Bartering in Your Game

In medieval societies, not everyone had money. The idea that something coins, so small and insignificant, could represent the worth of a cow or chicken was a foreign concept, and met with contempt.

Imagine this scenario: Your heroes, fresh from plundering a dragon’s cave, decide to stop for the night at a small farm. The farmer agrees to let them stay there for the night, but won’t accept their money. He doesn’t like the stuff, and thinks it’s only for “those wealthy folks.”

As such, he says he’ll take that nice necklace you’ve got around your neck. He doesn’t care that you claim it’s worth thousands of gold. He’s not interested in anything else in your collection, he wants that necklace, or you can go ahead and sleep in a ditch.

Or, in another situation, you come upon a village that’s never heard of the concept of money. However, they’ll be happy to buy your magical items and potions off of you that you’ve acquired, in exchange for a small herd of cattle. Here’s your herd, and off the adventurers go, hoping they’ll be able to get a good price for the cows in the next city they come across. Suddenly, the heroes are defending the cattle every night from Kobold attacks, and trying to keep the dumb animals from wandering off. Sounds like a great way to add some new adventures to the game, and mix it up for the players.

If you’re going to use bartering in your game, I suggest not letting your players get their hands on the Adventurer Vaults, and encouraging them to not look at the PHB sections on magical items. It can encourage them to trade and barter simply on what their characters would know about the items, not what the players themselves know.