The Great Debate Part 2: Economy

I had an idea for an economic system that I was planning to use for my own MU* someday, but I will share it with you guys in case it inspires.

I was thinking of making macroeconomics a card game of sorts. A character's demesne has ratings in different basic goods (wheat 3, iron 2, lumber 6, gold 1, ruby 1, etc.) representing what basic goods they produce. Each number corresponds to that many cards of that basic good type going into the production deck. Every season, year, or whatever the character draws a number of cards from the deck equal to some stat (a taxation skill or some other production oriented skill). After all is said and done, what is in their hand is a rough measurements of what was left from that interval's production in their lands.

Lands can also produce finished goods (jewelry, weapons, ships, etc.). To do so they must have the infrastructure to do it (blacksmiths 2, jewelers 1, shipyard 1, etc.), each level can only produce one card of that finished good (blacksmiths 2 can produce 2 finished goods this interval), and it costs two basic goods to produce one finished good (one gold and one ruby for jewelry, one wood and one sailcloth for a ship, one iron and one coal for steel).

Next, every demesne has a corresponding demand deck with six cards of each basic good and two of each finished good in it. Each interval, a number of cards determined by the rank of the noble (Barons draw 1, Viscomtes draw 2, Comte's draw 3, Ducs draw 4 or whatever) are drawn. This represents the demand in the demesne that needs to be fulfilled to keep things going smoothly. Failure to do so can lead to tinyplots and other stuff. More importantly, though, for as long as it is unmet, they draw 1 less card each interval from the production deck. If a character cannot draw any cards from their production deck because the number of unfulfilled demands is greater than what they draw, there is unrest and loss of control over the lands to be resolved as the storytellers and staff work out.

Cards can be used to construct things that are useful for the noble, such as improving their lands, military forces, etc. Use a ship card to increase the size of your fleet for instance. Any unused cards at the end of the interval can either be stored in supply or sold to the open market. A noble's supply has a maximum limit equal to a differenr stat or set of stats (an efficiency skill or something). Selling on the open market is the only way noble's can earn the in-game currency. The amount given for each card is determined by how many cards are sold by noble's of that type on the market. An example formula would be cash = 20/number of that good sold, minimum .5. So if only two noble's sell one wheat that interval, they each get 10 currency points. If a bunch of noble's flood the market with 95 wheat, they will each get .5 currency points.

The market depletes half of what it has at the end of the interval. The amount the market has left over is treated as though a noble is selling that amount to the market in the new interval. So, if there 10 wheat in the market after the interval and one noble sells 10 wheat to the market, it will count as though 20 weather were sold to the market and the noble will get 1 coin for each wheat he sold for 10 coins. Nobles can also buy from the market at the same rate that the market paid out that interval for that good multiplied by 1.5. So, using the same example above of 10 wheat left over in the market and one noble selling 10 wheat, if another noble bought 4 wheat, they would have to spend 6 currency points (wheat was bought by the market at 1 currency point, 1 * 1.5 is 1.5 and 1.5 * 4 is 6.)

Finally, noble's can only use a number of cards in one action equal to another state (a management skill maybe). An action is building something, trading cards with another noble, placing cards into the supply at the end of the interval, selling cards to the market, etc. Oh, if a noble doesn't do anything with the cards at the end of the interval, including storing them, they are discarded, representing inefficient use of resources available.