Creating the Auction
One way to make shopping potentially more engaging and exciting for players is to use a silent auction. The place in question can be a shop that functions normally with the addition of a silent auction, a temporary setup for the purpose of selling recently acquired artifacts, a charity that donates magical item sale proceeds to the local orphanage, or something else entirely! Once you know what the place is like pick or create some magic items to be sold there specifically under silent auction, give each item a base bid amount, and a base increase.
Running the Auction
When a PC looks at one of the items for the first time have them roll a d100 on a 33 or below someone has already bid the base amount. Now it’s up to the player whether or not they would like to bid, if no one bid before they can start right at the base cost, if someone has bid on the item already they must bump up the bid by at least the base increase. See the table below to see how each increment of the base increase effects the next day’s roll. After bidding there is a 24 hour period (or whatever time period you prefer) during which any other would be buyers may bid on the item in question. To emulate this when your player’s return to check in on their bid 24 hours later, have them roll a d100 using the table below.
| Base Increase Multiplier | Someone Else Bid Threshold |
|---|---|
| 1 | 33 |
| 2 | 25 |
| 3 | 20 |
| 4 | 17 |
| 5 | 15 |
Creating a Buyer
When a player rolls below the someone else bid threshold for the first time, or below a 33 on the first viewing of the item its up to you to create just a couple very simple details about the buyer.
Name
Completely optional, depending on the type of silent auction there could be a name next to the amount or some other more obfuscating identifier
Maximum Bidding Power
The upper limit of the buyer’s purchasing power if the player gets unlucky or you decide they really would keep bidding either way.
DM Notes and Examples
Overriding the Rules
Each aspect of this that requires a roll could and perhaps should be overridden by you the DM to make things interesting or even push for narrative results. If you create a rich buyer and it seems unreasonable for him to be put off by a single bid don’t have the player roll, have him raise the bid, and perhaps by a substantial amount!
Examples
Gad and the night vision goggles
Gadsoul the ranger Elf walks into the Zyclest Honors Emporium and spots a pair of goggles that would enhance his night vision by an additional 60 feet. Gad rolls a 42 on the d100 so no one has bid yet. The starting price is just 20 gold, a reasonable amount for the product at hand. I’ve set this item up to have a base increase of 30 gold which I inform Gad of. He decides to bid the base cost just 20 gold and come back the next day. On returning I have him roll a d100, he unfortunately gets a 4 on the dice and so I create a buyer: Anja Karin, who’s maximum bid is 200 gold. Anja ups the bid by the base increase for now and the new price is 50 gold. Gadsoul doesn’t see this as unreasonable and ups it by the base again to 80 gold. He comes back the next day, rolls poorly again (just a 14 and he still needs to beat 33 since he only raised the bid by the base increase) and Anja raises the price to 110. Gad doesn’t think the goggles are that valuable and maybe tries his hand at something else.
Killian buys a broom of flying
A broom of flying sits in the Zyclest Honors Emporium and Killian the human Monk wants it. He examines the card in front of its glass case and rolls a d100. He rolls a 23, so I create a buyer: Vanda Leticia, and her maximum bidding power will be 150 gold. The base cost of the broom is 50 gold, and the base increase is 50 gold. Vanda will have just bid the base cost, and Killian decides to up the bid by 3x the base increase since he’s pretty flush with gold at the moment. So the new bid is 200 gold. The next day I could have Killian roll and try to beat a 20 on the d100, but since he’s already bid more than the previously set upper limit for Leticia I just give it to him at the 200 gold mark and he’s more than happy!