How do you determine Shop Inventory?

[haakon1]

Stores and Magic Shops in my campaign

I'm running 3.5

Mundane goods: In a sufficiently sized community without shortages, you can get anything within the gold piece limit, in limited quantities. The only time the PC's have had any issues are:
1) When they wanted to buy a herd of cattle in a large trading town. They had to wait overnight as the broker filled their order from local farmers and traders. And of course, they paid more than a peasant would.

2) When they wanted to buy 8 light warhorses in a small town in a country at war (where most warhorses had been requisitioned by the military already). There was a teamster/horsedealer in the town, but he had no reason to have warhorses. I had the teamster ask them to wait an hour; they ended up getting all of 6 of his light horses and 2 light warhorses provided as a loan by the local nobleman (who came to talk to the PC's and agreed to help out).

3) When they still wanted to get 6 light warhorses in a major town later, they talked to the military and got what they needed from them -- horsedealers again had nothing of that nature.

For Magic Shops, I have two in my campaign:

1) Major magic shop in a major town that's the country's capital and major trading crossroads.

-- The feel is similar to a small town FLGS.

-- The owner is a retired mid level sorcerer.

-- Stocked by random treasure rolls, with a specific inventory, including "substantial" gear.

-- Also BUYS from PC's, generally* for 80% of face value, or will sell on consignment (PC's eventually get 90%). Payouts are limited by their capital to about 2500 gp at a time -- otherwise, you get store credit.

-- Does Identify item as a commonly purchased service.

-- Generally * sells at 100% of DMG value.

-- They always have at least ~12 potions, usually ~10 scrolls, and usually 0-2 of each other type of item, with most items being Minor in power. Also carries material components and a very rare, not from around here non-magical goods (sold to it by a cross-over campaign PC with Stargate d20 equipment).

-- The inventory changes most often only when one of the two PC parties sells something to them, or buys something. Potions and scrolls are quickly replaced, more slow moving goods get a random determination on something similar coming into stock. I also randomly add and delete from stock occasionally.

-- The inventory is NOT level appropriate to the party doing the shopping. It is what it is. The most expensive item is a Ring of Wizardy, the most ubiquitous are CLW potions, which are always in stock.

-- This magic store has a city-wide official monopoly, given to the Mage's Guild by the national ruler. The country's official "creepy guy who runs adventuring parties" is in close contact with the magic store owner, getting intel on parties. The place is protected by the Mage's Guild (who are investors) and off limits for the Thieves' Guild. Woe betide anyone who tries to rob the place, as friendly adventurers, the national government, the Mage's Guild, and the Thieves' Guild would all seek to enforce the "don't rob the magic shop" norm. The PC's don't know all this, but the players have discussed it probably has some kind of "protection".

* These are the rates for people who the magic shop owner knows and likes (including both parties of PC's). An outsider or first time customer would get worse rates. Also, buy prices for "Fast Moving Consumer Goods" -- Cure potions and Fireball scrolls in particular -- might be as high as 90%, if his inventory is low.

2) Small shop in a small town on the trade road.

-- Only sells (for 100% of DMG price) or Identifies items.

-- Only deals in potions and scrolls, with about 5 of each in stock at any given time. I roll randomly on the Minor table when PC's ask. Almost always 1st or 2nd level spells.

-- Can order potions or scrolls that aren't in stock (from the Magic Shop in the capital). This takes about 1 week.

-- Again, it's not level appropriate for the party, necessarily, but it's a small town near a 1st level and a 2nd-3rd level dungeon.

 

[LostSoul]

I was playing around with this (4E).

Basically I was going to set a random chance for a certain type of magic item vendor, ranging from a Herbalist to an Artificer. The higher the level of the settlement (and therefore the riskier it is to be there!), the higher the chance of a more powerful vendor.

Once you determine the vendors in the settlement, you'd have to make a roll to find them (this is probably stupid). Once you find them, the DM makes a reaction roll. The reaction roll determines the vendor's disposition to the PCs, and they can try to influence him.

