The Not-So-Invisible Hand of Delta Tao

The story so far: Some guy comes to town offering a potion recipe for a large amount of money, something on the order of 90,000 coins, give or take. Does anyone come rushing up to contribute money to this cause? Of course not. Why would anyone give money for an uncertain result which will not directly benefit them? You don't need to have a degree in marketing to realize this is a crappy pitch. Obviously, as a story device, it's pretty weak. And apparently no one at Delta Tao has heard of the prisoner's dilemma or the invisible hand either, or they would have realized no one would pony up any money.

Now when any new NPC appears in town with a pitch for a project with a big price tag, it only means one thing. Some GM checked the statistic which shows the amount of money available in the game, and found it too high.

"Geez, some people are really hording coins! We gotta drain out some of this money, because the gap between the haves and the have-nots is imbalancing." ("Imbalancing" is a GM code word, for "I don't like it.") "What can we do to get people to dump money?"

And thus, some "story" is born to try and funnel off all that wealth. Problem is, the story isn't compelling. No one gives a rat's ass about a possible potion. Perhaps if the story involved the seller coming to town and auctioning or raffling off 30 or 40 of these potions, so people could see how great they were, people would care about getting the recipe. This would be a more carrot, less stick approach to player motivation. You'd have to re-jigger the alchemy hut person so they couldn't deduce the recipe from the potion, obviously. Without any idea of the resulting product, people aren't going to budge, especially since everyone knows the item can't be that good, or it would knock the game out of whack. At best, it'll be a slightly incremental improvement, with perhaps some greater flexibility. Hardly worth 90,000 coins just to have the possibility of that. Plus, there's minimal self-interest in paying for a potion recipe that will offer a generalized benefit to all players. It would be a lot more motivating if the guy would teach a player the recipe for 50,000 coins, but then that player could make the potions. There's a potential future profit to motive people. Of course, if it's anything like being a sunstone tuner, which costs a fortune to learn, but pays crap, I'm sure people will be lining up around the block to be the next sucker to invest in a dubious vocational skill.

So now we've got this GM story going nowhere fast. Coins aren't draining out of the game any faster. It's time for a sledgehammer. The people hording the coins are strong fighters, who are the best earners. How can we pinch selfish, greedy fighters? Hold a primary fighter trainer hostage. Pay up or no trainer. Oh, and you'll get a recipe for a potion. Anyone remember when the altar needed to be repaired? Compelling story, or a thinly veiled way to incinerate a lot of the money supply? You decide. But I'm getting serious deja vu here.

Let's cut to the chase. Delta Tao should just do what it really wants and reach into a couple of people's purses and take their coins. I mean, why not? It's about as subtle.

I have no problem with creating coin drains, and I do think that coin hording can create problems. It's not an easy problem to solve. Creating biannual coin burning events isn't the long term solution. What's needed are more useful consumables. Not essential items that wear out, not luxury items that have no value, but truly useful consumable items. Like useful potions, or one shot magic items. How about a one shot purgatory pendant type item that works for anyone? Everyone would like to have an express ticket home once in awhile, and people would pay.

The way to reduce the hording is presenting more meaningful options to players for their coins, not mugging them with weak stories.

Disclaimer: I enjoy Clan Lord. I like Delta Tao. If you are clenching your fists while you read this, your sense of humor may be non-operational. See your dealer for service. The contents of this editorial are classified as 100% good-natured ribbing, with no artificial colors or sweeteners.
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