knife made in Forsbury will be 
  from an antelope, while in Slyvania it would be from a 
  deer.  This changes the look and feel of the weapons and 
  tools.  Further, steel has become scarce in the southern 
  central region, so Bortens from Scaret have turned to 
  using bronze weapons in many cases.  The elves don’t 
  typically do metal crafting, so they are using various 
  alternatives, including flint tipped arrows and ironwood 
  (semi-magical tress with the strength and durability of 
  iron or low grade steel) maces. 
   
  This same lack of steel production in some areas 
  leads to trade (again with the caravans and ships), but it 
  also makes getting massive steel armors very rare in 
  towns like Garnock and Scaret.  So their militaries are 
  being outfitted in old armors that have been “repaired” or 
  recycled or in leathers.  But since leather is not as good 
  as steel, they are boiling the leathers and looking for 
  alternatives, like dragon hides.  The orcs have no looms 
  to speak of, so they are fully into wearing hides and 
  leathers whether for war or normal use.  They also have 
  the dragon hides and in some cases are trading them to 
  Garnock.  Are we getting a little closer to the things you 
  care about now? 
   
  The best emeralds in the world come from the 
  jungles in the south, but they’re incredibly treacherous 
  and there is no organized trade.  Sounds like a good 
  mission for adventurers, huh?  But the elves do mine 
  emeralds, lower quality emeralds.  Would the elves take 
  action against someone trying to establish a trade in 
  higher quality emeralds?  That would make for some 
  good adventuring ideas! 
   
  There is a cartel out of Forsbury that is bringing in 
  wagonloads of ivory from the north.  Mastodons in the 
  far north and elephants in the far south.  Elephant ivory 
  is better (whiter - and that’s not racist), but rarer.  Will 
  someone try to compete with her?  And what trouble will 
  they run into that far south?   
   
  The Gold Mountains no longer contain gold, but 
  they do still have silver mines.  So most of the gold was 
  mined by the dwarves and transported to their current 
  location in the north, while the orcs are mining silver in 
  the south.  So you’re not going to find orc chieftains 
  decked out with gold chains or other gold jewelry unless 
  they found some sort of dwarven cache left behind.  So if 
  you find an orc with lots of gold chains, does that lead to 
  a much bigger exploration mission to figure out where he 
  got it from? 
   
  The point is this:  There should be a difference 
  between the cultures of tropical and temperate peoples.  
  There should be a difference between dwarves and elves 
  and humans, and not just a couple of tweaks to what their 
  attributes are.  These differences will not only serve to 
  make the different races and ethnicities more fun to learn 
  about, but will help the GM drive new missions and 
  develop characters, their gear, and their loot.  If 
  characters, gear and loot aren’t important to your game, 
  then you and I are playing very different games. 
   
   
  
  12 
  LIFESTYLES OF THE MAGICAL 
  AND MUNDANE 
  The Cost of a Horse 
   
   
  Guess what?  Horses are really expensive.  Not the 
  buying of horses that can actually be sort of cheap.  It is 
  the maintenance costs of a horse that are expensive.  
  How expensive? Well, we’re about to get into that. 
   
  Horseshoes: 
   
  Apparently, we tried to cut some corners on space 
  and explanation in Grain Into Gold when it came to 
  horseshoes.  This led at least one purchaser into 
  misunderstanding and giving us a bad review.  
  Fortunately, we were able to get in touch with him, point 
  out a misunderstanding or two and he pulled back his 
  bad review.  Well, good, but let’s talk shoes for a second, 
  so you don’t get confused. 
   
  First, horse shoes wear out.  They need to be 
  replaced.  How quickly depends on the use of the horse 
  and the type of surface they are on most of the time.  For 
  instances, cobblestones wear out shoes faster than dirt 
  roads - makes sense, right? 
   
  But whether the shoes wear out or not, a horse 
  should see a farrier about every six to eight weeks.  Even 
  if the horse has been wandering around a pasture the 
  whole time, the shoe may not need to be replaced, but it 
  should be refit, the hoof filed down, and checked for any 
  damage or disease.  So a visit from the farrier costs how 
  much?  Well, a farrier is a fairly basic smith and makes 
  10sc per day.  If he has to come out to the farm and 
  check the horses there (house call), it’s going to be a 
  minimum of two hours to get out there, check the horse, 
  and then get home.  So figure 2sc for a two hour visit.  If 
  he’s coming to check four horses, well checking the 
  horse only takes 30 minutes, once he’s set up, so now 
  figure 30 minutes to get there, 30 minutes to set-up (and 
  talk to the horse owner - about work or the weather), 30 
  minutes per horses, and 30 minutes to get home.  So one 
  horse is two hours, and four horses are three and a half 
  hours.  In a more urban environment, everything costs 
  more, but the farrier has an easier time getting around 
  and far more customers to hit.  So his travel times are 
  reduced, but his house call fee will remain about the 
  same or 1.5sc for a house call.  If the farrier is coming to 
  a stable, this cost largely goes away as he is hitting a 
  large number of horses all at once.  If he has to come 
  back to the stable every day due to poor planning on 
  someone’s part, he will charge the travel fee. 
   
