My Merchant Rp

[*rapsam2003]

Honestly, I think, in general, it's one of those "ICly in my OOC" things. In other words, it's fine if someone wants to just buy their items. Sometimes, characters - like people - are like that. I go into a store to buy underwear, all I want is underwear. On the other hand, Morthos wants to examine the items a bit, ask about a few that are interesting, sell an item or two, etc. Morthos wouldn't mind a merchant explaining a bit of history regarding a special item or such.
My point is, different characters - like different people - have their own ways of doing things. But people have to think about how their character would do it, not about how "well, I'm gonna go run a dungeon and I need silver weapons". We have NPCs who give basic items if you want to avoid any RP interaction at all. People often are busy thinking of OOC concerns, and it can sometimes negatively impact other's RP. On the other hand, if a certain character is all about "Get what I need and get out", merchant PCs need to respect that.

[*Mr_Otyugh]

Roleplaying is all about putting in effort for the unnecessary. It isn't about efficiency, it's much more about narrative representation of the inefficiency. Infact when something is depicted as efficient, you don't just do it efficiently, you emote the nature of the efficiency in roleplaying. So don't let yourself get lazy on that excuse, especially when we're all practicing more or less a celebration of gameplay inefficiency. :lol:

Merchant characters are putting their effort to stock up on, and sell stuff, I think the least you can do is respect the effort they are doing by giving it a try. No, I'm not expecting you to be super-max-ultra-pro at eloquent tongue twirling emotes or wording, that's not the point. It's all about giving it some effort.

[*Kiljaedon]

If I was roleplaying a merchant and someone came up to me and asked for +5 weapon id just look at them in character funny and just not understand until they are more clear in a way my character would IC understand.

A few days back there was a roleplaying merchant at one of the stalls smoking his pipe when a more newer adventurer approached him and asked for a +5 weapon within the customers price range. The merchant just raises an eyebrow and stated what a queer lass he be. To say that the merchant needs to respect the customer because they are to busy and in a rush to role play on a server centered around roleplaying then perhaps their reasoning for playing on this server needs to be re-evaluated.

We need to still understand this is first and foremost a roleplaying server and that should above all else game wise be first priority. If you do not have time to act out properly in character then I would go do something alone or not log on. Now understand some people IC are abrasive and in a rush so that is separate. An adventurer in a rush sometimes just needs a tedious explanation skipped if its not dangerous to the users of said magic equipment.

[*Whitefly]

Kinda' reminds me of this:
https://youtu.be/O2N0j6v73z0?t=52m23s

[*KittyEmpress]

And here to play devil's advocate:

I don't like Merchant RP.

I don't enjoy haggling, I certainly don't enjoy dancing around the fact that my end game gear is +5 with +30 hp with +1 regen, and I want everything to have that, but oh no every merchant needs me to say it a new way. I most definitely do not enjoy watching an enchanter take 20 minutes to make an item, when I know [from my own enchanter] that it's done instantly - especially when that enchanter just... goes to another room, so it's not like we're even RPing.

This is why I never use custom made items/crafters/enchanters. I will go up to merchants with chests, I will point at an item, I will say how much I'll pay for it, take it or leave it, and then leave.

I don't want to spend an hour and a half doing a form of RP I dislike, just because I need to upgrade my gear. If you enjoy your merchant RP, that's fine, play your merchant, enjoy yourself, but asking people to play along with you and do a bunch of unnecessary hurdles is silly. Some people enjoy different things than you do, and unless your character is really interesting, I don't want to sit and one on one RP with an enchanter who just brags about how great they are, when in reality every enchanter is exactly the same in this game.



It's not that I treat being a merchant like buying from Amazon, so much as I treat a trip to the store as maybe a 15-20 minute thing, not multiple hours upon hours. Merchant RP bores me to interact with, I'm not sorry to say that - it has nothing to do with your own RP skills, just that I find haggling and that ilk of RP to be boring. So I don't, in this game I play for my enjoyment, want to deal with it.


