Maelstrom Rules - Downtime: Economic Guide

Workers
Some buildings require workers to operate them. The most common examples are mines and farms. In addition, any new ships or buildings that are being constructed require large numbers of workers to produce them. The downtime system will tell you how many workers are required to operate a building or to begin a construction. To obtain the workers you need you can either use slaves or hire workers from the colonists who are living in the colony where your action takes place.

To hire workers you must decide how much you are prepared to pay them. If there are colonists living in the colony, but there are not enough available to operate every farm, mine and new construction being run, then the person who offers the most money will get as many workers as they need from those available. If there are any colonists remaining then they will work for the character that was prepared to offer the second highest amount, and so on. You always pay the minimum amount possible, but the more money that you offer the more likely you are to get workers if any are available. You will only need to pay just enough to outbid enough other characters to get the workers you need.

Land, Inhabitants And Food
Colonists who are working must be able to use the money they are being paid to buy food. If not food is available to buy then they will not be able to work no matter how much money is being offered. If you have food that is stored in a colony then you can offer to sell it to the colonists. You can select any price you choose but the colonists will only purchase food they can afford to buy and they will always buy the cheapest food first.

If the colonists are unable to find work that will pay enough for them to buy food that is available then they will attempt to forage for food in the local area. This takes all their time and any colonists that are forced to do this will not be available for work. It is usually possible for the colonists to survive by foraging unless they live in arid areas like a marsh or in areas of high population density like the larger towns that exist in the New World. The colonists ability to find food plummets dramatically in winter.

If the colonists are unable to purchase enough food and unable to find enough food by foraging then they will take what work they can get and buy what food they can. Some of the colonists will starve to death due to the shortage of food. Outbreaks of famine will cause significant unrest amongst those that survive it.

If one or more members of your group controls land in a colony then you can find out how many people live in that colony, how much food they need and how much food has been made available. If you are familiar with the geography of a particular area then you can find out how many people live in that area by viewing the map details for that location. The land report shows all the NPCs (non-player characters) who live in the colony, it does not show any men-at-arms, these are dealt with separately. It also does not include PCs (player characters), who are assumed to move around freely and to be able to find their own food.

Slaves and men-at-arms
Slaves do not need to be paid but they do need to be fed as do men-at-arms. If any member of your group controls any slaves or men-at-arms then you will be able to find out how much food they require by looking at your projections for the forthcoming downtime.

Someone in your group must take responsibility to feed your slaves and men-at-arms. If you own any food then you will have the option to distribute this to your slaves or men-at-arms in your list of personal downtime options. If insufficient food is provided then slaves will starve to death and men-at-arms may desert.

To make your slaves work you must form a workforce. You can choose how many slaves to include in the workforce and you can remove or add slaves to any existing workforce at the start of each downtime. A workforce can be assigned to work on a farm or mine or made to work for a character who is constructing a building or ship. Each slave that is assigned to work on a farm directly replaces one worker. There is no limit to the number of slaves that you can assign to work a building.

Farms
Farms produce cash crops, such as jape, tea and gossamer. These crops grow only in the New World, so they are extremely rare and very valuable. To sell a crop, you must arrange to have it shipped back to the Known World where it can be sold. The first crop that arrives at a port is certain to get the highest price, with those arriving later likely to earn significantly less. A farm can grow any one of three different crops each season except winter; it is not possible to grow anything on a farm in winter.

A farm fills all the available space in a single area, so you can only ever build a single farm in each area. If an area is mountainous or heavily forested then this will adversely affect the production of most crops. The best place to build a farm is on open plains.

You do not receive a lammy for any crop that you produce; the crop is recorded for your character on the downtime database and can be transported, loaded onto a vessel or given to another character through downtime actions.

You can also use a farm to grow food.

Mines
You can build a silver mine, a gold mine or a gem mine. Gold is buried deeper underground making it harder to extract than silver, and gems are more difficult still. Each mine is specifically built to extract one resource and can only be used for that purpose. Different mines will produce precious metals and gems at different rates, depending on the availability of the commodity in question in that area. The amount of silver, gold or gems produced will gradually diminish with time as the deposits in the area are exhausted. If there are two identical mines in the same area, then the deposits will be consumed twice as quickly.

The best place to build a mine is the mountains. Some characters have the ability to prospect for deposits of silver, gold or gems. This allows them to assess how productive a potential mine might be.

You can receive lammies for any gold, silver of gems that you produce. Gold, silver and gems can be sold at ports in the New World. Potential profits are not as high as some cash crops but are more predictable since the availability in the Known World is not dependent solely on the supply coming from the colonies in the New World.

Guild Houses, Brothels, Inns, Gambling Dens, Etc
A guild house is the simplest example of a building designed to make money from the inhabitants of the New World. A guild house can provide entertainment, food, gambling, prostitution or contrabando to the local inhabitants. Different services are more popular with different cultures, but the key factor that determines the potential profit is the level of competition in an area and the amount of wealth available.

The maximum potential earnings is a fraction of the sum of all the money being paid as wages to the local inhabitants Any potential earnings are split between competing guild houses in the area.

Other Buildings
There are a wide range of other buildings that exist in the game that do not produce money or require workers to run. Buildings such as deep water ports, warehouses, watchtowers, fortified walls, etc do not produce money and do not require workers. These buildings require money for upkeep; if the building is not maintained and the running costs met then it will quickly deteriorate until it becomes unusable.

And so it began......

Dawn breaks, war looms, the evil Lord is gathering his armies to wage a campaign of destruction upon the free peoples of the world. It is up to I, Sir Maximilan Pegasus to stop him, with my trusted band of adventurers we must gather the enchanted sword of Tek, the Shield of Way-Lem and the amulet of Subsidence and together we shall slay this abomination! “TIME FREEZE” And bam, the fantasy world fades away, the enchanted sword of Tek in my hand is a rubber sword smothered in coloured ribbons with a laminated card cable tied to the hilt, I look down and I’m wearing plastic armour and unflattering heropants, and the magical world of my imagination washes away to reveal a field in Wigan, but you know what? It’s larp and I’m a larper, it’s what I do.
I started larping when I was 17, I’d never role-played before, I’d never played D&D or Warhammer, never played WoW or any form of online game, I’d never even read Lord of the Rings, I feel somewhat privileged that I hadn’t done any of those things, I think it gave me an untainted attitude towards what larp could be, I had no preconceptions about saving the maiden fair, slaying the dragon or smiting the liche, to me it was just a new thing to try.
It was cold, really cold, 10am on a September morning, the rain was battering down and I’d been given a faux fur tunic, a mouldy old sword and been pointed towards a man and told, “You’re monstering, there’s the ref he’ll tell you what to do.” I obeyed, I played wave after wave of zombies, orcs and various line monsters and to be honest, was cold, bored and hungry. That is, until lunchtime, the teams switched sides, I got into the kit I’d scrounged up, as with most first timers, a black trenchcoat. I took the mouldy old sword, stood with my fellow adventurers and it hit me, I’m a god damn hero!
Pow, there it was, a new larper was born.