Labor Management
Labor Management covers workers, crews, skilled hirelings, project assignment, construction stalls, parallel work, and defense in Civilization Crafting.
Rules for materials, stockpiles, and transport are found in Material Acquisition. Rules for spending labor on bases and settlements are found in Bastions and Strongholds.
Core Concept¶
Materials do not move themselves.
Walls do not raise themselves.
Your crew, workers, hirelings, specialists, and followers are the force that turns resources into civilization.
Workforce¶
Your ship crew is your default workforce.
Other laborers, hirelings, rescued civilians, settlers, specialists, retainers, soldiers, artisans, and followers may join that workforce over time.
The DM decides who is available, what they are willing to do, and what risks they will accept.
Hireling Types¶
Unskilled Laborers¶
Unskilled laborers perform broad physical work.
Examples include:
- hauling;
- logging;
- clearing ground;
- digging;
- carrying stone;
- loading wagons;
- unloading ships;
- basic construction;
- camp work;
- simple repairs;
- moving supplies.
Unskilled laborers are cheap, numerous, and essential.
10 unskilled laborers = 1 Work Crew.
Skilled Hirelings¶
Skilled hirelings perform specialized work.
Examples include:
- masons;
- carpenters;
- blacksmiths;
- engineers;
- shipwrights;
- architects;
- surveyors;
- quarry bosses;
- foresters;
- locksmiths;
- armorers;
- scribes;
- alchemists;
- priests;
- artificers;
- wardens.
Skilled hirelings are required for work involving structural integrity, advanced construction, metalwork, precision fitting, magical infrastructure, defensive engineering, or specialized facilities.
Construction Time¶
Labor does not reduce construction time below the listed time unless a specific rule says otherwise.
For Bastion facilities, use the Bastion construction times in Bastions.
For Stronghold structures, use the structure construction times in Strongholds.
What Labor Actually Does¶
Labor determines whether the project can progress and how many projects can run at once.
If You Do Not Have Enough Workers¶
Construction stalls.
Time does not progress until the workforce requirement is met.
If You Have Minimum Workers¶
Construction proceeds at normal speed.
If You Have a Strong Workforce¶
A strong workforce does not automatically make one project faster.
Instead, it can:
- prevent delays;
- allow multiple projects at once;
- support repairs;
- defend supply lines;
- gather more materials;
- move stockpiles;
- maintain infrastructure;
- and respond to complications.
Bastion Workforce Requirements¶
Use these minimums for Bastion facilities.
| Facility Size | Unskilled Laborers | Skilled Hirelings |
|---|---|---|
| Cramped | 10, or 1 crew | 1 |
| Roomy | 20, or 2 crews | 2 |
| Vast | 50, or 5 crews | 5 |
Stronghold Workforce Requirements¶
Use these minimums for Stronghold structures.
| Build Size | Unskilled Laborers | Skilled Hirelings |
|---|---|---|
| Small Structure | 20 | 2 |
| Fort / Large Structure | 50 | 5 |
| Keep+ | 100+ | 10+ |
The DM may increase these requirements for difficult terrain, dangerous ruins, magical structures, defensive works, bad weather, poor tools, hostile territory, or unusual materials.
Project Assignment¶
While the party adventures, workers can be assigned to projects.
A project is a meaningful ongoing task that consumes time, attention, and risk.
Material Site Scale and Gathering Rates¶
Material gathering is measured by workweek. A workweek is five 8-hour workdays of assigned labor.
Unless another rule says otherwise, Material Acquisition assumes a 6-mile exploration hex. A material yield listed for a forest, quarry, ruin, or similar source does not represent every usable resource in the entire hex. It represents one accessible material site within that hex.
A single 6-mile hex may contain several material sites, especially if it is heavily forested, mountainous, ruined, or resource-rich. However, workers must still locate the new site, move camp, clear access, reset tools, establish hauling routes, and secure the work area.
As a default, moving from one material site to another within the same hex costs 1 workweek of movement and setup before gathering resumes. The DM may reduce or waive this time if the sites are adjacent, mapped, road-connected, cleared in advance, or supported by strong local infrastructure. The DM may increase it for hostile wilderness, bad terrain, weather, monsters, damaged roads, or poor tools.
