D&D Story: EVERYONE in town shops at the black market

This is a story from our Dungeons and Dragons game where we got arrested for going into a black market. Hope you guys enjoy it!
Music Credits:
"Morning Stroll" "Train Whistle" from KZbin Audio Library
"Feel the Funk" by Jimmy Fontanez
Kool Kats by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommon...)
Avant Jazz - Disco Ultralounge by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (creativecommon...)
Source: incompetech.com...
Artist: incompetech.com/
Source: incompetech.com...
Artist: incompetech.com/

[@thefrogthatknows5251]

All the DM had to do was say that there was an outside ruling entity that enforced the laws of magic being illegal, and while the local government disagreed, the ruling government would not tolerate dissenters. Bada-bing Bada-boom, you've explained yourself and now you've done some world building.

[@MrCompassionate01]

Exactly, wish I could thumbs up more than once

[@pedrocruz-ds6bj]

I was thinking the same thing. The dm probably didn't know how to improvise very well.

[@jakeand9020]

I was thinking something similar, magic had to be outlawed to maintain peace with a powerful neighbor was specifically my thoughts.

[@tholgrimstonebeard5943]

That would require the DM to think about things using logic.

[@loremipsumdolorsitamet9542]

@@pedrocruz-ds6bj as I see it the DM probably set this thing up and invested so much time in his dilema that he was just not able to adapt his. I think its a common problem in authors or DMs who think of themself as too awesome and intelligent. I had this in my first games as DM. Created a ton of moral and wicked dilemas and decissions to make and lost the whole storyline when my players didn't give a damm about what could be right but just did random stuff. So I learned the most important DM rule: Its not about the DM to present how awesome he is but about the group to enjoy themselfs.

[@Flinstermite]

This is like the conversation between ManRay and Patrick about wether or not Patrick’s wallet was actually Patrick’s wallet

[@francescolombardi3438]

makes sense to me

[@yoruidk9974]

my head hurts

[@Max_Pendragon]

Can anyone truly own anything? Who are we to lay claim to a wallet. What IS an id. The inner machinations of my mind are an enigma. Beyond the comprehension of mere men!

[@NotASovietSpy1]

you are the government, right? yup. so that means that you can change the law that restricts your trade of goods and thus get rid of the need for the black market. that makes sense to me so get rid of the black market! BuT whERE wOuLD WE GEt Our MonEy?

[@southpaw7423]

@@francescolombardi3438 p0⁰0⁰

[@secpendragon9760]

"Sell your magical goods in regular shops" "That's illegal" "So make it legal" "Then we'd lose money without a black market" "So sell your magical goods in regular shops" "That's illegal" I wanna die

[@francescolombardi3438]

sorry, but that's illegal

[@Firestar4041]

. . . is killing you, illegal? >-> Nevermind, we's gonna find out! *ROLL FOR INITIATIVE!!!*

[@silfes3036]

An IQ of literal 1

[@dt5101961Nelon]

Just name the place "black market", you can even buy their stock on the stock market.

[@ArtificialDragon]

Politics in a nutshell

[@degiguess]

This plot would easily make sense if he just made it so instead of magical items being illegal in that one town they were illegal throughout the province that way the local government had no control over it and that's why they'd be supporting a black market secretly

[@Will_Forge]

Moon Man and especially if they were enforcing the law in all of the nearby towns and this town helped out with that. That way this town would get all of the black market sales.

[@dariuskohler251]

It's the same in Kuba and it's called communism.

[@gokillyourselfgoogle]

Yes but that would require your gm not being shit.

[@liammorris4655]

Or they used to have a legitimate market that underperformed, so the rulers decided to drum up business by making magical items "nominally" illegal, adding the sexiness of a clandestine, underground market, with big mark-ups and kickbacks and such stuff.

[@ladypaprika627]

Except for having things being illegal under punishment is generally a very good persuasion to not do a thing, for example, you go to Barnes and Nobles, stealing is illegal, you steal, you get caught, you go to jail. It's not like they made stealing illegal to make stealing look more appealing, they did it, in fact, for the exact opposite reason. In fact, in your scenario, by making magic items illegal to create the black market, all you would do is increase the value of magic items and in a town that already had financial troubles the people who didn't have money wouldn't be able to buy and the people who did who had the money and the ability to get those magic items would move to a place where they could make money or switch professions, lest they run out of money as well. All that, not to mention the consequences of getting caught... in what is equivalent to medieval times. Also we're talking about a medieval equivalent, high fantasy, world, information in those times, the times where people had to move on foot from location to location or ride some animal to get there, moved *extremely* slowly, in those times you didn't have the media trope of a clandestine, criminal thing being cool and sexy. In those times you had the Inquisitions, they even had an Inquisitor in that game according to the story, and torture and public executions and prisoners being treated like dirt. Think about it like Scooma in Elder Scrolls, people don't flock to buy Scooma because it's illegal and sexy, most people don't want that shit, especially because it's dangerous, not just to their health, but also because if they're caught with it, they'll be arrested and put into those horrible jails.

