Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > The Fantasy Trip

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-09-2018, 01:44 PM   #41
JLV
 
JLV's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Arizona
Default Re: The Economic System in TFT

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim Kane View Post
Okay, sorry, I can't help you.
Just to hopefully clear the air here:

He was referring to a series of books published in the 70's and 80's about a fantasy world called "Gor." The books were highly questionable even back then and would be completely unacceptable to many more people today, since they seemingly justified sexism, slavery, and other disturbing concepts as totally acceptable "alternatives" in life-style. You can probably look it up in Wikipedia (though I personally haven't tried to).

His reference was therefore "tongue-in-cheek," in that he wasn't seriously suggesting anyone do "Gor -- the LARP" as any kind of real product. In fact, anyone who tried would probably be arrested for multiple crimes...

Hope that helps a bit.
JLV is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-09-2018, 07:22 PM   #42
ak_aramis
 
ak_aramis's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Alsea, OR
Default Re: The Economic System in TFT

GOR LARP would be an S&M Weekend.
ak_aramis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-09-2018, 08:00 PM   #43
JLV
 
JLV's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Arizona
Default Re: The Economic System in TFT

With swords and killing...
JLV is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-09-2018, 11:53 PM   #44
sjard
Stick in the Mud
 
sjard's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Rural Utah
Default Re: The Economic System in TFT

Quote:
Originally Posted by JLV View Post

His reference was therefore "tongue-in-cheek," in that he wasn't seriously suggesting anyone do "Gor -- the LARP" as any kind of real product. In fact, anyone who tried would probably be arrested for multiple crimes...

Hope that helps a bit.
Actually, I was pointing out that there is a real life group of people effectively doing that. They occasionally show up at SCA events.

So a not very good joke, unless you already knew that.
__________________
MIB #1457
sjard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-10-2018, 07:31 AM   #45
tbeard1999
 
Join Date: May 2013
Location: Tyler, Texas
Default Re: The Economic System in TFT

Quote:
Originally Posted by ak_aramis View Post
...But the value ratios have changed drastically in the last 50 years, because gold extraction rates have grown percentage-wise far slower than silver, copper and nickel. (I've not found good historic references for nickel value).

So, you might consider using cupro-nickel or curpro-argentum pennies (with the non-copper metal content being the value)...
The coinage system I use has a number of limitations that real world systems don’t. First, it has to cover the likely campaign needs without breaking the bank. Second, it has to be simpler than most Real World systems because gamers haven’t grown up with it. And of course, the coins themselves cost money and time. That’s why the copper is 1/10 of a crown, when it really should be 1/100. Players just don’t deal with amounts that insignificant in my campaigns. The need to handle large amounts is why gold is 100x the value of silver. If I made it the more logical 10x value, I’d need more (or bigger) gold coins.

And the system is constantly being tweaked. I haven’t run a campaign in a long time, but am gearing up for the first TFT campaign in many years. I have a bunch of cheap foreign coins that have numbers on them - 1, 5, 10, 25, 100, etc. I’m trying to organize them so that the denominations can be used “as is”. Small, high denomination coins are gold. Large, low denomination coins are copper. Average sized coins are silver.

Playing with actual coins is a little bit of a hassle, but it really adds a tactile element to the game. I bought a bunch of cheap dice bag years ago and give one to each player for his “purse”.
tbeard1999 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-20-2018, 07:46 PM   #46
Rick_Smith
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Coquitlam B.C.
Default Rick's thought on the Economic System in TFT

Hi all,
I would LOVE, to see an expansion to TFT that went into the macro economics, trade routes, how to build jobs, many cool things to do while at jobs (or between adventures), etc.

But I think realistically, one of two things will happen. The jobs section will get cut, or it might increase to perhaps double its current size.

It would not hurt my feelings if the job tables and risk rolls went away. To me something like this should be done well, and it is very hard to do well in the few pages allotted to them.
But assuming that they stay and perhaps are expanded slightly, here are some thoughts.

-- Reduce the number of jobs? The wizard jobs tie into to the wizard profits for magic items so I would be leery about reducing the number of wizard jobs.

-- Give a formula to guide the GM on new jobs. A talent with this IQ requirement and this memory cost is worth $ X per week. If the job is dangerous, wage is x1.33, etc. I do agree that too many of the jobs are too similar.

-- Wages are too high, or prices are too low. In my campaign I reduced wages about 10 fold, and the cost of easy to manufacture items (basically no magic, no metal) by 10 fold. Large metal items and magic, chemical potions, etc. kept the current prices. Perhaps a 5 fold reduction would have been more realistic, but something has to be done about prices and wages.

-- Reduce the amount of experience for an success. I like the idea that if you get a success or failure you roll on a table, and only some of the results are experience or damage. (If it is a dangerous job, add 5 to the roll on the failure table.) This would add a page to the book but a bunch of these entries could create adventure hooks, so I think it would be worth it.

-- I mentioned in another thread, a different way for doing damage on risk rolls is appropriate. It is: "roll 1 die and reroll 6's" (where a running total is kept... On this roll you stop on a 1 thru 5, and on a 6 then you add 5 to the total and reroll). Thus, most damage is 5 points or less, but occasionally very high damage happens.

-- In a big economic expansion, include the cost of LOTS of items, including lots of raw materials. In regular TFT, a larger price list would be welcome. Also give some basic values: "A peasant pays $X for a day's food." "The minimum price of a years food costs $Y."


To me the two big things are to reduce the price of labor and reduce the experience earned.

Warm regards, Rick.
Rick_Smith is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-21-2018, 12:37 PM   #47
JLV
 
JLV's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Arizona
Default Re: The Economic System in TFT

These are all good things, but realistically speaking, I doubt that SJG will do an "Economics in TFT" splat book. I could be wrong, but I'm guessing that sales would not be great. What MIGHT be possible is if they could make a fun "mini-game" out of it, AND use it to create some basic rules for economics in TFT (a few pages about "using this game with TFT," for example), THEN it might actually happen.

On the other hand, some judicious editing of the job tables, and a few rules describing how to create a larger economic view might be do-able. I too would love to see an expanded cost of items table, though I suspect I'll just have to be satisfied with And a Ten-Foot Pole... and Grain Into Gold for now...
JLV is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-29-2018, 01:45 PM   #48
ak_aramis
 
ak_aramis's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Alsea, OR
Default Re: The Economic System in TFT

The Jobs table has several purposes, and I think at least one is being overlooked...
  • To provid a downtime activity for PC's who missed play time
  • To allow generating more experienced characters
  • To provide a baseine from which to generate mission pay for missions the PC's are offered
  • to show the various skillsets needed for being accepted as a <insert job name here>
  • To establish a list of typical adventurer-friendly careers.

It should provide a living wage for the PCs, at least for anything above "beggar."

Now, if it makes magic items too common, then fix the costs of magic items. Reworking the Jobs table instead has the issues of now needing to fix all the gear tables.
ak_aramis is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:47 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.