How does "shopping" work in PnP D&D?

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Just something I was curious about...

Having never really played PnP D&D, there's a lot of things that I only know the CRPG way of doing things.

So, I was thinking, in CRPGs, if you want a certain ite or weapon for your PC, like Boots of Speed or something, you have to either hope you find it, or hope you find a store that sells it. If you're really lucky, someone in the game can make it for you.

But how does it usually work in PnP? Obviously, you might find the boots in game, or if there is a town in the module, you might find them there, but if not, what is the usual way to buy something. Does a PC tell the DM what they want and let the DM fingure out an in-game way of letting them buy what they want?

Like I said, just curious...

Thanks,

-D

 

You say it. Basically, you tell the Dm what you want to buy, and the DM says if it is available in the town you're in. Sourcebooks have statblocks for cities which include a gold piece limit. That means you can only find items up to a certain price there. But the DM makes the last call.

 

In a large city, you can usually buy most magic items you need through merchants who specialize in magical items, at the very least, common magical items like the items that boost ability scores or armor class. Epic items should not be for sale anywhere other then a planar metropolis like Sigil.

However, the most common way in an adventure that does not have a city with a population over 5,001 (gold limit of 15,000 gp for a small city vs. a large town with a gold limit of 3,000 gp which doesn't by much in terms of magical items), you pretty much have to get your magic items off your enemies. That means, unless your GM is specifically planting magic items, the magic items your party receives is determined by rolling on varying charts and you simply have to make do with what you get.

If you don't have access to magic items via shops, your party's wizard or cleric should be strongly encouraged to take item creation feats, namely craft magic arms and armor, forge ring and craft wondrous item.

 

It really varies from campaign to campaign. Some campaigns would have such shops available in larger cities, other campaigns would have no such opportunities. It's really up to the GM...

 

Besides, it felt that much more great when we *actually* came by a magic trinket.

It really depends on how your Dungeon Master plays his cards -- for instance, in the campaigns I've had a hand in, players had a very limited scope of buyable items (most of them were very odd, non-combat oriented or utilities like potions, wands and so on -- very few "core" magical items all in all). If a particular player had a preference for a given type of item, weapon or armor, the DM would generally make said items a little more convenient to come by, but other than that, we were on our own.

We mostly shopped for supplies rather than items. Mind you, currency was pretty scarce when we played, and we would have to find, earn, smuggle or steal our equipment rather than just drop a couple platinum coins and collect it.

That being said, there's the "roll the die and check the chart" method, or "if you have the gold, you can buy it" some DMs use. It's pretty much at the discretion of the people running the game.