What would be the best system to run a game based on the silkroad?
What mechanics are required:
-Detailed commerce (market variations, bartering, etc)
-Travelling (expenses, dangers, etc)
-Interaction with unknown cultures
The closest thing I could find is the Silkroad add on for DnD, but it seems like a d20 system would be too cumbersome for a more storytelling oriented story.
Any ideas?
>>47834347
RYUUTAMA.
Seriously.
What you have there is a wonderful rules-light game built around travelling, with little to no fighting involved (though you can have more if you want).
>Detailed commerce: Check
There's a detailed list of items with price modifiers you can apply to personnalize them (like if you buy noisy animals, they're cheaper, but morelikely to attract trouble along the road. Also "Merchant is a class, along with farmer and craftsman.
>Travelling: Check
The whole system is centered on this, players need to buy the right supplies to help them go through the different terrains and climates they might encounter. The characters can get injured, sick etc,if they fail their travels checks, and finding a good spot to camp is the best way way to recover.
>Interaction with other cultures
Not much on the mechanic side, but the game features a collective town creation process, in which players can take part in the creation of the setting.
>>47834777
Wouldnt it be unsuited for a "serious" game? It seems kinda light hearted to me, I might be wrong though...
>>47834347
RuneQuest 6
>Commerce
There's literally a commerce skill, along with skills to know what is available in other areas, and rules for bartering. Players have incomes based on their social standing and culture, and there is an easy roll to adjust seasonal income based on if the market is good or bad.
>Travel
There are detailed traveling rules on or off mounts, what causes fatigue, rules for all sorts of hazards, etc. There are not any random tables or anything, but all the rules are there.
>Interactions with unknown cultures
Characters have a social class and culture as a part character complete with native language and culture skills. They can learn other languages, customs, written language, and skills to communicate. Even if you use magic there's no instant fix for language and cultural barriers.
Characters also have Enemies, Rivals, Allies, and Contacts when they create a character, there are rules for joining a brotherhood (guild) and what membership requires, and the game is built around realistic people who are very capable.
>>47834875
That sounds pretty damn awesome.
On a related note, would people be interested in playing in such a game? Aka traders going from town to town searching for profit.
>>47835500
I like economic vidya, but I don't really see the appeal.
It sounds rather tedious and lacking conflict, and while in theory any premise could be used to tell a compelling story (which is what RP is all about) I don't see the selling point of this one.
Get it?
Selling point?
>>47835553
because economic vidya doesn't reflect the reality of trade in any way at all.
Sure buy low sell high is important but it isn't the be all and end all diplomacy, credit and barter is something videogames have always struggled to represent.
>You go to a town with your goods
>See it burning from miles off , it's been raided.
>They've taken all the goods you were going to trade for
>You struggle to hammer out an agreement between the new chief and yourself, they really need the goods but you know you can't just give it away or you'll have no funds for the next leg of your journey.
>Are forced to leave with your goods , town dies out and effectively destroys that leg of the trade route.
>Shocks echo down the rest of the route as you and your competitors try to offload goods the town didn't really want or need and can't supply what they do.
> Get known as the man who ruined the trade route, go bankrupt
>>47835646
This is the sort of choice/developpement I would go for. Maybe not quite as bad, but definitively not just trade, move, repeat.
>>47835646
Also economic games (I'm thinking primarily space trader games here) don't really model the "human" aspect of trading. Like everything is a fixed price, and if there's haggling it's only represented numerically
>>47835500
Tradewinds is literally this, plus some pirates
>>47834347
A related question I'd like to push in here but I mostly play 5e with my group. How do I make commerce and the economy make sense without just winging it? (One of my PCs bought a house for 800 gp. I thought that was a reasonable price until I realized a spyglass is literally more expensive than his house).
