There are several ways you can make a niche for yourself in Townforge. Some career paths give you recurring passive income, while others require regular play to earn gold. All of them will be lucrative in some conditions and less so in others, so changing tactics may be a good idea from time to time.

The following list is not exhaustive.

Rent seeker

This is the easy one, which is suitable for “fire and forget” type players who want to get in the game and get recurring income afterwards with minimal involvement. You basically buy land, build a building which receives subsidy from the town treasury, and log in every few weeks to repair and restock. Those buildings include residential, craft, commercial, and more. This is expected to be very lucrative at first, but the more players enter the game, the lower the income will be, since the town treasury will be shared among more players.

Materials producer

Some buildings do not get town treasury income, but produce materials instead, like wood and stone, which are needed to build other buildings. By building stonecutters and sawmills, you can produce materials and sell it to others who need it in the in-game decentralized marketplace. Again, this is expected to be very lucrative at first.

Farmer

Food is required for buildings to tick, so people will be buying food stocks. Building agricultural buildings lets you farm grain or vegetables and sell the surplus to other players on the in-game market. Food is perishable though, and managing sowing/harvest times makes this career path a high risk high reward one, requiring regular play (basically twice a week at least).

Prestige seeker

Collectors of gold coins and gemstones are ranked according to the size and rarity of their collection. The most prestigious players get extra passive income every tick. This is a fairly hands off way to earn gold in Townforge, but one that will likely require a fair amount of up front money.

Speculator

The in game markets are a great place for traders to play the ups and downs of a real economy. Not only you have a dozen or so items with real demand (food, building materials), but rarer items also exist (collectible coins, gemstones, and player designed items). Buying low and selling high is a dangerous but potentially very lucrative endeavour.

3D designer

While building 3D models of buildings to place in the world is optional, good looking buildings will earn their owner badges, giving a prestige bonus, and thus extra income. That owner may then find it financially attractive to pay a 3D designer to build fancy models for some of their buildings.

Entrepreneur

A player may create a company, as well as shares as custom items in the game. These shares can then be traded freely in the in-game marketplace. Dividends can be issued to current owners of said shares. Need I say more ? An enterprising player can start an in game business and sell shares to get funding. Richer players with less time to play can invest in those shares and get regular income.

Lender

Buildings can be mortgaged, so a player wanting to expand their empire can raise money to do so. Mortgage repayments are secured on a building, which will be automatically put to auction if the agreed upon repayments are not met, with the auction proceeds used to pay the debt. This is a great way for rich players to earn gold with close to no play time.

Researcher

There is a tech tree in Townforge, and players discovering tech can not only benefit from bonuses, but can also licence those to other players, since a discovery comes with ten licence items, which can be traded on the market.

Of course, nothing is guaranteed, and some of the strategies above are risky, but this shows a good overview of what is possible in Townforge. Since the game rules are intentionally fairly open ended, I look forward to see how enterprising players find other ways to earn gold in game.