haiiro
First Post
After starting a thread on this subject last month, I've developed a simple, abstract system for selling magic items. It's called Sold!, and I've included it below, as well as attached it in .doc format (Word 2k).
Let me know what you think!
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Sold!
A Little System for Selling Magic Items
If the PCs in your campaign want to sell magic items, this abstract system provides a satisfying means of resolving those transactions quickly during the game. It’s based on the idea that since there is a market for magic items in most D&D games, the PCs should have the opportunity to try and sell their items for more money than the flat “50% of market value” approach presented in the DMG allows.
Step 1 – Asking Price. Set your asking price for the item, in the form of a percentage of its market value (MV) that is divisible by 5%. This price can never be more than 125% of the item's MV. For example: 55%, 75%, 115%.
Step 2 – Lowball Price. Also set a lowball price – one at which you might be willing to sell the item, if someone made you an offer. This should be at least 5% less than your asking price, and must also be divisible by 5%.
Step 3 – Find a Buyer. Make a Gather Information check, DC 10 + caster level (CL) of the item + 2 for every 5% that your asking price is over 50% (conversely, -2 for every 5% that your price is under 50%). It takes 1d2 days to make this check, you can take a 10 on it (but not a 20), and no one can assist you on the roll. For example: setting your asking price at 75% for a CL 5th item gives you a DC of 10 + 5 (CL 5th) + 10 (2/5% over 50% base) = 25.
• If you succeed at the check, you've found a buyer willing to pay your asking
price. You can either sell at that price, taking 1d3 days to complete the sale, or you can try to haggle (see Step 4).
• If you fail the check but equal or beat the DC for your lowball price,
someone offers you that much for the item. You can take it or leave it, and if
you choose to take it you can try to haggle (see Step 4). If you decide to sell
without haggling, it takes 1d3 days to make the sale.
• If you fail and don't beat your lowball DC, you can keep trying again until
you have spent a week searching for a buyer. Each check takes 1d2 days.
After 1 week of searching, you must wait another week before you can start
trying to find a buyer again.
Step 4 – Haggle (Optional). Once you've found a buyer, you can try to get a better price for your item. Make a Diplomacy check against the same DC as the Gather Information check in Step 3. You cannot take a 10 (or 20) on this check, and no one can assist you on the roll. If you decide to haggle, you must abide by the result, whether it's in your favor or not.
• If you succeed, add 1% to the sale price for every point by which you beat
the DC. It takes 1d3 days to complete the sale.
• If you fail, subtract 1% from the sale price for every point by which you
missed the DC. It still takes 1d3 days to make the sale.
Step 5 – Describe the Sale. After the sale is complete, the DM should briefly describe what happened, using any details provided by the player before Step 1. Because this is an abstract system, this works best if the description is evocative and flavorful, but doesn’t have a whole lot of impact on the game. On the other hand, if the PCs were warned beforehand that the only buyers for their unwanted darkskull would probably be as evil as the item itself, then by all means follow through on it.
Notes
• The same steps are followed for each magic item the PC wants to sell. They can be attempted concurrently by different PCs, or by a combination of PCs and any middlemen they hire to act on their behalf (who will usually demand a percentage of the sale price as their fee).
• The DMG's guidelines for cash on hand based on settlement size apply normally, and the DM can make ad hoc adjustments to represent contacts, clever roleplaying, being in a huge city, an eager market, etc. In general, the more ad hoc adjustments you allow, the more money clever PCs will be able to make selling their items.
• You can use the skill Profession (merchant) in place of either Gather Information or Diplomacy (or both).
• In general, direct spell use is prohibited while trying to sell items. Individual DMs may decide to allow it to one extent or another, but this system abstracts a complex series of activities into a couple of rolls – the more factors you take into account, the closer you are to just needing to roleplay out the entire sale.
A Full Example
The seller: A 5th level PC, Gather Information +14 (8 ranks + 4 CHA + 2 feat), Diplomacy 16 (same as Gather Information + synergy from Bluff ranks). She's trying to sell a ring of protection +2, a caster level 5th item with an 8,000 gp MV.
