[Information] The Economy

[Adorios]

This is GrimDarkOtter's specialty, and I will let him go into as much detail as he wants. But to understand other things, this game's economy will basically be broken down into three components: food, labor and capital.

For food: it is a 1::1 ratio of how many food points your civilization has to how many people it can support.

[GrimDarkOtter]

Everything in your economy falls into three categories:

Food
Food is the simplest category. It is what everyone needs to ensure the health, stability and popularity of their nation. Food units are easy to understand: they are the daily allowance of food to support a person. However, the key to effectively utilizing food lies in the types: Meat, Staple, Fruit, Other. Each type has its own bonuses. Likewise, having an unvaried diet will provide penalties.
Staple: Generally encompassing starches. They have no bonuses or penalties, but a long-term Staple-only diet can lead to Health penalties due to malnutrition. They have a medium rate of expiration.
Meat: Gotten from hunted animals, fish, herd beasts and (for some) the fallen. Meat provides a Morale & Health bonus. They have a high rate of expiration.
Fruits & Veggies: Fruit encompasses rind fruit, rind-less, berries, and nuts. They provide a Health bonus. They have a high rate of expiration.
Other: Other encompasses anything not found in the above three. These can provide a number of bonuses or penalties based on the particular good. This can encompass milk, sugar, tea, hallucinogenics, and alcohol.

Food is measured in barrels. A barrel is the amount of food that fits in a barrel when it is first stored. That amount of food can generally be used to feed 100 people for 5 days on normal rations.

Labor
Labor encompasses any and all manpower that your civ can put out. Again, this is simple to understand as 1 unit of Labor is approximately what 1 laborer can accomplish in an 8 hour work day. The labor points available to the civilization are calculated at 80% of their population, as 20% are children under the human age of 10 or the non-human equivalent youth. This labor can be used for projects and industry and other capital activities. In this era most labor is transferable, but not perfectly, therefore taking labor away from the industry in which it is accustomed to being located will lead to penalties in its productivity.

Capital
Gems, gold, trade goods, et al. Capital can buy equipment, mercenaries, laborers and many other things. However, unlike Labor and Food, Capital has no direct relation. Capital values for an item will vary widely over time, based on necessary supplies, overall demand and the capricious whims of the DM. However, since it's pertinent, most currency on the continent is left over mints of Arkantis. The common names for their coins: Gold menhirs (occasionally crowns), Silver shillings, Copper cauldrons (aka copperpots). Also unlike Food and Labor, values of Capital can be negotiated. Have fun with that.....

[Adorios]

So I figure that there will be resources around your starting locations (and in the rest of the world too, but you will know of the ones around you). These resources are what your village has to work with to grow your economy in the beginning. You will be able to expand in the future, but these are your starting ones.

In your threads please specify three resources that you want - Grim & I will give feedback as to whether we think its a good idea/feasible, an we will settle with you on 3. These represent the resources around you that your civilization already knows about and so can move immediately (or through your purchases) to harvest/exploit. There may be more around you that you can discover, and of course in the rest of the world there will be things that you can find.

Note that these do not include agricultural resources like fish/cattle. Those are determined by the agricultural stuff & you have all already dealt with that.

A list lf ones that I've thought of already:
Lumber
Gold
Iron
Silver
Gems
Copper
Mithril
Stone
Marble
Naptha (oil)
I will not accept Adamantium mines. There may be some on the island (as yet undetermined), but you can't start with them.

[Adorios]

These are the labor allocation numbers for the facilities you have already built. The labor here is automatically apportioned each day, and spare labor will be told to you. This spare labor can be used for whatever you want. Labor can be brought away from the automatic projects, but the economy suffers as a result.

Fishing Trawl: 10
Farm: 15
Lumber Mill: 15
Mine: 60
Quarry: 60
Oil Harvesting: 25
Blacksmith: 15
Weaponsmith: 15
Distillery: 25
Shephard: 2 per 30 animals
Shipwright: 20 per ship being built

In addition the following ship crew requirements are:
Bireme: 100
Warship: 250
This does not count any soldiers assigned to the ships, these are just sailors & rowers.

Shipwrights only absorb labor points if they are building ships.

Your soldiers are also subtracted from your labor potential, as they are required to patrol and train during the day.

I have posted your labor allocations in your individual threads, if there are issues that you find with them, bring it up there. Or if I forgot to take into account any industry.

[Adorios]

Since this has now happened in one civilization I figured I should make a rule about it: deficit spending (yay budgetary debates!).

Anyway, if you so desire, you can build a deficit by using more materials than you have in your stockpile. I will handwave the factor as follows: these are materials which are therefore not used for maintenance/private handicrafts/torn out of existing structures (not interfering in their purpose, but possibly with their appeal/integrity). As such the deficit will be subtracted 1-for-1 out of your next income, erasing it completely. I am not, at the moment, going to permit you to build a long-term resource debt, as that would begin accruing penalties to your buildings. If you do so by a huge building spree, then you will begin to suffer penalties.

As for Gold, it is possible to deficit spend there as well, it means basically that you are taking out a loan from your people. Now here too all of your tax income will go towards paying back that debt until it is paid off, although now there may be recurring debt. If so I will apply interest rates.

This opens up your options a little, but I am far from recommending it. At the very least, it means I have to dig out my knowledge of economics, which as befits the academic approach is not very friendly towards governments (i.e. you).

[Adorios]

I'm just transferring this list over to here, since it was getting buried by all of the rest of your posts.

 

This is what you don't have to buy. It is considered too general to make you worry about precise numbers, and to important to allow you to forget it.

Table 7-8 in the PHB, Containers & carriers; Adventuring Gear (except what's in Tier 2) and Peasant clothing

 

These items must be "bought". They represent what your society took the effort to save during the troubled times of the last 10 years.

Prices are those as the PHB except where specifically noted otherwise, and must be bought individually (or in bulk, but there is no discount for buying in bult).

Items:Mounts, Class Tools and Skill Kits, All Non-Peasan clothing, Lanterns, Locks, Mirriors, Spyglass, Signet Ring, Map Case, Portable Ram, Ladder, Weapons and Armor for soldiers and civilians

Housing: Standard size = family of 5
Hut: 30 gp
Hollowed cave: 35 gp

Walls - to surround 1 sq. mile or less:
Stone Crenelated (40' high): 5000 gp
Stone Curtain (30' high): 3500 gp
Wood palisade (15' high): 1000 gp
Wooden stakes (8' long with open spaces between the stakes): 500 gp

Boats:
Fishing trawl: 100 gp
Bireme (small warship)/Riverboat: 1500 gp
Large ship: 10,000 gp
Dock: 1,500 gp

Other:
Streetlight system: 2000 gp
Any non-PHB item (subject to DM approval as well)


Agricultural:
One field of a staple food: 20 gp
One field of any other crop (fruit, veggies): 50 gp
Livestock cost 1/10th the value given in Table 7-3 in PHB

Food Point allocations:
one staple crop field = 90 food points
one non-staple crop field = 50 food points
one fishing trawler: 50
one cow = 5
one chicken = 0.25
goat = 1
pig = 1
Sheep = 1

Industry:
Weaponsmithy: 1000 gp
Blacksmithy: 800 gp (various metal items, armor, NOT weapons)
Lumberharvesting: 1200 gp
Mine: 1500 gp
Shipwright: 2000 gp
Distillery: 1500 gp
No one remembers the Arkantisian way of making magical items. That is knowledge that has been temporarily misplaced but may be re-discovered by any of the civilizations.