A couple of questions about powerstones

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by Plane

I could also see there being stuff like tariffs on powerstones by college, like maybe the most innocent like healing are tariff free but there's a +90% tax on selling necromancy powerstones.

Not sure where all-purpose would fall though, should in theory be the most taxed.

IMHO it would just be easier to raise revenue by 'licensing' enchanters. An enchanter (certainly a circle of them) are a lot easier to track than exactly what they are casting. Or a relatively tiny and easy to smuggle item.

An annual license raises money with minimal time investment by authorities.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Plane

I could also see there being stuff like tariffs on powerstones by college, like maybe the most innocent like healing are tariff free but there's a +90% tax on selling necromancy powerstones.

Not sure where all-purpose would fall though, should in theory be the most taxed.

That's an interesting worldbuilding opportunity, since how much each is taxed would say a lot about society, or at least about the people setting the taxes. Could also lead to games centering around smuggling powerstones from places where that type is lightly taxed to those where it's heavily taxed but strongly desired.

EDIT: For example, Fire College powerstones might be heavily taxed in some places due to some lord being paranoid about the risk fires have to cities, and lightly taxed in places that see Fire magic as a way to keep those fires controlled, and thus less harmful.

EDIT: *reads Witchking's post* Good point. Probably the license fees would vary by what the license is for, so the effect is similar.

[RGTraynor]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Or arrested. One use for medium-sized Mind College Only Powerstones is to reach the 30 energy cost of Enslave without obvious assistants and ritual.

Quite. I really can't see much of any civilized society where even so much as the knowledge of such spells (outside the security apparat) wouldn't be illegal.

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

That's an interesting worldbuilding opportunity, since how much each is taxed would say a lot about society, or at least about the people setting the taxes. Could also lead to games centering around smuggling powerstones from places where that type is lightly taxed to those where it's heavily taxed but strongly desired.

Absolutely. A current situation in my gameworld is in the colossally disproportionate number of mages in the Elven Empire, how they're pushing magical item export to mitigate their financial crunch, and how much the international mages' guild dislikes that and is pushing back against it. I hadn't thought of a smuggling trade based around that, but it only makes sense.

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by RGTraynor

Absolutely. A current situation in my gameworld is in the colossally disproportionate number of mages in the Elven Empire, how they're pushing magical item export to mitigate their financial crunch, and how much the international mages' guild dislikes that and is pushing back against it. I hadn't thought of a smuggling trade based around that, but it only makes sense.

Tariffs on trade cargos might certainly exist in pre-industrial fantasy campaigns. So some forms of smuggling are likely to exist.

However how many fantasy worlds have border controls? Customs? Body Searches at the seaport/airport?

I mean sure I can see tax avoidance...however individual smuggling likely does not exist. Doubtful that a lot of campaign worlds would 'outlaw' the importation of Powerstones, just tax them. So bringing Powerstones into a country would not be illegal per se. When the Powerstone (or other magical item) is sold the seller might incur a tax obligation. Whether that tax ends up getting paid is like asking oneself what percentage of cash tips end up being declared to the IRS? How often do articles pop up in local papers about sub shops (or other cash heavy businesses) getting shut down for tax evasion, money laundering, failure to declare?

So potential PC grey market types might be looking at charges of tax evasion but not smuggling.

That then raises the question? How many 'enforcement agents' does the local Exchequer have? What are their skill levels?

[Prince Charon]

Um, smuggling to avoid a tax obligation on legal items happens all the time. Cigarette taxes, for example, or the Tea Tax in the pre-Revolution American colonies. 'Smuggling' does not just mean 'trafficking in illegal goods,' it means bringing things in illegally.

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Um, smuggling to avoid a tax obligation on legal items happens all the time. Cigarette taxes, for example, or the Tea Tax in the pre-Revolution American colonies. 'Smuggling' does not just mean 'trafficking in illegal goods,' it means bringing things in illegally.

However those examples are to avoid a legal monopoly.

If the government has declared 'we are the only place where Powerstones can be bought' and you are sneaking Powerstones into the country, that would be smuggling.

If the government has declared 'we get 5% of the price of all Powerstone sales' bringing Powerstones into the country is perfectly legal even if you intend to later evade said tax. So you would not be guilty of anything, until you sold it and failed to pay the tax.

Either way you could be arrested, the question is just what the charge would be.

Honestly it is just a lot easier logistically to license Enchaters to raise money. There are not (in most game settings) that many of them and for their business to work they have to be known to the public and in a more or less fixed location. Except of edge cases the license model should work.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Witchking

If the government has declared 'we get 5% of the price of all Powerstone sales' bringing Powerstones into the country is perfectly legal even if you intend to later evade said tax. So you would not be guilty of anything, until you sold it and failed to pay the tax.

Specifically, it would be smuggling to evade a tax, instead of smuggling to evade a ban. Either way, it is still smuggling, even if one probably has a harsher penalty than the other.

[RGTraynor]

I agree that few fantasy worlds display such controls. But that's far more along the lines of that being an element of medieval life the vast majority of GMs and setting designers ignore -- or, more often, are utterly ignorant of -- than that it's illogical on the face of it.

And I admit I don't bust the chops of my players on the subject that much more. You can attest, Witchking, that (for instance) it isn't my practice to hammer parties with tolls on every bridge, with turnstiles on every provincial and district border, and needing to bribe every port official. But that's more by way of me being less of a pain in the ass than that they're not actually there.