Does your setting have Magic Shops

[FreeTheSlaves]

Players use social skills to find those who trade items and such. Players can ask for what they want. Middleman checks for availability and costs through networks of contacts. Middleman delivers offer, and sees that negotiations are set up to both parties agreement.

A "shop" of magic items is far too great of a risk. The ward that stops a thief will kill the the Royal Guard searching the shop and lead to the shopkeep's execution.

Yep that is close to the mark for our games too. Find the right merchant -> tell them what you want to buy and sell -> market forces determine availability (AKA the wealth by town rules) -> wait a period (houserule says wait a day per 1000gp involved) -> make the pick up or drop off under secure conditions. The last bit is where it can go sour but with logical consequences such as word of mouth (even if all witnesses are dead, friends of the dead might know what was supposed to happen + there are divinations) there are strong incentives to maintain the contract. It is a bit silly to kill the golden goose so to speak.

EDIT

Oh yeah, so as I mapped the local world I've decided the town population/wealth. Currently only one city is a metropolis of 30,000 capable of exchanging 40,000gp items. For quest incentive I've stricken it with hard times where it is only as prosperous as a city one size smaller, i.e. 25,000gp availability. Regardless, items above 40,000 will have to be sold at a loss if their half price is above 40k - or somebody specific will have to be found. I also decided to limit scroll availability because the powerful npc's generally can't or wouldn't create them. No scroll above 6th level can be bought... maybe then I'll allow them to be sold at full price?

 

[Paraxis]

It depends on the game realy.

In my Eberron game I let them go to an artificer and order custom items, the catch is they have to provide another item for the artificer can take the required xp from. The artificer then charges normal price for the enchant so most items basicly cost 150% normal, because they had to give up an equaly powerful item to the artificer and pay him full. This works out quite well and every item they find is considered a good thing because thats how they get what they realy want. I am thinking about adopting a house rule that in other worlds anyone with a craft feat can take out xp from the same type of item they can craft and add that xp to a craft pool.

In my Iron Kingdoms game, no not magic items. But there are places to buy magickana items basicly machines with magic item effects, although more costly and more limited.

In my home brew as of yet no. They met a wandering gypsie once that had some for sale and trade but thats it.

 

[Endur]

I voted yes for both commission casters and magic shops.

Magic shops tend to focus on potions and scrolls. Occassionally other generic magic items can be found in a shop, but more powerful items need to be commissioned.

 

[Kilmore]

Yeah, I have magic shops. I also realize that adventurers make up a small (but lucrative) portion of such a shop's clientele. In a high magic setting such as mine, a family may spend months collecting money for enchanted tools that make their work easier and more cost efficient, such as a hammer that creates it's own nails, or a pan that fries without a fire. This is the type of item that comprises the bulk of a magic shop's inventory. And interestingly, I've found that PC's are willing to blow a lot of chingy for these gadget while shopping for their flaming maim-swords.