Thanks for this site!

I'm starting to GM a Pendragon 5th Ed game. We have run two sessions so far.
I have searched the book but can't figure this out:

In the Winter Phase, once the economic circumstances are determined (using the harvest table from GPC), does the knight make any money that can be spent on other things besides maintenance?

An ordinary knight, for example, "receives L6 to L8 per year in money and food, which keeps himself, his family, a single squire, and his horses in a healthy and robust manner of living and his equipment in good repair."

So is any of that 6-8L left over to spend on equipment etc?

I suppose a knight could voluntarily reduce his standard of living below his economic circumstances (probably with a roll vs temperate). If he has rich circumstances but an ordinary standard of living, he would net 3L. Is that OK?

Also, what if the knight owns more than one manor? His income is higher but his expenses are the same. Does he roll separately for economic circumstances for each manor and total the money?

It's not a crisis. I can figure out my own interpretation, but I'd like to do it the right way. I probably just overlooked something. What am I missing?

If the knight doesn't own land, then the he doesn't receive any money. His upkeep is paid for by his lord, and the lord chooses whether or not to reduce his standard of living (which he'll only do in emergencies, since the presentation of his knights affects his own good name).

So, in such a case, the knight has no spending money. That's where raiding, battle plunder, ransoms, and adventuring come in handy.

For the landed knight, the situation can be a bit better. They can reduce their spending on income - but this will severely effect child survival and horse survival, so you don't want to do it if you can avoid it. Back to raiding and adventuring!

If you are a landed knight with more than one manor, you can have some spending money. But, for each non-demesne manor, you have to supply one knight, which you usually pay for, and you are vulnerable to the vicissitudes of harvest, so you are best off usually keeping the money made by a manor and spending on improving the manor (assuming you have access to the Book of the Manor; if not, spend away!).

Good points. I must clarify:

Knight has one manor. Harvest table from GPC says Ordinary economic circumstances. Knight maintains ordinary standard of living. Does he have any cash left over?

A few pages deep in this forum I read that an unmarried knight only requires L4 to maintain ordinary standard of living, but haven't found that in the rulebook. If that is true (is it?) then he makes L2 profit, I guess. Right?

I also read here that it takes L1 to keep the manor running while a knight goes off adventuring. So that raises expenses to L5, leaving L1 for spending.

Am I on the right track?

Don't have the Book of the Manor yet. I think I need to figure out the basic rules first!

The basic rules are: Knight gets income from manor which exactly equals his cost of living. No spending money. So Ordinary harvest = no spending money.
Also, there is a "Your Own Manor" section in the rulebook (KAP5), which allows you to roll a d6 to determine your manor's income. This was before Book of the Manor came out, and is very simplistic. It basically gives you a small chance of being a Rich knight (no spending money but you have a standard of living as a rich knight), or a Poor Knight (lower standard of living).

The figures you quote are accurate, but they are from the Book of the Manor.
Cost of maintaining a knight = £2 for himself (+squire), £2 for his horse, £2 for his wife & family if he has one, and £1 for a steward to run his manor.
The Steward cost is only needed if you are using the more detailed accounting Book of the manor - if you are using the simple rules in the basic rulebook, refer back to the first line of this post.

The message here: as far as the basic rules are concerned, land is not a source of spare income - it's only used to increase your chance of having surviving heirs (the more often you live as a rich knight, the more kids you'll have and the longer they'll live). If you have multiple manors, this breaks down a little, but for knights with a single manor, their income should be coming from adventure. The game is set up to make that so.

Regarding the wife cost: if you have land, you *will* want a wife as soon as possible, so you can get an heir to pass the land and any treasure accumulated down to.
Regarding the steward cost: if you are using the book of the manor, you *will* want a steward, because you desperately need his stewardship skill. (Unless your knight or wife is very good at this - it's not uncommon for wives to develop this.)

Note: if you are concerned about knights not being able to afford food and lodging or things like that, though those prices are listed, I wouldn't worry about them. Just assume the knights have enough denarii to pay for reasonable supplies, and their lord (if not landed) will replace broken weapons every now and then, but anything extravagant, like jewellery or or feasts or trips to the continent have to be paid for.

Alternatively, assume the lord gives a gift of £1 (or 60d if stingy) each year to give them some spending money. This fits the setting perfectly. If they have land, though, they are on their own.

I'd say buy the Book of the Manor, it's well worth the investment.

Overall, I'd say it's reasonable for a knight who is unmarried to have an extra £ and under the presumption that his wife's duties are taken over by a steward (who will be able to support his family better than most on that £1).

I'd say without the BoM (which I still say you really ought to get), I'd just argue that disposable income should come from adventures and plunder, which should be enough to keep a knight with a decent amount of spending cash. Greg has rules on the site here that also give details on raiding and pillaging, and my players at least love to do that to supplement their income(you'd think they were Vikings...)

"Knight has one manor. Harvest table from GPC says Ordinary economic circumstances. Knight maintains ordinary standard of living. Does he have any cash left over?"

I do allow the "income" from a Manor to be treated as income and spent how a Player Knight wishes.

For example if the rolls produce a "rich" result, which I'll peg at £9, then the Knight could just live at a rich level. Or I'll allow them to bury £3 of their income and live at ordinary level instead. Alternatively if they have money put aside then I'll let them top up the £9 to the next level (£12 I believe).

I'm not too sure if that's how the rules are meant to work, though I've not consciously seen anything that I've gone against, but it certainly works well for me.

To begin with we saw Knights living the high life and taking the Glory.

However once tributes began to bite and horses began to die we began so see far more pragmatic Knights beginning to live far quieter lives and putting aside the profits from the good years to fund the bad.

All of which I'm quite happy with and the hardness of the anarchy period came across without the game acquiring too much of a focus on money.