I noticed that the value of 1 electrum is 5 silver - the exact price of rations for one day. Since I play in Eberron, where there recently was a big war, I figured electrum pieces were used like "food coupons" during times when the nations had to ration the nutrients. It was never meant to be a real currency, but since it always bought you a meal for a day, it became one anyway.
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Back Alley resurrections sound interesting maybe the Temple reserves theirs for the most noble of heroes, paragons of the faith. The murder hobos in my game would never qualify for such a service so they would have no choice but to go to the back alley. I think the most interesting part of that would be, what god does the cleric who performs this service worship? Are they a benevolent god that takes pity on flawed mortals, or is it an evil god/devil that brings them mostly back but owns a little bit of their soul now, or twists them.... "Sometimes dead is better"
Another idea, maybe the one performing the black market resurrections is a druid using Reincarnate, meaning that the body your friend will be resurrected into will likely be completely different from the one they had before. Yes, that's generally going to be sub-optimal, but it's quickest and cheapest option, and you've probably got a limited time to get it done
Or a shady priesthood that will perform resurrections on the unworthy "for a price" - could be mundane, like the rezzed individual owes them a dark favour, or it could be supernatural, like the rezzed individual has to surrender their soul to the cult or give up their eyesight or something (granting the priesthood some dark boon therewith).
Or perhaps it's a heretic who's captured some kind of celestial creature and imprisoned it, who then tortures or somehow otherwise "extracts" the magic for the spell from it, which explains why it has complications!
@@forascalon Oh I love that. A cult has captured a solar in a magic circle and they're torturing/extorting it to extract resurrections. The angel maliciously complies but also hands out geas, forcing the resurrected individual to do good works to atone for their ill-gotten resurrection.
I was just thinking something for a less dark theme, what if they are done by a Miracle Max figure(princess bride) someone who worked for the king or nobility but was exiled from the court and society. Now lives in a shack trying to make ends meet with back alley miracles.
On the opposite side, maybe there isn't an easy way for most people to detect magic, which is why it's important to try and restrict who has access to magic in the first place. Restrict it at the source, because once it's out there it's a dangerous and unpredictable wildcard.
I actually did this for the captain of the guard in the city last week. In this game there was an archetype for Fighters to gain a familiar companion so I used that pretext for him to own a magic-sniffing hound.
I played it as each guard squad had the magical equivalent of the TSA wands. It's a brass bracelet with inlaid stones, each stone indicating something different. One stone lights up when magic items are detected, one lights up when specifically necromantic magic is nearby, one lights up when something invisible is around, etc.
One of the best selling things in my black market in a predominantly elven city was the drug called "Green Treecle" which is sap harvested from a Treant. It acted as a performance booster and pain suppressor. Mechanically it gave temp hp and something like proficiency in a saving throw for a few hours, or giving an ability score a boost, depending on which treant the sap was taken from. Oak treants gave proficiency in strength and constitution saving throws for 8 hours, at least the first time you used the drug The party starting using green Treecle so much that I had to develop an addiction system because the drug was quite addictive and had diminishing benefits the more you used it.
Show 'em how the sausage gets made - the elves outlawed it because green treacle is harvested in horrific torture farms where captured treants are kept alive and bled of their vital essence.
In my world I have a guild of people who makes clothes for nobility called the "Ravelers." They are secretly part of the underground syndicate of the region and stitch hidden messages into the clothes they make for various purposes. As well as that, there are many taverns with the naming convention of including an animal and a body part (Oxears, Skinned Pigs, etc.) which will allow give hospitality to people on the run if you say some sort of code (eg: "a flock of birds chased me here."). This kind of ties in with your thieve's cant video, and it lets you tie in elements of the criminal world into your story without giving it away immediately, instead you are just descibing the Countess's intricate dress, or giving a name to a seemingly inocuous inn. Great video!
My first thought when Dael started talking about Electurm as an underworld/magic-user only currency was transmutation. Even low level, simple scrub wizards can transmute even a bunch of hammered iron or copper into silver coins long enough to pawn them off of unsuspecting traders. Electrum, as an alloy of silver and gold, is immune to basic transmutation and thus can't be easily smuggled via transmutation. Just thinking about the metallurgy involved is interesting. It's also a cool way to take this simple line from the basic rules: "The electrum piece (ep) and the platinum piece (pp) originate from fallen empires and lost kingdoms, and they sometimes arouse suspicion and skepticism when used in transactions" and spin it into something neat in your game. That's a very cool idea.
In my setting, all EP was minted many thousands of years ago by long dead civilisations, depicting weird symbols, gods and emperors. They are indeed hard to forge, but a religious organisation has found an ancient mint somewhere in the north. They are able to make legitimate electrum coins, using their own symbols and molds, granting them power over collectors, historians and bankers, who are very divided over this new influx of strange coins. (also every seperate country has different currencies, including odd ones. 1 Ep(electrum) is 5 Sp(argum) in the kingdom of Dolevier, but in Gonddal 1 Gond bell is worth 2 gp (eagles), 5gp if you sell it to a church of Gond!)
The first thing that occurred to me with resurrection is that the churches might require a serious religious commitment from people resurrected through their gods' power, so the black market is someplace you can go to get someone brought back to life without also indebting them to that deity for the rest of their lives. Could be mechanically important for warlocks, or clerics and paladins of uncommon gods, and narratively important for druids
Or perhaps the church uses access to resurrection as a tool to build their political power. Maybe then the methods used by black market resurrectionists are some kind of experimental arcane ritual rather than divine magic.
@@fnsmike black market revivify done by an artificer-doctor considered a mad scientist. His "revivify" is actually pretty much a defibrillator and proper cpr.
It is the primary source of income for most religious institutions, as there are sooo many dieties tithing is split among them based on who worships who. The rich will take care of the temple for tye gods of wealth, and all the others have to sell what they can... spells. I do not see this dogmatic debt being common in a world where the temples have to compete so much for your "sunday morning offering". Additionally everyone resurrected by a temple is a walking advertisement for that God's worship regardless of what the resurrected does. Their mere existence in life is a billboard slogan on legs. "Worship this guy, he gets shit done."
I love this cause it also gives way for a mage or other high level magic npc to pay the party with electrum instead of magic items or gold, and that could be the beginning of their journey into magical items and eventually the black market
We have a lot of magical items in the dragon empire of the rebel colonies over here. I can confirm that this video is ripe with accuracy. Our repeat crossbows are top-notch, but there are quite a few witches, warlocks, and sorcerors working to keep would-be heroes from owning them. We do also have many rogue wizard towers keeping forbidden histories in sacred tomes.
One of the things I love about the Symbaroum setting is the need for folks to get an Explorer's Permit from the Queen's legate in town before they can go adventuring. The dark forest to the north of the kingdom is inhabited by all sorts of beasts and barbarian clans, while evils and corrupting powers lay buried in the ruins beneath he forest floor, but so too do priceless artifacts and precious valuables. In a bid to hold the tenuous peace between the kingdom and the clans and cover any damages adventurers may cause a permit detailing your intent, number in the party, time expected in the forest, and things like this is charged up. To enforce this, the Queen's rangers patrol the lighter parts of the forest and check any passersby on their permit. This makes for awesome first sessions of the party trying to get together what supplies they need and borrowing money to venture an expedition into the forest, completing tasks to prove that they should be accepted by a master who has already bought a permit, having one forged for them, or just sneaking off into the woods trying to avoid the authorities in addition to everything else. It remains one of my favorite settings for using things like this throughout the world! You should totally give it a look if you haven't before.
you said back alley resurrections, and I immediately went to restrictions on the trade of diamonds. like members of the merchant guilds maybe artificially inflated diamond prices in the region, or the church is hoarding them for their own uses, or there's a waiting list on resurrections, and the party can't afford to wait that long, or resurrection is reserved for people of a certain noble standing. then there's the other side, where maybe the back alley does them cheaper because of morally compromising reasons. maybe it's a priest of an evil god, or the diamonds came from a secret, illicit mine. blood diamonds. maybe just a mad cleric experimenting with rubies or sapphires
Its an interesting idea to find out that the diamond you used isn't actually good enough for revivify because it's price was artificially inflated (bought for 300, actually worth 150)
One I thought of was that Electrum as an alloy of gold, silver as well as in some cases copper might bugger around with the warding or anti-counterfeiting spells that have been built into the currency as the alloys can't be exact all of the time. Meaning they are either not spelled as heavily or at all depending on the setting Which is why they are used by magic shops as well as the black market but for two differing reasons, the magic shops as it is less spell work that may interfere and interact with their stock as it would also be assumed that trying to suppress or hide those spells to make them safe would at least be frowned upon for tax reasons. While the black markets take them as they are less able to be tracked or detected even if it is just general criminal paranoia which could further be played to by the guard as if you see someone has a large stash of Electrum without a magic shop then they are probably up to something dodgy.
