A New Scarred Lands Convert

[Graf]

In all honesty magic is of such value that it is really only possible to purchase magic with other magic. Who in their right mind would just sell their ring of protection +1 when it might save their life, they would only do so if they were recieving that might be as equally beneficial.

You know.... I totally agree with Jeff's interpretation. This was the impression I got from the books, boards, etc.

As someone with some exposure to economic theory this comes off as a load of fertilizer. I'm not going to talk about economic rationality or anything like that (partially because my terminology's fallen a bit since I got out of school)

Some examples should suffice:
you're a farmer. You're grandfather came back from the war with a special ring that provides some protection against attack, he got if off the body of some elf during the war. Your family is starving. You could trade the ring in for money to buy food, or you can bury your children before winters out.... what do you do?

You're a warrior. You barely escaped from your life from the deathtrap dungeon, all you have are some books that burn your eyes when you look at them (you can't read but the pictures look creepy) and this ring. Nobody will touch the books and you'll have to go to a bigger town and try to hock them.... you want a better suit of armor before you set out. The rings nice but you could trade in your chain shirt for a good suit of plate mail if you could throw in the ring.... What do you do?

Obviously really stubborn people will probably keep the ring. But its feasible that the ring gets sold.

My own version is a bit more complex.... basically magical items are either really cheap or really expensive depending.

People who trade in magic items are hard-bitten speculators who demand large spreads in exchange for the risk (risk of item not being what you said, risk of item being cursed, risk of item being stolen, risk of waiting months to find someone who will pay the price you want, etc). Remember that even if the person is a wizard identify is pretty useless as a merchant. You can determine what the item does least well, and almost never can you properly identify cursed items.
A wizard who does know analyze dewomer isn't going to look at the item and give you a fair price. Why should they cast a free spell for you? They'll offer you some money and take it or leave it.

So in general you can't sell most items for much because there's no guaranteed buyer. (you can sell certain items like arms and armor effortlessly, but you can't replace them with magical weaponry).
Furthermore each reigion has its own peculiarities....
In Hollowfaust (the current city the PCs are in) magical items can be sold for an good price to the necromancers. They buy most everything and they offer precious little in return. So after the third visit of bringing them powerful evil magic items the paladin could buy a holy +1 sword from their locker room (it has a catch the party doesn't know about but....). The monk can't get anything though, neither the Wizard. I almost started laughing when they started asking for headbands of increasing intellect or ac....
In a city filled with wizards, apprentices, etc. none of that stuff is availible without "special" connections, the guilds divvy it up amonst their members and what wouldn't want a head band of intellect?.
At the same time the necromancers are the only wizards in town and the temples remain relatively weak, making them the only show in town.

I think its better to be more rational about the way magic is turned over.... though Jeff is definitely right about "SL canon on magic items"

 

[Graf]

Graf...please don't take offense to this, but please consider getting an editor. Thank you. In any case your input is always valued. Especially by me.

heh, no worries.

I have the pleasure of being the least dyslexic person in a family of violently dislexic people. So I do understand what you're saying.
I realize that reading my posts is [are... it took me for read throughts to notice that] grueling and the main thrust is frequently swallowed up in and lost in a fog of magled sentences with multiple subjects and objects. Sentences that are three words long, none of them verbs. I assure you, until I go over it for the fourth time it really looks to me like any sort of normal paragraph written by someone who's, say, graduated from HS.

I do edit.... but its a very different level and, unfortunately, the amount of effort required to get my writing to "normal" standards is more than I could probably put in and still participate.

So I have to beg your forgivness on this matter.

 

[Paul_Klein]

Thanks for the replies guys!!

I'm reading through Serpent in the Fold right now. My campaign won't start until the first Saturday in January (the 4th), but I'm gearing up. I plan on using the prelude to SitF off S&S's webpage to kickstart the whole campaign.

This is my first time ever DM'ing a 'real' D&D campaign. I have plenty of experience with Star Wars, but not D&D. I'm really glad I found Scarred Lands. I absolutly love the setting... it's very familiar yet totally different ... if you know what I mean

 

[tabrumj]

Graf,
I tend to agree with you about magic item sales. There are certainly people who would choose to sell off their items; however, these items would normally be purchased by local governments and major groups of mages. And these goups would not be very intersted in selling magic for gold, most of them are incredibly wealthy and wouldn't see the sale of magic iems as cost effective. They would sell magic items for either truely extrobinant prices or in exchange for another magic item.

