Excerpt: Economies [merged]

marune · May 14, 2008

malraux said:
Um, beyond just a rule saying they can't do that, what would you like? Pretty simple just to say that unless the players want to create a merchant based campaign, with appropriate rules, that their characters just don't have the contacts/reputation/time to be a full time merchant.

And that's a good answer.

FireLance · May 14, 2008

small pumpkin man said:
Unless you're playing a solo game, in which case the most efficient way to get xp is to rescue cats from trees and help old ladies accross the road. (Since xp from minor quests don't seem to scale by amount of players).

I get the feeling this is because a minor quest is specific to a single PC. When you're playing a solo game, the distinction between major and minor quests becomes moot.

A'koss · May 14, 2008

pawsplay said:
Logically, someone can and will sell a magic item, and someone may buy it. Kings, if no one else.

On the other hand, players being preoccupied with melting down magic items to make other magic items is not really my cup of tea.

My problem with the magic item economy is that if magic items can be bought with gold, then that is all gold is ever worth to the party.

If you take magic items out of the gold economy you free up it's use for a whole world of other purposes in the campaign - manors, castles, exotic mounts, your own ship, starting your own knighthood, wizard's or thieve's guild, wine, women, song... you name it.

small pumpkin man · May 14, 2008

Rechan said:
So, the only thing one is supposed to really spend gold on is magical items.

I don't see how this follows at all from "The items you get from killing things/quests will be much better than the ones you can afford to buy/make" which is what the article says.

FadedC · May 14, 2008

Fallen Seraph said:
I don't really see it as melting down magic items. I see it likes this.

A rogue, who has learnt to identify magic items is scouring over the remains of the enemies his party kills. He notices a ring on the finger of a wizard, he cuts off the finger and slides the ring off, the ring has a ruby attached to it. The rogue pries off the ruby and pockets it.

What the rogue just did was disenchant that ring.

Now more powerful items, may require say a specific magical incantation to puncture its defences, but for normal basic magic items, simply prying off the thing enchanted works.

Well except that say that disenchanting magic items has an expensive material component. And of course requries ritual casting skill and knowledge of the ritual.

Rechan · May 14, 2008

A'koss said:
If you take magic items out of the gold economy you free up it's use for a whole world of other purposes in the campaign - manors, castles, exotic mounts, your own ship, starting your own knighthood, wizard's or thieve's guild, wine, women, song... you name it.

I believe, good sir, that was 2nd Edition.

Boarstorm · May 14, 2008

A'koss said:
My problem with the magic item economy is that if magic items can be bought with gold, then that is all gold is ever worth to the party.

If you take magic items out of the gold economy you free up it's use for a whole world of other purposes in the campaign - manors, castles, exotic mounts, your own ship, starting your own knighthood, wizard's or thieve's guild, wine, women, song... you name it.

To quote a WoWism, "I'll be snorting illusion dust off the stomach of a night elf stripper in no time!"

Sojorn · May 14, 2008

Rechan said:
And, here's an important part: That NPC who is carrying around that Level 6 item... can he use that? I mean, if that NPC can't use that item, then I question why that guy has it in the first place.

Yes, he can. In fact monsters are designed to do so and not have their math bumped out the window by doing so. But they still get a small benefit.

Kraydak · May 14, 2008

jackston2 said:
Well, we used to get nothing from quests.

We used to get monetary rewards from quests. Now, we don't. Note that bargaining with employers is, officially, pointless. Any extra "parcels" you net will be coming out of loot from elsewhere.

Given the extreme inefficiency in magic item conversion (3e-> 2 to 1, 4e-> 6 to 1 or 5->1), the parcel system has the potential for disaster. The 3e system was a diagnostic, while the 4e system is (inadequately) prescriptive: it doesn't give you any feedback, and if the called out magic items aren't carefully rotated between characters, someone is going to end up hurting bad.

You can complain about the complexity of 3e's system, but it had the massive advantage that it was based around selling/buying magic items rather than finding them. The only variable of significance was the net influx of "value", and everything else was self correcting. In 4e, each item is crucial, and you can't afford to overload any category of items (if the party has 1 light blade user, 2 daggers in the called out magic items will cause problems, heck, 2 daggers over 2 or 3 adventures will cause problems). More, characters who need different numbers of "main" items (dual wielders, implement/weapon characters) will cause problems just by existing.