[@greeniehead]

It sounds basically like the DM just wanted the black market to exist for story reasons but didn't put much thought into it at all.

[@matsh5633]

Probably very young or... unsmart.

[@11tw48]

The concept COULD have worked if the ban on magical items was *regional*, or if the whole *region* had enormous tariffs on magical items. Now the local council can make a deal with criminals saying "we'll let you sell magical items and tax you half of what the high lord of xland would, and the guards will protect you and help keep the secret".

[@kly8105]

Yeah and then they could also have part of the black market inventory be stolen from other countries that are secretly making magical weapons against the region's treaty imposed ban. Which in turn also turn a blind eye to the market since they don't want to admit to breaking the treaty etc. The premise was good, just not fleshed out enough.

[@fluffycthulhu6362]

@@clockw0rk843 Big scale criminals are paying taxes by laundering money soooo

[@vicenteabalosdominguez5257]

@@clockw0rk843 nah, they exist to sell illegal goods wherever there's a demand for them. A great example would be alcoholic drinks during the US' prohibition period.

[@trip9845]

5:45 That sounds like the dm getting mad at you for pointing out the big ass fla w in the story

[@SapphireCrook]

This GM got REALLY personal about this. Then again, he basically trident-poked him into the plot, rail-roaded it heavily and then didn't even have an actual plot with legs and it got pointed out. This is the point where some groups dissolve into OOC arguments over what the heck the GM things makes any of this 'right'.

[@sue9647]

Tyler Basile my DM runs this campaign he's done it like ten times and he gives the same speech about this pirate his ship comes I to view on the sails of his ship is his emblem it's a picture of his face and then we get destroyed and shipwrecked usually people don't actually see the pirate for awhile after seeing his ship because you have to fight canables first but we had strange people who desided to jump over to their ship in a storm and when he describes the pirate captain in his usual way and the pirate wears a hat and when it got to this part he says he's wearing a hat and on the hat is his emblem we all look at him and one of are group members say so he has his face on his hat he looks really confused and says no he has his emblem on his hat I speak up "but isn't his emblem just his face?" He ponders this for a few seconds and then is like "yes yes it is...... he has his face on his hat" no one in all this time has ever recognized that not even me... That then became a running joke until we killed him and for a short while after that

[@trip9845]

hole crap i have a comment with more the 200 likes

[@paulofrota3958]

Flaw*

[@zarcon5750]

Isn't killing DM's unethical? ;)

[@copyrock]

So your DM wrote himself into a plot hole and you all got jailed for it. Awesome.

[@CommissarMitch]

I would have written it that the part of the world had it illegal and not just one town

[@jhonyark2308]

but you need magical items to complete the game...

[@madhippy3]

Maybe the Assassins shouldn't have started shit with the Paladin who sure is lawful, but apparently wasn't lawfully stupid enough to cut off their sole source of magical items

[@ThreatLevel9]

Now that’s good DMing

[@HalfTangible]

To be fair, they got jailed because the Paladin decided to defuse the situation by STABBING SOMEONE.

[@AustinIuliano]

I love the train sound effect. There is only one time as a DM I railroaded the players... That was when I put them on a literal railroad as they raced down a mine shaft in a cart. Battling foes, dodging obstacles, and jumping from mine cart to mine cart as the railroad collapsed behind them. They loved it :)

[@darkposidon5464]

I am late but this is probably the most literal saying of railroad and I love it

[@811brian]

So, Temple of Doom?

[@Tinkatube]

All you'd have to do to fix this plot: Add a group of non-progressive NPCs who hate magic. In order to prevent a rebellion, the king keeps magic items illegal. But he does absolutely nothing to stop the trade because it is the lifeblood of the town.

[@SapphireCrook]

Won't fix the GM railroading, but at least the plot wouldn't be completely stupid.

[@doombybbr]

That would CAUSE a rebellion as all the market and the ones who want to rebel would have free rein to just set up a conspiracy.

[@MrTohawk]

Have neighboring nations/towns who hate magic. They need to keep it "illegal" to not piss them off.

[@spaziandroid]

alternative is to just say that instead of being mad at you for discovering the black market, the government rewards you and declares you as heroes. Meanwhile the rest of townsfolk are mad because now no money is coming in

[@MysticVRB]

@Neon, that doesn't solve anything. The people in power who make the laws declared magic illegal. They are in power, so they also have the military might to stay in power. They have no reason as to why magic is illegal, and more so, they even agree it's a good way to make money and base an economy off of, so they use it. There is no reason for this "black market" to exist, it's a bad GM writing a bad story, laying it out in a bad way, and expecting the players to just be grateful that they get the opportunity to roll dice in his game.