  OK, so that’s 1.5sc for a house call and 0.5sc for a 
  trim and re-shoe.  But what if you’re getting a full new 
  set of shoes?  Well, a full shoeing of a horse is two hours 
  of work on its own, so 2sc.  See how easy it is if they all 
  would just make 10sc per day?  But shoeing a horse is 
  more about the shoes than the farrier, because 10 pounds 
  of steel is expensive. 
   
  10lbs?  Yep!  Horseshoes weigh two and a half 
  pounds each, so times four and you have ten pounds of 
  steel.  Anyone who read the All About Dwarves edition 
  learned the difference between bloomeries and foundries.  
  We expect that farriers are getting their metals from 
  foundries who can produce bars of steel roughly the 
  proper dimensions and lengths to be turned into horse 
  shoes.  The farrier still needs to shape them properly, but 
  this is vastly better than trying to hammer a horse shoe 
  shape out of a spherical mass of metal. 
   
  Two and a half pounds of steel cost 3sc (at source) 
  and 4sc (in the city).  Taking a generic steel bar and 
  transforming it into a horse shoe takes about an hour of 
  the blacksmith’s time.  Admittedly, he is most likely 
  doing this on days he does not have a house call or on 
  days too rainy to easily get out to customers, but he does 
  expect to paid for this work.  So this does work out rather 
  easily to horseshoes running 4sc in a rural location and 
  5sc in an urban location - assuming that steel is 
  purchased here and not some odd import. 
   
  Is that it?  Well it can be, but people are typically 
  cheap!  Solid steel horseshoes on a light riding horse or 
  pony?  Is there a need for that?  Well, no.  Certainly not 
  in all circumstances.  So what can we do?  Well, iron 
  seems too weak and malleable to use for actual 
  horseshoes (though most decorative shoes would be cast 
  iron).  But “low steel” does work.  So the materials for 
  low steel shoes (at 2.5lbs) run 2.1sc at source or 2.8sc 
  city.  Add the extra 1sc for the farrier’s work, just like 
  the other shoes. 
   
  But wait, there’s more.  Small horses or ponies 
  would use smaller shoes.  Draft horses, being that much 
  heavier than “normal” horses would need heavier shoes.  
  Rather than narratively go through all of this, let’s put in 
  a chart.  But when should you consider low steel vs. 
  
  13 
  steel?  It depends on what the surface the horse will be 
  walking on.  If the horse will be on a paved road, 
  probably steel.  If only on dirt, low steel may work.  But 
  we’ll assume that the heaviest horses need steel no 
  matter what.  Oh, and “war horseshoes” - war horses 
  need steel shoes made in a different way in order to 
  protect their hooves in case they kick someone during a 
  battle, especially if that target is armored. 
   
  What keeps the shoes on?  Nails.  Now a nail 
  maker is close to the bottom of the barrel when it 
  comes to smiths.  These guys crank out nails all day 
  long, but most farriers are going to want to make the 
  nails themselves.  Each shoe takes seven nails, so 
  shoeing a horse takes 28.  A farrier can knock out nails 
  pretty quickly, but 28 horseshoe nails are still going to 
  run about 2.2sc. 
   
   
  In case we weren’t clear - “Standard” is basically 
  for riding horses and probably for your everyday taxi 
  cab driving horses. 
   
  New shoes are needed every farrier visit if the 
  horse is continuously used on a paved road, every other 
  if used on dirt roads or less consistent use, and every 
  third visit if typically stabled. 
   
  Don’t worry - We’re going to sum everything up at 
  the end! 
  Feed: 
   
  How much a horse eats 
  depends on how big it is and how 
  much work it does.  Again - that 
  should make sense.  A war horse 
  sitting in a stable all day is going to 
  eat more than a riding horse sitting 
  in a stable all day.  So the question 
  is:  how much? 
   
