It's time to take a break from history generation to discuss a bit of resource placement. I'd like to see how the models I have currently will perform when applied to a larger area, and then dive into more of the raw materials. These are what I need to create enough of a framework to start running games again - any updates to the system are fine as long as they are to processed materials, not raw resources. Those need to be in place (or at least a minimum working set of them).
To do this, I needed to revisit some of the old numbers and make sure they make sense.
Surprise! Basically none of them do. So I reorganized my workflow.
First, I look around for production numbers for both ancient and modern times. I then compare these to a known quantity, particularly one that I'm holding fixed. I can use pricing ratios to make an educated guess as to the reference amounts and the production numbers, assuming a 500:1 improvement since the Industrial Revolution.
For example, I know that in Roman Britain, silver production was about 200 tons, gold around 9 tons, and copper around 15000 tons. This implies that for equivalent amounts of labor, I can get 75x more copper than silver, and 20x more silver than gold.
Similarly, one region in ancient Greece had a working force of 11,000 and output 200 tons of silver annually. If the ratio of gold to silver prices is about 10 (it fluctuates wildly, of course, but was around 10 in antiquity), and 1 reference of gold is equal to 1500 oz, then a reference of silver is about 15000 oz. Since the ratio of silver to copper is about 20, now I know the reference amounts and production quantities for gold, copper, and silver. Some research yields occurrence amounts, and generally, this research process must differ between categories. Minerals are easy to guess - but agriculture is not. Thankfully, the Romans took good notes about how much material they produced, giving a reference point for how much a technomagically minded society could produce if they put their minds to it.
This is not a terribly academic process, but it's a process, and it's based on numbers, regardless of realism. There are a lot of ways to tackle this problem, but I'll see if this one works for me.
I also need a mechanism for scoping this work. I want to get this into a playable state so I can start running games again, but if I spend years and years researching every possible item on the table, that's foolish. I think I might begin with the equipment lists in the PHB (poorly designed though they are) and develop the items that players might want as basics (with modification, of course). Then, if they want an additional item, it is more or less trivial to add (assuming that the raw materials and industries are already defined).
One thing I am assuming is that magic has little effect on overall production. Of course, this would not be strictly true. Any wizard, for example, smart enough to build traps in his dungeon would be smart enough to put that brain to work building an industrial production facility, putting all the local glassmakers out of business and declaring economic victory over the entire trade network. So there are some sociological questions that arise when considering why magic is not prevalent in the economy. Perhaps it is too rare. Perhaps the magical portion of the population (already a higher slice of the social strata) has bigger things of concern. Lots to think about.
But I'm rambling now, so I'll stop. Plenty to come soon.
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