Random Thoughts & Links for 5/28/21

Just a few thoughts before I go finish my manuscript.

- I was looking at the pricing for spellstones that duplicate potions . . . ones that slipped my notice. Like an Invisibility spelltone for $400, when an Invisibility potion costs $2,450. Sure, the potion losts 1dx10 minutes, and the spellstone 1 minute. But no one buys an Invisibility spellstone for anything but ephemeral combat advantage or protection, and no one drinks an Invisibility potion for long-term exploration, either. So the spellstone is very likely underpriced.

If you had the elixir, you could sell it for $2450 x 40% = $980, which nets you 2 spellstones and $180. A wealthy delver with a solid Merchant skill can turn it into 6 spellstones, and that's definitely more useful.

I'm looking at others - some seem like economic issues (one is underpriced vis-a-vis the other), others don't. Haste, Strength, Wisdom, and a few others need side-by-side comparisons. I should have just said no to special-order spellstones. It's been a nonstop headache . . . and the PCs depend on them to win fights, and so the boss fights tend to be harder because the foes need to be able to counter such items to be relevant, which only pushes the arms race of getting them.

Advice to new DF GMs - don't allow people to just buy spellstones, potions, etc. at whim. Just don't. The game becomes about them.

- Here is a nice look at some new advantages in Delvers to Grow.

- A look at "Cleave."

- Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord is a brutal, brutal game to start. I started laughing when I was reading about his high-stat, well-equipped badass. Yeah, Wizardry rips through delvers like crazy. You need to just gut it out, get a few guys up levels, and then use them to support up the guys with potential. And survivors have potential all on their own. It's a tough, unforgiving game.