Hey all. So I DM a couple of sessions in this Homebrew heavy world I made a while back and all of my players love this store called Inkwell's Imporium run by a magical being called Inkwell. Inkwell and the store exist in a demiplane of Inkwell's own creation and they've been open for years. Due to being alive for thousands of years Inkwell isn't the most sane being around and when you ask the price of an item the answer varies. I roll a d6. On a 1 he yells at you, teleports you out and takes a random amount of money as compensation. On a 6 you get it for free but at a super discount. On a 3,4,5 the price is not gold but something else. This is where I could use some help. The price for an object can be memories, years off lifespan, senses, and stuff like that. My issue is that I've hit a sort of mental block and keep re using the same idea for a price over and over again and it's getting a bit stale. I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions for new prices or maybe just another way to look at it. Thanks for any help everyone.
Okay, I'll let you know that basically you're the only one who can really come up with any kind of answer for this.
You're asking, "In this world that I've made up, there is an insane shop owner who is charging currency that isn't calculable based on a random dice roll, for unique items. What should the price be?"
I'll do my best and give you a couple stats that I recently looked up in the rule books for magic item creation.
The Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) has some rules suggesting how long and expensive it can be for someone to create a magic item based on rare materials that they gather themselves and work that they do.
Item Rarity - Creation Cost - Minimum Level Common - 100 gp - 3rd Level Uncommon - 500 gp - 3rd Level Rare - 5,000 gp - 6th Level Very Rare - 50,000 gp - 11th Level Legendary - 500,000 gp - 17th Level
* * *
An item has a creation cost specified in the Crafting Magic Items table (half that cost for a consumable, such as a potion or scroll). A character engaged in the crafting of a magic item makes progress in 25 gp increments, spending that amount for each day of work until the total cost is paid.
DMG - Ch 6: Between Adventures - Downtime Activities - More Downtime Activities - Crafting a Magic Item
So based on that, I would say that the character's get charged an amount of life time that they would spend on creating the item (plus... I dunno... +10% for rarer items or +100% for Legendary Items) but you'd also need to adjust that for the race of the buyer since 5 years for a human is a chunk, but 5 years for an elf is not much at all.
It seems that many super powerful entities always ask for services or quests to give out boons like items or whatever. This insane shopkeep, Inkwell, might have them go on a quest. In which case, a section of Xanathar's Guide to Everything (XGtE) could be used. XGtE suggests the CR rating a creature or challenge for the players to gain the rare materials and lore for the creation of a magic item. You could use this CR rating for an enemy that the shop keeper wants eliminated before he "sells" the item to the characters. This would have the added benefit of turning him into the main quest giver and the source of loot that monsters wouldn't normally have.
Hey all. So I DM a couple of sessions in this Homebrew heavy world I made a while back and all of my players love this store called Inkwell's Imporium run by a magical being called Inkwell. Inkwell and the store exist in a demiplane of Inkwell's own creation and they've been open for years. Due to being alive for thousands of years Inkwell isn't the most sane being around and when you ask the price of an item the answer varies. I roll a d6. On a 1 he yells at you, teleports you out and takes a random amount of money as compensation. On a 6 you get it for free but at a super discount. On a 3,4,5 the price is not gold but something else. This is where I could use some help. The price for an object can be memories, years off lifespan, senses, and stuff like that. My issue is that I've hit a sort of mental block and keep re using the same idea for a price over and over again and it's getting a bit stale. I would appreciate any ideas or suggestions for new prices or maybe just another way to look at it. Thanks for any help everyone.
If Inkwell can take money from people without letting them getting a reaction AND teleport them out at will, then he can probably do stuff like:
* Temporarily steal one of their spells
* Convince them to parade around town wearing only slices of ham
* Temporarily reduce their Strength or Dexterity or Charisma.
* Convince them to build him a new house (or at least a new room)
* Find a particular rare object that he only sort of knows the location of
* Make him laugh
* Put on a play for the local orphanage while wearing silly day-glo costumes
Have the item be covered in advertisements for inkwell's shop (goldenrod city bike store discount).
Okay, I'll let you know that basically you're the only one who can really come up with any kind of answer for this.
You're asking, "In this world that I've made up, there is an insane shop owner who is charging currency that isn't calculable based on a random dice roll, for unique items. What should the price be?"
I'll do my best and give you a couple stats that I recently looked up in the rule books for magic item creation.
The Dungeon Master's Guide (DMG) has some rules suggesting how long and expensive it can be for someone to create a magic item based on rare materials that they gather themselves and work that they do.
DMG - Ch 6: Between Adventures - Downtime Activities - More Downtime Activities - Crafting a Magic Item
So based on that, I would say that the character's get charged an amount of life time that they would spend on creating the item (plus... I dunno... +10% for rarer items or +100% for Legendary Items) but you'd also need to adjust that for the race of the buyer since 5 years for a human is a chunk, but 5 years for an elf is not much at all.
It seems that many super powerful entities always ask for services or quests to give out boons like items or whatever. This insane shopkeep, Inkwell, might have them go on a quest. In which case, a section of Xanathar's Guide to Everything (XGtE) could be used. XGtE suggests the CR rating a creature or challenge for the players to gain the rare materials and lore for the creation of a magic item. You could use this CR rating for an enemy that the shop keeper wants eliminated before he "sells" the item to the characters. This would have the added benefit of turning him into the main quest giver and the source of loot that monsters wouldn't normally have.
XGtE - Ch 2: Downtime Revisited - Examples of Downtime Activities - Crafting an Item
I hope this gives you some guidance. Good luck and have fun.
Good luck and may you roll 20's when you need them and 1's when you need a laugh. - myself