[@guiltyguildleader]

Manray: "Sir, i think you dropped your market" Patrick: "No, thats a black market"

[@tcironbear21]

As an economist, the thing that is like nails on chalk board for me is when some "economics" wrong in their game. You are 100% right about the black market. The point of black markets are to sell restricted good and avoid tariffs. The fact that town council was making money off it means it effectively had tariffs on it and the fact that town council was okay with its existence means they did really restrict the good. This is why I hate "thieve's guilds".

[@taragnor]

Why don't you like thieves guilds? They're basically the mafia of D&D.

[@ColonelSandersLite]

+TC IronBear If you're an economist, you *really* should be well aware that black markets that governments know about and either turn a blind eye to or even participate in are a real thing. I will give 3 examples. 1: In North Korea, there is a black market for things like food and handmade goods. They can't officially sanction it due to ideological reasons, but turn a blind eye because it helps alleviate the stress of the failings of their centrally planned model. 2: In the Second World War, the US Govt got pretty cozy with the mafia. We gave them a wider latitude for their activities in exchange for their assistance in espionage and counter espionage. It seems that this isn't the only instance of this sort of things the US govt has engaged in, but it is probably the most well known. 3: In Nigeria, the water infrastructure is supposed to be centrally planned. In practical reality, their government is such a mess that only 20% of the people have access to an officially sanction source of safe drinking water. On the other hand, there is a strong black market for water purified by entrepreneurs. So much so that this is probably the main way that Nigerians get their water. These operations are unlicensed, untaxed, and illegal. Even so, the Nigerian NAFDAC works with these companies to test their water and even stamps approved products.

[@CeccoGrullo]

ColonelSandersLite the OP didn't say such agreements don't exist at all. He said they don't work as described by the DM and explained why. The examples you mentioned are extreme, and in fact you felt the need to make sense of them by talking about the peculiar reasons why these governments tolerate such activities and what they gain from them, like avoiding massive riots due to lack of clean water and other basic necessities, or gaining a new tool against the enemy in a period of intense warfare. These examples fit neither with a generic scenario, nor with this adventure.

[@josephgiacobine1069]

Joeseph Moore Good thought but the 40$ beer only worked because at best 10% of people where involved (leaving 90% of pop. To pay for profits) It sounds like 100% of the town is involved at one part or another of supply chain. Who pays to make it profitable? Can't turn a profit if 100% of your customers are shareholders of the company.

[@danielhounshell2526]

Another thing to consider is that these magic items are legal everywhere else, so what's stopping people from simply buying their items from a town with better prices?

[@schachmaster]

The DM's reason to have a black market sounded like the part in Idiocracy where they talk about why they use Brawndo to water plants. "Brawndo is what plants crave. It's got electrolytes." "Do you even know what they are?" "It's what they use to make Brawndo." "Yeah, but why do they use them to make Brawndo?" "...'cause Brawndo's got electrolytes."

[@Secret-Side-5]

If my DM tried to make that kind of argument for the black market I'd be flying over the table and hitting him

[@deathlegionair]

You would of liked my DM, we went to a town where slaves and numerous other stuff was for sell, no black market, just straight up the town was evil, it was filled with half-monsters, slaves, items that were illegal in other towns, and corrupt enough to make a demon wretch. Was good times, till the Dragons took over and we had to go to the cities actual black market, which sold items to counteract all the evil of the city, and setup an escape plan for us to get out of there before the Dragon army found us and killed us. We got attacked by some face hugging insects in the sewers during the escape.

[@bravojr]

Flying? No. I'm taking over as Dm and as the new dm and strangling the old one would justify the original claim with a empire that is a thousand times worse. That's right, Local law doesn't supersede imperial law, and now you all have a new challenge as the inquisitor after sweating the entire time talking to you in such a strange manner Bursts into black flames after slipping up on a particular detail of the arrangement.

[@RBTE]

Stryder Same

[@drinks1550]

Once I had a black market that wasn't necessarily existing for the purpose of illegal goods (albeit some can be found there, including several fencing branches). The main purpose was that the tiny market open to the public was always overshadowed by the better, more renowned market the town over. So of course they didn't get much business, in fact, most of the people in the tiny market aren't even from the town! Although a good portion of the town would just go to the town over for their goods (clothes, food, etc) many didn't at all. Which hardly makes sense because hardly anyone buys from their general market... Well, what they do (even some youth, like 14-16 year olds) would go around people they know to be connected to the black market and purchase from the vendors involved. The appeal was taxless markets that fully benefited the vendor/producer and not the government at all. Over years, the town ended up being self run by a town militia and a figurehead official. That's just their way of life.

