How do you handle selling magic items in your campaign? (New question on page 4)

[Larcen]

Here is an old thread where I asked pretty much the same question and got a lot of good responses...

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?t=29542&page=1&pp=20

(I am surprised that thread is still available!)

 

[mseds99]

In my campaign, I start with a sale price of 40% and let the player roll either a diplomacy check (to represent haggling for a better price) or a gather information check (to represent hunting down an interested buyer willing to pay more) and add the result of the check to the base 40% figure. The base 50% sale value listed in the core-books would represent an unskilled haggler taking 10 on his check. I find that this system helps to reward players who put all the extra effort into boosting their PC's social skills. It also helps to offset the fact that the PCs in my games usually have less funds available then standard PCs of their level are supposed to have. It also makes the players happy.

Ambrus, if you don't mind, I'm stealing this mechanic! Good times!

 

[Bigwilly]

One third value for everything

I don't get together with my group that often. Sharing loot is handled mainly by e-mail between sessions with dice rolls on the night for disputed items. I total the value of anything to be sold off and give them a third of the total value divided equally between all party members.

Buying is a different matter. You need to get it made or go to the nearby port city where everything is available for a price - usually 110% of market price assuming you can find someone to sell it to you (appropriate skill check).

Bigwilly

 

[Drew]

no.

it is just a nice sword.

so +1 thru +10 longsword sold by the PCs nets them.... 50% of a mw longsword... 315/ 2 = 157.5 gp

to buy one costs....

Great, so I can buy a +5 longsword for only 315gp? Sounds good to me.

Seriously, though, after 4 years of the standard 3E "items sell for half" system, I'm kind of growing tired of it. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what else to do.

Saying that you want magic to be "rare and special" is great if you're running a custom low magic setting, but in standard D&D if I tell my players that they can't sell the stuff they don't want, they end up with piles of unwanted items. After the 12th +1 longsword that you just throw away, magic items don't seem so very rare, despite your DM's claims to the contrary, and we're right back to where we started (only with poorer PCs).

In a system built around PCs having a certain value of treasure by level x, why punish them by not allowing them to sell magic items they don't want in order to purchase items they do want? And what about art treasures? Why list the price if stuff can't be sold?

In the game I'm currently running (Maure Castle) we're playing fairly fast and furious. I'd like the PCs to be able to exchange the stuff they find to get stuff they want...but not in a "magic shop" per say. I guess what I want is some kind of arbitrary system where I can quickly and easily determine how long it takes to sell item X. Sure, I could roleplay it out every time, but who wants to play an entire session geared around selling a +2 dagger? It might be fun every now and again, but in our last session alone the party looted 18 +1 bastard swords, 18 +1 hvy steel shields, several +1 amulets of nat. armor, and a handful of tapestries worth around 5,000 gp market value. Unless they plan on abandoning Maure Castle and starting some sort of militia, they'll want to unload all this stuff.

I'd like a nice system where we can roll some dice and determine how long and how much, and then roleplay or not roleplay as we see fit. I almost wish such a system had just been worked into the game, perhaps via the Arms and Equipment Guide.

 

[Woas]

One thing I like to do is set up situations where the party can barter their magic goods. For example, a gather information check may reveal that someone in the city has magic item X which one of the players is looking to get. The player has magic item Y. After some negotiation, they may or may not come to an agreement to trade their magic items. In the end everyone wins because usually the player gets more than 1/2 value for his/her magic item, the item they wanted in the first place and the DM doesn't have to rely on Magic Shops an a series of rolls can be made to trade the item.

 

[haiiro]

In the end everyone wins because usually the player gets more than 1/2 value for his/her magic item, the item they wanted in the first place and the DM doesn't have to rely on Magic Shops an a series of rolls can be made to trade the item.

I'd like to create a simple model for bartering magic items, as well. What rolls do you involve, Woas?

 

[Arnwyn]

That said, how much more? I'd like to have some guidelines in place so that we can resolve it out of game with more detail than just "you get 50% of its market value." Not so much detail that the idea of resolving it during downtime becomes impossible, but some nice middle ground.

What do you do?

50% market value - this is "nice middle ground" for us. Anything additional would have virtually no value-added for our campaign.

 

[haiiro]

Here is an old thread where I asked pretty much the same question and got a lot of good responses...

Larcen, that thread is awesome! Thanks for digging it up.

It's given me some new grist for the ol' brain-mill, and I'll see what I can come up with this evening. Of particular use for me are the comments that break the concept down into two camps based on perceptions -- high demand vs. high supply. I ran into both while talking to my group about this topic, and it's nice to see it spelled out.

One thing that comes to mind regarding the Realms (my setting of choice, though I play it lower magic than "default") is this: if the Thayan enclaves can make good money selling magic items for a bit less than MV, that suggests that there's plenty of demand for items even at full MV. In a lower-magic Realms, that tendency would increase -- so IMC it makes sense to be able to get more than 50% MV on a sale with a little effort.

 

[Saeviomagy]

Frankly - restocking in town is boring enough without the GM trying to screw you over on sales and purchases.

Lets face it - this is not Economics: The RPG. If I want an item, and we're currently not on an adventure, then sure! Give me a quest! Give me some interesting roleplaying interactions. Give me a mystery.
But if I want to sell a +1 magical longsword (the 10th one in the game so far), don't give me the third degree. Give me a simple roll and tell me how much I got for it. Then I can get on with having fun.

 

[Horoku]

In all honesty...
I don't think anybody could really give a character a fair price for a non-disposable magic item, save perhaps for a particularly rich sage/wizard, a king, or an extra-planar nobleman. And even then, they'd probably try to screw the characters.
Of course, once you reach a certain character level, at least one character should probably be going all Beowulf and declaring himself king of something, anyway... why not just make a trophy room?
I suppose if you're really desperate for that last 10,000 GP, you could always hock your enchanted sword off to some Lower-Planar prince. Just don't blame me when he comes back a few adventures later, having infused it with his own fiendish presence, granting it another +10 and some fire damage...