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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 6514525" data-attributes="member: 29398">Always a thorny issue.First, some base-line assumptions - if these do not apply to your game so be it, but I think they apply to most:1. The played adventuring party is going to come back to town with magic items found in the field.2. Not all of those magic items are going to be of any use to the party either now or later.3. That same adventuring party is going to also come back with gold, gems, and other valuables found in the field.With me so far?  OK.  Now things get a bit more complicated.  The next assumption:4. The party is going to naturally want to get some sort of return or profit (perceived or real) for the magic items they themselves cannot use.So, we now have a sort-of supply end for the market model.  On to the next assumptions, then:5a. The played adventuring party is not the only adventuring party out there. (and if there are no other adventurers, where do the PCs come from who replace the fallen in mid-campaign?)5b. Whether or not 5a is true, there are probably individuals out there who can make use of magic items the adventuring party cannot. (most often, these people would be part of 5a)6. Whether or not 5a is true, those individuals are likely to have significant resources to offer in exchange for items they desire or need or want.7. The played adventuring party is going to seek out items they can use that others are willing to part with.And now we have a sort-of demand in the market.The only remaining obstacle is bringing together the supply and demand somehow such that transactions (in whatever form) can take place.  This can be the back alleys, the artificers' or magic-users' guilds, ye olde magic shoppes, chatter leading to barter in the taverns, or whatever.Now, a DM can arbitrarily interrupt this process at any step by simply nulling one or more of the above assumptions; and this is fine provided all involved realize such intervention is completely arbitrary and not very (or at all) realistic.  In my own case, for example, I arbitrarily dictate that an item's price is its price, period - I have no desire whatsoever to play out buy-low-sell-high scenarios ad infinitum (which would happen if I let it) and my players are all aware of this, and of why I've done it.And due to all the above assumptions, a price list in the 5e DMG would be useful.  As there doesn't seem to be one (yet), it's left to each DM to either make up her own or fall back on a list from an earlier edition.Keep in mind this all intentionally ignores yet another assumption, prevalent in more recent editions:8. The played adventuring party can create its own magic items.Personally, I prefer (and use):8. The creation of magic items is beyond the purview of the played adventuring party; it is a long, expensive process, but someone with enough patience and resources can commission an item now for completion sometime much later.Lan-"sheer logic dictates a magic item market of some sort, if magic items are to be in the game"-efan</blockquote>

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