Step 1. She sets her asking price at 75% of MV.
Step 2. Her lowball price is set at 65% of MV.
Step 3. Finding a buyer: The DC for the Gather Information check is 10 + 5 (CL 5th) + 10 (+2/5% over 50%) = 25. Assuming an average roll (10), she gets a 24 – not enough for the asking price, but enough for the lowball price (DC 21). This takes 1d2 days, and she decides to go for the lowball offer and try to haggle it up closer to 75%.
Step 4. Haggling: She makes a Diplomacy check, DC 25. Assuming an average roll (10 again), she gets a 26 – raising the sale price by +1% to 66%. The buyer gives her 66% of MV, or 5,280 gp, and it takes 1d3 days to complete the sale.
If she had gotten a good roll (let’s say 15) on both checks, she would have found a buyer at 75%, and haggled the price up by 6% to 81% of MV – earning her 6,480 gp for the sale. Rolling a 20 on the Diplomacy check would have made the final price 86% of MV, or 6,880 gp.
Step 5. Since the PC is in a small city with a struggling city guard, the DM decides that the buyer for the ring of protection was a Captain in the Nightwatch. With crime on the rise in the city, he knew his job was about to get more dangerous – so he spent a huge sum of money on this ring, hoping it would save his hide while he was trying to prove himself to his superiors.
Rationale
Higher level PCs will be able to sell higher CL items more easily, and be able to get more money for lower CL items. Characters tweaked for social skills will consistently sell for 75% or more of MV for most items, and as they go up in level will be able to consistently get 100% of MV for low CL items.
There are three types of game in which this system won't work:
• Magic is so low that the PCs never want to sell items – they cling fiercely to everything they find.
• Magic is so high that magic shops are common and there's little incentive to pay more than 50% of MV for magic items.
• Every magic item the PCs find is tailored to the party, giving them no reason to sell items at all.
Assuming your game doesn't fall into one of those three categories, this system should be of use to you. It models a complex series of activities in a way that rewards PCs for putting points into social skills, but doesn't require a lot of time or effort to resolve in-game. This lets you spend more time on adventuring and less time on micromanagement – but in a more satisfying way than simply saying, "You get 50% on everything you sell."
Options
• If you want professional merchants to have an edge in this type of transaction, allow Profession (merchant) to receive synergy bonuses from Bluff, Diplomacy or Gather Information – or all three. If the PC in the above example used Profession (merchant) and got all three bonuses, she’d be able to sell an item for 90% of MV by taking a 10 on the check in Step 3.
Including this option encourages PCs to take ranks in an underused skill (plus three other social skills) – or to hire middlemen who are naturally quite better at making the sale (for a fee, of course). Either way, it makes selling magic items more profitable for the PCs.
• Timewise, you can lengthen the process a bit by not allowing the seller to take 10 on the Gather Information check. Depending on how high the asking price is set, this will tend to increase the likelihood that they’ll have to roll more than once to find a buyer.
• Want magic items to be harder to sell? Bump the base DC up to 12 or 15. This creates a significant barrier for most lower level PCs, but becomes less of one at higher levels.
• Want items to be a bit easier to sell, if the seller is willing to take more time searching for a buyer? Grant a +1 cumulative bonus to the Gather Information check for each previous check that’s been made (but keep the one week “cool down period” mechanic in place).
• For a bit more depth, change the base DC to a variable determined by settlement size:
Metropolis 10
Large City 11
Small City 12
Large Town 13
You might also want to limit the sale of magic items to Large Towns and above. If not, just continue the progression up to base DC 17 for a Thorp.
Acknowledgements
After playing a session that was a bit bogged down by mundane tasks, my gaming group came up with the idea of creating a simple system for selling magic items in-game. Three of the players in this campaign, Nathan, Matt, and Stef, all provided excellent inspiration and feedback.
When I asked how others resolved the sale of magic items on the EN World messageboards, I got a lot of good responses. Four posters in particular contributed ideas that helped me come up with this little system: Ambrus, Larcen, njrpg and Spatzimaus.
