Doomsday Book 4.0


4th Edition

The Exchange

Any one got any Idea whether WOTC have improved the Economic Rules or has estate Management been abandoned altogether?


Could you be more specific as to your question?

The Exchange

Jeff Greiner wrote:
Could you be more specific as to your question?
    List of Questions regarding Better Economic Rules?
  • Are there rules for tradegoods?
  • Are there going to be rules for that six acres of Vinyard churning out 7 Tuns of White Wine that your wizard is using to finance his magic item development costs?
  • How Many Vinyards does a Gold Dragon own to maintain the GP value of its Horde (Jeremyzeanaludar the Golden carries the title deeds in a Leather Pouch)?
  • What happens to the Village of Hupney if the traderoutes are cut and It cant get it's surplus grain to the Town of Ibach?
  • What happens to the Town of Ibach?
  • How many People in the Town of Ibach starve to death at the end of the month because crucial grain shipments failed to arrive?
  • How many hungry and starving flee the town of Ibach for the countryside and become a problem in the Rural communities?
  • How long does it take five stonecutters to quarry enough stone for my small castle?
  • How much Gold Ore did the Dwarves of Hinder extract from their Mines this year?
  • How many wagons Did my PC's Pass this day on the Road to Dushambay?
  • A Goblin was caught with a sack of Diamonds but they dont mine Diamonds anywhere within a thousand miles of where he was Caught. Can we trade them in the local city for better than Market value?
  • There is a Town of ten thousand a few miles from here. Where are they getting their firewood from if not from here in the Kings wood?

The Exchange

THE CONTENTS OF A FIRKIN (9 GALLON BARREL)

CONTENTS....................WEIGHT............................VALUE
Silver Coin.........................500lb.......................2500gp
Salt.................................200lb.......................1000gp
Flour.................................57lb........................114cp
Salted Beef...........................50lb........................300gp
Gunpowder.............................25lb........................417gp
Brandy................................90lb........................384gp


yellowdingo wrote:
Any one got any Idea whether WOTC have improved the Economic Rules or has estate Management been abandoned altogether?

No idea but I would be pretty much shocked speechless if there was any real significant changes in this regard to what we have had before.

It would be a move in the opposite direction of their basic design goals in 4E of streamlining the system. At its most basic level trying to modify prices except in extremes means dealing with a great deal of book keeping thats mostly not of core interest to the players. If we have a computer model of trade routes and goods within a fantasy world we could determine that due to the distance over which a resource like Iron Ore must travel to reach a metropolis, Iron Ore, in this metropolis is more expensive. Because the Iron Ore is more expensive it causes the price of manufactured swords to rise in price. Instead of getting a Masterwork Longsword for 335 gp (or whatever the actual price is) it now costs 341 gp. Great but now we need to generate a seperate price list for every city and their constantly in flux. Also you players, after 3rd level don't really give a damn. Its 6 gp big whoop.

Another example would be inflation. If adventurers loot Castle Maure then the PCs are dumping a phenominal amount of gold onto the market which should send inflation through the roof. Great historical example would be Spain after the conquest of the New World. Massive treasure fleets piled high with Gold and Silver failed to make Spain rich in fact its a major cause of their subsequent decline within about a hundred years. However almost no one really wants to deal with inflation. Yes your players gold savings are not really worth what they think their worth becuase the players themselves are bring to much gold onto the market but generally speaking its not a core part of the game and its hard to calculate without knowing how much gold is already floating around the economy.

In any case were not likely going to see this sort of thing in 4E. Swords will cost X unless the DM says otherwise and it won't matter were you are. A true economic system is a lot of work for very little gain. An MMO is a better system for trying to deal with actual economics since it actually does have many thousands of buyers and sellers and the computer can handle the details. If you want to implement it in your home game that of course can be done.

Grand Lodge

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
yellowdingo wrote:
Any one got any Idea whether WOTC have improved the Economic Rules or has estate Management been abandoned altogether?

This sounds like a golden opportunity for you to write a set of niche rules (maybe your own splatbook) for detailed economic rules.

As for core rules, I don't see this as value added (especially considering the amount of room these tables are likely to take up).

-Skeld


In the articles about 4e most of the designers have said they are taking out "Needless book keeping" know that, i would bet that the phb1, MM1, and DMG1 will not have detailed Economic rules.

Later books may have something like this, and if it comes i would expect it to be 2-3 years down the line as there are some more important books coming first.


This seems more like something that would appear in a HackMaster supplement, where sometimes realism is over-exaggerated, partly for comic effect, than in D&D (any edition)...

Though... the last issue of Knights of the Dinner Table (issue 137, IIRC) actually does have a d20-themed but mostly generic article about just this subject...


yellowdingo wrote:
Any one got any Idea whether WOTC have improved the Economic Rules or has estate Management been abandoned altogether?

There is no evidence that any form of economic rules or estate management will be in 4e.

And based on the nature of WotC's comments and what they're concentrating on, it looks like such things will be entirely ignored.

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