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<blockquote data-quote="Scribble" data-source="post: 5293436" data-attributes="member: 23977">I think it's important, when looking at these &quot;How the rules translate&quot; scenarios, to remember that the rules are built with the idea of keeping balance in mind.Balance is a tool- and functions sort of like when an economist looks at the market under &quot;perfect&quot; conditions. It's not going to translate exactly to the real world. It just gives you an idea to start from. In oder to actually utilize it in the real world though, you have to consider a number of other factors (it's just a good baseline to give you a better understanding of the concepts.)So in this case, we see that in order to maintain perfect balance, items buy and sell for the amounts listed in the books.In the &quot;real world&quot; of the game, however, I generally let things like the diplomacy&nbsp; skill come into play, or size of the town, proximity to power centers, etc...The numbers in the book are a starting point to show you where balance lies. I then take this into account (as a tool) and apply other information to represent the economy of my worlds.(They're like the Kelly Blue Book value of a magic item.)I can then take this and filter it back against the numbers in the book to give me a better idea of where my balance is... If for instance I've noticed PCs buying a number of under priced items- I know they're probably getting a little more powerful on the balance curve. (Or the opposite if they've been buying a lot of overpriced items.)</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Scribble, post: 5293436, member: 23977"] I think it's important, when looking at these "How the rules translate" scenarios, to remember that the rules are built with the idea of keeping balance in mind. Balance is a tool- and functions sort of like when an economist looks at the market under "perfect" conditions. It's not going to translate exactly to the real world. It just gives you an idea to start from. In oder to actually utilize it in the real world though, you have to consider a number of other factors (it's just a good baseline to give you a better understanding of the concepts.) So in this case, we see that in order to maintain perfect balance, items buy and sell for the amounts listed in the books. In the "real world" of the game, however, I generally let things like the diplomacy skill come into play, or size of the town, proximity to power centers, etc... The numbers in the book are a starting point to show you where balance lies. I then take this into account (as a tool) and apply other information to represent the economy of my worlds. (They're like the Kelly Blue Book value of a magic item.) I can then take this and filter it back against the numbers in the book to give me a better idea of where my balance is... If for instance I've noticed PCs buying a number of under priced items- I know they're probably getting a little more powerful on the balance curve. (Or the opposite if they've been buying a lot of overpriced items.) [/QUOTE]

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