Auction Rules

You can adjust the prices and buyout DC to fit with how large the audience is, how well advertised the auction is, or how esteemed the auction house itself is. These rules were made for a specific auction house with consistent customer base.

Azure Cloud Pavilion (Example name for an auction house)

• Admission fee - 100 gp per person
• Masks and disguises are recommended

Selling Your Items

• The pavilion takes 10% commission
• Opening bid price is always the minimum roll for magic item price.
• If you auction an item and no other player wants to buy it, the GM can just do the bidding themselves OR the player can hire a hype man.
• You can plant a hype man in the auction and roll for him. If he succeeds, you have to pay the pavilion’s commission out of pocket. A hype man costs 10 gp and has a -1 to his bid rolls (it’s a good thing). You can be your own hype man, but you don’t get a -1.

Bidding to Buyout

• Minimum bid increments
• Common, 5 gp
• Uncommon, 50 gp
• Rare, 250 gp
• Very Rare, 500 gp
• Legendary, 1,000 gp
• To bid, roll 1d20 + [1 per increment raised]. The buyout DC lowers by 1 for every round of bidding. The next round of bidding is always one bid increment more than your previous bid (lol). If you roll a total of 5 or lower, the bid increases by 1d4+1 increments.
• Common, DC 13
• Uncommon, DC 17
• Rare item buyout, DC 20
• Very rare item buyout, DC 25
• Legendary item buyout, DC 35
• Artifact item buyout, haha
• If you choose to wait for the bidding to settle down, I’m just going to gm roll using the exact same rules so you might as well just gamble.

Example auction

1. Potion of Fire Giant Strength (Rare, consumable) - Opening bid: 2,000
1. First round of bidding, you try your luck on the opening bid. You roll d20 unmodified, but no nat 20.
2. Next round of bidding. DC is now 19, price is now 2,250. You raise 750, total bid is 3,000. Roll d20+3: 5+3=8, bidding continues.
3. Next round, new price is 3,250. DC 18. You raise 750 again, total bid 4,000. Roll d20+3: 15+3=18! Congratulations, you bought a potion of fire giant strength for 4,000 gp.

this looks cool and accurate if a bit strange and complex