I had a similar thought, but to add or contrast to your idea, what if the use of electrum is because it cannot be as easily transmuted (temporarily) via magic into a different metal, due to the fact that it's an alloy. There are spells and class features that achieve effects such as this, typically the work of transmutation magic and alchemy, and I imagine this would be a real problem on the black market with people trying to buy illicit goods with copper or iron temporarily transmuted into silver or even gold. In my homebrew campaign setting, Adamantine is the highest level of currency, each piece worth 10 platinum. This is because in my setting, adamantine has natural anti-magic properties, and thus resists transmutation and illusion magic, making it the perfect currency for the highest level transactions. Its high weight compared to other metals is offset by the fact that those rich enough to even own a piece typically also own bags of holding or other pocket-dimensional luggage systems.
Most eds of D&D include Electrum, but never explain it. And, most people are too lazy to look it up. I treat EPs as old, or primitive, coins. They are of dubious mixtures, so of questionable value. But, if you have those that collect old coins, they have a greater value than their metallic content. Maybe. The characters would have to find these collectors. And, they might not want more than a hand full of the coins, at that. This brings up another point for dungeon delvers to deal with... Money Changers. Someone who trades coin from far off places, for the local stuff. They often trade in bar metal, as well, and work with local jewelers and refiners of metals. They can be a source of jobs, as they exchange coins with others from different realms, and need guards.
@@megamarkread I like the idea that it's used due to the difficulty of transmuting it. Because of it being an alloy of gold, silver, traces of copper and other metals it would, per the rules of the game, be very difficult to temporarily transmute without significant effort, possibly by multiple people. Very clever! I will be stealing this :)
Other ideas: 1. Werewolves and demons. Werewolves and other supernatural creatures are vulnerable to silver and might be wary of carrying silver coins around. Electrum however is an alloy of silver that might lack that property. So, if someone makes frequent deals with werewolves, demons, or other supernatural creatures that share a reluctance towards carrying silver currency, they could use electrum instead. If they have an abundance of silver coins and a few gold coins, they could take 10 silver coins (worth one gold) and a gold coin, and melt them together to make four electrum coins. 2. Money Melting. If people are melting down gold and silver to make electrum, they might be doing that as a way to turn certain coins, stolen jewelry, or alchemically created gold and silver into quick cash. If they stole, created, or conjured up a bunch of precious metals and don't have a proper way to launder or disenchant the money, they could try melting it down and turning it into an alloy to disrupt the magic or make it harder to trace they metal's origins. They can then spend the electrum on the black market and it can eventually make it's way to someone with the means to turn it back into gold and silver coinage. 3. Gold is soft and electrum actually makes for better coins due to having better durability. It could be that magic item shops and the black market folks prefer electrum over gold mainly due it just being a more durable coin to carry around when adventuring or doing risky stuff. Peasants use copper and silver coins because that's all they can usually afford. Rich people and nobles use gold coins because of their value, but tend not to actually carry them around in pouches (instead keeping them in boxes or cases and have their servants count them out) so they don't actually care how soft the coins are. Electrum however is valuable enough to use in big purchases and durable enough for adventurous sorts to carry them around in bags without the jingling coins bending or breaking apart. However, the question of electrum's purity makes it less suitable for the sorts of purchases nobles tend to make.
The first half of this video all I could think was “OMG Gun rights in D&D”. But I’m definitely digging “Back Ally Resurrections” it sounds like an awesome band name.
I have a shady gnome cleric NPC who serves as a way for groups with no cleric and little money to get resurrections. He markets himself as a saviour for the desperate, and, through the use of a Geas spell, can provide all sorts of services in exchange for... favours.
I'm including (at least in part of my world) concealed dragon hide armor. In a nation where dragons are citizens and where most people have bonded a psuedodragon of one form or another, wearing armor made of the skin of a citizen wouldn't be looked upon kindly. You can obtain permits and permission for this, but it's usually disguised with an outer layer of some other armor
Electrum as a magic item exclusive currency is... BRILLIANT!! It makes SO much sense... some commoner wouldn’t be able to just “save up for” a magic item in gold... they’d have to get electrum... wow so cool!
i always imagine a d&d black market with caged owlbears and bulettes, necromancers willing to sell you zombies servants or buying body parts for other experiments, alchemists selling dubious potions, and so on and so forth
I LOVE the concept of resurrections requiring something. Your usual gods may require service or conversion or your plutons to be high enough or w/e....the image of back alley resurrections is so powerful....and these entities need something too, nothing is free. But if you have the right stuff or willing to get your hands dirty, it's an opportunity normally only afforded to the very pious.
This way of thinking about blackmarkets vs lawful obtaining also gives a DM extra ways to reward players or make NPCs matter. A connection who can give you unrestricted access to a restricted good or service (either because theyre a noble with connections to speed the approval process or a thieflord who can get you the guild discount) would be extremely valuable and feel meaningful i think. That could be enough of a reason to do an entire quest line just to get on someones good side.
The best part of worldbuilding (as you mentioned) is just putting one weird thing in there and then playing out the ramifications of it. Like the blog post "A Spell Called Catherine" where a wizard figures out how to make a spell of Summon Human.
I think I saw this once on Twitter but I've always liked the idea of a black market that isn't secret. All the townsfolk know about it and regularly go there for various supplies and the people in charge look the other way bc it is good for the town's economy.
The electrum pieces used by magic shops is so interesting. I plan on having a group of wizards use a philosopher's stone to make wild animals in a region spit out gold nuggets, debalancing the value of gold for that area (a nod to mmos where all mobs drop money regardless of them having pockets). So the idea of magic shops using electrum in anticipation of the event is a good idea. Obviously gold will be the only metal devalued and conversion to other metals will be altered if not banned all together.
I've never really been someone who made my own worlds for D&D. But this video (and your Thieves Cant video from a few years ago) have got my wheels turning about what I'd like to see in my homebrew world.
Excellent idea! Something I have been planning for a long time is that if the city has a wizard school, there is a sketchy janitor who sells all the leftover potions from potion class. Like, he gets told to dispose of them but keeps a few here and there to sell to adventurers at a discount. Players can buy super cheap potions that have a chance to fail (Wild magic perhaps?). I figure the janitor is also a pretty decent potion maker themselves. Able to field special requests for things like poison that cannot be gotten elsewhere.
A trust/loyalty system between cities and even rivalry with different gangs/families. The more respect "points" you gain with one family the more rare and expensive items you can buy.
Electrum is a blend of gold and silver. Both important in magic/supernatural dealings. It is the only metal that cannot be affected by magic and most supernatural effects. Very important in a place that keeps a number of highly potent magic items nearby. That also means the justicars cannot scry on the currency and "follow the money" making it much more useful to black market dealers.
In my last Blades in the Dark game the PCs literally became back alley resurrectionists. They were a ghost worshipping cult, and their whole deal was 'resleeving' the ghosts of dead people (usually gang members) into other bodies as the closest thing to resurrection the setting allows. They ended up working behind the scenes to keep a big gang war going because if it stopped it would have been bad for business.
Beneath one of my major cities is a turbine that generates electricity, powered by walls of ooze that turn them, like a gigantic revolving door. After watching this video, I've realized that banning the spreading of copper and zinc (the ingredients for batteries) is a fantastic way to keep the power dynamic shifted towards the city's government.
This is a big part of my games. Making connections so that you can sell your looted items. Paying money for introductions and bribes and the fense as always taking a cut. Also electrum then becomes something that DMs can put into treasure hordes because it is fraction progress towards a magical item.
I must say, as someone who is currently building a world where the emperor is restricting the use of magic (partly as a means of diminishing threats against his authority), this video was very well-timed. Got lots of new ideas to mess about with now ^^
I use electrum coins as ancient coins from long lost civilizations. They aren't in common use. But adventurers find a higher number of them that then must be exchanged.
When I think of black markets I think of the ones from Dishonered game series - totalitarian governments making people create them out of necessities due to law enforcement of weapons and goods. Or 1984 with everyday contraband. Policing arbitrary items gives such great insight into how the society functions!
This is a very cool idea that I would love to use in my game. The juxtaposition of a poison master stall selling potions to cloaked assassins being right across from an ordinary book merchant who risks the penalties of the law to ensure knowledge is freely accessible definitely makes the black market less morally black and white.
Mentioning poisons, I think a fun set to implement in a setting would be ones that are triggered by emotions. They can be imbibed without consequence unless the correct emotion is trigger, then the victim would suffer the full effects while the even-tempered poisoner walks away unscathed. I could see these being on sale in a blackmarket.
One of my favourite ideas for things to be available in this way is a magic gun. Not a gun that is magic, but a gun that shoots magic. Instead of bullets, you load it with a wand and it acts as a medium for anyone to cast spells. Since that bypasses the general requirement for people to be able to use wands normally, it's very rare, very expensive, ungodly dangerous and *absurdly* illegal for just about anyone to have.
It is a bug. Or is it actually a feature? Oh, you mean an actual physical bug? Go on , then. As always, great vague and evocative content offering good food for thoughts. Will give time for it to work in the background and see how I can implement it in my games.
