So our OSE party lost its (8th level) cleric last night and was unable to bring her back.  It happened towards the end of the adventure so they weren't really affected by it in terms of healing and what not, but now the characters want to buy potions of healing and possibly a couple other magic items for their upcoming adventures, which will be the "Saga of the Giants" series for BFRPG.  My general policy is that potions and low level scrolls are pretty readily available, particularly in large cities, but more powerful items are both very rare and expensive.  I still generally use the prices in the DMG as a baseline.  So in the current situation, as the party will be starting in one of my campaign's larger cities, I have no problem with them buying potions of healing, though I'll put a cap on it.  Still pondering the bag of holding they want, though the 25,000 gp price tag in the DMG seems fair enough, I suppose.

What about you?  Do you let players buy magic items?  Or do they have to earn (or steal) them the good old fashioned way?

Varies by campaign, and how generally stingy the campaign is with magic items, and of what level.  Sometimes, very low-level items aren't even considered magic, and are available as much as the alchemist or other source can produce them, same as a sword or bow or food.  I've gone the other way where only high-level caster can even make the items, and thus they are rare. 

It also depends on how valuable something like a healing potion is in the game.  I think the later editions of D&D make the healing potions readily available because healing is already so available elsewhere.  In earlier games, healing is a real restraint.  Of course, you can tweak any edition to move it more one way or the other.

I've also done it where anyone can buy a lot of potions--if you know a producer and are in the good graces of the church, city, etc. that controls them.  That works well in a game with political factions.  (Also encourages potion stealing in some cases.)

I pretty much do it like you, though I rarely have 25,000gp items available for purchase!

In my most generous campaign (5e) the PCs craft a lot of Uncommon gear, mostly +1 weapons and +1 shields. Harvested dragon corpses are a rich source of components for better/rarer stuff such as +1 studded leather, boots of the winterlands, and even dragonscale armour (slow and expensive). About the most powerful item crafted so far was when Greeba the half-orc smith (background advantage: "knows the Riddle of Steel") used an Elemental Fire Gem to craft a Flametongue sword, a Rare item per 5e DMG but a very powerful one. She loves that sword. 

NPCs tend to be sources of specific items, eg Valeron of Helix can craft cloaks of protection, cloaks of elvenkind, and +1 bows. Karg of Helix can craft various +1 weapons and +1 shields. But most crafting is done by PCs with relevant Proficiencies, eg Fraener the dwarf forge priest has smith's tools prof and makes weapons & armour, Nathia the goliath leathersmith makes boots and leather gear, Gorlock the Warlock has jewelry prof, he makes jewelry and made himself a blinged out Rod of the Pact Keeper.

Since we play entirely OSR games and use crits, the healing issue is a major deal.  Our Hyperborea campaign a couple years ago went south when the party's shaman, who was the only real healer, died.  The players decided to forge on without replacing her, though they did buy some healing potions.  Didn't matter much as within a couple more adventures 4 of the remaining 5 PCs died.  The one who lived joined another party but died in his first adventure with them, bequeathing his deadly mi-go pistol to the gnome illusionist....

So now this group is looking to buy a couple magic items and recruit a couple more high level PCs for their probable last great adventure.  They've been without a thief as well for quite awhile and it's complicated things quite a bit.  So they're looking to hire a high level thief and cleric.  Luckily I found some old B/X characters from the 80s that I'll dust off for this, though I'm planning on making the next session entirely a city-bound roleplaying & background affair.  Should be fun.

Typically no, not too much at low level at least. Most people would not part with things that labor intensive and precious unless they are getting a greater return. That said consumables have easier accessibility naturally. And it will never be an impossibility because producers would readily understand the value of cooperation and power projection.

So potions and scrolls might be sold, but they will need larger populations to supprt its commerce or local governance/producer favortism to part with their consumables stores.

For long term enchantments I prefer to make it an adventure, such as tapping the underworld or world of high cost dealerships. Selling or buying then becomes gaming content of its own, creating new opportunities to expand the world and generate branching content.

Greetings!

Indeed, Persimmon, I operate the magic item market much like you do. Potions, scrolls, +1 items and the like are generally available, especially in larger cities and towns.

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

My setting is fairly magic heavy so I split magic items up into;

- consumables (almost always available in reasonable quantities; any population center of a thousand or more will have an alchemist who probably has half-a-dozen or so of most things in stock and can brew up larger quantities in a few days if someone places an order).

- minor items (for sale in cities; they're expensive but cities of tens of thousands will probably have 1-2 purveyors of such things... though not every minor item is probably available at once and custom orders might take a week or two).

