On 12/4/05, Michael R. Stork <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > No, saying that only your version of a setting is logical is what > bothers me.
I didn't say (or at least INTEND to say) that only my imagination is logical. But I maintain that cheap magic shops are illogical in any case. > There can be > settings where things are as you describe them, where wizards are rare > and secretive and magic is carefully doled out. There can also be > settings where magic developed right along with civilization, it's > common and in use as much as technology is in our frame of reference, > and walking into your local magic shop and buying a magical doodad is as > easy as walking into Radio Shack and buying a stereo. That's fine. But logically, that would mean magic use becomes a specialization - people are less likely to devote their careers to magery when they know they can go to Mana Shack and buy a new wand. There's a tension here, economically, between the demand of the buyer and the numbers of magic speicalists. The cheaper the product, the fewer go into magery. The fewer mages, the more expensive the wands. Ideally, low-price demands large-scale manufacture, which is only possible if you have large numbers of factory workers. But with factory workers who are skilled mages, you have a very powerful workforce. :) Their demands for higher wages will not go unheeded long, as their unions have more tools at their disposal than do the Teamsters. And beyond that, if this is the lot of the common workforce, you don't have much of a MARKET for special wands and doodads, because every family can make them at home. You don't need hte sort of refined machinery that it takes to make calculators or even bound books. You just need a mage with time at his disposal. Perhaps someone has a monopoly on a physical object required in the process? That would help create a mass production, but it would also drive up the cost, as monopolies invariably do. The short story: If mages are exceedingly common, there's little market for their goods. Yeah, they'd be cheap, but they'd have to be - and there's little return on the investment to make them. Market production is unlikely. If mages are rare, then they charge a rare price for their work. Magic items will generally be prized items - if they find their way to a shopkeep's shelves, they're giong to be guarded and pricey. _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
