Powerstone calculations

dwightemarsh · 10-03-2015, 02:06 PM

I expect that others have already started threads on this topic, but I can’t seem to find them.

I have been considering Powerstones in Quick and Dirty Enchantment, and I have to say, I think the calculations for prices of Powerstones in Magic seem off.
The assumptions used in Magic is that energy used in Quick and Dirty Enchantment is valued at $1 per point of energy, and energy used in Slow and Sure Enchantment is valued at $33 per point. The system looks at creating items with Quick and Dirty and provides a maximum level of energy for Quick and Dirty of 60 points, saying that using Powerstones to increase level is uneconomical.

That can’t be true.

In a normal mana environment, a powerstone can recover a point of energy a day, assuming it is drained on a regular basis. The assumption of having 60 points available is based on a six man enchanting circle. If each person in the circle had a five point powerstone, that would increase the range from 60 to 90, or if you droped the available power per enchanter from 10 to 9, (assuming that the average HT is 10 and they don’t spend so much FP that they fall unconscious) that provides 84 points of energy for quick and dirty enchantments.. A five point stone is valued at $595, and if a point of energy is valued at $1, if you harvested 300 points of energy which you valued at $1 a point, you have received over a 50% return on capital.
Once you have more than 80 points of energy available for Quick and Dirty Enchantments at a cost of $1 per point of energy, the economics of creating powerstones totally changes. Now, the cost of a flawless powerstone of power n will be $80+216/206(cost of flawless powerstone of power n-1), if you assume a powerstone with a quirk is totally valueless (a simplifying assumption) . Assuming that you start with an unenchanted object of power 0, a twenty one point powerstone would cost $2848. Assuming that energy is still valued at $1 per point and as a stone would recover 300 points a year, that is still more than a 10% return on capital. Thus, now we have (21+9)*6 =150 points of energy available for quick and dirty enchantments.
That is assuming that I am only willing to pay $1 per point of energy and that I need a 10% return on capital. What if I was willing to pay $2 per point of energy for quick and dirty, that would still be a lot cheaper and faster than $33 per point for slow and sure. For instance, a 33 point powerstone would cost around $6300 each, six would cost around $37800. With six such stones and with 9 points each from enchanters, we should be able to get 42 points per enchanter, or 252 points for a quick and dirty enchantment. IIRC, it takes 250 points to create a basic golem. With the recharge rate on the powerstones, , you should be able to create 11 golems per year. With slow and sure, the price of a golem should be $8250, lets assume the market is generally able to support selling 11 per year at $2000 each. That would give you gross revenue of $22,000, If you pay $1 for energy from the enchanters, you pay 9 energy per enchanter*11 enchantments *6 enchanters*$1 per point of energy=$594 to the employees, and you have $21,406 as a return to capital. That seems like a really nice return

That assumes that we treat any ordinary failures that quirk the stone as making the stone worthless. 60% of the time, this only quirks the stone rather than destroying it, so the formula for powerstone costs is somewhat overstated.

When you look at Magic, there are all sorts of explanations of what factors might be applied to make magic items rarer. Obviously, those things still apply, the above calculations assume that markets are stable enough and magi are common enough so that you can set up magic item creation on an industrial scale, which may or may not be true. However, I think the baseline presentation of magic item creation is already incredibly difficult and expensive, and then mentions that you can make it harder. Showing how it is not quite as bad as all that, (but can be that bad if you want it to be) seems more in the GURPs spirit.

10-03-2015, 02:06 PM	#1
dwightemarsh Join Date: Jul 2009	Powerstone calculations I expect that others have already started threads on this topic, but I can’t seem to find them. I have been considering Powerstones in Quick and Dirty Enchantment, and I have to say, I think the calculations for prices of Powerstones in Magic seem off. The assumptions used in Magic is that energy used in Quick and Dirty Enchantment is valued at $1 per point of energy, and energy used in Slow and Sure Enchantment is valued at $33 per point. The system looks at creating items with Quick and Dirty and provides a maximum level of energy for Quick and Dirty of 60 points, saying that using Powerstones to increase level is uneconomical. That can’t be true. In a normal mana environment, a powerstone can recover a point of energy a day, assuming it is drained on a regular basis. The assumption of having 60 points available is based on a six man enchanting circle. If each person in the circle had a five point powerstone, that would increase the range from 60 to 90, or if you droped the available power per enchanter from 10 to 9, (assuming that the average HT is 10 and they don’t spend so much FP that they fall unconscious) that provides 84 points of energy for quick and dirty enchantments.. A five point stone is valued at $595, and if a point of energy is valued at $1, if you harvested 300 points of energy which you valued at $1 a point, you have received over a 50% return on capital. Once you have more than 80 points of energy available for Quick and Dirty Enchantments at a cost of $1 per point of energy, the economics of creating powerstones totally changes. Now, the cost of a flawless powerstone of power n will be $80+216/206(cost of flawless powerstone of power n-1), if you assume a powerstone with a quirk is totally valueless (a simplifying assumption) . Assuming that you start with an unenchanted object of power 0, a twenty one point powerstone would cost $2848. Assuming that energy is still valued at $1 per point and as a stone would recover 300 points a year, that is still more than a 10% return on capital. Thus, now we have (21+9)6 =150 points of energy available for quick and dirty enchantments. That is assuming that I am only willing to pay $1 per point of energy and that I need a 10% return on capital. What if I was willing to pay $2 per point of energy for quick and dirty, that would still be a lot cheaper and faster than $33 per point for slow and sure. For instance, a 33 point powerstone would cost around $6300 each, six would cost around $37800. With six such stones and with 9 points each from enchanters, we should be able to get 42 points per enchanter, or 252 points for a quick and dirty enchantment. IIRC, it takes 250 points to create a basic golem. With the recharge rate on the powerstones, , you should be able to create 11 golems per year. With slow and sure, the price of a golem should be $8250, lets assume the market is generally able to support selling 11 per year at $2000 each. That would give you gross revenue of $22,000, If you pay $1 for energy from the enchanters, you pay 9 energy per enchanter11 enchantments 6 enchanters$1 per point of energy=$594 to the employees, and you have $21,406 as a return to capital. That seems like a really nice return That assumes that we treat any ordinary failures that quirk the stone as making the stone worthless. 60% of the time, this only quirks the stone rather than destroying it, so the formula for powerstone costs is somewhat overstated. When you look at Magic, there are all sorts of explanations of what factors might be applied to make magic items rarer. Obviously, those things still apply, the above calculations assume that markets are stable enough and magi are common enough so that you can set up magic item creation on an industrial scale, which may or may not be true. However, I think the baseline presentation of magic item creation is already incredibly difficult and expensive, and then mentions that you can make it harder. Showing how it is not quite as bad as all that, (but can be that bad if you want it to be) seems more in the GURPs spirit.