I’ve been thinking about scarcity, and ZERO and a MILLION are equally boring numbers

I’m speaking from a D&D perspective here, but: Zero is a boring number. A million is also a bad number. One is super good. I'm a big fan of one. It is so much cooler to say, "This is THE magical dagger named Sting," rather than saying, "This is A magical dagger named Sting."

There are two things I don't like about standard scarcity in kitchen-sink fantasy:

1. The gear becomes interchangeable. If I'm a Fighter, and I have a sword, and you're a Paladin, and you have a sword, are our swords different?
2. Magical items are disposable. Are we going to find a magical item, with a special name, and sell it to just-some-guy at just-some-shop?

But what I like about scarcity as a design knob is the consequences it creates. If you imagine a situation where just ONE person can make magic items:

• That person becomes a strategic resource. Factions strategize around this person as a resource.
• With limited magical items, of course a counterfeit market appears. There are FAKE magic items.

I'm a little bit reminded of how JRR Tolkien originally had THOUSANDS of Balrogs in the ancient history of Middle-Earth, but throughout the drafts, that number got whittled down to like seven.

So, I dunno, if you've got a scarcity knob in whatever your making, try dialing it down and see how it feels :)