I have been dissapointed in my search for Magic Item Shops in the free city. The dungeon article "the free city" has a couple of shops that sell potions and other 1 shot items. And my "Greyhawk the adventure begins" seems to not have an magic item shops (save for Wizard guildhalls ect where the players might be able to find such things (am I missing something here? I find it hard to believe this campaign setting does not have magic item/weapon shops ). It is funny that the nearest thing I have found so far is a Wormfood article from Dragon, "Maldin and Elender's".
So I guess I have to make my own shops. I was thinking about a place called Qualls Fabulous Warez (After qualls tokens from the DMG...). I am also going to place Skie's Treasury (from Shackled City) in the free city since my group never played the last AP.
Anyone else got any other ideas for magic item shops (weaponsmiths, armourers ect) in the free city? My group is pretty hack and slash but I think I can really get them to roleplay if magic items have something to do with it.
I have a store that makes regular appearances in my games. It is called "Rings and Things." A store that purchases and sells some of the more commonly aquired devices (Ring of Pro+1, Wand of Light....) That kind of thing.
As the name fits, the owners; Willum Dercius and his wife Minda make rings and things. They are both lvl 15 Wiz and have retired from adventuring.
With all of the item creation feats spread between them they can manufacture items for the group. As former adventurers, they may have a soft spot for the PC's (Diplomacy DC15) and are willing to knock off 10% from the market price for whatever they make or sell to the group.
The store itself, well design it as you want, but I have it set as a spartan building where what you want is in glassteel cases along the walls. That leaves it open for them to make sure no one is trying to steal from them. At night when the couple go to their home they lock up the shop and a stone golem guards it. All the doors and windows are arcane locked and they update the password randomly. Plus it is secured from Ethereal travel and stuff like that.
Hope your adventures enjoy their shopping at Rings and Things.
Dragon #337, "Wormfood" covers this base.
Would most of shops like this be in the middle portion of greyhawk or the garden quarter? Old city seems too dirty to sell magic items...
By the way, the whole idea that I had to look into wormfood to find a magic item shop is somewhat offensive. I have bought almost a year's worth of dungeon magazines (I usually do not), and you are trying to get me to buy dragon as well? I really like the idea of trying to have player content for the AP in dragon (you have to make money right?) , BUT, the magic item shop, as well as Tensers fountain is clearly DM content. I bought the first dragon wormfood magazine for the "home base" and I will tell you I felt extremely ripped off. For the rest of the wormfood articles I have found alternative ways to see what was in it. What is the idea of giving my players magic item shops, and artifact items anyways? Is the theory that they are going to say, "Hey I heard Manzorian/Tenser" has a fountain? What if I dont buy Dragon? What am I going to say, "yeah.... uh... what fountain are you talking about?" What if I make some magic item shops in greyhawk, can my players say "well dragon says we can get everything we want from "Maldin's"... This kind of move almost makes me want to request that my players not purchase Dragon.
From an economic descision I can understand you trying to put DM content in dragon, but from a loyalty descision I would encourage DM content in dungeon, and player content in dragon exclusively.
If you don't want to buy Dragon, that's great. Don't use the resources in Dragon. Tell your players you don't purchase the mag, so they shouldn't count on what they read there being true.Not sure I see the problem, here...
The problem is that Dragon is designed for players. I like the idea of my players buying a supplement where they can get new prestige classes, feats, ideas/strategies ect. I think the "Wormfood" idea is genius, I told my players to buy dragon if they wanted so that they could get ideas/tips in my campaign. It is just an odd descision that they choose to put DM content in the Wormfood articles, this makes me feel like I have to buy it, and tell my players not to...
Anyways back on topic, Wulfscout thank you for the shop, Rings and Things will definetely be present in my campaign, I like to have a varity of shops to force my players to roleplay a bit more.
I have been dissapointed in my search for Magic Item Shops in the free city. The dungeon article "the free city" has a couple of shops that sell potions and other 1 shot items. And my "Greyhawk the adventure begins" seems to not have an magic item shops (save for Wizard guildhalls ect where the players might be able to find such things (am I missing something here? I find it hard to believe this campaign setting does not have magic item/weapon shops ).