- major items (a metropolis probably has a broker who has 1-2 specific items and could probably procure a specific item in a few months for an extreme markup, but you'll need someone to make proper introductions as they don't have a storefront. Alternately there are master artisans who could craft major items IF you can find both the enchantment rituals and rare components needed to create one... more likely you'll find one amidst the ruins of the magitech utopia that collapsed in the Cataclysm).

- artifacts (artifacts are beyond the abilities of any in the present age to produce so you're going to need a quest to locate one).

I'm always using a low fantasy setting, so magic and those who use it are rare and secretive. No magic shops at all. The only way to get magic items is to find them and take them from the previous owner.

Even back in the day, when I used the default high fantasy settings, I still never allowed players to purchase magic items. That is probably a bias from my reading of fantasy literature. None of the novels that ignited my passion for fantasy had heroes buying a magic item. They either found it or were given it as a reward or family heirloom.

Nothing takes the magic out of magic like a 499.99 gp price sticker.

In most of my games you can't walk into a shop and buy a suit of armour let alone a magic one.  I guess it depends, I like Rolemaster and GURPS and they both have very cut and dried costs associated with purchasing magic.  But I tend to run with the idea that you have to commission the thing and then wait for it to be made.  That said I don't hand out a lot of cash and the magical rewards are tied to adventuring not shopping.  Fantasy Hero first edition's essays on GMing spoiled me for D&D.

It's kind of hard for me to say with a straight face that magic items are rare and wonderous when they're so ubiquitous and generic. Even Dungeon Crawl Classics, which urges the Game Master to make magic items wonderous and unique, has a generic +1 weapon in it's first module.

So, what to do with those wonderous and unique +1 swords that get replaced with a +2 sword? The character can hand it down to a hireling, or keep it as a memento, but what if they do want to sell it? Who buys it? What price will they get for it? Which brings up the question of whether they can buy magic items...

This was a roundabout way of saying "depends" for me. If I'm striving for magic items to be more rare and wonderful, i'll probably not have magic vendors. For a typical D&D campaign, I'll likely have a few places where some magic items can be bought, and if I'm running a setting where magic is common, I'll have magic vendors in towns selling low level stuff.

I think everyone would agree that artifact grade items should not be bought and sold like common items.

I want magic to be part of the game.  I don't want magic to be "The" game.

I dislike the notion of magic items being for sale. Maybe some minor consumable items, maybe.

Magic items should be very rare and wondrous. At best I'd allow low level healing potions at a apothecary.

But I only every play low fantasy stuff. So, the idea that one could have a bag of holding is just too over the top. If such an item existed it would never be for sale. The holder of the magic object would have to be eliminated then the player would have to steal it from their cold corpse.

And the idea, that a character could actually have 25,000gp doesn't appeal to me either. The only people that could conceivably have that type of cash would be Kings and only the richest nobles, and even then, it would probably be tied up in assets as opposed to that much physical coin existing.

Quote from: Rob Necronomicon on January 23, 2022, 08:21:16 AM
Magic items should be very rare and wondrous. At best I'd allow low level healing potions at a apothecary.

But I only every play low fantasy stuff. So, the idea that one could have a bag of holding is just too over the top. If such an item existed it would never be for sale. The holder of the magic object would have to be eliminated then the player would have to steal it from their cold corpse.

And the idea, that a character could actually have 25,000gp doesn't appeal to me either. The only people that could conceivably have that type of cash would be Kings and only the richest nobles, and even then, it would probably be tied up in assets as opposed to that much physical coin existing.

Well, the BECMI game for sure is based on PCs accumulating huge amounts of wealth since they have the detailed rules and costs for stronghold construction.  So having that kind of cash by name level is expected.  In the game in question, which is an OSE campaign, the players are all around 8th level and have about 30,000 gp or so in total each in coins, gems, and jewelry.  The PCs have maybe 4-5 magic items each total, including weapons & armor.  It hasn't been especially "Monty Haul," but the classic published modules have fair amounts of treasure and my own games are sort of middle of the road.  The party actually missed the biggest treasure hauls in the last adventure due to not having a thief.  So the campaign here isn't like Conan, where he's constantly broke.  And I think that assumption is in line with the expected trajectory though obviously there will be vast differences in individual campaigns.  Of course the gp for xp model, which we use, pretty much drives that style of play, especially once you hit the mid levels.

Quote from: Persimmon on January 23, 2022, 09:33:26 AM
Well, the BECMI game for sure is based on PCs accumulating huge amounts of wealth since they have the detailed rules and costs for stronghold construction.  So having that kind of cash by name level is expected..

Oh yeah, for sure... But I prefer a more of a WFRP 1e approach. Which wouldn't be that far from Lamentations of the Flame princess' style.