Magic Items, Do you charge for them?

[Thirdbase]

Ok I have a question for the GMs out there. How do work Magic Items that characters find/have made? Do you make them pay points for them or are the free like other equipment? And Why?

[Markdoc]

If the players want to MAKE them, then I charge points for them. If they find or steal them, then they are free like equipment - since *someone else* has paid the points to make them.

I do not generally allow players to start off with magic items: if they do they have to pay the points for them.

Unless bought as focus magic items are just like any othersort of equipment - they can be broken, stolen, lost, etc.

Takes the point about finding treasure away if you have to pay for it....

cheers, Mark

[Alibear]

What Mark said.

[Fitz]

Yeah, me too

[AnotherSkip]

Actually my gm has a points-to-money conversion system.

So we generally pay with cash rather than a CP check.

[Killer Shrike]

In the past in a Fantasy setting using the HERO System I ruled that "Ephemeral Magic Items", meaning FOCI with Non Recoverable Charges and the SFX: Magic, could be paid for with money rather than character points because it would be retarded for any Mage/Wizard/Whatever to burn Character Points to create Scrolls, Potions, and other such items; there is no percentage in it.

IIRC the monetary cost used was Real Cost x Active Cost in gold to make and the Market Price would be a 150% markup or more, which was very very expensive relative to the game economy, and of course modified by in character (In-C) bartering and applicable skill rolls and/or use of PRE.

Non ephemeral items were paid for in points (for the mechanic) AND money (the in-game materials and labor (P&L will cost you in any timeframe)). The same cost formulae was used for P&L IIRC. As far as points go, a Wizard paid points and money to make items unless the item was commisioned, in which case the commisioning party paid the points and the money. This helped take the burden off a Wizard getting hit up by all of his PC friends to make items for them; they had to pay the points AND whatever monetary cost the Wizard set as his price for P&L (and profit should he see fit).

As an important note, all Magic Items were required to take the Universal FOCI and IND limitation, and acquired magic item were essentially 'found points' but were also unalterable. These items could also be sold for money; most merchants would pay RC x AC or trade at 125-150% markup, modified up or down by bartering In-C, applicable skill rolls and/or use of PRE. Some items always sold at a premium however, and were strictly a sellers market, like Rings of Power, some powerful Staffs, or any beneficial item with 200 or more Active Points (which would be regarded as near-artifacts) and would sell at top dollar in a big enough market, and even more powerful items were effectively priceless and would sell for whatever the market could bear.

Private buyers usually would buy at a higher rate, but were usually harder to find. Some bigger metropolitan cities would have 1 or more Consignment Agents and/or an Auction House which could be used to find potential buyers at a higher rate, but which would of course take a percentage cut or some other renumeration.

[Chris Goodwin]

I treat magic items more like most Champions games treat Foci: if you want to start with it, pay points for it. If you pick it up and want to use it for more than a session or so, pay points for it. If you find it, and don't pay points for it, it's fair game for the GM to take away.

The 'ephemeral' items are generally exceptions.

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

If you're using the Focus + Independent rules for magic items in Fantasy Hero -- which I presume you are -- then remember the suggestion in the explanation for 'Independent'. Particularly for fantasy settings, they suggest that one can find 'raw materials' that 'contain' CP that may be used to create Focus + Independent items.

Generally, one requires exotic materials to create magic items; these exotic materials may, by GM fiat, 'contain' the necessary CP to create the items. Of course, these materials probably fall into the 'extremely rare' and 'dangerous' categories...

[Chris Goodwin]

I have a different way of handling magic items in general and Independent in particular.

If/when you pay points for an item, you (not the item's builder) decide whether you buy it as Independent. The rationale is, you're deciding whether you're permanently spending points on it or not.

[ShadowRaptor]

I like the idea of finding materials that have some of the CP's available for use in making the item.

I mean, it would suck to make a scroll or magic item with full CP cost and then lose it while the fighters can get some of their equipment for free without paying CP for it.

[NuSoardGraphite]

If a character "finds" a magic item....Good for them! No cost.

If a character wants to creat an item, they pay points for it, but with both the Focus and Independant limitations (unless of course, only the character himself can use the item, then no Indep lim) so its usually cheap enough for the PC to handle it.

If a character pays for the item to be created by an NPC artificer, then they don't pay Cp's for it, but it'll cost em a pant-load of cash.

[tiger]

I do allow characters to find magic items and they don't have to pay for them.

If the manage to find someone selling magical items, I do have a few, they can purchase them with money. They also get to pay through the nose for them.

I don't aloow characters to start with them.