Re: (TFT) New file on Farming in TFT.

[Jeffrey Vandine <jlv61560@yahoo.com>]

I've read through the material. I can't comment on the accuracy of the unde
rlying numbers (have you looked into the "Magical Medieval Society" books t
o see if your calculations match theirs?), since I haven't had any time to 
do the research overall.
However I will say that I think it's a bit overcomplicated.  While I r
ealize economics is a complex system of interrelating effects that can caus
e each individual factor to change in unexpected ways, I have to ask if we 
really need to simulate that.
For example, I use the tables from the old Microgame Trailblazer to simulat
e a simplified mercantilist trading economy within a limited region.  
It seems to work well enough, let's the players use the system to generate 
income if they want to become merchants, and at the very least let's me log
ically structure trade and caravan routes for those periodic "caravan guard
" stints, or anti-pirate campaigns.  (If anyone wants to see the table
s, I'll see if I can put the thing together at some point when I reach a pl
ace where I can work on something for an uninterrupted while.  If you 
already own the game, then you can use the tables, all you need to do is co
me up with the commodities to be traded, assign them the necessary values s
o you can determine individual price points in the main trading locations, 
and you're all set.)
Likewise, I can see using the agricultural output table from After the Holo
caust (an old SPI game about post-nuclear or other disaster reconstruction 
that focused heavily on economics) to generate an agricultural output -- it
 would be enormously simpler than the various calculations listed on your p
age, and the SPI tables vary output based on number of controlled areas (wh
ich could be used as an analogy for your hex sizes) with more territory und
er farming leading to more average results (if you only have a limited area
 under control, the fluctuations in agricultural output can be extreme and 
very damaging -- this, in fact, could lead to trade opportunities, as your 
neighbor's demesne may have suffered from unusual weather, a bad locust epi
demic, or whatever while yours got off relatively lightly -- meaning you mi
ght be able to sell some grain there...and he might have to buy it; from su
ch conditions fortunes are founded and wars are begun.  

I'm not trying to knock your work -- it's really pretty interesting, but as
 the GM, I would prefer something that I can do in a couple of minutes and 
still give a logically consistent answer without having to try to figure ou
t which table applies where and for what.  Also, I think if you're goi
ng to leave the page up for a while, you should spend some more time clarif
ying the opening section -- the jump from koku to ares and hectares is a li
ttle confusing, especially when you consider that the conversion doesn't se
em to be described in enough detail. Additionally, you need to provide more
 information on how to read that first table -- as it stands it's quite dif
ficult to figure out.  Remember, you've been (obviously) thinking abou
t this for quite some time, but we're just now seeing it.  Walk us thr
ough it a bit, if you can.
Actual amounts of food raised are difficult things to get your arms around.
  Just glancing through the internet, for example, the absolute minimu
m of land to feed a person for a year is about 7500 square feet -- that's a
 plot 75x100 feet -- and that is roughly what the Japanese achieved in the 
medieval period through a combination of intensive agriculture, and extreme
 good fortune in terms of soils and weather to support rice growing.  
And that works out to about 0.07 hectares per individual (or an average pop
ulation density of 3700 per square mile).  If we assume that for TFT m
agical support was used, this might be possible for a wider area.  How
ever the FAO states that, on average, it takes about half a hectare to supp
ort a single person (including a diversified modern diet of meat and vegeta
bles, fruit and grains).  So I don't know what would be the acceptable
 answer.
But again, maybe we don't actually need to know all that -- if we go with a
 simplified table on agricultural output, then you can skip a lot of the co
mplex math involved, but still come up with a reasonable and logically cons
istent answer.  Which is really all we need to play, isn't it?  T
hen there's the whole issue of fishing....

I'm reminded of the time I attended an Air Force targeting conference where
 a bunch of 50lb brains sat around and calculated how much the detonation o
f a nose fuze itself (about an ounce of high explosives) would retard the p
enetration of a bomb before the full explosive train could detonate.  
They did indeed, after several hours of intense math, calculate that it wou
ld slow the bomb enough to cost it several microns of penetration into the 
target, but that the answer really was "who cares?"  We then broke for
 lunch.  I'm not saying we're at that point yet, but I suspect we coul
d get there pretty quick!  ;-)

      From: Rick Smith <rick_ww@lightspeed.ca>
 To: tft@brainiac.com 
 Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2015 4:28 PM
 Subject: (TFT) New file on Farming in TFT.
   
Hi all,
  I have put up a new page on the TFT wiki that Joe runs, which gives 
rules for farming.

  This is a GM tool.  It is a set of algorithms which allow you t
o calculate how much land
you control if you have one or more hexes of terrain on a map; how much foo
d your land
can grow; how many peasants your land supports; and the income that your la
nd can
provide to you.

  This is a revised version of an old document that was in one of my A
PA's.  The new 
version gives much better rules on herding animals on marginal land.

  I would be interested in any feedback or comments that you may have.

The location is...

http://tft.brainiac.com/RicksTFT/GM_Stuff/FarmingInTFT.html

  Warm regards, Rick.


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