Setting Idea: The Residuum Economy

[RangerWickett]

Oh, nice idea. An Intellectual Property (IP, or 'imaginary property')-driven D&D game. I pitched an IP-themed adventure to Paizo, but they passed on it.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

If the raw materials cost as much as the list price, then there isn't much incentive to produce goods through this method -- unless the market price is much higher than the game's list price in that locale at that time. After all, it takes raw materials plus skilled labor and, presumably, a large capital investment to produce something valuable through this method.

Well, my assumption is that some organizations are able to figure out how to get those components cheaper. For convenience's sake, let's assume that the costs will stay the same for individuals, but bulk manufacturers will be able to get the components and thus still be able to make a profit when selling items at list price.

(Let's assume that it is not possible to create a higher amount of ritual components than you started with through such rituals, or the whole thing gets rather silly very quickly...)

On the other hand, intellectual property becomes even more valuable. The recipe is all that stands between you and great wealth. Throughout history, that meant hoarding knowledge, but in our modern era we benefit tremendously by sharing knowledge, which is a nonrivalrous good, in economics parlance.

Another interesting point: How would a medieval society react when intellectual property suddenly became hugely important like this?

I suspect a strengthening of the guild structures, possibly with guilds gaining a larger geographical scope...

 

[Shades of Green]

Another interesting point: How would a medieval society react when intellectual property suddenly became hugely important like this?

I suspect a strengthening of the guild structures, possibly with guilds gaining a larger geographical scope...

"Intellectual Property" is a very modern concept rooted in modern legal systems and property laws; the closet medieval term would probably be "guild secrets". As you've said, the need to keep the rituals secret would strengthen guilds, but I think that it would make them even more secretive as they already are: guilds would guard their secrets very jealously.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

Full Metal Alchemist; essentially you are describling something like Full Metal Alchemist.
To stop it going down the mana drain route then the raw materials of the components would be the material equivalence of the material in the manufactured component + some extra for the energy convertion.

Magical education would be focused toward artificers and transmutation rituals and in some realms knowledge of battle magic and other effects are supressed in order to prevent the emergence of rogue casters.

 

[mmadsen]

If all products share the same, single raw material -- what you call residuum -- then residuum plays a role analogous to coal or oil -- or energy. It's a major input into everything in the economy, and those who learn how to use it can create tremendous wealth.

The question is, is residuum deposited in a few key areas, or is it dispersed around the world? And is it renewable, like lumber, or is it made from millenia-old dragon bones?

 

[radferth]

Sounds like a good background for a Dune-like campaign.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

The question is, is residuum deposited in a few key areas, or is it dispersed around the world? And is it renewable, like lumber, or is it made from millenia-old dragon bones?

Well, a few suggestions have been made here, like my nexus towers (though I really like the Soylent Green golems - I have to work them into Urbis somehow...).

But I'm open to all the cool ideas you can come up with. It should involve some effort to gather or process, but it also should be easy enough to get to make the whole thing worthwhile...

 

[F5]

Is Residuum the ONLY component that will work for these fabrication rituals? Or just the easiest?

Rituals, as written, have mundane components that are specific to each type of ritual, but can be replaced with Residuum which is rarer, but works with ANY ritual.

If the Fabrication Rituals require regular, arcane components, then you have a more nuanced economy. Residuum takes the place of Gold as the economic standard that can be spent anywhere, possibly, but other commodities can be traded for specific goods, and these commodities have to come from somewhere. Thus, you've got...I dunno...candle merchants, or Eye of Newt salesmen. Stuff like that.

As-is, the only way to get Residuum is the Disenchant Magic Item ritual, right? Will that be the case in this world as well? Or will you go with the people-eating Residuum Golems?

If the rituals were common knowledge, you would have a more socialist society...scarcity would be a thing of the past, and there would be public houses where people would go to get their food, clothes, toys, etc. Probably these things would be "free"...paid for by a residuum tax collected by a central government. Society would be an idyllic, peaceful place...until the Demons break free of the Elemental Chaos, come looking for all the residuum that's been vanishing into the World...

If the rituals were held to secrecy, you'd have a much more insular, cloak-and-dagger society. I imagine it kind of like fantasy versions of the Megacorps of the Cyberpunk genre...guilds would arise that have a monopoly on some much-needed item, and they would war with other guilds and steal eachothers' secrets. Either you're in one of these guilds, or you're a peasant on the streets, reliant on your corporate guildmasters for the necessities that only they can provide (or from artificer "hackers", who steal Residuum from The Man, and run their own back-alley rituals). Since building materials are instantly available, and labor is essentially unnecessary, towering, elaborate city-states would arise, full of statuary, massive towers and bridges and etc.

I think the second option sounds like it has more potential, but either way...excellent idea!

 

[mmadsen]

If the rituals were common knowledge, you would have a more socialist society...scarcity would be a thing of the past, and there would be public houses where people would go to get their food, clothes, toys, etc.

Scarcity would only be a thing of the past as long as residuum supplies grew faster than the population. (Or the residuum-efficiency of the rituals grew faster, via "technological" progress, than the population.)

Really though, if labor doesn't add much to the process, then demand for labor is roughly zero, which means that labor will tend to earn roughly zero. A world with nothing to gain from workers is no Worker's Paradise.

 

[Hella_Tellah]

High level plot hook:

A guild has found a source of unlimited amounts of Residuum. This guild, of course, becomes massively powerful. There's just one catch: they're drawing the Residuum out of a parallel plane, literally unraveling an entire plane of existence. Even if the PCs don't think that the genocide of an entire plane full of sentient creatures is a Very Bad Thing, the residents of that plane sure do--and they drop in and make their displeasure known in a spectacularly tentacled fashion.