Room and Board

 

Travellers always need a place to stay, and in any populated region of Tear, accomodations are never more than a day's travel away. Every settlement will be able to stable riding mounts for the night, and the first structure erected at any crossroads will always be a flophouse with a small stable - usually a repurposed old barn. Any settlement larger than a crossroads will have at least a bunkhouse, and likely a small inn. Villages will have a couple of options for travellers, and towns and cities will have many options suited to a wide range of different classes of traveller, up to and including the grand hotels in the cities that can host entire noble families in the grand suites.

Accomodations

Flophouses are very common, and are generally the least expensive type of accomodation for travellers. They are usually little more than old barns with straw on the floor for sleeping on, and perhaps some blankets if the flophouse is in a cold region. They can be sweltering in summer and freezing in winter, and are only barely an improvement over sleeping rough. Payment for a spot in a flophose is made to the innkeeper for the night, and guests are turned out at dawn, usually with a bowl of gruel and some water. Weapons are not usually allowed inside; travellers will be asked to secure them in a lockbox. People who are intoxicated, or who the innkeeper is suspicious of will simply be turned away. Flophouses are generally safe from violence, though petty theft is common, and there is no privacy - valuable information overheard in flophouses is sure to find a buyer somewhere.

Bunkhouses are a step up from flophouses. These are essentially low barracks halls with rows of bunks: usually at least 12 to a room, and sometimes a hundred or more. Sometimes all the bunks will be in one room, sometimes there might be several rooms, but there are no private rooms. Usually bunkhouses will be of better construction, and sometimes the bunks will have hay mattresses and blankets. The windows will have shutters and in cold environments there will usually be a stove for heat. As with flophouses, weapons must be checked, and unruly or suspicious travellers will be turned away. As in any common sleeping space, petty theft is common and someone is always listening. Flophouses turned out all guests at dawn - usually with porridge or soup and milk.

Inns are a comparatively luxurious form of accomodation for travellers, usually reserved to merchants and traders. Most inns typically have a bunkhouse attached, as merchants who can afford their rooms are likely to travel with tradespersons, teamsters, porters, and others who cannot. Inns will usually have fewer than a dozen rooms - often a couple of larger suites that can sleep up to six with a private water closet, and then several single or double rooms that share a water closet. An inn will typically serve one hearty meal a day to the guests; usually a stew with bread and butter with ale, mead or wine. Many inns are also attached to a tavern where locals and travellers can meet, eat, drink, exchange news, do business and emjoy entertainment from travelling or local musicians. Unlike bunkhouses and flophouses, guests can book rooms in an inn for multiple consecutive nights, and will have their own key to their rented room, and can leave their belongings there in relative safety.

Hotels are large, luxurious inns, and are usually only found in major cities. Even among these, there is a wide range of sophistication. Hotels in small cities may not be much different from a nice inn, but those in the centers of large cities can be impressive stone edifices that rival castles and cathedrals in their size and opulence. In some cases - particularly in the wealthies trade cities - the most impressive building in a city might be its hotel. Hotels generally also have areas on the ground floor set aside for dining and entertainment, and these public lobbies are not only for guests, but are considered important social centers in their own right.

Hotel guests are treated with courtesy and respect, and hotel staff are there to serve. The concierge will have a broad and deep knowledge of the city, porters will be present to carry bags and load carriages, clothes and linens will be washed, messages taken and sent, meals prepared and served, etc. Some of these services may be included, and some of them may have addtional associated costs, but it's never a bargain - even if a service is 'included' in the rate, the guest is always paying a premium - the added value is in the personal service and convenience to the guest. As with inns, hotels let out their rooms for multiple nights, and indeed, prefer guests who stay longer and who book multiple nights in advance.

Hotels are safe and private. Hotels and their guests are well protected by the city and by supplemental private security forces.

Work for Room and Board

Travellers with little to no money might hope to find a way to work in exchange for room and board. This is always possible, but it is not as easy as it sounds. First, when travelling outside of ones home state, the type of work one can take on is strictly controlled. Skilled labour; such as smithing, carpentry, thatching or similar is reserved by law to the companion tradespersons who work a given region. Travellers coming from elsewhere and offering to fix a farmer's leaky roof in exchange for room and board are committing a crime by stealing work from the local companion thatcher. Generally, travellers are only permitted to engage in unskilled labour - such as helping with a harvest, digging latrine holes, clearing brush, or other menial tasks.

Second, because most of this sort of work needs to be done during the day, the traveller faces a conundrum: if they stop for a day to work for a meal and a bed then set out the next morning, where do they sleep the next night? Can they find someone who will give them a meal and shelter on the promise of work the following day? Most traveller forced to work their way overland do a day's work, take a meal and be asleep by sunset, waking several hours before dawn to try to get half a day's travel in before stopping to find work for the next day as the sun comes up. Travelling in the dark is very dangerous - even on well patrolled roads - but for those without the means, they may not have any other choice.

Sleeping Rough

Making a camp and sleeping rough is another possibility for travellers, but it is always dangerous and often illegal. It is dangerous because bandits love nothing more than to rob and kidnap or murder sleeping travellers, and bandits are pretty good at knowing the places where infrequent travellers are likely to make the mistake of continuing on when they should have stopped for the night. Because of the threat of bandits, but also due to laws regarding access to common lands and the resources available on those lands, sleeping rough is often illegal. Even in places where sleeping rough is legal, the gathering of fire wood, or the harvesting of trees, nuts, berries, or hunting or fishing for food is usually not legal. Patrolling guards may overlook some travellers camps by the roadside eating hardtack around a latern - but those caught roasting a rabbit or bird over an open fire might be fined.

In the wilderness - which is distinct from the legally recognized commons - sleeping rough and living off the land the only option. It is not illegal, but it is also not advisable.

Stables

Given that the majority of overland travel is animal-powered, every settlement will have somewhere for travellers to stable, water and tend to the health of their animals. Stables will always be able to take standard mounts and pack animals, such as horses, mules, oxen, and camels. In more exotic environments, certain other sorts of mounts may also be accepted at these stables, or may have stabling facilties of their own.