Default Crew Production¶
One Work Crew can produce the following usable Material Units per workweek under normal conditions.
| Project | 1 Work Crew per Workweek | Typical Skilled Support | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harvest Wood | 2 MU Wood | Forester, carpenter, woodcutter, or shipwright helpful | Covers felling, trimming, rough cutting, stacking, and hauling to a local stockpile. |
| Quarry Stone | 1 MU Stone | Mason, quarry boss, engineer, or miner usually required | Covers cutting, breaking, sorting, dressing enough stone for construction use, and hauling to a local stockpile. |
| Mine Ore | 1 MU ore-bearing material | Miner, engineer, surveyor, or smith usually required | Covers reopening safe access, extracting ore-bearing rock, sorting usable material, shoring dangerous passages, and hauling to a local stockpile. |
| Salvage Mixed Ruins | 1d2 MU mixed materials | Mason, smith, engineer, or carpenter helpful | The DM decides the Wood, Stone, and Iron mix based on the site. |
| Salvage Iron | 1 MU Iron | Smith, tinker, engineer, or metalworker usually required | Covers finding usable metal, freeing it from debris, sorting it, and preparing it for transport or storage. |
| Transport by Wagon | 1 MU per wagon trip | Teamster or quartermaster helpful | A wagon carries roughly 1 MU. Distance, roads, draft animals, and danger determine how many trips are possible. |
| Forage Food | 1 Food MU | Herbalist, scout, cook, or survivalist helpful | Covers gathering edible plants, nuts, roots, mushrooms, berries, shellfish, eggs, and mundane herbal reagents. Output depends heavily on biome and season. |
| Hunt / Fish | 1 Food MU | Hunter, fisher, scout, cook, or butcher helpful | Covers hunting, trapping, fishing, butchering, and bringing edible meat back to camp. May also produce hides, bone, sinew, or trophies at the DM’s discretion. |
| Preserve Food | 1–2 Food MU converted from fresh food | Cook, brewer, herbalist, alchemist, or butcher helpful | Converts fresh meat, fish, fruit, grain, roots, or gathered food into durable rations. Requires salt, smoke, drying racks, barrels, crocks, cold storage, magic, or similar preservation methods. |
| Tend Crops / Farm | See farm rules | Farmer, herbalist, gardener, cook, or steward helpful | Covers clearing, planting, weeding, irrigation, harvesting, seed saving, and crop protection. Farms produce by season rather than every workweek unless using magical or greenhouse methods. |
These rates assume basic tools, ordinary access, nearby stockpiling, and no major interference. They are intentionally broad. The goal is to decide what the workforce accomplishes while the party adventures, not to simulate every axe swing or cartload.
Food Pressure and Depletion¶
Foraging, hunting, and fishing depend on the local biome.
A normal 6-mile hex can usually support limited short-term food gathering, but repeated work depletes easy sources. After each workweek in which a crew produces Food MU from the same local area, the DM may reduce future food production, require the crew to move to a new site, or introduce complications such as overhunting, spoiled food, dangerous wildlife, disease, monster attention, or conflict with local inhabitants.
As a default, one food site can support 1 Work Crew. Rich rivers, coastlines, wetlands, forests, or herd lands may support 2–3 Work Crews. Barren, poisoned, frozen, desert, ruined, or monster-haunted sites may support none.
Special Finds¶
Material work may uncover item-scale crafting materials in addition to ordinary construction Material Units. These discoveries are tracked in Crafting Units (CU), not Material Units.
A Crafting Unit is a small, item-scale quantity of special material suitable for recipes, trade, refinement, or later crafting. It is not large enough to count as construction material. As a default, 1 CU represents one meaningful item-scale component: a workable plank or billet of unusual wood, a small vein of special ore, a gemstone or cluster of gem fragments, a pouch of metal-bearing grit, a cache of fittings, or another compact crafting find.
Special finds do not reduce the normal MU produced by the crew. They are incidental discoveries made while the workers are already cutting, quarrying, mining, sorting, or salvaging.
At the end of each workweek, if at least one Work Crew made progress at a material site, the DM may roll once for that site on the Special Finds Check table. Do not roll once per crew unless the DM wants a richer, more treasure-heavy campaign.
| Special Finds Check | Result |
|---|---|
| 1–14 | No special find. |
| 15–17 | Minor find: roll on the appropriate source table, but treat the maximum rarity as ★★ Uncommon. |
| 18–19 | Notable find: roll on the appropriate source table normally. |
| 20+ | Rich find: roll twice on the appropriate source table, or roll once with advantage and increase the quantity by one step. |
Apply any of the following modifiers that fit the site.
| Condition | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Relevant skilled support assigned | +1 |
| Known resource site, old workshop, marked grove, mapped mine, or named ruin | +1 |
| Magical, ancient, planar, royal, dwarven, elven, draconic, or otherwise exceptional site | +2 |
| Poor tools, rushed work, unsafe access, bad weather, or hostile pressure | -2 |
| Site has already produced a special find this month | -2 |
The DM chooses the exact material or rolls from the relevant material page. The material should make sense for the source, region, biome, ruin, or mine. A pine forest should not casually produce star metal, and an ordinary limestone quarry should not casually produce legendary diamonds unless the campaign wants that kind of surprise.