I think that dates back to 1st ed. AD&D times or even further. I dimly remember reading in one old rulebook that "there are no magic shops in a world...magic items are rare and would not allow for real trade." or something like that. Rules and abundance or scarcity of magic items have changed since then, obviously.
IIRC, in the "City of Greyhawk" boxed set there was only Kondradis Bubka, the Mage of the Exchange in the Mages Guild who buys and sells magic items. Perhaps it is the only legal way to buy and sell via the mages guild, and otherwise there is only a black market.
You are free to add more shops, of course. But in a city run by oligarchs, and one of these oligarchs being the head of the mages guild, I would bet that they try to monopolize that trade - there is a lot of money to be made that way.
One thing surely not openly for sale in the Free City is black magic - these things are off limits for normal trade.
Stefan
Also you can buy minor magic items at Vesper's Pawnshop. (p.124The Adventure Begins) Kondrais Bubka is dead killed by the Guild alchemist, Heironymoous Tigana. He has been replaced by Pateris the Bard. (p.87 The Adventure Begins)
Also you can buy minor magic items at Vesper's Pawnshop. (p.124The Adventure Begins) Kondrais Bubka is dead killed by the Guild alchemist, Heironymoous Tigana. He has been replaced by Pateris the Bard. (p.87 The Adventure Begins)
Thanks for the heads up, this place will also be on the list (I missed it in my scan through the book). This is a great to use cause the place is a rip off! Also it might lead to some interesting connections with the Guild of Assassins.
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The problem is that Dragon is designed for players. I like the idea of my players buying a supplement where they can get new prestige classes, feats, ideas/strategies ect. I think the "Wormfood" idea is genius, I told my players to buy dragon if they wanted so that they could get ideas/tips in my campaign. It is just an odd descision that they choose to put DM content in the Wormfood articles, this makes me feel like I have to buy it, and tell my players not to...
I think the idea was that enough people buy both magazines that the issue of the DM not having access to the articles kinda got forgotten or was worth the risk.
For the most part, the "Wormfood" articles are for players- new items, a few possible cohorts, a possible home base, recreational hobbies to get involved with when not slaying monsters, etc. If you personally aren't buying/reading the articles, you can throw anything from them out. Most of it isn't necessary anyway- it's all pretty optional, and some of it is just advice and condensed info from other sources (the one about high-level travel comes to mind, with its chart of carrying capacities and speeds for different beasties and such).
Personally, I don't see any reason for the PCs to not know about the possible magic item shops in the Free City- they're like restaurants to us regular folk. Most magic item sellers (indeed, most D&D businesses in general) operate by word of mouth- if the PCs bother to talk to any other adventurers in town, they should be able to pick up the locations of these shops. And I don't remember specifically that any of the shops had any real "secret" info about them- no top-secret inventory of artifacts, and none of the friendly and helpful shopkeepers are secretly liches or something. Having a nice list or even a general "here's what they specialize in selling" should add more flavor than just saying "you go to market and find a guy with bracers of armor +3".
As for the Pool- well, if I'm going to drink from a magical pool said to grant me special powers at a price, it might be nice to know what to expect when I do so. Manzorian/Tenser's got it in his friggin' basement, after all. He probably has a pretty good grasp of what it is capable of. And if the PCs are going to choose a bonus or penalty, they should be able to see what the choices are. Knowing my group, not one of them would actually drink from the thing without knowing what it may do. After all, without foreknowledge, for all they know "ripped bodily from the planes and hurled into the center of the Far Realm surrounded by mindless horrors hungering for your sweet ichor" is still on the table- not really worth it in return for a +2 bonus to a specific stat or whatever. But then again, the Deck of Many Things scared them straight a while ago, and I've never even used it.
If your PCs have issues with the "Wormfood" articles in them, then you don't have to buy the issues- just ask one of them to do you a favor and let you read through them. Make notes of what you like and drop the rest. Photocopy to Pool's bonus/penalty tables. It's just like anything else. I wouldn't let my players use an item/feat/prestige class/whatever from <i>Dragon</i> without reading it first, so if the PC really want to buy some mining gear from Taggin, then read through it and decide for yourself.
