I'm running a game in which, although elves aren't a majority, the group aims to build up a typical elven kingdom. By typical I mean mostly on wood areas, trying to live in balance with nature, etc. The kingdom building rules, though, go more for the feel of a typical "human" kingdom - vast farmlands to support enormous cities with an economy largely dependant on magic items. Seeing as I'm using 4th edition (and as I generally don't like the whole magic item economy) I also wanted to avoid that side of the rules. I'd like suggestions on how to deal with these issues, namely the following:
Problems:
1 - Consumption
Consumption is bound to ramp up pretty quickly; the system as written only has Farms as a means of reducing Consumption and most of the kingdom will be in forest areas.
Possible solutions: I thought of 2 possible solutions:
a) A simple one as "You may create farms in forested areas costing 8 BP." That would slow the claiming and building aspect, and maybe that's a good thing in this sort of campaign. But I find this still hurts the flavor a bit (a city in the forest surrounded by countless berry fields and etc).
b) Employ some small, specific choices, such as "You can designate a city as a "Elven City" when preparing the land. If you do, that city doesn't raise Consumption, but if offers a -5 Economy penalty due to resources being preserved instead of explored." I get that a -5 Economy in the beginning would probably hurt a bit, but after the first months or so, it would basically mean a -1 BP per round.
2 - Magic Item Economy
Although the magic item generation would probably fit into the "magic" elven kingdom, I'm using D&D 4e for this campaign, and the whole magic item rolls would be kindda clumsy. I also dislike the general mechanics of once in a while getting a big jackpot of BP. Thematically, I would also prefer a more stable, steady income.
Possible Solutions: I'd like to simply offer some kind of +X BP per round kind of option, possibly tying into the preexisting "magical" buildings. That could quickly run out of control, though, and I don't feel the kingdom should be composed of only herbalists and caster's towers.
Regardless of the specifics, I'll probably allow much more freely application of the BP cost reduction on buildings because of spells. I feel it will more easily allow the "we don't generate that much profit, but we use our spells and superior knowledge" vibe.
Any thoughts/suggestions?