Then I go back to what I said earlier: magic in D&D-style games is much more scientific than it is sympathetic. The principle you're describing would be modeled better with a much fuzzier (in that sense) magic system. Perhaps something effects-based?
Dude, maybe don't lead with 'economic indicators' and you might get more people willing to play.
I don't lead with that, actually. And you don't know me or my players.
That would be a joke.
Years ago I was trying for a lateral transfer to a new job in a company I worked for and had to interview with the manager in the department I wanted to go over to. When I walked into the office it was immediately apparent that the manager had no arms. As I was interviewing with him he needed to take some notes. His right foot whipped up over the desk and with his toes he pulled a single sheet of paper off of a stack of paper in a fraction of a second, and at virtually the same time his left foot came up over the desk and grabbed a single pencil out of a pencil holder full of pencils. Then he proceeded to take notes in penmanship that was several times better than mine. It was pretty amazing.
But it doesn't matter is what they are trying to tell you. The book price of X amount of ruby dust is 50g. If you go to an area where rubies are common as spit and with one tenth as much as the book says, you will spend 5gp for 50gp of ruby dust of the same X amount. If you later travel to a place where rubies are sought after for prestige and they cost five times as much, you will be paying 250gp for 50gp of ruby dust of the same X amount.
Because finding a ruby worth 50gp is different from finding 50gp worth of ruby dust. One is a commodity that money could buy or sell based on the market, the other is a money
Why? You can sell both at pretty much any large town or city, and small towns aren't likely to buy either. 50g is 50g is 50g.
Same reason why you don't buy vegetables by the square foot of farmland and spend significantly more buying them at a restaurant than a grocery store. The value of a gem is based on clarity and cut. The value of gem dust is based on volume. I linked to a site that sells diamond dust earlier as an example∆ .
