Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is LIVE! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
D&D and the magic economy
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5388496" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>The 4e economy is not built to be a simulation of any kind of real economy. It is meant to present the players with a chance to gain fabulous wealth and presents a reasonable way for the DM to maintain control and balance WRT the characters. How the mundane world of ordinary people works is not its focus. It deals adequately with the ordinary issues that adventurers generally have to deal with.</p><p></p><p>For instance the 20% sale price insures that the DM can give out the magical treasure he sees fit without blowing things apart or needing to devise all kinds of ways to strip players of treasure using plot devices all the time. You want to fairly quickly get rid of some spare stuff you won't use or that is obsolete? You can get 20% of its nominal theoretical value RIGHT NOW today. If the PCs want to spend months arranging for high priced sales they can go to a major city somewhere and go through the hassle of trying to be magic item merchants and sell it for something more like what it is worth, at least up to a certain point. In that sense the economics are pretty sensible and DO work.</p><p></p><p>Basically if you assume something like an ordinary worker has a yearly income of say 100gp and very rarely has anything like 10gp worth of money they can actually spend then small villages and minor towns can handle low level PCs treasure finds. Large towns can accommodate most heroic tier needs and large cities can handle dealings with PCs well into the paragon tier. </p><p></p><p>Of course most people don't need, want, or have any use for high paragon and epic tier items. Naturally these kinds of items are virtually unique and their GP costs are pretty much meaningless within the context of the everyday life. Just like the costs of modern high tech military gear, supercomputers, space ships, etc are in real life. At best you might buy and sell those things with kings and emperors. Otherwise when you go to sell a +4 sword you're going to be dealing with fantastical beings or otherworldly locations. In those places the economy works on a totally different scale and the beings in those places really can and do buy and sell +4 items.</p><p></p><p>There are plenty of ways to make the game interesting in terms of progression of items too. You can power up existing items instead of giving out new ones (AV1 talks about this). You can use Boons and Grand Master Training options in DMG2. You can base the game on inherent bonuses (also discussed in DMG2). Running a low-magic or "all items are very special things" kind of environment is not all that difficult and the designers HAVE addressed it. Even so the design of the game is such that the intent is that when you get to a certain point you aren't dealing with the mundane world anymore. Your swords were forged by ancient Eldar smiths, etc.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AbdulAlhazred, post: 5388496, member: 82106"] The 4e economy is not built to be a simulation of any kind of real economy. It is meant to present the players with a chance to gain fabulous wealth and presents a reasonable way for the DM to maintain control and balance WRT the characters. How the mundane world of ordinary people works is not its focus. It deals adequately with the ordinary issues that adventurers generally have to deal with. For instance the 20% sale price insures that the DM can give out the magical treasure he sees fit without blowing things apart or needing to devise all kinds of ways to strip players of treasure using plot devices all the time. You want to fairly quickly get rid of some spare stuff you won't use or that is obsolete? You can get 20% of its nominal theoretical value RIGHT NOW today. If the PCs want to spend months arranging for high priced sales they can go to a major city somewhere and go through the hassle of trying to be magic item merchants and sell it for something more like what it is worth, at least up to a certain point. In that sense the economics are pretty sensible and DO work. Basically if you assume something like an ordinary worker has a yearly income of say 100gp and very rarely has anything like 10gp worth of money they can actually spend then small villages and minor towns can handle low level PCs treasure finds. Large towns can accommodate most heroic tier needs and large cities can handle dealings with PCs well into the paragon tier. Of course most people don't need, want, or have any use for high paragon and epic tier items. Naturally these kinds of items are virtually unique and their GP costs are pretty much meaningless within the context of the everyday life. Just like the costs of modern high tech military gear, supercomputers, space ships, etc are in real life. At best you might buy and sell those things with kings and emperors. Otherwise when you go to sell a +4 sword you're going to be dealing with fantastical beings or otherworldly locations. In those places the economy works on a totally different scale and the beings in those places really can and do buy and sell +4 items. There are plenty of ways to make the game interesting in terms of progression of items too. You can power up existing items instead of giving out new ones (AV1 talks about this). You can use Boons and Grand Master Training options in DMG2. You can base the game on inherent bonuses (also discussed in DMG2). Running a low-magic or "all items are very special things" kind of environment is not all that difficult and the designers HAVE addressed it. Even so the design of the game is such that the intent is that when you get to a certain point you aren't dealing with the mundane world anymore. Your swords were forged by ancient Eldar smiths, etc. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
D&D and the magic economy
Top