Once again you have great timing, I've been experimenting with criminal underworld aspects in my setting. My setting makes magic items a little more common (mostly because I'm only a recent convert from 3.5 to 5), but to keep the black market a little interesting I was toying with the concept of "weird magic" that Hags use, especially the bizarre magic items they create. It serves as a way to circumvent laws and detection methods for the more common and well known magic items. Dealing with hags directly is extremely dangerous though, so the secondary market thrives. A hag might also start her own black market to exploit this fact, either to debt people to her, or gain information to further you long term plans, or just to amuse herself messing with people and addicted them to strange magic. Hags have been a major antagonist in my current campaign and this fits right in.
The idea of black market resurrections is so so fascinating! My initial thought is that maybe in that sort of a place, you have to have a certain background or social standing to be eligible for having a resurrection written into your will. Maybe those who commit certain crimes are excluded from eligibility. So, if your rogue criminal is slain by a baddie, you have an interesting choice for the party (and the rogue's player) to make: let it go and allow the rogue to pass on so the party can continue being law-abiding citizens, or go to the black market, where such services are run on a don't-ask-don't-tell understanding. And then, you run into a potential scenario-- did anyone of import witness or hear of this death? What happens when the wrong person finds this supposed-to-be-dead criminal walking around all willy-nilly?
Aside from what you listed, I came up with the following: • Slaves & creatures; in some cases, there are even incredibly skilled and funded slavers or poachers that capture powerful creatures like angels & dragons or adventurers that are the NPC equivalent of level 20 • Organs; they ought to have some magical way of keeping those things on ice • Regular sweets & such that are banned for one reason or another • Illegal services (hiring a contract killer/assassin, money laundering, etc)
Black markets also offer a great way for your players to offload some of those looted goods, especially if magic is so heavily regulated. Another side effect of that is that Bags of Holding would also be extremely highly regulated as they can shield potentially dangerous magic items from detection. They're probably only reasonably available on the black market. This leads me to believe there would be checkpoints at the city entrances where guards would likely have a Detect Magic enchantment on a pane of glass to scan everyone as they come in, and track everyone's magic items. Temp permits, inspections, licensing fees, and different license classes... But my favorite thing- Restaurants. Exotic foods that are illegal, or spices that are heavily regulated... Maybe there's a Baker's Guild, and the best pastry shop in the city is in the Black Market because the guild doesn't allow their members to use butter for whatever reason. Maybe the city has a strict health code, and people who lose their license bring the business underground because it's the only life they've known. Or maybe there's only so many permits allowed and everyone else on the waiting list has to make ends meet somehow.
Of your many great videos, this might be my favorite. I’m currently running a city campaign with a lot of nefarious NPCs, like a butcher who sells exotic meats and an alchemist who sells potions in a back alley like a drug dealer.
Yeah, when I was first chatting with people about what kind of stuff might be sold at a fantasy black market, inevitably slavery came up and I just knew instantly that I will never want to run a game that includes that. And that's only one example! Thought it was worth mentioning that just because something is realistic doesn't mean it's automatically a great fit for a game, and remind people that they're allowed to pick and choose what goes on in their world.
@@MonarchsFactory 100% ! Realism can be fun, but like, I'm trying to be a wizard over here! We definitely don't need to bring the worst parts of humanity in to balance it out.
This has inspired me for my campaign! It's set in a homebrew world that I ran a campaign in before, it was ok and had a blackmarket. But now I'm returning to it with much better worldbuilding (and a less wide focus). SO I now have more ideas for the black markets and currencies!
I like the resurrection idea. Maybe the Church keeps a close track of the number of people who come back to life, and watch the quota-if more people come back to life than the quota for the month, then the walls between the living and the dead could be damaged, allowing horrific undead spirits to come back to, hence the limitation. That means black market resurrections are likely the source of sudden rises in ghosts or undead monsters.
The idea I have for a black market is that it's in a Forrest, it mainly sells items for making potions and doing rituals that are considered unholy. Things like necromancy, they aren't forbidden but they're fround upon by the masses.
I have a black market that can actually be accessed from across different cities, if you can find the hidden door in that city that takes you into it (totally a rip from Howl's moving castle). The gnome wizards that run the shop are cherry alright, but the selection is pretty dark. They've got love potions, potions that wipe memories, crystalized souls, tomes of forbidden dark magic and other such things that the League of Mages considered unethical or taboo.
10:37 This has sparked a great many ideas for me. Perhaps you need to be listed as a baptized member of a church if you want them to agree to resurrect you. The idea of a resurrection waiting list led to the train of thought that, if someone has to wait too long, perhaps all of their friends and family would die and they wouldn't want to return to the mortal coil. This led to the idea that a noble house might have an arrangement with a "Resurrection Bank" to raise them, not one at a time as those nobles perished, but all at once after they had all died. An entire noble house could return to life after years of being dead!
Makes for a solid story opening. Party gets robbed of their Electrum and race to get it back. Or their regular currency is stolen to convert to Electrum. That gives them a reason to seek out the black market.
Electrum has a fun history too. In the years before paper money, nations would issue coin in electrum (a blend of gold and silver) and increase the silver content so they could issue more coins
When my players discovered the criminal underworld in my campaign I was forced to make up a few characters on the spot, the guy they would frequently comeback to was Al the Alhoon, funny thing is they weren’t even buying things that were super illegal they just wanted a magic item dealer who would take an alternative to gold.
In one of my cities, potionmaking is so highly regulated that its illegal to have vials (or other potion making supplies) within the city, and are confiscated upon entry to the city, which you can receive back upon exit of the city. Only those who get accepted into the potioner's guild can have them. Black market would have these vials, and (probably lower grade) potions.
I once made a black market for foreign goods so they could avoid both tariff and tax from the government. It wasn’t a land based market and was technically legal because it was offshore on a trade ship in neutral water. You were taken out to it by fishing boats and taken back by a civilian pleasure boat. It just saved you a bit of money or if your character was against the government and didn’t want to support their use of taxes. My characters are also subject to income tax. I love taxing my players.
A note on crossbows ive used is that they require waaaaay less training and specialization than regular bows, throwing knives, etc. That gives another incentive to control access to them, as they'd be a good easier way to arm the masses with particularly dangerous effective equipment.
In a game I ran, resurrection required special black diamonds. The church wanted to restrict resurrections apart from their approval so they were outlawed, but the church could buy them off the players.
I’m getting a John Wick, Continental Hotel vibe here. Perhaps electrum, as the currency of the black market, signifies the barer as as a member and validates credibility.
Dael, you rock! (I'm sorry it's so literal.) What a wonderful way to add flavor to a world! I especially liked the idea of black market resurrections. In a world where maybe priests aren't assumed to hold their knowledge in confidentiality, they will report resurrections from suspicious deaths to the authorities. Or perhaps a town has a paranoia about undead and will quarantine a newly resurrected person for a week of testing and religious ceremony to ward off (realistically or no) the possibility that you descend into a zombie. As for the coinage, that makes electrum interesting rather than a forgotten half step in the middle of the coin chart. If it were to be used for magic and crime, I'd suggest moving electrum up to be on par with platinum. At book value, a 5,000 gp rare magic item would be 10,000 electrum which is 200 pounds of coins! Perhaps to keep it available for smaller quantities you allow electrum to be cut into sections "pieces of eight" style? All in all, lots of fun in this video.
I listened to a book where all (mage equivalents) were expected to either come forward with it and join the countries military where they would be trained (and give up freedom) or else self suppress their magic and never use it. Disobeying was risking a likely immediate death sentence. This was done because the magic had an inherent risk (people could change and go mad if they overused it) and because it made it practically difficult for anyone to make a powerful private army. One practical effect of this was that any un-enlisted (mage) was likely to be weaker, but also dangerously unskilled (due to the lack of professional training and safe places to freely practice). In another book, magic filled the world almost like a gas/liquid. When it was used, it would create an empty spot, a dark stain of magic emptiness that mages could see. A mage's primary strength level was how far they could 'reach' to suck up magic and use it. The thicker the magic, the faster holes would fill and the more magic in a space a person could use. Conversely, on the starting magically dead world (very slow regeneration) the magic was thin and took much longer to fill empty spots (like pressure) A super powerful mage got tricked/stuck on this 'dead' world, so he set himself up as an angelic deity and made laws against all but his closest order using magic, because he didn't want anyone using up the magic he needed to build up thick enough to eventually get off the magically dead planet. In general: Also, think of how destructive some spells can be. What, you can burn down a whole building in seconds? That's dangerous! or the ability to simply fly up through a window and steal or murder leaving the guards under suspicion because no one saw anything?
Daggers. You get better exp if you make the most expensive items, the torso armor for most metal types banded for iron, plate for steel, but war hammers for elvin and glass. If you save then agro the vendor then reload, their inventory will reset and if your speech skill is high enough you can keep crafting indefinitely.
