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...

Turn Living

I was toying around with the concept of the undead a while back and I wanted to revisit it. Ultimately, I wanted to change the paradigm around. Rather than having the players being able to trivialize the undead with a Cleric in the party, I wanted that dynamic to work the other way.

Turn Living

Every undead creature has an innate ability to terrorize living beings and send them screaming away in horror or cower in fear. In the case of the Zombie, they exude a "fear of the grave" that requires a wisdom saving throw. So instead of every zombie encounter starting with a turn undead, it now starts with a "turn living."

As I said before, the undead should be something terrifying to characters and even a little bit for the players. With a turn living type ability and a re-imagining of their other abilities, undead encounters should be something special and a learning opportunity. We can create the opportunity for players to become undead hunters, rather than there being one in every church already.

Turn Undead

So the corresponding change would have to come upon turn undead or else a battle with the undead just becomes a battle of saving throws. Let's change turn undead to "Faith" and it allows anyone who failed their "turn living" check to reroll. Of course, this supposes that the Cleric himself succeeded in that initial save.

Now, a Cleric becomes a weapon against the undead rather than an I Win Button.

The Internet Amazes Me

Ok, here is a quick post about how awesome the internet is.

Universities are putting videos, audio, and written materials from their courses online for free. It is staggering the amount of information that is publicly available. You can dabble in essentially any subject you want and pick up a pretty damn good introduction to that subject.

For example, you could listen to lectures on early modern German history. Or maybe brush up on your early modern English history. The reference material available can inform your game world in so many ways.

Why are you still buying splatbooks?

Divinity And Magic

I've mused on metaphysical questions for the early modern period before, but I still haven't stumbled upon something that I like, fits a pseudo-historical interpretation, and is still recognizable with typical D&D tropes. Let's take some inspiration from the Trinity.

There are a ton of denominations and religions throughout the 17th century world and I don't want them ALL to be Clerics or Druids and I probably don't want religion to dictate class when it comes to divine spellcasters. While it would definitely be neat to have a separate class or at least spell list for Catholics, Lutherans, Muslims, Animists, Ancestor Worshipers, Pagans, etc, I think the granularity would mostly be lost in meta-gaming, both in terms of players who WANT certain spells and players who WANT a certain religion making the decision mostly moot. So let's compromise and utilize the Trinity.

God the Father is the omnipotent, uncaring creator of the universe. He created existence with a set of natural laws and is completely above the care of any individual person or world. Followers of God the Father worship "nature" and natural law, either in a tangible sense or as a personification of the Almighty. Spells for these followers are rarely personal and instead invoke upon the power inherent in the laws of creation and existence.

Christ is a personal God incarnate in every living being. Christ is a God who was both divine and mortal and experienced life and death in a finite sense. Followers of Christ retain a personal connection with Him, whom offers personal salvation. Spells for these followers operate on the intrapersonal and interpersonal level to offer either salvation or damnation.

The Holy Spirit is a power manifest in mortal beings who strive for righteousness. He represents power manifest in the self, derived from following the will of the Spirit. The ultimate expression of the Holy Spirit is the attainment of personal divinity, where one becomes part of the gestalt Holy Spirit. Spells for those who worship him are focused on achieving righteous power.

You can probably see where the lines are drawn now. Druids, Rangers, and similar classes/faiths worship God the Father, in one name or another, and use the Druid spell list. Catholics, Christians, and monotheistic faiths follow Christ and use the Cleric spell list. The Holy Spirit is for pagan and polytheistic followers and will need a spell list. One could break all the divine spells into three thematic lists and assign them, adding spells from source books to have a robust selection for everyone.

Either way, this interpretation allows for multiple religions that are all "right" without implying that there is some all-present celestial holy war playing out in heaven and on earth, which is how the Planes have been presented in canon D&D lore. Each individual religion can have its own flavor and doctrines but it derives all power from the same Godhead.

Another thought crosses my mind. What about magic-users? Could they be shoe-horned into that third slot? One could play a Priest of a Pagan religion, or just an atheistic or agnostic magic-user with the same spell list.

