So, next session my players are heading towards the end of the Uther Period, so I started reading the Anarchy Period and Forest Sauvage chapters to refresh my memory. Doing so, I quickly found the Grudge Score session right at the beginning of the chapter, and after reading the whole thing it still confuses me a little. Basically, the book says that the GM should keep a Grudge Score for each Saxon kingdom, says that it should go up each time Salisbury doesn't pay tribute, and that after a certain point the county is raided and pillaged. Thing is, specific values for not paying the tribute are never mentioned, nor does the book give any guidelines on how many points each Saxon king would need to start pillaging.

And talking about tribute, how does it personally affect the player knights' finances? Just advising the Countess to pay tribute without such decision affecting their personal fortunes doesn't seem right, IMO. Also, the PCs had a very lucrative Uther Period, which coupled with some really good marriages, has made them quite rich, to the point where I wouldn't mind bleeding some libra out of them. How much should each contribute to the tribute?

Eduardo Penna

I don't know about the grudge scores, but I believe in the book of the manor, when a PC pays tribute, you move the harvest results table down one, meager to bad, etc...
Nice rule as a rich knight has a bigger portion of the county's tribute to pay than the average landed knight. Also, accounts for paying multiple tributes, just move it on down two!
ISH

The way I work the “grudge” score is that if a Saxon King isn’t paid his tribute then he will basically go raiding. If the army of Salisbury is at home then the raid is at the lowest level and adds 1d6 to the weather’s “skill”. Basically the Saxon’s don’t stand and fight and the army spends it’s summer racing all over Salisbury chasing Saxons away, they’re a nuisance taking everything that isn’t guarded. However if the army isn’t there then the raiding steps up a level with the 2d6 weather effects. The minimum garrison can defend the cities but can’t stop the Saxon’s taking what they want, but the Saxons are in turn limited by the number of people and time they are willing to invest on the task.

I’d decided that after a couple of years of raiding a Saxon King would, if not otherwise distracted, send his army in and do the heaviest degree of raiding (3d6 to weather?) and would stand and fight if challenged. However that’s never happened as Cerdic, who could do that the easiest, has always been paid and the other Saxons face distractions such as the squabbles between Kent and Sussex or the arrival of the Angles.

I’m sure that somewhere the GPC states that each level of tribute does indeed drop the harvest one level, in effect it costs each manor ?3. I’ve perhaps been a bit too “nice” as in the few really bad years that we’ve gone through if a manor produces no income then no tribute is paid to the Saxons for it. Basically I’ve taken it as the Saxon’s want their share of the counties harvest and if there’s no any harvest to have then they don’t have anything to take. As yet I’ve not had to face the issue of Knights lying and saying that the harvest failed when it didn’t…

Sorry to bring this thread up again, but having just received the Book of Battle ;D I thought I would ask this question:

Tributes and Non-paid tributes seem pretty easy using the Book of the Manor:
- For each tribute paid you shift the Harvest Results down one level
- For each tribute NOT paid record the Conflict (Fate event) as the Saxon's raid (1 missed tribute), pillage (2 missed), or plunder (3 missed)

This works well and is very fast. But if the players want more detail using the Book of Battle, how would you set up these raids?
The reason I ask is because the BoB shows these raid-sized conflits should be handled as a Fight/Clash (BoB, pg 15). How would this be set-up? How would the results of this melee be translated back into our Manor Income Worksheet (BotM)?

My understanding is that tributes very, and as such a typical one might be 1,2,or even 3 Libra per knight. I believe that you adjust the harvest results down one for EACH libra of income u pay as tribute. At least thats what i believe at this point...i have been wrong on several occasions! :o

Banesfinger has it right. The standard tribute level is £3, or reduce income by one grade (or harvest level).

Using the number of unpaid levels as a grudge score is inspired.

HAHAHAHAHAHA Boy did my players get jipped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! # harvest levels for 3L !!!! HAHAHAHAH there gonna be mad. :D

What happens in the case of a triple tribute then, or another case where income is reduced below zero?

What happens in the case of a triple tribute then, or another case where income is reduced below zero?


Reduce the harvest by three levels, which unless it's otherwise been a great year with great Stewards is going to really hurt.

To me negative incomes can't actually happen, so what does happen is that as many levels of tribute are taken as possible to take the income down to zero.

I played the Anarchy phase as tribute being promised to the visitors at the Easter Court and then collected over the Winter.

So that could mean that tribute was promised that come winter can't be paid. Maybe another Knight will chip in with some extra to cover the missing tribute, or some Saxon will genuinely have to be sent nothing. Not paying tribute that has been promised was, to me, about the worse thing that could happen.

Harking across to another thread I'd now say that Honour could be lost as the word of the Knights is doubted.

Perhaps the Saxon who missed out will demand double next year, or they might just come raiding and demand further tribute anyway.

Or the Saxon's might demand some favours, perhaps the use of the County's military as backup for a battle.

Or the Knights might feel driven to try and find a large source of cash from somewhere, perhaps they go raiding themselves, but on who?

Lot's of interesting opportunities basically.

I agree fully with Oly, and like the idea of it causing a stain on their honour.

Someone suggested that tribute not paid = grudge points.
In the case of harvest levels below zero, maybe this would be doubled since they promised it and it haven't delivered.