Pantzike
Scout
Great discussion. So here's the fix I've come up with:
If all items with IG value are tagged, then there won't be any problems discerning what's stealable. No tag, not stealable. No tag, can't be sold. Phys rep can be returned and they can't be sold, until tagged. I think this system could further support non-combat players who wish to be merchants and would control the insane inflation. "That *insert food thing here* is worth 10x a long sword???" won't be a thing. Setting a standard table of prices isn't nearly as daunting of a task as it may seems. You can do broad categories so every specific thing isn't listed. Food items = X, meal = X, clothing = X, etc. A simple blank "merchandise" tag can be made and players can fill in what they have, logistics uses a list to assign value and signs off. The percentage of players who do sell OOG things, is pretty low, so it's not going to add a ton of work. If it's something with great OOG value, then the merchant can make a deal with the person purchasing the item on an OOG level.
Thoughts?
You may tell a person "according to logistics that brownie is worth 2 copper pieces. However they will continue selling it for several silver. Telling them "I don't value it that high" is all well and good. But they are still charging the high price, and you still will have to pay it if you want it. Works for Amusement Parks. If the price is so high that nobody buys, they can try lowering them, but they didn't get so high on their own.
I still don't see adding tags "solving" anything, But assuming we do it with the tags, let me get this straight:
I take my 40 bottles of Avery's Soda, go to logistics, paying 3 copper (or whatever value you assign them) per soda and receive 40 "soda tags". I'm now allowed to sell these soda's IG, for whatever price I was selling them before the tag system... the 3 copper surcharge is simply a logistics tax, I don't see this deflating prices at all... in fact I see it possibly INCREASING prices as suddenly you have "logistics tax" cutting into the profit margins of all these salesmen... where once a batch of brownies was worth 3 gold, it may now only be worth 2.5 (after LTax), if you needed that to be 3 gold, you need to raise your prices.
If they do not sell, I suppose I can save the tags and merchant them back the following event. Now, I'm going to make a BIG assumption and hope that everybody remembers to rip their "eaten/used" portion of these tags when they drink or eat the sandwich, brownie or cookie.
All this does is add a mechanic where 1) logistics gets a new trickle tax of coin coming back, 2) Logistics must now police ALL IG FOODS. (Burger and soup sales beware, make sure you have an exact number of servings prepared so you're not accidently cheating) 3) Merchant Skill is more valuable because 4) All the food and bauble thieves have shiny new things to steal.
I still don't see this improving the game world, the trickle of coin back does not seem worth the trouble and tags this costs the game.
Worst of all, it doesn't even address the real underlying "problem" of the side economy created with the still unlimited "non tagged" foods that will be there (arguably moreso now that there is a LTax and tags to hassle you with). I still won't sell my drinks (I don't now) only now I have to break character and say "really I'm not allowed to accept any payment, it's cheating, please stop offering" instead of just trying to be polite and accept the coin after they insist I be paid for the third time (it happens at least once an event). Tips for sharing my drinks with friends are now illegal, so it creates a shady side transaction. You can't pay me for the beverages, but you could just give me a few coins because you like me. Is that cheating? Call it payment for healing I gave you earlier today and we're technically not cheating... but it gets murky I don't like it.
I say the side economy because, lets face it... if the person chooses not to pay the LTax, they could TRADE the burger and soda for "favors in the future". That's non specific but still grants an advantage. Or "hey remember this free burger tomorrow when we do treasure splits for the weekend". So when rit scroll or magic item prices are negotiated, the fact I fed your team burgers may still give me a non specific advantage. It's going to happen, and the thieves still won't be able to steal the nontagged "currency" of "non-sellable non game items".
If this were put to a vote to become a rule of the game, I would ask the owners of the chapters I play to vote against it. However, that is just my opinion.
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