Grendus
commented
10 years ago The idea behind this method is that it's very easy for anyone to find an artifact, especially in a better economy where they're commonplace, but very hard to find exactly what you want on the first time. A typical adventurer in an affluent economy (IQ of 9 or 10) should be able to reliably find a treasure 50-60% of the time. A melee type who wants to upgrade his/her armor/weapon should be able to dedicate a week or two and find an upgrade, at an exorbitant cost. A genius character should be able to pull off the occasional miracle (similar to how we use our mulligans occasionally to turn a good treasure roll into a spectacular treasure roll), and be able to reliably find something every day, assuming he/she wants to. If someone wants a specific piece of weaponry/armor though, they're still better off commissioning an artisan and waiting out the requisite time.
A few things that might be worth consideration is intermediate/advanced characters and the size of the town you're looking in. Obviously epic heroes living in a metropolis would be more likely to find the good stuff than newbies who got a lucky strike on their first go.
sarinilla
Sometimes, adventurers find themselves with large amounts of silver and nothing interesting in the stores to spend it on. In these instances, they may decide to seek out specific items that are not normally on the market - perhaps an old family heirloom they no longer want or a treasure some other adventuring party found but couldn't use. In order to look for a specific item, roll 3d4 vs IQ. Go up by one die class (d6, d8, d10, etc) for a greater artifact, and one die class if you’re in a high-end economy, two if you’re in a common economy, and three if you’re in a poor economy. Success means you find an item of the type you were searching for (sword, axe, ring, rod, etc). Special artifacts cannot normally be searched for (meaning… I have no idea how to keep people from just buying a Cloak of Vision).
Continue rolling against your IQ, adding 1 die of the type you rolled to find the item (d4, d6, d8, etc) each time you make it. Each successful roll lets you add or subtract one point when rolling out the item.
Now, roll the item out on the treasure tables starting with the searched for type (sword, ring, amulet, etc). For each successful roll above 3d* you made earlier, you can increase or decrease any step in the treasure roll by one.
You then roll out the cost in a manner similar to finding the item. Found items start at 200% cost. Starting at 3d* (using the same class of dice you used to find the item), add one die for each success and subtract 1d20% from the cost each time you succeed. As soon as you fail a roll, that’s the final price as low as you can negotiate.
For example, Gnim the Gnoll wants to find a powerful sword. He convinces his party mate Karl the Kobold to search for him, since Karl has an IQ of 20. Gnim and Karl both live in an area with a High End economy, so Karl has to roll 3d8 against his IQ to find a sword (up one category for High End economy, up one category for a greater artifact). Karl rolls a 12, easily finding a sword.
Now Karl rolls 4d8 vs his IQ, and gets a 19. He then rolls 5d8 vs his IQ and just barely eeks by with a 20. He bombs the 6 vs IQ roll with a 25, ending with two successes.
Now he rolls out a sword on the treasure table. He starts with the type of sword and gets a 6 - Broadsword. Broadsword is a little lighter than Gnim wanted, but acceptable, and it would take both of his successes to upgrade it, so he leaves the roll alone. He then rolls for the type of enhancement and gets a 3 - DX enhanced. Karl decides to use one of his successes earlier to change it to a 2 - Special (& roll again). He rolls a 5 for his special enhancement - Electrified - which is an excellent enhancement so he leaves it alone. He then rolls again and gets a 9 - St+. Karl figures that Gnim has enough strength to use the sword on his own, so opts to change that to a 10 - Damage+. That uses up his last success. He rolls for the damage enhancement and gets an 18 - +1 Damage. Thus, on his first attempt Karl found a +1 Damage Electrified Broadsword.
Now for the cost. A +1 Damage Electrified Broadsword costs 12,000 sp, so the base cost for the sword is 24,000 sp. Karl easily makes the 3d8 roll with a 6, and rolls a 10 for the cost reduction reducing the cost to 190%. He bombs the 4d8 roll with a 27 - an automatic failure even if he had the IQ - so the cost stands at 190% of 12,000 sp, or 22,800 sp. Finding custom artifacts is a long and expensive process, but for the adventurer with cash to burn it can be a great way to shore up weak treasure rolls in the labyrinth.