Tabletops Blog

“I want to go buy some gear.” Those seven words are like a cheesegrater on the eardrums of every GM. In nearly every case, your player has just said “I want to waste an hour looking through books to find things I want to buy.” This usually causes the GM to pick up a heavy rulebook and quietly ponder whose noggin to pound on (“mine or his, mine or his…”—look carefully next time you go shopping, most GMs really do this.) Of course, the other 10% is normally the equivalent of “I want to magically exchange the money I’m carrying for an item I want without any effort or interest.” Less of the GM’s time is wasted in this case, but it’s no less asinine—inherent to that statement is the assumption that if money can buy it, the player can get it. And that nothing else interesting will happen along the way.

If a character has an inventory, then shopping is something GMs will just have to deal with. Naturally, no GM likes being told “eh, you’ll just have to deal with it”, so here are six ways to turn that in-game shopping time into something fun. And by ‘fun’ I mean ‘more interesting than flipping through pages of splatbooks.’

0. But First, An Important Rule 0!

Okay. Before we go any further, you need to pay attention to this. This is Rule Zero for adding roleplaying value to your party’s shopping trips: There is no such thing as a freakin’ Wal-Mart. Sure, a modern-day RPG can get by with big-box store runs for things like duct tape and rope, but there’s no store anywhere that blithely sells everything, up to and including suitcase nukes, under one roof. If you’ve got such a store, get rid of it—now. Retcon if you must. We’ve all played in games where the lazy GM invents a magical superstore that has everything you’d ever want. All else being equal, this is incredibly boring. (To the credit of my current GM, who does this, he’s using some of the tips I describe below to make his Wal-Mart much more interesting; but you’ll have to keep reading to learn which ones.)

“Wal-Marting” generally encourages every bad behavior we’re trying to prevent and permits very few roleplaying opportunities. Everything at your fingertips with no personality and no reason that this massive economic and magical/scientific powerhouse hasn’t conquered the world yet? Embarrassingly bad. Don’t do it. Ever.

1. Specialty Shops

This is sort of the counterpoint to Rule Zero. Every business naturally has a specialty and a market it caters to. Even the big-box stores specialize; Wal-Mart sells a lot of stuff, but it all falls into the category of “household necessities” (and also NASCAR kitsch and crappy meat, but whatever.) In most RPG settings, individual sellers will specialize much more than they do in real life. Blacksmiths, gunsmiths, wizards selling scrolls, etc.—nobody makes everything and nobody has everything for sale.

What this means, of course, is that unless you’re in a very wealthy and populated area that’s got a wide variety of stores, it’s very unlikely that your players will be able to find a Holy Avenger or grenade launcher in a shop somewhere. This is not a bad thing. It’s the lesson of  The Incredibles—”When everyone’s super, then no one will be.” Having the neat stuff available to everyone cheapens all of it! Not to mention that making your players keep track of who sells what where (and maybe when—and we’ll get to ‘why’ in a moment) keeps them thinking about the world and keeps them immersed in the game.

Incidentally, a lot of games have “availability” ratings for exotic items. Those are sort of a take-it-or-leave-it thing for me—if I’m on the fence about something being available to the PCs I’ll use them, but most of the time I’ll make a quick “you can/can’t find that here” decision based on my idea of where they are. I’m especially wary of ratings you have to roll, though. Your mileage may vary, but don’t think you’re stuck using those and don’t let your players convince you to roll them if you don’t want to.

2. Make Individual Shops and Shopkeepers Memorable

This is one of those things that, when done right and with restraint, can make your game fantastic. Most GMs know to at least give most NPCs some sort of interesting quirk to differentiate them in the minds of the players; accents and speech impediments are the most common (because they’re easiest) but you occasionally get the peg-leg, eyepatch, etc.. Take that as a starting point, and expand it massively for the occasional shopkeeper you want your players to remember. Don’t worry so much about the NPC’s backstory, because players hate stories that don’t involve them; rather, make the NPC as full of life and character and uniqueness as you might make your own PC. This does two things: First, it imprints the NPC onto your characters minds—”guy with the limp” pales in comparison with “Jack the mechanic, who’s got two sons he yells at constantly and who keeps misplacing his tools, but who instantly warms up to anyone that treats him like a Good Ol’ Boy and threw in a free oil change on that account. Oh, and his dog humped the mage’s leg, and that’s now a hilarious YouTube hit.”

Naturally, the stores or stalls that such unique and fascinating individuals do their business in must also be unique. Fantasy games offer a lot of unique opportunities for this. Imagine a basement alchemist who works without light to avoid open flames, or a blacksmith whose forge is kept hot by a fire elemental, or a shop precariously balanced on a cliff’s edge or the top of a tower. Why does this livery stable have the right to do business from inside the local church’s walls when no other such shop exists—an ancestral right? a reward for a heroic deed? a corrupt priest? Be inventive and don’t be afraid to make crazy ideas work—the real world’s a strange place and you have to be stranger. And even if you don’t make the shopkeeper memorable, your players may well remember “the guy who sells potions from the blue barge at the docks.”

One caveat: The Incredibles rule applies here, too. Use this sort of character and location depth judiciously—often enough to make your players excited about the world they’re playing in and the people in it, but not so often that it becomes exhausting for you and your players to keep up with. It’s easy to burn your players out with fantastic descriptions, and constantly trying to one-up yourself will quickly lead you from “fantastic” to “utterly ridiculous”. Again, though, used correctly your players will remember these shops and tradesmen for the entire campaign—and beyond.

