I’m making a tabletop based off basic economic concepts. It will have division of labor, technology, education, etc etc. As many market-forces as possible without having an overly complicated system. The complexities enter into it in how the players interact with one another. In some alpha tests of the game, very complex and interesting trading strategies arose. Its quite exciting and fun.
I also put violence into the game, since i’m really trying to simulate anarchy.
So here’s the question… What do I call this game? I can’t come up with any clever economic puns or anything
How about Zero Barriers? This is one of the characteristics of Perfect Competition. Perfect Competition being the oposite of Monopoly which is the name of another, very famous, board game. You see where I am going with this?
Well each player has a character sheet with your skills on it… skills develop as they are used. They include things like agriculture, hunting, forestry, mining, etc. So division of labor is encouraged.
For example, if you dont have food or water, you die, so it makes sense to make a deal with someone to produce your water if you produce their food (since you will both get better at it as time goes on). Alternatively, you could produce all of your own food and water, which would probably be a bad move since your skills would develop more slowly. Its really up to the players and how everyone treats eachother.
Some skills need land to be used, such as agriculture. No one “owns” land but rather can use it so long as no one challenges them. In fact, all property rights in the game are established by the players rather than from the game’s rules.
I suppose this sounds complicated, but its really pretty simple when you have the character sheet in front of you. I’m building it in excel as well so players dont have to do any math. Its still very much in beta though…
We’re still working on a goal to drive the players. Right now we have them accumulate a certain basket of goods (20 food, 20 water, 5 tools, 10th tier shelter etc), which are all produced using various skills and resources.
So I guess it’s kind of like the civilization games except its a tabletop and you’re a dude rather than a society.
If feasible, you could add in player-defined legal structures. I think that would really help people understand what it means for something to be “legal” or to have a “right” to something, and where those concepts begin and end. For example, players would be free to define Rothbardian legal systems based on property rights, and get a group of other players to agree on enforcement, but other players could start non-propertarian legal systems and see the results. The more players the better.
Yeah I’m trying to leave as much up to the players as possible. The only rules in the game are physical. i.e. no one is superman, everyone has to eat etc.
