Again, running a space Pathfinder game but because it will inevitably turn into a Starfinder game and would be helpful for developing future things I'm posting it here;
So in my home game the players are getting involved with large corporations that run things in space. These are companies that run research, build biotech, traffic magical components, dispose of waste and so on, but because their reach is throughout space they are huge so my players are interested in buying stock.
Whats 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.
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This premise is neat, and raises many fun (for an economics nerd) questions that could help flesh out the setting. Among them are as follows:
1. How does divination work with stock prices? Can a cleric use foresight magic to detect where a stock will go? Likewise, can using dominate person to make somebody buy or sell at a certain price be considered insider trading or some other sublegal activity?
2. What sort of influence does owning stock grant over a company? IRL, the decision-making power of a person within a publicly-owned corporation is tied directly to how much stock they possess in the company. Can players decide what decisions one of these corporations make?
3. Who makes the rules necessary to make the stock market function, and how are they enforced? Is there now an inevitable built around chasing fraud or insider trading?
4. How many shares do these intergalactic organizations put out, and more importantly who else is buying them? I envision that even a moderate-sized galactic shipping corporation would have millions of shareholders across a system or galaxy.
And finally...
5. How do nonhumans manage risk differently? What sort of mindsets and trends would an elf, dwarf, or kasatha bring to the market that would revolutionize behavioral economics in your setting? Do they play for the long term? Do they have specific tactics or loyalties? Investment strategy could be a whole new dimension for alien cultures.
Well I'm still tinkering but here's where I'm leaning;
1. I haven't looked at divination spells enough to decide how that goes so my default answer is however it goes for investment rolls in Ultimate Campaign. It would be legal but not exactly sure fire reliable due to the amount of outside forces working for and against you so maybe the variable will change by 1 or something.
2. Nothing until they as a group own 1% of the total stock. Then they will have access to votes towards investment decisions that function as investment rolls. Using the relationship system they can influence other shareholders to vote their direction. These would come at a rate of 1 per report and failure will decrease the change rolls and normal and blowouts will increase the change rolls. Votes happen in 1% increments in order to conform to dice rolls. So each 1% you own gives you one vote out of 100. Otherwise its just coporate espianage that will affect stock.
3. Each company has a 'market' which is the governments that regulate them. They wind up sending over things like psionic auditors to investigate dirty dealings but for the most part corporations will keep each other in check because sometimes its easier to send a mercenary or agent to just wreck things instead of taking someone to court. Also some auditors have the authority to kill or brain scramble if its easier so nobody wants those.
4. So far I have made a spreadsheet and according to it the amount of shares that exist in one company is up to the billions. Most shares go to businessmen and casual investors but there's a good amount of corporate agents that are paid in stock because it gives them an incentive to get involved with corporate espionage in order to increase their stock's value, and it keeps them loyal.
5. In context the cultures are grouped up into supergovernment structures that are aliances of worlds. There are about five of them and are represented by the 'markets' I mentioned earlier. Each one has different ideas as to how to handle the market. In one case one faction treats dealers as second class citizens because they find corporate life to be dishonorable and sneaky and business is seen as a way to undermine the faction's policy of only allowing political power to citizens that serve militarily. Meanwhile another faction is all about freedom of commerse so CEOs will run subsections of a corporation like their own little kingdom because they're the only thing resembling a government nearby. Bottom line is that there are primarily 5 different cultures of business markets because I couldn't be bothered to think of more. Otherwise different corporations have business practices according to their alignment.