My thanks to all of you!
Let me know what you think!
----
Sold!
A Little System for Selling Magic Items
If the PCs in your campaign want to sell magic items, this abstract system provides a satisfying means of resolving those transactions quickly during the game. It’s based on the idea that since there is a market for magic items in most D&D games, the PCs should have the opportunity to try and sell their items for more money than the flat “50% of market value” approach presented in the DMG allows.
Step 1 – Asking Price. Set your asking price for the item, in the form of a percentage of its market value (MV) that is divisible by 5%. This price can never be more than 125% of the item's MV. For example: 55%, 75%, 115%.
Step 2 – Lowball Price. Also set a lowball price – one at which you might be willing to sell the item, if someone made you an offer. This should be at least 5% less than your asking price, and must also be divisible by 5%.
Step 3 – Find a Buyer. Make a Gather Information check, DC 10 + caster level (CL) of the item + 2 for every 5% that your asking price is over 50% (conversely, -2 for every 5% that your price is under 50%). It takes 1d2 days to make this check, you can take a 10 on it (but not a 20), and no one can assist you on the roll. For example: setting your asking price at 75% for a CL 5th item gives you a DC of 10 + 5 (CL 5th) + 10 (2/5% over 50% base) = 25.
• If you succeed at the check, you've found a buyer willing to pay your asking
price. You can either sell at that price, taking 1d3 days to complete the sale, or you can try to haggle (see Step 4).
• If you fail the check but equal or beat the DC for your lowball price,
someone offers you that much for the item. You can take it or leave it, and if
you choose to take it you can try to haggle (see Step 4). If you decide to sell
without haggling, it takes 1d3 days to make the sale.
• If you fail and don't beat your lowball DC, you can keep trying again until
you have spent a week searching for a buyer. Each check takes 1d2 days.
After 1 week of searching, you must wait another week before you can start
trying to find a buyer again.
Step 4 – Haggle (Optional). Once you've found a buyer, you can try to get a better price for your item. Make a Diplomacy check against the same DC as the Gather Information check in Step 3. You cannot take a 10 (or 20) on this check, and no one can assist you on the roll. If you decide to haggle, you must abide by the result, whether it's in your favor or not.
• If you succeed, add 1% to the sale price for every point by which you beat
the DC. It takes 1d3 days to complete the sale.
• If you fail, subtract 1% from the sale price for every point by which you
missed the DC. It still takes 1d3 days to make the sale.
Step 5 – Describe the Sale. After the sale is complete, the DM should briefly describe what happened, using any details provided by the player before Step 1. Because this is an abstract system, this works best if the description is evocative and flavorful, but doesn’t have a whole lot of impact on the game. On the other hand, if the PCs were warned beforehand that the only buyers for their unwanted darkskull would probably be as evil as the item itself, then by all means follow through on it.
Notes
• The same steps are followed for each magic item the PC wants to sell. They can be attempted concurrently by different PCs, or by a combination of PCs and any middlemen they hire to act on their behalf (who will usually demand a percentage of the sale price as their fee).
• The DMG's guidelines for cash on hand based on settlement size apply normally, and the DM can make ad hoc adjustments to represent contacts, clever roleplaying, being in a huge city, an eager market, etc. In general, the more ad hoc adjustments you allow, the more money clever PCs will be able to make selling their items.
• You can use the skill Profession (merchant) in place of either Gather Information or Diplomacy (or both).
• In general, direct spell use is prohibited while trying to sell items. Individual DMs may decide to allow it to one extent or another, but this system abstracts a complex series of activities into a couple of rolls – the more factors you take into account, the closer you are to just needing to roleplay out the entire sale.
A Full Example
The seller: A 5th level PC, Gather Information +14 (8 ranks + 4 CHA + 2 feat), Diplomacy 16 (same as Gather Information + synergy from Bluff ranks). She's trying to sell a ring of protection +2, a caster level 5th item with an 8,000 gp MV.
Step 1. She sets her asking price at 75% of MV.
