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.

@FlaminTubbyToast

3 жыл бұрын

It’s comments like these that make me wish that I could save comments

@jackiecozzie4803

3 жыл бұрын

@@FlaminTubbyToast note it down and put it in a safe place/save it on a computer

@claire3614

3 жыл бұрын

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:

Instead of guards which can detect magic, what about dogs/other creatures that are trained to detect magic, kind of like a drug dog?

@thomashughes2699

3 жыл бұрын

Now all I'm picturing is a Pseudo-dragon giving someone a sniff test or circling around someone with a magic sword.

@TheKazragore

3 жыл бұрын

Sniffer Blink Dogs! They suddenly appear next to people with contraband.

@fnsmike

3 жыл бұрын

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.

@SibeliusEosOwm

3 жыл бұрын

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.

@johngregg6820

3 жыл бұрын

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.

We love a black market! Great vid as always, Dael!

@MonarchsFactory

3 жыл бұрын

And *I* love a good skill challenge!

@dracoargentum9783

3 жыл бұрын

Do I smell a Collaboration? eh? eh? 😏

@BassGr00ve

3 жыл бұрын

I need Dael to run a game( one shot) for Colville, Mercer, and web Dm...watch her implode and do a great job

@oakleybraylen7093

2 жыл бұрын

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

@jeremiasspencer6644

2 жыл бұрын

@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"

@gooseygooseman1383

3 жыл бұрын

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

@digitalbrentable

3 жыл бұрын

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).

@forascalon

3 жыл бұрын

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!

@digitalbrentable

3 жыл бұрын

@@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.

@MrApocryphon

3 жыл бұрын

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.

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

@fnsmike

3 жыл бұрын

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.

@d73w80

Жыл бұрын

@@fnsmike black market revivify done by an artificer-doctor considered a mad scientist. His "revivify" is actually pretty much a defibrillator and proper cpr.

@williamozier918

Жыл бұрын

Oh man, but how many black market resurrectionists are actually just necromancers raising undead minions.

@jamestaylor3805

11 ай бұрын

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."

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!

@BlueSparrow23

3 жыл бұрын

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!~

@quantum6812

3 жыл бұрын

Thats really cool dude! Mind if I borrow this Idea?

@jazipa4139

3 жыл бұрын

@@quantum6812 Of course!

@quantum6812

3 жыл бұрын

@Jasper Tolhurst Wait you DO mind? If yes then I won’t use it of course

@jazipa4139

3 жыл бұрын

@@quantum6812 No, it's alright.

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.

@digitalbrentable

3 жыл бұрын

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.

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...

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.

@anthonynorman7545

3 жыл бұрын

Oh shit! That's some juicy stuff!!!

Electrum, the bytecoin of the D&D multi-verse.

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

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

@benpearse7565

2 жыл бұрын

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 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.

Looking forward to adding this to my Thieves Cant compendium

@Jane_8319

3 жыл бұрын

A big compendium of underworld notes? Share that, please!

@elisabethmullane7444

3 жыл бұрын

Heeeeyy, wait a minute....

@rhyzvanic3660

3 жыл бұрын

Thieves Cant what?

@jackiecozzie4803

3 жыл бұрын

Why can't thieves compendium? Sorry, I'll just go and die now...

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.

@megamarkread

3 жыл бұрын

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.

@jeffeppenbach

3 жыл бұрын

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.

@thomashughes2699

3 жыл бұрын

@@megamarkread Nicking that one its such a better explanation than the one I thought off.

@probablythedm1669

3 жыл бұрын

@@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 :)

@gortab

3 жыл бұрын

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.

Aaaaaaand, the Shadowrun economy joins D&D

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.

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.

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!

@TheodoreMinick

3 жыл бұрын

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.

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.

@Tammys_tunes

3 жыл бұрын

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 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.

@All4Tanuki

2 ай бұрын

That was a fantastic little read, thank you QB

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.

I mean I'd be interested in restricting planar travel so I guess my black markets are gonna be filled with tuning forks... which is really gonna suck for musicians.

@christofferhougaard

3 жыл бұрын

Haha. That's not a terrible idea actually.

@atlas_of_prescottia

3 жыл бұрын

This conjures (pun intended) to mind an image of two groups: dark wizards and rebellious band kids.

@aubreyackermann8432

3 жыл бұрын

Maybe they have an alarm system where many discordant tuning forks can be activated at once, or a repellent infrasound keeps people away/ makes them sick unless they carry an enchanted invitation. Maybe some are precisely calibrated so they can be used to make people dizzy, or break concentration, or repel hounds/ monsters being used to chase someone down. Maybe some are disguised as hair bodkins, hat pins, or heads for walking canes to evade guards. You could even have one that disrupts scrying magic based around what happens if you put a resonating fork in water. That would be such a cool market!

you just rattled off like a dozen plot-hooks that could spur tons of adventure material. SAVED.

