Bandit Composition of Force

[cometaryorbit]

At least in the official WOTC PDFs, the Bandit entry says under "Composition of Force", "Light Foot (Leather Armor & Shield) = 40%; Short Bow (Leather Armor) or Light Crossbow (same) = 25%; Light Horse (Leather Armor & Shield) = 25%; Medium Horse (Chain Mail & Shield, no horse barding) = 20%."

That adds up to 110%.

Is this a typo in the PDFs or a later printing? Is it correct in a different version? Should it be Medium Horse 10%?

[Deleted]

You can read a complete list of the differences between print runs here. Note that the WOTC reprints textually replicate the 6th printing. I see no mention of any changes for the Bandit entry anywhere in this list. It seems that was a persistent and original mistake that was never amended. I guess you could correct the math in whichever way you think is best for bandit behavior. Where do you think it's best to subtract from? 

[Zenopus]

The 1st printing has the last one (Medium Horse) at 10%. Holmes used this in Holmes Basic as well.

The 20% error definitely first appeared in print in the 70s, and thus is the source of the PDF error. I have a later print copy - not sure which printing, but the Tolkien references have been removed - and it has the 20% error.

[waysoftheearth]

That error first appeared in the 5th print. According to acaeum the 5th print ran from Dec 1975 thru Apr 1976.

[rsdean]

That comports with my 4th printing still have the 10% medium horse…

[cometaryorbit]

Aha, thank you! I figured 10% medium horse probably made sense.

[Starbeard]

As far back as I remember, there has been bouncing around in my head the memory of an oft-repeated, sweeping generalization that 10% of the medieval population belonged to the landed or noble classes. So I like to think of the 10% medium horse as impoverished nobles and unscrupulous adventurers (note, not Adventuring Types, just nobles making a career of being bullies in foreign parts).

[ahabicher]

Aug 23, 2022 21:31:42 GMT -6 Starbeard said:

[....] just nobles making a career of being bullies in foreign parts).

.... or even in their own parts! ^^

But joking aside:
I believe that 10% belonged to the noble classes, but that is surely not the same as the landed class.
Germany (and later, Ireland) is the bad example of what happens if you give all your sons a share of your land.
The more sensible approach was that one (the oldest?) got the land,
the others got a horse and a sword to make their own luck.
It is not a far stretch to see them ending up as bandits.

[Starbeard]

I mean, it's essentially how all the Normans we actually remember got their starts, isn't it.