What I was trying to accomplish is probably moot, since I seem to have gotten into an intellectual death spiral with the ENWorld Kitten- never a good look.
I'll withdraw.
Buying magic items vs. finding magic items
I'll withdraw.
Yeah. I'm lost with all the partial quotes and "you ignored my point" segments. I don't think forum software makes it easy to identify a statement, associate a counter argument and score them to validate if a statement is pertinent to the discussion.
It would take a different tool to correlate statements, rank them, disqualify some, etc. And even then, I suspect the somebody on the losing side of the argument would deny the results and stick to their position.
Some would think that means debating such topics is pointless.
I would disagree. Let's temporarily assume (as I do), that my position is actually, factually correct. I'll never convince Alzrius. But I may have swayed Nytemare or somebody else, who didn't have a deeper education on the topic, and certainly weren't bound to one point of view or the other. (no harm in not taking economics. I'm surprised Umbran the Physicist DID have Econ).
Now conversely, in that scenario, if I am in fact wrong, then I have apparently damaged Nytemare's understanding of economic theory. But the probability of my being wrong and swaying him, while being supported by other educated individuals (danny's got a frickin degree in Econ) would be unlikely. If I was wrong, I wouldn't have that academic support of my peers. Nytemare would see I have no credibility, and the matter would be done. I would be the guy insisting on my position, despite not having a sufficiently compelling argument (fervency may not equal compelling to Nytemare).
Apologies to Nytemare for using him as a verbal guinea pig. I do not know his actual current position on this topic, I merely extrapolated by the change in approach of some of his posts.
I think the point is, the conversation has looped. Time to move on.
Alzrius
The EN World kitten
The problem with that example is that it implies that the person you can't convince (me) is objectively wrong, since they're not accepting that your position is factually correct. I say that's a problem because it's not factually correct; it's a debate of opinion, so citing facts to say that your opinion is more logical in terms of what's a "believable fantasy" isn't going to carry much weight (if any), since real-world facts don't necessarily apply in a fantasy scenario.
That's leaving aside that you're making some pretty big assumptions about the level of education that other people have on the topic, or the characterization that they're "bound" to one point of view or another.
The point that you seem to be trying to make is better summarized here:
[video=youtube;vjOrOMVFCbs]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjOrOMVFCbs[/video]
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I think that's a good question.
To answer that specifically, I would not assume it is all or nothing.
It seems reasonable that a formal market would be more likely to exist in cheap, common magic or faux-magic items. By faux, I don't mean people lying that this here cheap cloak is really a Cloak of Protection. More like this 2sp gem will keep evil spirits away. A lower order of supposed magic that the D&D rules don't cover, but can't be proven to actually do anything (as can be said of the 2 stores within 10 minutes of my house that do indeed sell such materials for comparable purpose).
The selling of rare, very expensive items is not impossible, though it is most likely more difficult. The term "market" in economics doesn't mean store front, or anything like that. It merely represents the playing space that a person who has something to sell is trying to get paired up with somebody who wants it. So the fact that the rare magic item exists, and some people want it, means a "market" exists, though that does not mean there is a formal support structure in place to facilitate the sale of those goods. But like 2 teens trapped on a desert island with nary a sex ed class between them, they will find out where babies come from.
Rarer items are probably more expensive and more expensive items are probably harder to sell (between security concerns, legality, etc). That won't make it impossible, just very less common.
As a GM, I might raise some barriers to make it very uncommon and difficult. But I acknowledge it could happen. Especially if the players dig into it. there are all sorts of things that are bought and sold in this wide world that you and I got no clue even exists.
I would also examine percieved rarity versus actual rarity. Once you start cranking out random treasures for all the encounters the PCs have, a Cloak of Protection +1 may appear more often than you think. From a matter of statistics, there's more of everything out there than what the PCs find. The immediate playing area may seem low magic, but that could change as the scope and power of the party increases.
Alzrius
The EN World kitten
Of course, this presumes that in a given pool of people, there will necessarily be someone who wants it. If that's not true, then regardless of formal support structures, no such market is going to exist. To use the aforementioned example, if both teens on that island are female, there won't be any babies (notwithstanding their use of cookies).
Jurassic. Park.
Bullgrit
Nice. (must spread around etc.)
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