Everyone likes free stuff, but unfortunately stuff tends to cost money.
In games this creates interesting decisions, everything you buy comes at the opportunity cost of something else: if you only have one gold and you buy a 1 gold elixir, you can no longer buy a 1 gold potion. This is how I grew up playing games, and it’s how Aethermon started – at the shop you purchase Items.
This went mostly unquestioned until a playtester asked a simple question “why do items cost anything at all?” And honestly the best answer I could muster was “… because items cost money”.
Obviously no game is a 1:1 simulation of the real world, but is at best an abstraction. In the case of Aethermon, an abstraction that aspires to evoke the emotional experience of adventuring with an awesome creature companion.
Ultimately the only reason items cost money is because an arbitrary set of rules deemed it so. Sure it may create situations where players need to decide between purchasing a potion or an elixir… but is that really an interesting decision? Is it the kind of decision that is likely to excite a player when looking back on an epic adventure? Probably not.
To estimate how many turns (and therefore time) per game could be saved by making items free, I present a completely back of the envelope calculation:
Players on average bought 4 items a game at 1 XG each (4XG total = 2 turns), the additional free items will probably save players 3 trips to a recovery square (3 turns). For a total savings of 5 turns per game, at 3 minutes per turn this is a total saving of 15 minutes per playthrough!!!
So like that items in Aethermon became free.
Stay Frugal AetheRen