value of loot and an idea

[ukhata]

Hey,

I have been pondering a few things recently.
one of them is selling loot.
somewhere (cant remeber where maybe even in each book) there is a rule that says basicly, get half for an items shop price when you sell it.
this means a looted chain mail will net them 90 silver (half of 180).
but does this include wearing damage, damage that they inflicted when beating the wearer?
did the wearer take good care of it. is it crafted with as much skill as their own armor.
and when they sell their own armor it is still just 50% of the buy value that they get.
i know the availability is a factor, but usually its not really applicable, since most mass sell actions go in larger cities.

so i thought of a way to make sure not every piece of loot is the same value regardless of its previous owner, state of being and skill.

/disclaimer, this is no a finished idea i request help

add 2 stats to loot, and maybe even to everything.
and do this when applicable, not ALWAYS.

Function and Aesthetics.

what do these do?

function is how good the item is at doing what it was modeld for.
how good a sword is a sword.
how good a bow is a bow.
etc.
higher leverls make it do more damage, more durability, sharper, easier to hit with etc.


Aesthetics is how beautiful it is, how pretty, decorated, jewelled and the skill of the craftsmen who might have etched filligree in places.
basicly how much work went in to the visuals of the item.
the higher the Aesthetics the more value an item has.

these would then function on a scale.
say 1-10

a item of average function is F5. no bonusses no negatives.
an item of average Aesthetics woud be A2

so to get back to the broadsword

F5 A2 is
size 3
dam 5
str min 12
cost 25
weight 4
avail average.

F7 A2 is
size 3
dam 6
str min 12
cost 50
weight 4
avail Unusual.

F5 A3 is
size 3
dam 5
str min 12
cost
weight 4
avail Unusual.

F4 A1 is
size 3
dam 4
str min 12
cost 10
weight 4
avail average.

when an items get damaged, the higher of the 2 stats suffers first.
an items get damaged when it suffers a trauma, say a shiield is used to "parry" an attack that was going to be an armor defeating blow, that would damage the item if it was only just managed or failed to parry. armor that suffered a blow that was NOT armor defeating but ended up doing 40+ damage anyway. etc.

the fnction stat is the less valuable of the 2 stats in money terms and the Aesthetics value is a sort of multiplyer for the functions value.

basicly
function 5 = 1 Aesthetics 2 = 1 1X1 = 1 (10 silver)
function 5 = 1 Aesthetics 3 = 2 1X2 = 2 (20 silver)
function 6 = 1.1 Aesthetics 4 = 3 1.1X3 = 3.3 (33 silver)
function 10 = 2 Aesthetics 10 = 8 2X8 = 16 (160 silver)

once again this is not a complete system. just an idea.
and i want to know what you people think of it.

[Kasbak]

I've always just used 50% as a quick baseline to take into account all of these figurings on an average basis. Most items are going to see average use and will require an average amount of maintenance before they can be sold again. Also take into account how long the merchant may have the item on their shelf and the necessary profit they have to make, and half the final sell price seems a fair starting point with some room to haggle. Anything that is outside the average is handled on a case-by-case basis, but most times it I've found it's not really necessary to micromanage to this level.

If you're looking to standardize the outside average figuring, I'd simplify your multipliers a bit, or at least the description of them. For Function (or just as a suggestion, you could also label it as Condition, but I'll stick with Function for now), I would set it up as a percentile multiplier (divide the rating by 10 for the multiplier). A brand new item has a Function of 10, with a resulting multiplier of 1. An average used item is assumed to have a Function of 5, with a multiplier of .5 (thus the baseline 50%). This item will have normal wear and tear, but not anything insurmountable to fix with standard maintenance. Much below 5, and you'll probably start seeing penalties to the item's use. An item whose Function value falls below a 1 is complete and utter junk, and only has a potential resale value as scrap. You could potentially have an item with a Function higher than 10 to represent masterwork quality, and thus increasing the cost when compared to the basic item. Keeping to the same scale, possible related bonuses might apply at 15 and higher.

For Aesthetics, I'd keep it as just a standard multiplier rather than trying to scale it. A standard, plain item will have an Aesthetic of 1. An item with some smaller embellishments or possibly some custom work will have an Aesthetic 2, doubling the cost. Further decorations or custom work will push the cost higher along the same scale. You could potentially have an intermediate value for Aesthetic, though for simplicity I'd say to keep it as whole numbers for the most part.

If you implemented this, you could possibly also tie it in with the use of the related crafting skill for repairing an item's Function value. For example, say your character picks up a sword off of a fallen enemy that has the average used Function of 5. Say your character also has Craft Weapon and wants to spend some time fixing up the sword before trying to sell it in order to squeeze a bit more profit out. I would say to make the Craft Weapon test against the item's crafting difficulty (using hours instead of days for the time requirement), and for every success add 1 to the Function value. A Pathetic result would lower the Function value. If an item took significant damage, it might also have a cost for materials to make the repair. So for the sword example, if they get three successes, they'd add three to the Function value, bringing it up to an 8. Now they're negotiating with a sword that is worth 80% of the new cost rather than the usual 50%. This also saves work on the shopkeeper's side from trying to bring the item back up to full value, so they can afford to pay a bit more. Going with this, I'd rule that you could never increase an item's Function value higher than what it started with. So if you have an average sword that starts with Function 10, you can't use Craft Weapon to try and retroactively make it better quality.

[kevsur]

i start at 25% of value and let the character try to haggle or chr roll to increase it to the most 55%