These are various elements of feudal and manor life that I’m interested in having some level of representation of in the system.

  • The difference between free peasants and villeins. The first pays rent to the lord in goods, the second pays in work on the lord’s demesne.
  • The manor calendar: plowing, sowing of spring crops, harvesting, more plowing, sowing fall crops, winter.
  • Survival and condition of the villagers. Are harvests good enough to feed everyone?
  • Who gets the surplus in the case of a good harvest?
  • Lords being able to demand higher rents at the cost of peasants’ condition, or forgive rents to improve peasants’ condition.
  • Employing laborers and experts. Quarrying, lumbering, and mining. Masons, carpenters, and smiths.
  • The time and resources it takes to build important structures like castles and cathedrals.
  • Being able to build structures out of different materials. Wood vs. stone, cost vs. strength.
  • The size of your retinue is based on the number of people you can feed by the income of your holdings.
  • Providing equipment for men-at-arms and knights.
  • Granting holdings to vassals in exchange for their loyalty.
  • Inheritance, marriage, and loyalty as means to gain land.
  • Conquering and adventuring as a means to gain land.
  • Battle on the open field as well as siege warfare.
  • Generational play: former characters become mentors for future characters. Holdings and status are passed down.

Now the issue is how to incorporate all of those elements (and I am sure there are more) into a clean, elegant system.