Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
"Auction-style" magic shoppes
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="CapnZapp" data-source="post: 7284761" data-attributes="member: 12731"><p>I can report back with some "actual play" experiences. </p><p></p><p>Try as I might, I cannot get up the frequency (of shoppe visits, with enough new coin to make the visit matter).</p><p></p><p>That is, I still consider it a good idea - but in a tabletop game (as opposed to a single-player CRPG) there simply isn't "space" (in time spent) to make the fluctuating-price-at-repeated-revisits work.</p><p></p><p>At first I created inventories for a few listed shops of Red Larch (adding the odd travelling merchant for good measure). But the party made perhaps three visits, and never more than one per level. And they mostly save up their money for permanent magic weapons anyway. </p><p></p><p>I can't really fix that. Adding much more money, sure, but then the team would be awash with gear before they reach even tier II, and I simply don't believe that will work out well in the end. </p><p></p><p>At this stage, the only way the idea would have worked is if the players would have spent a lot of time over a single consumable. For example: if a player bought a Potion of Heroism at some point, then that shop could regenerate its list to offer another potion (or set of potions) the next time.</p><p></p><p>But before level 5 there simply is not enough cash in circulation to warrant more than a single iteration of the lists. And then they level up, above what that tier I shops can offer.</p><p></p><p>---</p><p></p><p>My next attempt was a massive list over in Chult - Port Nyanzaru (this time you can actually follow along if you want practical examples, since I posted that as a thread of its own).</p><p></p><p>But here the scale of the map works against me. I realize that there will only be one or perhaps, max, two return visits to the city before the party has leveled up through the "jungle phase" of the adventure. Which is not enough to get that feel of fluctuating living prices. (Aka lots of work for little payoff).</p><p></p><p>---</p><p></p><p>The reverse auction idea probably requires a so much quicker pace that we can rule out tabletop play.</p><p></p><p>I mean: when you play your computer game (Baldur's Gate or Divinity Original Sin or whatever) you can kill off a dozen monsters and three groups of bandits, and make three return trips to the town's magic shoppe - all in a single evening. That rate of content consumption is WAY higher than our pen and paper sessions. In the end, the rate of levelling per shoppe revisit is much higher in pnp than it nees to be in a crpg, so I conclude my idea can't work in practice.</p><p></p><p></p><p>The basic concept still helps out - a lot. Instead of worrying the base price is too low, leading to unbalanced / overpowered heroes, we simply accept that a few items are bargains but most cost a lot (enough that any worry of balance is lessened by how its cost is probably higher than any balanced price point).</p><p></p><p>That is, since we don't have workable 5e magic item creation formulas, and no better way to establish base prices (than the "sane" price list), I am still relieved by the very idea that item prices fluctuate wildly. The fact there isn't "time" to adjust shopping lists just means that an item that I price at five times the base price is more likely to remain unpurchased than it is to be purchased eventually (if there was time for enough revisits to make the price go down).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CapnZapp, post: 7284761, member: 12731"] I can report back with some "actual play" experiences. Try as I might, I cannot get up the frequency (of shoppe visits, with enough new coin to make the visit matter). That is, I still consider it a good idea - but in a tabletop game (as opposed to a single-player CRPG) there simply isn't "space" (in time spent) to make the fluctuating-price-at-repeated-revisits work. At first I created inventories for a few listed shops of Red Larch (adding the odd travelling merchant for good measure). But the party made perhaps three visits, and never more than one per level. And they mostly save up their money for permanent magic weapons anyway. I can't really fix that. Adding much more money, sure, but then the team would be awash with gear before they reach even tier II, and I simply don't believe that will work out well in the end. At this stage, the only way the idea would have worked is if the players would have spent a lot of time over a single consumable. For example: if a player bought a Potion of Heroism at some point, then that shop could regenerate its list to offer another potion (or set of potions) the next time. But before level 5 there simply is not enough cash in circulation to warrant more than a single iteration of the lists. And then they level up, above what that tier I shops can offer. --- My next attempt was a massive list over in Chult - Port Nyanzaru (this time you can actually follow along if you want practical examples, since I posted that as a thread of its own). But here the scale of the map works against me. I realize that there will only be one or perhaps, max, two return visits to the city before the party has leveled up through the "jungle phase" of the adventure. Which is not enough to get that feel of fluctuating living prices. (Aka lots of work for little payoff). --- The reverse auction idea probably requires a so much quicker pace that we can rule out tabletop play. I mean: when you play your computer game (Baldur's Gate or Divinity Original Sin or whatever) you can kill off a dozen monsters and three groups of bandits, and make three return trips to the town's magic shoppe - all in a single evening. That rate of content consumption is WAY higher than our pen and paper sessions. In the end, the rate of levelling per shoppe revisit is much higher in pnp than it nees to be in a crpg, so I conclude my idea can't work in practice. The basic concept still helps out - a lot. Instead of worrying the base price is too low, leading to unbalanced / overpowered heroes, we simply accept that a few items are bargains but most cost a lot (enough that any worry of balance is lessened by how its cost is probably higher than any balanced price point). That is, since we don't have workable 5e magic item creation formulas, and no better way to establish base prices (than the "sane" price list), I am still relieved by the very idea that item prices fluctuate wildly. The fact there isn't "time" to adjust shopping lists just means that an item that I price at five times the base price is more likely to remain unpurchased than it is to be purchased eventually (if there was time for enough revisits to make the price go down). [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
"Auction-style" magic shoppes
Top