Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Ealrion 11-02-05, 07:24 PM	so you roll up a random treasure or make a custom one for your players, then they want to sell some of it for the cash. assuming they're in a pretty big city, how do get them the cash without roleplaying every sale. do you just tell them how much its worth, do you actually roleplay sales like that, and if you do, how do the machanics work? just looking for some ideas as to what you all do. thanks a bunch for your help! :D
Burgundy Lotus 11-02-05, 07:35 PM	I allow them to autosell anything under a certain limit based on city size. Anything worth over that requires a special sale through the adventurers guild or private auctions.
PenderGrass 11-02-05, 07:36 PM	We roleplay most city encounters "as is" - most of the time. The mechanics work very well - as laid out in the Skills Section of the PHB and the NPC section of the DMG. If I were wanting to have the PCs get it all over with in one shot - I would set an average percentage that they may get from their current haul and then tell them, "okay you spent all day haggling and you come away with X AMOUNT OF GOLD." Simple. Easy. My Players like to be able to deal with shop keepers they know and have had dealings with before. They also like to be able to turn away offers they don't feel are 'good' enough. :dragon: ****
Novacat 11-02-05, 08:28 PM	If the players want to just take the unneeded items to the local pawn shop, I offer them 10% of the market value. If they don't like that, they are free to make diplomacy checks to haggle (occasionally, we'll role-play the haggling, but usually not). Success raises the price to 25% market value, while failure drops it to 5% market value (take or leave, no going back to 10%). Frankly, this is probably a better deal than you could find in real life, especially as you're getting cash, not store credit.
Wizard 11-02-05, 08:30 PM	I'm a big fan of the section in the DMG on the "gp limit" of an area. Really brings the rarity of magic items to life. :)
Dragonsblood 11-02-05, 08:45 PM	This isn't real life. The game is balanced to sell items for 50%. We generally skip everything that happens during downtime in a city. Everything other than gems and art (which is 100% minus an apprasal fee if we rolled poorly) gets sold automatically for 50%, then we get back to the game.
Cathon 11-02-05, 09:08 PM	Mostly fairly automatic, unless the players initiate more, though some supply and demand creeps into it. It is mostly just cashing out and buying stuff, so it will be something like, "OK, this area is attacked frequently by the local tribes, so you have no trouble getting 50% market value for normal weapons and armor in good shape. There isn't much market for those exotic weapons here, and the merchants will have to go far afoot to sell them, so you only can get 25% on those. Give me a gather info check. 15? Good enough. You find a merchant who knows a collector who he thinks will be interested in that statue you found, he'll take it off your hands now for 250 gp, or he can act on your behalf with the seller in return for a 10% commission, but you'll have to wait until after he closes the sale before you can get your money. What do you want to do?" Basically, I give them a few choices, but don't spend a lot of time on the part of the game that the players don't want to spend a lot of time on. Recently the party pretty much single-handedly saved this one town, so I gave them an automatic percentage off of all their purchases there, to add a little tangible reward to the intangible reward of the town's gratitude.
KGodwin 11-02-05, 09:52 PM	so you roll up a random treasure or make a custom one for your players, then they want to sell some of it for the cash. assuming they're in a pretty big city, how do get them the cash without roleplaying every sale. do you just tell them how much its worth, do you actually roleplay sales like that, and if you do, how do the machanics work? just looking for some ideas as to what you all do. thanks a bunch for your help! :D Consignments! I have several Consignment Stores run by various merchants from shady to wealthy. The PCs speak with the merchant about pricing and such, then place the items for sale and the PCs recieve 50% of the proceeds (which is usually 25-50% of the base item price). That limits the haggling/min. price setting to 1-3 times and it can be easily, and realistically, limited to items of unusual value which the PCs may feel deserve a certain net price.
yellowdingo 11-03-05, 01:49 AM	Show up with a bag of silver? what of copper? Pop straight in to the local black smith and tell him you want them turned into silver arrows and copper nails and sold locally. fifty percent of the profit is his when its done. Gold? Visit the goldsmith and get them turned into boxed sets of goblets for the same deal. Platinum? Convert to weights and measures and use them in the shops to verify the quantity of goods. It is always entertaining to come up with new ways to dispose of wealth without dumping currency in the market and devalue the economy.
weasel fierce 11-03-05, 04:30 AM	Bearing in mind that just because you want to sell, doesnt automatically mean someone want to buy, there's things like charisma scores, applicable skills (does the character know how to haggle ? Does he even know what the item is worth ?), local conditions and demand, as well as the odds of taxation, theft, banditry and general dismay, and its hard to give a solid figure. Generally, most treasure is not going to fetch anything close to its actual value, unless you're in a major city.
Alynn 11-03-05, 09:15 AM	Generally it depends on the city and who they are talking to... if they are in the town of Raikers, where the highest level wizard is level 3, they will have to haggle with that wizard, who is a rather greedy little halfling, to sell scrolls and the like. In Dar'loh, anything and everything is sold and bought at PHB level values dang near anything can be found in that city. Heck even +1 weapons an armor have a very good chance (80%) of being in stock somewhere in the city. Anything past that though requires the PC's to make it, or hire someone to make it for them. The end of their first adventure the PC's had 50 small sized leather armors, and 50 small sized short swords, most people in Dar'loh (where they tried to sell it) don't deal in small equipment, because the demand for it in that city isn't high (2% halfling 1% gnome) except for a certain enterprising halfling that deals in nothing but small items, a place where he can buy things at very low prices because nobody else will take that much equipment for that size. So shopping in Dar'loh PHB values for everything... however gems need haggling for, and depending on the city and town, and who is around for if it's RP'd or not.
Fangthane 11-03-05, 09:55 AM	City size + hirelings is my guide Lowest of the two unless I have a special NPC Thorp 5% or 100 gp max Hamlet 5% or 200 gp max Village 10% or 400 gp max Small town 15% or 1600 gp max Large town 25% or 6000 gp max Small city 35% or 30,000 gp max Large city 50% or 80,000 gp max Metropolis 60% or 200,000 gp max If the PCs want they can hire guards, rent a warehouse, and hire any professional they need to either transport the wealth to a bigger city or sell a portion each month (which similates the merchants of the city hiring caravans to sell the rarest of the items, and receiving the funds, plus the local economy rebuilding asset availability). If the PCs build residences, and maintain hirelings they will be viewed with indifference or better by the community (The newcomers are strange, but my boy Jack oversee's their fields and he says it will be a bumper crop.) Each time the PCs return to the same community, or a portion of the loot is sold with dungeon wealth that there is a %50 chance for that community to grow to the next size due to the wealth (gold rush). Even in a normally Lawful Good city 10% of the population is evil in a gold rush city. Taxation is how governments retain power, 50% chance at village, 100% at small city and above that the governement will tax the PCs right off the top (10 percent for each attitude rating - Helpful 10%, Friendly 20%, Indifferent 30%, Unfriendly 40%, Hostile 50%) That is in a nutshell my house rule and it works well as an adventuring hook as well.