Special Find Source Tables¶
| Project | Possible Special Finds |
|---|---|
| Harvest Wood | Special woods, resins, burls, wand-quality branches, unusually straight bow staves, aromatic heartwood, old-growth timber, or magical tree material from Woodcraft. |
| Quarry Stone | Gemstones, crystal pockets, decorative stone, marble, slate, fossils, mineral pigments, or stone suitable for fine carving or ritual use from Gemsetting. |
| Mine Ore | Special ores, unusual metals, coal, salt, alchemical minerals, crystal seams, or metal-bearing stone from Metallurgy. |
| Salvage Mixed Ruins | Special woods, worked beams, old doors, gem fragments, carved stone, metal fittings, wire, hinges, locks, tools, ritual fragments, or mixed crafting salvage. |
| Salvage Iron | Special ores, unusual alloys, intact fittings, weapon steel, armor plates, hinges, nails, locks, chains, tools, or metal stock from Metallurgy. |
Special Find Quantity¶
Use the rarity of the special material to determine how many Crafting Units are recovered.
| Material Rarity | Quantity Found |
|---|---|
| ★ Common | 1d6 CU |
| ★★ Uncommon | 1d4 CU |
| ★★★ Rare | 1d2 CU |
| ★★★★ Very Rare | 1 CU |
| ★★★★★ Legendary | 1 CU, usually with a story, complication, guardian, claim, or map note |
A Crafting Unit can usually be applied toward item crafting at the material's listed value if the material is suitable for the recipe. The DM may require refinement before use, especially for raw ore, damaged salvage, cracked gems, contaminated wood, or materials pulled from dangerous ruins.
Forage Food special finds produce raw plant units or herbal material. These materials must still be preserved, used raw, or distilled through the normal Herbalism and Alchemical Distillation rules.
Hunt special finds may produce already-distilled essence. This represents the crew killing, harvesting, rendering, and stabilizing a dangerous wild creature during the workweek without requiring the DM to generate a full carcass, part list, harvest DCs, or creature-specific yield.
Example: Timber Site with Special Wood¶
One Work Crew spends a workweek harvesting a forest timber site. The crew produces 2 MU Wood as normal. Because a forester is assigned, the DM rolls a Special Finds Check with a +1 bonus and gets an 18.
The DM decides the workers uncover a small stand of duskwood hidden among ordinary trees. Duskwood is a ★★★ Rare magical wood, so the find yields 1d2 CU of duskwood. The site still produces its normal construction wood. The duskwood is tracked separately for item crafting.
Example: Salvaged Ruin with Mixed Finds¶
One Work Crew salvages a ruined guildhall for a workweek and produces 1d2 MU mixed materials. The DM rolls a 20 on the Special Finds Check. Because the ruin was once a jeweler's workshop, the DM rolls twice and finds 1d4 CU of ★★ gemstone fragments and 1 CU of ★★★ silver-inlaid fittings.
Item-Grade Wood¶
Most harvested Wood MU is builder-grade material. It is suitable for construction, scaffolding, furniture, doors, carts, docks, palisades, fuel, and other large-scale work.
A special wood find does not always mean the crew discovers a rare or magical tree. Often, it means the crew identifies and sets aside item-grade material from the same harvest.
Item-grade wood is measured in Crafting Units rather than Material Units. It may represent clear grain, knot-free boards, resonant cuts, old-growth heartwood, naturally seasoned timber, unusual bark, resin, sap, burl, branchwood, rootwood, or another portion suitable for fine crafting.
For example, a crew harvesting an ordinary oak forest still produces builder-grade Wood MU. On a ★ Common special find, the DM might award 1d6 CU of item-grade oak suitable for weapon hafts, shield cores, carved components, chests, holy symbols, or simple magic item vessels.
Completing a Material Site¶
A material site is depleted when workers have recovered its listed yield.
