Free Hamlet
Free hamlets are unchartered rural gatherings of several dozen hovels and half-timbered buildings surrounding a "common," that might be an open green, a ford or road. They occur in Type-5 hexes that lack the presence of significant rivers with 2 pts. or more. They are too small to be considered a village, but are much larger than hamlets that occur in Type-6 hexes, with much greater food production as well as a wide variety of facilities.
Contents
Though they may occur in hexes with streams, such places are largely dependent on groundwater wells. While predominantly agrarian, these communities also focus upon storage, the collection of food and cartage, especially the need to supply food to the realm. Thus, in addition to farmlands both close-by and scattered among the nearer environs, free hamlets possess a definite "driftway," as the lane most commonly used for moving flocks, herds, carts or goods out of the hamlet becomes recognised. It is along this driftway that the various facilities can be found, though still in the scattered sense of a semi-organised locality. In terms of their interpersonal associations, they are not as tight-knit as communal hamlets, so that often multiple people reside in these hamlets with no immediate family — yet they are not yet large enough to provide a henchfolk, which requires a village.
Population
In addition to those facilities associated with the communal hamlet, free hamlets are also sure to include a bakery, carter post, granary, graveyard, waterpump and storehouse. In addition to 6 half-timbered "houses" and one bunkhouse, there will 21-28 hovels. This accounts for a likely total of 66-199 people.
| Buildings | Population | Dwellings | Presence |
|---|---|---|---|
| bakery | 4d4+3 | 2 houses | always |
| carter post | 6d4+3 | 2 houses & bunkhouse | requires minimum cart path |
| communal holding | 5d8+40 | 13-18 hovels | always |
| garner | 2d4 | 1 hovel | always |
| gong farmer | 1-3 | 1 hovel | always |
| granary | d6+5 | 1 house, 1 hovel | always |
| stable | 2d4+2 | 1-2 hovels | always |
| ox tether & hovel | 2-5 | 1 hovels | only if no carter is present |
| saw pit & hovel | 2d4+3 | 2 hovels | hamlet located in a forested range |
| shearing station | 2d6 | 2 hovels | always |
| windmill | 2d6+1 | 1 house | always; count as watermill if not in barren or steppe |
Most of these are supported by labourers not directly part of the community: teamsters, woodcutters and suppliers of one kind or another. Wind or watermills may produce a wide variety of goods; freeholders will typically be strung out in various directions related to or along the driftway, along which the bakery, post, garner, granary, stable and mills will congregate.
