In my games, I find it useful to differentiate between two “classes” of samurai: the first is the Household Samurai, a landless warrior that lives on the generosity of their lord, receiving a small salary for their service. The second is the Landholding Samurai, those who received the right to own land, have their own servants and lives on the production of their lands. These rules are modified from the Pendragon RPG to delineate the difference between them and establish the Living Standards model of yearly economy for my games. Additionally, I use 1 Ryō = 4 Koku as a new monetary unit, as can be seen below.
Basics of the “Living Standards” Model
Samurai, as members of the noble class, wear very nice clothing and eat well, whether at their lord’s hospitality or in their own manor. A ji-samurai of the level of the typical player character (with Status between 2.0 and 1.1) must maintain a Comfortable Living Standard, spending 3 Ryō, or 12 Koku, per year to sustain their lifestyle with honor and dignity.
This expenditure is divided as such:
1 Ryō (4 Koku) for the character’s alimentation, clothing and personal necessities;
1 Ryō for the maintenance of the character’s equipment necessary for performing their duties;
1 Ryō for the maintenance of the animals and servants that the character needs in their daily routine. These are not exclusive, but shared between several samurai on the lord’s estate.
This is for a single samurai, with no family of their own, living on their lord’s estate. A few additional expenditures can be added under certain conditions:
1 Ryō is added if the samurai become tutor to a koshō (for bushi and shinobi), page (for courtiers and artisans) or miko (for shugenja and monks), to pay for their training, sustenance and maintenance of their equipment;
1 Ryō for the sustenance of a samurai’s family (spouse and small children);
1 additional Ryō for the maintenance of animals, servants and house of the samurai, if they have their own.
So, a samurai that has their own family, house, servants, horse and is tutoring a koshō, can be expected to live on a 6 Ryō (24 Koku) salary. This is paid either by the lord, if the PC is a mere household samurai without their own estate, or by the production from their family’s land.
As the heirs of a samurai come of age, their expenditure also increases. They start demanding their own 1 Ryō as soon as they hit their teenage years, the moment a samurai typically sends their children to serve their lord as pages, or other samurai as appropriate (and thus, transferring the expenses to them). Other members of the family living under the samurai and totally dependent on them, like grandparents that are too old to serve, also have to be maintained in this way, demanding 1 Ryō for general sustenance.
As the Status of samurai increases, so do the minimum Living Standards they must maintain to keep face before their peers. For every Status Rank above 2.0, the character must double the total expenditure in maintenance and resources of their lifestyle, increasing their Living Standards accordingly. So, for example, at Status Rank 3.0, the above character who lived with their family, koshō and servants on a 6 Ryō salary will have to “upgrade” their expenditure to 12 Ryō total to not lose Honor and Glory each year. At Status Rank 4.0, that becomes 24 Ryō, doubling again each time.
It is interesting and useful to compare a samurai’s standard of living with those of a typical peasant family of two adults and three children: A Heimin exists in a self-sufficient world where money is unknown, and the family makes, grows, or barters for everything it needs. However, in monetary value, annual expense and income for the whole peasant family equals about 1 or 2 Ryō at the most.
Household Samurai
If the character is a landless household samurai, the character just has their expenses paid by the lord and receives a single Ryō as "expending money" at the end of the year. More or less than that, depending on how deserving of prizes or punishment the character is. A good rule of thumb is an additional 1 Koku per Glory point earned during that year.
Though not needing to worry about their next meal or the maintenance of their equipment, a mere household samurai has several limitations on their freedom, above and beyond what is expected of their class. They will typically live in the mansion or castle of their lord, with limited room for themselves. Marrying is usually out of the question, until the samurai earns their own home through merit, and service is a 24 hours commitment, with little to no time for their own desires.
Landholding Samurai
If, on the other hand, the character is themselves part of a landholding family, the payment for their standards of living is taken from the production of their own lands (or their family’s, if the character is not its head yet). The character will have servants to maintain their house, farm their lands and attend to their needs. Their sustenance can be ignored most of the time: they will produce what they need, the samurai (and the players) don’t need to worry about them.
If not using any sort of Land Administration System, most of this can be abstracted. Just assume that, at the end of the year, the character's land produces 5 Ryō (what is called the land’s Assessed Value), plus 1k1 Ryō from the player, minus 1k1 Ryō from the GM, representing the vicissitudes of weather, production and administration. If the character or a member of their family have any Skills related to the administration of their lands or businesses under them, they add their skill level as a fixed bonus to the 1k1 rolled by the player. So, if the character has Craft: Swordsmithing 3, they roll 1k1+3 versus the GMs 1k1 to determine their production at the end of a year. Only the highest bonus is used in this simplified method of play.
If you want even less book-keeping or a game that has nothing to do with money in general, just assume that the PC's lands produce enough to maintain their family's Standard of Living, plus an extra 1k1 Koku at the end of the year.
Obligations Of A Landholding Samurai
In any case, a landholding samurai must give compensation to their lord for the land they hold. They must attend the court of their lord during winter, serve in their army four months out of every year and offer some of their children as pages for the lord's family. They have, of course, to marry as soon as possible and start providing heirs to keep the family’s legacy (and more samurai for the meatgrinder…)
The rest of the time, the character is free to care for their own home, train and enjoy the life of a noble.
The military service of a samurai is based on their land’s expected production, the previously mentioned Assessed Value of the land. Taking a landholding samurai from the Lion Clan as a baseline, for each 10 Ryō their land is meant to produce according to the lord’s ledger, the samurai is expected to bring to the lord’s army:
1 armored horseman (can be the samurai themselves or a follower);
2 armored footmen (ashigaru with spears or bows);
3 peasant porters/laborers;
1 peasant horse caretaker;
If the samurai is a shugenja and they offer their personal service to the lord’s army (something that is never demanded, though can be “strongly suggested”), their presence is important enough to compensate for 50 Ryō of military service in this way. A courtier or artisan must either serve personally, or pay for the services of trained soldiers or family to fight in their place. 3 Ryō pays for an armored horseman, 1 Ryō for both footmen and 1 Ryō pays for the rest of the peasant followers of the above group. A samurai’s koshō counts as an armored footman for the purposes of military service. The first retinue as described above is already paid for by the samurai’s Standard of Living, money must only be spent for additional retinues.
Be aware that this amount of soldiers is expected for each 10 full Ryō of the land’s Assessed Value. A samurai with lands assessed as valuing less than 10 Ryō must offer only themselves as a soldier. So, from every 10 Ryō of land production above the first, a samurai might spend 5 Ryō with soldiers every year.
Clans with more peaceful traditions than the Lion might require less soldiers than what’s described above. The Crane or Scorpion, for example, might expect a military retinue for each 20 or even 30 Ryō of assessed land value. On the other hand, the Crab might squeeze their landed samurai for soldiers even more in times of crisis.
Other Living Standards
As stated previously, characters are expected to keep a Comfortable Living Standard at minimum, to live with dignity and honor. But, sometimes, that’s not really possible and a samurai sees themselves facing poverty. In other cases, a samurai hits the jackpot with incredibly productive lands, finds resources necessary for the clan or is simply handsomely rewarded for going above and beyond their duty, in which case they might decide to live luxuriously for a time.
In any case, the Comfortable Living Standard is the base level for a ji-samurai of Status Rank 1,1 to 2,0. Having a higher Status also demands an appropriate increase in Living Standards, so that society doesn't see the samurai as miserly or greedy.
A starting character is assumed to be at the Comfortable Living Standard for the first year of the game, unless they buy disadvantages or decide otherwise. Failing to pay the price to maintain the current standard of living means that the character's family must downgrade their standards for the next year, incurring several penalties in the process.
With these base rules, for each level below the minimum Living Standard for their Status Rank, the character accumulates the following penalties every year:
Minus 0,2 points of Glory and Honor;
Their equipment degrades, suffering one negative property (see Little Truths document);
Every social roll they make suffers a -1k0 penalty.
Living above their expected Living Standards can turn these penalties into bonuses in the same proportion.
Wealthy and Gentry
Using these rules, the Wealthy and Gentry advantages have to be adjusted slightly. Wealthy just gives you funds directly: 1 Ryō per XP spent. A bit better than the book, but not very different. This one-time money bonus per XP spent is very bad in the original incarnation and is still very bad here, I don't ever recommend you buy it.
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