[@hugofontes5708]

+UberKrassMann it's not about the plot being weak it's about the plain stupid "everyone and their mother knows about the black market and agrees with its existence but it's still illegal because reasons" part

[@nekroz_of_super_dora3477]

“Why don’t you sell the goods normally?” Inquisitor: “Wait. That’s Illegal.

[@justnoob8141]

Next thing you know, the town council got burn down to the ground

[@falxblade1352]

To flip the star wars line: THEN MAKE IT LEGAL.

[@JangoFox]

Can Paladins not lie? If they can, then why not just claim he killed a Paladin and wears the armor as a trophy?

[@pallydan893]

Paladins are strictly Lawful Good, Lying is a no no.

[@OnEiNsAnEmOtHeRfUcKa]

Pally Dan You can be Lawful Good and still lie to people.

[@Mailed-Knight]

Evil is the absence of good so lying while bad does not necessarily mean evil though evil use it as a weapon and good person who lies to much would become untrustworthy.

[@nobodyimportant2470]

@Pally Dan Paladins are Lawful Good not Lawful stupid. They might not be able to break their alignment but that which can not be broken can surely be bent. They were already bending it by going to the illegal market to shop for magic items. It wouldn't have been much more to not wear paladin armor and kept his mouth shut.

[@scottrauch1261]

Bomber Jac i thought that was where he was going when he said if i play my cards right we just might get out of this unscathed.

[@freealter]

This is a prime example of circular reasoning

[@blockEdragon]

It wasn't much of a black market...More of an edgy market.

[@Zulfar-bd9tc]

Edgy is the new black

[@hioeo]

Emo market

[@Epicepicnessess]

A morally grey market

[@HairyHariyama]

A Shadow the Hedgehog market

[@DragoSonicMile]

The edgy Mc-My-Chemical-Romance market.

[@dnddude9652]

“So... Lemme get this straight... Your town creates the rules for other towns that you also have to follow, right?” “Right” “So, you can make selling magic items illegal in other towns, right?” “Right” “That means you could make a market full of magical items to help the town get money, while others can’t, right?” “Right” “Alright, I get it now, sorry for causing trouble”

[@Borderose]

When your DM doesn't quite grasp economics.

[@Ellisepha]

Or understands how the black market works (spoiler: it's not a literal place with dim lighting)

[@KillerOrca]

@@Ellisepha I dont evne think its in person anymore, its all on the internet.

[@WhysoSeriousSamual]

Unless one guy was paying for that law so everyone who wanted anything magical to buy or sell had to invest in his sprawling shopping mall. He would collect 'taxes' and a percent ends up going back to the town. It's sort of like 'trademarking magic'

[@emiledlund9559]

@@KillerOrca Sadly the internet is quite a commodity in generic fantasy land

[@KillerOrca]

@@emiledlund9559 Entirely fair. Though even back then I doubt it worked like that.

[@SmashJazzBlammyMataz]

As someone who has only been aware of your channel for a week, but has also watched all of your content within said week. I must say that your animations are swiftly improving. Likewise with your audio. Well done sir.

[@gamejunky3040]

This does not make sense! The town only has a black market because it would be a tourist attraction?? They could achieve the same effects without outlawing magical items. Why not get magical street performers or be a go to place for traders since it’s a good distance away from the desert? The inquisitor is not making since, the people running that town doesn’t make any since, and finally if you want to make bank on your magical goods; WHY NOT ADVERTISE THEM!!! A black market is normally for items that can’t be obtained by legal means and therefore it location is always kept a secret from law enforcement and regular folks to make room for ideal costumers such as cut throats or questionable buyers/sellers. If the law enforcement knows about it, if the town knows about it, then it’s not a black market but a shopping center trying to be edgy!

[@DonniesBoStaff]

Does the GM know how Black Markets work? They don't tax their items. *The government doesn't get any money.* This doesn't help the economy at all.

[@Galomortalbr]

it can help the average person , by seling the itens for higher prices , which doesen't explain why the people simply don't buy itens somewhere eçse

[@PhyreI3ird]

I think the idea was bribery. Paying off officials for some mutual win-win scenario, but the shit gm couldn't even explain _that_ with a grain of sense or reason (or more likely never thought of that in the first fucking place)

[@Gardow]

Ofc the GM doesn't know how black market trade works, he thinks the black market is an actual underground market place.

[@gnarlestongnu637]

No, it only help CORRUPT OFFICIALS. Of course, in a town where the black market is a huge deal, there's no chance of that, right?

[@josephvictory9536]

It does help the economy. Government income from tax is not how you measure the strength of the economy but rather how much the government interferes in it. Economic strength is a factor of wealth, standard of living, culture of innovation, lack of trade regulation and productive output. You can qualify it by income but thats a really bad metric. If you use 'needs met' or 'persons in abject poverty' thats slightly better. GDP is slightly better. Exports vs imports is better. Best would be market confidence or total prosperity.

[@skochko9876]

I do not understand why police closed black market if everyone in charge of the city(town council) knew about it and let it exist.

