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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="WayneLigon" data-source="post: 1335599" data-attributes="member: 3649">When I go to second stage world design, one of the first things I decide is who has X, who wants X and what are they will to do to get it. If I want X to be expensive or rare, it gets put on the other side of some mountains, or across a sea.  For the 'fantasy' nature, the most important thing I usually consider are dwarves. Dwarves are masterful masons and metalworkers and miners: all those trades are very, very desirable in the Middle Ages economy. Dwarves usually provide a lot of those things, so that human metalcrafters are not as common as they normally would be: why buy what a human can make when you can pay a little extra and get a much better dwarf-crafted item (yes, to me if a human and a dwarf both have Craft: Armor at +10, the dwarf still makes better armor). They also quarry quality stone and float it down rivers on large rafts, or portage it overland drawn in huge carts. Humans provide the dwarves with much better and varied foods, woodcrafts, cloth and wine. Note that the humans provide dwarves with luxuries while dwarves provide humans with necessities. This creates tension sometimes when the dwarves get greedy.  In the current game I'm working on, Elves are rare creatures. THey seldom interact with humans, but they provide many enchantments and magical items in exchange for mercenaries, metals, concessions from various rulers (ie, elves can move freely, those bearing a special sigil are immune to persecution by human law, etc). Humans provide mostly intangibles while elves provide the ultimate in luxury goods.  The human countries trade with each other of course. The major nations to the south produce wine, which the north cannot. The north provides rich furs, better ores, and silver (something unknown in the mines of the south, no-one knows why). Both trade horses and steel to the nomads for spices and silks.  Generally I let the economy settle into the background and use it only seldom save where it makes a difference to the adventurers or where it might provide a useful plot hook.</blockquote>

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