I suppose when it comes to the subject of buying and selling in an original Dungeons & Dragons campaign, the general rules of such matters are very much down to the way the economy of the fantasy “world” operates. This is a subjective thing and dependant on the world the referee has decided to build. A quick browse through the three little brown books and the AD&D core rules does not offer much guidance on the matter.

OD&D Selling and Pawning Mundane Equipment

In Men & Magic it says “It will be necessary for players to equip their characters with various basic items of equipment. Selection of items is strictly up to the players, and Gold Pieces are taken away accordingly (players may sell to one another, of course, and then Gold Pieces would be transferred).” This is about the extent of the discussion regarding selling. This falls short however when a player’s character wants to sell something to an NPC or pawn it (and pawnbrokers were around during the Middle Ages). It falls even shorter if you’re a solo player like me and you don’t have the luxury of an impartial referee to handle such negotiations.

But there are the Judges Guild publications to consider, which were widely popular for the early OD&D players. Prior to the publication of AD&D, Judges Guild published the D&D Ready Reference Sheets.

As a side, the Ready Reference sheets did contained a very brief Trade Guide, which explains that the maximum market potential for trade is roughly four times greater than the population and also “demand is the willingness to buy... not the willingness to purchase.” and the guide goes on to provide the following categories of demand:

PRODUCT CLASS     DEMAND/WEEK

Common            1%

Rare              22%

Extraordinary     56%

However, this guide is strictly talking about trading in quantity. So for example: selling a common item such as a quantity of basic lanterns in a village of 800 people would yield a maximum interest of 32 buyers (800 x 4 = 3,200) (3,200 * 1% = 32). The guide indicates the buying price and selling price are essentially the same. So as a lantern costs 10gp according to the Men & Magic Basic Equipment List, then selling 32 lanterns in a village of 800 people would yield 320 gp.

This trade guide is useful if player characters wish to sell to traders as it provides a formula to help calculate how much they are willing to purchase. What confuses me however is that if you sell at the price you buy then there is no profit to be made unless of course the items are found/recovered instead of being bought in the first place. But does the silence of the D&D books throughout the 70’s on the subject of selling an indication that prices are fixed whether buying or selling?

Perhaps this is exactly it. In the medieval fantasy world prices are set for each type of good or service and adding interest on any kind of loan prohibited. This doesn’t seem illogical to me and gives us the perfect excuse to get on with the game instead of making mundane rolls about how much a characters spare arrows can be sold for! I did some extra-curricular reading on the subject of the medieval economy. According to Terry Jones in his book, Medieval Lives, in England “Haggling over basic commodities was illegal, and in most food markets bargaining was punishable by a fine and holding an auction was seen as a criminal act, held in secret. The ‘law of supply and demand’, that insists on higher prices when goods are in short supply, was regarded as anathema and therefore not allowed to operate in these medieval markets.” According to Aron Ja. Gurevich in his chapter on medieval merchants from the book, The Medieval World edited by Jaques Le Goff, allowable interest rates on loans was capped. “[In Florence] rates greater than 15 or 20 percent were considered usurious. Citizens of Constance could not, under municipal law, charge more than 11 percent on loans.” Summarising a little about how this book describes the merchant class: they were scorned by the church for offering interest on a loan or buying and selling for profit. The hatred for these types of traders was enough that they would not want to freely admit their profession. Further, it was often considered heretical to give a poor person a shirt if you had two because worldly goods were considered to be obtained in connection with a persons pre-ordained service to God. Of course, this is all very euro-centric. But it’s clear that the implied “world” of OD&D is also!

The suggested AD&D economy does provide one or two good examples of buying, selling and loaning for profit. The Player’s Handbook suggests a buying price of 20% under the selling price of jewellery and gems when selling to a jeweller or gem cutter. In medieval Florence this would not quite be considered usurious behaviour by everyone as it is not over the considered maximum of 20 percent. The Player’s Handbook also explains that Bankers will give loans with an interest rate of “typically 10% per month or even 5% per week. A well-known and propertied character can typically get large loans at relatively low interest — 1% per week or thereabouts.” Again, this would just about cut-it for medieval Florence standards.

What may seem appropriate in OD&D then when it comes to selling or pawning something is that a suitable trader or merchant must be sought because any other type of worker be it a blacksmith, grocer, carpenter or what have you, would, you might imagine, only sell their own wares brought about by their own hands. Once a suitable merchant or trader is found then they would buy at 80% sale price to maximise their potential profit without risking condemnation for usurious behaviour. Negotiating the price would also potentially be illegal so the price is the price.

For those who prefer a world where price is negotiable then there are just a few examples across the three brown OD&D books relating to some form of negotiation with an NPC. The famous 2d6 reaction roll, which is specified for use when meeting NPCs or monsters in the “underworld”. There is also the 2d6 table for random reaction by monsters and the 3d6 loyalty check for NPCs who are “providing a service” to a character. These reaction rolls do seem like an appropriate way to go about handling many types of negotiation, including selling or pawning. The bell curve probability of the roll on 2d6 or 3d6 also means results will fall into an average range with very low or very high prices being less likely, which seems more realistic than rolling a straight die. Haggling price might be a fun interaction but in many cases might just slow down the game and keep the party away from the exciting stuff. Although, in a desperate attempt to secure an item of importance when it is out of a player character’s price range they might resort to negotiating the price only to be fined and then apprehended by the authorities for not being able to pay. This could make for some interesting gaming!