[DF] Magic Items: A little goes a long way?

[weby]

Originally Posted by Pragmatic

Okay, came up with a question. It's about ioun stones.

How do you treat the stones floating around your head? I'm guessing it's a feature and you don't stat it up?

It is a item giving powers/bonuses that is easy to grab, like it was a gadget that can be stolen with a simple unopposed DX roll.

[hal]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The last few editions of D&D have prices such that PCs get drained of loot, but can easily hire cheap labor, the end result is that prices are inflated relative to wages. In Pathfinder an unskilled laborer makes 1sp/day, which means he can afford one poor quality meal per day and nothing else. He needs to save up 20 days pay for a knife. The prices aren't based on anything except game balance for PC adventurers.

Such is often the case. ;)

It is one of the reasons I take a hard look at the game system economics to see whether or not it is internally self-consistent or not. C&S third edition was set up one way, and C&S 4th edition made some changes - changes that appeared to have been a simple mathematical change in most things, but were ultimately flawed in other things (sort of a multiply by a factor instead of dividing by a factor). Once I noted that, I created a web page at Buffnet (too bad they went out of business!) that spelled these out and offered fixes.

Likewise, you've done the same in analyzing some Pathfinder material. I suppose that if I did the same for my D&D books (3.5), I may find similar anomalies. The biggest thing however, is to try and make the entire system "internally self-consistent". If daily wages are expected to be X, but the prices for earning aren't based on that, then something is wrong. Maybe someday, I'll have to take a closer look at A MAGICAL MEDIEVAL SOCIETY: WESTERN EUROPE second edition. That's largely supposed to be a D20 style game supplement that hooks together farming production with costs and incomes.

Pretty much why I tend to use HARN WORLD and HARN MANOR as a system for most of my medieval games. A bushel of Wheat is given a specific value (a little less than was historical in England circa 1200 AD, but close enough) and the game system grants an income based on an acre of wheat that matches what the bushel's value is (after accounting for the yield per acre that matches historical values to a large degree). The income for a mercenary knight matches in Harn World, what I've come across as the income for a mercenary knight plus one horse circa 1200 AD. So, 2 silvers a day tends to be a common "low end income" for semi-skilled labor.

As with all things, few things will ever be flawless. But - one can always try to find things that are less flawed than others. ;)

[Kalzazz]

All RPGs have a price for a standard sword so I use that

So a D&D sword costs 15 moneys, and a GURPS costs 600, so D&D to GURPS is x40

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by hal

Once I noted that, I created a web page at Buffnet (too bad they went out of business!) that spelled these out and offered fixes.

What was the URL? It might be in the Internet Archive, and I'd like to see it.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

All RPGs have a price for a standard sword so I use that

So a D&D sword costs 15 moneys, and a GURPS costs 600, so D&D to GURPS is x40

Specifically, a long sword and 15 GP. Long swords _always_ cost 15 GP in D&D except in worlds with exotic assumptions like Dark Sun and Krynn but it's quite regular between editions.

You could try and nuance things and assume that the "standard D&D sword is "cheap" by Gurps standards. "cheap" swords almost certainly badly outnumber "good" ones in normal worlds.

You may need to pick a more relevant to PCs commodity. In Star Wars I'd pick Heavy Blaster Pistols rather than swords. That'd end up with 500 SW credits equaling 5600 Gurps $ which I'd round down to a 1 to 10 ratio. Oddly enough that's the same ratio I ended up using with D&D GP to Gurps $ in my longruning World of D'y'r't campaign.

What I discovered in that game was that calculations in Gurps $ ended up being unneeded as no one had a Job or Independent Income. GP ended up beign used all the time.

[Kalzazz]

Star Wars has swords to. So does White Wolf, CP2020, Earthdawn, Rifts, Palladium Fantasy, MERP etc

That is what makes swords so great

The main problem is that all systems have different relative prices

In D&D basic healing potions cost more than swords, in GURPS the reverse

In Star Wars 200 blaster pistols gets you a shiny new freighter. GURPS nope. Etc etc

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

In Star Wars 200 blaster pistols gets you a shiny new freighter. GURPS nope. Etc etc

You're not building the right ships with the right system. With Ve2 I could produce a brand new Stock Light Freighter for $1 million. You just needed the right tech assumptions at he right size. At 10 gurps $ to 1 SW credit that comes out right.