On the subject of black market potions. For my first game as a dm, I had the local potion dealer sell a discounted health potion because all my players were broke. I treated it like a redbull. It gave temporary HP that didn't wear off until they were removed by combat. But then once the combat was over, they lost an equivalent HP to the temp they gained. This ended with one of my players having 1hp after the battle with no healers or potions. He set off a needle trap that dealt 1 hp dmg and died lol
In a setting I made for a game, there was a prohibition to have and/or wear weapons of war including crossbows, spears, certain kinds of swords and maces and fireweapons. Of those, the only ones that behaved differently from their PHB versions were the fire weapons that could defeat certain kinds of armor. Te effect was that, indeed, people who wanted to purchase said weapons had to resort to th black market but the fun was to find it. One does not simply walk into an unsavory-looking tavern and ask for the guy who sells pistols. You have to prove you are trustworthy, that you are one of them and not a guard's snitch and that usually means getting street-credit by breaking the law a significant amount of times or at least being really helpful to those who behave that way. Quite the rabbit-hole, if you ask me :)
Ilona Andrews had a cool take on electrum in 'Magic Strikes' where it was even more toxic to were-creatures than silver, iirc. I must say I rather like the idea of black market currency being dangerous in and of itself, as well as by association. (For anyone looking for book recommendations: that whole series is pretty neat.)
Bringing up black market potions reminded me that I thought it would be cool if magic potions did not have 100% success rates, and as such was trying to make a chart of how potions could be complicated, either by wearing off at inconvenient times, or the effects being very obvious, or coming with unwanted side effect - things that would be dramatic and fun.
my black market was all deals and contacts , stuff was being sold there but the party never asked to buy except once to get a building plan which was more a case of getting a contact who was able to provide it. a very successful assassination followed.
I'm thinking items that are just difficult to acquire like dragon parts. Or perhaps magical ingredients that nobles might hoard. Or another one could be relics that are thought to still be in a tomb somewhere but have actually already been recovered. (Subplot to this last one is that the thieves guild might trick adventurers into trying to search said tomb only to loot the adventurers' corpses once they succumb to reset traps.)
Black Market guards that can Detect Good and Evil. Only uncommon items and creatures sold unless a rare item has properties that are not worthy of an enemy or rival. Legendary items are Dungeon Only. Love the Electrum prerequisite!
My campaign world did not have a black market until now. There was a thieves' guild like construct, but I had not even considered a black market! I mean, I got so close, but I missed out on so much! As for what I would include in it... Cute pets with a nasty trait. Like poison-fanged turtle-hamsters or something like that. Thanks for sharing!
Electrum has a unique magical signature in my setting making it extremely difficult to counterfeit and it's movement is carefully tracked by "brokers" who are the bankers and backers of the currency. It's a position of power, obviously, but one can only become a broker with the unanimous consent of the other brokers keeping it both exclusive and rare. They have "collectors" on payroll that track down (using that magical aforementioned magical signature) electrum that has been confiscated by the law, stolen, or whose owner has died to return it to the broker and keep the value constant. The existence of the black market and dark economic themes (econ nerd, lawl) of corruption have always been in my setting and I'm happy to see them getting more traction.
I love the idea that the types of money people carry says something meaningful about them. What about an urchin begging around for a specific era of minted coin? WHAT IF THAT MINT HAS A HIGH ENOUGH SILVER CONTENT TO DO RITUALS WITH. No one can tell me my fictional currency obsession is wrong.
I love this video! I never thought of implementing blackmarkets that way! I love the idea of a blackmarket resurrection causing the effects of the reincarnation spell or causing someone like a spellcaster to start exhibiting wild magic!
The beginning when you talked about electrum only being used for magic and thieves guilds would be an ingenious way to use it if electrum was an element. But Electrum is just gold with about 20% silver mixed in. More useful to jewelers than anyone else. And if you needed it to go to the mages guild, you could just make it yourself. ...But I wish it was it's own element. I would love to use it in that way.
I like the idea that black market resurrections res people, but the client can choose to have them become flameskulls or there's a chance they're brought back as an undead of some kind because it was botched.
Spell Casting Components comes to mind for me. Makes sense to me, that with many of the spell components being oddly specific, they could be easily controlled and regulated by people or organizations in places of power. Perhaps the magicians guild or other such authorities have gained a monopoly and have control all the caves which produce the high quality bat guano necessary for use in the fireball spell, perhaps as a way to force the hands of adventurers into joining their ranks and the corresponding regulation that goes with it. Further while the black market of course opens up a way for players to bypass the control of these governing bodies, it also makes sense for NPCs particularly antagonists who'd rather go unnoticed to do the same. Perhaps allowing players or characters to track someone down by infiltrating the black market and interrogating the antagonist's component dealers. Piggybacking off the resurrection idea in the video as well, perhaps diamonds are controlled by the royal family, due to their resurrective abilities. Without having an in with the nobles, cautious adventurers are often forced into dealing with black market dealers and their knock-off gems, or risk being without such useful spells.
Using electrum as a resource for enchanting either issued by town guard, guilds or Black Markets. Sure you can create the items relatively cheaply. Quickly finding they control the prices of electrum to add charges. Instead of using rests or at dawn.
The first thought that popped into my head in response to the idea that both black market and magic item merchants will only accept electrum currency is that there must be something about that currency that makes it more difficult to counterfeit, easier to verify, or otherwise less reliant on trust between buyer and seller. Black market merchants do this because they do not trust their clientele. Their clients are a bunch of thieves and worse, after all. Magic item merchants do this because they cannot afford to trust their clientele. They're disproportionately financially harmed by transactions using counterfeit currency, given how few such sales they make and how much currency is likely to be involved, such that a single large purchase using counterfeit currency might threaten to bankrupt their entire enterprise.
Much like the backalley resurrection, imagine black market teleportation circles? The only way into the kingdom is through [location] where every incoming cart or person is checked for illegal stuff, but there's also the very expensive black market teleportation circle via an out-of-town contact that some criminals might know of?
The Goblin Market. It's a little piece of the feywild that bleeds into large cities (possibly the taming of the wilds corrupted a corresponding part of the feywild, nobody really knows). Very difficult to find, but there's some things that can only be purchased there. Currency varies from common coin to magic; you may even find yourself paying with your childhood memories.
“Good folk, I have no coin; To take were to purloin: I have no copper in my purse, I have no silver either, And all my gold is on the furze That shakes in windy weather Above the rusty heather.” “You have much gold upon your head,” They answer’d all together. -Christina Rossetti, 'The Goblin Market'
This video is SO GOOD ARGH I can feel my brain wheels turning. Something else to think about would be the kind of people you can hire in a black market, as opposed to just services or goods. Private investigators, bounty hunters, guides, seers, loan sharks - all might be outlawed, but available through the criminal underbelly of society
lots of interesting ideas here, thank you so much!!!! I have a setting where a necromancer recently wreaked havoc on the world, so magic is strictly regulated and magic items arent that common. to solve that and also get a magic shop that makes sense, my party is doing a favor for an underground group called the Shatterbane, who have a foothold in most major cities in this world. Upon contacting them, the party can "commission" a find from them for a price; basically, get the Shatterbane to hunt down magic items for them. Or, they can pick from what that group has in stock at the moment.
I noticed that the value of 1 electrum is 5 silver - the exact price of rations for one day. Since I play in Eberron, where there recently was a big war, I figured electrum pieces were used like "food coupons" during times when the nations had to ration the nutrients. It was never meant to be a real currency, but since it always bought you a meal for a day, it became one anyway.
It’s comments like these that make me wish that I could save comments
@@FlaminTubbyToast note it down and put it in a safe place/save it on a computer
Hi, I'm definitely going to use this shit one day. Have a nice play
Me: I want to flesh out my black markets
Dael Kingsmill, two days later, as usual:
We love a black market! Great vid as always, Dael!
And *I* love a good skill challenge!
Do I smell a Collaboration? eh? eh? 😏
I need Dael to run a game( one shot) for Colville, Mercer, and web Dm...watch her implode and do a great job
you all probably dont give a shit but does any of you know of a trick to get back into an Instagram account?
I was dumb lost my password. I would love any tricks you can give me
@Oakley Braylen instablaster ;)
Back Alley resurrections sound interesting maybe the Temple reserves theirs for the most noble of heroes, paragons of the faith. The murder hobos in my game would never qualify for such a service so they would have no choice but to go to the back alley. I think the most interesting part of that would be, what god does the cleric who performs this service worship? Are they a benevolent god that takes pity on flawed mortals, or is it an evil god/devil that brings them mostly back but owns a little bit of their soul now, or twists them.... "Sometimes dead is better"
Another idea, maybe the one performing the black market resurrections is a druid using Reincarnate, meaning that the body your friend will be resurrected into will likely be completely different from the one they had before. Yes, that's generally going to be sub-optimal, but it's quickest and cheapest option, and you've probably got a limited time to get it done
Or a shady priesthood that will perform resurrections on the unworthy "for a price" - could be mundane, like the rezzed individual owes them a dark favour, or it could be supernatural, like the rezzed individual has to surrender their soul to the cult or give up their eyesight or something (granting the priesthood some dark boon therewith).
Or perhaps it's a heretic who's captured some kind of celestial creature and imprisoned it, who then tortures or somehow otherwise "extracts" the magic for the spell from it, which explains why it has complications!
