Merchant help - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Merchant help

Post/Author/DateTime Post
#1
destructus
Oct 03, 2011 8:03:54 I have DMed a lot but i dont have the concept of the store down yet. How to i price items what items do i stock etc.

What vlaues do i place on items that will be sold back etc

Do i customize it for my adventures or do i just make a store and see what they do?
#2
Novacat
Oct 03, 2011 8:11:55 As a rule of thumb, the PCs can buy items of their level or lower for the listed price, and sell them to the shop at 20% of market value.

How, exactly, this manifests in the game is up to you to decide as a world-building decision. For example, in my setting, there are no "magic item shops." Magic items can't usually be bought or sold on the open market. The party must enchant/disenchant everything themselves. In another setting, there may be lavish magic item economies.

It's up to you.
#3
Krusk
Oct 03, 2011 9:05:18
A good suggestion for new DMs would be to simply tell players "They sell everything in the PHBs for the listed prices. They buy it all back at X%". Then let them do their thing.

As you pick up experience, you can do things like "The dwarven town has the best heavy armor, but no bows" or what have you.

As for giving shops a limited list of specific items, I don't think that is every worth it on the DMs part, and annoying on the players. [Excludes neat custom items you want your players to know about]
#4
yronimosw
Oct 03, 2011 9:22:26 What Novacat said - the rulebooks should have the "Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price" for what shopkeepers should sell it for listed in the description, but shopkeepers generally would buy used stuff from PCs for much less than that (20%).

20%!?!? Sure, that looks bad on paper, but it actually sounds like a better deal than college bookstores always gave me when it came time to sell back my books ;)

If you gave your PCs a Magic Sword +1 and they'd rather have a Magic Battleaxe +1, I'd just let them trade it in one item for the other, rather than selling the sword at 20% value and buying the axe at 100% value.

I don't really like PC shopping trips, so I generally handwave the shopping experience without much detail, unless I want something special and dramatic to happen while shopping, or if a "day in the life of the adventurers" episode is called for, just to provide low-pressure role-playing opportunity or comic relief to an otherwise serious and tense campaign. Some groups love playing these shopping trips to the hilt, though. Find out what your group likes, and give the audience what they want, and don't feel bad about fast-forwarding through shopping if the group doesn't find the experience interesting.

There's a thread on a similar subject in the "What's a DM To Do" forum you might be interested in, about how to role-play a shopping experience and/or shopkeeper (link), which touches on much of the same ground.
#5
Novacat
Oct 04, 2011 7:47:15
If you gave your PCs a Magic Sword +1 and they'd rather have a Magic Battleaxe +1, I'd just let them trade it in one item for the other, rather than selling the sword at 20% value and buying the axe at 100% value.

There's actually a Transfer Enchantment ritual in the Adventurer's Vault, which allows you to transfer an enchantment from one item to another, provided the new item can legally have that enchantment. The ritual costs 25G to perform, which is chump change after 1st level, so I generally hand-wave the cost and allow my PCs to simply transfer an enchantment free of charge.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 destructus Oct 03, 2011 8:03:54	I have DMed a lot but i dont have the concept of the store down yet. How to i price items what items do i stock etc. What vlaues do i place on items that will be sold back etc Do i customize it for my adventures or do i just make a store and see what they do?
#2 Novacat Oct 03, 2011 8:11:55	As a rule of thumb, the PCs can buy items of their level or lower for the listed price, and sell them to the shop at 20% of market value. How, exactly, this manifests in the game is up to you to decide as a world-building decision. For example, in my setting, there are no "magic item shops." Magic items can't usually be bought or sold on the open market. The party must enchant/disenchant everything themselves. In another setting, there may be lavish magic item economies. It's up to you.
#3 Krusk Oct 03, 2011 9:05:18	A good suggestion for new DMs would be to simply tell players "They sell everything in the PHBs for the listed prices. They buy it all back at X%". Then let them do their thing. As you pick up experience, you can do things like "The dwarven town has the best heavy armor, but no bows" or what have you. As for giving shops a limited list of specific items, I don't think that is every worth it on the DMs part, and annoying on the players. [Excludes neat custom items you want your players to know about]
#4 yronimosw Oct 03, 2011 9:22:26	What Novacat said - the rulebooks should have the "Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price" for what shopkeepers should sell it for listed in the description, but shopkeepers generally would buy used stuff from PCs for much less than that (20%). 20%!?!? Sure, that looks bad on paper, but it actually sounds like a better deal than college bookstores always gave me when it came time to sell back my books ;) If you gave your PCs a Magic Sword +1 and they'd rather have a Magic Battleaxe +1, I'd just let them trade it in one item for the other, rather than selling the sword at 20% value and buying the axe at 100% value. I don't really like PC shopping trips, so I generally handwave the shopping experience without much detail, unless I want something special and dramatic to happen while shopping, or if a "day in the life of the adventurers" episode is called for, just to provide low-pressure role-playing opportunity or comic relief to an otherwise serious and tense campaign. Some groups love playing these shopping trips to the hilt, though. Find out what your group likes, and give the audience what they want, and don't feel bad about fast-forwarding through shopping if the group doesn't find the experience interesting. There's a thread on a similar subject in the "What's a DM To Do" forum you might be interested in, about how to role-play a shopping experience and/or shopkeeper (link), which touches on much of the same ground.
#5 Novacat Oct 04, 2011 7:47:15	If you gave your PCs a Magic Sword +1 and they'd rather have a Magic Battleaxe +1, I'd just let them trade it in one item for the other, rather than selling the sword at 20% value and buying the axe at 100% value. There's actually a Transfer Enchantment ritual in the Adventurer's Vault, which allows you to transfer an enchantment from one item to another, provided the new item can legally have that enchantment. The ritual costs 25G to perform, which is chump change after 1st level, so I generally hand-wave the cost and allow my PCs to simply transfer an enchantment free of charge.