Gaming Depression

[kafka47]

Just some random thoughts that might inspire an adventure or two. Hope the Boards can help...

Having just watched the Hot-Doc, The Corporation, I was wondering if anyone has done an Imperium-wide Great Depression type scenario or would economic downturns be only limited to Domains?

I had always considered planetary economies but what happens when the Imperium goes through a cyclical downturn. Is the Imperium merely the lender of last resort? How do the Imperium's enemies profit from the downturns in the Imperial economy? Are Imperial Megacorps, the final frontier or do they represent an economy in Freefall?

I have always tended to think of Megacorps as TNCs, combined with vast powers of a Centrally Planned economy, has anyone else had a countervalling interpetation?

What type of utopian experiments have players witnessed on the worlds they frequent?

 

[lightsenshi]

The Imperium is simply too big to have a depression without having something go extremely wrong. As I recall, even the virus didn't manage to (quite) do that.

 

[kafka47]

Bigness can also be the problem. The need to keep everything balanced becomes the greater challenge. Relaying upon the mechanisms of the market, as the Imperium does can also engender a paralysis in the branches of the Imperium that are Centrally Planned, eg. the military & Vilani megacorps...