I never got as far as figuring out what was currently in stock. I'd probably switch it up now and say that you have to request an item to be made, which takes some time.

Hmm... that kind of sucks. The easiest thing to do would be to see what the PC wants, have the vendor make a roll against the level of the item, and based on the DC the vendor hits it may be in stock or not.

Failure = not in stock or cursed; Easy = not in stock, but he knows where one is; Moderate = in stock; Hard = in stock, and with a special quality.

Each vendor had some quirks. Here's the entry for Artificers:

Artificer (1d8+4): Artificers create powerful and permanent magic items. They tend to work alone, but 30% have 1d4 apprentices of their level -2.

Source of Magical Power
Power Source		Notes	
Muse 			75% imprisoned against will
Planar Rift 		1-2 Feywild, 3-4 Shadowfell, 4-7 Elemental
			Chaos, 8 Astral Sea
Necrotic Energy		Causes nearby dead to spontaneously animate
			after 1d4 nights
Divine Font		50% Angel of Protection guards site
Component Vault		Value of components is 1/2 total monetary
			treasure of shop's level
Sacrificial Altar	Sacrifice = 100xvictim's level in components; 
			Drain = 50 per healing surge; 
			50% will buy sacrifices at 1/2 that value
Cache of Souls		1d3 souls trapped in soulcage; if only 1 soul is
			left, the Artificer will be looking for a new
			one (soul value = 10k gp)
Elemental Forge		1-50 imprisoned against will, 51-00 will work
			for food
Primordial Forge	Harnessing the power of a volcano, very 
			dangerous
Demon's Heart		Still beating

Guardians*
Roll					Artificer Level
1d6	Theme		5-6		7-9			10-12
1	constructs
2	infernal
3	undead
4	elemental
5	abyssal
6	rogue
* - note that the artificer has the rituals required to 
animate undead or constructs, summon elementals 
and demons, and bind devils.

 

[Janx]

Why has at least one valid answer.

Because the PCs intend to rob it.

Or because the PCs are browsing (just looking to be inspired as u might be at a game shop)

Because they are standing in the shop and want to know what they see.

 

[Stoat]

The PC's contact Fat Jack, an affabele spined devil. Jack takes half his payment and teleports away. 1d4+1 hours later, he teleports back with whatever the PC's ordered.

One time they asked him, "Wait, is this from Hell?"

He looked them right in the eye and answered, "No, of course not."

 

[airwalkrr]

I more or less decide what is available on the spot, although I use the GP limit from the 3.5 DMG to guide me. If the GP limit of a town is 200 gp, for example, then anything under 200 gp is generally available with a little looking around. At most a Gather Information check DC 15 will lead them in the right direction of a vendor. If the players want to purchase more than one of a given object, then I divide the GP limit by the cost of the item to determine how many of a given item is available. For example, if the players wish to purchase potions of cure light wounds in the above community, they could purchase no more than four at a time (200/50 = 4). Supplies generally refresh on a weekly basis, so the party would have to wait seven more days to purchase more of the same potion.

Certain conditions may limit or increase availability. If the only mountain pass into a local village is cut off by an avalanche, it may be months before that village is able to renew its stores. If there is a festival attracting a lot of foreign and commercial interest, I might double or even triple the local GP limit (increasing the number of items available as well as the total cost of such items).

If the players ever want to purchase something worth more than 25,000 gp, I usually limit access a bit. They usually have to know someone with access to such things, and such an individual usually has to owe them a favor of some kind. You can't just go buy a dozen +5 swords. I also don't allow them to buy weapons or armor with just any old enhancement. You can't buy a +2 flaming ghost touch kukri of shocking burst. Only enhancements of +1 to +5 are available. Getting a named item (i.e. flametongue) or a weapon with a specific enhancement requires hiring a spellcaster specifically to craft the item or add the desired enhancement to a weapon or armor, which usually means the player has to wait a number of days for the weapon to be completed. Simple enhancements equivalent to +1 or +2 are easy to come by. Anything more generally requires a favor owed to the player character as above.