Or perhaps magic-users should stay separate.Whereas followers of God the Father pray for spells implicit in natural law, magic-users seek to cast spells that harness, manipulate, and/or contradict natural law.

Fertile ground indeed and I like what has been sown better than previous ideas...

The Undead in the 17th Century - Zombies

A fitting topic for a dead blog, right?

The undead mostly blow in D&D. This comes from the fact that all the undead tropes are familiar to players, both in style and mechanics. So no one is afraid of the undead and everyone knows how to leverage their strengths and weaknesses. Let's change that up a bit.

The undead have to be shrouded in the unknown in order to invoke any fear in the players. This means much more than just shuffling their abilities around or contriving new strengths and vulnerabilities for them. On a fundamental level, we have to strip the Cleric's ability to trivialize the undead. Then, we have to strip in-game and meta-game knowledge about the undead. From there, we can build undead foes while sprinkling in some of the (ir)rational fears that we share as people.

Let's take up that second item here with a look at zombies in the 17th century. All undead need to have some sort of 'fear aura' that eliminates the 'undead hunter' trope. You know, the expert in killing undead, of which there is invariably one hanging out in each town. Nearly every encounter with the undead should result in death or fear in order to maintain the milieu.

Inspiration from Mr. Milton

So what if the pagan gods in the EMP are all fallen angels? It helps to answer some of the ontological questions raised before, but is it a satisfactory answer? Clerics can worship and draw power from beings other than God, but if we cast other divine beings as fallen angels then haven't we cast all PCs who take this road as 'evil'?

An interesting take that requires some more thought for sure...

On The Road - Tolls and Traveling

While overland travel has its perils when you go off the beaten path, taking the established travel routes has its cost as well. Nearly any man made or natural feature that facilitated travel is an ideal place to extract a toll from travelers. This includes obvious examples such as roads, bridges, towns, ports, or river crossings but even natural mountain passes could feature toll collection.

Collecting tolls is typically the business of the ruling governance, whether it is the emerging national governments in centralized states like France, local lords extracting a toll from traveling through their demesnes, guilds, bandits, strongmen, and anyone who thought they could get away with it. The question of legitimacy could often be raised when away from areas with a well established and strong rule. Even so, the collection of taxes and tolls could also be sold by rulers to other parties or delegated to the emerging class of bureaucrats, leaving behind a tangled mess.

The exact amount of tolls could vary widely; the following table lists a standard toll rate.

In general, the toll rates above should be applied for travel; however, rates may change as the world situation changes. As a rule of thumb, any wild deviation from these numbers should probably be reserved for a situation that would require role playing or as a part of a plot or adventure storyline. Deviations from these amounts can occur as a result of an increase in taxation and tolling, as a consequence of petty corruption to skim an extra coin, an illegitimate toll, or any fathomable plot hook. Otherwise, you will be role playing a lot of pointless toll collection.

Languages in the EMP - Germany/Holy Roman Empire

In my previous preliminary write ups on race, I decided to cut down languages to common and racial languages. However, I feel that there is room to have languages play a role within a sandbox without becoming prohibitive or creating a market of magic users who only memorize comprehend languages and sell their services in every major city.

So we will break languages down into two arenas, national and regional. National languages will be a fantasy construct that prevents languages from getting in the way (What, no one in our party speaks the same language?!?). Regional languages will provide some granularity to make language an aspect of the sandbox that can have some impact on play.

For example, there will be a national language for all Germans, but there will be plenty of regional languages such as Czech, Upper German, Low Saxon, Rhenish, and Low Franconian.

Player characters will begin play with a national and regional language dictated by where their character was born. So anyone born in a Holy Roman Empire state will speak German and the corresponding regional language. NPCs will follow the same pattern for the most part. Rural, backwards, or otherwise isolated NPCs might only speak their regional language and not their corresponding national language.

This setup should make 90%+ of play go on without worrying about languages. However, it still leaves the door open for interesting linguistic play should the PCs start globetrotting and dealing with foreigners at home or abroad. Plus, regional languages can play a role in role-playing.

