Common Magic vs. other income sources

Tim Whalen (whalen@stromboli.usc.edu)
Wed, 24 Aug 1994 13:26:21 -0700

Every noble needs to earn between 50 and 100 gold per month just to make ends
meet (pay his men, honor himself, study, research, etc.) Just about every
skill category has a way to earn about this much in around a week or less.
Combat has pillaging, shipcraft has fishing, magic has 9103, and so forth.
Even a completely unskilled noble can earn enough in around a week making
pots (or in no time by owning an inn.) Each of these money making schemes has
advantages and disadvantages. Clearly the advantage to 9103 is that it
can be done anywhere, and, as we've seen, a new faction can use 9103 to start
making money their 2nd turn. The disadvantages are that it costs an NP, makes
less per day than several better schemes and can fail if another mage starts
curing runny noses a day earlier. Also, it can only be done once per month
whereas you can pillage, mine gold, fish, attack rats, and so forth all month
and make up to ten times as much if you really want to make a lot of money.

There was a trade route in the alpha test that allowed you to earn 152 gold
for two days work (running walnuts from Safe Haven to the neighboring city
by roundship) and around the last turn I got almost 3000 gold after an attack
on a few pirates on an island north of Lesser Atnos. Income from taxation
toward the end of the alpha test was approaching the disgusting level. I
believe that the King of Lesser Atnos finished with over 100K in his coffers
and he was grousing that the revised taxation rules were giving him negative
cash flow. Anyhow, I'm surprised that less than half the factions used 9103
last turn. Don't you guys have mages?!? Your trust funds aren't going to last
forever, you know. ;>)

Tim

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