Dragonmech economy
Posted: Fri Apr 11, 2008 11:37 am
How does the Dragonmech economy work?
I've seen what was basically a dissertation describing the three economies that happen in a standard d20 work--the turnip economy, the gold economy, and the Wish economy.
To summarize:
The Turnip economy is used by peasants and is based on food and labor. People won't take your lumps of pretty metal because they can't eat it. Trade is actual trade--in other words, barter. People will give up things they don't need or want for things they do need or want, and not otherwise.
The Gold economy, it's still a barter economy. Only now there's an option for people agreeing to accept pretty lumps of metal that they can hang onto because they can swap them to someone else. Gold's more of a convenience than finding out what item or favor each person along the line needs and then giving it to them.
And the Wish economy is the economy of powerful people and creatures. And guess what. It's still barter. You trade souls, spell component gems, and things like raw power and undiluted hope and liquid concentration.
Now, I can see Dragonmech being a bit more advanced, but I'm still finding questions and issues.
1) Who mines the metals used for coins, especially among cultures like the L'Arile Nation or the Elves and how do these materials end up spread among the mechdoms and cities?
2) Who the heck carts around hundreds of pounds of gold--or even platinum, in same cases--to pay for mech construction? Hypothetically, you should be able to pay labor costs by giving the workers two hot meals a day and attract the gimlet eye of a supervising coglayer by offering him plans to something interestingly mechanical. Or maybe just a pile of parts and a couple of barrels of grease.
I've seen what was basically a dissertation describing the three economies that happen in a standard d20 work--the turnip economy, the gold economy, and the Wish economy.
To summarize:
The Turnip economy is used by peasants and is based on food and labor. People won't take your lumps of pretty metal because they can't eat it. Trade is actual trade--in other words, barter. People will give up things they don't need or want for things they do need or want, and not otherwise.
The Gold economy, it's still a barter economy. Only now there's an option for people agreeing to accept pretty lumps of metal that they can hang onto because they can swap them to someone else. Gold's more of a convenience than finding out what item or favor each person along the line needs and then giving it to them.
And the Wish economy is the economy of powerful people and creatures. And guess what. It's still barter. You trade souls, spell component gems, and things like raw power and undiluted hope and liquid concentration.
Now, I can see Dragonmech being a bit more advanced, but I'm still finding questions and issues.
1) Who mines the metals used for coins, especially among cultures like the L'Arile Nation or the Elves and how do these materials end up spread among the mechdoms and cities?
2) Who the heck carts around hundreds of pounds of gold--or even platinum, in same cases--to pay for mech construction? Hypothetically, you should be able to pay labor costs by giving the workers two hot meals a day and attract the gimlet eye of a supervising coglayer by offering him plans to something interestingly mechanical. Or maybe just a pile of parts and a couple of barrels of grease.