View Single Post
Old 03-11-2019, 12:09 PM   #6
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: Worth of Programmable Matter

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gef View Post
Thanks for the reply. Sounds like you've set it up where it won't have too much weird effects on the economy, but time is money and "right now" is a thing people do pay extra for. If a valuable shard can be used to make most anything fast, people will hoard them for emergencies - I can see them used as currency. Also I can see making a weapon from a shard as a rite of passage for a warrior. -GEF
Yeah, ideally the Shards won't damage to economy too much. Disallowing the Shards from being used to create biological products was partially for this (I wanted there to still be a trade in expensive spices, silk, etc), partially to make monster loot (spider silk, dragon scales, etc) more special, and partially so warfare doesn't get a massive boost (food at twice the normal price is a steal for an army, as it means the bulk of the military is involved in combat and similar, rather than just the logistics of moving food around).

Hoarding is one of the reasons I considered giving Shards something of an expiration date, but I'm not certain that's really necessary. As for currency, this iteration of the idea (I've had variants of it a few times, but this is the most complete) actually started with the concept of Dungeon Coins that functioned the same way and were found in hoards within dungeons, but I feel making them basically shattered monster cores works better. As it stands, there are merchants that set up shop dangerously close to dungeons (typically with retired adventurers as guards) and accept Shards as currency for much-needed supplies, and will also purchase (or barter for) unneeded magic items and the like (dungeons also produce magic items, either wielded by sapient monsters or hidden away in chests). The exchange rate is worse than if the adventurer were to return to town, sell the Shards, and use the resulting money to purchase what he/she needs, but you can't beat the convenience.

As for rituals, creating something through Shardcraft is incredibly easy (provided you could make the item already), but it could be used to prove you know how to make something. Unmaking something through Shardcraft also teaches you how to make it using more traditional means, so some craftsmen will expand their repertoire in this way. I should also note that being able to create matter via Shardcraft requires you to have unmade it before, so most people who expect to frequently encounter Shards will use red ones to unmake a small quantity of a wide variety of materials to allow them to make it on-demand when needed.

I currently debating if Shardpurses should have a limit as to the worth of Shards they can hold (much like the Wallets in The Legend of Zelda), and if so how the cost-to-capacity relationship should work, and how much "starter" Shardpurses (which are quite cheap, so that every adventurer can be expected to have one) should hold. If I do go with this option, each person would be limited to a single Shardpurse due to some mystical mumbo-jumbo or another.
__________________
GURPS Overhaul
Varyon is offline   Reply With Quote