D&D 5E Question about art

[Greenstone.Walker]

@OP: The long and the short of it is that D&D rules fail to accurately reflect economies. It's not really their fault though, because they weren't meant to.

Correct. This is Dungeons & Dragons, not Papers & Paychecks.

 

[Lanliss]

First of all,sorry for the necro. I thought of a house rule solution to my art problem, and felt I should bring it here.

You can have a Performance check for the painting, with gradual steps in success or failure. Failure by 5 or more can lead to it being worth a quarter of the market price, while failing by less than 5 gives you half market value. Hitting the DC gives standard market value, succeeding by less than 5 gives double the value, and succeeding by more than 5 gives quadruple the market value. You could then modify this as the situation requires, depending on the rarity or picturesque qualities of the subject. For example, the painting of the Dragon council could have a base worth of 500 times the market value, based on Rarity of the sight, and the inherent beauty of the Dragons. Failing the DC by 5 or more would only get you 125 times the market value. However, succeeding by more than 5 would get you 2000 times the market value. Of course, you could just go for the basic value of 500 times, instead of rolling. On top of this, a charismatic PC could then try to bargain the price even higher during the sale, maybe pushing three or four thousand times the market value for a painting.

Any thoughts?

 

[andargor]

I suppose it's worth noting that many if not most prized works of art were considered worthless in their day. That should reduce the production costs some

Which means part of the price of making the painting is that the character has to die for it to be worth that much.

 

[NotActuallyTim]

Note to self: come up with real economics rules.

and everybody read Dungeonomics!

 

[77IM]

First of all,sorry for the necro. I thought of a house rule solution to my art problem, and felt I should bring it here.

You can have a Performance check for the painting, with gradual steps in success or failure. Failure by 5 or more can lead to it being worth a quarter of the market price, while failing by less than 5 gives you half market value. Hitting the DC gives standard market value, succeeding by less than 5 gives double the value, and succeeding by more than 5 gives quadruple the market value. You could then modify this as the situation requires, depending on the rarity or picturesque qualities of the subject. For example, the painting of the Dragon council could have a base worth of 500 times the market value, based on Rarity of the sight, and the inherent beauty of the Dragons. Failing the DC by 5 or more would only get you 125 times the market value. However, succeeding by more than 5 would get you 2000 times the market value. Of course, you could just go for the basic value of 500 times, instead of rolling. On top of this, a charismatic PC could then try to bargain the price even higher during the sale, maybe pushing three or four thousand times the market value for a painting.

Any thoughts?

I like it. I was considering a generalized version of this for crafting or for any downtime activities in general, letting you make an Ability check to reduce the time or cost by a substantial amount, at the risk of increasing the time or cost. Under such a system, the subject of a painting might simply be expressed as a modifier on the check: an awesome painting of Dragonmeet might be a +10 bonus, for example.

Modifiers are clearly under the purview of the DM. I find many people reluctant to change actual rules, mechanics or procedures, maybe because the rules are phrased in the absolute, or maybe because players expect circumstance modifiers but don't expect new rules.

But I wouldn't use Performance. Famous painters are not singers or dancers. In fact great artists are often not very charismatic, but they have a reputation for being highly intuitive and aware. I'd make it a Wisdom check and apply painter's tools proficiency.

(And, I don't think it's thread-necro if the thread is only a couple of weeks old.)