If the problem is that your players have the issues and aren't willing to share, well... that's a big problem. One most easily rectified by finding less a-holes to play with. They should hopefully be happy to share them with you, as then you might actually approve their exciting new choices.
On the issue of the lack of magic item shops in old 1e/2e products- well, there weren't really set prices for those items in 1e/2e. It was all barter and exchange, which isn't really a good way to run such a high-cost, high-risk business. But now we've got prices for those goods, and dad-gum, PCs have got gobs of cash to spend on 'em. You won't really find magic item shops referenced in old editions.
Hope that helps. Plenty of people have already thrown in their two cents in on this, so hopefully I'm not just adding more copper to an unneeded pile. : )
Greetings! You are always more then welcome to drop by my shop and see what wares I have available!
I first described my shop, "Maldin and Elenderi's", as well as "Eridok's Expedition Provisions", in the Living Greyhawk Journal #2, the same issue in which my poster map of the City of Greyhawk was published. When Erik Mona reprinted my shop for the Wormfood article, I created a "web enhancement" for the shop on my website (Erik forgot to reference it anywhere), including a map of the sales floor. I've also got up a page about Eridok's, who can serve as a source of weapons and armor (among other things) both magical and mundane. Between the two shops (and other locations already mentioned above), you should find some interesting choice (and opportunity for interesting roleplay) for your players.
You can get to both webpages, as well as my main City of Greyhawk page (with low-resolution versions of my big CoG map), and several other City of Greyhawk locations and other resources (location index, annotated NPC index) by visiting my active site map at http://melkot.com/sitehistory.html and clicking on the appropriate page titles. Check by periodically, as I'll be adding more locations and other materials in time. Scope out the rest of my website while you're there. You might find other things useful to your campaign.
Denis, aka "Maldin"
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Maldin's Greyhawk http://melkot.com
Loads of edition-independent Greyhawk goodness, including lots of maps and locations, new spells and magic items, ancient histories and mysteries, new game mechanics, and a Grand Unified Theory for all of the D&D Multiverse
Thanks maldin, I was wondering if that was a reference to you when I read the wormfood article.
I glossed over this bit. I quick-played a "you've met some people who know some people" scenario. Allowed the PC's to get their hands on some magic items (10-20% above DMG prices) and left it at that.
I glossed over this bit. I quick-played a "you've met some people who know some people" scenario. Allowed the PC's to get their hands on some magic items (10-20% above DMG prices) and left it at that.
Yeah, thats what I usually do, but this is a COOL city (greyhawk), itd be neat for the players to actually feel they have been there....
Thanks, Maldin, for sharing your website. It rocks! The scanned map I got in the Adventure Begins download wasn't so great, and your map really clears things up. Also, the sewer map is very helpful. Now I've picked out likely locations for Sodden Hold, Zyrxog's lair, and Eligos' mansion, along with other sites I expect my PCs will want to visit, and I've got a better idea of how to run things if they try to track Zyrxog through the sewers.
Guess we'll have to agree to see this differently. I don't allow prestige classes, feats, etc, without my approval either, but my players are welcome to browse around and see what's available. I don't really see a magic shop as being any different - I'd probably consider the players aware of the shop via gather info or reputation, call it a timesaver for me, and move on.
I guess we do see things differently. My players are free to use any of Wizards classes (plus most other publishers) except in rare instances (I ran a campaign once with no elves for example, using Monte Cooke's Faen instead).
But for them to tell me about a building in a town they have just arrived in, seems like metagaming to me, I am the storyteller and therefore I should be telling them about the building. Same with the fountain, they shouldn't know every single possible effect of the fountain, wheres the wonder in that? Tenser should say, "here are some bad things that have happened in the past, here are some good... but what will happen to you, I have no idea...". I have seen to many players sit and analyze stuff like that, calculating the chance of something they'd really hate or something like that.