Commerce

Much like the typical consumer, most players don’t really know or care much about the economy. Perhaps this section is more for the GMs that the others, but without discussing at least the minimal details of the fantasy-world economics came across underhanded in the early drafts of the rules. If this is too esoteric, feel free to skip to the next section for the price list and move on.

Most of the economic philosophy (that sounds really pedagogic) for the Enchanted Realms came from a book by John G. Josten called “Grain Into Gold.” This book is highly recommended for those who want to have a better personal understanding of how fantasy economics would likely work. One of the key quotes from book is “Just to complicate your life as a game master, things in a marketplace will never really have a price on them. Haggling isn’t expected, it’s required.” Of course, this is just a game. Who wants to play out all those bartering interactions? No one. But it is key for players to understand that when their characters need to purchase something, there is no Wal-K-Piggly store around the corner with seemingly endless inventory. It will be a day-long event, even if it is not role-played. While things are generally driven by open markets, there are no governing regulations of antitrust; the Sherman Act does not exist; the Bureau of Consumer Protection is an unheard of concept.

There are organizations and even some government departments that do have authority over trade, but often these are guilds with a high degress of self-interest rather than fairness for everyone. The fact that these exist are great opportunities for a side-quest. Perhaps a corrupt church clergy is paying the local teamster guild a kickback for supplies that “fall off the wagon” during transport and said items are ones the party desperately needs for their main quest. But this is off-topic; nonetheless, understanding the workings of the trade economy is key to the players becoming immersed into the game world.

In a bigger sense there is another important point to the economy. Most elements of this book is about the players and their characters. However, the economy is not one of them. It is an element of world-building, and it works for the rich, the poor, and everyone in-between rather than something tailored for the adventurer. The system of economics assumes that adventurers are not the most important people in the world. Adventurers absolutely are the center of the story, but the rest of the world has to function for the thousands or even millions of NPCs who call the world home, even between session times. Otherwise, to quote Josten, “too many good campaigns and good campaign worlds have gone down the tubes because the economics of the setting got out of control.”

So, how does this economy work? One of the biggest factors is recognizing that by and large, this is an agriculture based society. The farmers who grow excess are truly the base of the economy. Farmers want to get as much yield out of the land with as little expense and effort as they can. Of course, In most cases, grain is not the end product. The end product is flour. This means there must be mills, which require skill and most also make a profit -- the profit which usually a 15% to 25% of the produced flour rather than money. All of this leads to the baker, who typically lives in the city. The baker is purchasing all of his basic ingredients and is being paid for parts and labor. The baker’s family eats when he collects coins for selling bread to other hungry families.

The money exchange table can be found here.

When this cycle repeats, the annual average profit for the farmer can be calculated, as well as the other middle men. Not to bore the reader, this section has done the math behind the scenes. However, from the process of grain into a city product, what is established is the most basic fundamental of the economy: the cost of a loaf of bread.

Similar cycles exist for food, ranching, crafted products, mining and quarries as well. All this establishes an idea of the quality laborer’s worth when measured in coinage. Thus, when those adventurers roll back into town with so much incredible loot, many smaller economies simply cannot manage what it would mean and could easily off-balance the entire system. Of course there is more to the economy than just bread, cows and cheese, but those are the big drivers for the rest of the world. So, much of this means the successful adventurer will be considered well-to-do by most of society, and even put off by them at times.

Thinking back to the recommendation that starting characters have around 400 silver bits to purchase beginning equipment, this means these people have somehow had two to three months of a laborer’s salary as expendable income at sometime recently. It was said previously that adventurers are not destitute, and this look into the basic economy should help to clarify that point. Further, with more amenities, the greater the maintenance expense, which means many adventurers, who are usually unemployed, must keep finding those treasure hauls to survive their own wealth.