  Well, unlike cattle, horses eat 
  oats, not just grass / hay.  That 
  means you cannot just leave a 
  horse outside and expect it to feed 
  itself.  This really is the reason that 
  horses are expensive!  So let’s do 
  some math:  oats cost 0.20sc p/ 
  pound, but are very common so 
  they are only 0.25sc p/lb in the 
  city.  We are assuming that these 
  horses are not being put out to 
  pasture (because they are in a city), 
  so you also need to give them hay.  
  Hay is only 0.013sc p/lb so it’s 
  pretty cheap.  Again, hay is very common and therefore 
  competition keeps it down around 0.016sc in the city.  
  But how much do they eat? 
  Stabled 
  Working 
  Weight 
  Oats 
  Hay 
  Oats 
  Hay 
  Donkey 
  500 
  1.0 
  9.0 
  2.0 
  9.0 
  Donkey, heavy 
  900 
  2.5 
  16.0 
  5.0 
  16.0 
  Donkey, light 
  350 
  0.7 
  6.3 
  1.4 
  6.3 
  Horse, draft 
  1200 
  6.0 
  15.0 
  12.0 
  15.0 
  Horse, draft 
  exceptional 
  1800 
  12.0 
  20.0 
  25.0 
  20.0 
  Horse, heavy draft 
  1600 
  10.0 
  17.0 
  20.0 
  17.0 
  Horse, riding 
  1000 
  5.0 
  12.0 
  9.0 
  12.0 
  Horse, war 
  1500 
  7.0 
  17.0 
  14.0 
  17.0 
  Mule 
  1100 
  5.0 
  13.0 
  10.0 
  13.0 
  Pony, short 
  500 
  2.3 
  6.0 
  4.5 
  6.0 
  Pony, tall 
  800 
  3.5 
  9.6 
  7.0 
  9.6 
  Pegasus 
  850 
  5.0 
  12.0 
  12.0 
  15.0 
  Unicorn 
  675 
  2.5 
  16.0 
  5.0 
  16.0 
  (all amounts shown in pounds) 
  Horse 
  Shoe 
  Steel 
  Low Steel 
  Wt. 
  Wt. 
  Rural 
  City 
  Trade-In 
  Rural 
  City 
  Trade-In 
  Farrier House 
  Call 
   
   
  1.5 
  1.5 
    
  1.5 
  1.5 
   
  Trimming 
  0.5 
  0.5 
    
  0.5 
  0.5 
  Re-shoeing 
  0.5 
  0.5 
    
  0.5 
  0.5 
  Shoeing 
  2.0 
  2.0 
    
  2.0 
  2.0 
  Pony/small 
  400-
  600 
  1.25 
  2.5 
  3.0 
  1.3 
  2.1 
  2.4 
  0.9 
  Small horse 
  600-
  900 
  1.875 
  3.3 
  4.0 
  1.9 
  2.6 
  3.1 
  1.3 
  Standard 
  900-
  1100 
  2.5 
  4.0 
  5.0 
  2.5 
  3.1 
  3.8 
  1.8 
  Draft 
  1100-
  1400 
  3 
  4.6 
  5.8 
  3.0 
  3.5 
  4.4 
  2.1 
  Draft, heavy 
  1400-
  1700 
  4 
  5.8 
  7.4 
  4.0 
  4.4 
  5.5 
  2.8 
  Draft, 
  exceptional 
  1700-
  2200 
  5 
  7.0 
  9.0 
  5.0 
  5.2 
  6.6 
  3.5 
  War Shoes 
  1250-
  1750 
  5 
  7.0 
  9.0 
  5.0 
  5.2 
  6.6 
  3.5 
  Nails, sm. (28) 
  400-
  900 
   
  2.0 
  2.1 
  0.25 
   
   
   
  Nails, std. (28) 
  900-
  1100 
   
  2.1 
  2.2 
  0.3 
   
   
   
  Nails, hvy (28) 
  1100-
  2200 
   
  2.2 
  2.3 
  0.45 
   
   
   
  
  14 
   
  With a little bit of rounding, those weights turn into 
  this chart of costs. 
   
   
  So what’s the differences?  Well, “source” assumes 
  that the feed is purchased from a farmer and delivered to 
  a site outside of the city.  “City” assumes the feed is 
  purchased inside the city.  “Farm” assumes that the 
  owner is buying the oats outside the city and the horse 
  has a sizable pasture in which to wander and eat fresh 
  grass.  Any horse put out to pasture should probably be 
  overseen by someone with a Ranching skill or at least an 
  Animal Handling skill.  This is mainly because horses 
  are gluttons and will happily eat themselves sick given 
  the chance.  In fact at all times, a horse should be 
  overseen by someone with some knowledge, to avoid 
  some of the little problems that the unskilled may not be 
  thinking about. 
   
