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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!princeton!astrovax!fisher!eosp1!robison
From: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: WISHES, and the economics of making magic objects
Message-ID: <1268@eosp1.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 21-Nov-84 13:09:44 EST
Article-I.D.: eosp1.1268
Posted: Wed Nov 21 13:09:44 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 22-Nov-84 07:33:05 EST
References: <943@aecom.UUCP> <47@cmu-cs-k.ARPA>
Reply-To: robison@eosp1.UUCP (Tobias D. Robison)
Organization: Exxon Office Systems, Princeton
Lines: 21
Summary: 

One thing that has troubled me about AD+D is the remarkable difficulty
of creating magic objects, relative to their value.  Many of the really
expensive items seem well-priced, but the low-priced objects,
particularly potions, make no sense at all.

(In discussing price, I am referring primarily to the "value" of the
objects in the AD+D DM guide.)

For example, it makes no sense to me that potions of healing should
be more common than wands of healing, which would have many more
charges and would be easier to carry.  I would also expect potions to
be made in enormous quantities (for economy of scale), but they never
seem to OCCUR in large quantities.

It appears that the object values were set to be reasonable regarding
discovered treasure, and the description of how to create magical
treasure was made in order to discourage the creation of magic
(since the point of the game is to find it, not create it).

  - Toby Robison (not Robinson!)
  {allegra, decvax!ittvax, fisher, princeton}!eosp1!robison