Dragons and Their Hoards, Selling Off the Loot Options

[FlakJacket]

Random thought from my slightly inebriated mind. When all the dragons woke up and later decided to start buying stuff with parts of their hoards, do the books ever mention if this srcewed with the economies at all? I mean, dumping that much gold/silver and precious stones onto the market would drive the prices down wouldn't it? I remember South Africa got a bit annoyed with us when we sold off some of our gold reserves a few years back 'cause it affected the price. Or could they do something like borrow against it so don't have to sell it? :/

[Siege]

Interesting thought.

One possible solution -- banks secured loans with the collateral of "gold, jewels and rare artifacts from a forgotten age".

Not that anyone would be able to collect on a dragon if it decided to default, but still...

-Siege

[Ancient History]

Anything a dragon keeps probably has sentimental or other value than mere material. if you steal something from it's hoard, it would fetch more from a collector (advertised correctly, that is) than from just material wealth.

Example: You bust in and steal a Sapphire as big as a dwarf's head. This is so rare that selling it on the market will only devalue the price if it's broken into little sapphires first, which will dilute the price. But chances are that gem's actually a Draconic memory gem, which any given spellslinger or power player would give their right ovary/testicle for.

[Synner]

Note that Lofwyr took close to 30 years to take over S-K.

[Abstruse]

And ANYTHING you steal from a dragon's hoard is going to get you killed most likely, esp. if it's a Great. Think of all the stuff you keep around you to remind you of people, places, things, times, events, etc. that have meaning to you. In your simply double-digit years of life, you've probably got a lot of pictures of family and friends, books you loved as a child, posters of your favorite anime/sports star/film/band/whatever, action figures you had as a child (or if you're a geek like me that you bought last week), your Shadowrun books, etc. Maybe you have a family heirloom like a pocketwatch that belonged to your great-grandfather, a family bible that's been passed down for generations, a guitar your dad gave you when you were 8, things like that.

Now multiply all those things by 5,000 or so (since dragons have lived much longer than you ever will). Sure, your grandmother's wedding ring may only be worth $1000 if you sold it, but to you it's priceless because it reminds you of your grandmother. That's what a dragon's hoard is like. A big collection of things that have value to them. If Dunkelzahn got a marble statue from his pal Michelangelo, the thing you be worth millions, but to him it would be priceless because it was a gift from his friend.

Keep this in mind the next time you or one of your players thinks "I'll steal this little power focus from Alamais. I mean it's only a Force 7 and he's sure to have something more powerful than that, so why would he miss it?" That little focus probably has sentemental value to Alamais and he sure wouldn't be happy to find that it's missing.

Of course, all this was covered in either Dragons of the Sixth World or the ED Dragons book...I can't remember which.

The Abstruse One

[Hot Wheels]

I like the idea of them putting up the hoard as a security-but who's going to collect from them if late? I don't think even Snow Fox would like that collection call.

Didn't they say Lofwyr bought SK with a hunk of gold? Maybe the resource rush drove the prices way up. Gold is a good conductor for electronics, right? so maybe they were able to get into the tech manufacturing marcket that way - not cashing in the gold but saying "For controlling interest in the company I can provide all the gold wiring you'll need for the next 30 years."

[Synner]

Nope, that's an urban legend. Lofwyr actually bought up a majority stake in S-K on the sly over a 20-year period, then moved in and snatched the corp away from Mina Graff-Beloit who had inherited it from her late husband.

[White Knight]

I'm sure one book had a comment about Dragons selling off parts of their hordes and the resultant devaluation of the market. I just can't remember which book.

I think it was in the late FASA period and may have had something to do with DeBeers-Omnitech, if that helps.

[Ancient History]

Well, consider that finding 60 or so tons of naturally-occurring orichalcum devaluated orichalcum from 88,000 :nuyen: a unit to 50,000.

[Hot Wheels]

[Hot Wheels]

[Sepherim]

What do you mean with "dwarves get a lot of catching"? I'm sorry but I can't get it.

[Boondocker]

Perhaps a reference to The Hobbit?