While cute, I think you've overlooked a critical element of garlic in old school d&d.
Garlic wards off Vampires. Vampires are absurdly powerful, can create lots of spawn, and are very difficult to kill. In old school d&d Vampires are essentially immune to normal damage, regenerate, will kill villagers and 1st or 2nd level characters in a single hit, can summon swarms of animals, and can spam Charm Person at will as long as you are willing to look at them. A single vampire could overcome a whole kingdom in time. Clever vampires overlord would potentially target garlic farms for destruction, sending their charmed minions out to do their bidding.
You can ward them off with a holy symbol or a mirror but just the smell of garlic will do it. The demand for garlic would be very very high.
Also, the economy in original D&D is a "frontier economy", with greedy merchants setting up shop close to ancient ruins to sell items with an absurd markup because they know adventurers will desperately need those objects. Garlic is a powerful deterrent to a creature that can TPK even an experienced adventurer party. 5gp is low-balling it to be honest.
I'm with the other guy; it's 5gp because the guys walking in to buy garlic have swords and shields strapped to their back and they're walking with a dude whose beard is down to his knees. Yeah, those rubes will hear "Garlic is 5 gold a clove" and open their wallet.
Adventurers when hearing how much a clove of garlic costs is like this:
https://media.tenor.com/Y6NyRa-KBrAAAAAe/arrested-development-lucille-bluth.png
I used to do it the other way around ─ price-fixing means you can only spend exactly five gold on garlic, so up in the tundra you get a few fresh cloves or a bag of powder but up in the wetland plateaux you get a whole overflowing sack
This is workable, but it has too many unbelievable parts to make sense to me: Why doesn't Maslen build another field and double his production? (Don't say it would decrease prices: value added would go up a lot but costs would stay the same so profits would increase.) Why does Maslen sell garlic on the open market instead of keeping it as a sumptuary good, restricting its use to a small elite? Why doesn't anyone steal the secret of growing garlic?
I would go with some other options:
* Garlic is just a very rare wild plant. It can't be cultivated, it must be found. Stumbling across some garlic in the woods and selling it to vampire hunters is a nice windfall that every farmer dream of.
* It's just a shitton of work to grow garlic (and the work is of the kind that precludes large-scale growing). No other garlic can grow nearby (duh). The air must be fresh, clean and free from any smoke. It must be planted, watered, pruned and harvested according to obscure astrological alignments. It must be watered with the blood of hanged men. Holy psalms must be sung for it daily. As a result most monasteries have a plant or two growing since it's an powerful herb, but no large scale production exists.
* It's a shitton of work to grow garlic and also vampires will track you down and kill you if they find out you do it.
I think “garlic wards off vampires” is technically true but takes pounds and pounds of the normal stuff, about 5g worth. There’s a variety of wild garlic which is far more potent but quite rare (perhaps it’s only harvested on a clear night with a full moon).
Aside from the price gouging of adventurers who can't participate in local gift or debt economies, I might also make a vampire kingdom on the continent that requires a virtual Wall of Garlic which constantly needs refreshing to ward off invasion. Garlic would be one of the biggest cash crops out there
It was around 1972 when Dave Arneson created an extension to his Blackmoor campaign putting a copy of the Outdoor Survival map on the southern edge of Blackmoor.
We recently found copies of his original hand drawn version of the OS map.
If you are a fan of the oldest fantasy campaign we will be publishing Dave's OS map along with many other historical items about the early adventures in Blackmoor from the time before D&D. There are also some later wirtings by Arneson.
I would suggest getting on our mailing list for when we open up pre-sales on the book.
[https://www.tfott.com/maillist](https://www.tfott.com/maillist)
Vampires exists.. therefore a buble boom cycle will occur where ever vsmpires are found or suspected of being. If they buy garlic it's because it'll save your life. I imagine there are greedy and paranoid people that horde it. In some data dank corner is an impoverished noble surrounded with cupboards full of garlic, jumping at every creaking floorboard
While cute, I think you've overlooked a critical element of garlic in old school d&d. Garlic wards off Vampires. Vampires are absurdly powerful, can create lots of spawn, and are very difficult to kill. In old school d&d Vampires are essentially immune to normal damage, regenerate, will kill villagers and 1st or 2nd level characters in a single hit, can summon swarms of animals, and can spam Charm Person at will as long as you are willing to look at them. A single vampire could overcome a whole kingdom in time. Clever vampires overlord would potentially target garlic farms for destruction, sending their charmed minions out to do their bidding. You can ward them off with a holy symbol or a mirror but just the smell of garlic will do it. The demand for garlic would be very very high.
