Civic Improvements

Below is a partial list of the various improvements that may be made to a city. Included are the typical effects, average costs and various notes about the improvements. These are the averages and actual costs and effects will depend on the circumstances, location and other effects. Some of these cannot be implemented without certain requirements, for example a Mill requires either a river or additional peasants to man. Master Craftsmen will typically only come to a town with an established guild hall. There are of course other improvements which may be made to a city, but the effects of these vary such that standardizing the costs and benefits is impossible, consult the DM for more information.

* These things cannot be simply purchased and built a variety of complex factors goes into whether they come to a town. Consult the DM if you are interested in attracting such a thing.

Tax Benefits/Multiple Purchases:

Tax benefits apply only once unless the improvement specifically states that the improvement can be improved with multiple purchases (e.g. Guild Halls).
Improvements with variable costs (livestock, trade-routes) only increase revenue if they cover the full cost for the realm. (having livestock on half of your farms does not improve revenue)
Spending on multiple improvements (more than one town square, church, etc..) does add to the amount spent for the purposes of improving grandeur and religious power. So it may be both advantageous or necessary to make these improvements even if no increased income is garnered becasue to them.

Rules for Civic Improvements

1. Civic Improvements cost a certain amount of Gold to build or implement. This is paid out of the city's surplus with certain constraints (see below). The labor is assumed to come from within the city's own population (although certain skilled people like architects, masons etc.. may come from outside the city).
2. Normally each month a city may spend up to 1 gold per 5 population on civic improvements (the 'Spending Limit'). This indicates the maximum amount of gold that a city can spend on all civic improvements without (a) using Actions or (b) hiring outside labor.
   1. However by using an Action this amount (the 'Spending Limit') may be doubled. This may be done multiple times (2 Actions = x4 gold/month, 3 Actions = x8 gold/month)
   2. This 'Spending Limit' applies only to civic improvements (other uses of money: for example: trade, bribes or special purchases do not have this limit)
   3. The 'Spending Limit' can divided among any number of projects (assume a 1 gold minimum) and need not be met each month (failing to reach ones 'Spending Limit' has no consequences)
3. Normally each month a maximum of 100 gold can be spent on any one civic improvement (no matter how big the city) at time, even if this is less than the city's 'Spending Limit.' This is the 'Project Rate.'
   1. However by using an Action this amount may be doubled. tThis may be done multiple times as well, the increase being proportional to the number of Actions used for that project. (1 Action = 200 gold/month, 2 Actions = 400 gold/month, 3 Actions = 800 gold/month, etc..)
   2. This amount is still subject to the 'Spending Limit of the city. So if increasing the amount a city can spend on some project to 200 gold/month would exceed the city's 'Spending Limit' then the maximum one can spend on that project is that limit. It may be that a city's 'Spending Limit' is less than 100 gold/month (the base 'Project Rate'). In which case the 'Spending Limit' is always the upward limit.
4. Multiple Actions may be used to increase either the 'Spending Limit' or 'Project Rate' or both (but each requires a separate Action.) It may be, for example, necessary to increase the 'Spending Limit' in order to take advantage of a higher 'Project Rate.'
   1. All uses of Actions in either way, are internal to a city. So increasing the 'Spending Limit' or 'Project Rate' implies dedicating the energy of the city to either, in the first case increasing public works in general, or in the second case working on some project in particular.
5. In addition to using one's own labor on civic improvement projects one can use 'Hired Labor.' These are laborers and craftsmen from outside the city who journey to the realm to work on construction projects. Their labor is paid for out of the city's surplus and no Actions affect their labor (Actions in the game sense). It costs 1 gold for each one gold of construction hired labor does. So if hired labor does 100gold worth of construction it costs 200 gold (100 for the construction +100 for the hired labor), 200 gold worth of construction costs 400 gold, 300 gold worth of construction 600 etc..
   1. Hired Labor do not require food or lodgings (it is assumed in their costs) but do count as 1 person per gold worth of population for purposes of Law Ratios and other density issues.
   2. Hiring hundreds of laborers may cause a drain of the population from neighboring cities. The consequences of that are determined by the situation but are likely to annoy the nieghboring rulers
   3. Construction done by hired labor is in addition to any generated within the city using the methods listing in 1-3.
   4. Hiring Labor assumes that there exist nearby adequate laborers (with the skills needed).
   5. Normally Hired Labor may amount to no more than 1/4 the population of your city. (in some cases this limit may be exceeded)
6. Using Actions or Hired Labor never reduces the cost of civic improvements, but rather serves to reduce the construction and implementation time.

