07-23-2021, 11:39 AM | #31 | |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Cost to cast spells as a service
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Bill Stoddard I don't think we're in Oz any more. |
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07-23-2021, 02:36 PM | #32 |
Join Date: Apr 2020
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Re: Cost to cast spells as a service
But if mages are rare and the costs are high, then obviously you're in a different situation than if you can find a mage to cast whatever spell you're looking for at $5 per FP outside of Dungeon Fantasy, which does a decent job of changing the spells to prevent massive transformation with a pocket full of spells - Although disease is still probably effectively a thing of the past. Essential Metal, for example, would produce seven tons for $70, close to 5% of our present cost of iron. Plant Growth and Blossom similarly reduce food prices dramatically.
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07-23-2021, 07:07 PM | #33 | |
Join Date: May 2021
Location: Eastern Kentucky
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Re: Cost to cast spells as a service
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07-23-2021, 09:40 PM | #34 | |
Join Date: Apr 2020
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Re: Cost to cast spells as a service
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But in a world where it's easy to hire someone who (in favorable circumstances) can cast at -15 as an upper-middle class gig worker and the standard GURPS Magic rules are in effect, the economic tide flows toward really radical social transformation. Unless you implement a pretty aggressively conservative social order, as Kromm noted. |
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07-24-2021, 06:43 AM | #35 | |
Join Date: May 2021
Location: Eastern Kentucky
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Re: Cost to cast spells as a service
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I was just pointing out one of many ways to maintain a somewhat medieval setting by controlling various variables. Kromm chimed in with his own way of controlling those variables. If you don’t want magic mart or a magi-tech society it’s not that hard to prevent. |
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07-24-2021, 08:18 AM | #36 | |
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Boston, Hub of the Universe!
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Re: Cost to cast spells as a service
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And yeah, the economy is different from historical ones.
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Demi Benson |
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07-24-2021, 08:34 AM | #37 |
Join Date: Mar 2016
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Re: Cost to cast spells as a service
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07-24-2021, 09:27 AM | #38 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Re: Cost to cast spells as a service
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I think the usual problem (and this may just be a thought experiment for gamers who like to theory-craft, most of the time) is the handwaving technically creates loopholes in the worldbuilding --- and player mages (or whatever) with resources and agency can exploit those loopholes --- so you end up with a choice between "let the players exploit your less-than-rigorous worldbuilding" or "try to find solid logic to close the loopholes." But in practice, it doesn't come up at all if the players can just play along with whatever you write for them. |
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07-24-2021, 10:46 AM | #39 | |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
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Re: Cost to cast spells as a service
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Usually, players go along with it. We all want to play :) While theory-crafting, however, and in a setting where magic is easy and plentiful, and deities/supernatural beings do exist and influence the course of events, I would be fine telling the player : "You as player are correct, but your character would never spot this logic loophole or exploit it, because of an in-universe global "taboo" field preventing him for thinking about it, enforced by supernatural powers beyond the scope of mortal being." It is heavy handed, it is inelegant, but it solve the problem, and it is plausible. Same with telling a player : yes, by our knowledge of physics/chemistry/logic/... XXX would work. The universe your character is, however, run on magic and physics law are different, so it doesn't work. A somewhat often required answer to various infinite power construct involving portals, ... The players cannot have their cake (transmuting 1 kg of clay into 16kg of iron by expending a few hundreds calories - against all logic and science laws) and eat it (by insisting they should be able to "logically and scientifically" use that iron for whatever scheme they can think of) |
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07-24-2021, 12:45 PM | #40 | ||
Join Date: Apr 2020
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Re: Cost to cast spells as a service
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Of course, if a player invests in Multimillionaire 2 and enough magic/economic sense to transform the economy, I'd just let him. Kind of a weird thing to want to do in a standard fantasy campaign, but let them have fun. A self-made merchant-mage millionaire? Why not? Why shouldn't you totally transform your society as a player character? |
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