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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BiggusGeekus" data-source="post: 3625739" data-attributes="member: 1014">I enjoy thinking about fantasy economics.  However, tragically, we must remember that this is first and foremost a game and that the game designers didn't pay any attention to how the fantasy economic model makes sense.  The Forgotten Realms and Eberron thrive as economic entities only because of the will of the game designer gods.  There is absolutely no  way the Orien Express could be built, much less function.  But lightning trains are cool, so its there to stay.  The primary unit of exchange in the D&D world is not the gold piece, but the magic item.  How are magic items introduced into the economy?  They are recovered in dungeons.  How are they created?  Someone takes gold (or the gold equivalent in rare materials) and transforms it into a magic item.  This magic item is a nigh-permanent fixture in the economy, barring the existence of digesters and other such monsters.  What magic items are made?  Primarily weapons.  Could an enclave of clerics or bards who know Heroes’ Feast create dozens of tables over the course of decades or centuries to feed a populace?  Yes.  Do they?  No.  How about something easier like a Sustaining Spoon?  No.  They exist, but the primary magic item created is to be used in combat.  Large unit combat?  No.  Small scale tactical combat.  None of this makes a whit of sense unless, for some reason, the entire universe revolves around small parties of adventurers going into dungeons, beating up monsters, and taking their stuff.Which is why I agree that the D&D economy is in a weird place between coin and barter.  The primary unit of exchange is not the gold piece, but the magic item.  And novels & movies don't reflect that because that's a pretty weird concept.  And that's why a group of PCs will carry equipment worth more than a standard sized village (a village that is poor but still able to turn out 5,000gp magic items!)Given all of that, some constructive criticism:Magic items as barter makes sense up until the point you run into the traditional problem with a barter economy: what if nobody wants a +5 vorpal sword?  G oing by the Rules As Written, there just isn't anything you can do with a magic weapon other than kill things.If we bend the rules we can say that the sword can be used in place of gold to "fuel" the next magic item production.  Maybe turn it into a  Mattock of the Titans or something useful.  And that's what I'd suggest.(cutting short to play with 3 yr old ... maybe more later)It is my curse to live in a world where nobody likes to chat about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasticity_(economics)" target="_blank">elasticities</a> and how they might relate to mithril armor production.  C'mon.  Maybe just a single buzzword?  An itty-bitty one?</blockquote>

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