Well, not a magic shop, really, but I've decided to go against the 5E grain and implement some sort of way to purchase and sell magic items.
My party is 11th level, and starting to amass some serious coin. They just wrapped up a big adventure story line and finally got back to a major city loaded down with gold and not a darn thing to spend it on. I know this issue has been brought up multiple times, but 5E really does have an issue with PC's not having much to throw their riches at, and I can tell that's it's becoming a bit of a bummer for the players.
They're not really interested in buying property and castles and such, and you can only live it up so many times at the best inn in town.
So I've decided to give them something to buy, or at least work towards.
In the aforementioned city I had the mage meet a rather shady character who deals in arcane items. Now myself, and most of the players are used to a 3E magic item world wherein you sold your sack full of stuff for half price and then bought whatever you could afford out of the DMG. Not so this time around.
This shady character has only a few items, most of which are uncommon to rare, but he's also got a couple of very nice pieces for sale, but they are VERY expensive. Plus, he's only buying items at about 1/5 what he'd be willing to sell the same thing for. So, for example, he had a +1 longsword he'd sell for 5000, but he only offered 1000gp to the dwarf that wanted to sell his own +1 sword. I'm also factoring in relative usefulness of items to their value. I'm kind of making it up as I go, but suffice to say, really juicy magic is very expensive.
Our dwarf had his eye on a Belt of Dwarven Kind, but I slapped a 35,000gp price tag on that sucker and the dwarf was not pleased at all! But, he suddenly has a use for his gold and a reason to start saving up, and even though none of the party could afford any of the really phat lewt, they were all really happy with the idea that there was at least some opportunity for them to get the item they really want, even if they have to save up for it.
And of course the shady character's inventory is subject to change, so that Belt of Dwarven Kind might not even be there when our dwarf finally gets the cash together.
I guess the point is, despite the 5E philosophy of magic being crazy rare, I feel like magic sales can still be done if you're careful with it. My plan is to make these shady characters very rare in the first place, with random wares, the best of which will be a constant carrot on the stick that keeps the party moving. There will be no set prices. Every shady character decides what his items cost and what his market can bare, and their inventories will fluctuate. My hope is to make even purchasing a magic item a special event in and of itself that has it's own kind of satisfaction.
To be honest, my players were really happy about this, even though they couldn't afford the things they really want. I think they enjoy the possibility of having some control over their own fates and a reason to horde gold.
Has anyone else done something like this? I know that magic sales is deeply frowned upon in the 5E community, but I have to believe that I'm not the only one. I'm curious what others experiences were.
My party is 11th level, and starting to amass some serious coin. They just wrapped up a big adventure story line and finally got back to a major city loaded down with gold and not a darn thing to spend it on. I know this issue has been brought up multiple times, but 5E really does have an issue with PC's not having much to throw their riches at, and I can tell that's it's becoming a bit of a bummer for the players.
They're not really interested in buying property and castles and such, and you can only live it up so many times at the best inn in town.
So I've decided to give them something to buy, or at least work towards.
In the aforementioned city I had the mage meet a rather shady character who deals in arcane items. Now myself, and most of the players are used to a 3E magic item world wherein you sold your sack full of stuff for half price and then bought whatever you could afford out of the DMG. Not so this time around.
This shady character has only a few items, most of which are uncommon to rare, but he's also got a couple of very nice pieces for sale, but they are VERY expensive. Plus, he's only buying items at about 1/5 what he'd be willing to sell the same thing for. So, for example, he had a +1 longsword he'd sell for 5000, but he only offered 1000gp to the dwarf that wanted to sell his own +1 sword. I'm also factoring in relative usefulness of items to their value. I'm kind of making it up as I go, but suffice to say, really juicy magic is very expensive.
Our dwarf had his eye on a Belt of Dwarven Kind, but I slapped a 35,000gp price tag on that sucker and the dwarf was not pleased at all! But, he suddenly has a use for his gold and a reason to start saving up, and even though none of the party could afford any of the really phat lewt, they were all really happy with the idea that there was at least some opportunity for them to get the item they really want, even if they have to save up for it.
And of course the shady character's inventory is subject to change, so that Belt of Dwarven Kind might not even be there when our dwarf finally gets the cash together.
I guess the point is, despite the 5E philosophy of magic being crazy rare, I feel like magic sales can still be done if you're careful with it. My plan is to make these shady characters very rare in the first place, with random wares, the best of which will be a constant carrot on the stick that keeps the party moving. There will be no set prices. Every shady character decides what his items cost and what his market can bare, and their inventories will fluctuate. My hope is to make even purchasing a magic item a special event in and of itself that has it's own kind of satisfaction.
To be honest, my players were really happy about this, even though they couldn't afford the things they really want. I think they enjoy the possibility of having some control over their own fates and a reason to horde gold.
Has anyone else done something like this? I know that magic sales is deeply frowned upon in the 5E community, but I have to believe that I'm not the only one. I'm curious what others experiences were.