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#1 copycatzero Nov 22, 2008 23:56:07

My co-DM and I have been hashing out a certain aspect of our shared campaign world over the past couple nights... he basically insists we determine some of the more behind-the-scenes aspects of our world. You know, the kind of stuff the players are NEVER likely to hear/ask/care about. In this case, he's been trying to figure out some things related to the finances of our major cities. To which I counter that we're not even sure those cities will even be still around at the end of this campaign, but he claims that even if we don't have those particular cities anymore, the model we're designing now can be adapted to others. Not going to argue with him there. Anyways. This is the kind of stuff we've come up with so far: Allare, which, by 3E's way of reckoning things, is a metropolis of 121,073, is the capital of an empire that covers a good chunk of the known map. It has a thriving merchant economy and quite a few noble families, and the Emperor, Alexander Corande, is a paladin (classic paladin, from back in AD&D). We decided that only 70% of Allare's citizens pay taxes. Emperor Corande has declared that the poor, teachers, doctors, clergy, those sorts of things, be exempt from taxation. So, only 84,751 of the citizens pay taxes. Tax averages out to 17.5 gold, collected every 13 weeks (once per season). Those who are poor but not poor enough to be exempt are paying mere silver, while the nobles and wealthy merchants are paying in the hundreds. Somehow it averages out to 17.5 gold per tax-payer. Each season, then, Allare pulls in 1,483,144.25 gold worth of taxes. The tax revenue is distributed thusly: Allare's tax distribution - 5% for government - supplies and stipends for government workers, mainly, but basically anything needed to ensure that the government itself runs smoothly (74,157.21 gold per season) - 8% for natural resources - there are nearby mines owned by the noble/merchant families, so Allare gives funds to aid the smooth running of those mines, plus the lumber industry in the nearby forest (118,651.54 gold per season) - 20% for humanitarian efforts - this includes the support of churches (to a variety of nonevil deities), of government-funded schools and clinics, of maintaining emergency food stores and help for the poor and homeless, etc. (296,628.85 gold per season) - 25% for public works - maintaining Allare's roads, buildings, walls, as well as the farms outside the walls and the systems (magically run, thanks to the Wizards College) that distribute and purify the water (370,786.06 gold per season) - 35% for military - (519,100.49 gold per season) Allare can muster a military force of 7% of its population, or 8,475 soldiers. The soldiers receive an average pay of 7 silver per day (common foot soldiers receive less, skilled receive more, it averages out somehow). In one season, that's 539,857.5 gold to pay all of the soldiers and their gear and such. However, when there isn't an active war going on, those soldiers only cost 107,971.5 gold (20%) to maintain (after all, those soldiers are being drawn from the populace, who, during times of peace, are working their normal jobs). That leaves Allare 411,129 gold per peaceful season. One-third of this (137,043) is put into a war-chest in case of an emergency. The rest is used for maintain fortifications and paying the upkeep of border guards and a military academy and such - The remaining 7% (103,820.10 gold) is put into the national treasury (or, probably more realistically, invested in bonds with the merchants, who are expected to be able to pay it back when the time comes) for future use