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lupex
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Selling loot

Mon 24 Sep 2018, 10:54

Now that I think of it i am surprised that there are no guidelines for selling loot that the adventures find, my party have found a pretty necklace that is worth 8 silver that they will want to trade, what is everyone else doing in this situation?

i think there are a number of steps -
  • Valuation - someone needs to work out how much the item is worth. 
    The Pedler has a head start on this and can use a lore roll, otherwise a character uses craft to determine cost of raw materials and time to create item?  The relevent crafting talent can add an automatic success and determine a rough enhanced value of a finely crafted item/artifact.  Success gives a rough estimate for valuable items, between two value ranges.  Each success reduces the range and increases the accuracy of the valuation.
  • Find a buyer - I would say that it is easier to find a buyer for common items, but rare items are worth more if you can actually find a buyer.  No role is needed to find a buyer for a common item.  Common items can be sold for 50% book value.  This can be adjusted by a manipulation role or the pedler talent, adding 5% per success up to maximum of 80% book price.
    Convincing a trader to buy a rare item is a manipulation roll adjusted, with a modifier of -2 in a village or small settlement and modified further if the item is already for sale through the trader, as they are unlikely to want two similar rare items being up for sale.  The additional modifier for duplicate rare items is -2 in a large settlement and -2 in a village.  Success means the trader is willing to pay 70% of the value of the item, this is adjusted by the peddler talent or by additional successes.  If the item is already available a trader will never pay more than 90% the value of the item, however if the item has never been seen in this settlement before the price can increase to higher than its book value.To find a private buyer make a Manipulation roll adjusted by -2 in a Village and then adjust the roll further based on the price that the item is being offered for as a private sale (each 10% below book price increases the chance of finding a buyer up to a maximum of +4 modifier, so in a large settlement a 30% decrease in value adds +3 but in a Village a 30% decrease in value only adds +1 as there is less interest).  Extra successes will find additional buyers.
  • Agree Price - For selling to a trader see above.  Private buyers will expect to pay the price that the item was advertised at, failure to do this could result in violence.
    If multiple buyers are found the Items could be sold via auction and this would be done using a performance roll.  For every two additional buyers found modifiy the roll by +1.  Each additional success increases the sale value of the item by 5%, there is no upper limit as sometimes people over pay at auctions.
As you can see i havent worked out all the fine details but I want to keep it simple and within the realms of rules that we already have available.

Thoughts?
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Rymdhamster
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Re: Selling loot

Mon 24 Sep 2018, 12:06

I would think it's actually harder to find a buyer for common items. I mean, if you had the choice of going to an established shop in your town and buyng, for example, a cast iron pot. Would you go to that shop, or would you rather buy a used cast iron pot, from the shady looking character with a big sword and blood stains on the shirt in some dark alley way? I think I'd go for the place that gives me a reciept =D

More uncommon things might be more easiily sold as they are more uniqe. But again, would you realy by an espesive necklace from a shoddy locking thug who doens't seem to have taken a bath, ever?
I think selling loot is far to easy in most RPGs. Unless the group has connections, people just wouldn't be interested in buying their loot.
Ways to go about selling that makes sense to me would be to either get a fence (doesn't matter if it's actually stolen, it only matters if people think you stole it) who has the connections to sell it on, or basicly set up a scam were you dress upp the nicest one in the party in good clothes and let them try to pretent to be selling heirlooms.
One other possible way which makes sense I suppose is if you properly establish a solid reputation as explorers and adventureres, who are honest and would only loot things from ancient ruins or enemies who attacked first. Especially if every sold item comes with a story of how it was gained.
When we went about selling loot, our GM put us through quite a tough task of figuring out where to go to find a buyer, convince that buyer we were legit, and then convincing our buyer it wasn't just shoddy silver wear found at the bottom of a drawer, but antiques recovered from an ancient castle.
 