And yeah, despite the accusations that anyone who doesn't want merchant RP just doesn't know it's a roleplaying server - I love to roleplay. I enjoy campfire RP, adventure RP, political RP. But that doesn't mean I enjoy every aspect of RP, and merchant RP is my one - which is unfortunate, since advancement in the game always will require some interaction with merchants.

[*Jelkia]

We need to still understand this is first and foremost a roleplaying server and that should above all else game wise be first priority.  If you do not have time to act out properly in character then I would go do something alone or not log on.  Now understand some people IC are abrasive and in a rush so that is separate.  An adventurer in a rush sometimes just needs a tedious explanation skipped if its not dangerous to the users of said magic equipment.

Tha's why ah'm always leery ah threads like this. Et tends ta ends up wit folks tellin other folks how ta play tha game. Sayin ya outta be RPin like this er tha cause ets tha 'right' way. Like someone's actually ah authority on RPin. :rolleyes: An yeh.. ah know ets ah RP server but really.. why nah let folks play how they like? If ya don enjoy tha way they play.. then yer welcome nah ta play along wit em...

Speakin personally... ah aint always in tha mood fer RP when ah login. Some times ah jus wanna login ta ah alt an grind in one ah tha zones while ah chat with ah few folks IC er OOC. Aint about all RP all tha time fer me. There's more'n tha ta do on tha server in my opinion. Ah figure everyone's here ta play an enjoy themselves an they're welcome ta do et long as they aint breakin some rules.

If all RP all tha time es really ah expectation fer tha server.. someone let me know an ah'll find tha door outta here. Cause ah got better things ta spend my relaxin time on than folks bein an ass cause ah don play tha game tha same way they want et ta be played. Cause et gets reall tedious ta hear et.

Far as merchants go ah don mind at all if ah merchant es lookin fer RP while their shop es open. Most ah tha time ah'm more'n happy ta RP out buyin somethin. When ah aint in tha mood fer et...then ah don mind sendin em ah tell an askin first. Er even jus doin business OOCly via tells. If tha aint yer thing... jus say yer in RP mode an ah'll find someone else ta buy from. Don mind ah bit.

But ah'm sorry if ah don login every evenin jus brimmin over wit tha desire fer haggling merchant style RP an tryin ta figure out tha special code speak ya want me ta ICly talk in so ah can buy somethin from ya. Don care ah whit if tha makes me lazy.

[*Mick64]

No, I don't think location gives anyone the right to impose an RP style on someone. You play your own characters how you want, and others play their characters how they want.

[*Ariella]

Mick has the right of it. Sigil always has and always will cater to many styles of rp. Players will never be forced to rp a certain way. You want to Rp tiers or indepth descriptions go nuts, by that note however mechants can also refuse to sell or act stupid. If the termenolgy is unknowm to their character.

However OOC pming a merchant to buy a set item without RP is discouraged, While how you rp is not up for discussion. This is still a rp server and you are required to rp while ig.

[*WhenWizardsWar]

No, I don't think location gives anyone the right to impose an RP style on someone. You play your own characters how you want, and others play their characters how they want.

Understand, what I -feel- and what i do in game are two different things so please dont think that im going to or that i have been forceing people to rp a certain way just because they step inside a room owned by my character.

This thread is merely for discussion of philosophical views and what not.

[*DigitalDragoon]

Telling new players who may or may not be strong rpers yet that they can't use certain terms to describe a convoluted item seems kind of petty. (I am not a fan of the use of 'tiers' myself. But to each his/her own). There are also times when the market is so buzy the the chat is near impossible to read and someone just wants to speak as plainly as possible without breaking character. (Especially if a given merchant has a long waiting line.)

One thing I have found helpful with characters or requests that are not easily understood is to emote describing the thing or pointing to it on display and then asking more directly in a tell.