  Stables: 
   
  OK, so that’s shoes, food, what’s next?  Stables - 
  shelter or lodging.  If your home has a stable built in the 
  back and you are taking care of the horse yourself, then 
  you don’t have to pay, but most adventurers will enter a 
  city and stay at an inn, and need to stable their animal(s).  
  What do stables offer?  Well, typically they will feed and 
  water the horse for you, so you don’t have to take the 
  time to do that.  They keep the stall clean and covered in 
  straw, so again - you don’t have to do that. 
   
  After that, it starts to vary.  A low cost stable will 
  do only that - feed, water and muck (well, most muck).  
  But you get what you pay for.  A more standard stable 
  will groom the horse and exercise it, though probably 
  only every other day.  A good stable will have more staff 
  and make certain the horse is properly groomed, 
  exercised, and keep good track of eating habits and 
  health. 
   
  What’s the pay-off?  What does the horse owner get 
  for better care and treatment?  Mainly the good health of 
  the horse.  The better the care, the less 
  likely the horse is to catch a disease.  
  Even if that disease is something the 
  horse can recover from, not being able to 
  use your horse at a particular time 
  because it is sick can have a huge 
  impact. 
   
  So how do we figure these costs?  
  Well, the good stables are going to have 
  one groom for every four horses.  A 
  stable hand only makes 6sc p/ day, 
  though they are often allowed to sleep in 
  the hayloft, so their expenses are going 
  to be a bit lower.  A moderate stable will 
  assign one stable hand to up to eight 
  horses, and a low rent stable will have 
  one stable boy for twelve horses.  Did 
  you notice how we changed the 
  vocabulary there?  Fancy stable hands 
  are “grooms”.  Low rent stable hands are “boys”.  It does 
  matter where you work! 
   
  But we need to complicate things a little bit too!  
  On top of the stable hand(s), you need a stable manager.  
  This guy needs to deal with customers, order feed and 
  straw, supervise the workers, and all the extra stuff.  This 
  means that he can only handle half as many horses, on 
  top of everything else he’s expected to do, or 2, 4, or 6.  
  He makes 9sc per day. 
   
   
  So math:  We assume most public stables will be 
  large enough to have three stable hands reporting to the 
  manager.  So the high end is 9+(3x6) = 27sc split 
  amongst 14 horses.  Before you run off thinking this 
  means you split that money evenly, it depends on 
  whether all the stalls are filled every day.  Typically, 
  they won’t be.  The max capacity is 14, but the average 
  number of horses in there might be 10.  Plus someone 
  owns the stable and wants something for that.  We 
  source 
  city 
  farm 
  stable 
  work 
  stable 
  work 
  stable 
  work 
  Donkey 
    0.30  
    0.50  
    0.40  
    0.65  
    0.20  
   0.40  
  Donkey, heavy 
    0.70  
    1.20  
    0.90  
    1.50  
    0.50  
   1.00  
  Donkey, light 
    0.25  
    0.40  
    0.30  
    0.50  
    0.15  
   0.30  
  Horse, draft 
    1.40  
    2.60  
    1.75  
    3.25  
    1.20  
   2.40  
  Horse, draft 
  exceptional 
    2.75  
    5.25  
    3.40  
    6.50  
    2.40  
   5.00  
  Horse, heavy draft 
    2.30  
    4.25  
    2.75  
    5.30  
    2.00  
   4.00  
  Horse, riding 
    1.20  
    2.00  
    1.50  
    2.50  
    1.00  
   1.80  
  Horse, war 
    1.60  
    3.00  
    2.00  
    3.75  
    1.40  
   2.80  
  Mule 
    1.20  
    2.20  
    1.50  
    2.70  
    1.00  
   2.00  
  Pony, short 
    0.50  
    1.00  
    0.65  
    1.25  
    0.45  
   0.90  
  Pony, tall 
    0.80  
    1.50  
    1.00  
    1.90  
    0.70  
   1.40  
  Pegasus 
    1.20  
    2.60  
    1.50  
    3.25  
    1.00  
   2.40  
  Unicorn 
    0.70  
    1.25  
    0.90  
    1.50  
    0.50  
   1.00  
  (all amounts shown in silver coins) 
  
  15 
  assume that an average stable will have an average 
  occupancy of ⅔rds max capacity.   
  Stables 
  High 
  Medium 
  Low 
  Manager 
  9.0 
  9.0 
  9.0 
  Stablehands 
  18.0 
  18.0 
  18.0 
  Owner 
  8.0 
  6.0 
  4.0 
  35.0 
  33.0 
  31.0 
  Max Horses 
  14 
  28 
  42 
  Ave Horse 
  10 
  19 
  28 
  Stable Fee 
  3.50 
  1.75 
  1.10 
  Monthly 
  100 
  50 
  30 
  (all amounts shown in silver coins) 
   
