Do Artifacts have a market cost?

[ScardPtori]

Would you want to buy an artifact?

Imagine the people coming after you trying to get it. What a hassle! Having to fight off PCs all the time...

I'd think if you're rich/powerful/influential enough to buy one, you're rich/powerful/influential enough to take it by force.

That's a great point as well, and would make for some fun adventures if your player's characters actually announced they had an artifact they wanted to sell.

For a great example of what could happen, I recommend Glen Cook's The Silver Spike, which is the 4th book of the Black Company series. It describes this exact situation.

 

[RainOfSteel]

Of course there is a market price.

1) "Blood and souls"

2) "Empires and lives"

3) "Oops, was that you dying? Sorry about that."

 

[Voadam]

I'll give you five gold for it.

 

[Nightfall]

No because who can say with certainly how much Vecna's body is actually worth?

 

[prosfilaes]

Would you want to buy an artifact?

Imagine the people coming after you trying to get it. What a hassle! Having to fight off PCs all the time...

I'd think if you're rich/powerful/influential enough to buy one, you're rich/powerful/influential enough to take it by force.

In the real world, big expensive things are sold all the time. If you've got the money to buy a Caribbean island, you probably have enough to hire some mercenaries and take it by force; but people still buy Caribbean islands, because having a clear title and reputation is worth a lot. Probably since the Magna Carta, and certainly since the English Restoration, English monarchs wouldn't have taken it by force for their personal possession, because such an ill-use of power would have annoyed the nobles and Parliament. In any society with a strong enough law, openly taking something by force may be enough to cause you to lose some of that wealth, power, or influence, even if they can't openly arrest you. It may be all the justification someone with more power or influence needs to openly use force against you to take the artifact for their own use.

From the other end of the issue, the type of people to tend to sell artifacts are powerful adventurers. They tend to do well against forceful measures; a high-level adventurer is only threatened by powerful monsters or other high-level characters. Is it really worth the death of a number of powerful followers (whose bodies might get tossed into a gate into the Abyss if the PCs are enraged enough) to try and get something that might be cleanly bought for gold? Is it worth possibly enraging the adventurers, who may use divination to figure out who's hassling them and empty the dance floor at your next party with Meteor Swarm? And even if you do get them, the adventurers quite probably had connections who might look askew at your blatant attacks. Besides the ordinary kings and lords, most parties include clerics with built-in allies. You drop a high-level paladin of St. Cuthbert and there will be a strong negative response. You drop a high-level priest of Olidammara, and we'll see how long you keep that artifact.

So, yeah, maybe anyone who could afford to buy the artifact could probably get it through other ways, but cash on the barrel head is simple, easy and honest, and introduces no complications. After all, as you've implied, people are going to try force to take this from you; it's easier to leave the adventurers who found it off that list.

 

[MonkeyDragon]

This is interesting to me, as the meatgrinder I'm almost done playing in just turned up a deck of many things. Just for giggles. Frankly, I was a little bummed, because here is this immensely valueable item, and we can't sell it. Of course everyone has the opportunity to draw...but based on the game we're playing now, a couple of the good cards (the one that gives you a keep, and the one that gives you a knight) aren't really useful to us. Of course there's always the chance for wishes...but there's a hearty chance for having your soul imprisoned, too.

I'm still in the air over whether I'll draw.

 

[Jeremy757]

Would you want to buy an artifact?

Imagine the people coming after you trying to get it. What a hassle! Having to fight off PCs all the time...

I'd think if you're rich/powerful/influential enough to buy one, you're rich/powerful/influential enough to take it by force.

Agreed. If you make it known to the public you have an artifact that you want to sell, your just inviting every villian in the campaign not smart enough to find their own artifact to come take yours.

 

[was]

Yes, there should be prices on them....astronomical ones.

 

[Jdvn1]

In the real world, big expensive things are sold all the time.

Oh, of course. And, in D&D, big expensive things are also sold all the time.

But, Caribbean islands aren't artifacts. A pair of gloves that can create and destroy islands is.

Could you convince a slow-witted person to trade such a thing for money? Probably so. But the actual worth of such an item would probably be more than all of the money on the planet. And, anyway, the wielder of such an item is in a much better position if he can harness the power of the artifact to use for himself.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

From the other end of the issue, the type of people to tend to sell artifacts are powerful adventurers. They tend to do well against forceful measures; a high-level adventurer is only threatened by powerful monsters or other high-level characters. Is it really worth the death of a number of powerful followers (whose bodies might get tossed into a gate into the Abyss if the PCs are enraged enough) to try and get something that might be cleanly bought for gold? Is it worth possibly enraging the adventurers, who may use divination to figure out who's hassling them and empty the dance floor at your next party with Meteor Swarm?

I think this issue is a bit more complicated than that.

Let's say you are Suplreme Overlord of X, and you have been in a state of conflict with the kingdom of Y and its High King. The war has been going on for a few years, and the way things are looking, it will probably last some more years before the outcome is clear - thus, weakening your country and treasury, and possibly inviting an attack from the nation of Z.

Now you hear that some lucky adventurers have gained the All-Powerful Sceptre of Xyx the All-Powerful - and they are willing to sell it. This sceptre could win you the war in a matter of weeks! So you immediately send out some agents to buy it - before Y or Z can get it first.

You know that, above all else, you will have to prevent Y and Z from getting the artifact. But the adventurers want to see which of you will offer the most money - and in cash, too! Your treasury has been seriously depleted anyway, and most of your wealth is in land, not coins, so there is a limit to what you can afford - but there's no way you can allow the others to get it. And each passing day more interested buyers show up - and at any time, they might try to steal the artifact, and possibly succeed, too (sure, the adventurers are powerful - but powerful enough to ward off any attacks or attempts to steal the sceptre? Do you know how capable they are - and how capable the people are who attempt to steal it?) So you secretly hire the best thieves in the world to get the sceptre - or at least, the best who haven't been hired yet. If that doesn't work, you might try to kidnap some of the weaker members in exchange for the artifact - or some friends, relatives, or loved ones. Anything that might convince them to turn the sceptre over. You might feel a bit guilty about this, but if any of your rivals get it first, you are doomed anyway...


In other words, player characters who openly announce that they have an artifact to sell more often than not invite trouble on a scale that will make any two Great Wyrms seem like a cakewalk in comparison. Everyone who is anyone will come after them until they get rid of the item - and all interested parties know it.

Sure, they can probably make a statement (if they are powerful enough) by killing two or three heads of states that ordered hit squads to come after them - but through this, they will also throw these countries into chaos and cause a lot of resentment against them. Is it that what they really want - to be feared and seen as terrorists by much of the world?

I'll repeat my earlier advice: If they find some powerful artifact and want to exchange it for cash or favors, their best bet is to secretly contact a power or organization that (a) has plenty of money and (b) is unlikely to stab them in the back to get it. Sure, they won't get as much money out of it like they would have by auctioning it off - but at least they can speand the gold in peace...