@@forascalon Oh I love that. A cult has captured a solar in a magic circle and they're torturing/extorting it to extract resurrections. The angel maliciously complies but also hands out geas, forcing the resurrected individual to do good works to atone for their ill-gotten resurrection.
I was just thinking something for a less dark theme, what if they are done by a Miracle Max figure(princess bride) someone who worked for the king or nobility but was exiled from the court and society. Now lives in a shack trying to make ends meet with back alley miracles.
Instead of guards which can detect magic, what about dogs/other creatures that are trained to detect magic, kind of like a drug dog?
Now all I'm picturing is a Pseudo-dragon giving someone a sniff test or circling around someone with a magic sword.
Sniffer Blink Dogs! They suddenly appear next to people with contraband.
On the opposite side, maybe there isn't an easy way for most people to detect magic, which is why it's important to try and restrict who has access to magic in the first place. Restrict it at the source, because once it's out there it's a dangerous and unpredictable wildcard.
I actually did this for the captain of the guard in the city last week. In this game there was an archetype for Fighters to gain a familiar companion so I used that pretext for him to own a magic-sniffing hound.
I played it as each guard squad had the magical equivalent of the TSA wands. It's a brass bracelet with inlaid stones, each stone indicating something different. One stone lights up when magic items are detected, one lights up when specifically necromantic magic is nearby, one lights up when something invisible is around, etc.
One of the best selling things in my black market in a predominantly elven city was the drug called "Green Treecle" which is sap harvested from a Treant. It acted as a performance booster and pain suppressor.
Mechanically it gave temp hp and something like proficiency in a saving throw for a few hours, or giving an ability score a boost, depending on which treant the sap was taken from. Oak treants gave proficiency in strength and constitution saving throws for 8 hours, at least the first time you used the drug
The party starting using green Treecle so much that I had to develop an addiction system because the drug was quite addictive and had diminishing benefits the more you used it.
Show 'em how the sausage gets made - the elves outlawed it because green treacle is harvested in horrific torture farms where captured treants are kept alive and bled of their vital essence.
I like the idea of rare animal components being sold through the black market because it immediately called to mind royal forests.
In my world I have a guild of people who makes clothes for nobility called the "Ravelers." They are secretly part of the underground syndicate of the region and stitch hidden messages into the clothes they make for various purposes. As well as that, there are many taverns with the naming convention of including an animal and a body part (Oxears, Skinned Pigs, etc.) which will allow give hospitality to people on the run if you say some sort of code (eg: "a flock of birds chased me here."). This kind of ties in with your thieve's cant video, and it lets you tie in elements of the criminal world into your story without giving it away immediately, instead you are just descibing the Countess's intricate dress, or giving a name to a seemingly inocuous inn. Great video!
I love this. I also love how the players can come across it naturally as a shady guy comes in, says that, and is ushered away. Borrowing this!~
Thats really cool dude! Mind if I borrow this Idea?
@@quantum6812 Of course!
@Jasper Tolhurst Wait you DO mind? If yes then I won’t use it of course
@@quantum6812 No, it's alright.
Electrum, the bytecoin of the D&D multi-verse.
Fewer rocks in one's organs sounds like a great boon! Unless you're a bird of some kind. Then that could be an issue...
My first thought when Dael started talking about Electurm as an underworld/magic-user only currency was transmutation. Even low level, simple scrub wizards can transmute even a bunch of hammered iron or copper into silver coins long enough to pawn them off of unsuspecting traders. Electrum, as an alloy of silver and gold, is immune to basic transmutation and thus can't be easily smuggled via transmutation. Just thinking about the metallurgy involved is interesting.
It's also a cool way to take this simple line from the basic rules: "The electrum piece (ep) and the platinum piece (pp) originate from fallen empires and lost kingdoms, and they sometimes arouse suspicion and skepticism when used in transactions" and spin it into something neat in your game. That's a very cool idea.
In my setting, all EP was minted many thousands of years ago by long dead civilisations, depicting weird symbols, gods and emperors. They are indeed hard to forge, but a religious organisation has found an ancient mint somewhere in the north. They are able to make legitimate electrum coins, using their own symbols and molds, granting them power over collectors, historians and bankers, who are very divided over this new influx of strange coins. (also every seperate country has different currencies, including odd ones. 1 Ep(electrum) is 5 Sp(argum) in the kingdom of Dolevier, but in Gonddal 1 Gond bell is worth 2 gp (eagles), 5gp if you sell it to a church of Gond!)
The first thing that occurred to me with resurrection is that the churches might require a serious religious commitment from people resurrected through their gods' power, so the black market is someplace you can go to get someone brought back to life without also indebting them to that deity for the rest of their lives. Could be mechanically important for warlocks, or clerics and paladins of uncommon gods, and narratively important for druids
Or perhaps the church uses access to resurrection as a tool to build their political power. Maybe then the methods used by black market resurrectionists are some kind of experimental arcane ritual rather than divine magic.
@@fnsmike black market revivify done by an artificer-doctor considered a mad scientist.
His "revivify" is actually pretty much a defibrillator and proper cpr.
Oh man, but how many black market resurrectionists are actually just necromancers raising undead minions.
It is the primary source of income for most religious institutions, as there are sooo many dieties tithing is split among them based on who worships who. The rich will take care of the temple for tye gods of wealth, and all the others have to sell what they can... spells.
I do not see this dogmatic debt being common in a world where the temples have to compete so much for your "sunday morning offering".
Additionally everyone resurrected by a temple is a walking advertisement for that God's worship regardless of what the resurrected does. Their mere existence in life is a billboard slogan on legs. "Worship this guy, he gets shit done."
I love this cause it also gives way for a mage or other high level magic npc to pay the party with electrum instead of magic items or gold, and that could be the beginning of their journey into magical items and eventually the black market
We have a lot of magical items in the dragon empire of the rebel colonies over here. I can confirm that this video is ripe with accuracy. Our repeat crossbows are top-notch, but there are quite a few witches, warlocks, and sorcerors working to keep would-be heroes from owning them. We do also have many rogue wizard towers keeping forbidden histories in sacred tomes.
One of the things I love about the Symbaroum setting is the need for folks to get an Explorer's Permit from the Queen's legate in town before they can go adventuring. The dark forest to the north of the kingdom is inhabited by all sorts of beasts and barbarian clans, while evils and corrupting powers lay buried in the ruins beneath he forest floor, but so too do priceless artifacts and precious valuables.
In a bid to hold the tenuous peace between the kingdom and the clans and cover any damages adventurers may cause a permit detailing your intent, number in the party, time expected in the forest, and things like this is charged up.
To enforce this, the Queen's rangers patrol the lighter parts of the forest and check any passersby on their permit.
This makes for awesome first sessions of the party trying to get together what supplies they need and borrowing money to venture an expedition into the forest, completing tasks to prove that they should be accepted by a master who has already bought a permit, having one forged for them, or just sneaking off into the woods trying to avoid the authorities in addition to everything else.
It remains one of my favorite settings for using things like this throughout the world! You should totally give it a look if you haven't before.
you said back alley resurrections, and I immediately went to restrictions on the trade of diamonds. like members of the merchant guilds maybe artificially inflated diamond prices in the region, or the church is hoarding them for their own uses, or there's a waiting list on resurrections, and the party can't afford to wait that long, or resurrection is reserved for people of a certain noble standing.
then there's the other side, where maybe the back alley does them cheaper because of morally compromising reasons. maybe it's a priest of an evil god, or the diamonds came from a secret, illicit mine. blood diamonds. maybe just a mad cleric experimenting with rubies or sapphires
Its an interesting idea to find out that the diamond you used isn't actually good enough for revivify because it's price was artificially inflated (bought for 300, actually worth 150)
One I thought of was that Electrum as an alloy of gold, silver as well as in some cases copper might bugger around with the warding or anti-counterfeiting spells that have been built into the currency as the alloys can't be exact all of the time. Meaning they are either not spelled as heavily or at all depending on the setting
Which is why they are used by magic shops as well as the black market but for two differing reasons, the magic shops as it is less spell work that may interfere and interact with their stock as it would also be assumed that trying to suppress or hide those spells to make them safe would at least be frowned upon for tax reasons. While the black markets take them as they are less able to be tracked or detected even if it is just general criminal paranoia which could further be played to by the guard as if you see someone has a large stash of Electrum without a magic shop then they are probably up to something dodgy.
I had a similar thought, but to add or contrast to your idea, what if the use of electrum is because it cannot be as easily transmuted (temporarily) via magic into a different metal, due to the fact that it's an alloy. There are spells and class features that achieve effects such as this, typically the work of transmutation magic and alchemy, and I imagine this would be a real problem on the black market with people trying to buy illicit goods with copper or iron temporarily transmuted into silver or even gold.
In my homebrew campaign setting, Adamantine is the highest level of currency, each piece worth 10 platinum. This is because in my setting, adamantine has natural anti-magic properties, and thus resists transmutation and illusion magic, making it the perfect currency for the highest level transactions. Its high weight compared to other metals is offset by the fact that those rich enough to even own a piece typically also own bags of holding or other pocket-dimensional luggage systems.
