[PnP] how virgin is virgin enough?

[Burton Choinski]

Just to give you bit of an idea how it all works.

The economic basis assumes that a rural family (2 adult, 3 kids) can  
live on 1BB a day, or 36CC per year.  A Serf farming family can manage  
up to 10 acres of land, each of  which produces about 400# of grain  
per acre (after taking out next year's seed), but they require the  
production of 5 acres to actually produce the food and goods (for  
barter) they need...the work of the other 5 acres goes to their  
liege.  Assuming 3 kids = 1 adult in production and consumption, we  
can figure that 1 rural adult needs 12CC per year.

Using the RuneQuest market "rule of thumb", a change of market  
multiplies cost by x2.5, to account for the new seller's profits as  
well as transport costs, so grain in the cities goes for 2# for 1BB.

Working on the idea of a "tithe" (tenth of production), If a free  
farmer working 5 acres produces 2000# of grains, this 2000# must  
equate to 40CC of value in order to support the family (minus the 10%,  
or 4CC for their lord, leaving their 36CC to live on).  By this, grain  
purchased in rural areas off the farms must sell for 5# per 1BB.  A  
serf farming family on 10 acres therefore produces 44CC of raw value  
to their liege lord, who can actually get 110CC of market value if he  
has access to trade routes.  A free farmer family on the same land  
lives at DOUBLE the standard of living (72BB/year, tithing 8CC).  The  
tithe to his liege ends up as 20CC if he has trade access.

So, you can hire a rural laborer for 1BB per day and he will be able  
to feed himself and his family.  In the city, 1BB per day will satisfy  
his needs but not that of a family -- they would have to work as well  
(they would need 2.5BB/day).

The whole of the document flows from the 2.5x rule and the baseline  
costs.  In RQ they use jumps of 4x per stratum in living quality,  
which does make it easier to lump crafters into slots.  The idea that  
to live at 600CC/year means you must sell that amount of value in  
goods, allows you to back-fit creation times.  This is what I did for  
my armorer rules.  For swords I based it on the 2GC/month armorer,  
assuming half busy, how many swords can he make (and sell) to cover  
this?

It all flows outward as the base value of something equals the time  
cost of labor, plus material cost (which is also time-cost by labor).   
But you need the low steps (cost of ore factors into cost for refined  
metal factors into cost for metal sword).

The end result is something that has a consistent underbase, but it  
requires a lot of work (and time) to build up the low levels before  
you can start deriving the greater ones.

By this alo
On Feb 10, 2009, at 4:52 PM, Scott Adams wrote:

> At 03:38 PM 2/10/09, you wrote:
>> Even now I can't wait till this is finished. I expect it to be in  
>> line
>> with your other economic stuff, so the detail will be fabulous.
>>
>> With the risk of sounding like Scott: how about including prices for
>> magic items also (big, big grin).
> Burton - For the ship project I did a economic chrt thart might help  
> you if you need to know what nations do what.  Save some time.   
> Problem with any economic system is the GM and players and the  
> nation.  Walk in a shop in Katai with a magical ring and might get  
> killed. Sell said ring in the Dark Lands and might get cheap value  
> (due to amount of magic).  Sell it in Marentia might get a good  
> value.  Good luck on the project.
> Maybe that's an idea do it relative.  Apply factors.  Use one nation  
> as a baseline.  Say Marentia which sells and buys everything.
> So all factors would be x1 for Marentia.  For Magic Items dark lands  
> might be x.5 and for Katai x0 and Marentia x2 for such a system like  
> that?  Break it into categories.  Anchors would be cheap in Clima  
> but expensive in Djani swamps where sea anchors are less and swamp  
> anchors are more.  Basic supply/demand factors.  Ugh.  Ok this  
> started out to make sense then I lost my train of thought. :)
>
>
>
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