Shopping in D&D is Garbage, And How to Fix It
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Shopping As Ritualistic Bookkeeping
In the real world, people can and do get addicted to that most basic activity: shopping. It’s fun! You never know exactly what you might find, and whether you can get a good deal on it, and with the potential of reselling, it even starts to feel like you’re investing. It is all a bit like gambling. Gambling is fun; shopping-as-gambling is fun. And it taps into a type of fun you can get in the best tabletop roleplaying games: pushing your luck, striking the best balance of risk and reward. Do we go deeper into the dungeon where the treasure is greater and enemies are deadlier, or do we turn back now with the treasure we’ve gotten so far? It can be a gamble, but making these types of impactful choices makes for compelling games.
No one is getting addicted to shopping in TTRPGs. More often than not, having to restock on torches and sundry adventuring gear before a dungeon excursion is a necessary evil. My colleague (and Barkeep contributor), Anne of DIY & Dragons, summarizes this mode of shopping in games focused on resource management thusly:
“Here, resource management is essentially reduced to the role of mandatory shopping. It becomes a kind of between-session tax that the judge enforces on the players. Each time they set out, they need to buy new rations, torches, arrows, and anything else that might get used - under the assumption that it likely got used up between adventures and now needs to be replenished. Depending on the prices characters have to pay relative to the treasure they're likely to find, this tax could force them to pick and choose which resources they're going to maintain from adventure to adventure, keep them hungry for their next score, or shade into ritualistic bookkeeping. Any resource that's routinely available in very large quantities could fall into this purpose.”
You could just cut out the process of selling mundane treasures and buying mundane equipment altogether. There are lots of games that do so to different degrees: whether it’s just picking from a pre-defined loadouts like in Blades in the Dark or the similar solution of equipment packs from recent games varying from 5e to UVG, or if it’s spending more abstract resources like “dots” or “Supply” to manifest quantum equipment while exploring like Neoclassical Geek Revival or Errant. These are absolutely solutions to the shopping conundrum, in that it entirely or partially circumvents the need for the between-delve shopping trips with all its attendant book keeping. But it is not a solution to keeping shopping in the game, but making it more fun, a bit more like gambling.
This solution takes a bit of control over minutiae from the players, trading it for more impactful choices. They choose how much to spend, and they choose what they get, but it isn’t as one-to-one as spending 5 silver for 1 torch. Taking away a bit of the predictability leads to shopping feeling more like a game and less like bookkeeping. But it is also more realistic, in a sense. Not realistic because the characters are actually playing yahtzee to shop, but because prices, sales, inventory, rare finds, all of that fluctuates way more than “1 torch always costs 5 silver” allows for (especially in a pre-modern setting where not all goods of a certain type are even of identical quality [which is one reason of many for why I prefer non-standardized torch durations]). It also represents the player-characters making impulse purchases, getting upsold by the merchant, or haggling to get better deals than the standard prices. Now, I don’t want to have to simulate an entire economy each time a PC walks into a store, so instead I allow the unpredictability stand-in for all of the various market forces (supply, demand, etc.) that are surely roiling in the fictional setting but aren’t the point of the game.
Buying Adventuring Gear
Shopping is broken down into two types: buying and selling. When buying goods, the players can spend at least 50 gold (or 1 Wealth if you are using an abstract wealth system like I prefer, but I’ll use gold here since that is the predominant mode) to shop. I say at least because for each additional 50 gold spent (they must choose how much they are spending before rolling any dice), they get a re-roll, where they can choose to reroll any dice from the initial roll. I would put a cap on how much they can spend on a single attempt of 200 gold, i.e., 3 rerolls (which is roughly the value of getting the best roll). If they want to spend more, they just play rounds. When rolling, the players roll five d6s. Each time they reroll, they pick which dice they want to reroll. Rerolls give players much more agency in what they get, but even with the initial roll, they have a few choices. If you’ve played Yahtzee before (or the Monopoly-alternative, Roll Estate), you already know how to play.
