| 2 people marked this as FAQ candidate. |
In the 3.5 PHB, under the Selling Loot subsection of equipment, it stated that trade goods sold for their full value. A 50gp trade good could be sold for 50gp. It further expounded that trade goods included gems and art objects.
In the PF Core book, that secondary sentence is missing. Is this an issue with the OGL/SRD (as that sentence is likewise missing from the 3.5 SRD), or was this an intentional restructuring of the wealth system? If the art and gems of a dragon's hoard are worth 50% rather than %100, that could create a very substantial difference in the total value.
Should we assume backwards compatability and continue selling such items at full value? Or was a deliberate change made and I'm just now catching up with the times?
Any answers would be nice, but a developer comment I think would be very helpful in this case, as modifications to the wealth system directly impact character power and by extension game balance.
Ultimate Equipment, p.388 and p.390, specify that gems, jewelry, and art objects buy and sell at their full value, so presumably an oversight in core.
I pretty much ignore those rules.
I give individual party members a private appraised value against the base value so they can make their own decisions about how much something is worth. It is up to their diplomacy skill, their profession (merchant) skill and the other party's appraisal to determine how close to the valuation they can get. I tend to add profession (merchant) to diplomacy to give an opposed DC roll.
Thank you see, that answers my question nicely.
Hugo, while your answer is firmly in homebrew territory, by your own admission, I have always liked the concept but found the application taxing. It seems like a rather large amount of rolls all around and extra calculations on your own part. As a proponent of such, any tips on streamlining it and keeping it efficient in terms of table-time?
Hugo, while your answer is firmly in homebrew territory, by your own admission, I have always liked the concept but found the application taxing. It seems like a rather large amount of rolls all around and extra calculations on your own part. As a proponent of such, any tips on streamlining it and keeping it efficient in terms of table-time?
I prepare in advance. With the treasure I have a list of all the available items in a spreadsheet, mark off the items found and use random numbers to calculate perceived value. Usually the treasure is sorted away from the table via email but if it is required in session then I have my laptop and can print wirelessly.
If it's a common, or low value item e.g. weapons and armour or a brass trinket we don't bother with the haggling and loot sales are done out of session. It's only high value items, or items that are difficult to sell or are signficant plotwise (e.g. a ring that identifies somebody as a member of a cult) that are roleplayed out.
I should also say, to put my homebrew into context that I developed some clunky apps to help simulate an economy and trade. This was partly because I wanted to describe a fuller world and let the PCs see the consequences of their and others actions. With regard to wealth and balance, I don't have magic shops. At best, a well connected PC might be able to find an agent or broker who could find 0-3 random items available for sale within the next month. So rich PCs can't acquire goodies, but they can buy land, status and influence - which feeds back into the economy model. Most importantly it solves the problem of high level adventures - the high level PCs can play D&D Civilization and sponsor lower level parties that keep the adventuring going in a consistent game world.