At the simplest level, the stronghold costs in Labyrinth Lord for a common stone house 30 feet on a side are 4,000 gold, while the same common wooden house (30 feet on a side) is 2,500.

So, however much mined stone is worth, raw timber is worth 62.5% of that.

Except, not really. Because those are finished goods. So, add tools, time, and skill to account for pricing differences. And don’t lose sight of something that Amazon Prime is helping us forget about…transportation costs. Time and tools alone could account for wood being cheaper. A cubic foot of wood could even have a resource cost *higher* than stone, but stone is so much more trouble to work that the costs would flip. But that transportation cost is the real kicker.

Fortifications need stone and cities need timber. But they need it in a ready to use form, and they need it on site. So a tree in the forest, the stone in the ground…nobody is paying for these. Once you quarry the stone and fell the timber, there’s still nobody paying for these. If you do it near a river, different story. There will be a city at the end of the river (or even along the way, if you’re lucky). Get a barge, move the product down river to some craftspeople, they pay you, the customer pays them.

But, even then, there won’t be vast warehouses of crafting materials waiting for use. It’s a much more bespoke endeavour.

Oooh. which is an excuse to talk about trade goods next, I reckon.