I found myself thinking about how the customer-shopkeep interaction would unfold realistically. Terms like +1 longsword or +2 chain shirt make sense when you think about it in terms of a rules set, but if you're writing a script or novel, I'm having a little trouble not envisioning the whole thing acted out by the good folks at Viva la Dirt League.
An armor clad figure walks into a shop, and sees two swords on display. The first costs 2,315 gp, and the second costs 8,315 gp. When asked about the first sword, the shopkeep explains that the sword will magically guide itself to the vulnerable spots of a quarry's armor and multiplies the force on impact. When asked about the second sword, the shopkeep nervously says that, well, it does the same thing but, more! Like, twice as much more. There are even swords that exist that does it three times more!
I cannot think of a way to role play buying a +1 piece of equipment that doesn't play out a comedy. It's even worse when I try to in-character explain the difference between a +1 and +2 piece of equipment.
In your group that is R-O-L-E play more than R-O-L-L play, how do you handle discussing basic magical equipment? Maybe it's best not to allow +2 equipment and after the initial +2 only allow the other magical bonuses (flaming, vorpal, etc..)?
I would think the simplest think to do would be to lean in to the mystical and mumbo jumbo type terms. One sword simply "feels" more powerful when held. Maybe the glow is more intense, or there's a rush of wind and light the first time you draw it. Any fancy descriptive language could do.
The mechanical explanation of those descriptive terms would be untrained spell craft or UMD checks. Of course if there's some caster present, one role played moment of detect magic can reveal that the items aura's have different intensities. For everyone else, play with those ephemeral 6th senses.
Maybe power is directly tied to how flashy it looks.
Best thing to do is just handwave it - an NPC seller will to sell X item for Y amount and an NPC buyer will buy it for Y/2. You can roleplay all you want but that's the end point of negotiations and investigations into that item.
We have better things to do than play shoppers unless it is for an item well outside normal price range and availability. There are a lot of things in D&D worlds that don't make sense when you look too closely at it and mechanics and economics (not to mention interaction between them) are prime examples.
Useful to a point Bjorn, but I think the OP was more concerned with finding ways to make the role play and acting feel a tad more organic and immersive, not to bog down the game with extra mechanical troubles.
I said nothing about introducing more mechanics. I said to ignore boring roleplaying, use the existing rules for what they are there for, and get on with the more interesting stuff. Sure, if roleplaying every haggle and every possible daily interaction is your cup of tea, go for it, but focusing on the every little purchase is not my idea of fun.
In game I run and play in, you go to someone who sells something, possibly haggle off screen, pay or receive the listed price for whatever, and move on. Worrying about how people can know how powerful something is is a little silly. Either you have the ability to check for yourself or you have to take someone else's word that X is worth Y price. Just like in real life, actually.
If you really need to know, look at what the GP cost actually means. The problem with 3.x crafting is that they just turned everything into GP cost and left out the bits about components. They don't just use steel for this sword, they use steel specially prepared with this and that rare herb. They use gem dust to fill in the runes. They use esoteric components like fire elemental hearts or dragon bone or nightshade essence. Putting these rare elements into the sword and binding them takes effort and other strange reagents.
A sword that needs a dragon's thighbone to be made is going to be more expensive than one that needs a harpy's wishbone. The sword encrusted with garnets is going to be cheaper than the one encrusted with rubies.
^^ Sorry, that last post was done on a quick break at work. I wasn't trying to accuse or imply that you were adding mechanical issues. Rather, the majority of your first post seemed to address mechanical issues more, while the OP was asking a narrative/role play question. I actually like the recommendations and flavor elements you put out, very much.
Role playing haggling or shopping may not be a fun thing for you and your table, but I think that at least sometimes, it might be for others. I have a few players that enjoy that level of world immersion from time to time. I also got the impression (OP please correct if I'm mistaken), that the topic is more about spotting/finding/assessing the superior item, and less about haggling over the price. It also seemed like this might be as much about story writing, in a Pathfinder style genre, as at the table play.
This is why I've always advocated for guilds, magical crafting traditions, and so on.
