DMs against the Magical Wal-Mart

[Shallown]

Originally Posted by Shallown
(Their friendship is more based on the fact thier Toad familiars are lovers than the fact they get magic items from him)

Trainz
Shallown my friend, I get the feeling your games aren't the typical dungeon crawl/rescue princess type...

No actual its an epic save the world from a demon hoard that once ruled it 2 thousand years ago.

The Toad sex was more from my wizard sometimes ignoring his Toad famaliar whom he got for the Htps (3.0 at the time). So I thought we have an intelligent toad here who gets urges. I also wanted a way to link the gnome university store operator to the party and that worked. BTW the toad once saved the wizard from jail when he led the other players on a rescue mission after the wizard was arrested,As well as, making the Wizard 50 gp from selling the two Familiars off spring to students at the university.

Hereth the Hijack ends

Later

 

[Mystic_23]

In the last D&D Campaign I was in (set in the Forgotten Realms) we didn't ever see the "Magic Shop". At low levels we had to make due with what we could find, and/or travel quite a distance to the bigger cities to find items.

However, to make things easier at higher levels, we found a woman who was essentially a "Magic Item Broker". Since in the Realms (at least the way we play) the concept of "Adventurer" is a valid career option, it makes sense that there would be someone who would try to profit off of this.

How it worked is, when we needed something, we would let her know. At that point she would begin searching for someone who:

1) Has an item that is pretty close to what we requested. (Such as wands with fewer charges than we requested, etc.).

2) Is willing to take a commission for crafting said item.

Then she would charge a small fee. It was worth it to us to pay a little extra to her. (Sometimes we would pay her a little more than she requested. Kinda like tipping the Pizza Boy a little extra to make sure that next time it gets there even quicker.)

She probably could have retired to a life of luxury out of what we payed her for the items we bought through her. I'd say that the experience was altogether good because it allowed us to get items we wanted, while allowing the DM to have some control over what we ended up with.

 

[jasper]

In a "real" medieval/feudal world, there wouldn't be weapon shops either. Weapons were made by smith who worked for their lord, or made specifically for the army. There was no "free market" of swords.

ha ha that depends on what time period and where you were. Of course most people get their real medieval feudal from the movies.
check out some of these books

Joseph & Frances Gies,
Life in a Medieval Castle, Life in Medieval City, Life in Medieval Village, A Medieval Family, Cathedral Forge and Water Wheel: Technology and Invention in the Middle Ages, Daily Life in the Medieval Times, Women in the Middle Ages, Marriage and the Family in the Middle Ages, By the Sweat of Thy Brow: Work in the Western World,

David Edge, John Miles Paddock Arms and Armour of the Medieval Knight
Boutell, Charles Arms and Armour in Antiquity and the Middle Ages
DeCamp, Ancient Engineers
Andrews, The Medieval Builder

 

[herald]

In a "real" medieval/feudal world, there wouldn't be weapon shops either. Weapons were made by smith who worked for their lord, or made specifically for the army. There was no "free market" of swords.

Well, that couldn't be farther than the truth.

Don't assume that all the societies of Europe worked the same way. Vikings aren't the same as say feudal England.

 

[Inconsequenti-AL]

Last 'high magic' campaign I ran didn't have magic item superstores... but it did have pretty hassle free item aquisition for minor stuff - 'rpg' for major items. What was 'major' or 'minor' changed over the game, depending on power levels and what was fun at the time.

+1 Holy sword = oooohhhh at 5th level. At 16th level = "shrug, so what!"

Was OK, if a little unsatisfying.

My current game will have very little in the way of item trading, or indeed items. Went for imbued 'superpowers' instead of items. But it's really a different way of describing things. From a certain point of view, it's also far 'worse' than the 'item shop' mentality in that it gives players control over what 'superpowers' they're going to have... without going through the hassle of trading or spending cash.

Edit: Brain notte workee.

 

[diaglo]

I handle it by not allowing it at all.

ditto. the players need to be inventive.
(purely theoretical as it would never happen in my campaign) so they find a +1 dagger and now they want to sell it. they go to the merchant and show it.

PC: i've got this +1 dagger for sale.
Merchant: Eh?
PC: yeah, this dagger is magical. i'll sell it to you for 1001gp. which is half of its total value.
Merchant: Eh?
PC: don't you want magic? i need some cash to buy better stuff.
Merchant: now you're talking. I've got these magic beans.

with items in the thousands of gp value...you aren't going to find Commoner 1 or Expert 1 selling or buying them. otherwise they would quickly be stolen by Rogue 1.

you need to find someone with the funds. which is hard unto itself. most residents are COmmoner 1 types. the guys who do have the funds aren't necessarily interested.... a la the PCs aren't interested in buying item X...just b/c it is worth Y gps. they want specific items. fighter wants arms & armor, wizard wants ...etc...

a lot of thot needs to go into the planning of a campaign before you start. even stuff such as who has the money to buy things. and why would they buy them.


edit: not to mention people need to detect magic and determine various powers of the items they are buying/selling.

 

[jessemock]

ditto. the players need to be inventive.

Disagree: the DM needs to be inventive. Magic item distribution falls under the purview of the DM.

Don't your players ever find a magical item they don't want? What do they do with them? Throw them in a lake or something?

Yes, actually; we do this kind of thing all the time.

We also have the option of 'trading in' magic weapons to a smith (a major NPC) who works them into a new one. Basically, the 'exchange rate' remains the same, but the we never actually 'sell' the weapons.

 

[diaglo]

Disagree: the DM needs to be inventive. Magic item distribution falls under the purview of the DM.

i agree the DM needs to be inventive. i also agree about the distribution of items. did you even read the rest of my post you snipped?

also you need to figure out the quoting tags. i didn't say the second part you quoted.




what i meant by the players being inventive was how they approach the creation and sale of items.

 

[Barak]

We also have the option of 'trading in' magic weapons to a smith (a major NPC) who works them into a new one. Basically, the 'exchange rate' remains the same, but the we never actually 'sell' the weapons.

They had a spell in 2nd edition that sort of made sense. It "transfered" a magical enchantment from one item to another, as long as the item was of the same type (armor to armor, slashing weapon to slashing weapon, etc.)

There was a cost of some sort associated with the spell (either gold or XP, perhaps both. It was significant, but not overly huge).

I always liked that spell, as it made "non-standard" weapons a better choice. Of course back then crafting magic stuff was pretty impossible, so it was even more needed, but I still think I'll reinstate that spell in my campaign somehow.

 

[Thanee]

We usually allow to buy low-end magic items, or those that would be commonly found (like +1 swords, simple protective items, etc), as well as expendables (potions, scrolls, some wands).

It's possible to find a 'better' magic item for sale, but chances are usually slim.

Bye
Thanee