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Fenhorn
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Re: Selling loot

Mon 24 Sep 2018, 13:03

I usually go with that a player can get 50% of an items worth if they sell the item to a merchant (or smith) if that merchant thinks he can sell it (for profit) and this is the problem for the players in my group. A smith in the middle of nowhere, first can't afford to buy 10 swords from the players and even if he can afford it, it will take forever for him to sell them. Problems can also occur when the players are trying to sell jewelry or other fancy items. in a world of scrying and other magics, can the buyer be certain that this item really doesn't come with an angry owner? But if the players sell such an item to a merchant (or similar) then they will get roughly 50% of it. The players of course get up to 100% of the value if they sell it directly to someone that really wants the item.
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lupex
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Re: Selling loot

Mon 24 Sep 2018, 14:49

I would think it's actually harder to find a buyer for common items. I mean, if you had the choice of going to an established shop in your town and buyng, for example, a cast iron pot. Would you go to that shop, or would you rather buy a used cast iron pot, from the shady looking character with a big sword and blood stains on the shirt in some dark alley way? I think I'd go for the place that gives me a reciept =D

More uncommon things might be more easiily sold as they are more uniqe. But again, would you realy by an espesive necklace from a shoddy locking thug who doens't seem to have taken a bath, ever?
I think selling loot is far to easy in most RPGs. Unless the group has connections, people just wouldn't be interested in buying their loot.
Ways to go about selling that makes sense to me would be to either get a fence (doesn't matter if it's actually stolen, it only matters if people think you stole it) who has the connections to sell it on, or basicly set up a scam were you dress upp the nicest one in the party in good clothes and let them try to pretent to be selling heirlooms.
One other possible way which makes sense I suppose is if you properly establish a solid reputation as explorers and adventureres, who are honest and would only loot things from ancient ruins or enemies who attacked first. Especially if every sold item comes with a story of how it was gained.
When we went about selling loot, our GM put us through quite a tough task of figuring out where to go to find a buyer, convince that buyer we were legit, and then convincing our buyer it wasn't just shoddy silver wear found at the bottom of a drawer, but antiques recovered from an ancient castle.
My rationale was that if they can find a shop that regularly sells pots then the trader is likely to be interested in a good pot that they know will sell quickly, other less common items are unlikely to be of interest as there is no gurantee that they will sell.  And villagers, whilst loyal, are always interested in a bargain but only if its something that they need.  Hence rare items are actually more difficult to find a buyer for.
I dont want to make life too difficult for them if they have items that are worth just a few silver but for more expensive items they will definately have to work for thier coin.
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Rymdhamster
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Re: Selling loot

Mon 24 Sep 2018, 16:07

I tend to think the other way, mostly to discourage wanton looting of peasent homes ;) I mean, stop bringing back bags and bags of goblin swords to town! Focus on the good stuff and ignore the rest =D
Of course the encumberance system here does a pretty good jobb do discourage that anyway so maybe it's not ass neccecary =)
 
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lupex
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Re: Selling loot

Mon 24 Sep 2018, 16:41

I tend to think the other way, mostly to discourage wanton looting of peasent homes ;) I mean, stop bringing back bags and bags of goblin swords to town! Focus on the good stuff and ignore the rest =D
Of course the encumberance system here does a pretty good jobb do discourage that anyway so maybe it's not ass neccecary =)
True but goblin swords are probably not common items in villages (despite the gear list) so won't be wanted by most smithies anyway.
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RenoGM
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Re: Selling loot

Wed 17 Oct 2018, 04:25

In the different games I run I assume characters can basically get "pawn shop" prices, 10% to 25% at best. Even then only if a merchant really wants the item. 
Rare or precious items can be sold for more but the characters are going to have to do some legwork to find a buyer. 
 
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lupex
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Re: Selling loot

Wed 17 Oct 2018, 09:09

I was going with 50% for common items and 70% for rare items as the group won't be amassing lots of loot due to encumbrance and also the scarcity of things and because they don't currently have any spare coin, just this 8sp necklace.
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The1TrueFredrix
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Re: Selling loot

Wed 17 Oct 2018, 22:56

For found treasures, I am happy to pay the characters whatever the book says the item is “worth”, unless there is a really good narrative reason not to. 
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Toneturbo
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Re: Selling loot

Thu 18 Oct 2018, 05:17

Thanks for all of the suggestions on is topic.

I decided to make it pretty simple, while including the Peddler's talent to selling as well.

The rules we are using are as follows:

The Peddler’s Path of Gold Talent can be used on all buying and selling transactions.

Selling:
·      Trade Goods are worth 1/5ththe price in the Player’s Guide.
·      Valuable Finds are per the GM’s Guide Chart.
·      Artifacts are priceless unless the GM notes a price.  Additionally, if the GM approves the sale of an artifact, finding a buyer for it will be RARE. Roll a D6.  If the result is 6, a buyer has been found.  Only one roll to find a buyer can be made per adventure site.

Valuable finds and Artifacts can not be purchased, only found.

Now I'm trying decide how to handle my player's idea of selling the improved bonus weapons and armor they craft.  Any suggestions?

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