3. Things Happen in Stores, Too, You Know

No shopkeeper has a “No pants, no plot, no patronage” sign hanging on their door (well, okay, one of mine now does, but only because he’s a dwarf and doesn’t want to see things at head height and… well, nevermind.) Got your players out shopping in the various stores you’ve come up with? Awesome! Now they’re in a semi-public place that plenty of other people may need or want to go to. Time for things to occur!

When I was jotting this list down on my lunch break, I came up with this list of things that could happen while the players are shopping. And this is just what I thought of while eating half a sandwich:

• The PCs have a ‘chance’ encounter with the servant of a lord in need of assistance.
• The PCs are interrupted by a violent robbery that leads to a fight in a crowded shop filled with fragile goods.
• The PCs walk in to find the shopkeeper being threatened by a creditor or extortioner.
• Enemies of the PCs spring an ambush on them in a shop they know the PCs must visit when they return to town.
• The PCs enter the store to find the shopkeeper dead, and quickly find themselves framed for the crime.

Surely you can do better than what a ham sandwich and I ended up with. Start thinking.

4. Fraud and Malfunction, or “Okay, Apparently That Guy Sold Us Cleaning Supplies, and Not Holy Water. Also Zombies Don’t Like Soap. Run.”

I talked earlier about the use of fraudulent goods in your game, and that advice remains good. Fact is, not everything sold on the market works as advertised. Some things will be outright fakes, and others just won’t work as well as they should. Of course, this isn’t always due to hostile intent or fraud—sometimes it’s a simple matter of inadequate quality control.

The Eberron setting has a particularly good setup for this that you may want to adapt or borrow—House Cannith, the dragonmarked house that specializes in the manufacture of alchemical and magical goods, has the legal right to set standards for the quality of all such goods. However, it’s generally not worth their trouble to enforce it everywhere, so independent craftsmen often sell shoddier goods for less. Thus, the prices for goods you see in the Player’s Handbook are those of Cannith-made (or Cannith-regulated) goods; but you might be able to get a sunrod at half that price—and it may work half as long, or be half as bright, or simply not work at all. Of course, there’s a chance it might work better too. (Keith Baker wrote a post in the WotC Community forums about this a while back, but I can’t find it at the moment.)

Just as there are good shops with memorable craftsmen, there are cheap shops with crappy goods. The latter makes the former that much more interesting and ties the players closer to them, so be sure to scam your players every now and again. They’ll appreciate it. I promise.

(Okay, don’t do that, at least not randomly. Do it purposefully, like you mean it.)

5. Goods That Fell Off the Wagon. Um, I Mean Barge. Yeah, the Barge.

The only thing that causes more long-term headaches for players than malfunctioning or fake items are stolen goods. This makes sense—the guy who sells them the fake is running away from the party, while the guy who wants his stuff back is running towards the party and is often accompanied by guards, police, soldiers, mercenaries, or (worst of all) a search warrant. Depending on your setting, stolen goods may or may not remain the property of their original owner after a sale or two, and depending on what the stolen goods are the party may not be willing to give them up. The possibilities for trouble abound!

Of course, the next question is how the party got those hot goods in the first place. Obviously in this case they bought them (or this entire post would be titled something like “Six Ways to Deal With PCs Who Steal Like Link After He Gets the Bombs”.) How did the fence get them? Did he know they were stolen? Did he steal them himself? Will it help the PCs situation at all if they help catch the original thief? Get your players asking these sorts of questions, and as long as you can provide interesting answers you’ll have yourself a fun adventure.

6. Strong Relationships With the Guys Who Keep You Armed

This is sort of the ultimate goal of all of these suggestions. The whole point is for your players (and their characters) to build strong relationships with the world their characters are moving through and with the NPCs that inhabit it. While its often very tempting to make your campaign a “us-versus-the-world” game, where the PCs can’t trust anyone except themselves, that tends to (a) make your NPCs predictable, and (b) keep your players from caring very much about the world you’ve so carefully created. So help them build up friendships with the NPCs they’re likely to see most often—the shopkeepers. Have your shopkeepers ask your PCs for favors (i.e. quests) and in return, let your shopkeepers give discounts and little favors to the PCs.

Heck, when the climactic battle is looming and it’s clear that the PCs are the only ones who can save the world from firey destruction, maybe that friendship the PCs developed with Tim the Arms Dealer pays off and he says “Here, take whatever you want from my warehouse, and go save us all.” Your players will have earned it, not just through combat and following your plot but in taking the time to connect with an interesting NPC. You know, roleplaying.

Remember waaaay back at the beginning of this post, when I laid out the “No Wal-Marting” rule? The GM in the D&D game I run has a magical Wal-Mart with everything ever contained within, and with access points all over the place; but because our party has developed a rapport with a particular shopkeeper, visiting Wal-Mart has gone from “I teleport back and get X” to “I teleport back and tell Frank ‘hello’ when he appears, and then hand over the shopping list. Oh, and Frank, I’m supposed to deliver a message; apparently the girls want to know if you’re free this evening?” Would it be fun if we had more than one shopkeeper to visit, and more interesting places to see? Sure. But even just one can turn into something interesting. So while you don’t need to do everything I’ve listed here all the time, do try to work some of it in when you can and when it will help. You’ll be amazed at what will happen.