NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="bmcdaniel" data-source="post: 6511006" data-attributes="member: 1772">I don't understand all the arguments from "realism." Despite the natural human tendency to trade, there are plenty of very realistic reasons why a campaign world might not develop markets for magic items. Here are a couple I've used in my campaigns:1. Using <a href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/magicAura.htm" target="_blank">magic</a>, its a lot cheaper and easier to fake a magic item than to determine if a magic item is real. As a result, buyers can't tell genuine items from fakes, discount the value of the item, and the market collapses. Economists have a name for this, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons" target="_blank">lemon markets</a>. This model implies that very thin markets might exist, perhaps reputable persons that will charge a hefty markup to indemnify buyers or expensive persons to verify that the magic is real. Magic item sales are more likely to be bespoke, high-value items that can bear the transaction costs involved.2. Money doesn't dominate the campaign's economy like it does in the modern world. Perhaps the world more closely resembles primitive "gifting" societies or feudal economies. Perhaps money isn't a very good store of value, either because alchemists have figured out how to create it from <a href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/majorCreation.htm" target="_blank">nothing</a> or simple methods of determining purity don't <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchstone_(assaying_tool)" target="_blank">exist</a>. In these societies, magic items may be exchanged, but they are more likely to be inheirited, gifted, or traded for services, allegiance or love. 3. Legal and/or social pressures limit the market for magic items. Magic items may still exist, but only in black markets, which are full of fakes, and inflated prices. Or alternatively, they may only be usable by certain groups (wizards) or social classes (nobles), or their use may be viewed negatively (magic as the tool of the devil). Limited markets may exist around the edges, but not really usable by PCs.The point is, if you want to make it heard or impossible for PCs to buy magic items, it isn't hard to come up with "realistic" reasons that make it plausible to do so (certainly more "realistic than flying dragons!).</blockquote>

Verification