Since the EMP campaign will start in Germany, let's go ahead and (broadly and in a condensed form) define those languages.

Goblin Settlements

I had a comment on the previous post about goblins asking about lairs. I've been a little vague on that, referring to them a few times as an underground race but also mentioning that they do some farming and keep some livestock.

A small portion of goblins living in Lesser Poland on marginal land near the Vistula have settled into agrarian lifestyles. They are not the focus of this post. Instead, we focus on the goblins who live along the Carpathians who are semi-nomadic and utilize raiding for a portion of their subsistence. I mean come on, why would the PCs be mucking around with farming goblins? Sheesh...

Goblins settle in out of the way places, in rough terrain where they can hide themselves but still range out and raid when necessary. They will settle below ground in natural caves, abandoned mines, and any other subterranean locale. Goblins rarely work the ground where they settle since they often move their tribes. In addition, they will settle above ground in crevices, escarpments, canyons, and other sheltered areas and erect tenting. Either way, they choose areas that are easy to hide their tribes in, command a view of the surrounding area, and have multiple avenues to escape.

Their economy revolves around periodic raids. Goblins are decent metalworkers, able to break down tools to fashion arrow heads, darts, spears, and other weapons. Otherwise, most goblin tools are made from animal products such as sinew, bone, and hides. Goblins also prize other manufactured and refined products to fit specific needs, especially salt and sugar to preserve food.

Goblins raid along a seasonal pattern. Throughout good weather months, they collect a menagerie of livestock. They focus on animals that are easy to keep, such as pigs, goats, and chickens. Goats and chickens also provide a steady and easy source of food. Larger livestock, such as cattle or horses, are typically worked for a bit, then slaughtered for food and materials. Goblins do not feed and keep animals through the winter, instead, they conduct large slaughters in the late fall and then dry and preserve as much food as they can to last the winter. Once the next spring bring favorable weather, they raid again to replenish their livestock.

Goblin tribes pick up and move as a response to raids, both to search for fresh targets and as a response to retaliatory raids.

Generating a Goblin Tribe

Let's have our stat blocks go a little further, combining them with a method for generating war parties and whole tribes as a sort of monster gazette.

Goblin
No. Encountered:  5d6 (40d10)
Movement:  60'
Size:  Small (four and a half feet)
Armor Class:  7 (6 w/ shield, 4 w/ armor + shield)
Hit Dice:  1 (d6)
Attacks:  1
Damage:  by weapon (1d6 average)
Special Attacks:  None
Special Defenses:  None
Save:  Fighter
Morale: 6
Treasure: TBD

Goblins are semi-nomadic tribal creatures who stand taller than dwarves and are more solidly built than elves. They are green skinned due to their forest dwelling ancestry, but now make their home underground in rough terrain outside of settled areas. They have excellent night vision, twice that of humans. They subsist on a mix of limited farming and animal husbandry, scavenging, and raiding. They have no central leadership; any goblin may lead a war raiding party and the most successful raiders form a council for peace time decisions.

Goblins fight unarmored and with basic weapons. Spearmen arm themselves with short spear and wooden shield (AC 6). Javelin throwers are armed with Atlatl and 10 darts. Archers carry short bow and 12 arrows. Pikemen teams consist of two goblins wielding one pike. Braves carry two hand axes.

Raiding party. Goblins encountered outside the lair are led by a raiding leader and consist of equal parts spearmen (defensive action) or braves (raiding), javelin throwers, and archers. Ideally, they fight in successive skirmish lines, discharging ranged weapons and then falling back. Raiding parties prefer to avoid fights and rather plunder livestock, metal tools and weapons, and foodstuffs. Goblins raid by moonlight, leaving on foot and often returning on horseback driving livestock. They rarely fight on horseback instead using the animals for labor and food; goblins have a penchant for horseflesh.

