Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24302820-20180101030511

While I like the idea of magic items being rare and special, these should still have a market value. As such, they can be bought and sold. There is both a supply and a demand, and thus there is a market. I don't want magic items to be too cheap, because that makes them too easy to acquire, and would thus change the feel of the setting. On the other hand, I don't want magic items to be so pricey that the loot from defeating a bad guy puts the troupe in a new tax-bracket. So, let's let the market decide this. Any magic item takes time to create, and the crafting mage's time is worth money. Such crafting will often have other requirements that would also have a monetary value, like material components or minimal experience/skill levels. Not only is there an absolute floor cost of the money needed to feed and house this mage--as well as pay for other enchantment requirements--but if this floor isn't economically feasible, then crafting magic items isn't a career field that anyone will seek. However, this would increase the rarity of magic items, and this lowered supply would increase their price. Increasing the price would in turn increase the demand for magic item creators, thus improving wages for them.

Rarity of skill is another self-correcting issue. If studying the skills necessary to enchant items is more difficult due to the rarity of people with that skill, then this not only increases their demand (and thus wages) as teachers, but also increases the earnings of those that successfully manage to study said arts.

Consider a young apprentice, looking for a new career path. If the wages they might earn for creating magic items are favourable, then this is a career they might pursue. However, if it's not worth their time, then our young apprentice will seek work elsewhere. This then will increase the demand for new enchanters, as discussed above, until the price point for earnings is comparable. The short version of all of this is that crafting magic items should be comparable to crafting mundane ones, adjusting for the time requirements, expertise, and added expenses, of course.

A counter-argument can be made that all magic items should only be made by old, experienced, and retired mages. These wizards would have the resources, expertise, and free time to create magic items to their hearts' content, and their wealthy retired state would mean that the normal economic adjustments for earning a living at item enchantment would no longer concern them. The obvious counter-counter-argument then is that almost no magic items would ever have much use to anyone who isn't otherwise a retired wizard. There might be many mystic goodies for hair loss, enhancing your bladder or erections, or forcing your grandchildren to visit, but almost no magic swords. This would make useful magic items rarer, thus more expensive, and thus create a market for non-retirees to start making these items with greater general utility.

With all that out of the way, we have been working on better guidelines for mystical tattooists, rune-enchanted items, alchemy, lunaruen, permanently-inscribed circles, and blood magic sacrifices for enchantment. These will all have similar mechanical bases to crafting mundane items, but each area of enchantment will have its own advantages and unique flavour. 