Things have been busy for a while, getting ready for my son's visit (he's got an extended weekend leave from the Coast Guard) so things have been slow on the blog as a result.
Having one of your family (one that games) leave is something of a bummer, you've lost a player at very least, and that adds to the whole empty nest thing (the remaing one is leaving for the Navy in a month). One of the ways we keep in touch is through MMORPGs, in this case EVE online because it can easily handle long periods without being played (due to it's real time based skill training), and its rather undemanding client that can work on his older laptop and weak Internet connection.
It's not as good a table top play of course, EVE (like all MMORPGs) has serious mechanics/concept problems, and so on. But it's better than nothing and can be relaxing and fun in its own way.
With that preamble out of the way, I have a simple thought/question. Often in MMORPGs there is a subset of players who's main reason for playing is crafting/merchant like subsystems. Very common in EVE for example.
I've never encountered these in table-top RPGs, either in system support or the player type. The one possible exception was the Stock Market in FASA's version of Star Trek, and it wasn't quite the same. (edit: Traveller had lots of support for buy/sell- but no real crafting).
I imagine the cause is that it's boring handling all the mechanical details, and this is one area where the computer is just so much better that it's really the only option.
So what do others think? Is that the case? Has anyone ran a 'merchant/crafter' rpg campaign? What was it like if you did?
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9 comments:
A merchant/crafter RPG sounds boring as hell. I don't like doing it in MMOs either unless I can walk away from it and it does it by itself.
I guess I could see it being interesting if you have to go retrieve resources in dangerous places and peddle your product at some exotic locale where you have to fend off brigands... oh wait, isn't that adventuring?
Exalted has massive system support for characters to craft whatever they want and sell it. It's a game where you could base a character around being the "team economist" and it would actually be very helpful and fun to play. I know players who rarely play anything but crafters in that game, and I've played a guy who was based around undermining an empire by writing letters to it's religious order. He was one of the most fun characters I've ever played. He had combat ability (a lot of it) but it was all secondary to my focus on writing and influencing this empire.
@Mad Brew: I would tend to agree with you in most cases.
I just realized that I forgot about Traveller. It had detailed merchant rules- but no crafting rules.
@Helmsman: Interesting that I never heard that Exalted had such a system. Interesting in fact that it has it at all given the 'image' the game has within the hobby...
A merchant/crafter game sounds like fun! I've been scouring the internet looking for somethin like that actually. It depends what you're making though. If you're making magic weapons/armor, golems, potions, and alchemical weapons etc... it would kick ass! You'd still have to go on adventures to get rare components and such while downtime is spent craft/selling.
Does anyone know a game system like that?
I think there's an old-school game that mentions Papers and Paychecks? ;)
Seriously, sound economies have never been a staple of RPG gaming. I would be interested to see a game that simulates it (A) accurately and (B) in a way that is fun to play.
The "image" that Exalted is only for Munchkins and power gamers? Is that the "image" you're referring to? I'm pretty sure that's what the general opinion of the game is. I get the impression my credibility as a gamer flies out the window when I mention Exalted is my game of choice around this crowd. The fact is Exalted is a lot more than power gamers compensating for penis size by having their character carry around a sword the size of a car muffler. Exalted is so much more than munchkin's day at the park. First edition actually released a supplement called Manacle and Coin which detailed the various currencies of the world setting as well as the slave and drug trades. Most of that material was brought right into the main book in 2nd Edition, but there are many different currencies in the world setting varying from some blue seashells in the far west, to an actual magical material used to make powerful artifacts. It's interesting that culturally there's a stigma attached to gold in the game setting because from gold came a certain magical material called Orichalcum which was associated with a certain kind of exalt that by the predominant power has been declared demons and enemies of everyone.
Personally I love playing merchant-type characters because the principles of buy-low, sell high, mean you get to travel to exotic places. I ran a game where one of the players was a spy who was travelling into an undead state ruled by a great undead lord trading wares and she was secretly smuggling out living people. (The living in an undead realm have less rights than the dead. Go figure.) It was a very and fun situation.
Nother interesting thing about exalted economics is the "salt rates" which is an interesting example of what sort of thing might happen in a fantasy economy. To understand salt rates you have to understand a few core truths about the setting. First gods in Exalted work like spirits in Shintoism sort-of work. There's a god for everything. Next, salt is the cornerstone of civilization, we know this already it preserves food, seasons food, keeps us healthy, in Exalted salt also acts as a way of warding off ghosts which can be a real problem. A line of salt will keep a ghost at bay, so salt is pivotal for a functional civilization.
Salt gods exist wherever salt deposits are, their function is to keep salt as part of creation and thus, they don't like people taking it. This meant that if people were to get salt without fighting the salt gods they'd have to give sacrifices to the salt gods. Since this was such a widespread need, the Scarlet Empress (a pivotal setting figure) mandated a "salt tax" for sacrifice to the salt gods in exchange for their allowing salt mining to occur. Basically she balanced her might against their greed. As the salt tax matured it became the lending rate that banking worked on and would fluctuate based on salt supply and civilization growth.
That's just one part of economics in exalted, I hope I explained it comprehensibly.
@Helmsman: "The "image" that Exalted is only for Munchkins and power gamers?
I was thinking more along the lines of anime inspired superhuman adventures of various 'chosen ones' myself. Much like the rest of White Wolf's lines. That was after all the rep the company built and how they marketed it.
Not that detailing slave and drug trade does much to alter this. That would expect to be present.
But common merchant and crafter activities (not counting magic items)? That just seems out of place, and I've never heard them mentioned before even by Exalted players. Seems to me to be creep in the design to focus on such lowly human matters.
But if it is, it is.
I don't think it's creep into lowly human matters per-se. The thing is just about anything can be interpreted as "magic" in exalted in some way, and "lowly humans" do that stuff every day but it's still very much applicable to chosen ones. Something like pouring a line of salt to ward off ghosts. That's magic but any human can do it. Praying is another thing that everyone does but Exalts are generally better at it which means their results are that much more spectacular.
The thing about exalted is that when you're taking over kingdoms there are simple logistics to think about. Supply lines, food storage... all these things need some strong fundamentals within the game and the setting in regards to commerce. But often the world isn't allowing you to take over a kingdom because you're being hunted, and in that case having a cover ID and a way to make some quick scratch will certainly help.
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