In the lair. Goblins prefer to fight outside of their settlements. When their lairs are threatened, they attempt to screen their women who will hastily gather what they can and abandon the settlement. Being semi-nomadic, they are adept at moving entire villages and supply trains with surprising speed. Screening forces resemble raiding parties. Braves will arm themselves as pikemen and line behind spearmen supported by javelin throwers within the lair itself if the fight goes badly as a last ditch effort to buy time.

Tribe generation. For every 100 goblins there are:

5 leaders
20 braves
25 spearmen
25 javelin throwers
25 archers

All leaders can be a war party leader, fighting with an additional HD. 1 out of every 5 is an exceptional leader; a tribe's fiercest leader fights as a 2HD goblin plus an additional HD for every 100 members. A tribe of 200 goblins has a first level shaman, a tribe of 300+ has a 3rd level shaman and a 1st level shaman. The death of any leader will cause all goblins present to make a morale check at a penalty of +1.

Leaders are equipped with short sword and shield and a 50% chance of having metal armor (AC 4). These are both signs of wealth for the most successful of the tribe. For a settlement larger than 250 souls, one leader will fight from horseback wielding two matchlock pistols, metal armor, and a short sword and shield if dismounted.

Settlements consist of an additional, equal number of females who perform most of the village's labor. They do not go out on raids and are tasked with moving the settlement in the case of an attack. They can defend themselves as braves wielding knives instead of hand axes.

Treasure. System TBD.

Kobolds in Pagan Communities

Kobolds are helpful, somewhat mischievous house spirits that protect the homes of pagan believers. For Christian people who still cling to old pagan rituals and beliefs, kobolds tend to be mostly unseen, helping with household tasks or cleaning after the home is asleep. However, for those people who resisted Christianity, especially at the price of blood, and retained their pagan beliefs, kobolds play a much more direct role. In this case, kobolds manifest directly to their believers and help them not only maintain their livelihood but to also ward off foes.

Goblin Skirmish Tactics

I just finished reading SC Gwynne's Empire of the Summer Moon. It is an excellent historical narrative of the Comanches that I would recommend to those people whom enjoy such things. While the time period and subject matter are far away from the EMP, it still gives me plenty of ideas to work with.

Goblins in the EMP are a former forest dwelling people who now live on the fringes of the Empire and in the Polish-Lithuania Commonwealth, scraping out a living as best as they can. Goblins subsist on a combination of limited agriculture, basic animal husbandry, and raiding. Some goblin settlements have had success settling into an agrarian lifestyle in out of the way areas of the Commonwealth and have been able to avoid the ire of humans for the most part. However, many tribes look to raiding as a means of life as they strike into the Empire and the Commonwealth alike.

Goblins value indirect warfare to preserve their strength. They avoid decisive battles and seek to engage enemies far from goblin settlements. Their typical enemies come in the form of punitive raids. If their settlements are threatened, their warriors fight a screening engagement to allow their villages time to escape. Therefore, their preferred method of fighting looks something like the following.

Please excuse my horrendous graphic design skills.

Kobolds in the Early Modern Period

Kobolds are house spirits, small sprites that protect the homes and dwellings of pagan believers. They can take on many forms with some of their favorite being child-like figures or small animals and may also take the form of mundane objects. Most kobolds are relatively harmless and help to protect those who treat them well while playing tricks on those who do not.

Only believers will have the chance to interact with kobolds, otherwise the sprites do not directly reveal themselves but may make their presence known in other ways. Belief in kobolds has survived Christianity in some circles and is most strong in communities that still hold onto pagan practices. In particular, dwarfs and goblins have a strong connection with kobolds.

While most kobolds are flighty sprites, many are aware that fewer mortals display belief in these spirits. These kobolds are much more active within pagan communities and will show a rare focus in utilizing their powers to fiercely protect the way of life for those who believe.

Goblins in the Early Modern Period

Goblins are a dying race. Having coalesced into a people in the deep forests of Europe, they were neighbors of the burgeoning elven society. Yet, it was not the elves who diminished their numbers and forced the forest dwellers underground. Elves considered goblins more as a younger cousin, a mischievous neighbor who, from time to time, needed a sound beating to remember his place. The goblin race didn't start its steady decline until it met humans.

