Trade and Commerce (early draft)

Document maintainer: Wilco Copperjaw

Some initial thoughts: - There is a very tight relationships with the trade domain. These domains might need to be designed in sync - The essential difference between this domain and trade is that this is business to consumer (B2C) and trade is business to business. Characters playing in this domain do not have to worry about transportation. Goods are always bought and sold locally - Skills and condition in this domain give players access to cheaper items. - Prices vary based on where you buy your goods. Fish is cheaper near the sea, and metals are cheaper near a mine. The price you can buy or sell your goods for as a shopkeeper will depend on how far and how difficult it is for a trader to get the goods to you. - The idea is that the entire chain from raw materials to useful products can be traced, so that foresters sell wood to carpenters, and carpenters sell their services to shipbuilders, shipbuilders sell their ships to fishers, fishers sell their fish to shopkeepers, and the shopkeeper sells his food to foresters. The entire chain must work so that if you played the whole thing through, prices and profits would be believable - We should see if this domain is medieval, or if it can be generic - Perhaps there should be a medieval items domain, and a separate Trade and shopkeeping domain - We should somehow group items together. Perhaps based on the base material or the skill needed to create it. Maybe there should be a more formal item type system, like: melee weapon, shield, armour, amulet, potion, etc. - This system probably needs some way to do bulk discount. Otherwise merchants wouldn't make any sense. - What about merchent to merchent sale? Like the spice routes were before 16th century - The problem about trade is that IRL, the further things have to go, the more expensive they are. But for players outside the merchant domain it will be very confusing to have different prices in different locations. Perhaps we can do something by saying that the further you have to go, the larger the bulk you'll buy, since your offset area will also be bigger. And so even though the cost of long distance transport is bigger, it is offset by the discount gained from bulk buy.

There are (at least) two types of prices - Store price - Production price

To OBTAIN an item players pay store price. To SELL an item player receive production price

Shopkeepers can: - OBTAIN the items in their store for production price

Crafters can: - OBTAIN items they can make for production price - SELL materials for store price

Basic supply chain: Suppliers > Merchant > Outlet > Customer

Some occupations: - Craftsman (Weaver, Potter, Baker, Brewer, Glassblower, Bookbinder, Bricklayer, Candlemaker, Cartographer, Clothier, Cook, Dyer, Engraver, Scribe) - Artist (Acrobat, Actor, Architect, Painter, Minstrel, Bard, Storyteller, Playwright - ??? (Farmer, Fisherman, Hunter) - Leather worker - Jeweller - Stone carver - Blacksmith -- Blacksmith lvl2 --- Blacksmith lvl3 -- Armourer --- Armourer lvl2 -Herbalist -- Apothecarist - Locksmith - Miner - Peddler -- Shopkeeper - Carpenter -- Bowyer -- Shipwright

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Last updated Mon, 16-08-2021 21:33 by Brian Bors
Created Wed, 21-12-2011 11:31 by Anonymous

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