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The Magic Item Shop: Creative Expression Through Capitalism
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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 7646046" data-attributes="member: 4937"><p>In short, I don't think you do. I think however that good RPing by the GM requires the world to respond to the PC's for lack of a better word "realistically", which is something that for example the 2e Forgotten Realms adventures infamously set bad examples with respect to - PCs were treated in one moment like heroes that had saved the world and with no real reflection in the next moment were treated like petty criminals. I think that GMs should go out of their way to make real the changes in the social standing of the PCs, even if its hard to put an exact finger on what the mechanical consequences of that is. Simply having NPCs treat them differently as their status evolves over time is enough. You could actually track social status in some sort of rigorous way, but what I tend to find is that such systems are vastly too simplistic to really capture all the nuances of social standing and reputation. </p><p></p><p>I'm not a fan of magic item shops, and I feel like by introducing them you've created your own problem you now need to solve. For example, what if there were no magic item shops, but one of the more common ways magic items were introduced into the game was as gifts by powerful NPCs that either felt indebted to the players, or who wanted to induce them to be allies or vassals? I mean, thinking back on my own experiences as a high level PC, one of the main things we did with spare magic items was give them to henchmen. As far as mechanical reinforcement goes, by the rules that vastly increased henchmen loyalty! So one way to think of this is that there are magic item shops out there, but the coin that they take isn't gold or isn't just gold. </p><p></p><p>In my current campaign, the party cleric was invited by a high priest of her cult to undergo a rite that would confirm the cleric as a full priest in the priesthood. We RPed out that rite, and afterwards the high priestess revealed to the PC that it was the will of the deity that she would eventually succeed her as the new high priestess. To that end, the temple has been providing the PC with 'loans' from the temples stock of sacred vestments, including a spiffy suit of shiny mithril armor. No gold changed hands here. We were just confirming the PC's rising status in the world and particularly within her cult. Demonstrable impact on the world.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 7646046, member: 4937"] In short, I don't think you do. I think however that good RPing by the GM requires the world to respond to the PC's for lack of a better word "realistically", which is something that for example the 2e Forgotten Realms adventures infamously set bad examples with respect to - PCs were treated in one moment like heroes that had saved the world and with no real reflection in the next moment were treated like petty criminals. I think that GMs should go out of their way to make real the changes in the social standing of the PCs, even if its hard to put an exact finger on what the mechanical consequences of that is. Simply having NPCs treat them differently as their status evolves over time is enough. You could actually track social status in some sort of rigorous way, but what I tend to find is that such systems are vastly too simplistic to really capture all the nuances of social standing and reputation. I'm not a fan of magic item shops, and I feel like by introducing them you've created your own problem you now need to solve. For example, what if there were no magic item shops, but one of the more common ways magic items were introduced into the game was as gifts by powerful NPCs that either felt indebted to the players, or who wanted to induce them to be allies or vassals? I mean, thinking back on my own experiences as a high level PC, one of the main things we did with spare magic items was give them to henchmen. As far as mechanical reinforcement goes, by the rules that vastly increased henchmen loyalty! So one way to think of this is that there are magic item shops out there, but the coin that they take isn't gold or isn't just gold. In my current campaign, the party cleric was invited by a high priest of her cult to undergo a rite that would confirm the cleric as a full priest in the priesthood. We RPed out that rite, and afterwards the high priestess revealed to the PC that it was the will of the deity that she would eventually succeed her as the new high priestess. To that end, the temple has been providing the PC with 'loans' from the temples stock of sacred vestments, including a spiffy suit of shiny mithril armor. No gold changed hands here. We were just confirming the PC's rising status in the world and particularly within her cult. Demonstrable impact on the world. [/QUOTE]
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