Developing this comment from Oktar.
“As for a community, he'll help in a sense of helping to keep it bounded, nicely so as not to have conflict between the community and the natural area. For Thistletop in general, Oktar likes to have a place for people to go, who would otherwise be oppressed and shunned.
He'll emphasize that freedom he also emphasizes responsibilities, chores and rules in this community. He'll expect even the youth of the attached community to have some organized service to the whole. Like scouts or chore teams.”
However, I think we could give people a choice of how they serve the community. Some options might be …
Scouts - Let's steal from Baden-Powell's original setup :) A youth organization (male and female <15) that deals with basic survival skills and trains the members as messengers and runners. That could meet weekly, as do most RL Youth Groups. Assume they leave as
Commoner-1 at age 15 (PF adult age for humans) with Survival +1 and proficient with sling.
Militia - once a month, the Militia is mustered for drills and training under one of the more experienced melee fighters. It should probably be Sir Robyn, although Dru or one of the senior guards could share the responsibility. We offer basic drills and simple weapons training. Militia members are expected to provide their own arms and armour, and be ready to help defend Thistletop, if required. At
sixteen (PF minimum age for a cass), they are Commoner 1 - with a trait :] or learned skills for Expert (or another class).
The militia = very light slingers :}
Average Stats, Prof(soldier)+1, AC 11, Melee: Simple Weapon +0, dam D6(20). Ranged: Sling +0, d4(20)
Note - this is a Trait Bonus – so does not attract the +3 class bonus.
Simple weapons could include: Club, Short Spear, Light Mace, Sickle. AC assumes a mix of Dex, Padded Armour and Leather armour. Club and sling are 'free' weapons, so no one is excluded.
Maintenance Gang - infrastructure always needs maintaining – roads need maintaining, paths need clearance, bramble hedges need trimming, brush needs clearing. And I am sure that Velma can find lots of other regular tasks to help keep people invested in the community.
Work Gang – Whenever we have a new build, labourers are needed - to help clear land, cut steps, raise timbers etc.
Religious/Philosophical - My neighbour spends a lot of her time cleaning and arranging the flowers in a local church. In Thistletop we will (eventually) have a temple to Sarenrae and a shrine to Desna, which could provide a similar commitment for residents. We are also promoting 'The Green Way' as a philosophy, so planting and regular maintenance of community flower or vegetable patches might work for that.
Organise/Assist/Teach - help with the scouts or militia, organise work groups, form a community council, set up a
Sunday School (while these have a religious connotation, they met once a week and helped poor kids learn the three Rs|(Reading, wRiting & aRithmetic), community gardening - etc etc
Need to talk to Oktar and get his views on about Forest Gardens
Note: Some of the earlier suggestions are based on how I run games, and Artifex might have different ideas about NPCs :)
Training
When I run games, I work on the basis that all characters become the equivalent of Commoner-1 at age 14. Developments from that depend on training and/or opportunity and happens over the next few years - as defined by the starting age table. So, in my head, we can tain some basic skills in young people, then build on that, by providing basic training and the opportunity to practice, between the the ages of 14 and 16 (the starting age I use for NPC classes).
To some extent, the same is true for older characters. In my games, I assume that even an adult commoner can gain extra skills, etc, if they have access to training and a desire to engage. I tend to give trained commoners a Trait equivalent with an extra weapon skill, and allow them Prof:Soldier +1, but often without the +3 class benefit, as they haven't 'spent' a skill point on it. With retraining any learned weapon, it means that I can have a commoner with two weapon skills and the ability to follow orders in times of trouble :)