Let's Populate the Merchant's Row

Maybe you do a favor for the butcher and then he sells you a cleaver, since they have been removed from the game.

 

Some way of legitimately earning money - a hiring house, hireling on to hunt dangerous animals, or to guard caravans.

Or how about working for Knoll the bounty hunter - tracking down npc's for cash?

 

The Adventurer's Emporium

Shop name: Liberty's Emporium
Shopkeeper: SoL
Storefront: Western Lower Corner

Get your adventuring gear here. Torches, 10 foot poles, flasks of oil, caltrops, mapping gear, and door stops. Buy sell and trade everything under the sun.

Shop name: Biggo's Tailor Shop
Shopkeeper: Biggo
Storefront: Open

 

Originally Posted by nyarlathotep
An instrument shop - all sorts of instruments, from the mundane to the exotic right to the magical ones.
THE INSTRUMENT SHOP

Shop name: "The Dragon's Tale" - UlDragos Bardic Trade Goods
Shopkeeper: The Bard UlDragos, and assistant Jaana Flamehair
Storefront: unknown

Yes, sounds like a winner.

I posted after nyarlathotep a post talking about a shop selling bardic instruments, tools and equipment... with my bard character as the store owner/operator. I could provide a few lines of dialogue and/or portraits for the characters, if you tell me how they should be formatted.

It should be stocked with ALL the instruments, some magical trinkets such as Bag of Tricks, Chimes, etc. that an adventuring bard would carry. maybe a magical weapon or three??

I hoped this fell into the format Gaear was looking for, as i left out any quest ideas related to the characters. It would be nice to just give them a bit of flavor text for dialogue...!

unless nyarlathotep also had some ideas for a store name and characters... i just was excited at the mention of a instrument shop as Bard is my favorite character class.

 

THE ARCHERY SHOPPE

Shop name: Dragonsbane Bows and Fletchings
Shopkeeper: Aerich Dragonsbane, half-elven ranger
Storefront: unknown

How about a shop specializing in only ranged weapons? a very experienced Bowyer who crafts the finest bows, crossbows and fletched bolts and arrows, including magical ones.

Run by a ranger of peerless skill. "Dragonsbane Bows and Fletchings"

"Need to slay a dragon? Aerate an Ettin? Perforate a Bugbear horde before they close to melee range? Keep those ugly monsters at bay, or make them dead with my fine bows and arrows! Buy one today!" LOL

 

Could you have a Pawn shop or a Pet shop where the shop has no ACTUAL items a character can purchase? as in, its there for the flavor of adding to the town immersion... the NPC(s) are there, and the dialogue indicates the shop purpose ... but the shop has no actual wares.

i realize some players would not be happy, and would complain they could not make a purchase though.

The artist studio suggestion would fit in with this as well, as in provided for "flavor" as a city of this size would doubtless have artisans, etc. with 12 shoppes, not all of them need to sell something, right? Hommlett has several artisans that have a shop (Pottery, cheese, miller, etc.) that have no purchasable goods, but add to the 'immersion' of discovering the town.

Heck, even the Hiring Hall could be there in this mode - we could see the disgruntled masses seeking work in such a big city! could make for a few funny dialogues, at least. You would enter just for the experience of chatting with some NPCs...

HAHA or the "TinkerGnome shop" suggested ... i'm sure that would also add some colorful dialogue even if he did not sell anything. at the very least the TinkerGnome could sell an EXTREMELY expensive 'Smith and Westrealm' ... it's still in the game if you console it in.

 

how about a shop individually devoted to each of the character classes in the game?

a shop run by a grizzled barbarian selling gear appropriate for a high level experienced barbarian?

a shop selling gear specifically for a paladin, a cleric, a druid, etc.? run by an experienced NPC of that class, with some decent flavor text for dialogue.

Anyone have any ideas? i am happy to contribute more of my characters...

 

Reining back the ideas a bit - a shop that sells magic arrows , bolts and stones would be very useful as their is no way to craft them in the game and they are in very limited supply.

 

The Bardic shop

Name: The Major Tremelo

Owner: Jesus Staccatori (has a heavy spanish accent, but is a Halfling who plays on a piccolo)

Front: ?

Gear: Instruments, certainly no bags of holding and such... But He does have some quality & magical instruments. He might also sell things like a "Tophat of tricks" (summon natures ally I ) or some books on folklore (where one might be able to find a rumour), but those should be rare.

**************************************************************************

Shoes & gloves shop

Name: The Lace & Hand

Owner: Topin Finok (elf) & Louis Arbind (human) - Verbo's gay couple

Front: ?

Gear: All kinds of boots, shoes & gloves - though all leather. Even maybe a few purses...

********************************************************************

Barbershop

Name: The Waxen Pooyrot

Owner: Herr Culez (human- short, fat & balding - french accent.)

Front: ?

Gear: He cuts your hair - or beard- for 5 Sp though it does nothing. He also sells shampoo, bars of soap and a razorblade (a tiny dagger).
Could serve as a front for the gambling hall or the thieves/assasin/gamblinghall ideas. ("Do you also trim the hairs on my hobbit feet?" / "Certainly Sir, right this way")

 

@ nyarlahotep: hey dude did not mean to hijack your idea !! - just meant to fill it out so it would be more likely to be selected bards rule.

hmmmm I don't know if Gaear would permit 2 bard/ instrument shoppes ... but maybe??? as there are 17 or so shoppes requiring an identity. or as i kind of indicated mine could be more of a adventuring shop with magical trinkets & oddities that a bard would likely carry ... so they could be different. well, it might get put to a vote or something. IIRC no shop actually sells the Bag of Tricks, Vest, Chimes, or the Pipe of Blasting, etc. they are only Wondrous items that can be crafted. Why not have a shop that sells these for a tidy sum of GP in case the party has not taken those feats?

Like the Barbershop idea LOL

 

Yeah man, that's what i was trying to say with the Archery shoppe. maybe the ranger would need a magic user NPC as an assistant for the enchanting though..

 

These are all good ideas!

Maybe a 'Hiring Hall' with it's NPC characters just there for flavor dialogues could also sell the professional implements, as in it's a place where the citizens of Verbobonc obtain their trade licenses... thus it also sells the official tools of the trades such as the Merchant scales, scholar kits, thieves tools, healing kits, etc. Maybe the party purchases a Verbobonc trade license to obtain these items, and it would be something that would be added as a party reputation for example "This hereby allows _____________ to own and operate with this Merchant Scale and is entitled to the benefits herewith within the bounds of the City of Verbobonc and its environs"

Definitely the city needs a tailor or two.

 

OK, I can see how creating weapons could prove to be a pain.

If the Pawn Shop does come to fruition, could it be run by the goblin we spared on the way to kill the would be Lich? You know, the gobo that tells us where the Lich is and how many troops he has.

It might be cool to see what sparing his life did.

Oooooh Hi! Me remember you .... you no hurt me when I was scared in swamp. I gots lots of good things for you, you gots monies?

He could maybe sell lock grease and armor oil and all the stuff that you usually have to buy at the shop map, or from Ramos and Gremag.