The players use their dice to claim one of the equipment packages offered by the shop. Ideally, each type of shop (e.g., the general goods store, the blacksmith, the apothecary) would have their own table that determines what is available, and–even more ideally–tables could be individualized for a given shop (e.g., this isn’t just a general goods store, this is Laverne’s Country Store & Biscuit Barn, which has been in Laverne IV’s family for generations and is a damn institution in this here town). But at a bare minimum, there would be just one generic table for general adventuring goods with all other shopping being done in the traditional bookkeeping fashion. As an example, I have prepared such a menu below. Note that this is intended to represent restocking between adventurers, not starting equipment (for which I’ve offered a separate solution, nor is it for when the players are seeking a specific piece of gear, on which I also have a now-classic blogpost). It represents a whole shopping excursion in the given store. For the more specific tables, this might be a good area for specific adventures to fill in. When an adventure mentions a specific shop, it should mention stuff you might find there, but a whole shopping mini-game would be even better.
General Adventuring Goods
Ones. 2 rations, 10’ pole, iron pot, mangy and foul-tempered cat, pocket flask, shovel, soap, tinderbox, torch
Twos. 4 rations, 2 torches, 5 pieces of chalk, 50’ rope, burlap sack, grappling hook, grating musical instrument, signal whistle, umbrella
Threes. 6 rations, 10’ ladder, 15’ string, 3 torches, 5 pitons, 50’ rope, bag of ball bearings, bag of nails, bell, chisel, clay jug, hammer, handsaw, jar of grease
Fours. 8 rations, 10’ pole, 4 torches, 5 candles, 50’ rope, crowbar, glass bottle, healer’s kit, insect repellent, mop, pouch of chewing tobacco, steel mirror, tinderbox, wooden bucket
Fives. 10 rations, 10 pieces of chalk, 5 candles, 5 torches, fishing gear, hunting trap, lock, manacles, signal whistle, small but vicious dog, tinderbox, wooden barrel
Sixes. 10 rations, 2 flasks of oil, 30’ string, 5 mousetraps, 50’ rope, bag of ball bearings, bag of salt, bell, blanket, fake jewelry, flask of holy water, jar of grease, lantern, onion, sledge hammer
Three of a Kind. 10 rations, 10’ ladder, 3 flasks of oil, 5 glass bottles, 5 sheets of parchment, abacus, book of lore, bottle of ink, box of cigars, ink pen, lantern, sealing wax, stringed musical instrument
Four of a Kind. 10 rations, 4 flasks of oil, 50’ rope, healer’s kit, incense, lantern, lock, merchant’s scale, protective gloves, soap, trained bird, vial of acid, vial of perfume, wooden chest
Full House (2 of a kind & 3 of a kind). 10 rations, 10 pitons, 4 flasks of oil, brass musical instrument, climber’s kit, crowbar, disguise kit, grappling hook, lantern, portable ram, steel mirror
Small Straight (sequence of 4). 10 rations, 10’ pole, 4 flasks of oil, 50’ silk rope, bag of marbles, bolt-cutters, bullseye lantern, fancy hat, flask of alchemist’s fire, hourglass, jar of glue, wolfsbane
Large Straight (sequence of 5). 10 rations, 10 sheets of parchment, 2 flasks of oil, 5 torches, book of lore, bottle of ink, clever rodent, ink pen, lantern, potion of healing, spyglass, vial of antitoxin
Yahtzee (5 of a kind). 15 rations, 10 pieces of chalk, 10 pitons, 2 flasks of oil, 5 torches, 50’ silk rope, bag of ball bearings, brave and loyal hound, bullseye lantern, collapsible 10’ pole, crowbar, hammer, hunting trap, magnifying glass, potion of healing, steel mirror
To create your own table in a similar vein, the value of each basket of goods should be very roughly as follows: Ones: 8 gold, Twos: 16 gold, Threes: 24 gold, Fours: 32 gold, Fives: 40 gold, Sixes: 48 gold, Three of a Kind: 60 gold, Four of a Kind: 80 gold, Full House: 100gp, Small Straight: 120gp, Large Straight: 160gp, Yahtzee: 200gp. However, you should only treat this as the vaguest of vague guidelines and also include some items (or animals) without a readily determinable market value. For extra credit, add some variety to the rations–does the store just sell iron rations, or do they have minotaur jerky or pickled eels? Another helpful tool is to try to think of a certain type of person at least somewhat in mind when making each set of options. This makes the options more cognizable, as the same person is likely to want soap as wants perfume, while someone with a bucket is more likely to also buy a mop.
