Trade System

In 1986 I began a system that was intended to assign a price to goods and services that would depend on both the origin and the place of purchase to every part of my world. Throughout the years since the methodology for this has been adjusted and altered many times - but since 2002 I have more or less settled on an established scheme intended to produce my original desired results.

However, my system as it stands is designed for use in my game. It is extraordinarily complex and often overwhelms me. To explain this system to others would be difficult, as it consists of hundreds of thousands of pieces of calculation and data amassed over an 18 year period. There is therefore no practicality in trying to walk a person through my system over the internet or even through the means of video. I've tried; I am not a clever enough filmmaker to enable a useful tutorial through these means.

I have therefore decided to attempt to explain my system through a series of articles that would progress outward from this page, to provide a careful, detailed approach to my trade system that other DMs could employ for their worlds.

This content, therefore, only applies to my world in terms of its method. It is not a detailed accounting of my personalized trade framework. Instead, it is much simplified, with an eye to walking the reader through the process of first understanding, then increasing the complexity of the system as far as the user desires.

I expect that it will take time to fully explain all the elements to be incorporated into the whole system. Please be patient and check this page for updates.

Step 1

Creating References: these describe the relation between the good or service produced as a value of quantity and worth. The more often a particular good is described (referred to), the greater the worth of that goods is in relation to all other goods.

Step 2

Designating Quantity of Goods: before a price can be determined, it is necessary to determine how much of anything is actually being produced, in weight or in number.

Step 3

The process of Locating References: each raw good that we have chosen to include in the trade system must be given a place of origin on the world map; as well, the number of references we wish to add must be determined.

Step 4

Details under Transport includes creating roads, shipping distances and effects on adjustments to references in each market.

Step 5

Creating Undeveloped Goods Prices: there are two methods for creating prices in the system; the first is to generate the price of materials that are found and as yet unprocessed.

Step 6

Adding Manufactured Goods: details the manner in which goods are priced according to both their rarity and the comparative rarity of undeveloped goods being processed. (content pending)

Step 7

Pricing Equipment: incorporates weight and workmanship in order to produce individual prices for goods that would appear on any equipment table.

This describes the beginner process for creating a trade system. Below, I will begin to describe more advanced features to the system that can be implemented. Be warned: a practical understanding of excel will probably be required for most of what's below. I will add them in no particular order, for as long as I can think of features worth noting.

Advanced Trade Features

Original United Nations Statistics
Resources

See Trade & Equipment