Players Whining that they Should be able to Buy Magic Items

[Arnwyn]

Does anyone else have this problem?

Nope. I've made quite clear to my players from the very beginning how my campaign world works (in terms of demographics, economics, and culture), thus they know from the start what to expect. Since they fall into the "semi-intelligent" category, they don't squawk about it.

 

[Zappo]

IMC, players can and do purchase any magical item. However, it isn't as easy as it seems. You've got to find someone who has the item and is willing to sell it. Some campaigns have actual magic shops, and some don't. Even when there are magic shops, these will usually only reliably stock relatively common items. For stuff such as powerful items, or items that aren't especially powerful but are still rare (wands and potions of seldom-used spells, weird wonderful items...), the characters have to search, sometimes pretty hard.

Basically, I play it according to market logic, or at least try to. I think that it is pretty silly that characters could find any magic item in a ready fashion, and equally silly that (if the campaign is high-magic enough) there is no shop specializing in magic items.

 

[Mallus]

I don't have a problem with a little S&S (slaughter and shopping) in my D&D campaign. I do have a problem with everything in the DMG being available at any any given moment to PC's with the requisite amount of cash. So its not.

I do like the old-school tendency for characters to carry magic items that aren't ideally suited for them, thus neccessitating some clever use of the materials at hand. I'm thinking of an old game where we used a Decanter of Endless Water in a dozen crazy ways... it was a blast. That wouldn't have happened in game where the magic item trade was robust enough to allow for optimal PC loadouts.

So I guess I have a slightly old-fashioned bias: I want to see clever play happen inside the game, not between the covers of the rulesbooks with people mix-and-matching the perfect set of gear to handle every situation. I can get experience alone that playing CRPG's...

 

[Turanil]

Does anyone else have this problem? I'm old school, been playing DnD since 1979, and I have always been firm that players can't buy magic items.

However I've noticed that with the advent of 3E, a few of my players are very adamant that the rules indicate that they are allowed to purchase magic items.

Some opinions and experiences would be helpful.

My experience: LET THEM BUY MAGICAL ITEMS IF THEY WISH: POTENTIAL FOR GREAT (DM) FUN!

I don't remember the exact circumstances, but I did that a couple of times in some campaigns I ran. The main idea is to put purchases inside the game, as an adventure and roleplaying experience in itself. Do not let them exchange gp for magic items on their character sheets. That's the rule. But then, be devious:

-- Once they got some magical item from a thieves' guild's smuggler, and ended up carrying a stolen object extremely important to a powerful faction. They got serious problems and lost more than they had got in the first place. (**evil chuckle**)

-- Another time they bought many magical potions from a street crook, and never saw their money again. Plus the look of utter disappointment when in the middle of a fight, your potion of extra-healing doesn't work... (**another evil chuckle**)

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

The point of the game is for everyone to have fun, not just the DM. If everyone in the group would like access to a magic shop, IMO the DM has an obligation to either accomodate them to some degree or give them an explanation why not that is more than "this is my game and if you don't like it there's the door." Talk about an egotistical, tyrannical attitude!

That doesn't mean they should be able to buy whatever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want. But by the same token, having to rely on the DM to dish out what he feels like can be annoying after a while. And if you're not a spellcaster and there isn't an appropriate one in the party, once again the PCs are forced to rely on the benevolence of their DM to give them access to created magic items.

It's a team game folks!

 

[Mallus]

If everyone in the group would like access to a magic shop, IMO the DM has an obligation to either accomodate them to some degree or give them an explanation why not that is more than "this is my game and if you don't like it there's the door." Talk about an egotistical, tyrannical attitude!

So if everyone wants to play machine gun wielding pixies into leather, then the DM has to oblige them?

I'm all for making the players happy. But sometimes you make your audience the happiest by cannily refusing to give them everything they want...

 

[Turanil]

If you go to the magic shop with your big bag full of 50,000 gp or so to get a +5 stuff, this isn't magic anymore. This is the fantasy equivalent of a modern technological equipment. As such, IMO it loses all flavor of what magic is supposed to represent.

 

[Quasqueton]

If you go to the magic shop with your big bag full of 50,000 gp or so to get a +5 stuff, this isn't magic anymore.

But you don't have a problem with the bag full of 50,000 gp?

Quasqueton

 

[billd91]

So if everyone wants to play machine gun wielding pixies into leather, then the DM has to oblige them?

I'm all for making the players happy. But sometimes you make your audience the happiest by cannily refusing to give them everything they want...

Well, there's the difference. Cannily refusing implies there's a reason rather than just the DM saying "I say so." I think that's what Ogrork is getting at. That and DM flexibility to let the players have some control of their PCs destinites by being accommodating on some reasonably agreeable issues. I don't think he implied at all that machine gun wielding pixies were something that needed to be obliged to.

 

[DanMcS]

I think the real problem here isn't players whining that they want to buy magical items. It's really the DMs whining that they should have ABSOLUTE POWER. You're not the only player, nor the player that matters the most. The game shouldn't be a power fantasy for the DM. If you can't work with your players to give them what they would like, you shouldn't be DMing; it's their game too.