Fictional Economy Template 1
Economy map: scarce good/service [x] → input/labor [x] → producer [x] → controller [x] → transport [x] → buyer/user [x] → failure point [x].
16 Fictional Economy Templates
Start with structure, then replace every placeholder with information that is true, relevant, and natural for your context. These templates are intentionally skeletal so your final writing does not sound mass-produced.
Use the framework
How to personalize a template
A believable fictional economy connects scarcity to incentives, institutions and everyday tradeoffs. Characters encounter wages, prices, obligations, access, debt, ownership or rationing in ways consistent with the setting; major magic, technology, war or disaster produces second-order economic consequences instead of leaving labor and institutions unchanged.
- 1Choose the template closest to your actual purpose.
- 2Replace every bracketed field with specific information.
- 3Delete any sentence that does not belong in your situation.
- 4Read the result aloud for unnatural transitions or repeated phrasing.
- 5Verify names, dates, links, facts, and promises before sending or publishing.
Fictional Economy Template 2
Character budget: income/support [x] | housing [x] | food [x] | debt/obligation [x] | savings/assets [x] | emergency cost [x] | forbidden shortcut [x].
Fictional Economy Template 3
Transaction scene: character wants [x] | seller/controller wants [x] | price/obligation [x] | bargaining power [x] | rule [x] | hidden cost [x] | consequence [x].
Fictional Economy Template 4
Labor system: job [x] | skill/training [x] | employer/controller [x] | compensation [x] | bargaining power [x] | exit option [x] | hazard [x].
Fictional Economy Template 5
Price-pressure test: good [x] | normal constraint [x] | new shock [x] | supply effect [x] | demand effect [x] | winners [x] | losers [x].
Fictional Economy Template 6
Ownership map: asset [x] | legal owner [x] | practical controller [x] | inheritance/transfer rule [x] | excluded group [x] | dispute [x].
Fictional Economy Template 7
Credit/debt sheet: lender [x] | borrower [x] | collateral/trust basis [x] | interest/obligation [x] | default consequence [x] | informal alternative [x].
Fictional Economy Template 8
Tax/public-service map: tax or levy [x] | payer [x] | collector [x] | stated purpose [x] | actual benefit [x] | avoidance [x] | political tension [x].
Fictional Economy Template 9
Scarcity ladder: resource [x] | who gets first access [x] | who waits [x] | substitute [x] | black market [x] | story pressure [x].
Fictional Economy Template 10
Infrastructure dependency: system [x] depends on [power/road/network/etc.] [x] → outage [x] → immediate shortage [x] → workaround [x] → long-term change [x].
Fictional Economy Template 11
Magic/technology shock: capability [x] → displaced task [x] → new bottleneck [x] → institution response [x] → inequality effect [x] → unintended market [x].
Fictional Economy Template 12
Household economy: earners [x] | unpaid care [x] | pooled resources [x] | dependents [x] | inheritance expectation [x] | crisis tradeoff [x].
Fictional Economy Template 13
Regional trade map: region A exports [x] | imports [x] | route [x] | tariff/toll [x] | seasonal risk [x] | political leverage [x].
Fictional Economy Template 14
Post-scarcity test: abundant goods [x] | still-scarce goods [x] | status signal [x] | access gate [x] | labor motive [x] | conflict [x].
Fictional Economy Template 15
Consistency audit: stated scarcity [x] | scenes that contradict it [x] | wage/price clue [x] | institution clue [x] | repair [x].
Fictional Economy Template 16
Specialist handoff: Worldbuilding premise [x] → Fictional Culture norm [x] → Fictional Economy incentive/allocation [x] → character tradeoff [x] → scene transaction [x].