Roleplaying the scene:
Armor-clad warrior walks into weapon-dealer's shop, sees the 2 swords. The weapons-dealer explains: the cheaper one, there, is a Mark I dwarven blade. These were manufactured en masse during the time of the Goblin Wars. Note the cobalt hue in the steel; that's one of the tells.
Now this *retrieves more expensive sword* is a classic, an "Elven Elite" weapon. This is a Mark II blade, housed in a hilt made of genuine Green Dragon horn and wrapped in griffon's hide. These are all custom jobs though, with the long life of elves and their penchant for preserving their heritage it's hard to pin down WHEN it was crafted. I CAN tell you that these markings, here *indicates flourishes at the base of the blade* show this sword was crafted by a master of House Sylvanforge.
Now, both weapons are magical, and both will do the job of cutting through your enemies just fine. Obviously, as you well know, a smart customer such as yourself, a Mark I indicates the lowest, and let's not beat around the bush here, CHEAPEST form of magic gives this blade its extra power and longevity. No disrespect to my dwarven colleagues but back during the Goblin Wars such embellishments were commonplace.
A Mark II weapon, however, is more refined, more rarified, and of course provides a greater level of power to the tool it enhances. The aura of it practically sings! It is common industry standard that Mark II doubles the strength of the enchantment, as Mark III triples it, and so on. However, this PARTICULAR Mark II blade is a Sylvanforge original!
Look at the lines, the craftsmanship! This baby... what was that? You've only got 3000 gold Endercoin to spend? Fine, here's the Dwarven Straight Blade. Never needs oiling or sharpening, standard boilerplate for all magic blades, so no warranty included. The common sheath is included... unless you're in the market for something with a bit more of fashion statement?
In other words, folks with Profession: Merchant or Craft: Weapons or maybe even some Knowledge skills will understand common terms, in the way that car dealers know the difference between engine ratings. They could then use those terms to analogue for level 1 through 5 Enhancement bonus.
Now I mentioned guilds and traditions because these organizations would have created the standard measurement and perpetuate them. Perhaps every +1 of a weapon is measured in thousands of "Magrons," a unit of magical force that lends power and supernatural accuracy to a weapon. A +1 weapon has anywhere from 1000 to 1,499 Magrons. At 1,500 t 1,999, the weapon has some extra minor ability: maybe it just glows like a torch or the GM adds some non-combat quirk, or this extra rating might indicate Frost, Countering, Vicious, or one of the other +1 abilities.
This way if a PC ever encountered a merchant, dealer or craftsperson that DIDN'T know how to measure Magrons (or whatever), they might become skeptical. You could also make these measurements relative to the region of origin, or have a "Kelly Blue Book" for common enchanted weapons. You might even devise a wholly separate system for the cultures of the creatures heroes typically battle, such as goblins, giants or even more intelligent aberrations.
I have a shop in my emerald spire campaign. There is a barrel filled with finely made longswords all with the symbol of Iomdea on them. The locals call them "Deserter's Blades" Every year the Church of Iomdea hands out these +1 longswords to promising crusaders. and every year a few of them desert the wall and go south, selling the blade first chance they get. The shop buys them cheap and sells them at full price. But anyone caught with one is viewed as a deserter from the Worldwound Crusade by the church of Iomdea
That's spectacular GL! Do inquisitors of Iomedae ever come through town and try to track down any of the former wielders? That barrel could be the start of an entire campaign.
Since magic and technology are often indistinguishable from each other, just imagine this stuff if from NASA but you are buying it at a pawn shop...
There are two items that look almost the same, but one item costs 4x as much as the other.
It is dubious that the one-tooth, mullet sporting hick behind the counter knows the science or methodology or formulae of either item... but he mentions that the more expensive one is made out of this high-speed, space-age "adamantine" material (the same way gimmick BS salemen boast about carbon fiber or titanium tidbits)...
Maybe that's enough for you to buy the expensive item.
Maybe you have more ranks in Sense Motive than you do in Appraise. Maybe someone with ranks in Appraise can identify the value of each item without the hick's chewing tobacco spittle spraying sales pitch. Maybe Spellcraft identified which one smells of the most magics. Or your talents using magical devices allows you to glean which one can do more.
Whatever you do, just avoid using the term +1 in-character... just as you don't discuss hit points or experience when in-character.
