34 thoughts on “Does anyone have ideas or price guides on PCs selling their loot back to shops?”

  3. Chris Stone-Bush he’s purchasing a magic sword, but it might be that they no longer need its enchantment, or have a better version

    as for the pricing guide, i’ve always just ruled that you can sell stuff back for half of its value in the shop, but it can be worth more or less depending on how much its been used or how well its been taken care of

    purchasing magic items is tricky

    i’ve done everything from multiplying the base cost by 10 if it’s a hard-bargaining merchant, or by exchanging other magic items or even services if it’s something else.

    that also depends on the enchantment. if it’s something lame like the Sword or Minor Healing, then i won’t add much

    but something more powerful like the Potion of Neverending Healing would be virtually priceless

  5. I agree with what Chris Stone-Bush is saying here, and want to add that if they have stuff they need to sell off that they’re not using then you ‘re probably may be giving them too many magical items.

    BUT that’s not what you asked… Look at the Steading tag for the town/city in which the adventures find themselves. It may be very difficult to find someone with enough coin to buy what they have to sell, and also very difficult to find someone with something they’re looking for.

    Even if the area has enough “wealth” to to purchase / sell such items, it shouldn’t be as easy as walking in, plopping down a bunch of stuff and getting a “fair” price for it (IMO).

  6. I agree with Brian Holland make sure it fits the fiction, but it should also add to it. They can’t just sell that extremely valuable artifact they looted, excuse me–found–in the local backwater berg, they’re going to have to make it to a major city to find someone who knows what it is and has the coin to pay for it and danger will definitely ensue along the way.

    Shopping / Selling happens very rarely in my games outside of mundane things like rations and the like which helps increases the tension and makes the experience more enjoyable when the players do finally get chance to spend some coin.

  7. I find half price very generous for second hand stuff. The value of selling loot depends on how useful it is to others. Does the merchant regularly have customers for this kind of item? In many cases 10% can be quite reasonable. Only special or rare items with a reliable demand fetch more.

    Unless you make a big issue of finding the right buyer. That can be an adventure in itself, and will result in a much better price.

    In the end, it’s whatever you consider reasonable.

  8. Yeah selling a magical item isn’t idea. Plus to a commoner can they perceive this item? understand it?. I’d least have you journey to find someone who could actually make use of it. An artificer, alchemist, a collector of only exotic things. Not the town merchant trying to feed his family. I also agree if selling a magical item is even an idea. Then sounds like its to easy to acquire.

    Magic items are special and when i give one out, best believe my players don’t let go of them.

    Lastly half price for a used item is ALOT!!!! I would do 2/10th the amount based on buyer. Parleying, or similar may increase that price, but it wouldn’t make half, even at best. Unless the fiction called for it and the circumstances find a way to make that happen.

  9. Thanks for the thoughts guys! Problem is, if they have a sword or something that is not useful or they get better gear, then they have to hold onto the old stuff and it weighs them down. A wizard can only hold so much. I’m not talking about them selling the Hand of Vecna for a million shillings, just minor magic loot.

  10. Which is why I think Load in DW is great. Your wizard can’t carry much, and she’s far from anywhere she can sell it. What does she do with it? It creates opportunities for the fiction to take over.

  11. One way to get coin out of it could be to loot all the cutthroats and thieves that come out of the woodwork when they find out you have a magic sword to sell!

  12. “I’m not talking about them selling the Hand of Vecna for a million shillings, just minor magic loot.”

    What minor magical loot are they selling?

    I’m asking because the default assumption in DW is that all magic items are things of wonder. Not just +1 swords, but blades that cut time, eat magic, or talk to the wielder. How do you put a price on that?

    Also, if the characters have found better gear than other magical items they’re already carrying, I don’t think you’re​ thinking fantastic enough. Have they really found an item that’s so similar to something else it feels like an upgrade?

  13. The only reason to hold on to stuff they don’t need, is to sell it. If selling is off the table, they can just leave the stuff they don’t need.

