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Thread: Trade Routes

  1. #1
    Sean Brown
    Guest

    Trade Routes

    Well, if you are having trouble with trade routes, have the other
    regents form a sort of coalition to oppose them. If your game is
    becoming unbalanced, I assume the PCs are gaining a large advantage
    over the NPCs. Have the NPCs refuse to trade, cut routes going
    through their land, or tax them to death. Have the NPCs form their
    own routes (what's good for the goose is BETTER for the gander:) )
    Finally, if none of this seems to work, I think a few unforseen
    "disasters" could help. What, the floods wiped out your entire crop
    for the year and your cattle have no food? I guess trading this
    season will be sparse. :) Remember, its your world..you can ALWAYS
    find a way to rebalance it.

    Sean

  2. #2
    Robert Ripley
    Guest

    Trade Routes

    Does anyone else have a problem with players going crazy on Trade
    Routes... mine won't stop until each province is filled and if the
    guilder there won't help then they smash his guilds and form a level 1
    guild to make their own trade routes. It really unbalances the game
    because it's a lot of money for very little work.

    thanx-

    Bob Ripley

  3. #3
    Robert Harper
    Guest

    Trade Routes

    At 12:58 PM 4/15/97 -0700, you wrote:
    >Does anyone else have a problem with players going crazy on Trade
    >Routes... mine won't stop until each province is filled and if the
    >guilder there won't help then they smash his guilds and form a level 1
    >guild to make their own trade routes. It really unbalances the game
    >because it's a lot of money for very little work.

    There was some discussion about this quite some time ago. I noted that I
    cut the RP's earned from trade routes in half because it was too rich for
    thieves compared to other regents.

    Some other suggestions -

    (1) Make sure you are applying rules strictly on number per province and
    requirement that destination province have different terrain (although I
    also permit a cultural difference to count - elven/human, brecht/khinasi).

    (2) I add + 1GB to cost of creating route for each province it traverses.
    I also don't let two trade routes running the same 'corridor' make a return
    (i.e., there is a route from A to B, then someone builds route B to A -
    either the second route makes no money - or the income is split between the
    two).

    (3) Apply Law claims as a matter of course by NPC's.

    (4) Note that any Ruler can suppress a trade route. NPC rulers should
    demand a healthy cut of the take to refrain from suppressing routes (this is
    quite separate from a Law Claim).

    (5) Generate random events (or use a shortcut method if you don't want to
    roll that many dice) for the provinces traversed and make sure that events
    like war, bandits, monsters etc. disrupt trade. If a route passes through 3
    provinces, that's 3 chances for some nasty event that eliminates or reduces
    income for this turn. I use a moderated randome event table - the BRight
    table focuses on Ruler Regents and tends to give others a lighter ride - I
    try to account for the impact of an event on various types of holdings, and
    account for the probability that an event will befall holdings even if not
    the Ruler. Rare should be the domain turn that a guilder with 4 trade routes
    sees all operate at full capacity, without disruptions or having to pay
    someone off. For a Guilder, even an Honest Dealings miracle (and who can
    object to that?) is a nasty event.

    (6) Apply NPC competition as befits the value of the resource. However
    powerful a PC guilder is, there should be NPC guilders that and more
    powerful who they eventually come up against.

    (7) Have invading armies trash all the local guild holdings automatically.

    (8) Have NPC's target the treasuries of wealthy guilders. An over-wealthy
    guilder is like a publicly traded company with large cash reserve - ripe for
    takeover and pillaging either in War, Espionage or an adventure.

    (9) Do not allow Guilders to Muster armies (only Rulers should do that),
    make them use more expensive and unreliable mercenaries (this is consistent
    with the Muster action which states Ruler can bar others from Mustering - I
    assume a standing custom that only Rulers muster armies and all Rulers guard
    this right jealously).

    (10) Treat all inter-regent cash transfers as Grant actions. Do not allow
    the Guilder to siphon funds into the public treasury in excess to Law
    Claims etc. in order to support friendly Ruler without suffering the
    potentially negative reaction of Grants (i.e., employees and heirs get upset
    about the unwarranted payments, public accuses Ruler of being in the
    Guilder's pocket and loyalty drops etc. etc.).


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