[@joystickwarrior7769]

KZbin KZbin yeah that was the joke dipshit.

[@kumibozu7014]

because it's illegial

[@rapscallion9776]

Because dipshit DM

[@djdomain]

I think it has more to do with the black market being completely exposed. They did not want to be seen as colluding with the vendors to inflate the price of goods by making them illegal, so they had to put on an act in order to avoid scrutiny either by merchants or some governing body. It would be like if you passed prohibition in your town and your mates were all bootleggers making insane profits from being the majority providers for booze in the region, but then they get discovered (fire breaks out, shoot-out, etc) you have to pretend you had no knowledge or involvement by maintaining the law-upholding facade and arresting them in case a higher authority is observing the events.

[@captainmorganiv1034]

its because the black market is the lifeblood of the town

[@dingusrevolver]

The conversation at 4:13 reminded me of ManRay trying to return Patrick's wallet

[@MysticVRB]

Yet another story about how horrible your DM is. Why are you still playing with this guy?

[@Amosarthus]

If it's the same guy as the other videos. this guy is the textbook definition of a terrible DM.

[@Galomortalbr]

i would roll a 20 and kill the GM , and get his place

[@danielgehring7437]

Amosarthus If it isn't the same guy this dude has the worst D&D luck ever.

[@lordzaboem]

...or these dungeon masters are different guys. We are only getting one side of each story, and it is exaggerated for humorous effect, right? That's the nature of KZbin story.

[@niydfass1060]

Tim Brown They might be friends

[@GCWMusic]

Terrible DM

[@herofodder6432]

They had a black market so they could increase the price of the items and take away any magic items brought in and then sell them

[@BrotherHood-xh9sg]

This is how you create murder hobos. No lie, even a lawful good character would now slaughter every last villager in that town for this.

[@EmrysTernal]

"Because then it stops being a tourist attraction."

[@ichimcosmin8866]

That can only be described as Kafkaesque

[@InquisitorThomas]

Underscorer well this isn’t entirely Kalfaesque because being Kalfaesque also requires a nice unhealthy dash of shame and self loathing. This is more absurdist.

[@ichimcosmin8866]

Inquisitor Thomas Hmm... I don't really think that self loathing is necessary for something to be Kafkaesque (I use the word with this sense :Marked by a senseless, disorienting, often menacing complexity.)

[@haosmagnaingram6992]

You just explained prohibition, thanks.

[@lukefrederiks5906]

The guy running this game had the wrong attitude. DMs aren't supposed to WRITE a campaign!! The idea is to tell stories WITH your players, not to tell them how the story goes. Railroading makes games so dull and boring. Players need to feel that they can make an actual impact on the world, otherwise it isn't enjoyable. I think a lot of DMs are just afraid of giving up control instead of enjoying how the story can change in surprising and fun ways that you and your friends will remember for years to come.

[@BahamutEx]

Luke Frederiks exactly this

[@1x4]

It's been my experience watching, and playing, that some people like the rail road method. They want to be told what's next. And if these people become GMs, then that's what they make the story. Not necessarily a bad GM, but a different and not very popular one.

[@marcar9marcar972]

Luke Frederiks no you need to write a campaign. You also need to make sure the players have a majority of the control. The fact of the matter is there is a bit of writing and railroading, in the sense that there is a quest or enemies or places. You need those things. You need writing and player choice.

[@1x4]

Marcar9 Marcar9 They have have campaigns made for you nowadays. And some GMs Follow it beginning to end . So yes, you can.

[@wilgarrett322]

I don't know if I would take it that far. Matthew Mercer would say having a written campaign is what you need to do, but you need to be able to go off script and wing it too. Be versatile but be able to contain the story. Too much freedom and the group will never get anything accomplished (seriously, they won't) but too little freedom to have an impact and players feel like they aren't doing anything anyways other than being forced into tasks. Like the campaign I am doing, it's pretty open world, but there are things to prevent them from doing things too early. Doesn't mean they can't, but they really shouldn't, however, if they do, I'm prepared to skip forward and interact with them if I need to. The quest are in the multiple towns, but the land they're in is large and there are points of interest to discover if they wander that way, and there are things to plot hook them toward the actual quests I developed for the campaign.

[@Gingerbred_Hed]

This is the dnd equivalent to the war on drugs here in reality xD

[@maxmustermann2417]

Gingerbred_Hed thats exactly what I was thinking! 😂

[@sanghelian]

Yep. That plotline would work as an corrupt government political bullshit plot, but it seems to ne that it got butchered by shit gm

[@sethsalahadin]

totaly agreed. The idea is pretty good but probably lack of context and bad staging from the DM. Instead of learning this from the inquisitor they should have discovered that the all council and police are corrumpted and know eveyrthing about the black market and let it happens because they earn a lot of money from the mafia who rules the black market. And maybe even make it a little more grey: some of the council don't care about the money they got from the mafia but care about how the black market help people in the city to live in a city too poor to allow a good life (dry land around, low natural ressources, many plunders from raids in the last years...). but that the police say it to the PC is just stupid.

