hogarth wrote:So? Billions of dollars is not unrealistic in real life.
FWIW, the advent of fiat currency has caused quite a paradigm shift in how economies work. (considering the context in which your statement was made, it's an important distinction to make).
Having said that, I'll go ahead and go down this same road
(and I'm not sure why .... I guess as long as I keep flip-flopping on this topic, I'll just keep going until I finally form a decisive stance):
In reality, money really does (or, at least
can) equal power. People use their money to gain power, and then use that power to gain more money .... while this really can be a chicken/egg issue, you get the point.
Why should this be any different in D&D?
Let's look at RL weaponry:
I can go in to just about any Wal-mart or outdoors outfitter and buy a run-of-the-mill shotgun or hunting rifle right off the rack with no problem -- no waiting, no FBI check, no questions; just give cash, receive gun.
With a couple thousand dollars, I can get a Class 3 "collector" license, and then fork over $15K-$30 for an
M2 Browning -- though "normal" people can't get one, no matter how much money they have (however, the proper licensing
does have a fixed and easily achievable dollar value).
With a couple more thousand dollars for permits (and building of proper storage facilities), I can upgrade my license to now allow me to purchase military-grade explosives (btw, IIRC, this is the same license used by demolition construction companies for building demos and excavations -- but I could be wrong). That's right, a few thousand dollars for a license, and I can buy military bomb-making hardware -- with the same green-backs that I use to purchase a ham sandwich.
With the proper licensing, I could even get a fucking mini-gun.For cash.As a civilian.
Anything above this is military-exclusive .... officially speaking, that is.
So, I guess we
could say that anything up to this point is still analogous to being in the "gold economy" .... the heavier hardware could be considered analogous to low-level magic items.
So let's move up a notch ....
No amount of civilian licensing will ever let me pay cash for a
Hind-D, a
Paladin, or cruise missile -- this stuff is only traded between governments. However, autonomous rogue groups end up with this stuff all the time ... by simply paying cash to the right people. One would think that these things wouldn't be obtainable with simple cash to whoever offered it up ... but it happens. Hell, Pakistan has been parceling out tidbits of nuclear technology for years to whoever had the right amount of cash.
And this is nothing more than the black market at work.
The point is this: what is to keep planar currency from being exchanged for gold in the "black market", so to speak? If it can be found in a treasure hoard, it can be exchanged for gold.
Thoughts?