My Merchant Rp

[*Kiljaedon]

Well all of this seems like a great way to possibly revamp how trade is dealt with. Maybe have a Bazaar day once every few weeks or create a trade cartel where you could work with a fence to quietly and discretely get your goods with no questions asked no answers required.

The comment about people acting elite in their towers may or may not be based on the role playing of the person who runs the shop. If they are a wealthy merchant in Sigil then perhaps their toon does have an elitist attitude. I would try not to take it personally in a game where I brush up against Dragon Kings from Dark Suns and Arch Liches that dominated an entire country in their home world but is quite nominal in power while residing in the planes. The premise of Sigil is you are surrounded by already powerful people and creatures in their own right so that is the new standard while in the city of endless portals.

[*Sinlinara]

A bazaar day? You mean a day where I have to compete with everyone else? I believe I will pass.

[*Tomekk]

Or maybe we could add that auction house everyone keeps asking for :rolleyes:

[*poststructuralism]

Getting gear is easy. It's too easy. What's a reasonable price? People are hawking swords +5 like they're packs of cigarettes. If the game's economy were even remotely reflective of what magic gear markets are really supposed to be like, you'd be paying tens/hundreds of thousands of gold for stuff like that. Even the stingiest most profit-squeezing player merchants are generous beyond reason in this context.

If you don't like one merchant's RP, wait til you can find another one. Find some RP, and consider roleplaying about your need for gear. The server is full of nice people who will probably try to help you out.

There are dozens of ways around the cheesy RP of specifying what you want from crafters and merchants. Be creative. If you don't want to say, "I'll take the whip with all the spikes on it and the rubies," consider emoting *points to a whip* and then just send a tell to the merchant player specifying which one.

Common sigil bazaar cant has normalized language for describing tiers of bonus in our game. If you say "third tier" everyone knows you mean +3, and that's OK, not really meta, because that's the way enchantment magic is organized in canon. It makes sense that language would evolve for it in a place where high-magic sales are commonplace. I understand that the challenge of coming up with convenient wording for the RP seems difficult and boring, but consider that none of these merchants really owe you or your character anything, and this is an RP server, so I think it is fair for them to expect a little RP. With a little time and effort, the merchant RP can be made into something that opens doors into other RP, adds an element of flavor to the setting of the game and your character's story (how they choose to handle merchants informs the development of their personality, right?), and becomes something that is not really awkward or boring at all.

It might not be your thing, but it's a part of the game that is probably just not going to change. It's been how it is for years and years. Try to be open minded about having a good RP that can lead to something. If you come to merchant RP with the attitude that it is going to be awkward and boring, then it definitely will be. The sooner you put some effort into making it a part of character development, the happier I think you will be with your games here.

Good luck. <3

[*Mr_Otyugh]

*some keep asking for.

*Edit: response to Tomekk, didn't think anyone would get moment to post first!*

[*Rayanne]

Getting gear is easy. It's too easy. What's a reasonable price? People are hawking swords +5 like they're packs of cigarettes.

For that matter, what in the world is the point of npc merchants? There's a lot of them around, but why would anyone pay their price of 50k+ gold when you can buy an equivalent or better item for a fraction of the price from a player merchant?

[*SyntheticRose]

Their purpose is to sell consumables and buy small things from players. Of course, the 300gp limit is kind of awkward, because in most games, the primary purpose of NPC vendors is to provide a minimum value for a particular item. Nothing that you can sell to an NPC for 300 will every be worth lower than 300. Unfortunately, 300 is kind of a fraction of most items' mean value.

[*Rayanne]

Their purpose is to sell consumables and buy small things from players.

Yeah, but... There's a merchant in the Lady's Ward who sells 40k+ worth of stuff but only purchases stuff for 1gp max.
Just seems pointless.
And then there's the various merchants in the bazaar who also sell, comparatively, overpriced stuff. Just seems like a waste of npcs.

[*MimiFearthegn]

And then there's the various merchants in the bazaar who also sell, comparatively, overpriced stuff. Just seems like a waste of npcs.

There weren't always player merchants. . .

In fact, its likely that we have player merchants because of the 300 gp limit.

But stuff has to be available by other means. Just because the player economy drives down the price of things doesn't mean that its good module design to gut the other means of accessing certain important base items. If you're lucky enough to not use the NPC merchants, don't. But that doesn't mean it always was or always will be possible to completely do without them.

[*Mr_Otyugh]

Actually there has always been player merchants, the NPC buy limit was always aimed toward PC driven economy rather than NPC driven one, heck it used to be 200gp even. I mean my first character on the server was a merchant that helped to set the theme. :P

Not defending NPC merchants dreadful prices, but they were never a huge priority. And if designed all over (by me, not speaking for the current staff or their vision), they'd either:
a) get only items not available in loot drops (generally more planescape flavor), with more sane prices. (though not low enough to make PC merchants moot)
b) be aimed to help people to start, so up to +3 items, and with saner prices. (and still not low enough to make PC merchants moot, just low enough to be a viable place to invest if you really don't want to interact with PCs)