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Old 03-13-2016, 05:05 PM   #109
Polydamas
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Central Europe
Default Re: Revising GURPS Magic

Quote:
Originally Posted by Emerald Cat View Post
Earth to Stone is the most problematic on that score because it can create coinage metals. Most people seem to interpret the "simple metals" limitation as meaning that you can't create coinage metals or anachronistic metals. Under those limitations, destroying the local economy is unlikely.
I don't want to start the Earth to Stone (Metal) flame war again, just say that even if it can only make a few hundred pounds of lead and iron per casting, it means that either a mage with that spell can get rich quick selling created metal at the book prices, or prices are much lower than in the books, and the setting has no room for miners of those metals (or quarries of any stone that Earth to Stone can make) except as luxuries for use in no-mana zones. And dwarves mining and quarrying common minerals are cool. So are slaves sentenced to the mines, abandoned mines occupied by kobolds/wurms/demons, escorting shipments of supplies to the mines in the Murky Mountains through the Forest of Random Encounters, and a number of other tropes.

I don't ask that my fantasy settings be rational, but I ask that they resist players being players. Although some people very firmly disagree/interpret the short spell descriptions in a way that neutralizes them, most GMs think that allowing beginning mages to permanently create large amounts of metal in a vaguely low-tech setting is a bad idea.
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