Example

1. Exburg has a population of 400 and hence 3 Actions. It seeks to build a Mill (cost 1500 gold)
2. Exburg has a 'Spending Limit' of 80 gold/month.
3. The base maximum 'Project Rate' for construction is 100gold/month. But as it stands Exburg can only spend 80 gold/month so we expect the Mill to be built in (1500/80) = 18.75 months, (assuming Exburg spends its limit each much toward that end.)
   1. but..
      Exburg dedicates 1 Action to increasing its 'Spending Limit' to (80 x 2) = 160gold/month.
      Now, Exburg can spend the 'Project Limit' of 100 per month on the Mill project, and if it has the cash another 60 gold on other projects.

      but..
      Exburg decides to spend another 1 Action on increasing the 'Project Rate' for the Mill Project.
      Now the maximum 'Project Rate' for the Mill is 200gold/month. but Exburg has a 'Spending Limit' of 160gold /month, so that is the most that can be spent on the Mill (assuming that no other projects are being worked on).

      but..
      With its last Action Exburg can increase its 'Spending Limit' again (80x4) = 320 gold/month.
      Now it can spend the maximum 'Project Rate' of 200 gold/month on the Mill, and has 120 left within its 'Spending Limit' to use on other projects. (note since the 'Project Rate' of all construction projects starts at 100gold/month, the most that Exburg could spend on any other single project is 100 gold/month and 20 gold/month on another.)

      With these Actions spent thusly the Mill Project could be done in (1500/200) = 7.5 months.

4. If Exburg used 'Hired Labor' to help with the project they could spend more.
   1. Suppose, in addition to the above Action uses and gold spending, Exburg wanted to use Hired Labor for another 100 gold/month. This would cost an additional 100 gold each month but cut the construction time again. (So each additional 100gold spent per month towards the construction costs would cost 200gold)
      1. City Labor with Actions (200gold/month)+ Hired Labor (100gold/month) = (1500/300) = 5 months.
         Total cost 1500 (construction costs) + 500 (hired labor) = 2000 gold.

      The normal maximum of Hired Labor Exburg can use is (1/4 its population) = 125 Gold/month. But for the sake of argument let us suppose it can hire more.

      To complete the Mill in 3 months would cost..

      1. City Labor (200gold/month) + Hired Labor (300gold/month) = (1500/500) = 3 months
         Total cost 1500 (construction costs) +900 (hired labor) = 2400 gold.

      To complete the Mill in 1 month would cost..

      1. City Labor (200gold/month) + Hired Labor (1300gold/month) = (1500/1500) = 1 months
         Total cost 1500 (construction costs) +1300 (hired labor) = 2800 gold.

      If Exburg wanted to build the Mill entirely with Hired Labor, the cost would be double the normal cost or 3000 gold, but it would be completed in one month. This of course assumes that Exburg could exceed its normal max in hired labor but that not likely.

Definitions:

Spending Limit

Maximum amount in gold/month a city can spend on all civic improvements using its own population as labor. This equals 1 gold for every 5 population, but can be doubled for each Action used for that purpose.

Project Rate

Maximum amount of gold/month a city can spend on a single civic improvement using its own population as labor. This starts at 100 gold/month, but can be doubled for each Action used for that purpose.

Hired Labor

These are people brought in to a city from outside it to increase the speed with which civic improvements get constructed or implemented. It costs twice as much to do construction with hired labor as with one's own populace, but using hired labor circumvents Spending Limits and Project Rates. Note that these hired laborers do not require extra food or shelter but do increaase teh population for purposes of Law Ratios and Population Density. Attracting hired labor may take time.

Important Notes:

• Some improvements have a variety of benefits which are difficult to formalize or standardize. Consult the DM for specific proerties of each improvement
• This is partial list. There are numerous possible improvements limited only by your and my imaginations.
• Costs are typical, your costs may differ significantly.
• These rules assume that various materials needed are readily accessible, and that the various skilled people needed for the construction (architects, masons, painters etc.. are willing and able to come work on the project).
• Hired Labor can exceed 1/4 of your population in rare cases such as the building of a temple or keep sponsored by some large outside force (a religion, larger political power), when a person first decides to build a keep or similar situations.

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