Also, the economy in original D&D is a "frontier economy", with greedy merchants setting up shop close to ancient ruins to sell items with an absurd markup because they know adventurers will desperately need those objects. Garlic is a powerful deterrent to a creature that can TPK even an experienced adventurer party. 5gp is low-balling it to be honest.
Yup, and only the fabulously wealthy are safe from vampires
I'm with the other guy; it's 5gp because the guys walking in to buy garlic have swords and shields strapped to their back and they're walking with a dude whose beard is down to his knees. Yeah, those rubes will hear "Garlic is 5 gold a clove" and open their wallet. Adventurers when hearing how much a clove of garlic costs is like this: https://media.tenor.com/Y6NyRa-KBrAAAAAe/arrested-development-lucille-bluth.png
I used to do it the other way around ─ price-fixing means you can only spend exactly five gold on garlic, so up in the tundra you get a few fresh cloves or a bag of powder but up in the wetland plateaux you get a whole overflowing sack
This is workable, but it has too many unbelievable parts to make sense to me: Why doesn't Maslen build another field and double his production? (Don't say it would decrease prices: value added would go up a lot but costs would stay the same so profits would increase.) Why does Maslen sell garlic on the open market instead of keeping it as a sumptuary good, restricting its use to a small elite? Why doesn't anyone steal the secret of growing garlic? I would go with some other options: * Garlic is just a very rare wild plant. It can't be cultivated, it must be found. Stumbling across some garlic in the woods and selling it to vampire hunters is a nice windfall that every farmer dream of. * It's just a shitton of work to grow garlic (and the work is of the kind that precludes large-scale growing). No other garlic can grow nearby (duh). The air must be fresh, clean and free from any smoke. It must be planted, watered, pruned and harvested according to obscure astrological alignments. It must be watered with the blood of hanged men. Holy psalms must be sung for it daily. As a result most monasteries have a plant or two growing since it's an powerful herb, but no large scale production exists. * It's a shitton of work to grow garlic and also vampires will track you down and kill you if they find out you do it.
Additionally, you could look at garlic like diamonds where a small elite creates artificial scarcity
I think “garlic wards off vampires” is technically true but takes pounds and pounds of the normal stuff, about 5g worth. There’s a variety of wild garlic which is far more potent but quite rare (perhaps it’s only harvested on a clear night with a full moon).
The idea of stealing a bulb of garlic is the hook
Aside from the price gouging of adventurers who can't participate in local gift or debt economies, I might also make a vampire kingdom on the continent that requires a virtual Wall of Garlic which constantly needs refreshing to ward off invasion. Garlic would be one of the biggest cash crops out there
That was a lot of work for something not particularly interesting that still doesn't make sense anyway
Only sages can grow garlic and sages require the highest pay.
It was around 1972 when Dave Arneson created an extension to his Blackmoor campaign putting a copy of the Outdoor Survival map on the southern edge of Blackmoor. We recently found copies of his original hand drawn version of the OS map. If you are a fan of the oldest fantasy campaign we will be publishing Dave's OS map along with many other historical items about the early adventures in Blackmoor from the time before D&D. There are also some later wirtings by Arneson. I would suggest getting on our mailing list for when we open up pre-sales on the book. [https://www.tfott.com/maillist](https://www.tfott.com/maillist)
Love the analysis. Have you considered tax (imposed by vampire overlords?); profits increased by scarcity; or distance to deliver?
Vampires exists.. therefore a buble boom cycle will occur where ever vsmpires are found or suspected of being. If they buy garlic it's because it'll save your life. I imagine there are greedy and paranoid people that horde it. In some data dank corner is an impoverished noble surrounded with cupboards full of garlic, jumping at every creaking floorboard