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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fenris-77" data-source="post: 7789453" data-attributes="member: 6993955">I think there's two things going on with economics and D&D, for me anyway. First, I think large simulationist attempts to model fantasy economies are bound to be wasted work past a certain point. By which I mean past the point where it matters for the story. I don't really care much about magic (oddly?) because I'm pretty happy to just shrug and say Wizards are inscrutable and have better things to do than white room economic shenanigans. You can account for that as much as you think necessary, but I wouldn't loose any sleep trying to figure it out. That said, rationalizing the economy up to a certain point can be useful, which leads me to my second point.Where economic modelling can be really useful is when it comes to story, especially at the larger political level. Economic factors can be real prime movers when it comes to disputes between kingdoms, and having a base model that makes sense can add some story options that you don't have when issues of economy don't extend farther than some vague hand waving, The example that springs to mind is Feist's Rise of a Merchant Prince. That was probably the first time I'd read a fantasy novel that had economics as the prime mover for a bunch of the action and at the time it was a relevatory read. Here was a fantasy story about grain futures and shipping concerns, and it was awesome. Anyway, that's my two cents.</blockquote>

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