Building off of the outline of the Bard class, here is how they cast spells:

Bardic Songcasting

Bards perform their songs by singing, dancing, or playing musical instruments. Songs performed at the Cantata or Concerto level require an instrument.

Songs are performed by selecting a motif, a key, and a duration. The motif determines the base effect, the key determines whether the effect benefits the Bard's allies or harm's his enemies, and the duration determines the magnitude of the effect.

• A Cappella performances require 2 segments* and take effect immediately. After the casting time, Bards may continue to perform and take other actions such as moving, fighting, and being hit. However, they may not cast other spells or invoke other magics without first ending their performance.
• Cantatas require 4 segments* and take effect after the 4 segments*are spent. Bards must use both hands and an instrument to perform a cantata and it requires full concentration that is broken upon being damaged. Bards may only move 5ft per round and take no other actions while performing a cantata.
• Concertos require 8 segments* and take effect after the 8 segments*are spent. A concerto has the same concentration requirements as a cantata.

Bards may perform any motif known any number of times per day so long as the total number of rounds performed does not exceed their Charisma score.

Bard songs have an area of effect of 60ft from the performer unless otherwise noted in the Motiff.

Only 1 Bard song may be in effect at one time. 2nd level Bards may Harmonize two A Cappella effects at once.

Bard songs do not allow savings throws unless noted in the Motif.       

All Motifs are described in the Compleat Bard and also linked to on the right.

*I use the term segments here but not in the strict AD&D sense. Whatever time scale you use, A Cappella performances should take half of a round/action/whatever you use, Cantatas should take a whole round, and Concertos should take 2 rounds.

A New Take on the Bard

I talked about a Bard concept a while back; here is the final presentation:

Bard

Requirements:                      DEX 12, WIS 15, CHA 15

Prime Requisite:                   None

Hit Dice:                                D6

Weapon Proficiencies:        3 + 1 every 4th level

Bards are artists who have learned to alter reality through the use of their artistic talents. Bards focus their magical artistic talents on song, music, and dance, but also study other art forms from painting and sculpting to juggling and acting.

Bardic Magic: Bards learn motifs that enable to them to perform their magic arts. Bards may perform any motif known any number of times per day so long as the total number of rounds performed does not exceed their Charisma score. Refer to the Bard's Compendium (next post coming up) for complete rules and effects.

A Capella: Starting at first level, Bards may perform motifs a capella. These performances have a casting time of 2 segments* and take effect immediately. After the casting time, Bards may continue to perform and take other actions such as moving, fighting, and being hit. However, they may not cast other spells or invoke other magics without first ending their performance. 

Harmonize: At 2nd level, Bards may Harmonize their a capella performances with other Bards, allowing two such songs to be in effect at once.

Cantata: Starting at 3rd level, Bards may perform the Cantata version of their known motifs. These performances have a casting time of 4 segments* and take effect upon the beginning of the following round. Bards must use both hands and an instrument to perform a cantata and it requires full concentration that is broken upon being damaged. Bards may only move 5' per round and take no other actions while performing a cantata.

Concerto: At 5th level, Bards may perform the most powerful version of their Motifs known. These performances have a casting time of 8 segments* and take effect upon the beginning of the following round. A concerto has the same concentration requirements as a cantata.

Read Scrolls: At 12th level, Bards may cast arcane spells from scrolls.

BARD LEVEL PROGRESSION
Experience	Level	Attack Bonus	Hit Dice (D6)
0	1	1	1
2,000	2	1	2
4,000	3	2	3
8,000	4	2	4
16,000	5	3	5
32,000	6	3	6
64,000	7	4	7
128,000	8	4	8
256,000	9	5	9
512,000	10	5	10
725,000	11	6	+2
1,000,000	12	6	+4
1,275,000	13	7	+6
1,550,000	14	7	+8
1,825,000	15	8	+10

BARD MUSIC PROGRESSION
Motifs Known	Musical Ability
1	A Capella
2	Harmonize
2	Cantata
3
3	Concerto
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13

*I use the term segments here but not in the strict AD&D sense. Whatever time scale you use, A Cappella performances should take half of a round/action/whatever you use, Cantatas should take a whole round, and Concertos should take 2 rounds.

Cannon in the Early Modern Period

Taking a quick break from economics, let's look at artillery for the time period.

The early 17th century saw numerous types of cannon in every size and configuration between the major nations of the day. There was nothing approaching standardization, but that is something we need for our purposes. Let's jump right in: cannon break down into three categories based on trajectory of fire.

1. Guns have a level firing arc and are used for direct fire. 
2. Cannon fired at a roughly 45 degree angle and are used to shoot larger projectiles at targets behind obstructions. 
3. Mortars have a high angle of fire to deliver indirect fire over walls.

While these were primarily siege weapons, guns and howitzers were employed as field artillery, especially after Gustavus Adolphus proved their worth near the end of the 30YW. Cannon ranged in caliber from 4-inch field pieces to 9-inch behemoths firing 80lb shot! Here's a convenient breakdown:




That might be a lot of artillery, but it covers pieces designed for sieges, field use, and medium sized cannon that could be used for both. To simplify matters, the list could be condensed to just a Siege and Field version of Gun and Cannon and just the big Mortar.

In regards to shot, there were plenty of choices. Solid iron shot was used to puncture holes in walls as well as to knock out opposing cannon with enfilade fire. In the field, solid shot wrecked havoc on deep pike formations as it mowed down men.