In partial justification of this look at the prices for services rendered by a mage. A moderate to high level mage can easily clear 1000 GP a day just by casting 3 or 4 spells. However no mage can make more than 1000 GP of items per day. As such they would crank up the prices of any items that they do make for sale. Since gold value tends to be come somewhat academic when you hit up around 10,000 GP (enough to live in absolute luxury for years) or so most mages have no real need to manufacture items for profit. Quite simply its more desirable to cast half a dozen spells and have the rest of the day open for personal research than it is to spend all day crafting an item for someone else.

Instead, I picture wizards purchasing interesting magic items off of ignorant adventurers who can't appreciate the potential of what they have found. Without any real way of appraisinng the value of a magic tiem short of actual experience they are likely to sell off some items for rediculously low prices. Unless the group has a wizard in it they could easily sell of something as usefull as a staff of power for as low as 20,000 GP just because they have no idea of the real value and that amount of money is ludicrously high. We are looking at a sum sufficient to buy several very nice houses for the group, a more than sufficient sum for most people.

Governments would also be likely stockpilers of magic items. There is almost no item that a government would not like to have in it's storehouse. Even simple +1 magic weapons would be eagerly purchased for use by military officers and the rulers bodygaurds. In no case would the government be selling such items back to the the general populace, they have taxes for gaining income and certainly don't need to profit for magic sales. In specific cases they might be willing to sell magic back to the populace if they gained some other profiiit by doing so; i.e. selling arrows +1 to adventures hunting DR titanspawn. They might also grant magic items as rewards to those who have greatly served the nation.

Now a government might be willing to trade magic for magic. They would certainly see more use out of a wand of fireballs or carpet of flying and be more than willing to trade items like rings of prtoection or gauntlets of dexterity, items that have an admitadely limited scope. A government dosen't nessecarily have to be polite about aquiring magic it desires. If someone posses the aforementioned staff of power and Calastia wants it then Calastia will get it. And the former possesor of it should be gratefull for serving their country and recieving 30,000 GP and the Kings thanks. Complaining her would gain them nothing other than a possible quite "disapperance" for disloyalty to the crown.

 

[Ruined]

I've recently started up a new SL campaign, and I wanted to pass on one thing I did for my players. We've got a forum set up on my website and I've posted some background information there. I think the biggest thing to drive home to the characters are familiarity with the gods and titans. I wrote brief synopsis of each of the gods and what they represent, and also a writeup of the titans, their significance, and how they were sundered.

Except for Gulaben, since she's a special case (and integral to my campaign).

It definitely helped to distinguish this game from others right from the start. Actually Paul, if you're interested, it would be an easy thing to cut, paste and send to you.

 

[Ysgarran]

A quick comment about epic level play. None of the avatars or the heralds have been created with epic level rules. If you truly wanted this level of play I would say one of the first things to do would be to go back and add some epic level feats/features to the avatars and heralds.

The landscape of Scarn does have some highly magical features. With whole a sea poisoned by the blood of Titan and nasty greasy cursed melons growing out of the ground characters will have to be prepared when the strike out overland. The wilderness supplement book on Scarn is a nice addition for these kinds of adventures.

Ysgarran.

 

[tabrumj]

The wilderness supplement book on Scarn is a nice addition for these kinds of adventures.

Ysgarran.

Thank you kindly.

 

[Sanackranib]

scarred lands

heh, no worries.

I have the pleasure of being the least dyslexic person in a family of violently dislexic people. So I do understand what you're saying.
I realize that reading my posts is [are... it took me for read throughts to notice that] grueling and the main thrust is frequently swallowed up in and lost in a fog of magled sentences with multiple subjects and objects. Sentences that are three words long, none of them verbs. I assure you, until I go over it for the fourth time it really looks to me like any sort of normal paragraph written by someone who's, say, graduated from HS.

I do edit.... but its a very different level and, unfortunately, the amount of effort required to get my writing to "normal" standards is more than I could probably put in and still participate.


So I have to beg your forgivness on this matter.

Ditto! for someone with a high reading/spoken vocabulary I spell like a 5th grader! Hopefully the message comes out well enough to get the point accross.

 

[Sanackranib]

scarred lands

Thank you kindly.

I've never heard of this book, is it like the 1e wilderness survival guide?

 

[Nightfall]

Thanks for the replies guys!!

I'm reading through Serpent in the Fold right now. My campaign won't start until the first Saturday in January (the 4th), but I'm gearing up. I plan on using the prelude to SitF off S&S's webpage to kickstart the whole campaign.

This is my first time ever DM'ing a 'real' D&D campaign. I have plenty of experience with Star Wars, but not D&D. I'm really glad I found Scarred Lands. I absolutly love the setting... it's very familiar yet totally different ... if you know what I mean

Good choice! Just rememeber that Serpent and the Scepter is also out now, so you might want to get that too.