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Crossposted in the Starfinder boards because its more relevant there, but;
So in my home game the players are getting involved with large corporations that run things in space. For the most part I'm using Hypercorporations because where else am I going to find a list of corporation for Space Fantasy, and also because these corporations have reach due to hyperspace gates (Har har...). But the players express interest in getting stock from these hypercorporations so that they have an invested interest in being agents and helping them succeed and fail.
What's a good way to simulate stock as currency without it being too much of a hassle?
I was thinking about running a list of per stock values and rolling dice every every week to simulate growth and loss of value using Fudge dice. If the player's actions directly affect a corporation the stock would get positive or negative modifiers. Each company has two enemy companies who get inverse modifiers whenever that company gets modifiers. This is kept track of with a google spreadsheet. The sheet so far lists the company's name, what market they reside, what percentage of the company each stock represents and it's value, expressed in gold multiplier(the number which goes up and down). Effectively its just gold that changes value each session. One problem with this is that I have limited ideas as to how stock works. so I don't know what else it should be doing.
I have mocked up a spreadsheet showing what's going on so far. It was made with numbers at random.
The values are the names of the companies, What space market they're from, the amount of stock that exists, the percentage of the company each stock is worth, the amount of gold each stock is worth, notes on the industry that the company deals in, and the value of the company in gold-pressed chips.
I am woefully unprepared to answer that question (I haven't looked at anything about the stock market in like a decade) but one of my playtesters/backers (who, I think, has played in more of my Hypercorps 2099 games than anyone else!) has some advice:
There's been increases in transaction speed and diversified in terms of participants and offerings, but it fundamentally it hasn't changed since the Dutch East Indian Company sold the first shares.
There will be additional markets, like those for carbon. In a RP setting, I'm sure there's some idea for a fundamental commodity, the way oil is traded today. Though, this is mercantile, not stocks.
Focus more on commodities than stocks. That's where the beginnings are.
I think if my players got into that I'd try to keep the tool as narrative as possible (putting numbers on it isn't necessarily a bad idea though). I will look into things and get back to you with more details, and I've pointed said player over to this forum (and he may weigh in with more advice).
I can definitively say this: I wholeheartedly approve of your group's insider trading.
It has also been suggested that the influence system from Ultimate Intrigue might make for a good tool if turned to the ends of the hypercorporate stock market.
It has also been suggested that the influence system from Ultimate Intrigue might make for a good tool if turned to the ends of the hypercorporate stock market.
I did already implant a Relationship mechanic and modified it so that any Hypercorporation that they interact with has an 'starting attitude' towards them that can be used to affect shareholder decisions. I'm still tinkering but right now it looks like when they have 1% stock they have the ability to vote on investment decisions which add or remove modifiers to the value rolls. The highest relationship score + relationships is also a soft Reputation score that I use behind the screen so I can probably implement some methods of influencing trends as per a suggesting elsewhere. For example; having a high reputation and wearing a Shiek's Sandwiches logo everywhere could have a positive affect on stock for Shiek's Sandwiches.
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Good to see some free Hypercorp 2099 fictional stock-market figures out there. ;)