Most eds of D&D include Electrum, but never explain it. And, most people are too lazy to look it up.
I treat EPs as old, or primitive, coins. They are of dubious mixtures, so of questionable value. But, if you have those that collect old coins, they have a greater value than their metallic content. Maybe. The characters would have to find these collectors. And, they might not want more than a hand full of the coins, at that.
This brings up another point for dungeon delvers to deal with... Money Changers. Someone who trades coin from far off places, for the local stuff. They often trade in bar metal, as well, and work with local jewelers and refiners of metals. They can be a source of jobs, as they exchange coins with others from different realms, and need guards.
@@megamarkread Nicking that one its such a better explanation than the one I thought off.
@@megamarkread I like the idea that it's used due to the difficulty of transmuting it. Because of it being an alloy of gold, silver, traces of copper and other metals it would, per the rules of the game, be very difficult to temporarily transmute without significant effort, possibly by multiple people. Very clever! I will be stealing this :)
Other ideas:
1. Werewolves and demons. Werewolves and other supernatural creatures are vulnerable to silver and might be wary of carrying silver coins around. Electrum however is an alloy of silver that might lack that property. So, if someone makes frequent deals with werewolves, demons, or other supernatural creatures that share a reluctance towards carrying silver currency, they could use electrum instead. If they have an abundance of silver coins and a few gold coins, they could take 10 silver coins (worth one gold) and a gold coin, and melt them together to make four electrum coins.
2. Money Melting. If people are melting down gold and silver to make electrum, they might be doing that as a way to turn certain coins, stolen jewelry, or alchemically created gold and silver into quick cash. If they stole, created, or conjured up a bunch of precious metals and don't have a proper way to launder or disenchant the money, they could try melting it down and turning it into an alloy to disrupt the magic or make it harder to trace they metal's origins. They can then spend the electrum on the black market and it can eventually make it's way to someone with the means to turn it back into gold and silver coinage.
3. Gold is soft and electrum actually makes for better coins due to having better durability. It could be that magic item shops and the black market folks prefer electrum over gold mainly due it just being a more durable coin to carry around when adventuring or doing risky stuff. Peasants use copper and silver coins because that's all they can usually afford. Rich people and nobles use gold coins because of their value, but tend not to actually carry them around in pouches (instead keeping them in boxes or cases and have their servants count them out) so they don't actually care how soft the coins are. Electrum however is valuable enough to use in big purchases and durable enough for adventurous sorts to carry them around in bags without the jingling coins bending or breaking apart. However, the question of electrum's purity makes it less suitable for the sorts of purchases nobles tend to make.
5:08 kinder eggs in the United States: the most heinous of contraband
Looking forward to adding this to my Thieves Cant compendium
A big compendium of underworld notes? Share that, please!
Heeeeyy, wait a minute....
Thieves Cant what?
Why can't thieves compendium? Sorry, I'll just go and die now...
The first half of this video all I could think was “OMG Gun rights in D&D”. But I’m definitely digging “Back Ally Resurrections” it sounds like an awesome band name.
I have a shady gnome cleric NPC who serves as a way for groups with no cleric and little money to get resurrections. He markets himself as a saviour for the desperate, and, through the use of a Geas spell, can provide all sorts of services in exchange for... favours.
Oh shit! That's some juicy stuff!!!
I'm including (at least in part of my world) concealed dragon hide armor. In a nation where dragons are citizens and where most people have bonded a psuedodragon of one form or another, wearing armor made of the skin of a citizen wouldn't be looked upon kindly. You can obtain permits and permission for this, but it's usually disguised with an outer layer of some other armor
Electrum as a magic item exclusive currency is... BRILLIANT!! It makes SO much sense... some commoner wouldn’t be able to just “save up for” a magic item in gold... they’d have to get electrum... wow so cool!
i always imagine a d&d black market with caged owlbears and bulettes, necromancers willing to sell you zombies servants or buying body parts for other experiments, alchemists selling dubious potions, and so on and so forth
I LOVE the concept of resurrections requiring something. Your usual gods may require service or conversion or your plutons to be high enough or w/e....the image of back alley resurrections is so powerful....and these entities need something too, nothing is free. But if you have the right stuff or willing to get your hands dirty, it's an opportunity normally only afforded to the very pious.
Aaaaaaand, the Shadowrun economy joins D&D
I am pretty sure your D&D games are mind blowing. You have such a fresh look at others might overlook. Your efforts are much appreciated.
This way of thinking about blackmarkets vs lawful obtaining also gives a DM extra ways to reward players or make NPCs matter. A connection who can give you unrestricted access to a restricted good or service (either because theyre a noble with connections to speed the approval process or a thieflord who can get you the guild discount) would be extremely valuable and feel meaningful i think. That could be enough of a reason to do an entire quest line just to get on someones good side.
I love the underground sport of Six Stones from Eberron. 7 people enter an arena with a cockatrice, 1 victor (and six petrified stones) leave.
The best part of worldbuilding (as you mentioned) is just putting one weird thing in there and then playing out the ramifications of it. Like the blog post "A Spell Called Catherine" where a wizard figures out how to make a spell of Summon Human.
That was a fantastic little read, thank you QB
I think I saw this once on Twitter but I've always liked the idea of a black market that isn't secret. All the townsfolk know about it and regularly go there for various supplies and the people in charge look the other way bc it is good for the town's economy.
The electrum pieces used by magic shops is so interesting. I plan on having a group of wizards use a philosopher's stone to make wild animals in a region spit out gold nuggets, debalancing the value of gold for that area (a nod to mmos where all mobs drop money regardless of them having pockets). So the idea of magic shops using electrum in anticipation of the event is a good idea. Obviously gold will be the only metal devalued and conversion to other metals will be altered if not banned all together.
I've never really been someone who made my own worlds for D&D. But this video (and your Thieves Cant video from a few years ago) have got my wheels turning about what I'd like to see in my homebrew world.
Excellent idea! Something I have been planning for a long time is that if the city has a wizard school, there is a sketchy janitor who sells all the leftover potions from potion class.
Like, he gets told to dispose of them but keeps a few here and there to sell to adventurers at a discount. Players can buy super cheap potions that have a chance to fail (Wild magic perhaps?).
I figure the janitor is also a pretty decent potion maker themselves. Able to field special requests for things like poison that cannot be gotten elsewhere.
A trust/loyalty system between cities and even rivalry with different gangs/families.
The more respect "points" you gain with one family the more rare and expensive items you can buy.
Electrum is a blend of gold and silver. Both important in magic/supernatural dealings. It is the only metal that cannot be affected by magic and most supernatural effects. Very important in a place that keeps a number of highly potent magic items nearby. That also means the justicars cannot scry on the currency and "follow the money" making it much more useful to black market dealers.
In my last Blades in the Dark game the PCs literally became back alley resurrectionists. They were a ghost worshipping cult, and their whole deal was 'resleeving' the ghosts of dead people (usually gang members) into other bodies as the closest thing to resurrection the setting allows. They ended up working behind the scenes to keep a big gang war going because if it stopped it would have been bad for business.
Beneath one of my major cities is a turbine that generates electricity, powered by walls of ooze that turn them, like a gigantic revolving door. After watching this video, I've realized that banning the spreading of copper and zinc (the ingredients for batteries) is a fantastic way to keep the power dynamic shifted towards the city's government.
I haven't watched a video of yours in ages but this is a perfect reminder of why I should tune in more often. Brilliant worldbuilding!
This is a big part of my games. Making connections so that you can sell your looted items. Paying money for introductions and bribes and the fense as always taking a cut. Also electrum then becomes something that DMs can put into treasure hordes because it is fraction progress towards a magical item.
I must say, as someone who is currently building a world where the emperor is restricting the use of magic (partly as a means of diminishing threats against his authority), this video was very well-timed. Got lots of new ideas to mess about with now ^^
I use electrum coins as ancient coins from long lost civilizations. They aren't in common use. But adventurers find a higher number of them that then must be exchanged.
When I think of black markets I think of the ones from Dishonered game series - totalitarian governments making people create them out of necessities due to law enforcement of weapons and goods. Or 1984 with everyday contraband. Policing arbitrary items gives such great insight into how the society functions!
Making something illegal always gives criminals a monopoly on its sale. So the more restrictive the laws, the more stuff you find in the black market.
This is a very cool idea that I would love to use in my game. The juxtaposition of a poison master stall selling potions to cloaked assassins being right across from an ordinary book merchant who risks the penalties of the law to ensure knowledge is freely accessible definitely makes the black market less morally black and white.
Mentioning poisons, I think a fun set to implement in a setting would be ones that are triggered by emotions. They can be imbibed without consequence unless the correct emotion is trigger, then the victim would suffer the full effects while the even-tempered poisoner walks away unscathed. I could see these being on sale in a blackmarket.