There is not necessarily a best choice. Obviously, each basket scales marginally in value, but outside of getting a Yatzhee, you are likely going to have a few choices and a party may determine they can make better use of fishing gear and a hunting trap than they would a merchant’s scale and a vial of perfume, even if the market value of the latter exceeds the former.
If you want to get even more nitty gritty with this system, you can adjust a certain table for the local economy. Use the above framework for your standard fantasy town, but for hamlets and small villages: a roll/reroll costs 25 gold instead of 50, but you only roll 4 dice instead of 5 (meaning no Full House, Large Straight, or Yahtzee), and in cities: a roll costs 75 gold, but you roll 6 dice (increasing your odds of all the high rolling options). In a metropolis, you may even add a special result for a Super Yahtzee (6 of a kind).
Selling Excavated Treasure
For selling all of the random stuff you find in a dungeon, I want a process that is above all quick. If characters want to get the full, accurate value of some valuable piece of art or magic item, they will need to locate a buyer and go through the whole process of negotiating. That is not what this process is. This method is for when the characters return from a dungeon, lug their loot to a pawn shop and ask “what’ll you give us for all this?” So when the party decides to sell, they tally everything they want to sell in the following categories: (1) magic items, relics and artifacts, (2) gems, jewelry, and art objects, (3) trade goods, (4) undamaged arms, armor, and equipment, and (5) miscellaneous (but not worthless) junk and trinkets. Once they decide they are including an object in the for-sale list, they can’t renege after the dice are rolled just because they didn’t like the result. The pawn shop has already bought it and they can’t get it back unless they are willing to pay full price.
Once the items have been tallied, gather up that amount of dice for each category, with the die per category being: (d4) magic items, relics and artifacts, (d8) gems, jewelry, and art objects, (d12) trade goods, (d20) undamaged arms, armor, and equipment, and (d100) miscellaneous (but not worthless) junk and trinkets. Then roll all of the dice and tally how many dice roll 1, 2 or 3. The total sale is 200 gold per each such die plus 1 gold for each item sold.
The exact amount a party will get is only somewhat predictable. So, for instance, if a party sells 1 magic item, 2 gems, 3 trade good, 4 weapons, and 5 pieces of junk, we would expect them to roll about 3 dice of the 15 that are 1s, 2s, or 3s, so they would (on average) get 615 gold for all of that (and in the extremes, it might go for as little as 15 gold or as much as 3015 gold). They might have earned more selling it all individually, but there would be no single buyer willing to buy it all, if any buyers are even willing to buy directly from blood-soaked adventurers. They sell at a discount for the convenience, especially if the pawn shop is right next to the tavern. 615 gold can buy a lot of drinks.
My adventure, Barkeep on the Borderlands, is nominated for Best Supplement in the 2023 ENNIE Awards! However, whether it wins depends on YOU, because the ENNIE Awards are basically Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards with marginally less slime, but Barkeep is still quite the small but vicious underdog, so I would really appreciate your support. You can go vote here.
If you aren’t sure what Barkeep on the Borderlands is, it is a pubcrawl adventure I wrote alongside a team of the best bloggers and writers of the OSR/Post-OSR, including Luka Rejec, Chris McDowall, Ben Laurence, and Zedeck Siew. You can get PDF copies on itch.io or DriveThruRPG, or physical+PDF copies right on this very website [and many other stores, coming soon].
