[JLV]

My biggest gripe with the economic system was that it was focused on very low-level issues and gave zero guidance (like most RPGs) on the macro-economics that GMs needed in order to make the caravan/shipping routes and buy/sell prices make sense.

I would like to see some sort of macro-economic system put in place for the GMs. It should:

1) be relatively simple and easy to use;

2) Permit GMs to quickly and easily establish logical trade routes and some major economic goods (e.g., tobacco, wine, horses, leather, glass, iron, etc.) for quick and easy trading;

3) be easily "entered" by materialistically inclined players who can buy a ton of leather (for example) and have it shipped somewhere in order to make a profit;

4) be easily "entered" at the other side so that going rates and demand for things like caravan guards or crewmen (or even just transportation along a caravan or shipping route) can quickly and logically be worked out instead of being fudged (usually badly) by an economically ignorant GM (most of us, at least when we first started playing).

The system I used was a variant of the system in another Metagaming Microgame, called Trailblazer; but that system, while it was fun for me to use, is not necessarily everyone else's cup of tea given the complexity of the tables. It seems to me that some kind of "trade system" using something like what was used in the Civilization games, or something even simpler, could be established to give a quick and dirty outline for players to use. (By "Civilization", I'm thinking more of the computer games, which have various commodities that the cities can exploit; but in this case, it would be more like establishing what cities or regions have to trade...and might be pretty similar to the old AH game at that.)

It doesn't even have to appear in the rule book, but could be a sort of mini splat-book explaining macro-economics, giving a quick and dirty set-up that basically runs itself, describes how to create a "trade route" whether by land, by sea, by air, or by gate, and enables the GM to use it to have a logical set of prices -- something like what SJG currently does with GURPS by providing things like The Silk Road, as an example.

Personally, I found that having some kind of idea how the trade routes flowed, what they traded (in general terms), going prices for certain commodities, and the kinds of jobs that localities were likely to favor based on what goods and services they either sold or required helped me both establish "realistic" and fluctuating prices/jobs logically and with minimal effort on my part. Throwing in changing supply and demand (using the Trailblazer tables) made that even more realistic, and really helped the players get into the game, even though they didn't realize what I was doing or how I was doing it. This was PARTICULARLY the case with my Sandbox games (usually Wilderlands of High Adventure, but a few others as well). Having a simpler way to manage that would save me some time and still bring all those same benefits to the table.

You would be surprised how much credit you get as a game master if you just have some sort of logical basis for determining prices, jobs, commodities available or imported, and so on, which the players can rely on consistently.

RPGs have been edging around this issue for the past thirty years now, without ever competently addressing it. I'll bet Steve, if he put his mind to it, could come up with something brilliant, simple, and effective, just like he did with Melee for combat in the first place!