Magic Item Value

Alex Koponen akoponen at MOSQUITONET.COM
Wed Feb 4 00:17:14 CET 2004


I agree. Good points.
  One of the main points of my rewrite was to decrease the emphasis on MEL
and proportionally increase the emphasis on EL since it is actually the EL
that (usually) determines how powerful an item is. MEL will reflect the
stature of the maker and in a small way does vary the power of an item,
particulrly ones that have acastable power.
  I didn't want to make too big a change. When an economic system that
makes sense is written and adapted for P&P we can fit in the magic item
costs consistent with the economic system.
  Note that with real scarcity, such as is the case for magic items in many
books of fantasy, prices can be astronomical and nearly unrelated to the
cost of manufacture. Guilds love to create such scarcity so as to enhance
the income of the guild members - which requires suppression of competition
from non-guild members.
 - Alex

On Tue, 3 Feb 2004 15:20:39 -0500, Choinski, Burton
<Burton.Choinski at MATRIXONE.COM> wrote:

>I, for one, prefer the "price modifier" based on effect idea.  You just
need
>to go through and do the dirty work and figure out what things are worth.
>
>Guidlines:
>  1 GC/(Characteristic Increase/10)(RU)
>  1 GC/(EL80 skill increase/10) (RU)
>
>So take a fighting dagger (2sc) and a broadsword (13sc) -- both add, say
+10
>S.  Do we now say the dagger is worth 12sc and the sword 23sc?  That sounds
>pretty fair.  But is +10 E worth the same as +10 S?  Certainly not for a
>combat item.
>
>You could get real deep and hairy (which I have no problem with) on
>assigning value to different effects.  In the example above you may assign
>15cc per point of increase in D and A for the dagger (the attributes
>required for the skill) while the item is weilded, which assumes that you
>get the full benefits of those attributes (toward bonus and toward skill
>maximums, or towards any figured attributes).  If an attribute other than
>those that the skill uses is increased, the cost is 1sc per point of
>attribute.  And if the increase only applies to the attribute itself (and
>possibly any bonus), but does not apply to skill maximums or figured
>attributes, subtract 5cc per point from the value.
>
>A similar splintering may be needed for skills.  In the case of the dagger,
>adding +1 EL in its use may well be worth 1gc.  Or adding +1 EL, defensive
>only (Blade of parry) might be worth 8sc per EL and one that may only apply
>offensively might be worth 8sc per EL.
>
>Adding skill unrelated to the use of the item will add 1GC per EL (or 1sc
>per EL if it is an "or 80" skill), based on how much of a pain in the ass
it
>is..  A dagger that grants +2 EL to your forest survival while it is in
your
>posession is probably worth the +2gc.  One that only grants you the skill
>when the dagger is sheathed is probably still worth 90% of that value
(still
>good for sensing ambushes or hunting), at +18sc.  One that only gave you
teh
>addes when you have the dagger drawn is starting to become a pain in the
ass
>(one hand is now "busy", player has to remember to say he has the dagger
>drawn, etc) and is probably worth a 50% discount there (+1gc).
>
>And since such weapons are hard enough to get as it is, adding a +10% bonus
>per added effect is probably fair.  Thus, a dagger that added to S, D, A
and
>St has three additional effects, and thus the total cost of the magic adds
>is upped by 30%.
>
>The one thing that has to kept in mind is that value increase has reflect
>the factor of (risk X work).  If they players can get away with turning 2sc
>daggers into 12sc daggers, they have 1gc of value that has to be accounted
>for, else your economy gets whacked.  If your average magician makes 3GC a
>month (just for point of illustration, becoming 1sc per day), then unless
it
>takes him 10 days of risk-less effort, or 5 days of moderate risk, there is
>no "game mechanics = world mechanics" reason why he can't crank out however
>many daggers he can pull the mana for, as fast as possible.  If he was
>working on something that added 10GC of value to the item, it should either
>take a month and 7GC of material/expenses, or 10 days and 9GC of
>materials/expenses.
>
>I tried to do something like this with my merchating thought experiment,
and
>followed the basic idea with the construction rules I had posted (the cost
>of the raw materials basically equaled the labor cost in time to produce,
>with modifications for risk).  If you have a consistent economic base, then
>it will be a snap to figure magic pricing. :}
>
>
>----------------------------------------
>Burton Choinski
>Principal Software Engineer, Quality Engineering
>email: burton.choinski at matrixone.com
>
>phone: 978-589-4089
>fax:      978-589-5903
>
>MatrixOne, Inc.
>210 Littleton Rd.
>Westford, Ma 01886
>www.matrixone.com
>
>The First in Intelligent Collaborative Commerce
>----------------------------------------
>
>



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