The Appraise skill - Do you use it?

[MerricB]

Just a thank you to everyone who has responded so far.

One additional question: how often do you play?

Normally, once a fortnight is how often my campaign plays, and the PCs are not always in a position to convert gems to money at the end of a session. Because I tend to lose some of my notes (or not bring them to the next session), keeping track of magic item properties and gem values can be challenging.

Cheers!

 

[Caspian Moon Prince]

I hardly ever use the skill. Usually I'll just let the players know the value of the gem or if it is masterwork. It isn't exactly realistic, but it saves me from having to do book keeping...that goes right to the players

Now, if a player was wanting to specialize in appraising and haggling, then I'd make use of it in that campaign so they wouldn't feel jipped and have lessened important on their skills.

Until then, just telling the players is the best and easiest option for me.

 

[heimdall]

I use it in my game because I see it as adding to the game. There's nothing like figuring out a gem is worth some 500 gp and then getting the offer from the merchant at 100 gp. Watching players roleplay that out is often enjoyable, especially if they know to use their other skills (bluff, diplomacy, intimidate, sense motive). It reinforces the reasons to have points in these other skills because the situations they can be used for expand as a result, making them more valuable.

As far as figuring out masterwork, while I allow appraise to do that, Anyone with the appropriate Craft (*smithing) skill can do so as well, so far as I'm concerned. Often the fighters figure out quite quickly the item in question is masterwork without having to ask the rogue for an opinion. Gems, well, that's a different story.

 

[Kormydigar]

Just a thank you to everyone who has responded so far.

One additional question: how often do you play?

Normally, once a fortnight is how often my campaign plays, and the PCs are not always in a position to convert gems to money at the end of a session. Because I tend to lose some of my notes (or not bring them to the next session), keeping track of magic item properties and gem values can be challenging.

Cheers!

I am fortunate I guess. I run a Friday campaign every other week, run a Saturday game every other week, and play in a Saturday game every other week. I get to play six times a month unless something comes up and forces a cancel. As far as record keeping, I have made an excel spreadsheet for character abilities, loot, current xp, and a short journal to keep track of campaign events or else I might mix up campaign events. As far as the appraise skill goes I rarely use it for normal items in my campaign. It does come in handy for recognizing things like rare coins mixed in with the other treasure.

 

[Turanil]

If there's one skill in 3.5E (and 3E) that I find the most problematic, the Appraise skill is it.

How do you deal with the Appraise skill?

I agree with that point. Appraise is badly done (IMO) and almost never used.

1) Gaming habits: Generally, you find treasure at the end of gaming session, when DM is tired, and many players are in a hurry to leave because it's late. As such, no use, ever, of the Appraise skill. Things generally go like that: you find 500 gp (not 468 or what not, as foes, unlike PCs, are extremely careful to only keep neat numbers of gold pieces, even ogres, trolls, goblins, that you would think do not care about such things); a 150 gp ruby; a 300 gp necklace; etc. Then, the treasure "magically" turns into an amount of gold pieces ready to be spend, usually without having made any role play or d20 roll. But it is our game!

2) Economics in the Game: I think that practically nobody realizes that the only thing that is worth 500 gp, is a sack containing 500 gp. Saying that a jade statue of a centaur costs 500 gp is a nonsense. All you can say, is that in some places you could sell it for, maybe, up to 500 gp to a noble. However, since many nobles only earn 150 gp a month, you will have to be lucky before finding one willing to spend 500 gp on this useless item. Furthermore, while elves would be probably willing to pay around 500 gp for it, dwarves would only pay up to 100 gp for that, and half-orcs are not dumb enough to give even a copper for such useless junk. Well, I think it would require the Profession - Merchant skill, to know where and to whom to sell loot; while Appraise can be used to know the relative worth of things when you know where and to whom to sell the stuff.

 

[Herpes Cineplex]

One additional question: how often do you play?

Barring emergencies, travel, or other reasons to cancel, we have a game on Thursday nights and on Saturday afternoons. (Right now Thursday is Vampire and Saturday is a Scarred Lands D&D game; about a month from now, Saturday will be a Marvel Universe RPG game.)


I think even if we had lots and lots of time to play, we'd still blow off Appraise. I read something like heimdall's response, and two things occur to me. The first thing I think is that he's pretty much using Appraise the way the rules seem to say everyone should. The second thing I think is that I just can't imagine our group ever putting up with anything remotely like that.

We've got 5 players, and in the best-case scenario, only one of them would be involved in the Appraising or the haggling. Three Appraise rolls into a typical treasure haul, and two of our players would be reading magazines and talking about their work; five minutes of roleplayed-out storefront haggling, and the other two players would be leaving to get something to eat or going off to play videogames. About three seconds after that, the remaining player and the GM would look at each other and say "Wow, this really sucks," and we'd probably never play D&D again.


It's interesting that using Appraise properly actually works for some people, because in our group, it would genuinely strangle the life out of the game. I'm curious how heimdall manages to make it work for his game, actually; either he's got some secret method for making Appraising treasure and haggling over prices into exciting activities that can involve the entire party, or his players have infinite reserves of patience.

--
i'll confess that i find the former more plausible: so tell me your secret, heimdall!

 

[Kid Congo Powers]

We kill mostly humanoids and then go on looting their homes, which often consists of fancy things and art and stuff. So yes, we use appraise quite often.

 

[johnsemlak]

Just a thank you to everyone who has responded so far.

One additional question: how often do you play?

Normally, once a fortnight is how often my campaign plays, and the PCs are not always in a position to convert gems to money at the end of a session. Because I tend to lose some of my notes (or not bring them to the next session), keeping track of magic item properties and gem values can be challenging.

Cheers!

Well, once a week, barring cancellations. We do generally have to cancel nearly once a month, though we've been on a good run recenly. There's a long weekend coming up here and I'm hoping to two sessions if possible

 

[Ferret]

I've never had to use it I just don't ever tell people the price of gems they find.

 

[Presto2112]

We use it in the campaign I'm playing. I see a number of uses for the skill personally.

1) A neat little role-playing tool. Your PCs find a beautiful piece of jewelry amongst a treasure trove. A PC with ranks in Appraise attempts to appraise the object (the DM should make this skill check) and the DM says he appraises the exquisite looking item at about 1,200 gp. The PCs make their way to a large city and go into a jewellers' shop to sell the item, and the jeweller, with his far better tained eye, flips 3 gp at the party, informing them that the brooch is brass with gems made of glass and paste.

2) For practicality reasons, PCs can use the Appraise skill to lighten their load on occasion. What would your PC rather take... a 40 pound bag of copper pieces, of a 3 pound jade statue that you would not have known the 850gp value had you not appraised it?

3) A spellcaster who casts a considerable number of spells with high priced material components would find ranks in Appraise invaluable. Example... a wizard needs 1000gp of amber dust to cast Teleportation Circle. Anything less will cause a spell to fizzle. Ranks in Appraise will assist the wizard in discerning the value of any amber he finds, as well as making sure he isn't being swindled by any crooked jewellers - provided he passes his check, of course.