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View Full Version : Analyzing D20 Modern & Apocalypse



Ryacko
2009-10-12, 12:27 AM
I've gone insane. Here's what my madness produced:


Making sense of the D20 Apocalyspse economy, I inputted wealth, and trade unit values into Excel, it's usually wealth/3 rounded down (ie. briefcase) or up if it's particularly useful (ie. compass or trail rations). Which makes sense, since most objects are dependent on availablity, which correlate to supply in a Free Market economy.
So to determine the trade unit value of any object

To convert electronic items from wealth to trade units, use this equation: wealth/3 + 4 = TU

Vehicles are much more complex, and it isn't clear how their value is determined. Perhaps an exponential scale?

Of course, I'll admit that the d20 wealth system is flawed. Given that anyone with a high wealth can buy enough food for the whole world (as long as it isn't the exact same item).


Also, reading Gurps High Tech, pages ~14, 163, & 196 especially, is excellent for doing any D20 Modern game.

bosssmiley
2009-10-12, 05:16 AM
You do realise that WOTC staffers (living in cages, being fed on table scraps, and having Eng Lit degrees as they do) have no understanding of how economics works at all, right?

Why waste your time trying to make sense of their system in a game that should - if it had any respect for the source material - have a barter/banditry economy?

Foryn Gilnith
2009-10-12, 08:21 AM
have a barter/banditry economy?

Trade units are barter - IIRC you can't own a trade unit. The closest thing to a common currency unit is a drum of oil. TUs are made to smooth out the barter process by providing a common value (and, as you stated, WotC isn't big on economics).

And banditry economy is everywhere.

Choco
2009-10-12, 08:43 AM
TUs are made to smooth out the barter process by providing a common value

Kinda like any other form of money :smallbiggrin:

Foryn Gilnith
2009-10-12, 08:55 AM
Except money is in-universe, whereas TUs are pretty much an exclusively metagame concept.

Choco
2009-10-12, 10:26 AM
Except money is in-universe, whereas TUs are pretty much an exclusively metagame concept.

Ah, this is true. It also means you don't have to go by the book for TU's either. Different survivor communities will put different values on different things. So an underground community might place VERY high value on working flashlights and batteries, while a compass would be useless.

On that note, I don't think vehicles would be worth that much. Sure they are useful, but only the super rich would be able to afford to keep them running (fuel is expensive as hell and in very limited supply). I would GREATLY reduce the cost of vehicles for an Apocalypse game, unless you are running a game where fuel is readily available. But thats bout the only advice I can offer, I think you are on your own determining this price, though whatever you come up with I am sure it will be fine unless you play with a bunch of munchkins looking to exploit whatever you do.

chiasaur11
2009-10-12, 10:42 AM
Trade units are barter - IIRC you can't own a trade unit. The closest thing to a common currency unit is a drum of oil.

Or bottlecaps.

Myshlaevsky
2009-10-12, 10:53 AM
Or bottlecaps.

Bottlecaps are small time. My money is made of mininukes, first-aid kits and minigun rounds.

Edit:
On a more serious note, I think ammunition works well for a currency replacement. The more common bullet types are worth less but are also more easily exchangeable. Using this might make your players hesitant to actually shoot the bad guys, though.

Choco
2009-10-12, 10:58 AM
The creation of a fairly common currency would be a nice plot point in an apocalypse game. Some powerful faction has been secretly hoarding a common and fairly numerous item (like bottlecaps) and then pushing to have said item become the universal form of currency. This would of course make this faction by far the richest in the world, or at least within the borders of the "game world". So many possibilities throughout the entire process....

Delwugor
2009-10-12, 02:46 PM
Leaves are a very good form of currency and when inflation becomes an issue the character's could be hired to start defoliating forests. :smallamused: