Magic availibility and Magic shops

[Emiricol]

I'm fine with magic shops in very large cities, but only one or maybe two. They generally do not stock anything more than the potions and scrolls the proprietor and his cadre can craft, but have access to just about anything appropriate for the level of the city through their network of informants and buying agents. PCs pay a premium for such items.

The shop will, however purchase any magic items the party wants to sell, EXCEPT weapons, armor, and major wondrous items, since the local government is uncomfortable with trade in those items. A successful Diplomacy, Prof (Merchant) or other such will enable them to sell banned items to the shop however, at a reduced price.

The primary stock and trade of this example magic shop is actually spell books, parchment, herbs, inks, and ancient tomes, for example, and is a good place to connect with a sage or NPC spell caster.

 

[Someone]

I don´t use magic shops. PCs trade the items they are not currently using with the temple, other adventurers, guilds...

They have purchased a low level scroll or two at a mage guild, but that´s all

Since it´s done outside of the game, the effect is almost the same that ye olde magic shoppe, but doesn´t sound so cheesy and help me control what item is and what´s not.

 

[Umbran]

How has this worked for you? We're about to transition our campaign from using the standard DMG rules for items to something more akin to this

It works pretty well for me. I find it increases the party's interaction with the world, and gives me loads of opportunity to insert plot hooks.

I don't actually deviate much from the standard DMG rules for items. As far as I'm aware, the DMG doesn't posit a "magic shop". I use the DMG guidelines for what is available in a given town, but rather than expect items will be sitting idle collected in one place, I assume that most valuable items will be in use.

 

[Mordane76]

I don't actually deviate much from the standard DMG rules for items. As far as I'm aware, the DMG doesn't posit a "magic shop". I use the DMG guidelines for what is available in a given town, but rather than expect items will be sitting idle collected in one place, I assume that most valuable items will be in use.

How much extra work does this add to your pre-game preparation? I know, IMC, the party does a lot of travelling, quite often stopping in random small villages and larger towns (the homebrew evolves as they move, with me putting in smaller villages and whatnot as they travel those areas). Do you prep your villages before the game, or do you figure these things (what's specifically available, who has it, how much they want for it) out when the players ask about them?

 

[Mike Sullivan]

Wouldn't you want to run/play in a riot in the Urban Arcana version of Los Angeles?

Thank you: you just formed the core idea for the first one-shot I'm going to run of UrbArc.

 

[Kemrain]

Spells 'R Us

There is no Spells ‘R Us in my games. (Bonus points if you get this incriminating reference!) Magic items are something to be kept and treasured, even if they’re not all that powerful and useful only in certain situations. But my games are very low magic, not the sort where you can buy a magic item from anybody (unless they don’t know it’s magic). In a higher magic game, I figure that you could buy or trade for items, but there wouldn’t be a centralized location for their purchase. No Magic Wholesale Shoppe, no Arcane BJ’s or Wal-Mart. If you want to buy, you need to find a seller. They’re like most forms of contraband, not because they’re illegal, but because they’re so valuable and (often) so portable that a pickpocket could make off with them easily. In a very high magic campaign, like Forgotten Realms, you have things like the Singing Dolphin in Waterdeep. What keeps the peasants from bumrushing it? Well, the magic items inside are a good place to start. The wards and protective magics are another good consideration, too. Or, if the items are kept in a Mages Guild, they have all the casters inside to keep the equipment safe. That and the fact that if magic items are so common that there are stores devoted solely to their sale, then even commoners will have some magic, even if it’s just like a magic dishrag that never gets torn, or a magic garbage disposal.

It’s all a matter of opinion, but I’d make magic items a hot commodity in most game worlds. Any wizard willing to make an item for you, and give up a part of himself in that item (XP Cost), is a really good friend, or charging you out your nose for it. I would never have a store that sold magic items, but I would make their sale a possibility.

“Psst… You lookin’ fo’ a wand? I got’cher wands right ‘ere… Magic missiles, cure light wounds… Web? You want web? I got web right ‘ere m’friend… Now, let’s talk about price fo’ these lil’ beauties…”

- Kemrain the Illegal Wand Dealer

 

[Tidus4444]

I usually let em have whatever items they want. They'll just have to wait awhile while the mage crafts it, and they might have to pay extra for a scroll of the spell needed to make the item (not all creators will have all the spells necasary).

 

[Umbran]

How much extra work does this add to your pre-game preparation? I know, IMC, the party does a lot of travelling, quite often stopping in random small villages and larger towns

Well, I'd have to give that a big "that depends"

Luckily, smaller towns usually have very little in the way of magic, even by the DMG (see pg 137). A town of 2000 people will have no single item with a value over 800 gp or so. That means at best they might pick up a wand of a 1st level spell, or a potion or scroll.

The PCs generally get the idea pretty quick that there's not much to be found in a small town, so they don't generally bother stopping to scope the town for magic stuff they might buy if they're just passing through. If they do look for something, it's pretty easy to handle off the cuff, since there's probably only one or two spellcasters in the town.

Now, the PCs have been exposed to the pattern since 1st level, or I tell them outright if the group started at higher level. They are aware that buying items isn't simple. They know they'll have to go to a big town, and try to find the items they want among thousands of people. No small task. Not even a safe task - asking around about magic items that can be bought screams "I have money", which may attract thieves...

So, they don't buy items on a whim. They plan. The PCs generally save up their cash and ideas, and make a big "shopping trip". They tell me ahead of time what it is they're looking for, and I design whole sessions and adventures around the procedure.

And, as you could imagine, the NPCs who have these items are generally about as wealth as the PCs. Meanign they are important people. Instantly, the PCs are invovled with local politics

Actually, frequently the PCs feel it's about as easy to commission items. Find a spellcaster with item creation feats and some time on their hands, pay them half up front, and come back some weeks later. Probably not faster, but they think it's more efficient. I don't care either way - adventure in the town to find the items, or commission the items and then go off on an adventure while you wait for them to be made, it's about the same to me.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

The way I ran my campaign, there were very very few magic shops (if any). However, there were merchants and powerful merchant families. Items that are useful to everyone or which are very commonly desired would be commonly carried by those merchants. If Cordwellyn took a merchant caravan back from the Republic, for instance, he might well carry a wand of cure light wounds or two or a number of healing potions (of varying efficiency). Those are the kind of things that will pretty much always sell. Even non-adventuring types would probably want them.

Now, the merchant might also have some other magic items. Some of them, he probably bought off of estates, others might come from the corpses of the orc raiders who attacked his caravan on the way back from the Republic, tomb raiders, thieves, old families in financial trouble, or anyone else who might need quick cash more than a +1 longsword. These were pretty much random, but if the players were in a large city, there would be more than one merchant house and possibly more than one gang of thieves so, depending on how good one was at gathering information--and how many principles one was willing to compromise--a variety of things would be available. And there was also the possibility of approaching NPCs (whether the church, the court wizard, or the wizard's apprentice) and commissioning items. I never had any PCs try this, but I'm sure PCs in any city with a few apprentice wizards would be able to find a steady supply of 1st (and possibly 2nd level depending upon how long apprenticeships last in your campaign world) level scrolls if they paid for apprentice's tuition or booze habits.

If I were to start running again, I'd probably have an official market day where the city permitted magical wares to be sold in the market and a government-appointed priest verified that everything that was claimed as magical actually was. (Of course, there'd be a certain tax on all items sold there for that service; PCs could also take their chances on non-market days if they felt confident in their ability to deter or detect thieves).

NPCs weren't the only ones to get into the magical economy, however. One merchant offered the PC a discount upon an apprentice spellbook if he would identify several items for him. (The [chaotic good] PC was rather disturbed when he found that the +2 greatsword gave him a negative level while he held it and, for some reason, never trusted the merchant after that). Another PC who took the craft arms and armor feat offered his services to some of the local nobility through the local bishop and ended up making a knight a suit of +1 fullplate for an upcoming tournament.

 

[Wormwood]

If it's in the DMG, just buy what you want at list price (subject to Diplomacy checks), assuming it's within the town's GP limit.

If it's from another source, you have to have it comissioned. That means finding a suitable level spellcaster (Gather Information) and negotiating with him (Diplomacy). Wait one day per 1,000 gp value.

Then it's back to the dungeon, which is why we're all here anyway.