going one step beyond "d&d style fantasy world but with functioning economics" and into "fantasy world where instead of adventurers you have roving parties of economists and you have to choose which school/subfield combination to spec into"
...
...hmm wait no this is too good of an idea
instead of dungeons you venture into ENCLOSURES, regions of the world where the allocation of scarce goods has failed, and productive economic activity has ceased. your job is to confront the rent-seekers, toll-trolls, and zombie firms therein, while negotiating lemon bazaars, toxic assets, and poison pills to liberate the stranded capital therein and return it to general circulation. these may suffer from AUTARKY (cut off and forced into self-sufficiency; stagnant, risk-averse, prone to hoarding); CAPTURE (trapped in the grip of a rent extractor who sits on the flow of wealth and strangles it); COLLAPSE (the local economy has broken down and is trapped in an equilibrium it cannot escape from); or UNDEATH (distorted, misshapen regions of the market corrupted by subsidies, keeping alive that which should have long ago passed away), or some other malady.
your SCHOOL determines much of your spell/ability inventory, and gives you access to TALENT TREES to further specialize:
Classical Political Economy: Physiocrat, Ricardo-Smithian, and Georgist talent trees
Marginalist: Lausanne, Austrian, and Marshallian talent trees
Chicago: Price Theory, Monetarist, and New Classical talent trees
Keysnian: Neoclassical Synthesis, New Keynsian, and Post-Keynsian talent trees
Marxian: Classical Marxist, Sraffian/Neo-Ricardian, and Dependecy/World-Systems talent trees
Institutionalist: Old Institutionalist, New Institutionalist, Public Choice talent trees
Behavioral: Heuristics & Biases, Experimental, Neuroeconomics talent trees
Environmental: Resource, Green, and Blue talent trees
Evolutionary and Complexity: Schumpeterian, Nelson-Winter, and Econophysics talent trees
Provisioning and Stratification: Feminist, Capability Approach, and Stratification talent trees
your SUBFIELD gives you a role in the Chartered Company and enhances spells associated with that role; not all SUBFIELDS and all SCHOOL specializations are viable
all parties of course need at least one generalist Macroeconomist, who can quickly take stock of the ills besetting the Enclosure and stabilize the situation while the rest of the party gets to work (but who is ill-equipped to deal with particulars)
and they probably need one generalist Microeconomist as well, who can observe individual incentive structures closely and redesign small-scale mechanisms on the spot
an Empiricist can be adept at discerning real symptoms from coincidences, but requires a lot of setup time and is weak under pressure
and Economic Historian can call upon the lore of similar Enclosures other economists have encountered before to amplify your Company's powers (but may misdiagnose new problems)
your Trade Economist can sense exchange rate and price gaps between the Enclosure and the outside world, and facilitate reconnecting it with the rest of the economy
your Monetary Economist can sense debt overhang and credit conditions, inject liquidity, and restructure debt--but bad fiscal policy can also make everything much, much worse
at the heart of each enclosure you will of course have to fight a terrible enemy--creatures like the Seignior that prints money every round of combat, the colossal Golden Golem whose Golden Fetters aura causes slow but inexorable deflation (making your Company's real debts grow), and who is immune to interest rate cuts; the Trust, a hydra-like beast that is best vanquished by a cunning Public Choice economist; the Debt Lich, kept alive by unnatural market confidence; and the Twin Monster of Stagflation, one of whose heads breathes inflation and one of whose heads breaths unemployment.
your reward for success of course is the adoration of the people, who find their standards of living increasing again where you have liberated them. and, of course, a reasonable percentage of the liberated capital, to invest as you see fit (including in THEORY PAPERS from which you learn new spells). you also earn xp points which you can use to increase your stats, or to write papers arrogantly attempting to apply the principles of your profession to areas way outside your field of expertise.
titsay
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
izzy806
kianamaiart
stormborns
snowghoul
yousharknotpass