Mortars used stone balls since they were not employed to break through fortifications. In fact, mortars were designed to only use stone or explosive shot; loading an iron ball and extra powder into a mortar would result in a dead cannon crew. The Bombard's stats look to be incorrect based on the other values, but that is because it is a short, stout weapon (think of a cauldron rather than a cannon) reminiscent of 16th century technology.

Explosive shot was made by filling a hollow iron sphere with powder. They were lobbed by howitzers and mortars to destroy buildings, earthworks, and for general bombardment.

Chain shot was used in naval artillery for destroying rigging, it consisted of two sub-caliber sized round shots connected with a chain.

Canister shot was employed to a degree in the 17th century. However, they were not standardized shells and more like an improvised shotgun-type blast. Since cannon in the early part of the 17th century were still thought of as a siege weapon first, they saw relatively little use.

This information doesn't provide comprehensive rules for artillery use in battle, but should lay the groundwork for future development. Suffice to say, these pieces have to be very expensive as even the major nations of the day would rarely be able to field more than 50 pieces with their armies. Unless your group is at name-level play, these should remain out-of-reach for the moment.

Although, wheeling cannon into a dungeon would be interesting. One silence spell plus a nice Culverin allows you to get through a dungeon rather quickly. Of course, I expect you to enforce air quality rules for all of that powder going off in a confined area...

The Supply Side of Economics

If you can only handle Excel math, you might want to invest in big girl panties.

where G sub i is not equal to 0

First some notation. Lower case letters refer to local conditions and upper case refer to global conditions. So g is the local cost of a good and b is the good's base value (a fixed value). "g sub s" (lordy blogger hates math notation) would be the local supply coefficient and "g sub d" would be the local demand coefficient.

The first equation shows the general idea behind setting a price. The price is derived from the base value and then is decreased by higher supply and increased by higher demand. Nothing too ground breaking here.

Don't get too tripped up on the terms supply and demand and think this is modern economic theory here. You can instead think of "supply" as factors that reduce the price of a good and "demand" as factors that increases its price.

Supply is universally defined in the second equation. The supply coefficient is the product of a sequence of Global value of a good in a particular Center of Trade (COT) divided by the base value. This term is then taken to a root power of i + 2. i = 0 is defined as the COT in which the province resides. As i increments, it draws the COT value of neighboring COTs.

If you are still awake, we are basically saying that the supply decreases price in a root manner. So in order to drop the price in half, the supply would have to be 4 times the base value. To drop the price by one third, there would have to be a supply of 8 times the base value. And so on.

We do a product of a sequence so that farther COTs have a diminishing effect. Once you get one COT away, the sequence evaluates a cubic root. So to drop the price in half as a result of a distant COT, the trade value there would have to be 8 times the base value.

No chance you are still awake. But maybe a pretty picture will help. Here is a screenshot from EU3 illustrating a system of COTs.

Each colored region represents a COT and all the provinces that trade into it. Lets assume we are in Austria's COT Wien at "i = 0". COTs at "i = 1" include the Ottoman COT in Thrace, the Venetian COT in Venice, the north German COT in Hamburg, and the Polish COT in Danzig. "i = 2" COTs would be located in France, Genoa, Moscow, etc. So the supply of goods flows in from around the world, having a smaller impact as the distance traveled increases.

Nifty part is that the COTs in colonial powers such as Spain include their territories in the New World so colonial goods are also factored in.

That's it for considering supply for now. Go wipe up the drool from your keyboard. Tackling "demand" will be much more daunting.

Thoughts on Building an Economy

I don't think I have to start with a discussion of why standard D&D book prices and equipment lists are completely useless for someone looking for a fantasy version of Earth. Let's just take that assumption and move on.

The excellent simulation series Europa Universalis (EU) utilizes an economic system that I think would work well as a baseline to create a working economy for the EMP. In a nutshell, the game world is broken down into 1,700 or so provinces that all produce a type of good. Each good is also collected in a Center of Trade, which is a regional hub where "trade" takes place. Each good has a base price and is modified by supply and demand. The actual value of that good to the owner of the province is a function of taxation, production efficiency, and a fraction of the good's trade value.

There's a lot going on here and my description doesn't do it justice if you've never played the game. There are a number of core elements that really shine:

First, every good has a base price. While there have to be some arbitrary numbers used here, a good place to start to determine a functional and relatively accurate price can be found in a couple places. Every item in an equipment list can be expressed as a sum of base prices, so a sword is so many units of iron, so many units of labor, so many units of fuel, etc.

Second, every good has a global trade value. While I might make widgets here, they will eventually propagate out via trade. However, the trade value will not be the same as the base price: trade value takes into account which market you are trading into and how much of the good is present there. This allows us to have dynamic prices based on where the item is being bought and sold.

Third, the value of a good to the province owner is not directly transferred to the province owner. The good itself has no value until someone else comes along and buys it or trades for it. This allows us to correlate the trade value of the province with the overall wealth of the province. This fact can then be extrapolated to the quantity, value, and price of all goods present in a province.

So on the macro level, we can total up all the units of a particular good that are present in an economy. Then we divide out the amounts of that good to each province according to the wealth of that province. These factors then modify the base price of a unit of goods. The end result is that the price of any item is a function of its "intrinsic" value, the amount produced within the economy, and the wealth of the market.

I think this is fertile ground upon which to build a dynamic economy...