Big jobs in low-tech societies often require combining the strength of several men. You can think of a work gang as a single large, strong creature – and for some jobs, it might be replaced by such a creature: a draft animal in a realistic campaign or a giant in a fantastic one. But what’s the combined ST score for a group of laborers?

Don’t simply add ST scores! For example, summing the ST of 10 average (ST 10) men would give ST 100. Basic Lift for ST 100 is 2,000 lbs. (1 ton), which is 100 times a ST 10 man’s BL of 20 lbs. If ST combined this way, a squad of men could carry several times their own weight, like worker ants.

Instead, add BL scores. Basic Lift for the average man is 20 lbs.; so BL for 10 men is 200 lbs. If you need a ST score, take the square root of the number of workers and multiply by their average ST. These calculations work for teams of draft animals, too.

Example 1: The combined BL of 20 men is 400 lbs. An average elephant has ST 45 and BL 405 lbs. Thus, an elephant can carry or pull as much as 20 men; e.g., it could easily power a 15-man beam sling.

Example 2: An ox has ST 27. Two oxen, yoked together, have an effective ST of (square root of 2) x 27 = 38.

Exploitation of animal labor began long after animals were domesticated. Horses were used as riding animals as early as 4000 B.C., and to pull chariots after 2000 B.C. However, they weren’t large enough to provide agricultural traction until TL3. Cattle initially filled that role; around 3500 B.C., they were used to pull plows, and by 1000 B.C., they (and other beasts) were used to drive machinery such as rotary querns and water pumps. Dogs saw occasional use in North America – as did llamas in the Andes – but neither plowed fields nor drove machinery.

How best to attach draft animals to a load is far from obvious; thus, harness designs evolved gradually through the millennia.

Horn Yoke (TL0). An early method of harnessing oxen in Mesopotamia: a wooden yoke attached to the horns! This halves all divisors for pulling loads (see Pulling and Dragging, p. B353). For example, when pulling a two-wheeled cart with a horn yoke, divide weight by 5, not by 10. $32, 18 lbs.

Breast-Strap Harness (TL0). This is a rope or leather harness that wraps around the animal’s chest. Initial research suggested that this and other early harnesses rode up and choked horses wearing them. Recent reconstructions have shown this to be incorrect. The real drawback is that on horses, these harnesses appear to be inefficient when used to pull plows or drag loads on the ground (again, halve the pulling divisor), as opposed to when pulling wagons. For large animals (e.g., oxen and horses): $75, 8 lbs. For smaller ones (e.g., goats and dogs): $49, 3 lbs.

Shoulder Yoke (TL1). A heavy-but-simple wooden frame fitting around an animal’s shoulders, designed to enable oxen and horses to pull heavy loads. Treat as a breast-strap harness. $56, 47 lbs.

Horse Collar (TL3). A close-fitting, padded harness tailored to the horse’s anatomy, allowing full power for dragging and plowing. $64, 18 lbs.