   
  There are a lot of factors here!  Are you in a city or 
  the countryside?  Is the animal working or stabled?  
  What type of stable do you have him in?  Trying to keep 
  all this easy, we’ve added up the costs of food, shelter 
  and “clothing” (shoes) for a horse.  There are more costs 
  than this, but they are typically smaller, things like 
  buying a brush, or blanket, etc.  So here are what we 
  consider to be the most likely set of costs: 
  Feed 
  Stable 
  Shoes 
  Total 
  Stabling, one night, small 
  town inn, riding horse, 
  worked:  ridden all day 
  2.0 
  1.0 
  0.00 
  3 
  Stabling, one night, city inn, 
  riding horse, worked:  
  ridden all day 
  2.4 
  1.75 
  0.00 
  4.25 
  Stabling, one month, horse 
  ranch, riding horse, stabled 
  34.7 
  50.0 
  0.50 
  85 
  Stabling, one month, city 
  stable, riding horse, stabled 
  43.3 
  50.0 
  0.50 
  94 
  Stabling, one night, small 
  town inn, war horse, 
  worked:  ridden all day 
  3.0 
  1.0 
  0.00 
  4 
  Stabling, one night, city inn, 
  war horse, worked:  ridden 
  all day 
  3.8 
  1.75 
  0.00 
  5.50 
  Stabling, one month, horse 
  ranch, war horse, stabled 
  48.6 
  50.0 
  0.50 
  100 
  Stabling, one month, city 
  stable, war horse, stabled 
  60.7 
  50.0 
  0.50 
  110 
   
   
  This is the type of information that Lifestyles was 
  intended to provide - the actual day to day costs to 
  adventurers when they aren’t out adventuring.  We don’t 
  always get straight into that, but hopefully this one is of 
  use to players and game masters. 
   
  NEWS OF FLETNERN 
   
   
  Not every rumor or news story around town has to 
  be related directly to the adventure the players are 
  working.  In fact, there should be vastly more going on in 
  town than concerns the party.  But these extra news 
  stories and possible red herrings can be difficult to 
  generate.  We’re going to be adding more and more of 
  these as Small Bites goes on.  After all, much of the 
  earlier news stories were more historic.  Now that you 
  know the history, you can see some of the current events! 
   
  The Unicorn Graveyard 
  Publicly Known: 
   
  Some of the unicorn poachers located a unicorn 
  graveyard.  It is just like the elephant graveyard in the 
  Southern Plains, but only for unicorns.  Alongside a 
  river, there is a spot where dozens if not hundreds of 
  unicorn skeletons are just lying in the sun, all with their 
  horns still attached. 
  Privately Known: 
   
  The so-called unicorn graveyard does exist, but it is 
  nothing like what people think.  It is actually a major 
  poacher camp that was destroyed decades ago, but the 
  elven wardens just left all the stacked up bones and horns 
  where they were.  They constantly monitor the site and 
  use it as bait for other poachers. 
   
  The problem is that it has been reported by several 
  groups and as such it is starting to act as a draw to other 
  poachers.  With no contacts in the outside world, the 
  wardens have no idea that their bait is working a little too 
  well. 
   
  There have been disagreements between the 
  wardens about what to do with confiscated items.  Some 
  believe they should be destroyed to prevent these holy 
  objects from being “misused”.  Other feel that they 
  should be left where they are in reverence to the fallen 
  spiritual creatures.  Still others feel that once the animal 
  has been killed, using the items themselves is a way that 
  they can honor the fallen creature. 
   
  For now - The wardens who patrol the site of the 
  “unicorn graveyard” insist that it will remain where it is 
  as it is as bait for other “evil doers”.  Until the other 
  wardens are willing to battle each other over these 
  beliefs, the camp will stay as it is. 
   
  A Boy and A Horse 
  Publicly Known: 
   
  In Forsbury, the Masterhill Cartel has hired a new 
  messenger.  No one would take any notice of this news, 
  except for the fact that the boy is riding an absolutely 
  enormous, white Cessernant stallion. 
  
  16 
  Privately Known: 
   
  The boy’s name is Chet.  He claims to be 14 but is 
  actually 11.  His mother has taken ill, and he went out to 
  find work in order to support the two of them.  Who or 
  where his father is is unknown.  He was a teamster who 
  lived with Chet’s mother Ullandia for about a year before 
  disappearing once he realized she was pregnant. 
   
  The stable master did not want to hire the kid, but 
  he could tell the kid was desperate, so he hired him on as 
  a stablehand.  It only took a matter of days to see the kid 
  had an affinity for horses.  Chet was the only person that 
  the huge Cessernant would allow to clean his stall while 
  he was still in there.  In fact, the horse was the reason 
  there was a stablehand job open; the horse had kicked 
  and broken the leg of the previous stablehand. 
   
