In many fantasy roleplaying games, there is some sort of teleportation spell. Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder had Dimension Door, Teleport, Greater Teleport, and Teleportation Circle. On top of instantaneous teleportation, there are spells like Wind Walking, which can get people hundreds of miles away in a matter of hours. Add in magical items, and there are a huge amount of transport available. So, ask yourself, why are horses still common?

The most common reason is teleporting can cost a lot of money. Teleporting a lot of weight/people for a long distance can be a really powerful spell. If only powerful casters can use the spell, there can’t be too many of them. So, they can basically charge whatever people will pay. Perhaps there is an expensive component that makes it cost prohibitive to do this as well. That would certainly reduce the possibility of using it all the time, right?

Think about how an airport works. You go to a specific place at a specific time and you can fly somewhere really fast for a fee. Why couldn’t someone do that in a fantasy world? For example, in Pathfinder, the Teleportation Circle spell is 9th level and can be made permanent. It costs 1000 gold pieces (gp) to create the circle and another 22,500 gp to make it permanent. It allows you to teleport up to 1 person plus 1 person per 3 levels you have attained, plus whatever they can carry (their maximum load) to any one point in the world. So, assuming the person casting the spell is 18th level, that’s seven people, plus their maximum loads. It could also be one person and three horses (and their maximum loads). Set it up so they have a Teleporation Circle in one major city and another for a return trip. Total cost for the caster is 47,000 gp, which is a king’s ransom. But, it’s permanent.

Let’s say there are two huge cities 2700 miles apart by sea (that’s New York City to Houston by sea). The cost for a ship to transport is about 1 silver piece per mile. Transporting your goods would cost 280 gold pieces and about one month of time, assuming reasonable conditions. That wizard could charge the same price and get you there instantly. He’d only need 168 one way trips to break even. Assuming 2 trips per day in each direction, he’d be even and making profit in under 2 months. Considering how much faster you’d get there, most merchants would be willing to pay a premium for the service, which makes the proposition even more viable. Plus, they don’t have to deal with pirates or bandits, weather risks, or the ship sinking with all goods and their lives lost. Why are airplane tickets more than driving? Because it’s usually worth it.

In my setting, teleportation spells can’t go nearly that far and there aren’t any magical items that can mimic the same effect. Anyone who could create a gate like that would be in extremely high demand and whoever controlled the magic would be extremely powerful. That’s a type of power that could start wars.

Think about how you want things to work in your world. Perhaps you want something that’s more accessible to the masses, like an airport. Maybe you want something only the wealthy elite can use. It could be that the government restricts this magic for only military use or wizards aren’t allowed to use it on anyone but themselves. Be creative.

Thanks for reading. I’ll see you next week!