Salt

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Cities also contain a lot of livestock in this period. Tons of horses, of course (which end up on the menu at the end of their working life), but chickens and pigs were kept in the city for their ability to turn garbage into eggs and meat, and (small numbers of cows) were kept in the city because it's easier to transfer hay long distances than milk. ....

I did not think of so many small "farm" animals in major cities. I concede in embarrassing ignorance.
To think of how bad Victorian cities smelled with all the human and horse waste, but that medieval places had all that and chicken, cow, and pig effluvia. Ugh.

[Tyneras]

While I stand by my earlier comment, I also don't think it was very constructive.

What would be useful:
1. A list of common low tech materials (metals, spices, textiles, etc.) with prices at the source. A short blurb as to why they were that price would be helpful. Turmeric is cheap because its easy to grow and harvest, saffron is expensive because it isn't. Lord of the Manor (Pyramid #3/52 p.4) has a short list of selected materials, which leads me to believe it is doable.

2. Where the materials were found, both historically and as a general description so they can be dropped into new worlds. Those moments when you can say "Oh, I guess gnomish cooking is turmeric heavy because their lands are prefect for it." are fun for us world building addicts.

3. General guidelines on increasing prices based on distance and method of travel. I don't know about other people, but it feels better to extrapolate some results with some sort of logical underpinning than just arbitrarily declare them.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

2. Where the materials were found, both historically and as a general description so they can be dropped into new worlds. Those moments when you can say "Oh, I guess gnomish cooking is turmeric heavy because their lands are prefect for it." are fun for us world building addicts.

Where things are harvested, and where they are desired, also creates a basis for creating an economic picture. Establishing or cutting off a trade route, or bypassing a trade monopoly in a given good, is one of the things that tends to make history happen.

[Bicorn]

Originally Posted by Blind Mapmaker

The $15/ounce number probably comes from the fact that throwing salt at zombies gives +1 to Turn Zombie and True Faith rolls. Presumably you don't want that to be a constant free bonus.

$15 still sounds a bit much for a one-use* +1 bonus to one specific spell. Though I may be used to more easily accessible casting bonuses since my campaign uses a lot of the optional magical material rules (zodiacal correspondences, etc.)
*surely you don't expect to be able to just pick all the scattered grains up from a dirty dungeon floor afterwards. Well, unless you're talking about a single chunk of unground salt, but I would rule it needs to be sprinkled - it's how these kinds of things are traditionally used.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Bicorn

Though I may be used to more easily accessible casting bonuses since my campaign uses a lot of the optional magical material rules (zodiacal correspondences, etc.)

Without using those (optional and not discussed in the DF line) rules, there's actually no simple, easy, or cheap way to get a bonus to a spell at all. Without character points anyways. For Turning Undead, exorcisms, etc (but not spells!), a 250$ holy symbol gets you +1, $1000 gets you +2.

$15 for a one off use for one spell is great because that's basically it outside exotic magic items. When used on True Faith, it's also great because a) it's way cheaper than a super holy symbol and b) it stacks with the use of a holy symbol. If you want a +3 to turn undead, you have to get a $1000 holy symbol and salt.