Anyone else have an issue with a kingdom building Blackmarkets?
Would the building of them not give them some sort of official status and thus not be blackmarkets?
Not to mention that blackmarkets don't exist like a fleamarket does (they are less of a physical location and more of a network of people circumventing the law).
The (rulers of the) kingdom isn't actually building the "black market" themselves, more like encouraging it to be developed in the city.
That would be the way it is for many of the buildings, save perhaps government-related buildings like castles, watchtowers and the like, which they would have a more direct hand in building.
"Well, if there's crime, it might as well be organised. It's less messy that way!" (H. Vetinary, Patrician of the Free City-State of Ankh-Morpork)
The (rulers of the) kingdom isn't actually building the "black market" themselves, more like encouraging it to be developed in the city.
+1
A wily ruler could endeavor to profits from both the legal and illegal sale of items and services by legitimately levying taxes and, acting as a criminal kingpin through intermediaries, taking a cut from all black market sales. It's simply a matter of balancing out the taxes, kickbacks and policing/enforcing costs for maximum profit. Very Machiavellian. >=]
Creative Director
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There's a subtle difference going on in the city building rules that's easy to overlook.
The actual choices of how a city develops are being made by the players, NOT by the characters. In a way, the rules kind of hand over the reins of world design to the PCs for building cities, but do so in a way that's sort of a mini-game. Not every choice the players make when building their cities necessarily needs to be interpreted as a choice made in-game by a character.
In other words, when a player decides to add a black market to a city, that most likely means that a black market spontaneously began in the city and the characters who run the city either don't know about it or (more likely) have heard rumors or DO know about it and by not pursuing the option to run the black market out of town allow it to grow and exist through their deliberate inaction. After all... a black market CAN be a handy thing to have around. Part of being a ruler of a city is knowing that sometimes, the seedy underbelly is important to have.
My players actually kind of solved this by making another town in their kingdom where they put all the unsavory places like brothels, jails, black markets, etc to keep it all out of their capital, Staghaven.
Now the funny part is that they chose Oleg's Trading Post as the place to found this town. Before they decided what they were going to do with the town, I had Oleg not so humbly suggest Olegton for the name as the module suggests, but my PCs decided that his wife Svetlana deserved a town named after her more, and thus Svetlanaville was born. Nothing good ever happens in Svetlanaville :(
She's such a nice lady too! It was really unfortunate for her that her town just happened to be the best place to build these things at the time.
My players actually kind of solved this by making another town in their kingdom where they put all the unsavory places like brothels, jails, black markets, etc to keep it all out of their capital, Staghaven.
Now the funny part is that they chose Oleg's Trading Post as the place to found this town. Before they decided what they were going to do with the town, I had Oleg not so humbly suggest Olegton for the name as the module suggests, but my PCs decided that his wife Svetlana deserved a town named after her more, and thus Svetlanaville was born. Nothing good ever happens in Svetlanaville :(
She's such a nice lady too! It was really unfortunate for her that her town just happened to be the best place to build these things at the time.
we have an Olegton....that the baron diced should be annexed, so he marched in for mass unrest
they too think Svetlana should be in charge
As Gregori is still on the prowl, maybe I should have him whisper in someones ear
My PC's decided to make Chief Sootscale their Spymaster, honoring an old pledge they made to give him and his kobolds a voice in their government if he and the kobolds caused a diversion in front of the Stag Lord's Fort. He recently asked the PC's to pay the crazy BP to remodel the kobold mountain hex into a city for civilized monstrous humanoids. My PC's are pretty good roleplayers, and they agreed. Once the four months of building are done that place would be an appropriate location to put a black market (lot's of monsters bringing in rare, exotic, or illegal goods). If my PC's ever decide to make one, I'll have Chief Sootscale ask to have it in his city to help him regulate some of the contraband that his new citizenry brings with them.