  The horse is named White Ember and was 
  purchased to be used by the various messengers that 
  worked for the cartel.  With the castle being about three 
  miles north of the cartel’s headquarters, there is a need 
  for strong, fast horses who can work long hours.  White 
  Ember seemed perfect.  But the horse is not truly broken.  
  While others can and have ridden him, White Ember has 
  been an extremely finicky horse. 
   
  They did not foolishly risk Chet with White Ember.  
  Upon seeing that the two were bonding, they tried to see 
  if Chet could ride the horse under strict conditions in the 
  stable’s yard.  They tried giving the two more and more 
  freedom, and Chet proved that he was a horseman 
  savant.  Not only that, but the bond the two share allows 
  Chet to push White Ember close to his maximum speed, 
  where other riders were unable (or unwilling) to attempt 
  angering the horse at high speeds. 
   
  Chet started practicing with White Ember about 
  three months ago, and has been riding him as a 
  messenger for nearly a month.  At first they were not 
  noticed, but such a small boy on such a huge horse does 
  gain attention.  With such a light rider and a strong horse, 
  Chet and White Ember can work all day long.  No one 
  should consider bullying or threatening the boy when 
  that horse is around, because White Ember will kick 
  down a stall door to come to the aid of Chet.  Chet 
  normally rides White Ember, but he will ride other 
  horses.  At this point, pretty much only Chet rides White 
  Ember.   
   
  A New Day at the Races 
  Publicly Known: 
   
  Earlier this week at the race track, there were some 
  horses exercising before the late afternoon competitions.  
  As this was effectively just practice, few people were out 
  at the track.  During a practice heat, one of the premier 
  race horses in town had a new comer line up against it, 
  just to give some competition.  While the favorite won 
  the race, he only won by a half a length.  No other race 
  horse has competed and lost by that slim a margin.  
  There must be something special about this new horse, 
  but other than the name, River Folly, no one knows 
  anything about it. 
  Privately Known: 
   
  The owner of River Folly bred him specially from 
  two famous lines of race horses.  While not directly bred 
  from competing race horses, these horses both had 
  grandparents who were successful runners.  The owner is 
  furious that his secret weapon has been shown, but he is 
  also thrilled that his breeding gamble has paid off. 
   
  The trainer knew that the owner considered this 
  horse to be special, but he did not know the whole 
  history.  He felt the horse was fast but without stop 
  watches and other technology, he really didn’t know how 
  fast.  He also wanted to insure that the horse would not 
  panic in a race, so he agreed to have the horse act as a 
  “sparring partner” for the champion.  Little did he know 
  what the result would be. 
   
  The trainer is a mainstay at the race track and has 
  been for decades, though he hasn’t trained a champion in 
  years.  Most of the people who were there that day know 
  him, know who he is, and know where to find him.  But 
  they do not know this new horse or its owner.  
  Immediately upon seeing the two horses finish so close, 
  the trainer grabbed the horse, the jockey, and all their 
  gear and got out of there.  He knew he was going to 
  catch hell for this display and hoped to minimize the 
  damage, but it was too late. 
   
  Both sides of the race, the established champion 
  and the trainer, are downplaying the results.  “Oh the 
  champ took it easy on him.”  “The jockey didn’t want to 
  exhaust the horse that early in the day.”  All sorts of 
  nonsense to imply that the champion really is faster than 
  River Folly.  This will work to River Folly’s benefit.  
  When his first race comes, there will be a huge amount 
  of interest in watching him run and a huge amount of 
  betting.  Even after winning his first couple of races, 
  there will be detractors willing to bet against him 
  because they think it’s a scam; the champion’s jockey 
  was in on it and they staged this for the attention it 
  brought.  Eventually, the two will race again, and the 
  interest on that race will be enormous. 
  
  17 
  THE GOOD LIFE 
  Stages 
   
   
  The fastest, non-magical, land based travel in a 
  fantasy world is going to be stages.  What are stages?  
  Well, this is where stage coaches get their names.  One 
  set of horses runs the first stage.  They stop, change 
  horses and run the next leg.  On and on again.  Another 
  well-known example is the Pony Express.  The rider 
  jumps off one horse and onto another racing to the next 
  post site, only to do it again. 
   
  Stages - whether messenger services or coaches - 
  are fast, really fast compared to other forms of travel.  
  But they are also expensive.  The services has to 
  maintain three or four times as many horses that a 
  “normal” service would need, plus the various posts 
  along the way, whether they are stations or simply farms.  
  So setting one up is a difficult and expensive task, almost 
  as difficult and expensive as maintaining one. 
   
