Economic Models

[MugMug]

Hey folks.

In anticipation of Fantasycraft I'm knocking some of the rust off my gaming engine (the one that drives me to game, not any particular set of house mechanics I may use). I would like to find one or more economic models that would do the following:
* Generate geographic (and temporal?) differences in prices for goods (materials, items, & services); and
* Generate profit/loss in various adventurer-friendly businesses (taverns, restaurants, etc in which an adventurer may wish to invest)

Quite some time ago (maybe 5 years?) I ran across an Excel spreadsheet that purported to do the former. I probably still have it nestled amongst 6.5GB worth of other gaming files, but if someone has a link handy that would be great. If you've got a pointer to some other model that produces the same output I would be grateful for that. I'm happy to do conversion work, so other systems that offer this model are good info.

I want to say WotC had developed rules for the brick-and-mortar business scene, but that may have been a simple "your business generates revenue equal to 80 + 2d20 % of your expenses." While even that would be a start, I'm looking for something a little more involved. Again, I am system independent.

I'll be happy to post whatever conversion work I perform.

Walter

[MugMug]

I dug through some of my old files. Here's what I have found so far:

* City 2.26 (c1998, Hartley Patterson) - Outputs very basic city information given certain inputs. Not really what I'm looking for, but available here: http://www.daisy.freeserve.co.uk/city.htm.
* D&D Economic System Simulator (c2001, Matt Warren) - This is the spreadsheet I remembered. It takes into account a simplified supply/demand factor for commodities (including certain intangibles), and a difficulty factor in bringing specific goods/services to market, to produce an adjusted price for each item. Even better, because it's in Excel it is fully customizable (e.g. which commodities play into the price of each item; changing what commodities are tracked; adding new items) so can be customized to any cash-and-carry system. It doesn't look like this file is still available (though I do have a copy).
* A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe (c2003?, Expeditious Retreat Press) - Has about 9 pages whose simulation appears to focus on availability. Modifies DC of availability check by base (i.e. book) price of item and on the size of the community in which the purchase is attempted. Modifies die roll based on modification of offered price (e.g. a character who offers more than book has a better chance of finding the item). No discussion is made of using a skill check for this roll, but that is an obvious modification (Streetwise/Haggle, anyone?). This would be an easy mod to the Economic System Simulator, above.

I quite by accident ran across another Expeditious Retreat product "A Magical Society: Silk Road." To quote their sales pitch, this product "details great overland trade routes, how they work, and how to create them in your game." Anyone have this product and want to discuss it a bit?

I'm always interested in more information, so if you've got something new (or at least new to me) let me know.

Walter

[MugMug]

Poking at some of the other threads on this board, it looks like part of the Birthright rule set deals with economic holdings. Am I correct in my interpretation?

Walter

[OverNinja]

Yes.

[Bill Whitmore]

Based on the examples you have given, it doesn't sound to me like Birthright's economic system is what you are looking for.

Birthright deals with economic holdings on a national, political level.  By that I mean it doesn't cover how to run a tavern on a street corner, nor how much income said tavern would generate.  It also doesn't cover imports, exports, supply, demand or any kind of price fluctuating for goods.  In Birthright, guild holdings represent economic control for an entire region.

Let me clarify a little:

In Birthright, each region has a population rating, usually around 4 to 6 (though higher and lower is possible).  Guild holdings represent the level of economic control you have in the region.  If you have a level 3 guild holding in a region with a population of 4, you would control about 75% of the commerce that goes on in the region.  Guild holdings are one of the ways to generate revenue in the Birthright meta-game played by lords and rulers.  Birthright would then tell you what income that holding made for the turn (which is equal to 3 months if I recall correctly).

Birthright handles economics on the scale of the East India Trading Company, but has little concern for Joe Eatery on the corner of 5th and Market street.

[spinningdice]

WFRP Companion has a a system, and I did at one point expand it a bit to account for players actions a bit more (I have players that I suspected would actually have a chance of flooding the market in some of the towns they were trading in), though I never got my wierd spreadsheet working.

[MugMug]

I have a reasonable level of Excel-fu. I'd appreciate seeing your spreadsheet if you were interested in sending it along.

Walter