This thread is growing faster than a Hobbit with an addiction to Ent-draught...
Crosswind said:
To the Pro-4E Magic Item System Crowd:
Can you list an example of a real world good where:
It sells for 5 times as much as the vendor buys it for
The vendor adds no value to the good (either by changing it, or moving it from point A to point B)
I can't. And it's messing with my chi. Spare me the chorus of "Can you name a real world good that SHOOTS FIREBALLS!", too. =)
Cross, the problem with your example request, and I think why many people have issues here, lies with your assumptions:
For starters, the merchant
is moving the good from point A (where the PCs sell it) to point B (where he resells it to someone else). In fact, the merchant is not just moving it, he is speculating on his ability to:
a) Find a buyer for the thing.
b) Not lose the product before he can deliver it.
In a D&D world, transportation is not insignificant. In fact, one can probably assume that the relatively high price of some D&D goods is directly related (as it was in the real world) to the difficulty with transporting them. Caravans get attacked. Goods get lost. In early modern times (like the English renaissance), this was just considered the cost of trade. There were lots of products that are analagous to magic items in this time period - high value to some people, totally out of reach of others. Nutmeg, for example, was sold in England at a markup of something like 60,000 percent (600 times!) its purchase price in the Indies.
The reason for this is that trading is
dangerous. A successful voyage was one that turned a profit in the end, after accounting for all the losses (ships, men, goods, and so forth) incurred in the process of conducting trade. That ridiculous markup let them cover all those costs. And because the backers of the voyage were often based someplace safe, they could afford to risk it. And since the captain/leader of the expedition would be a rich man if he succeeded, they had no shortage of volunteers, despite the inherent dangers.
However, if your PCs really want to become merchants (magic item or otherwise), that's the basis of a campaign, not a way to beat the system. Merchants need contacts, resources, goods to sell, and so forth. This is fertile ground for adventure, and it's hardly a new concept. Look at Han Solo and Chewbacca, or Malcolm Reynolds and the crew of
Serenity. Further back, the age of exploration (medieval to 19th century) was chock full of "adventurers" who made a living doing everything from "honest trade" to voyages of "purchase" (i.e. piracy). Heck, the very word "adventurer" was first coined to refer to merchants embarking on a new "venture."
And if they instead decide that pillaging merchants is the path for them, they can always choose to follow the path of the highwayman, bandit or pirate. And that's hardly devoid of adventure.
Selling items takes time and energy. That is an adventure in and of itself. One for which the reward is the extra gold the PCs make over what they'd get by selling cheap. This is not "railroading" - it's simply turning an attempt to "cheat the system" into an opportunity for adventure (and fun!) for everyone. How is this a bad thing?
