Road encounter

[Officer Joy]

So my players came into more wealth than they can immediately spend.
In a few sessions, they will be asked to travel the high road between a bunch of cities.

My Idea was to have a clearly shady magic item salesmen appear besides a magical looking tent.
Invite them in and offer to sell them one magic item each, and if they throw too low on their Insight, they won't notice he is trying to rip them of. And if they trow medium well they will know he is trying to ask for more money than it is worth. And presume haggle for a lower price or an extra item.

But then after they paid i would have the salesmen his tent disappears. and the items return to inert Junk.

The point is to make them angry with the salesmen, and look him up trough a small quest or 2 and beat him up for their money.


Is this very mean?

[ravenkith]

So my players came into more wealth than they can immediately spend.
In a few sessions, they will be asked to travel the high road between a bunch of cities.

My Idea was to have a clearly shady magic item salesmen appear besides a magical looking tent.
Invite them in and offer to sell them one magic item each, and if they throw too low on their Insight, they won't notice he is trying to rip them of. And if they trow medium well they will know he is trying to ask for more money than it is worth. And presume haggle for a lower price or an extra item.

But then after they paid i would have the salesmen his tent disappears. and the items return to inert Junk.

The point is to make them angry with the salesmen, and look him up trough a small quest or 2 and beat him up for their money.


Is this very mean?

Don't do this.

Really.

Don't.

They'll think you're a ****.

You're better off having someone straight up rob them in the middle of the night, or else pick their pockets in broad daylight.

People REALLY hate getting bit by a bait and switch.

[Renvir]

I'm with Ravenkith on this one. If you do this your players will be much more upset with you than with the salesman. Perhaps have the salesman sell them items but it turns out the items were stolen from some wealthy/powerful being. The players must either give up the items or hunt down the salesman. That gives you the search for salesman subplot you were looking for and the players can gauge for themselves how valuable the items are to them.

[Officer Joy]

yeah, I figured.

But the idea seemed funny/intresting to me, but then I wouldn't be the person getting their imaginairy money stolen.

So thanks for the oppinion, and know i won't be having my con-man illusionist magic salesman

[Foxhound438]

it seems fair to me, especially if you have everyone roll insight right off (as in, say "roll insight everyone", not sitting there waiting for someone to say they want to roll insight and just take their money if no one does). Their character might be fooled and might not, the player has a target in short time if they are, and in the end they can get their money back.

[gfishfunk]

Fair is one thing, frustrating is another.

If you want to give them something to dump money on, have a ill-kept castle for sale - or possibly a merchant boat to purchase.

[Officer Joy]

Yes, I did realise it would have a high frustration factor. But I came to check if that was something that would be fun in a game. With some peoples that were more experianced than me. Only been player one campain ( in een homebrew/bubble-world) and now I'm managing my own homebrew world pretty decently.

The heroes are cogs in a fairly minor border scuffel, and by the end of it they'll be the heroes of it. Ready to take on bigger plots.

[Joe dirt]

as long as your prepared for a quest for them to gain some of their wealth back then YES go for it

[Officer Joy]

They would get conned rallying the allies, so they will probably not be imidiately able to quest for the conman. At least 3 sesions will pass before the can start their quest for revenge. So while I most likely won't do it. If I do it it will be when there are no other plots hanging, so they can Immediately start.

[Sigreid]

I like it as long as they have a chance to recognize the scam and a real chance of finding the guy.

[MadBear]

Just be ready for one of the players with the highest insight to roll a natural 20 on the check. It's forces you to either:

1. railroad them and take their money anyways, which they won't like

2. they avoid the scam with a single dice roll, which makes the whole endeavor pointless.

whatever happens have a contingency plan.