For a typical forest timber site with 5–10 MU Wood, one Work Crew harvesting at 2 MU per workweek completes the site in:
| Timber Site Yield | Time for 1 Work Crew |
|---|---|
| 5–6 MU Wood | 3 workweeks |
| 7–8 MU Wood | 4 workweeks |
| 9–10 MU Wood | 5 workweeks |
Additional crews may work the same site if there is room, access, and enough tools. Divide the remaining work by the number of assigned crews, then round up to the nearest workweek. The DM may limit the number of crews a site can support at once.
A normal forest timber site can usually support 1–3 Work Crews at once. A rich timber camp, logging road, river landing, or organized lumber operation may support more. A cramped, swampy, steep, dangerous, or hidden site may support only one.
Mining Sites¶
Most mining projects in play involve rediscovering, reopening, or exploiting an old mine rather than founding a new mining operation from scratch.
A mine site's listed yield represents the amount of readily recoverable ore-bearing material, coal, salt, crystal, special stone, or other mine resource that can be extracted before the crew must open a deeper gallery, clear another passage, repair supports, improve drainage, or relocate to another working face.
As a default, one Work Crew produces 1 MU of ore-bearing material per workweek. That MU is not automatically refined iron. It represents extracted material that can be hauled, stockpiled, and later processed according to the nature of the mine.
For simple campaign accounting, the DM may rule that a productive old iron mine produces 1 MU Iron per workweek after extraction and rough sorting. For more detailed play, the DM may require a forge, smelter, charcoal, skilled smiths, or additional processing before mined ore becomes usable Iron MU.
A normal old mine face can usually support 1–2 Work Crews at once. A large, stable mine with multiple open galleries may support more. A flooded, collapsed, monster-haunted, gas-filled, unstable, or narrow mine may support only one crew and may require skilled supervision before any production is possible.
Harvest¶
Workers gather Wood MU from forests, timber sites, ruins, wrecks, or other usable sources.
Quarry¶
Workers gather Stone MU from quarries, cliffs, ruins, caves, walls, roads, or collapsed structures.
Mine¶
Workers extract ore-bearing material, special stone, coal, salt, crystal, or other mine resources from old mines, exposed veins, abandoned workings, or newly discovered deposits.
Mining is distinct from quarrying. Quarrying produces construction stone. Mining usually produces raw ore-bearing material or another resource that must be refined, smelted, sorted, or otherwise processed before it becomes usable Wood, Stone, Iron, or a special material.
Salvage¶
Workers recover Iron MU or mixed construction materials from ruins, fortifications, workshops, wrecks, battlefields, abandoned settlements, or other sites.
Transport¶
Workers move Material Units from one location to another.
This may involve wagons, ships, carts, sledges, pack animals, porters, cranes, roads, rivers, docks, or teleportation infrastructure.
Build¶
Workers advance Bastion, Stronghold, or infrastructure construction.
Construction requires the correct materials, sufficient labor, and the listed time.
Defend¶
Workers guard Bastions, Strongholds, stockpiles, work camps, supply lines, ships, roads, quarries, forests, ruins, and construction sites.
Defending does not produce materials directly, but it prevents loss.
Parallel Projects¶
The party may run multiple projects at once if they have enough materials and workers.
Each project must meet its own workforce requirement.
Workers assigned to one project are not available for another project unless the DM rules the tasks overlap naturally.
Delays and Stalls¶
A project may stall if:
- materials run out;
- workers are reassigned;
- skilled hirelings are missing;
- supply lines are cut;
- the site is attacked;
- weather prevents work;
- tools break;
- a map problem blocks construction;
- the project depends on an unfinished prerequisite;
- or the DM introduces a complication.
When a project stalls, its elapsed construction time stops increasing until the problem is solved.
Idle Workers¶
Idle workers are not harmless.
If a large workforce has nothing productive to do, the DM may introduce complications such as:
- food pressure;
- morale problems;
- arguments;
- theft;
- desertion;
- gambling;
- faction disputes;
- accidents;
- disease;
- gossip;
- political agitation;
- opportunistic crime;
- or workers attracting outside attention.
Idle workers can be assigned to maintenance, defense, hauling, camp improvement, training, scouting, repair, or other useful work.
Player Decisions¶
Labor Management asks the party to decide:
- Who gathers?
- Who builds?
- Who transports?
- Who defends?
- Who repairs?
- Who is idle?
- Which project gets the skilled workers?
- Which project can wait?
- Which supply line is worth protecting?
- How much risk is acceptable?
Final Rule¶
Workers are not an abstraction floating beside the map.
They are people, crews, specialists, and obligations.
If the party wants civilization, someone has to do the work.