[@BanditOfBandwidth]

Reminds me of John Wick, where basically EVERY business is part of some underground assassins club. Where's the mystique when everyone is part of it?

[@SunBrohan]

5:00 This entire rant reminds me of the book "catch 22" when Yossarian keeps asking Orr why he keeps putting crab apples in his cheeks and he just keeps repeating himself.

[@badgermole3467]

The inquisitor sound like a game character with limited lines of dialogue

[@KidderRachel]

Thank you youtube homepage for giving me yet another channel to sink my life into

[@hunngryento]

I get that if you can just make that stuff legal and sell it there is no reason not to, but this could have been so easily rephrased as "The kingdom determines that magic items are illegal so the council of this town pretends they uphold the law while giving secret support to the black market that benefits them and the townfolk". Though to be honest finding that black market should at least be difficult, having all NPCs commenting on it is just ridiculous.

[@phoenixoutoftheash]

You can sell "illegal" items for a higher price though

[@davidepastore5600]

You can do the same with legal goods. If the WHOLE TOWN was ok with the "black market" and how it was run, and knew that it was good for the economy, this means they would've been fine with the prices of the magic items even if they were being sold legally.

[@antiqueChairman]

"The town" probably wouldn't be the source of cashflow- it would be visitors to the town, like the adventuring party. Townsfolk don't particularly need magic, but they benefit from all the additional money adventurers bring to the town. If it was a "legal" market, they'd have to charge adventurers less, which means the city council can take less off the top.

[@VineFynn]

James Burnet Still doesn't make any sense.

[@Tigercup9]

Yeah, but the Council doesn’t take more tax money off of that higher price, because they can’t tax it.

[@urapooper362]

Some Guy oh man you never heard the thing called bribe money every corrupt politician use to gain money from illdgal dealings.

[@digitalmoonbooks]

omg CRYING AT THE AWESOME COMEDIC TALENT HERE.

[@DJl3iohazord]

If my dm tryed this, my character would break out, burn the town down, go on a rampage, and reduce the town to foundation and ash. Then salt the earth so nothing may grow. And if he thinks I won’t do this I’ll call my last dm because I did it 4 times in his game. And he was lucky I waited till after the quest.

[@demonminer8093]

what allignment do you go for? please tell me its not anything good

[@TM-nv]

I actually was in a homebrew game that was.. almost exactly this. When the DM described to me how almost all of the town's money, income, ect, was from the black market it took everything, every bit of my power and restraint to not turn into puffin forest when he was talking to the inquisitor.

[@joshuazane3210]

So... You changed the paladin's name to protect him... An imaginary character... Needs protection from KZbin harassment...? o_O

[@MrCompassionate01]

Imaginary people are at risk of cyberbullying too you know.

[@TheHiddenMadHatter]

No, it’s to protect him from the Assassin’s guild. Witness protection.

[@fledbeast5783]

He was hiding the name of the person playing the character you ninny.

[@Starrik1996]

Transdimensional cyberbullying

[@stardustcomet4714]

Starrik1996 I just hate when that happens...

[@Twisted_Code]

love the sound effect you have for railroading

[@suppositionstudios]

If the town guard, who knew about the black market, didn't destroy the black market, then it would still be running and you guys wouldn't have ruined anything? There was no real conflict at any point in this person's story. Like, the black market could have either been legal, or just not busted, then things would be fine.

[@elephantbear6992]

Whenever a puffin forest character says "Don't worry, I've got an idea." You know some people are about to get stabbed. 🤣

[@SandyEye]

3:08 is the best music change ever

[@SeithonJetter]

It makes perfect sense as it gives them a reason to artificially increase prices as well as levy fines or blackmail people for using the black market even as they themselves profit from it.

[@D4rkLigh7]

That DM would probably get at least a punch on the shoulder for that round-a-bout conversation from me.

[@AflacMan13]

"... Only... if Walmart wasn't as sketchy. " 😂😂😂

[@killerkitsune5425]

I wouldve noped dealing with the inquisitor and decided now is a devent time to start reciting incantations from the book of cthulu i carry with me

[@charlesb8693]

The black market legalization scene was like watching the Idiocracy electrolytes scene hahahaa

[@fangirl5706]

I love how the black market is in a cave between two buildings. Super hidden... would never find it...

[@elslitherino6180]

Inquisitor must be a huge fan of eggless omelet and breadless toast

[@kungfuskull]

Coming back to this video, I never realized how perfectly the ending talk fits with the US war on drugs bullshit. Amazing.

[@davidexley2076]

A great analogy for the war on drugs.

