Magic Item Creation Run-through: The Felfang Amulet

DarkPumpkin · 12-16-2021, 10:20 AM

In the real world, expensive luxury homes or unique objets d'art aren't priced according to the hours of labor and the raw materials. The seller can price them on a whim and if they are serious about realising some cash, are beholden to whatever amount the small number of potential buyers are willing to outlay. The same luxury home might be priced at $5m, $10m, $20m, or whatever.

So in a fantasy game, a magical item might be priced at 10x the price in a kingdom where there's a number of cashed up crusader barons returned with foreign gold, compared to the same item in a land of impoverished gentry.
Illiquid markets can seem arbitrary and asking prices vary by large multiples.
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy seems committed to working such things out in detail, which I don't enjoy because as indicated above I think it's false precision, but that's a convention of Dungeon Fantasy and GURPS in general.
I just don't see the point of bean counting in TFT.

12-16-2021, 10:20 AM	#14
DarkPumpkin Join Date: Jan 2018 Location: Cidri (exact location withheld)	Re: Magic Item Creation Run-through: The Felfang Amulet In the real world, expensive luxury homes or unique objets d'art aren't priced according to the hours of labor and the raw materials. The seller can price them on a whim and if they are serious about realising some cash, are beholden to whatever amount the small number of potential buyers are willing to outlay. The same luxury home might be priced at $5m, $10m, $20m, or whatever. So in a fantasy game, a magical item might be priced at 10x the price in a kingdom where there's a number of cashed up crusader barons returned with foreign gold, compared to the same item in a land of impoverished gentry. Illiquid markets can seem arbitrary and asking prices vary by large multiples. GURPS Dungeon Fantasy seems committed to working such things out in detail, which I don't enjoy because as indicated above I think it's false precision, but that's a convention of Dungeon Fantasy and GURPS in general. I just don't see the point of bean counting in TFT.