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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jfdlsjfd" data-source="post: 9510893" data-attributes="member: 42856">Yeah, demand evolving over time or place, or any other circumstances, is something that's not in the rules (they are not an economy simulator) but it doesn't mean that "there is no economy". Prices staying the same irrespective of supply and demand (which is driven, for gems, by fashion that make a small diamond worth more if cut in a certain way than a bigger and rougher diamond) is an option, which IMHO breaks verisimilitude enough to bother me (especially in extreme cases where obvious valuation change would happen), or it's just the GM that sets price and simulate the economy (which is better and intuitive, I'd say for my group need, handwaved variation are enough if they match the description of what is happening in the world). Like in a place where there is a famine and I describe starving peasants resolved to abandon children in the wild so they can feed the remaining ones, my players expect me to set higher price for food than when they are in the land of Plenty.BTW, Rime of the Frostmaiden, which takes place in the Ten Towns, but where there have been no sun for three years, have rulings for varying prices, so a 2cp loaf of bread is 3cp in Termalaine and 8cp in Lonelywood. EDIT: actually, the exact list is a DMsguild product, the official product only says that price and availability is affected by comfort, friendliness and services level ratings of the town, each valued on a 1-3 snowflakes rating.Having the base (or magical-worthiness) value of a diamond modified by cut and size in the rule means that I can cast one spell with a rough diamond, but if I find two small, well-cut diamond, that could be created by cutting the former, I can cast 5 helpings of the same spell with the dust I'd get by crushing the small diamonds. And I can cast more spells with the same amount of dust if it comes from a big diamond than I can with the exact same amount of dust, but coming from two separate, smaller diamonds if all of them are cut the exact same way. Also, only cut and size (preference due to fashion) are adding to the magical worth of the diamonds, not other reasons to desire the gem, like its kardashianness, despite both being totally arbitrary criteria born in the hearts of humans.You mentionned a solution: diamondness is objective because the goddess of gems love them big and well-cut, so their quality for the purpose of spellcasting can be immanent, explaining why it makes sense to have a diamondness increasing with a specific cut and size, but it might be disconnected from market price, and the buyers would have a hard time, lacking a diamondness-calculating device, to distinguish between high-diamondness dust made from a desirable diamond to the goddess and low diamondness dust made from crappy diamonds.</blockquote>

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