Step 2. Her lowball price is set at 65% of MV.
Step 3. Finding a buyer: The DC for the Gather Information check is 10 + 5 (CL 5th) + 10 (+2/5% over 50%) = 25. Assuming an average roll (10), she gets a 24 – not enough for the asking price, but enough for the lowball price (DC 21). This takes 1d2 days, and she decides to go for the lowball offer and try to haggle it up closer to 75%.
Step 4. Haggling: She makes a Diplomacy check, DC 25. Assuming an average roll (10 again), she gets a 26 – raising the sale price by +1% to 66%. The buyer gives her 66% of MV, or 5,280 gp, and it takes 1d3 days to complete the sale.
If she had gotten a good roll (let’s say 15) on both checks, she would have found a buyer at 75%, and haggled the price up by 6% to 81% of MV – earning her 6,480 gp for the sale. Rolling a 20 on the Diplomacy check would have made the final price 86% of MV, or 6,880 gp.
Step 5. Since the PC is in a small city with a struggling city guard, the DM decides that the buyer for the ring of protection was a Captain in the Nightwatch. With crime on the rise in the city, he knew his job was about to get more dangerous – so he spent a huge sum of money on this ring, hoping it would save his hide while he was trying to prove himself to his superiors.
Rationale
Higher level PCs will be able to sell higher CL items more easily, and be able to get more money for lower CL items. Characters tweaked for social skills will consistently sell for 75% or more of MV for most items, and as they go up in level will be able to consistently get 100% of MV for low CL items.
There are three types of game in which this system won't work:
• Magic is so low that the PCs never want to sell items – they cling fiercely to everything they find.
• Magic is so high that magic shops are common and there's little incentive to pay more than 50% of MV for magic items.
• Every magic item the PCs find is tailored to the party, giving them no reason to sell items at all.
Assuming your game doesn't fall into one of those three categories, this system should be of use to you. It models a complex series of activities in a way that rewards PCs for putting points into social skills, but doesn't require a lot of time or effort to resolve in-game. This lets you spend more time on adventuring and less time on micromanagement – but in a more satisfying way than simply saying, "You get 50% on everything you sell."
Options
• If you want professional merchants to have an edge in this type of transaction, allow Profession (merchant) to receive synergy bonuses from Bluff, Diplomacy or Gather Information – or all three. If the PC in the above example used Profession (merchant) and got all three bonuses, she’d be able to sell an item for 90% of MV by taking a 10 on the check in Step 3.
Including this option encourages PCs to take ranks in an underused skill (plus three other social skills) – or to hire middlemen who are naturally quite better at making the sale (for a fee, of course). Either way, it makes selling magic items more profitable for the PCs.
• Timewise, you can lengthen the process a bit by not allowing the seller to take 10 on the Gather Information check. Depending on how high the asking price is set, this will tend to increase the likelihood that they’ll have to roll more than once to find a buyer.
• Want magic items to be harder to sell? Bump the base DC up to 12 or 15. This creates a significant barrier for most lower level PCs, but becomes less of one at higher levels.
• Want items to be a bit easier to sell, if the seller is willing to take more time searching for a buyer? Grant a +1 cumulative bonus to the Gather Information check for each previous check that’s been made (but keep the one week “cool down period” mechanic in place).
• For a bit more depth, change the base DC to a variable determined by settlement size:
Metropolis 10
Large City 11
Small City 12
Large Town 13
You might also want to limit the sale of magic items to Large Towns and above. If not, just continue the progression up to base DC 17 for a Thorp.
Acknowledgements
After playing a session that was a bit bogged down by mundane tasks, my gaming group came up with the idea of creating a simple system for selling magic items in-game. Three of the players in this campaign, Nathan, Matt, and Stef, all provided excellent inspiration and feedback.
When I asked how others resolved the sale of magic items on the EN World messageboards, I got a lot of good responses. Four posters in particular contributed ideas that helped me come up with this little system: Ambrus, Larcen, njrpg and Spatzimaus.
My thanks to all of you!
