June 2025 RPG Carnival Round Up: Magic Shops and Their Alternatives
At the start of the month I introduced the 2025 RPG Blog Carnival topic for June, Magic Shops and Their Alternatives. As a brief reminder, I asked participants to consider the ubiquitous but oft-maligned magic shop, as well as their various alternatives, like magic item brokers or crafting mechanics, or ripper docs and black market alien tech shops. I was hoping for responses that approached magic item shops as a problem in the hobby and that provided a variety of solutions.
The contributors did not disappoint. Let me then fulfill my obligation to this year's carnival and round up all of these contributions, which together create a comprehensive look at magic shops and, of course, their alternatives.
- First only because this list is chronological, my own contribution, "The Best And Only Magic Item Market," replaces all the magic shops in the world with a single magic item market accessible by magic ring.
- At Leicester's Ramble, Vance A writes "June RPG Blog Carnival: Magic Shops," advertising a magic item rental shop, an alternative I somehow had not previously considered.
- At Sea of Stars, Sean Holland writes "The Six-Demon Bag, A Shadowrun Talismonger Shop," describing a magic components shop for a Shadowrun setting, another alternative that had not occurred to me.
- At Seed of Worlds, Xaosseed writes "What magical items can be found to buy (RPG Blog Carnival)," detailing how the magic item economy works in their game with exactly the kind of considerations I was looking for.
- At his eponymous blog, the Robgoblin writes "Magic Dealers," elaborating on the "broker" alternative to magic shops and carefully observing that "line between a fence and a dealer is awfully thin and blurry at times."
- At Wobblerocket, Wobble writes "How To Run A D&D Magic Item Auction," outlining very comprehensive procedures for magic item auction houses.1
- At VDonnut Valley, VDonnut writes "Seasonal Wares of a Witch - Blog Carnival ," which offers a list of wares the party might buy from a local witch.
- At Sea of Stars (again!), Sean Holland writes a second post, "Magic for Sale in the Sea of Stars (RPG Blog Carnival)," which explains how the sale of magic items works in his campaign setting, including alchemists, commissions, brokers, and the Empress's great hoard.
- At Tabletop Curiosity Cabinet, Panic Pillow writes "Magic Shops and Their Alternatives: d6 distilled spirits," considering potions as distilled spirits, double-intended.
If you wrote a post on this topic and I have not included it here, please let me know at cerhendriks [at] proton [dot] me and I will update the list accordingly.2 Thank-you to everyone who did participate and I look forward to reading more of your carnival submissions in the months and years to come.
I don't mean to play favourites, but I am especially grateful to Wobble for fleshing out a concept I included as a throw-away line in my own contribution; the magic item auction is worth the much better treatment he gives it.↩
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