Salt

[AlexanderHowl]

Salt was also used to make brine, which was a preservation technique. Salt collection on the coast is actually fairly simple and required minimal skill and investment (though it required a lot of work). You could dig a hole in sand during low tide, line it with leaves and clay to make it waterproof, and let the sea fill it during high tide. You could go collect the salt from the edges of the hole right before high tide (the more saline water in the pool would not mix, so you would have to stir it after high tide to mix the new and old water). Salt collectors would create dozens of holes and could collect a few pounds of salt a day during the summer.

[mr beer]

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. I would change the price to the $25/lb given by Turhan's Bey Company and state explicitly that throwing the salt takes an extra second even if you have it in your hand already - more if you have to fish it out of your pockets. That solves the free bonus and doesn't create any more problems along the way.

Good pick up.

Another possible fix is to make normal salt $25/lb and Holy Salt (mined from far away mountainous plateaus infested with flesh eating yeti) costs $15 per oz.

[DanHoward]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Pretty sure that high-fat pig fat is traditionally preserved with salt. Yep.

I suppose it depends on the process. Jerky and dry-curing work best with minimal fat.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by mr beer

Another possible fix is to make normal salt $25/lb and Holy Salt (mined from far away mountainous plateaus infested with flesh eating yeti) costs $15 per oz.

Why is a fix even needed?

[Ulzgoroth]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Why is a fix even needed?

Well, if you care about the price of salt being realistic and agree that $25/lb is much more so than $15/oz...

(Why you care about realistic pricing in DF treasure tables is left as an exercise for the OP.)

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Well, if you care about the price of salt being realistic and agree that $25/lb is much more so than $15/oz...

if you care about realistic prices why wouldn't you just use Low-Tech?

(Why you care about realistic pricing in DF treasure tables is left as an exercise for the OP.)

Yeah this is the part I am confused about. Salt there is super expensive because it is a) treasure with b) in-game utility and the pricing there should reflect these things rather than "realism" (which is probably meaningless in Dungeon Fantasy as written). At $25/lb and no mechanical benefit it probably isn't even worth looting.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth

Well, if you care about the price of salt being realistic and agree that $25/lb is much more so than $15/oz...

(Why you care about realistic pricing in DF treasure tables is left as an exercise for the OP.)

Maybe you're concerned about the risk of the PCs deciding to render monster blood down for salt. Or learning Destroy Water and visiting the coast.

I've said before that as a relatively common rock that you can also get by running seawater onto waste ground and leaving it alone for a while, salt can't possibly cost more than, say, iron, which after all requires both fuel and skilled labor to process the no more common rock it comes from into metal. It's "expensive" mostly in the same sense as bread or firewood can be - it's not really *optional* no matter how poor you are.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

if you care about realistic prices why wouldn't you just use Low-Tech?

Does Low Tech even give a price for salt? It describes some of its chemical uses, and LTC3 describes its use in food preservation, but as best I can tell DF8 is the only place that has a price for salt.

That's one of the things with the "realistic price in DF" issue. It isn't that DF is expected to have realistic prices, its that DF has the only prices.

[seycyrus]

Originally Posted by RyanW

...
That's one of the things with the "realistic price in DF" issue. It isn't that DF is excepted to have realistic prices, its that DF has the only prices.

Are the prices or anything in DF realistic? I have known that salt was off for some time now, but assumed that prices for fabrics and gems etc. were more in line with reality.

[Phase_Shifter]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

You need good quality meat with low fat content for salt preservation.

This would be the first time I've ever heard bacon or ham referred to as having "low fat content."