So I will be stealing ALL OF THIS for my campaign

The way I think about it is that the purchase and sale of magical items isn't necessarily criminal behaviour, but the process of attaining magical items to be traded in the first place is often criminal. I imagine many magical items are family heirlooms, of some religious significance to a small diocese or buried in a crypt or tomb. Getting a hold of an item by grave robbing seems illegal to me so I typically treat the trading of magical items as an underground or private affair, seeing as the last thing they want is someone asking how they managed to get their hands on said item. Those who want to trade know not to ask questions, and if they do they won't be invited back. There is definitely an economy in the people who commit the crimes that supply the traders with their magical items

Potential idea for the back alley resurrections: The major religion in the city believes that there is a weighing of the soul process. They will stabilize your body but you have to wait a month as your soul is weighed on the other side. Of course, if you happen to make a substantial donation to the church, they'll "pray to the gods to see the soul returned sooner to its body." So, going through the church is costly and takes a long time. But, if you're to listen to the shady guy sneaking around out front of the church, you could go get a back alley resurrection done immediately. Maybe they use the corruption of the church as a justification for defying the church - maybe they belong to another religion that doesn't believe the soul needs to be weighed on the other side - maybe a bit of both. Now, their resurrection costs, too, but either as much or less so than the churches. And there's the potential of something going wrong (something the shady person may or may not disclose).

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

@MonarchsFactory

3 жыл бұрын

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.

@BobWorldBuilder

3 жыл бұрын

@@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.

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!

This is already my new favorite video... The illegal map/record/document seller especially is SUPER juicy and I'm so excited to use that in my game

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

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???????

@noahdavies4431

3 жыл бұрын

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

What i think is really exciting about this is the possibilities for it to interact with the thieves' cant homebrew system!

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!

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

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

I like the idea of rare animal components being sold through the black market because it immediately called to mind royal forests.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I love the mood light changes throughout. Atmosphere 10/10

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 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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

@Tammys_tunes

3 жыл бұрын

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'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.

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.

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.

KidneyStones suck. If that's what you had. My condolences. I love the way you view worldbuilding. I've appropriated many of your ideas for my homebrew. This is one of them Thanks for all the D&D and Mythology content. Dael you rock !!! Ps. You also so adorable. ^_^

Gratz conquering your organ rocks! Wicked vid, so many great ideas.

The Blk market in my setting has more homeBrew items and spells. U can all so purchase items that are cheaper but they may have initials names or anything else that may identify them as property of someone else!

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 ^^

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?

Any and All of these wonderful ideas also apply to story writing too, since the only difference between a DM and a novelist is that the novelist takes the scenario that the DM would create, and then has further characters going through it as a player would, and jots the action down for the audience to read.

I remember that you mentioned that there was an idea that there would be a part of the cleric’s soul who resurrected a party member perhaps the same could apply to the underground resurrections. Maybe a few party members just collapse for no reason but they were all resurrected by this one cleric in a black market now it’s a whole new plot hook

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.

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.

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.

I just came across this video. KZread recommended it to me. I’ve been working on a pirate campaign for the past few months now. Planning on running it sometime late this year or early next. It’s loosely based in the age of sail in the Caribbean circa 1675. I’ve been wanting to include a religious entity similar to the Catholic Church in terms of scope and power. I’ve been trying to nail down what that looks like and this video helped me do that! Thanks to this video I realized the church in my game controls, registers, and regulates all magic items, magic users, and clerics. They charge fees to register new items and then additional fees to transfer ownership. If you own a magic item you must keep it’s paperwork on you at all times. At any time a member of the churches inquisition can demand to see your paperwork and if you don’t comply or the paperwork is not in order you’re arrested on the spot. All of that came out of this video you posted so THANK YOU!!

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.

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.

This is one of those vids where i was checking every 30 seconds to make sure i hit the like button. If i could like it 50 times i would.

I was already doing most of this in my campaign in regards to the restrictions surrounding magic items and black market trade. But this addition of using electrum as a black market currency definitely makes the black market seem more like a slick John Wick type underworld. Thanks for the content! Glad to hear you’re on the mend.

Dude, this is great! Could also have some great "Sheriff of Nottingham" style dealings with town guards. P.S. (Skyrim) try arrows for skill raising. Wood is free, and they don't weigh anything, can also sell if your bartering is high enough.

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!

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

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'm very glad you're feeling better. Now if only I could get rid of the rocks in my head.

Thanks a million for this. This will add some serious depth to parts of my Theros campaign.

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!

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.

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.

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.

Any day with a Dael video is my favorite day ❤️

This is one of your best!

Good to have you back, Dael!

Love your sweater!!

What a great video! Thanks for the ideas!

OHHH back alley Resurrections!! Great video Dael!!

Glad to have you back, Dael!

these are some fascinating ideas, as always.

Love it. Will steal this idea

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.

this is fantastic info and incredibly creative

I like the idea with the Electrum

Great content! Your videos are always a main source of inspiration

This is the first video I see from you and I'm subscribed immediately 😊

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)

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.

Love this idea. Perhaps monster parts of intelligent monsters. Drugs? Drug dens? Disguise spells. Good video.

Very cool video. Lots of ideas for campaigns now!

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.

Dael, you are a genius and this video is an inspiration.