Camoaign control - Guilds and Monopolies

[Greenfield]

One problem with D&D 3.* is that the economy is broken. There's no other way to say that. In a game world, where spells like Fabricate and Transmute Beverage exist, it's easily possible for PCs of just about any level to rape anything resembling a balanced economy.

By the book, there are the theoretical limits on how much wealth can be found in any given city at any given time. You won't sell that Amulet of Ultimate Niftiness for 200,000 gp in just any town or hamlet, after all. But those limits are often waved away or not considered at all. You sell it "in town", and don't worry about which town or to whom it's being sold.

In the real world, Kings often granted legal monopolies to certain factions or nobles.

Guilds also developed an incredibly strong hold on certain aspects of craft or trade.

These would seem to be a reasonable tool for reining in the overly mercenary PC who plans to make his first million before 5th level. Of course, they're just an in-game facade for the DM's "Dispel Bull$h1+" power, but they do the job.

I've also heard mention, here in these forums, of a "Delver's Guild", which covers the folks who dig through ruins for buried treasure.

So let's talk about these, and other means of keeping the broken game economy from being abused.

What controls do you use, and how do they work?

 

[Dross]

Well the game isn't set up to be too realistic regarding economies because that isn't really the focus of the game (I believe that "A Magical Medieval Society" extrapolates the use of magic, as does Eberron somewhat). I agree it is more of a general outline rather than a firm set of rules, but I think that they probably wanted to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) this part.

For myself I do use the "if the town is not large enough to buy such an item then the town is not large enough to sell the item in".

I also note any rep the party has (or lack thereof) when dealing with specific merchants/guilds/groups. I have a hard time believing that a paladin would sell something that could be just as easily used on innocents as evil to a group that has a shady reputation (lots of collateral damage for instance).

While I do consider it a fine way to handle things, the guild and legal monopolies you suggest are trying to cover not enforcing what IS in the rules.

 

[John Blackwood]

My favorite house rule is, if you want to sell a magic item you need to go looking for a buyer. If you want to buy a magic item you need to go looking for a seller. This is nice because you can make the players quest for gear into adventures.

As for a balanced economy, I usually don't bother with stuff like that. If I had to I would drastically decrease the value of a gold. Magic items of lower levels would be more or less common for some industries. Players would have to spend more on food and shelter though.

You could also make up some way to disenchant items like in 4e and use what ever is left to enchant new items.

Are adventurers common in the world?

(Hi, this is my first post. )

 

[Alexander123]

I agree that it should be KISSed.

What do I do? Since I play in Eberron, I generally have low level magic items available for sale and the players can get their hands on such items easily. As far as higher level items, they are more rare and generally crafting such items is the way to go. It becomes easier if you have an artificer in your party to craft high level items.

 

[Greenfield]

In our campaigns, PC's can get scrolls and/or wands made either at a church or a Mage Guild hall. Same for potions.

Permanent items, however, they pretty much have to make or find themselves.

Now I'm not all that concerned about the broken economy. It's one of those parts of the game where we just ask players to pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. You pretend that the problem doesn't exist, that a 5th level PC isn't really carrying enough wealth around to buy the average village. (Check the PC wealth table, page 135 of the DMG if you don't believe that last one, remembering that the average unskilled worker gets a gold piece a week, and a skilled one makes a gold piece a day.)

My issue is with players who do see the man behind the curtain, and actively strive to pick his pocket. Gear = power in D&D, any edition, and money = gear. So when PCs come up with schemes to use magic in some "clever" way to suddenly become kazzilionaires, I like to have some in-game reason why it won't work.

Usually I start by pointing out that they aren't the first people in the world to learn Fabricate or Teleport, they aren't the first to have a Bag of Holding or Portable Hole. Pretty much any trick they can come up with has been done before, probably better.

Want to crank out masterwork items left and right? You'll run afoul of Guild rules really really fast, and the simple fact is that you can't dump 50 MW Longbows, Mighty Composite +5, on a town and expect to get market price. First, they don't need very many (there just aren't that many archers with a 20 Strength), and second, even if they do they don't have the cash to pay for them. Will you accept trade? I have a lot of sheep I can let you have...

But still, someone will try, as I'm sure they do in your games as well. So how do you handle it?

 

[anest1s]

Its not my idea,
but the answer is quality control...

You find a +1 weapon? You want to sell it for full price? You can, but it is illegal to do so, if it isn't checked by the local mages guild....which guess what, costs enough to justify half the price. Plus the lulz when "It has this tiny break over here...we cant certificate this crap"

You want to create something with a spell? The NPCs can do this too. They just have to sell it the normal price, because they have to check its quality after its done. You want to do too? Fine, but you will have to pay for it.

And if you don't, the local mages guild won't like it, when they are forced to pay fines to the carpenters guild...

 

[Alexander123]

Since I am taking an economy class this semester my answer would be supply and demand:

You can make anything you want and try to sell it but this doesn't mean that demand for the good exists. Consumers may not be willing and able to purchase a certain thing at a certain price. This seems to keep the economy in my game from becoming broken.

Along with this, at the lower levels I make it dangerous for the PCs to have more than their WBL. If they start abusing tricks I have a higher level thief who has heard of these PCs try to rob them.