The first panel I attended was Saturday morning — a panel on economics, because I’ve never really tackled currency in my drafts, and because I’m interested in the implications of events on culture.
So I sat down for the first panel, where we were thanked for waking at 10am on a Saturday morning to attend.
Panellists were: Tom Pollock, Leila Abu el Hawa, Anne Lyle, Kate Elliot and Kari Sperring.
My Notes
– Even magic horses need to eat.
– If all your people are fighting, who’s planting the crops? Similarly, those fields they’re marching over? They/their crops may be ruined for a while.
– We have all considered money while making a big decision — so could our characters.
– Small changes could have massive impacts on things you’d not always think of. One late event could stop an army, fail to agree trade routes and leave your characters stranded and starving.
– Gold is arbitrary — you can switch it out for cheese.
– If magic can heal and provide food and transmute objects; what’s the economy based upon? How much are those things like doctors and food actually worth?
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Overall, it was a great panel which focused on the bigger picture — on how the economics actually interlinks with your world, the characters, the plot and general ‘realism’ of your story.
After this, I headed for a panel focusing on sword-fighting, which I’ll summarise next time.