One of my favourite ideas for things to be available in this way is a magic gun. Not a gun that is magic, but a gun that shoots magic. Instead of bullets, you load it with a wand and it acts as a medium for anyone to cast spells. Since that bypasses the general requirement for people to be able to use wands normally, it's very rare, very expensive, ungodly dangerous and *absurdly* illegal for just about anyone to have.
It is a bug. Or is it actually a feature? Oh, you mean an actual physical bug? Go on , then.
As always, great vague and evocative content offering good food for thoughts. Will give time for it to work in the background and see how I can implement it in my games.
Once again you have great timing, I've been experimenting with criminal underworld aspects in my setting. My setting makes magic items a little more common (mostly because I'm only a recent convert from 3.5 to 5), but to keep the black market a little interesting I was toying with the concept of "weird magic" that Hags use, especially the bizarre magic items they create. It serves as a way to circumvent laws and detection methods for the more common and well known magic items. Dealing with hags directly is extremely dangerous though, so the secondary market thrives. A hag might also start her own black market to exploit this fact, either to debt people to her, or gain information to further you long term plans, or just to amuse herself messing with people and addicted them to strange magic. Hags have been a major antagonist in my current campaign and this fits right in.
The idea of black market resurrections is so so fascinating! My initial thought is that maybe in that sort of a place, you have to have a certain background or social standing to be eligible for having a resurrection written into your will. Maybe those who commit certain crimes are excluded from eligibility. So, if your rogue criminal is slain by a baddie, you have an interesting choice for the party (and the rogue's player) to make: let it go and allow the rogue to pass on so the party can continue being law-abiding citizens, or go to the black market, where such services are run on a don't-ask-don't-tell understanding. And then, you run into a potential scenario-- did anyone of import witness or hear of this death? What happens when the wrong person finds this supposed-to-be-dead criminal walking around all willy-nilly?
Aside from what you listed, I came up with the following:
• Slaves & creatures; in some cases, there are even incredibly skilled and funded slavers or poachers that capture powerful creatures like angels & dragons or adventurers that are the NPC equivalent of level 20
• Organs; they ought to have some magical way of keeping those things on ice
• Regular sweets & such that are banned for one reason or another
• Illegal services (hiring a contract killer/assassin, money laundering, etc)
Black markets also offer a great way for your players to offload some of those looted goods, especially if magic is so heavily regulated. Another side effect of that is that Bags of Holding would also be extremely highly regulated as they can shield potentially dangerous magic items from detection. They're probably only reasonably available on the black market. This leads me to believe there would be checkpoints at the city entrances where guards would likely have a Detect Magic enchantment on a pane of glass to scan everyone as they come in, and track everyone's magic items. Temp permits, inspections, licensing fees, and different license classes...
But my favorite thing- Restaurants. Exotic foods that are illegal, or spices that are heavily regulated... Maybe there's a Baker's Guild, and the best pastry shop in the city is in the Black Market because the guild doesn't allow their members to use butter for whatever reason. Maybe the city has a strict health code, and people who lose their license bring the business underground because it's the only life they've known. Or maybe there's only so many permits allowed and everyone else on the waiting list has to make ends meet somehow.
Of your many great videos, this might be my favorite. I’m currently running a city campaign with a lot of nefarious NPCs, like a butcher who sells exotic meats and an alchemist who sells potions in a back alley like a drug dealer.
Really glad to see the disclaimer about keeping it light and fun! And I love how this could tie into your thieves guild system too. Great video :D
Yeah, when I was first chatting with people about what kind of stuff might be sold at a fantasy black market, inevitably slavery came up and I just knew instantly that I will never want to run a game that includes that. And that's only one example! Thought it was worth mentioning that just because something is realistic doesn't mean it's automatically a great fit for a game, and remind people that they're allowed to pick and choose what goes on in their world.
@@MonarchsFactory 100% ! Realism can be fun, but like, I'm trying to be a wizard over here! We definitely don't need to bring the worst parts of humanity in to balance it out.
This has inspired me for my campaign! It's set in a homebrew world that I ran a campaign in before, it was ok and had a blackmarket. But now I'm returning to it with much better worldbuilding (and a less wide focus). SO I now have more ideas for the black markets and currencies!
The way you pronounced Twitter made me smile.
I like the resurrection idea. Maybe the Church keeps a close track of the number of people who come back to life, and watch the quota-if more people come back to life than the quota for the month, then the walls between the living and the dead could be damaged, allowing horrific undead spirits to come back to, hence the limitation. That means black market resurrections are likely the source of sudden rises in ghosts or undead monsters.
The idea I have for a black market is that it's in a Forrest, it mainly sells items for making potions and doing rituals that are considered unholy. Things like necromancy, they aren't forbidden but they're fround upon by the masses.
I have a black market that can actually be accessed from across different cities, if you can find the hidden door in that city that takes you into it (totally a rip from Howl's moving castle). The gnome wizards that run the shop are cherry alright, but the selection is pretty dark. They've got love potions, potions that wipe memories, crystalized souls, tomes of forbidden dark magic and other such things that the League of Mages considered unethical or taboo.
Sometimes I start to feel dnd burnout after all these years, but every time I watch one of your videos I’m hit by a wave of inspiration
10:37 This has sparked a great many ideas for me. Perhaps you need to be listed as a baptized member of a church if you want them to agree to resurrect you. The idea of a resurrection waiting list led to the train of thought that, if someone has to wait too long, perhaps all of their friends and family would die and they wouldn't want to return to the mortal coil. This led to the idea that a noble house might have an arrangement with a "Resurrection Bank" to raise them, not one at a time as those nobles perished, but all at once after they had all died. An entire noble house could return to life after years of being dead!
Makes for a solid story opening.
Party gets robbed of their Electrum and race to get it back. Or their regular currency is stolen to convert to Electrum.
That gives them a reason to seek out the black market.
Gratz conquering your organ rocks! Wicked vid, so many great ideas.
Electrum has a fun history too. In the years before paper money, nations would issue coin in electrum (a blend of gold and silver) and increase the silver content so they could issue more coins
When my players discovered the criminal underworld in my campaign I was forced to make up a few characters on the spot, the guy they would frequently comeback to was Al the Alhoon, funny thing is they weren’t even buying things that were super illegal they just wanted a magic item dealer who would take an alternative to gold.
In one of my cities, potionmaking is so highly regulated that its illegal to have vials (or other potion making supplies) within the city, and are confiscated upon entry to the city, which you can receive back upon exit of the city. Only those who get accepted into the potioner's guild can have them. Black market would have these vials, and (probably lower grade) potions.
I once made a black market for foreign goods so they could avoid both tariff and tax from the government. It wasn’t a land based market and was technically legal because it was offshore on a trade ship in neutral water. You were taken out to it by fishing boats and taken back by a civilian pleasure boat. It just saved you a bit of money or if your character was against the government and didn’t want to support their use of taxes. My characters are also subject to income tax. I love taxing my players.
I love the idea of licenses and waiting periods for magic items and guards using Detect Magic to sus out illegally held magic items.
A note on crossbows ive used is that they require waaaaay less training and specialization than regular bows, throwing knives, etc. That gives another incentive to control access to them, as they'd be a good easier way to arm the masses with particularly dangerous effective equipment.
In a game I ran, resurrection required special black diamonds. The church wanted to restrict resurrections apart from their approval so they were outlawed, but the church could buy them off the players.
A player asked me if I used Electrum. Immediately said no to him. What he doesn't know is that it's the money they use on a different contingent. :D
I’m getting a John Wick, Continental Hotel vibe here. Perhaps electrum, as the currency of the black market, signifies the barer as as a member and validates credibility.
you just rattled off like a dozen plot-hooks that could spur tons of adventure material. SAVED.
Dael, you rock! (I'm sorry it's so literal.)
What a wonderful way to add flavor to a world!
I especially liked the idea of black market resurrections. In a world where maybe priests aren't assumed to hold their knowledge in confidentiality, they will report resurrections from suspicious deaths to the authorities. Or perhaps a town has a paranoia about undead and will quarantine a newly resurrected person for a week of testing and religious ceremony to ward off (realistically or no) the possibility that you descend into a zombie.
As for the coinage, that makes electrum interesting rather than a forgotten half step in the middle of the coin chart. If it were to be used for magic and crime, I'd suggest moving electrum up to be on par with platinum. At book value, a 5,000 gp rare magic item would be 10,000 electrum which is 200 pounds of coins! Perhaps to keep it available for smaller quantities you allow electrum to be cut into sections "pieces of eight" style?
All in all, lots of fun in this video.
I listened to a book where all (mage equivalents) were expected to either come forward with it and join the countries military where they would be trained (and give up freedom) or else self suppress their magic and never use it. Disobeying was risking a likely immediate death sentence.
This was done because the magic had an inherent risk (people could change and go mad if they overused it) and because it made it practically difficult for anyone to make a powerful private army.
One practical effect of this was that any un-enlisted (mage) was likely to be weaker, but also dangerously unskilled (due to the lack of professional training and safe places to freely practice).