  One of the newest staged messenger services is the 
  Marasukha Chain.  The long term intent of the 
  Marasukha Chain is to run a staged messenger from 
  Scaret to Brinston, from ocean to ocean.  This is a pretty 
  lofty goal, especially to be able to do it and still earn a 
  profit. 
   
  The name of the line comes from their extensive 
  use of Marasukha horses.  The Marasukha is a common 
  horse found near Scaret.  Though they are not considered 
  to be draft horses, they are solid animals, not as sleek as 
  most riding horses.  They are tall, strong and fast, but 
  often considered to be difficult to control.  They are 
  black or dark brown and any individual with any white 
  markings is considered to be a mutt and not a true 
  Marasukha. 
   
  The Marasukha Chain has established service from 
  Scaret to Villai and now to Forsbury.  One of the ways 
  they have managed to cut costs is to put their relay 
  stations at horse ranches or well-established inns.  While 
  relay stations at ranches means that the rider may have to 
  stop to deliver a mail pouch at a place where he is not 
  getting a fresh horse, the time lost here is not considered 
  to be significant.  By placing these relay stations out of 
  the way the costs are far less, and the station masters 
  have other jobs to offset how much they need to make at 
  the station. 
   
  The Marasukha Chain uses horses other than the 
  Marasukhas, but not that many.  They also often use 
  quarterlings (half humans - half-halflings) to keep the 
  weight of the riders down.  As they supply the horses, 
  working on the Chain can be a great way to earn money 
  for riders of all kinds who might lose their horses and be 
  unable to earn without them - people like rodeo riders, 
  small operation messengers, etc. 
   
   
  Slang & Superstitions 
   
   
  Throughout Fletnern, there are a very large number 
  of people who are absolutely convinced that they know 
  all about equines of all types.  Unfortunately too many of 
  these people are just flat out wrong.  Here are some of 
  the superstitions and legends that are believed about 
  equines from around the World of Fletnern: 
   
   
  Many of the northern cultures on Drentae believe 
  that unicorns are entirely mythical.  They do not believe 
  that they exist.  Even when they see them in circuses or 
  menageries, they will insist that it is a trick of some kind.  
  They will still flock to see these creatures though many 
  are hoping for the chance to prove the creature a fake.  
  So in these cultures, unicorn owners need to take extra 
  precautions, because of the number of people who will 
  try to rip the horn off to prove the hoax. 
   
  The Turgor people of Southern Drentae have seen 
  zebras, but are less familiar with horses.  Therefore when 
  they have heard unicorns described, they believe them to 
  be zebras with horns.  They have even been known to 
  dress baby rhinos in zebra skins and march them in 
  parades. 
   
  There are various peoples who believe unicorns can 
  fly, though only some of these folks believe they have 
  wings.  With or without wings, they are convinced that a 
  creature as magical as a unicorn must also be able to fly.  
  This is a frequent subject of artworks, especially by elves 
  and those cultures influenced by elves. 
   
  Many have heard and believe stories that the 
  unicorns can detach their own horns and will do so in 
  order to reward those who have helped them.  This 
  legend probably started when horn poachers would 
  return home and people would be appalled at the idea 
  that a creature as beautiful as the unicorn was 
  slaughtered simply for their horn.  Many believe this is 
  how the wardens come to obtain unicorn horns, though 
  these are more likely recovered from dead unicorns or 
  from poacher sites.  While the wardens respect and 
  revere the unicorns, there is a point to not letting such a 
  powerful magical item go to waste. 
   
  Along with the legends (at least partially true) of 
  the poison negating effects of a unicorn’s horn, many 
  people believe that unicorn horns will negate acids (and 
  bases).  It is therefore common for one of these 
  unenlightened folks to put acid on a unicorn horn and 
  when the acid affects the horn, they believe this is proof 
  that the horn is fake. 
   
   
  Many people throughout the world are convinced 
  that horsehide is stronger than steer hide.  The two 
  substances are roughly of the same strength and the true 
  strength of one or the other would be measured in its 
  thickness and not which animal it came from.  Some of 
  
  18 
  the contributing factors to this legend are that horses are 
  rarely skinned when they are young, but typically only 
  after they have grown old in the service of their owner.  
  These older animals typically have thicker skins than the 
  young steers that may be slaughtered before they are a 
  year old. 
   
  Another contributing factor is that horsehide is 
  nearly always used for its strength, while calf hide can be 
  used for its beauty.  Calf’s hide can be thinned to be used 
  for more delicate projects, which may be appropriate for 
  the project, but will certainly weaken the leather.  For 
  example, parchment is never made from horse hide, but 
  is made from the hides of young steers.  Tanned horse 
  hide is considerably stronger than the carefully thinned 
  and stretched parchment. 
   
