I Hate Appraise

[Crothian]

Seeking a second opinion and looking for consensus is metagaming? That seems to me exactly what intelligent people looking to find the price of something would do.

Except that isn't what was said here. Everyone is just rolling because they can and the group hopes someone rolls well enough to get a close answer. Unless the group has mutliple people that are known to have a good appraise skill there is no reason why the one with a high appraise skill would ask someone who has no apprasie skill.

 

[Crothian]

The other dm (my 'understudy') therefore doesn't know it exists.

Your understudy hasn't even read the book? :\

 

[apesamongus]

Except that isn't what was said here. Everyone is just rolling because they can and the group hopes someone rolls well enough to get a close answer.

You should read better...

"Then, at least, if two of them come up with the same price you are pretty sure it is correct."

Nothing about anyone getting lucky and getting a close answer. It's about looking for opinions and finding where they tend towards. People do it every day on "The Price is Right", assuming that's still on the air.

 

[Staffan]

Two words come to mind here, at least if you have a couple of ranks in Appraise to begin with. Those two words are:
"Take Ten."

Appraising the value of 25 different art objects seems like just the thing Take 10 was invented for.

On a totally unrelated matter, the page wordwraps automatically. You don't have to hit Enter when you reach the end of the input box line. These are computers, not typewriters.

 

[ThirdWizard]

You should read better...

"Then, at least, if two of them come up with the same price you are pretty sure it is correct."

Nothing about anyone getting lucky and getting a close answer. It's about looking for opinions and finding where they tend towards. People do it every day on "The Price is Right", assuming that's still on the air.

Here's the problem: If you're wrong you're going to get a random number, and if you're right you're going to get a fixed number. The number you are off by for a failed check is 2d6+3 x 10%. If two people get the same value, there are two options: either they are right or they got the same roll on a 2d6.

If three people get the same number, you pretty much know for a fact that you are right. In other words, if two people with 1 rank think something is worth 200 gp and the person with 10 ranks thinks its worth 150 gp, then you are pretty much assured that it is worth 200 gp.

 

[Crothian]

Nothing about anyone getting lucky and getting a close answer. It's about looking for opinions and finding where they tend towards. People do it every day on "The
Price is Right", assuming that's still on the air.

two opinions that are the same does not mean they are right. And price is right is a solo game, not with people working together and yes it is still on the air.

 

[Voadam]

My solution for appraise, haggling and shopping, is to abstract the process, tell everybody gp values of loot and have only market sale and buy prices available. It is a conscious choice not to spend our game time on these things and to get them over with as quickly as possible. I used to keep things dodgy about descriptions of valuables the party did not have knowledge of and roleplay out every shopping purchase, but I no longer want my game time spent on these types of interactions.

 

[Tatsukun]

I just have a little chart for the +% and -% based on roll. Merchants always take ten, and have enough ranks and equipment to ID any item correctly (Hand wave, but you can easily build an NPC merchant with a huge appraise modifier).

The PCs almost always take 10 and I just quickly look at the chart and give them an estimate. Of course, they know that I think a lot about market forces and how they affect prices. What's in the PHB is average, but not always what you find.

Stuff that's common has a very low DC. After all, an adventuring group in your standard DnD world buys cure light wounds positions every time they are in a city. They are almost always the same price, it's pretty well established. In fact, unless the item is rare, almost nobody appraises.

I haven't had a big problem with it yet.

-Tatsu

P.S> Wha hoo! 500th post ! !

 

[apesamongus]

two opinions that are the same does not mean they are right.

The more people who agree the more confident they can be in the correct answer. And if some go high and some go low, the chances are better that the correct answer is in the middle.

And price is right is a solo game, not with people working together and yes it is still on the air.

Then you should go watch it and see how virtually every contestant asks for opinions from the audience (either in general or specifically of people they are with in the audience) before making a decision.

 

[Crothian]

Then you should go watch it and see how virtually every contestant asks for opinions from the audience (either in general or specifically of people they are with in the audience) before making a decision.

Its a staged part of the game to get the audience excited and think they are important to the game