Re: (TFT) Magical vs Non-Magical Lights

[ErolB1@aol.com]

In a message dated 2/2/2008 6:28:59 AM Central Standard Time, 
selfinflicted_wounds@boardermail.com writes:


> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: ErolB1
> > Magic vs non-magic lighting
> > 
> > Given these assumptions, the cost of a magical Light item should be: $0.4
> > times 7 divided by 0.2% or $1400. And this with assumptions that 
> > pushed the price
> > down. I'd have to bend the assumptions much worse to get the price down to
> > the AW standard of only $500 for a magical Light item.
> > 
> 
> A major problem with "Industral Disease" is the use of a full-blown cash 
> economey (fiat even) in a medieval background.
> 
> A better approach to economics is to start by asking, where is all this lamp 
> oil coming from in the first place?

o Given the existance of gunpowder weapons, I'd say the economy resembles 
something a bit later than a purely medieval background. 

o In my campaign, a lot of trade is on a barter basis (especially local trade 
out in the farming villages), but the law of supply & demand doesn't go away 
in a barter economy.

o I am assuming that prices are in equilibrium (good catch) whether they are 
paid in silver coins or in kind. In particular, I'm assuming that there is 
enough lamp oil available at the offered price to meet the demand for lamp oil at 
the asked-for price. 

o Finally, making lamp oil less available makes the "industrial disease" 
problem *worse* IMO, by making magical lights relatively more attractive. If lamp 
oil costs $0.4 per liter when it is available, but the supply is uncertain, 
then when a Light item comes along at $1400, it will be more attractive to buy 
it, or trade for it, than if one did have a reliable source of lamp oil. 


Now I do handwave the sources of lamp oil (and of other, similar "raw 
materials") because I'm not trying to run a complete economic simulation. I'm just 
trying to avoid bogosities equivalent to having people living in the middle of 
the Alberta oil fields use natural gas for their stoves and dryers - while at 
the same time insisting on importing coal for home heating. 


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