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Message: <blockquote data-quote="UrathDM" data-source="post: 1052385" data-attributes="member: 12560">Re: Buying and Selling itemsThe difficulty here depends on where they are trying to buy/sell things. The DMG, under generating towns (both 3.0 & 3.5 p. 137), covers the cash on hand in town and the most expensive item you can purchase. It also covers, in a simple way, telling how many of any given item are available in town to purchase (gp limit divided by item price), if any. Using these rules, for example, in a Thorp (40 gp price limit), you can't buy nonmagical Masterwork weapons (300+ gp), and no one there can afford to buy them from you (the whole Thorp, if they got together and pooled their resources, might be able to -- but you'd be getting paid in chickens and pigs, not gold). Also, you could play more with the notes at the beginning of the Equipment chapter in the Players' Handbook -- about how people trade in commoddities, not cash. For a more complex approach, you can also look at "A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe" from Expeditious Retreat Press... it has a more complex "Economics Simulator" (as well as being a fantastic book on generating your own Kingdoms, Cities, small Holdings, and understanding how it all fits together).As to the variety in a shop, there were no (or VERY few) "general stores" in the middle ages. Everyone made a few things, and sold them personally. A Blacksmith had tools and farm goods; a weaponsmith had weapons (but not tools); an armorer had armor (but not weapons or tools); and so on. Naturally, a magical world is a little different, but social factors will tend to keep that part sort of the same.  Finally, if there is no one in town capable of making a magic item (no one of the appropriate level), it stands to reason that there is not likely one to be had for sale. Re: Skill checksI would advise against making skill checks for the PCs unless it is something where failure means they would not be aware of it. Skill checks like Wilderness Lore (3.0)/Survival (3.5) for finding food in the wild... Spellcraft to identify the spell being cast... you do not need to hide those. Spot, on the other hand, you should make because they would not know there was anything to see if they failed. Making their own skill checks is as much a part of the participation as making their own  attack rolls. Re: Food and WaterFor in town, as Saeviomagy suggested, the "lifestyle" rules work fine. For wilderness journeys, food and water can play a big part in encumberance (especially for low-level parties). When planning a long journey, parties sometimes need to purchase an additional mule or other pack animal Re: EncumberanceEncumberance is a LOT easier if your players have access to a spreadsheet program that can automatically adjust the sums. If not, "ballparking" and "does this look reasonable" makes it much easier. 3.0 and 3.5 assume that armor is the bulk of the encumberance, so the penalties on the armor are not (usually) cumulative with those for encumberance. Hope that helps</blockquote>

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