 

[airwalkrr]

Another thing I have done in the past (but do not do anymore) is use the community modifiers in the 3.5 DMG p. 139 and make a roll to determine if the item was available. The DC = 10 + caster level of the item. If I rolled a success, the PCs could attempt to purchase a second item, and a third and a fourth, and so on, until I rolled a failure, at which point there were no more items of that type available and the PCs would have to wait a number of days (usually 1d6 - community modifier) for the item to be back in stock. So yea, if you were in a metropolis, that meant you could buy an infinite number of items with a caster level of 3 or lower. But you could always set a practical limit based on the GP limit of the community.

 

[Celebrim]

"How do you determine items available in a shop?"

If it's a mundane item worth no more than a couple days pay for a common laborer, I make it simple and say they have it provided I think the town is big enough to support that sort of craftsman. I only role-play out shopping expeditions for small groups, and even then only if I think the character is likely to be a reoccuring NPC. Bigger groups require less non-essential roleplay because one of the cardinal sins of DMing is making your players wait too long for their turn.

If its something rare or expensive, I generally dice for it which in the case of something like this is often just a 'coin flip'.

Sometimes if the item is just excessively rare or expensive (10000 gp opal, a trained griffon) I'll just say no in all but the biggest metropolis.

If its a magic item, its generally not available. The main exception is potions. If I think the town is big enough to have an alchemist, I generally allow the purchase of 2d4 random potions. I also generally allow the purchase of 1d4 minor scrolls from whatever the big temple is in town provided the PC's have a favorable reputation.

Pretty much anything can be ordered provided you find someone that can make it, you just have to be willing to wait on it.

 

[darjr]

Hey, I just found this from Inkwell Ideas

 

[Doug McCrae]

I see magic items as being like full plate or luxury jewellery - they are only crafted to order, there's no inventory. These items require such a huge amount of resources to create, they'd never be produced unless there's a buyer ready with the cash.

Potions are a different matter as they are cheaper. Healing potions in particular would have a steady supply of customers. Bullgrit's 1d6 actually seems pretty reasonable to me.

Playing 2e in the early 90s in a low fantasy, Tolkien-influenced, long running campaign, the GM actually let us buy magic potions (and only potions) largely as a way to keep our gp total down. (Ale and whores never occurred to us.)

 

[Jdvn1]

I hand-wave the process. As long as the party has roughly the amount of gp/magic items expected by level (such that they're not over- or under-powered), I don't care what they have and how they got it.

Further, I think that determining the inventory of a magic item shop is a good way to screw over your characters. Not being able to buy what you want isn't fun, and not being able to buy what you need isn't nice.

On the other hand, if you want to rob the place or retrieve lost/stolen items, that link darjr provided is pretty neat, but I'd more likely just choose something roughly equivalent to an appropriate treasure bundle for the party.

I don't even think determining inventory even makes a game more realistic:
Once you start to raise the question at all, you start to get questions like, "How do you make a living selling magic items?" Certainly, you can't sell what amounts to a bazooka in any sized city or town unless you're dealing with the black market unless you happen to have a very high level of magic in your setting. Even so, you'd have to sell them periodically to make a living. And how was an NPC able to get such a large investment to pay for his magic item shop? That's very expensive, and not in the realm of most fantasy random Joes, it must be owned by a nobleman or something (even though one item brings the owner a lot of money, you have to think about his margin of profit--he had to acquire the item somehow--and he also has to eventually think about restocking his store). In which case, why is he in such a risky business? And if you do happen to have a very high level of magic in your setting, that'd definitely have some significant ramifications on the economy. Everyday craftsmen would have a guild or union that butts up with magic users, and the government may have price controls in place in order to protect jobs (as was the case in England during such a time) and outlaw some magic users' jobs.

And, you can probably think of more problems. This would make for an awfully complicated game.

But I digress. I would expect any magic item seller worth his salt would keep all of his items in a bag of holding--all you'd see in his shops would be a few bags lying around behind the counter. Your wares are easier to transport and it's easier to protect against theft.