Item Availability

[Orannis]

Greetings playgrounders,
I am running several games for friends and I am at a bit of an impasse. From previous experiences I do not assume that every item is available in any given city (no magic mart) and I enforce the town GP limit but I have run into two problems that I seek some advice on.

1. What items are available?
This includes magical and non-magical items. I find it a bit silly to say that a hamlet has every single weapon in the PHB or every 1st level potion in the DMG so I have taken to trying to limit them. The issue I run into is that I either have to define exactly what each town has or make it up on the fly. While I am comfortable with the latter a few players don't like it as much due to them feeling like they can't count on anything being available or that I am babying them if I make things readily available.

2. How much should the items cost?
I am well acquainted with the prices listed in the DMG, both for sale and for creation, but I like to throw a dash of real life economics into my games and so if there are a ton of items their price should be lowered and if there are not many it should be cheaper. In addition certain places would put a higher premium on certain things (a frontier town in the north might have endure elements potions on the cheap as so many people need it that an industry has grown there as an example)

What this boils down to for me is a quick and relatively easy way to randomly determine both the availability of items and the cost without requiring me to make it up.

[D4rkh0rus]

You can often use a simple method: The way "You" see it.

If you feel a hamlet can't house a store that contains wish scrolls and flying carpets... then don't do so. save those for the big cityes... or even better...

make them "Custom" Made.


say, for example, the adventurers enter a hamlet. Even the smallest towns have some form of blacksmith, if even to only make horse shoes, and some form of apothecary/witch doctor.

So have them have some simple weapons/potions (light wounds, antitoxin, etc). but the knowledge to craft advanced stuff (martial weapons, better potions).

so either have them order custom made, taking a day or 2 for potions... a week for a weapon (in which time they can go adventuring and stuff).

Or maybe have them go gather a special mushroom, find some special ore, etc.


Maybe included secret zones (if you create a world, or country) where a lone old blacksmith lives in nature's earth. a small shack with a smithy attached in the middle of some normally unexplored woods.
Turns out the old man is a legendary smith who is capable of forging that supermegafunawesome sword to defeat the evil bad guy with. but he needs special ores and stuff... you have to go from city to city then go into caverns for gems of power and... yea. you get the idea.

[Captnq]

I like crystal ball. I've been working on hand rewriting the random tables to include all magic items. But that's on the backburner. Out of the download, it's good.

I got some okay random tables in the EVD. Check out my sig. Far from complete. If you wish to make any, PM and I'll include them.

[Slipperychicken]

You could roll d% in secret to see if the settlement possesses items of that type, then set a Gather Information DC to find them (including adjustments for obscurity and legality). As for the number available, you could determine dice to roll for each category.

Like a hamlet might have a 75% chance to have CLW potions for sale, and the DC would be around 12 because it's a small town and a common item. And it might only have 3d6 in stock because people don't get hurt much around there.

[Uncle Pine]

1. What items are available?
Check the town gp limit. Is the "normal" price of the item within the limit? If yes, it may be available. Roll a d100 against the set %. On a good roll, the item is available and the PCs can buy it, but on a bad roll they'll have to ask for a custom order.
The main problem with enforcing the "custom order rule" for every object is that the PCs will eventually find annoying that there isn't a single alchemist/blacksmith/merchant/wizard with available goods in his shop. Setting percentages for available items guarantees that PCs won't find magical marts everywhere without stressing them too much.
You should probably set different percentages for different kind of items. For example, one town could have higher % for magical armor and weapons, while another could have higher % for potions, wands and magical staves.


2. How much should the items cost?
If you feel like items should have different prices in different towns, you could use the "normal" price as a base and then add 1% for every 10 (or 5?) points that the item's percentage is below 50%. If the item's percentage is above 50%, then subtract 1% for every 10 (or 5?) points above 50%.
Example: Town A is famous for magical weapons, which are easy to find (80%), but scrolls are rare (40%). So, a dagger of venom (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#daggerofVenom) (base price 8.302 gp) would cost 8.302-3*(8.302/100)=8.053 gp and a desecrate scroll (base price 200 gp) would cost 200+1*(200/100)=202 gp. Adjust the scale if you want more significant variability in the items' price.

[Psyren]

Check my extended sig - there's a post by OldTrees1 that can help you calculate what enhancement/resistance bonuses your players should have by level.

Even if you want magic items to be special or rare in your games, just remember that the system itself expects these bonuses to be in place; you will have to compensate by either giving them these items for free, or giving them the bonuses themselves another way (e.g. a boon from the gods, or a magical location that they have to continually revisit and recharge on a monthly/yearly basis.)

As for what enhancement their weapons should have by level, a good rule of thumb is the Soulknife progression.

[Big Fau]

Real-world economics doesn't exactly work in D&D for a number of reasons. Notably the fact that D&D has non-finite resources available (magic, the Elemental Plane of Earth, infinite-sized Outer Planes that could hold mining operations and such).

Items should be available on an "in demand" basis. If the players really need that item, a friendly merchant they know could pull some strings and get it for them in exchange for a share of the party's next major haul (or for an immediate favor). One of the key mechanics of this system was founded on the PCs having ready access to the WBL and level-appropriate magic items.

That said, for the early levels you can get away with a town not having certain nonmagical items. A town that's situated nowhere near an iron mine and unable to trade for it regularly wouldn't have iron-based armor or equipment for sale, and would likely value any iron the players found during a dungeon delve.

[Psyren]

You can also have fantastic conditions that lead to shortages. Even if your iron mine has a link to the Plane of Earth at its heart, a rust monster infestation can still cut down on the iron you can extract for a little while. Or a magical city whose wealth derives from the chained genie at its heart, can run into trouble when his angry family/clan grants their wishes to a rival town to have that wealth diverted or destroyed. Or fantastic sources of ruin like a rampaging dragon or tarrasque.