[@LGreenGriffin]

My party is in Tashluta now. I'm rewatching this video so I remember to make the magic black market hard to find.

[@martianmanfrommars8428]

One of my friends who was a wizard accidentally bought a book on the black market and when he realized, he was going to cast burning hands and destroy it, but before that my female paladin walked in on him and immediately was disgusted and lost respect for him and he tried to defend himself but couldn’t convince me.

[@gustavtavares7161]

This is one of your best videos! I die laughing EVERY TIME!

[@sunzi42]

This explains everything the government forbids, but secretly still allows. Like the prohibition-era.

[@adamlewis1613]

When my friends and I played d&d for the first time we didn't bother with a pre written campaign, nah, we jumped right into a custom sci-fi camaign and made our own roles, quests, and lore We all had a character, a ship and a crew of NPCs , I was a comet miner that intentionally gets hit by them to mine, one of my friends was a mercenary, and the other was an escaped slave with the ability to control sand Shtf really quick, we lost my mining ship, the stolen slave ship and almost blew up the merc's fighter and died within the first hour

[@BardsOnAHill]

Boy oh boy do I love railroad plots

[@flydye45]

A few theories 1) The MASS of the citizens were against magic weapons, but the government liked the kickbacks 2) The laws were 'just how things were done' like the Code of Lycurgus in Sparta, unquestionable. 3) There was a conflict with the temporal authorities and the secular authorities. The Clerics wanted a Monopoly of Magic. Granted, I got the fact that the GM didn't think ANY of this through, It could have been interesting though.

[@ocadioan]

Why was the Paladin being there a problem? The entire town, including law enforcement and rulers, knew and approved of the black market, and probably did their shopping there too. The Paladin was clearly there to buy goods too. Why would anyone consider him a problem?

[@flamesofchaos13]

I don't know MAYBE because a Paladin ended up impaling people to death just because he didn't know how to answer questions?!

[@troodon1096]

Paladins have a reputation that's not really approved of, by the people that paladins don't approve of. As in the video, it's like meeting with a mafia boss while bringing along a uniformed honest police officer. It tends to attract unwanted attention from the type of people that think of a paladin as unwanted attention.

[@Flickstro]

5:40 That was flippin' hilarious! LOL

[@dclem005]

I'm guessing that why a certain region might make magical items illegal/restricted is because they are deemed too dangerous to sell to anyone who might have enough money to buy them. Obviously, a black market could be created in order to provide the goods to whomever willing to still buy them but of course at a much higher price. The local government/police might even look the other way some of the time (or maybe even a lot of the time) if there are enough bribes and kick backs to motivate the authorities that be to not rock the boat too much. If such a black market was created, it is unlikely a group of adventures would destroy it in such a simple skirmish since the powers that be who profit from it would have some other ways to sell their goods if there was too much heat in their main area that they used to sell their stuff. Of course if some adventures did create a scene, the authorities could turn them into scapegoats for making the entire mess and arrest them for attempting to buy illegal goods/disturbing the peace/murder/etc. The only thing they CAN'T do is charge them for some crime involving hurting/damaging the black market itself since "supposedly" the authorities are doing everything possible in their power to keep such a market from existing; even if some of them really don't care whether it exist or doesn't. It is also unlikely that an inquisitor/guard/mayor/etc. would openly admit to collusion with such a black market since doing so wold be more or less admitting they themselves had either taken money and/or helped criminals working in the black market in one way or the other.

[@Mrfallouthero]

The most forbidden of fruit definitely tastes the sweetest

[@tybronx2446]

This week on: Puffin pisses off his GM by pointing out a loophole and gets his PC tortured

[@nymalous3428]

A lot of other people have already commented on the ludicrous nature of the adventure plot in this video. A brief skim didn't turn up what I thought of: namely, that the GM failed to take into account the fact that his group had a paladin in it and that would cause a certain amount of friction on one or both sides. Poor adventure design. (That's in addition to all of the other comments' very relevant points.)

[@azurebalmung4520]

Surprised the mage didn't snap and go "You know what? I'll make you a deal - let me out, and I'll be your economic adviser. It'll work out great for both parties."

[@b3rz3rk3r9]

There could've been two routes to take that would've made more sense: 1.) make it to where the guards keep the Black Market going secretly to make sure the economy of the town is still good, and only let such evils occur for good reasons 2.) make it so that the guards rule the town through some fear of legal searching. Make it so that they keep the peace through some form of fear by capturing people o interest while willingly ignoring the black market. A way to maintain order with an iron fist. Both of these would depend on one thing: the council NOT KNOWING about the black market, or being vehemently against its existence.

[@AnUtterSimpleton]

As a general rule, if something is illegal, you have to pay more to acquire it. They'd make more money by keeping these items illegal and forcing them to be sold through less than legal means, rather than selling them legally for less, considering there isn't the added cost of "danger pay" because acquiring illegal shit is hard or whatever.

