To the designers:

In the past five months of using the playtest rules, one issue I've run into is the seasonal income derived from land. I remember in the 2e rules they explained (rather lamely, in my opinion) that harvest profits were supplemented by trade and crafts of other sorts throughout the year.

Well, here's where my sense of believability and realism is badly jarred. If this is a medieval society, then it is an agrarian one. And we know it's a temperate climate, right? Well, the income for trade is accounted for in guilds and trade routes. Where, then, do land incomes really come from? The bulk of tax money is almost certainly based on the harvest, collected mainly in the autumn (with a bit in the summer and winter). Yet land income is dead-steady throughout the year in the D20 BRCS system. In the 2e system, there was variable land income, but now it's so static that it's more like a chess game than anything so uncertain as an economy that depends on predictable weather patterns and good fortune. It may make things simpler for calculating income, but how much is lost in believability?

Wouldn't it be just as interesting, without a whole lot more paperwork or math, to throw in some variables based on harvest outcomes? Here are some possibilities I've considered:

1. Harvest is in Autumn. Base land income is 1/3 normal in other seasons, but TRIPLE normal in autumn. This works out the same in annual income, but forces landed regents to account for the bulk of their income coming in once a year rather than every season on a regulated schedule.

2. Before Autumn collections (or each season with normal collection), roll to determine a Harvest Modifier to see if the crops were poor, average or good this year. The Harvest modifier multiplies the harvest income.
EX.: On a D20: 1=Terrible; crops are blighted, lost, etc. (1/3 x Land Income), 2-4 = Bad Season (1/2 x Land Income), 5-8 = Poor Season (2/3x), 9-12 = Average (no modifier), 13-16 = Good Harvest (+1/3 land income), 17-19 = Exceptional Harvest (+2/3 land income), and 20 = Bountiful Harvest (2 x land income).

I realize that this could end up looking like a variation of the 2e variable collections, but that's OK. In this proposal, it's less dice but a bit more math (although with Autumn harvest, you'd only have to do it once a year). My feeling is that Autumn harvest would add a level of play that would dramatically affect regents' political strategies in a realistic way. Invading another lord's lands could be disastrous if timed right (which is quite accurate, historically). Calling up levies in the late summer isn't a great idea, either. And landed lords must now budget their treasury so that they don't bankrupt themselves before autumn arrives. Makes it a bit more challenging for players, but in an ineresting way (I think).

-Osprey