It really has me thinking about all kinds of stuff honestly. Back in the day I was a huge Magic The Gathering player, and these early chapters had me thinking about MTGs secondary market and how sets and rotations impacted the value of any given card. Had me thinking about Pucatrade and its closure. The points system, which was supposed to be the money in its trade economy became wildly inflated as time went on. Really interesting reddit thread where people discuss its failings.

I also love to DM dnd/ttrpgs and these early chapters also had me thinking about the class relations and economic relations of D&D. I think a lot of people fall back on our familiarity with our time and places understanding of economy and try to shoehorn those ideas into a vaguely feudal setting. Not a lot of thought goes into how a given "small village with a tavern" stays afloat, and all transactions with in that space are effectively money transactions. However, it's way more likely that someone trades their labor for a nights stay and a hot meal then some coin. Or the tavern owner need the labor and is willing to provide room and a meal in exchange.

Along those lines it begs some questions. What is the economic relations of a civilization of dwarfs whose lifespan can be nearly 400 years+? Would they even value gold in the same way a human civilization does? Would they even have an economy based on commodity exchange? if not what does that look like and how does it shape their social relations? How does that impact their diplomatic relations?

Its all a lot to chew on, and makes me excited for the rest of the book.