[@markdowse3572]

The town Inquisitor displays a new alignment: Lawful STOOPID ! :) :) :)

[@jasonroberts4116]

No it works if you approach it like prohibition in the 1920s A lot of local governments knew about the illegal trade ect of alcohol and either were bought off or turned a blind eye to it. However the feds were attempting to crackdown on it.

[@jarkoer]

Makes perfect economic sense. If something is illegal then it's going to cost more. Therefore the town can enact what is effectively a higher "sales tax" on the items without it actually being a tax; deflecting resentment AWAY from the government. The money doesn't go directly to the government; though perhaps indirectly through income tax or the fact that this money would naturally find its way into the local economy. If everybody is aware that the town is okay with the black market then the Assassins Guild has no reason to kill anyone to keep the black market a secret. But just as the town locked up the adventurers, no doubt the Assassins Guild would have killed the paladin because "appearances do need to be kept up".

[@bluemew22]

You dealt with that plot hole much better than I. 2 rounds with Inquisitor and I'd have just picked up my sheet and left. "I'm playing to avoid argueing with morons over things this stupid. Great work killing the investment." ...I'm the obligatory asshole of the friend circle and revel in it.

[@uafgames9061]

I love how ridiculous each and every character Puffin has made or even voiced is.

[@beebitbit3080]

Me, a teifling arcane trickster: ok ok. Here's an example. If you unban magic, then you can sell them normally, meaning that it wouldn't be illegal, and you'd still earn money. Inquisitor: but... Me: you can't argue with my logic

[@OtioseFanatic]

"The secret ingredient is crime!"

[@adampavlicek2916]

The black market could have easily been explained if the town fell under a larger country or states control where magic is illegal, But this specific town in the country ribs a black market that is an open secret and have to keep up appearances in case the larger government forces send investigators.

[@ascendedbeing694]

Narrator sends me with best regards.

[@Daves-not-here]

I look at the inquisitor and hold out my hand, with a snap of my fingers my spell book appears. Moments latter nothing is left of the town but rubble and ash as we ride into the sunlight

[@MegaStone99]

Sounds like your DM was not thinking about things that much.

[@caedenkniep3528]

Dude this literally just happened in a game I was playing in! We all had a good laugh about it.

[@welcomefire]

If I were in this game, I'd put investigation checks into finding out where the inquisitor lives and try to get the party on board with ruining her life after we escaped

[@chris-the-human]

that was an interesting story i think i'd be furious at your dm and the backwards troll logic of this town

[@melchid8448]

You know he could make Solomon dont go to black market and then hear the chaos and finding out his friends dragged to prison then he would be the one to save them and it will prevent railroading and make seem solomon as a important character

[@Zarrocss]

To be honest I kind of wanted to do something similar to this except have the kingdom rules as you cannot have magical items so that the guards and the emperor have greater power than the people can get their hands on legally. And make an oppressive form of government and then have a city that is prosperous because it allows the sales of goods in the black market that hides it from the other cities and and the emperor, but they know that the black market exist and they get funds from the black market as a payoff for allowing the Black Market. Basically the only rules is no one can use the magic items in public because we do not want the other government officials finding out because if the other officials found out then the City would have to do something about it. Also I would think that the resistance would mostly be located here and would be in control of the black market most likely. or maybe they just have a large vase there I haven't flushed out the plans completely yet

[@revoltman-needsmoreclickbait]

the plot would make sense if the town had used the black market to ramp up the prices of magical goods to make more money off of them but that still wouldn't make much sense because then my wouldn't customers just go to another town were it wasn't illegal

[@magmadude1003]

My old group would’ve convinced the inquisitor that it was the Paladin’s fault and would’ve sued to let out

[@omicdog]

I was thinking about this black market thing the other day. It's a lot like Walmart.

[@rubaemaster7036]

When you decide to have something be called something negative even if it doesn’t have to be… I couldn’t tell if the dm was just having the inquisitor stay on plot or if he literally didn’t actually understand what you were saying.

[@krystlvines]

I'm surprised that Ben didn't quit that group then and there.

[@kurokaze511]

I just want to point out that in the quest he talked about at the beginning he said the only escape from the evil necromancer would by the sweet release of death... um Im pretty sure that's the opposite of how that works

[@juliastevenson9079]

Makes perfect sense in a Lawful Evil community :)

[@bullseyebob4160]

This sounds like any major city ever...

[@sable7687]

Thats what happens when you roll a natural 1 twice in a row when talking to the Inquisitor.

[@mishtamoose8308]

I kinda get what the inquisitor was saying. Theres a difference between a regular market and a black market. Black markets gives you more adrenaline when go there, making the black market more exciting.

[@edfreak9001]

The DM didn't think this through and didn't want to just admit fault.