In another book, magic filled the world almost like a gas/liquid. When it was used, it would create an empty spot, a dark stain of magic emptiness that mages could see. A mage's primary strength level was how far they could 'reach' to suck up magic and use it. The thicker the magic, the faster holes would fill and the more magic in a space a person could use. Conversely, on the starting magically dead world (very slow regeneration) the magic was thin and took much longer to fill empty spots (like pressure)
A super powerful mage got tricked/stuck on this 'dead' world, so he set himself up as an angelic deity and made laws against all but his closest order using magic, because he didn't want anyone using up the magic he needed to build up thick enough to eventually get off the magically dead planet.
In general:
Also, think of how destructive some spells can be. What, you can burn down a whole building in seconds? That's dangerous! or the ability to simply fly up through a window and steal or murder leaving the guards under suspicion because no one saw anything?
Daggers. You get better exp if you make the most expensive items, the torso armor for most metal types banded for iron, plate for steel, but war hammers for elvin and glass.
If you save then agro the vendor then reload, their inventory will reset and if your speech skill is high enough you can keep crafting indefinitely.
On the subject of black market potions. For my first game as a dm, I had the local potion dealer sell a discounted health potion because all my players were broke.
I treated it like a redbull. It gave temporary HP that didn't wear off until they were removed by combat. But then once the combat was over, they lost an equivalent HP to the temp they gained.
This ended with one of my players having 1hp after the battle with no healers or potions. He set off a needle trap that dealt 1 hp dmg and died lol
In a setting I made for a game, there was a prohibition to have and/or wear weapons of war including crossbows, spears, certain kinds of swords and maces and fireweapons. Of those, the only ones that behaved differently from their PHB versions were the fire weapons that could defeat certain kinds of armor. Te effect was that, indeed, people who wanted to purchase said weapons had to resort to th black market but the fun was to find it. One does not simply walk into an unsavory-looking tavern and ask for the guy who sells pistols. You have to prove you are trustworthy, that you are one of them and not a guard's snitch and that usually means getting street-credit by breaking the law a significant amount of times or at least being really helpful to those who behave that way. Quite the rabbit-hole, if you ask me :)
Ilona Andrews had a cool take on electrum in 'Magic Strikes' where it was even more toxic to were-creatures than silver, iirc. I must say I rather like the idea of black market currency being dangerous in and of itself, as well as by association. (For anyone looking for book recommendations: that whole series is pretty neat.)
I swear that Dael is constantly making the exact video I need for what I'm working on and it's wigging me out
WHAT DO YOU KNOW, DAEL???????
Additionally, I had a thought that odd jobs could be found on the black market, like delivering packages between cities and such in exchange for coin
Bringing up black market potions reminded me that I thought it would be cool if magic potions did not have 100% success rates, and as such was trying to make a chart of how potions could be complicated, either by wearing off at inconvenient times, or the effects being very obvious, or coming with unwanted side effect - things that would be dramatic and fun.
This whole black market thing with magic item is the missing puzzle piece I've searched in weeks for my campaign "background tension". Thanks!
my black market was all deals and contacts , stuff was being sold there but the party never asked to buy except once to get a building plan which was more a case of getting a contact who was able to provide it. a very successful assassination followed.
I'm thinking items that are just difficult to acquire like dragon parts.
Or perhaps magical ingredients that nobles might hoard.
Or another one could be relics that are thought to still be in a tomb somewhere but have actually already been recovered.
(Subplot to this last one is that the thieves guild might trick adventurers into trying to search said tomb only to loot the adventurers' corpses once they succumb to reset traps.)
Black Market guards that can Detect Good and Evil. Only uncommon items and creatures sold unless a rare item has properties that are not worthy of an enemy or rival. Legendary items are Dungeon Only. Love the Electrum prerequisite!
My campaign world did not have a black market until now. There was a thieves' guild like construct, but I had not even considered a black market! I mean, I got so close, but I missed out on so much! As for what I would include in it... Cute pets with a nasty trait. Like poison-fanged turtle-hamsters or something like that. Thanks for sharing!
Black Market Resurrection is now the name of my garage band
Electrum has a unique magical signature in my setting making it extremely difficult to counterfeit and it's movement is carefully tracked by "brokers" who are the bankers and backers of the currency. It's a position of power, obviously, but one can only become a broker with the unanimous consent of the other brokers keeping it both exclusive and rare. They have "collectors" on payroll that track down (using that magical aforementioned magical signature) electrum that has been confiscated by the law, stolen, or whose owner has died to return it to the broker and keep the value constant. The existence of the black market and dark economic themes (econ nerd, lawl) of corruption have always been in my setting and I'm happy to see them getting more traction.
I love the idea that the types of money people carry says something meaningful about them. What about an urchin begging around for a specific era of minted coin? WHAT IF THAT MINT HAS A HIGH ENOUGH SILVER CONTENT TO DO RITUALS WITH. No one can tell me my fictional currency obsession is wrong.
I love this video! I never thought of implementing blackmarkets that way!
I love the idea of a blackmarket resurrection causing the effects of the reincarnation spell or causing someone like a spellcaster to start exhibiting wild magic!
The beginning when you talked about electrum only being used for magic and thieves guilds would be an ingenious way to use it if electrum was an element. But Electrum is just gold with about 20% silver mixed in. More useful to jewelers than anyone else. And if you needed it to go to the mages guild, you could just make it yourself. ...But I wish it was it's own element. I would love to use it in that way.
I'm very glad you're feeling better. Now if only I could get rid of the rocks in my head.
I like the idea that black market resurrections res people, but the client can choose to have them become flameskulls or there's a chance they're brought back as an undead of some kind because it was botched.
Spell Casting Components comes to mind for me. Makes sense to me, that with many of the spell components being oddly specific, they could be easily controlled and regulated by people or organizations in places of power. Perhaps the magicians guild or other such authorities have gained a monopoly and have control all the caves which produce the high quality bat guano necessary for use in the fireball spell, perhaps as a way to force the hands of adventurers into joining their ranks and the corresponding regulation that goes with it. Further while the black market of course opens up a way for players to bypass the control of these governing bodies, it also makes sense for NPCs particularly antagonists who'd rather go unnoticed to do the same. Perhaps allowing players or characters to track someone down by infiltrating the black market and interrogating the antagonist's component dealers. Piggybacking off the resurrection idea in the video as well, perhaps diamonds are controlled by the royal family, due to their resurrective abilities. Without having an in with the nobles, cautious adventurers are often forced into dealing with black market dealers and their knock-off gems, or risk being without such useful spells.
Using electrum as a resource for enchanting either issued by town guard, guilds or Black Markets. Sure you can create the items relatively cheaply. Quickly finding they control the prices of electrum to add charges. Instead of using rests or at dawn.
What i think is really exciting about this is the possibilities for it to interact with the thieves' cant homebrew system!
The first thought that popped into my head in response to the idea that both black market and magic item merchants will only accept electrum currency is that there must be something about that currency that makes it more difficult to counterfeit, easier to verify, or otherwise less reliant on trust between buyer and seller.
Black market merchants do this because they do not trust their clientele. Their clients are a bunch of thieves and worse, after all.
Magic item merchants do this because they cannot afford to trust their clientele. They're disproportionately financially harmed by transactions using counterfeit currency, given how few such sales they make and how much currency is likely to be involved, such that a single large purchase using counterfeit currency might threaten to bankrupt their entire enterprise.
Much like the backalley resurrection, imagine black market teleportation circles? The only way into the kingdom is through [location] where every incoming cart or person is checked for illegal stuff, but there's also the very expensive black market teleportation circle via an out-of-town contact that some criminals might know of?
Love that!
"Hey, I've got a business proposal; you let us transport goods using this, and we'll cut you in for 30% of the profits."
Love this idea. Perhaps monster parts of intelligent monsters. Drugs? Drug dens? Disguise spells.
Good video.
The Goblin Market. It's a little piece of the feywild that bleeds into large cities (possibly the taming of the wilds corrupted a corresponding part of the feywild, nobody really knows). Very difficult to find, but there's some things that can only be purchased there. Currency varies from common coin to magic; you may even find yourself paying with your childhood memories.
“Good folk, I have no coin;
To take were to purloin:
I have no copper in my purse,
I have no silver either,
And all my gold is on the furze
That shakes in windy weather
Above the rusty heather.”
“You have much gold upon your head,”
They answer’d all together.
-Christina Rossetti, 'The Goblin Market'
This video is SO GOOD ARGH I can feel my brain wheels turning. Something else to think about would be the kind of people you can hire in a black market, as opposed to just services or goods. Private investigators, bounty hunters, guides, seers, loan sharks - all might be outlawed, but available through the criminal underbelly of society
lots of interesting ideas here, thank you so much!!!!
I have a setting where a necromancer recently wreaked havoc on the world, so magic is strictly regulated and magic items arent that common. to solve that and also get a magic shop that makes sense, my party is doing a favor for an underground group called the Shatterbane, who have a foothold in most major cities in this world. Upon contacting them, the party can "commission" a find from them for a price; basically, get the Shatterbane to hunt down magic items for them. Or, they can pick from what that group has in stock at the moment.