by Cain.rpgorg in Mar 29,2012

   While it's a very common thing in an adventure, the "adventurers gone for shopping" event is rarely touched upon in sourcebooks. Most Game Master's use some simplified system for these thing, stating that everything under a certain gold limit is present, or decide what's available on the fly. There are few of us who prepare pre-generated lists about what's is available in a certain "random village".

    Thankfully Raging Swan Press recognized our laziness fellow Game Masters, and the started to release their So What's For Sale, Anyway? series, as a part of their Game Master supplements.

  This series feature ready to use lists of magic items for sale in different sized settlements, even including some cursed treasures in the mix.  Written by Julian Neale the series recently reached it's fourth issue, now dealing with elven settlements.

The book itself

    So what is in the book ? In short there are not less than 107 pre-generated, ready-to-use lists for settlements of different size from tiny Thorps to the great Metropolises, and some random tables to chose between them. Most of the items are really something you would find in an elven settlement like magical bows, elven blades, protective items and other likely magical treasures.

  I think it's an interesting twist, that some of the available items are actually cursed. In some cases this means some minor limitation, but there are some really evil effects to surprise unsuspecting players. I have to note that for the most items not even the seller is aware that the item has some "unwanted properties".

So What's For Sale Anyway? IV also contains several sample settlements for all sizes which is a nice touch.

Overall I think it's a useful supplement,  and while it could get some improvements (much more unique items for some cases, especially for cursed items), it's really usable as is. As a final score I give it 4/5, as it's good,  but not a must have in it's price range.

For those who are interested in the book it's thankfully avalailbe on DriveThruRPG on this link.

Zoltán "Cain" Mészáros

Share Article: