EzekielRaiden
Follower of the Way
Given there's going to be an appraisal regardless, and thus varying offers, would it not be simpler to just state a rough value range (e.g. "thirty to seventy, give or take") and then invoke the dice only when an actual offer is being made? If tying it to skills is of importance, perhaps make use of passive checks to narrow the expected range, e.g. for someone with a total bonus of -1 they'd have nearly no idea what it's worth, while someone with a high modifier and relevant additional stuff could get very close--perhaps within +/- 10 of the real value?“The dice said X” isn’t really what’s happening. Valuables have specific value ranges depending on their type and rarity, so a Jasper is worth 50gp on average, in a very real sense. That’s something a very analytical player who played with me for long enough might even be able to deduce. But, for most players, when their character attempts to appraise it, they might determine some value range between 20 and 80, which is ultimately an approximation of its actual value. Then, when the PCs decide to sell or trade it, an NPC might offer anywhere within the 20 to 80 range, and the PCs might be able to argue higher. Dice are involved in making these determinations, but so is my judgment as the architect of the subsystem, the rules for gems in the DMG as they determined the true average values of these items, and so are the players’ build choices, as their ability modifiers and proficiencies affect their odds of success when trying to haggle.
I mean, the players don’t see the dice I’m rolling when they appraise and trade valuables. They might notice that I am rolling something behind the screen, and a superstitious player might make the assumption that a price they think is low was the result of a low roll. If such a player feels cheated in that instance, I expect that player probably feels cheated a lot when playing D&D. They might enjoy a diceless RPG more.
It just seems like this is rather laborious (multiple dice rolls for every discovered gem upon discovery, and with every effort to actually sell it). I get that it captures something you're happy with, so obviously more power to you, but it'd drive me crazy having to do that half a dozen times for even a moderate-sized haul.