Give them what they want? (Magic items)

[Mystery Man]

The current campaign I'm running will be ending soon, and I'm going to be starting a new campaign in the North/Silver Marchesarea. My approach has been to let my players get whatever they can afford regardless of what it was. I'm not too sure whether I want to do that. I want to go for more of a realistic approach and using a tweaked out version of the percentage system that Henry posted. What I would like to do further is when the player is looking for a particular item, the more powerful it is, no matter whether or not a shop has magic items there is a chance they may not have the particular item the character is looking for. Say, the shop owner doesnt have that item but (roll on the magic random item table) he does have "this" instead. The bigger the town, the better the chances the actual item they want is there.

Good idea? Bad idea?

 

[Nifft]

Give each city/town a "commodity price limit", below which you can get anything you want, and above which you need to spend RP time searching for someone who might have something similar.

For major cities IMC, it's around 30,000 gp.

-- N

 

[Henry]

The reason I came up with my check system was that I wanted to get away from two things: The unspoken perception among my players that magic shops were not Wal-marts, and to enforce the "commissioned" aspect of magic. To me, having a max gold piece range like from the DMG system of towns was too much like assuming that you can always go to Wal-mart to pick up a screwdriver/ hamburger meat / a space heater / a dog collar/ etc. Because they always maintain minimum stock on all items they sell.

The BEST way would be to have a list of all items specifically in each town; the easiest way is to set a max gold piece limit; there's definitely room for a middle option, to make sure that Yes, the Realms are moderate to high magic, but no, you can't get a +1 Spiked Chain at any moderately-sized town you stop at. My percentile thingy isn't perfect, but I myself would love to see some other alternatives out there, preferably one that has more mathematical logic than gut-feel in the mechanics.

 

[Mystery Man]

The BEST way would be to have a list of all items specifically in each town; the easiest way is to set a max gold piece limit; there's definitely room for a middle option, to make sure that Yes, the Realms are moderate to high magic, but no, you can't get a +1 Spiked Chain at any moderately-sized town you stop at. My percentile thingy isn't perfect, but I myself would love to see some other alternatives out there, preferably one that has more mathematical logic than gut-feel in the mechanics.

The monumental task of creating inventory lists for every city and town is something that I sure don't have time for. When rolling a percentage of whether or not a shop keep has the item in question, I'm thinking of first rolling for a percentage of whether or not he has any magic items then a second roll to see if he has the item (chances immrove) if not find an item on the table in the DMG to see what he does have.

 

[BryonD]

The reason I came up with my check system was ...

Link please? (Pretty please)

 

[Mystery Man]

Link please? (Pretty please)

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=66473

 

[ForceUser]

I generally don't have magic items lying around in shops. If I did, I'd have perhaps some common potions, scrolls, and wands, but anything else would have to be crafted on commission. If you make time a factor in the acqusition of magic items, you'll find the players making more careful choices regarding what they buy - do they want the lesser item that can be crafted in a week, or the more powerful one that'll take three months to construct? A good DM makes time an important factor in the campaign occasionally.

Other than that, I'd have most cool magic items come from conquered villains and monster lairs, and I'd randomize them so they aren't always the optimal thing for a given character. For instance, your fighter might be a bastard sword specialist, but the party finds a +2 flaming burst greatsword in the dragon's hoard. Does he keep using his +1 bastard sword, with which he is uber-specialized, or does he adopt the more powerful weapon? This sort of randomness and the resultant choices players must make help maintain versimilitude.

 

[BryonD]

Thanks

(October? No wonder I couldn't find it. )

 

[Silveras]

The BEST way would be to have a list of all items specifically in each town; the easiest way is to set a max gold piece limit; there's definitely room for a middle option, to make sure that Yes, the Realms are moderate to high magic, but no, you can't get a +1 Spiked Chain at any moderately-sized town you stop at. My percentile thingy isn't perfect, but I myself would love to see some other alternatives out there, preferably one that has more mathematical logic than gut-feel in the mechanics.

A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe has an Economic Simulator chapter. It does not address magic items, but (AFAIK) all of the mundane items from the price lists are there.

The system assigns a "Purchase DC", which represents the difficulty of finding that item at the list price. If you fail the check, you must increase your offer to find it at THAT price. You can keep going until you reach your limit. You can also take your chances on finding it cheaper (check against a higher DC).

My only "beef" with this system is that the DCs are assigned to each item individually. A systematic method for assigning the DCs by rules would be preferable, IMHO.

 

[Whitey]

Think about it this way.

One standard issue gold piece weight about a third of an ounce. Though the exact rate keeps changing, gold is about $400 US per ounce. So one gold piece approximates $1200.

A scroll of true res costs 28,825 gold pieces. That works out to $34,590,000. Not a lot of stores Whitey frequents have shelves of 34 million dollar items. D&D economics being what they are, it's still fairly unlikely a store could actually stay open with that pricey an inventory - even when it does something that keen. A +2 holy longsword, something an adventurer would love to have, costs even more. Given what the Profession tables say folks would make, it'd take the economic output of the whole town to afford just one.

Either take them off the 'gold standard' and have their items rather than cash be the spoils from campaigns, or (and here Henry has the right approach) set significant limits as to what's in the aisles of Magic R Us.