So during our last D&D session one of my players bought:
>20x 1 pound of wax (stored in bags)
>10x5 chicken + their cages (1 cage for 5 chicken)
>20 batches of 6 fir planks, tied by rope
>20 Rabbit hides
>1 pound of iron (in bars)
>7 kg of scrap iron
>3 bags of coal
>4 barrels of beer
>4 casks of vodka
Alright in retrospect just handling him the price list and stock exchange rates when he entered that military storagehouse might have been a mistake.
If I understood correctly he wants to sell it all at a margin of profit in the next city.
Anyway how do I manage a player that wants to play Rogue Trader in a D&D campaign. I mean I'm not against it, it's just that as GM it just adds layers of complexity to the game as I have to figure out the inner workings of an already fucked-up economy (why can't a mage just cast 10 tons of steel debate, thank God he's playing a rogue). Any ideas that would simplify my work anyone?
Otherwise general economists playing RPG thread I guess. Share your stories.
Honestly first of all I would ask myself how much time you and the party are willing to devote to this kind of transactions. I mean, if everyone is onboard it might be fun to pòay merchants for a session, but if the prospect of having one player take up two hours of game time haggling while the rest of the party dies of boredom I'd solve it in a couple of rolls to decide what kind of profit he might turn up. It all depends on what you (as a DM and as a party) are willing to invest.
Have him roll Profession: Merchant skill
I've always wanted to play in a campaign like this (less Record of Lodoss War and more Spice and Wolf), but your player might just be slowing the game down for everyone else.
Just give some 5% or 10% increase depending on the next city. Is it near the mountains? That iron won't be worth much. Does it have a surplus population? Those chickens and the booze are going to sell well.
Although I always took the D&D prices for trade goods to be almost standardized prices. Merchants would barter and swap 10 pounds of wheat for 5 chickens.
Maybe check this out:
http://regia.org/research/misc/costs.htm
>>43758226
Yeah I anticipated he'd do the old merchanteroo trick so I premade sheets with price comparisons for various goods through the cities of the land. Since they're traveling from a more rural area to the largest port city in the region, he's probably going to try to sell all of that shit there.
Since he figured out there's a bigger than average price gap between raw wax and candles in the area, he's probably also going to set up a kobold run candle-making sweatshop or something.
Really my biggest why? was when he bought all of those fir planks. I mean unless he's going to use those planks to build a sweatshop I don't know why exactly he'd buy it.
Buying food for the army of goats he uses to transport all of this shit costs more than the very small profit he might get by reselling them somewhere else. Fir planks are not exactly a rare or valued good.
>>43758124
There are professions in 4e?
>>43758107
Yeah I might do that next time. It was kind of annoying for everyone else. One player went to make coffee meanwhile, one went for a smoke and one just started sleeping on the table.
there was this book or article or something detailing exactly how to create a realistic economic system in a medieval fantasy world.
I never finished reading it but it seemed well thought out. I will try to find it again, but I can't recall how it was titled.
Maybe someone else here knows what I am talking about?
>>43758499
Oh, this is for 4e? Well then SKILL CHALLENGES
>>43758564
I think I remember what you're talking about, there was a big Mediafire full of this stuff ("Creating Realistic Medieval Towns", that kind of thing).
>>43757901
Chickens will need to be let out of their cages to eat every day in order to produce eggs, unless he's planning on somehow also acquiring chicken feed.
Plenty of animals are going to be attracted to the scent.
Letting them out to scratch means there's a chance one or more of them stray or get into trouble. I would have fun with these chickens in the wilderness.
>>43758564
Is "A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe" what you're looking for?
>>43757901
>1 pound of iron (in bars)
don't you mean bar?
>>43758499
>Yeah I might do that next time. It was kind of annoying for everyone else. One player went to make coffee meanwhile, one went for a smoke and one just started sleeping on the table.
This? This is when it's appropriate to tell a player his fun is the wrong kind of fun.
Here's something you have to remember:
He is a player. He doesn't want complexity. He wants to bowl you over with shit to think about in hopes that you just handwave it all and say "Yeah, whatever, you sell it for a bunch of money."
Players are not interested in making your game better or more interesting, they're interested in breaking the game over their knee so they can flail around in a sandbox with no rules.
>>43759108
How comes so many people on /tg/ always assume the worst about everyone?
>>43757901
DnD generally assumes fixed prices for goods, either because of intrinsic magical value, or price controls established by rulership.
>>43759132
Experience.
>>43759101
Since nobody else is interested, let him roll his relevant skills for trade/appraise/bluff or whatnot, oppose them with a fairly generic merchant (say +10 to skills? That sounds good) and let him take that as percentage points of profit.
How is he transporting these goods, btw? Barrels of beer and casks of vodka aren't light-weight.
>>43757901
Did he forget about the issues of transport, taxes, finding a buyer, and whatever local laws apply? You should remind him of such things.
Then perhaps you could simply have a group of seven dwarves offer to buy his goods.
>>43759310
>transport
Several carts pulled by goats
>taxes
As soon as they reach a bridge
>finding a buyer
He started of this game thinking he could unload all of his stuff to any merchant he wants. Since I explained to him that random village store owner wont buy 1000 pounds of grain, he's more or less hoarding stuff to buy in the great port city.
>>43759246
>fixed prices
My autism won't let it desu, It simply doesn't make sense.
>>43759108
>>43759132
Trust him he knows what he's talking about.
>>43759054
Yeah typo
>>43758968
thanks, I'll look into it
>>43759101
So what do I do? Just roll it with all relevant modifiers. (as >>43758579, say)
>>43758639
I don't think he has a made up a feeding plan. I need to remind him
>>43759132
Why would you ever assume that other human beings are capable, competent, and worth trusting with anything?
Have you ever actually met other people?
>>43759571
Yes! That's the thing, I've played RPGS for many years, with a few different groups and some one-shots, and I've never encountered anyone half as bad as /tg/'s standard model player. Where the fuck do you find these people?
Sorry for going completely of topic OP, I just needed to get that off my chest.
>>43759648That means you are one.Which also means likely, everyone you play with is as well, but because you don't realize how bad you are, you don't realize how bad they are either.
>>43757901
He earns 10% margin.
That's it.
Nothing more.
Next time you just ask him how much money he dumps into shit to trade. Have him roll something to figure out profitable goods he can deliver, adjust % slightly.
Do not go into any detail. Ever.
>>43759663
But none of us ever do any do any of the crap people complain about on /tg/.
