A couple days ago, Zak posted about how dumb the tax to enter Castle Greyhawk in a late-edition module was. And yesterday, Peter looked at dungeon taxes more closely, trying to separate good versions of the idea from bad versions of the idea.
I don't think it's out of the question, since in many other cases, there's a tax on treasure or goods when you enter a city. And in the official rules, there's a cost of living charge of 1% on all treasure (Per week? Per month? Still under debate...) which presumably includes taxes, without any associated role-playing. Essentially, that becomes a tax on entering the dungeon that's been postponed until after you leave.
There's a tax or fee to enter Blackmoor dungeons, I think. I was just reading The First Fantasy Campaign and seem to recall that. But that is a dungeon in the middle of a town. I think some kind of official control of entry into a dungeon is not only reasonable, but necessary, if the dungeon is in or extremely close to a settlement. Of course, in some cases, the "control" is a patrol that keeps people away, unless bribed.
I had a plan for a dungeon near Port Skar in the 9 and 30 Kingdoms setting. After the wormpocalypse, one exposed exit point of a great worm allowed access to phenomenal raw gems, which triggered the boom that resulted in the founding of Port Skar. The easy pickings on the upper levels are mostly tapped out, and the lower levels are dangerous, but there's still some traffic, and there are guards in place. I'd certainly set up some kind of legal restriction on lower level access, but I think I'll make an outright tax something the city already tried, provoking outrage. The city's income is now a tax on trade.
I'm curious to see how worm tunnels can be mapped in a way that creates interesting and non-repetitive dungeons. I like the idea, but have a hard time seeing it not being a boring environment.
ReplyDeleteThe worms create the basic structure, their hatchlings add to that, and the creatures that claim the tunnels expand them. From the vadwyrms post: "They tunnel in a straight line for 100 to 200 feet, then turn right or left... the hatchlings will carve out a cluster of 5 to 30 "rooms" randomly connected by 5 and 10-foot diameter tunnels before tunneling down into the rock. These "vadtunnels" are quickly appropriated by other denizens of the underworld, who modify and expand them to form dungeon complexes."
DeleteOdd, I just looking at Roman taxes yesterday. One percent sounds about right for the base tax level. Although when you look at classical and medieval taxes and fees, people who had money were often being nickeled and dimed to death. I think 3-5% was probably closer to the total of what was payed in terms of taxes, fees, payoffs and general baksheesh. Of course most of the poor sods were serfs who were half way between being slaves and sharecroppers, so they didn't have any money anyway.
ReplyDeleteWell, keep in mind that's 1% of experience points, not 1% of income. That means you wind up paying more than 1% of your income at higher levels.
DeleteBut that raises another issue...