4th Economics 101

[RandyT0001]

Just started this process. Anybody have a more detailed, step-by-step, explanation of going through the process?

[mmartin798]

Wish I could help, but I don't think you are talking Keynesian economics here.

[RandyT0001]

I have read the examples on p.238 several times but I cannot determine for what purpose or process the multiplier in the Livestock and Aquaculture chart is used. If the author or contributor of that part of the book would explain that to me I would greatly appreciate it.

[mmartin798]

While I do not have 4th edition, I can venture a guess. Since active and efficient livestock and aquaculture, i.e. cattle ranching and fishing, gives a good amount of food for a smallish investment of human labor you get more man hours for things like manufacturing and the like. Therefore, you get a multiplier for those. But it is just a guess.

Ok, a little more explanation of my guess may be in order. A tribe of people need to expend a certain amount of effort procuring basic food, water and shelter. If the activities they use are really bad hunter/gatherer, then all their work goes into that and nothing for economic growth. So Frank, Tom, Harry, Lisa and Mary are a tribe and all are out gathering food and can only serve their needs. Let's say Frank learns to Fish and does so very well. Now Frank is able to get enough food so that Harry and Lisa don't have to do anything for the tribe to survive. This lets Harry and Lisa to start making and stringing clay beads into jewelry. Now they have something the tribe can trade because Frank is able to fish and feed more of the tribe. Does that help at all?

[bobcat]

also lacking 4E at the moment but to expand on what mmartin said lets say i've got a small group of 10 survivors. if we're trying to survive by hunter/gatherer means we have to spend the majority of our time on that. this limits the time we can spend on shelter and other needs. if we have livestock we have more free time to spend on other tasks and are more readily able to spend time/effort/resources for additional pursuits. this allows us to increase our agricultural base to include more crops/livestock which further reduces the amount of time and resources we have to dedicate solely to survival allowing further economic growth and (i'm not sure if this is even in the game) increases the likelihood of making our own technological advancement or salvaging pre-doomsday tech.

granted if you permit population growth from surrounding groups of survivors moving in and increased birthrates due to excess free time you can almost achieve an exponential growth effect economically and technologically.

again however this is just how i've been wargaming the settlement developments in my games and may or may not apply to 4E. its just keynesian macroeconomics dumbed down to fewer variables so i don't go insane with my plotting.

[bobcat]

and now that i think about it i have a good idea for a GM tool to hack together in Java.

[mmartin798]

That would definitely help, but it won't take that much time off. Consider something simple. A town with an excellent blacksmith gets detailed blueprints to a steam engine. It will take some trial and error to machine the piston and cylinder. They do not have the practiced skill set to pull it off efficiently. In fact, their first attempt may be a much more manual and slower process, or time will be consumed prototyping and building some simple machines to make those parts.


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[ArmySGT.]

another thing that the Economics section could take into consideration is infant mortality, life expectancy, illness.

Tech levels H - D out to have difficulty raising children to adults, adults should have lower median ages (18 century apprentices were 12 years old, and Journeymen at 16). Child birth should be damn near fatal. With a good chance a village has suffered a viral outbreak of some sort taking a big chunk of the population to the grave.