PROTOTYPE - NOT FOR PRODUCTION

Question: Does the displaced-cost muster (pay at the forge, not at the horn) feel weighty?

Date: 2026-09-12

The Muster — Paper Prototype Rules

The Question

Does paying the cost of military readiness weeks earlier, at the forge — rather than at the moment the horn sounds — make the muster feel like it carries real weight? Or does a free muster feel like a costless toggle with no meaningful tradeoff behind it?

The riskiest thing this prototype must prove or disprove: that the plough option is a real, felt sacrifice — not an obviously-inferior trap that any sensible player ignores in hindsight. If ploughs don't matter, there's no tradeoff, just "always build spears," and the entire hook is decoration.

Setup

• Duration: 10 turns (abstracting one season)
• Settlers: 15
• Iron income: 3 per turn, fixed
• Starting stock: 0 ploughs, 0 spears, 0 unspent iron

The Allocation (every turn)

Each turn, before anything else happens, the player allocates that turn's 3 iron across two uses. Allocation can be split (e.g., 2 to ploughs, 1 to spears) or whole (3/0 or 0/3). Unspent iron carries forward but produces nothing on its own — raw iron is not power, only converted iron is.

• 1 iron → 1 plough
• 1 iron → 1 spear

There is no third option and no way to convert a plough into a spear later, or vice versa. The choice, once made, is final — this is the mechanism that displaces the cost to the moment of the decision rather than the moment of the raid.

Ploughs — What They're For

Each plough owned at the end of turn 10 adds +1 to the Harvest Score. Harvest Score is the settlement's measure of prosperity — in the full game this would translate to food stores, growth, and the "peaceful builder" satisfaction the concept doc names as Pillar 2. In this prototype it is tracked as a bare number so its value is legible without needing a full economy simulation.

Ploughs do nothing else. They do not fight. They do not protect settlers. Their only function is to be the thing you gave up iron for instead of a spear.

Spears — What They're For

Each spear arms exactly one settler as a defender. A settler cannot be armed without a spear; there is no way to fight bare-handed. Maximum useful spears = 15 (one per settler) — any spears beyond 15 are wasted, forged but never wielded.

The Muster (free)

At the moment the raid arrives, the player calls the muster. **This costs nothing.** Every settler currently holding a spear becomes a Defender automatically. There is no roll, no delay, no chance of a settler refusing, and no economic penalty for calling it. The muster's only content is a readout: "You have [N] Defenders out of 15 settlers."

This is the mechanic under test: is a free muster still meaningful, if the real cost was already paid at the forge?

The Raid

• Timing: the raid arrives on a turn secretly chosen by the facilitator between turn 7 and turn 10 inclusive (roll 1d4, add 6). The player is told only "the horn will sound before winter" — not the exact turn. This tests whether uncertainty about timing makes early-turn allocation feel riskier than a known deadline would.
• Strength: roll 2d6 when the raid turn arrives. This is the Raid Strength.

Resolution

Compare Defenders (spears owned, capped at 15) to Raid Strength:

• Defenders ≥ Raid Strength: The settlement holds. No losses. Record this as a clean win.
• Defenders < Raid Strength: The settlement takes losses. **Losses = Raid Strength − Defenders**, capped at the number of settlers remaining. Lost settlers are removed permanently — they no longer produce iron on future turns (if any remain after the raid) and cannot be recovered.

End of Session

After turn 10 (or immediately after the raid if it happened on turn 10), record:

• Final Harvest Score (total ploughs ever built)
• Settlers Surviving (out of 15)
• Raid outcome (held / took losses, and how many)
• Unspent iron (iron that was never converted to anything — a sign of an indecisive or overly cautious player)

Explicitly NOT Tested Here

• Multiple raids or raid types
• Gear tiers (mail, shields — just spears)
• Named settlers or individual identity
• Any resource beyond iron (no wood, food, or charcoal chain)
• Seasons beyond the single one being tested
• UI, art, or any visual representation