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beccaelizabeth ([personal profile] beccaelizabeth) wrote2017-10-02 10:45 pm
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D&D economies

http://forum.candlekeep.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10821

This theory explains there’s several interlocked economies in a high magic fantasy world and taking payment in each has risks. Food units are rations, gold and such only works where you don’t have to travel to spend it, and magic items are as dangerous as they are shiny, not least because killing people and nicking their magic items is what adventurers do. Having the most force so you can kill whoever for whatever is another kind of rich, and why saving up shiny might not be worth it, if it attracts predators. And favors are essential.

it makes a lot of sense. and I hadn’t thought of much of it before.



Now I want to express the assumption that $1 in GURPS is a loaf of bread in terms of calories as a fraction of daily needs. Loaf varies, how much you need to eat varies, it won't be tidy, but if a loaf is a ration then it has a logic.


D&D assumptions about the value of hold and how common it is pretty much make sense if everyone who gets the magic to try it just goes *tada, gold* for generations. Way more gold, buying way less.