I'm planning on running a kingmaker campaign and so I'm trying to eliminate all of the things that have slowed down my other games.
One of the things I'm doing is putting all of the treasures and items in the adventure into a google spread sheet so that I can simply cut and past the items into another shared spread sheet.
I had noticed that it previously took my players a long time to write down all of the items they found and it was hard to keep track of which character had what items.
I'm also recording(calculating) the GP value for each item found.
Besides that I am also recording the spellcraft check needed to identify the magic items.
My question is:
What's the correct balance of brevity verses fun that I should use regarding magic items and Appraise items?
Should I keep the gp values of every item secret or should I give it for all mundain items? Should I give it for Masterwork items?
Should I let the player think any item could be magical or should magic items seem more special then just masterwork?
My Initial thought is to give the stats for all mundane items. Because even with a CRB on each of my players laps it will take them forever to look up the price/weight of each item.
But Masterwork and Magic items are another story. I'm not entirely sure what to do because Masterwork items can be as common as any item especially at later levels.
It varies by campaign. The EASIEST method is just giving your players money/gold value and letting them buy what they want in downtime.
Thanks for the suggestion. That's not really the kind of game I was planning on running.
That's one extreme the other would be to just tell then the description for the item they found and let them try to identify and appraise (possibly) everything
I was looking for something more middle of the road. I'm looking to balance verisimilitude with ease of game play and I want appraise and identify to be options I just don't want them to slow down the game or ruin the fun.
I'm planning on running a kingmaker campaign and so I'm trying to eliminate all of the things that have slowed down my other games.
One of the things I'm doing is putting all of the treasures and items in the adventure into a google spread sheet so that I can simply cut and past the items into another shared spread sheet.
I had noticed that it previously took my players a long time to write down all of the items they found and it was hard to keep track of which character had what items.
I'm also recording(calculating) the GP value for each item found.
Besides that I am also recording the spellcraft check needed to identify the magic items.
My question is:
What's the correct balance of brevity verses fun that I should use regarding magic items and Appraise items?Should I keep the gp values of every item secret or should I give it for all mundain items? Should I give it for Masterwork items?
Should I let the player think any item could be magical or should magic items seem more special then just masterwork?
My Initial thought is to give the stats for all mundane items. Because even with a CRB on each of my players laps it will take them forever to look up the price/weight of each item.
But Masterwork and Magic items are another story. I'm not entirely sure what to do because Masterwork items can be as common as any item especially at later levels.
I let my players write the items down as they find them. There is not usually a treasure hoard, but if there is then it is at the end of a boss fight so a few minutes is not that much anyway, and it allows them to wind down before they continue on. The appointed treasure keeper will either email the list to all the other players or hand it to me for keeping.
My players also get handy haversacks ASAP so that weight issue goes away. If they dont buy I put on in the game for them.
As for price that will be an issue until prices start to be memorized, but I would write the price down before the game if I needed too which already seems to be on your list.
I let my players write the items down as they find them. There is not usually a treasure hoard, but if there is then it is at the end of a boss fight so a few minutes is not that much anyway, and it allows them to wind down before they continue on. The appointed treasure keeper will either email the list to all the other players or hand it to me for keeping.
I've already commented to using the spreadsheet. It been a problem for me in the past and this is hopefully the solution.
My players also get handy haversacks ASAP so that weight issue goes away. If they dont buy I put on in the game for them.
As for price that will be an issue until prices start to be memorized, but I would write the price down before the game if I...
All of this is great but none of it exactly helps with my problem. I'll take all the blame though because I didn't explain it well.
I'm looking for a good balance between giving the players the stats for an item(including price) and keeping them secret.
For instance I can assume that the characters would know the difference between a mundane sword and a magical/masterwork sword. There's no reason not to give them the stats for the mundane sword(including price)
My problem concerns the difference between masterwork and magical. The player isn't going to immediately know the difference between a masterwork sword and a magical masterwork sword(unless it glows or something) and they shouldn't that's part of the fun.... until it isn't.
It's fun to use spellcraft to tell the fighter that he is welding a magical sword that he thought was just a well made blade.
It's fun to use appraise to tell how much gp a jewel is.
It isn't fun wrongly appraising each masterwork item you come across.
It isn't fun always being giving the price for items when your bat gives you a bonus to appraise.
It isn't fun always selling off magical items because you thought it was just another masterwork longsword.(although I guess you wouldn't know)
It isn't fun always knowing which items are magical that makes your detect magic spell less useful.
It isn't fun calculating the gp price for a masterwork cold iron longsword.
It isn't fun always being given prices.