    Or maybe only specific art items are worth selling.

  14. If say, I’m thinking about this wrong, and magic items are supposed to mean a lot narratively and not just loot for loot sake, then does that lower the economy of currency? What is someone supposed to do with their 2k gold? Are people doing much with their gold other than buy rations ?

    What do PC’s do with their gold and how much do they typically have at 3rd lvl vs 8th, etc? Does it scale?

  22. Huh. I guess I just have a different style of play for DW. Not better or worse mind you, just different.

    Material wealth isn’t really a focus in my games, it’s just sort of hand-waved or glossed over. Whatever is fictionally appropriate for the characters to have, they have. I’m more interested in the drama and complications that arise because of the wealth or items the PCs might have.

    But if your players are happy to have their characters work up to purchasing a big plot of land, that’s cool. I can see why you’d want to know how much resale value things have.

  23. Truth be told, I don’t like dealing with gold or rations at all. I want to focus on story, but the group wants loot so I need to accommodate. I use to run buying things like a resource roll in fate or like arrows in DW. That way I don’t have my players trying to look into every nook and cranny for loot. If I didn’t stop them, they’d steal everything like Skyrim haha.

  25. Do your players ever have their characters go back to town Andrew Huffaker? Instead of making a resource roll or having characters pour over every square foot of whatever adventure site they happen to be in for usable gear, mine just go to the nearest settlement to stock up.

    That leads to all kinds of social interactions with NPCs, generates new plot hooks, advances Grim Portents, etc. Everywhere in DW is exciting and dangerous, because that’s one of the GM’s agendas.

    Getting rid of mundane gear is easy. You just sell it off, trade it in, give it away, or drop it. But no one in my games try to sell of “underpowered” magical items because that’s now how magic items work in my games. Every magic item is unique and drives the story. Characters are either looking to fulfil some destiny, destroy the item, prevent someone else from getting it, or trying to learn more about the item. Nothing is “underpowered”.

  26. My problem with letting every item have a back story is that there will be 15 threads and than my players only have so much time.

    The resource roll is just my abstract way of seeing if they get their items without having to play the heavy math game or having to stop the action to separate gold 5 ways evenly. My players go to town, but they seldom buy anything I guess.

  27. I feel that if plot threads get dropped because the players are totally uninterested in them, then they just fade away. Or get put on hold. I’m not suggesting you try to juggle 15 plot threads at once. Just focus on the ones your players seem most interested on at the time.

  28. I think that’s good advice Chris, thanks. I run a group game for high school kids with high needs. They are able to dig into the nuances of games, but sometimes getting all of them onto the same page if I’m not corralling them is like keeping marbles on a table haha.

  29. OK. Know that this is a game for teenagers changes things. I was assuming you were playing with adults. My advice doesn’t really change all that much, but yeah. You will need to keep them focused. To do that, put a spotlight on whatever they are interested in right then.

  30. If you have gold, then it’s nice if there’s something useful they can do with it. And collecting treasure has always been a big part of D&D, an experience which DW is supposed to emulate.

    But early D&D had the infamous problem that at some point the PCs had more money than they knew what to do with. A bunch of vagabonds richer than a duke is kinda odd. Later editions solved this by making magic items easy to buy, but that destroyed the mystery and uniqueness of magic items.

  31. So, without giving me an answer like ‘it depends’, how much would you give the PCs if they wanted to sell a +1 Coral Reef Defender sword (10+: breath under water, 7-9: blah blah, etc).

    Just throw me a number

  33. What do they need the money for? I’d suggest 10+ they find a good buyer who pays what they need, 7-9: they need to give up something else of value as well to get the money they need, 6-: they can’t find a buyer.

  34. Don’t forget about the Carouse and Supply moves if your players need to get rid of some coin. Both of which are fiction focused ways for players to spend money.

    I tend to populate my world with “mundane” magic items. Enchanted bits and bobs that don’t do much, but which keep the fantastic nature of the world alive.

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