   
  A person cannot flap two pegasus feathers and fly, 
  but many have tried.  The belief is that the feathers are 
  magical and if the wings can hold up the horse, then two 
  (or another small number) feathers can hold up a person.  
  Many people throughout history have died attempting to 
  fly in this fashion. 
   
  Despite fans of pegasus wings being one of the 
  more popular throne room decorations (still very rare, 
  but coveted), many people are convinced that pegasus 
  feathers do not resemble bird feathers, but instead either 
  ostrich feathers or peacock feathers.  This is clearly the 
  fault of con artists selling these odd feathers and 
  claiming they are pegasus feathers.  These are also likely 
  to be the folks encouraging children to leap off of roof 
  tops clutching two ostrich feathers and thinking they are 
  magical. 
   
   
  IN CONCLUSION 
   
   
  A very sincere thank you to all of our Patreon 
  patrons!  We feel like we’re hitting our stride on these 
  monthly editions, but your constructive criticism is 
  highly appreciated and seriously considered!  Please 
  continue to let us know what you think. 
   
  We’re currently running Small Bites, the Fletnern 
  wiki, the Sounding Board blog, and distributing product.  
  What else?  What would you want?  We’re hoping to 
  hire someone who doesn’t have a face for radio so we 
  might be able to start thinking about videos.  Let us 
  know your interest level (or if you’re really good looking 
  and want to help).  We’ve considered internet run games, 
  but again - without you letting us know what you’re 
  looking for, we just don’t know what will get you 
  excited.  Let us know! 
   
  If you have not yet chosen to become one of our 
  patrons, we ask that you do one of two things:  either 
  patronize us because you love the content we’re 
  publishing, or tell us what you would want in order to 
  patronize us.  This really is a collaborative affair.  We 
  listen and we react to the constructive criticism that we 
  get! 
   
  Patreon Project Site 
  https://www.patreon.com/user?u=4503957 
   
  Board Enterprises Website 
  http://www.boardenterprises.com/ 
   
  The Sounding Board Blog 
  http://boardent.blogspot.com/ 
   
  World of Fletnern wiki 
  http://fletnern.wikia.com/wiki/ 
   
  The Secret Word is:  alicorn 
   
   
   
  
  19 
   
   
  So what’s the deal with us and Patreon?  Well, 
  as we’ve said, we really want to increase the 
  feedback and the two-way conversations between 
  Board Enterprises and you our customers.  We 
  haven’t done a great job of that over the years, but 
  we’re hoping to keep getting better. 
   
  Did you like the theme?  Let us know!  Did 
  you like some of the articles?  Let us know that too.  
  Did you dislike an article?  Yep, let us know that as 
  well.  Seriously, we want a two-way conversation.  
  Constructive criticism?  We can take it (the 
  constructive kind, not trolling please). 
   
  So what are we asking of you?  Well, if you 
  want to support us, please pledge some money.  Just 
  interested in seeing where we’re going with 
  Fletnern and the wiki?  Great, become a World 
  Walker.  It’s only $1 a month, and we’ll give you 
  new people, places and things around Fletnern.  
  Interested in learning more about the world and 
  getting all sorts of ideas for new characters for you 
  to play and even ideas and strategies for characters 
  you may already be playing?  Become a Player 
  Character, aka Player.  It’s $5, and we will give you 
  as much content as we can!  Are you a game  
   
  master?  Are you building your own game world or 
  using Fletnern?  Then you want all the secrets and 
  behind the scenes information.  Then you’ll want to 
  sign up as a Game Master.  GMs don’t just get more 
  articles; they get pieces of the articles that the 
  Players shouldn’t know about.  GMs pledge $10 a 
  month, but we’ll be giving you pieces of the world 
  you can use in yours, giving you advice on how 
  game worlds can or even should be built, and 
  coaching you on GMing. 
   
  Confused?  Pledge $1 for now and see how 
  things go.  If after a couple of months you think 
  we’re falling down on the job, you can pull out and 
  you’ve lost next to nothing - probably less than you 
  paid for lunch today.  But if we impress you, why 
  not advance up to the Player or GM levels and 
  become a fully active participant in building out this 
  world. 
   
  Oh, and there is more!  For every dollar that 
  you contribute via Patreon, we’ll give you a “Board 
  Buck” that you can trade in for any Board 
  Enterprises products, whether it be LEGEND QUEST 
  or generic.  It’s a two-for-one deal! 
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/_GM Books/World Building & Game Design/Board Enterprises/Board  Enterprises - Build Your Fantasy World - The Hoof Wars of the Hasslem Plains aka All About Equines.pdf