Excerpt: Economies [merged]

[hong]

A liquid asset has some or more of the following features. It can be sold (1) rapidly, (2) with minimal loss of value, (3) anytime within market hours.

Magic items certainly have (2), assuming we are talking about a legendary sword or some other durable artifact. I think (1) easily applies, assuming the items is of obvious utility to wealthy nobility, reclusive wizards, or military orders.

Tell that to anyone who wants to sell some uranium fuel rods today.

 

[pawsplay]

I could also have their shop burn down, but the end result is they will feel cheated either way. If they are willing and able to pay 100% of the value of the item, it stands to reason (especially for heroic tier items) that other adventurers would be willing to do the same.

If they put effort and resources into attempting to market their devices to others like themselves, then how can you realistically just say that no one will purchase them. Bear in mind that my group plays in a traditional high-fantasy setting where there are other adventurers around with power comprable to the pcs up until the low teens in levels.

You mean in your campaign, the party paladin is not the only member of his Order in existence?

 

[Mouseferatu]

But you new Royce doesn't lose 4/5 of its value right after you drive it for the first time. Theoretically you should be able to find a buyer who is willing to pay a lot, even for a second hand one. Selling items at 1/5 of their value stretches the common sense a little too much.

Fine. So replace the car in my example with a large, flawless emerald. It's still something that's very expensive, but there's no common demand.

And it's the sort of thing that a private citizen won't be able to sell for nearly as much as an actual jeweler/dealer with the proper connections.

Especially in a PoL setting like 4E assumes, I have no trouble believing that the PCs aren't going to be have an easy time just "running across" other people with both the money and the need for magic weapons. On occasion, perhaps--and the DM could even make an adventure out of it--but certainly not regularly enough to take into account in the standard rules.

(And of course all this is ignoring the fact that a game like D&D cannot have a system of economics that is both realistic and balanced for game-play and viable for all, or even most, styles of campaign.)

 

[pawsplay]

Sure, your PCs could quit adventuring and go into business for themselves, but then they're not really playing the game, and months if not years of game time are going by.

Or they could just carry around the items, until they meet a non-insane, moderately wealthy adventurer NPC. A flaming sword is a better way to carry wealth than jewelry, and less sensitive to dwarven gold market manipulations than coin.

 

[Sojorn]

Fine. So replace the car in my example with a large, flawless emerald. It's still something that's very expensive, but there's no common demand.

And it's the sort of thing that a private citizen won't be able to sell for nearly as much as an actual jeweler/dealer with the proper connections.

Speaking of which, the art objects and jewels seem to be listed at their "fence" price.

 

[pawsplay]

Tell that to anyone who wants to sell some uranium fuel rods today.

I could totally sell those. If it weren't highly illegal, I could get someone on the phone probably by tomorrow afternoon interested in buying them for market price.

 

[hong]

I could totally sell those. If it weren't highly illegal,

Well, that's the trick, isn't it.

 

[AZRogue]

It shouldn't be that hard to come up with reasons why the PCs can't sell magic items. For instance, they COULD sell an item in a big city, provided they get a license for the sale of "magical heirlooms" (which is expensive), bribe the right people for an audience to apply for the license (also expensive), and then pay taxes on the sale. Oh, and they also will have to include a description of the item should the rightful owner's family show up and lay claim and the PCs have to defend themselves in court for how they found the item and, at least, make some restitution to the owner's family.

And when you're not doing stuff like that just fix things under the hood: Whenever you let the PCs make X amount of money more than they should have, subtract X amount of value from their next batch of parcels.

 

[ForbidenMaster]

But your new Royce doesn't lose 4/5 of its value right after you drive it for the first time. Theoretically you should be able to find a buyer who is willing to pay a lot, even for a second hand one. Selling items at 1/5 of their value stretches the common sense a little too much.

Regarding the rest of the preview, while I understand that these are just guidelines, I find them very dull and not interesting. First of all, I forsee player complaints that "they didn't get their 4 items for this level". Furthermore, what is the impact of exchanging one gold and potion parcel for another magic item? Or vice versa? What happened to potions other that healing? Again the question - what if the party defeats a villain NPC? What about his magic gear? Can he use the parcel that he's guarding? I hope all of these are addressed in the books...

You may be able to find a buyer in the modern economy, but go to any country that still lives off the land as is the base in D&D and its a different story. Its the same concept. A Royce is about as useful and as rare to a "commoner" of a "poor" country as a magic item would be to a the general population of a D&D world, but in the end a person who makes only a gold a month (or what ever it is) isnt going to be able to buy a 20,000,000,000,000gp (for effect) item.

The solution is that generally your only recourse is a merchant, who because of his own problems and risks, can and will only pay 20% (asside from haggling).

 

[Sir_Darien]

And it's the sort of thing that a private citizen won't be able to sell for nearly as much as an actual jeweler/dealer with the proper connections.

Especially in a PoL setting like 4E assumes, I have no trouble believing that the PCs aren't going to be have an easy time just "running across" other people with both the money and the need for magic weapons. On occasion, perhaps--and the DM could even make an adventure out of it--but certainly not regularly enough to take into account in the standard rules.

But the thing is, adventurers do all occasionally go to the biggest city around. If you have a shop full of good swag in that city, priced at 80-90% of book value, the adventurers will come to you, points of light or no.

And whats to say that the party can't build connections with ppl who need magic swag. That paladins a member of a religious order, and that wizard went to an arcane college. The people they studied/trained/worked with didn't fall off the face of the earth. And a few of them could very well be in the market for a +2 flaming longsword (or at the very least may know someone who is).