Even from the times when humans inhabited Germania and Gaul in sets of tribes, men made war with goblins. While men and elves would eventually integrate, men and goblins were at constant odds. The dominance of Roman legions and culture did little to change this dynamic. While many 'barbarian' tribes were integrated into Roman society and its military, goblins remained on the fringe and always at odds. The eventual degradation of the Roman Empire was not enough to stem the slow tide of the goblin's decline. It was instead replaced by the zeal of conversion to Christianity which fell hard upon the pagan goblins. Conversions by the sword were typical; goblins would not give up their superstitious religious ways. Crusades through the Baltic regions finally succeeded in routing goblins out of their ancestral forests for good and forcing them to dwell underground to scratch out a living.

Today, goblins have long since lost their place among the great wilderness and are consigned to fringe areas outside of the Empire. Clinging to existence underground, various goblin tribes subsist on a combination of scavenging, limited agriculture, husbandry, and raiding. What few small congregations of goblins remain are typically found in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth hiding among the decentralized country side regions and enjoying a small measure of tolerance. Small pockets are also found under the mountain ranges ringing Europe proper.

Orcs in the Early Modern Period

Hundreds of years ago, Orcs swept into the eastern fringes of Europe. The great Orc Khans invaded the lands of the Rus' and pushed deeper into the kingdoms of Poland and Hungary, eventually painting a path of destruction all the way to Dalmatia and the coast of the Adriatic. This was a dark time for the enlightened people of Europe who fought the Orcish Khans and their Golden Horde.

Eventually, the righteous prevailed in pushing the Golden Horde back and ending the Orcish influence on the eastern reaches of Europe. However, the legacy of the Golden Horde did not perish so easily. The remnants of the Golden Horde broke into a number of Khantes who still hold sway to this day. While the host of Orcs have been pushed back towards their ancestral home and into Mongolia, their taint remains in the form of the Crimean Khanate and in the bloodlines of Half-Orcs today.

Orcs are mostly absent from present day Europe as the Golden Horde collapsed. Their legacy lives on in the Crimean Khanate. As a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire, Half-Orcs continue to raid Russian and Polish lands. Outside of Crimea, Half-Orcs do not hold any major dominions and are instead interspersed within the populations of the old Golden Horde conquests.

Fantasy Races in the Early Modern Period

-C over at Hack & Slash has a good post of his take on race as class. Essentially, he goes a more mythic or fairy tale route in that non-humans are not just "humans in a funny hat," but are rather something completely not human. He uses the example of Dwarves being carved from earth, Elves are fey beings, etc. For this reason, non-human races should be a class:

... [E]lves are spirits and sprites, playing in eternal youth, living in the moment, powerful in magic and unconcerned about the future.... They are not HUMAN+... One elf lost in the world of the men, where actions have consequences and existence is weighty, does what the elf does - fights well with light weapons, and uses magic and stealth in the natural realm.

I think he has a perfectly valid take on the subject. I'd like to take that thread and run in a different direction.

Firearms

Yes, this EMP campaign will include firearms; it's the 17th century after all. They will be available for PCs and NPCs alike, with no vague prohibitions. Anyone who can afford one, can be trained in its use, and take care of a firearm can employ them as they see fit. I don't see any problem with having this piece of technology (or any time appropriate technology) enter into a fantasy game.

What follows is descriptions of firearms as they were known in 1618, consolidated so as to be usable for gaming without the minutiae. We'll get into mechanics in a follow up post.

Elven Game Lore

I've established Elves in the EMP campaign as a mostly nomadic people. If we take a lesson from Farm, Forge, and Steam to heart, we learn that "population dense agriculture trump[s] population diffuse nomadism (hunter-gatherer/herding). Always." So we create a little contradiction here, how have Elves remained a nomadic people through antiquity to the early modern period while sharing the continent with humans?

Farm, Forge, and Steam

I've been doing many posts on rules building lately, but that can get rather dry especially from the spectator's point of view. So let's go back to world building.