From: David Dunham (ddunham@radiomail.net)
Date: Mon 31 Jan 1994 - 09:22:48 EET
John Medway wrote
>The following broadside is brought to you by someone who has never played
>an Issaries, 'cos it didn't look interesting, and has thought that that
>was a shame.
I have, because it was (under RQ2 at any rate).
>Why would fixed cash prices -- and what I see with it: a register-tape
>from the checkout at Target -- seem to fit storytelling better? Neither
>are appropriate for a bronze age society, and neither fits the picture.
Cash prices are a convenience of gaming, just as the standardized spirit
magic names are. They save lots of time in play (just as they do in the
real world). I don't see the attraction in playing out barter, just as I
don't see the attraction in playing out a shaman's summoning ritual.
I'd rather have the convenience of play; you'd rather try to get people
into the barter mindset. Perhaps one compromise would be to use the lists,
but impose a time element in non-cash markets (the time it takes to find
someone willing to barter). This way it would be easier for all concerned
when the adventurers come in with 4 broadswords they think are worth a
riding horse. The lunar is simply a much more convenient unit than the cow
-- it doesn't make sense to price things in hundredths of a cow.
>And nevertheless, I'd say it was *not* an inconvenience if everything
>was measured in barter value. If you want to keep it simple, just say
>that the *usual* value of a barter unit was 10 clacks. Then we've all
>got something with which we can easily work. You have your convenience,
>I have something which I believe is more culturally relevant and colorful.
>And others have suggestions, and ability to choose.
If there's a coin which coincides with the barter unit, why not call the
barter unit by the name of the coin?
Too bad this is RQ, and we can't just be abstract like Pendragon, where you
have a librum of stuff, without having to worry what it is (even tho a
librum is technically a coin, it's used more like a barter equivalent).
>The truth of it is that all prices, no matter with what unit they are
>measured, should change with time, with respect to the index, as well
>as other price. Whether that is measured in change in the number of
>chickens, or clacks, it does not matter. Without such variance in prices,
>mercantile activity is dull and completely deterministic.
True. The Issaries trader had fun going to distant places like Balazar
(though the market did eventually become saturated).
0,,
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