"If Izchak's Magic Lighting Store, ten levels below the surface, selling wish-granting magic lanterns for around 100 GP, makes more sense to you than the forging of Anduril in LOTR..."
Because in my many games of NetHack, I've never seen Izchak's Magical Lighting Store appear any earlier than, I think, the 5th level of the Dwarven Mines, and the Dwarven Mines always start at level 2-4 of the Dungeons of Doom. You were saying that magic item stores in CRPGs make more sense to you than magic item stores in "the stories". Well, that's how magic item stores work in one of the CRPGs closest to early (1980s) D&D.
I love NetHack and its mind-hurting internal logic, but I personally will never open a magic lighting shop ten levels under the surface, and if I have magic lanterns which yield wishes when blessed, I won't sell them for 100 GP. (Even if I trust the buyer not to wish for a Wand of Death and then use it on me, avoiding payment.)
On another hand, if I had the shards of Narsil, I would absolutely take them to Rivendell to have them reforged into Anduril. That makes more sense than Nethack... to me. If it makes less sense than Nethack to you, then (shrug) to each their own.
Why 10 levels below the surface? What makes sense is that you have guilds in large cities where you can order magic items to be crafted if you have the required social standing and which likely also have the more general ones in stock.
Because in my many games of NetHack, I've never seen Izchak's Magical Lighting Store appear any earlier than, I think, the 5th level of the Dwarven Mines, and the Dwarven Mines always start at level 2-4 of the Dungeons of Doom. You were saying that magic item stores in CRPGs make more sense to you than magic item stores in "the stories". Well, that's how magic item stores work in one of the CRPGs closest to early (1980s) D&D.
I love NetHack and its mind-hurting internal logic, but I personally will never open a magic lighting shop ten levels under the surface, and if I have magic lanterns which yield wishes when blessed, I won't sell them for 100 GP. (Even if I trust the buyer not to wish for a Wand of Death and then use it on me, avoiding payment.)
On another hand, if I had the shards of Narsil, I would absolutely take them to Rivendell to have them reforged into Anduril. That makes more sense than Nethack... to me. If it makes less sense than Nethack to you, then (shrug) to each their own.