Crime
The law
Section titled “The law”Each kingdom’s lands have their law. These are crimes against the kingdom whose land or folk it was, so long as you are not at war with it (in war they are acts of war):
| Crime | Rating |
|---|---|
| Robbing a peaceful party: a cart, caravan, convoy, envoy or travellers | 40 |
| Killing its folk | 30 |
| Burning its fields | 25 |
| Driving off a village’s beasts | 20 |
| Stealing in a town | 15 |
| Smuggling past a town’s market dues | 12 |
| Poaching in a lord’s woods | 6 |
Bandits, and pirates at sea, are outside the law: what they do is no crime, and nothing done to them is.
Only a crime someone saw counts. The robbed always tell. Any other deed is seen when a village, town or manor, or an army of another kingdom, is within 2 km (1 km by night). A theft or poaching is seen by chance instead: a purse cut a quarter of the time, a break-in 15%, poaching 30%, each 2% less for every point of your army’s best stealth, never under 3%. A crime nobody saw costs nothing.
Each crime seen adds its rating with that kingdom. The rating fades 2% and half a point a day.
Wanted
Section titled “Wanted”At 30 you are wanted by that kingdom:
- its armies, patrols and garrisons treat you as an enemy whatever peace holds, and its patrols hunt you;
- its towns and villages shut their gates to you: no trade, recruits, shelter or healing;
- there is a bounty on your head of 16 silver a point, paid from its lord’s seat to whoever beats you, which halves your rating.
It ends when you pay a fine of 12 silver a point at one of the house’s towns or its gate, when your realm and theirs make any pact, or when the rating fades under 15. Or take sanctuary at a high temple and stay three days: 2 gold of penance, and every house forgives you. No one fights an army in sanctuary.
The realm screen’s Law tab shows your renown, infamy and tyranny, your rating, bounty and fine with each house, sanctuary, the alleys you hold and the crimes seen of late.
Stealing and poaching
Section titled “Stealing and poaching”Buttons under the army lines on the HUD show where they would work:
| Button | Where | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Steal | Another kingdom’s town (never a castle) | A purse by day, a break-in by night, once a minute: 20 silver to 1 gold, or 1 gold 60 silver to 6 gold 40 silver from the town’s coin |
| Poach | Within 3 km of another kingdom’s castle | Once a day, 20 kg of game a man, up to 400 kg, as far as the train has room |
| Pay your fine | A town or gate of a kingdom that wants you | Clears its rating |
| Seek sanctuary | A high temple | While any kingdom wants you |
On the field, V cuts a purse, breaks in, or takes a den’s alley.
Thieves’ dens
Section titled “Thieves’ dens”
The busiest third of the towns have a den: a shabby house in a back street, a rat daubed on its sign and its shutters closed. A gang (the Gutter Knives, the Lantern Men…) holds its three alleys with 12 toughs, gaining one a day when short, up to 30 in hard times. The den is open to anyone, wanted or not:
| Tab | What it does |
|---|---|
| Fence | Buys any goods, no questions, at half the market price; better for an infamous lord and for each alley you hold, at most three quarters |
| Smugglers | Sell at the full price past the town’s tenth in market dues, but are caught a quarter of the time (5% less an alley held, never under 5%), which is smuggling |
| Den | Rumours: the news known in towns within 15 km, 20 silver or free to an alley’s holder. Take an alley: with half again as many men as its toughs you beat them, losing a man for every ten |
An alley held pays one of your realm’s armies half a percent of the town’s coin a day, a copper to 80 silver. Short of the men, you are beaten off and lose a third as many men as there were toughs.
Infamy and tyranny
Section titled “Infamy and tyranny”A lord’s crimes seen make him infamous, a quarter of a point for each point of crime, fading half a percent a day. The fence pays the infamous better, and heads he courts trust him less. See Diplomacy.
A lord whose men burn, kill or drive off the beasts of his own realm’s folk becomes a tyrant. His castellans and sworn lords lose loyalty each day while it lasts. It fades 2% a day.
Falling on an envoy, even one from a kingdom at war with you, costs standing with its kingdom and every other, and 20 infamy.
The Disclanders who rob caravans become outlaws the same way, and the kingdoms’ patrols and bounties hunt them.
Bandits
Section titled “Bandits”About one hideout lies 1 to 3 km off a road for every two towns, in cover where it can. Each sends out bands of 8 to 15 spearmen, hostile to every house and to you.
| Band | Men | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Bandits | 8 to 15 | Lie in wait by the road; fall on carts, caravans, convoys, lone riders and bands smaller than themselves |
| Footpads | 2 or 3 | Lie in wait near the hideout; fall on peaceful parties and lone riders they outnumber |
| Poachers | 2 or 3 | Roam near the hideout; run from anyone as strong |
| Deserters | 2 or 3 | Roam near the hideout; run from anyone as strong |
Bandits carry their loot home to the hideout. A hideout whose villages within 10 km are half starved or worse sends its small bands out more often, and one more of them. A levy going home from a broken-up host may turn bandit instead.
Bounties
Section titled “Bounties”Every bandit your army kills in a battle it wins is a head. Any town not at war with you pays 40 silver a head at its gaol. Footpads, poachers and deserters count as bandits. The jobs board pays 2 gold and the den’s loot to clear a hideout.
Raiding
Section titled “Raiding”Set your stance to Raiding on the Party screen and you stop for the carts, caravans and convoys of every kingdom but your own. While you raid, the patrols of kingdoms at war with you hunt you, and their carts run from you. Falling on a kingdom’s party puts you at war with that kingdom for good.
Castles send border raids on enemy villages within 15 km of road. If the village still belongs to the enemy, the raiders carry off half its coin, half its waiting recruits flee, and the raid kills a twentieth of its grown folk.
Quartering on a hostile village is a raid. It drives off the village’s beasts with your train.
Burning
Section titled “Burning”By a hostile village with crops standing or grain in its barn, press Burn the fields. The crops burn, your train takes what grain it has room for, the rest burns, and the village’s goodwill is gone. A village with a bare barn starves. Burning a house’s villages costs that house the Temple’s favour, and burning the Temple’s own land brings its condemnation.
Robbing travellers
Section titled “Robbing travellers”Met on the road, travellers can be robbed of their coin, goods and herd. See Travellers.
| Robbing | Renown |
|---|---|
| Carters, minstrels, messengers, drovers | -5 |
| Pilgrims, preachers | -10, and the Temple’s favour |
A messenger robbed has his letters read, and his news never arrives.
Killing folk
Section titled “Killing folk”With no soldier in reach, your sword cuts down the nearest grown man or woman it reaches. Children are never struck. A raiding army’s men run down and strike the folk of a kingdom theirs is at odds with. One blow kills.
Each death counts against the place: its grown folk thin, the killer’s lord loses renown, a village loses goodwill, and the minstrels sing of it. The dead are made up slowly, from none to full in a year.