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Old 02-17-2018, 10:48 AM   #6
larsdangly
 
Join Date: Dec 2017
Default Re: The Economic System in TFT

Good idea for a thread. I am passionate about games that have well developed support for campaign play outside of murdering things, so I've put a lot of work into puffing up this side of my house rules for TFT. In brief outline form, here are some things I think are valuable, positive additions:

•*Jobs that are fun (makes you excited to have a character that does that), mostly realistic ('Bailiff' is a medieval job; 'arcane archer' is not), and organized into hierarchical groups that will provide both a path for advancement and ready-made ideas for allies, rivals, contacts, etc. For example, my house ruled TFT has something like 150 jobs, most of which fall under a dozen-plus groups (guilds; city leaders; mercenary or other military bands; etc.).

• Some connection between the idea of a Job and social status, with some sort of tangible consequences for differences in status, beyond just wealth.

•*'Risk' rolls with more varied, interesting and balanced outcomes. Basically, a table of a dozen or so good things that happen when you roll well and a dozen or so bad things that happen when you roll badly

• Organize campaign play into weeks and months, where you perform 1 action of your choice per week, in addition to assumed job activities (chosen from a list of a couple dozen actions, like 'enchant an item', or 'practice a talent', or 'fight a duel', or 'invest in a venture', etc.), and you settle up finances, experience points, and resolve your 'risk' roll every month.

•*Provide a half dozen ways to bring in cash and property (earn, invest, embezzle, purchase, lease, trade, etc.) and a half dozen ways to lose cash and property (taxes, rents, etc.), tied to the schedule and actions of the campaign.

• Add a campaign encounter roll, to be resolved at the start or end of each monthly period.

•*Provide some sort of structured way to change jobs and move up the ladder of hierarchies, to provide goals to campaign play.

This can be accomplished mostly by re-organizing and carefully tending the rules in ITL rather than radically expanding them. It really doesn't take much page count to revise a job list and organize your thoughts about income, rents, taxes, etc. A table or two goes a long way here.

Also, a smart designer pays attention to examples of other games that do something really well. Flashing Blades, En Garde, Warhammer FRP and Traveller have nice treatments of things more or less like Jobs in TFT. En Garde! and the 'down time' rules from 5E D&D provide some ideas for weekly campaign actions. Original D&D, Chivalry and Sorcery and Traveller provide good fodder for finances and property in campaign play.
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