How to make shopping in D&D not suck
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- čas přidán 25. 07. 2024
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Quick question... what lipstick are you wearing? I looove it. ❤
Actually I made this shopkeep in my first dnd campaign i was dming hes a goblin from the faywild he's really old and basically like a God who's super fast has the ability to telaport him and the shop he loves to joke. My players absolutely love him I bring him through every new campaign, and there always so excited to see him
@DogwoodDove it's Maybelline Superstay 24 Color in Very Cranberry!
That's a magnificent shirt. Did U build your room around it?
My over all magic shop is Omar's Magic Shoppe. No matter what town or city they come Omar is the owner of the shop. And there a barrel of sword for sell for 1000gp. It a random roll sword table in the DM guild.
Never underestimate the success of a throwaway NPC. I ran a game of Exalted for 6 years and one of the most beloved NPCs was Sharif the silk-cutter, a random clerk that had his lunch stolen.
Ha! My Exalted party needed to medic once and ended up bringing her on weird global adventures of at least 3 years....
I still have PTSD about the NPC who could make one potion per day that would expire when they made the next one and, for some reason, that was the most exciting thing in the entire campaign and my players put way more energy and effort into trying to convince this gnome with two hit points an no abilities to join their level 8 party so they could have one extra potion on tap.
I had a trio of frost giants attack the PCs in a Scion game in an Italian restaurant. The players dealt quickly and mercilessly with the first two goons, leaving the third 10' tall goon to fall to his knees, crying out, "Don't kill me, I got lil ice cubes at home!"
I wound up with an NPC that would be a background character for years. "If you want to live, start by cleaning up the mess your friends made."
Giant finds a broom and dustpan, starts sweeping up broken glass while singing "dum dum dum duh duh dum dum..." No such as a throwaway NPC.
My players latched onto a random npc that insulted them when they first entered a town, they tracked him down and I turned him into a cartel boss who was smuggling "fey dust" and the party went on a side quest to stop him.
So true
I liked how in Critical Role campaign 2, Matt would occasionally use shopping as an opportunity to remind the players about the ongoing war. They were spending most of their time far from the front lines, but they were reminded of the reach of the conflict when most of the more valuable magical items and especially healing items were being sent to the military.
And of course Pumat Sol is a gem.
I was about to say something along these lines. What Matt Mercer is doing here is using the shop keepers to set mood and tone in scene. But you don't need to do this too often for the players to get it. And it doesn't need to take long. In my experience, even with interesting, entertaining NPCs, shopping in D&D is adds little more often than not. Down time should still be advancing the story. True, it's the lull between high points, but it's a way to deepen the context of the campaign and where complications can be brought to light. It's where the PCs discover while they've been out tomb raiding, the villains have not been idle.
Ginny is spot on in how memorable NPCs make for great story telling opportunities and help players invest in the world. But those interactions need to count for something. Just because you have an interesting, quirky character concept for an NPC doesn't mean they belong in the story. In HBO's Rome, for instance, we do not meet all the slaves in Caesar's house---we only meet his sharp tongued body slave, Poska, who is quickly established as a literate, keen, and capable of doing business on Caesar's behalf, so very a valuable slave. And whenever we see Poska in scene, we know he is there on Caesar's order--he is a capable, smart extension of Caesar's will. A quirky, memorable NPC usually isn't enough to put them in scene. A quirky, memorable NPC who advances the overall narrative is an absolute must have.
(Now I don't have magic shops in my world because I feel that reduces magic items to the newest, latest smart phone. If PCs haven't paid for their magic items in blood, they haven't earned them.)
Aristotle in his Poetics says drama is real life without the boring bits. That's what screen writers call shoe leather--that is unless there is a narrative reason to have the characters in a market place, skipping it is usually best. Even in downtime, where the characters have returned to town, the story needs to be advancing.
Generally speaking, I have the players give me a list of what they are wanting and I'll say either yes or no as to it's availability. If it's something clever that might take time, I'll let them know. Or if it's something that might involve a side quest, say obtaining mercury so a highly skilled smith can gild the party's steel weapons with silver.
Obtaining the mercury might be a side quest that first takes them to a barber surgeon that treats prostitutes and their patrons at a local brothel---but he's only got a very small amount and he hasn't seen his supplier in a long while. The players run down the supplier only to discover he's had his throat cut by thieves leading the party into a confrontation with the thieves guild. So on and so forth.
Pumat is indeed very charming
And Gilmore is also an iconic character and not just a shop keep
@@thedanishcatgirl3205 What about the powder merchant :D
@@TheBiggreenpig I was about to mention that. Victor the gunpowder merchant was a super memorable and super effective NPC in Campaign 1...with a combination of a funny voice and a funny personality, Matt was already able to captivate the players to him, but in future visits Victor was also helpful as a narrative driver forshadowing that Anna Ripley is still around. Plus, each and every time the players visit Viktor, there are more and more incidents of Viktor accidentally blowing himself up with the gunpowder which was hilarious!
My friend had a magic shopkeep Faerie named Ari. She lived in a cluttered shop that appeared as a door on a wall, but never in the same place twice. She was temporally dislocated, you never knew if the Ari you'd meet was from your past or future. The first time she meets they're convinced you're her dearest friends.
Her store was a maze of shelves, rooms, passages, all covered in clutter that served as a few adventures of their own when weird things that should NOT be in a store found their way in through a doorportal.
River Song vibes, I love it!
Reminds me of Ramiris from TenSura, especially with the time paradoxes and labyrinth theme. All in all a really fun idea, especially as the time shenanigans keeps the party on their toes and they could even meet characters from the past or future in the shop.
Imagine them going in and seeing a past version of the BBEG, who is utterly innocent of any wrong doing and just wants to do the right thing. Or they run into a kid they met looking to be an adventurer only to meet his jaded and dying of a curse future self...
A recurring shop in my games is these magical vending machines. I never call them that, I describe arcane mechanisms and part of the gag is the party figuring out that they are vending machines. They always happen to have exactly what the party needs and are suspiciously in ridiculous places (like dungeons) and they seem to have a little guy in them that makes them work. Like, sometimes the items will get stuck and a little arm will reach from inside and fix it. If the players complain about prices or stock, it'll grunt and change them or new stock will slide into place. I imply that all of the machines are attached to the same location through portals. I've got a few quest hooks in my back pocket for them. Some day, when the time feels right, some group will finally get to see what makes them tick.
Yoink; stealing that!
They're a Mimic that survived for so long, and grew so much that they gained sapience, made a Pact, and is now a Sorcerer, aren't they? And either the "items" - or, better yet, the _packaging_ the items the players buy - are its offspring, dormant until discarded for a time, after which said offspring begin to consume more and more of the available items in their environment, wherever they end up.
@@jamesnoneyabizness5611 Okay real talk though? Young mimics disguising themselves as a container that's meant to be thrown away in order to spread is utterly brilliant. I might legitimately steal that idea.
@@Starfloofle
No! Thou Shalt _Not_ Steal!
... take it for free, with my blessings for a full table of _terrified_ players.
Merry Yule, ya messy meatsack murderhobos. 😉😁😂
@@jamesnoneyabizness5611 Honestly, this feels like the Mimic equivalent to the Oblex and I'm here for it. I could also see a type of mimic that becomes a "copy cat" specifically for items, but not a way of hunting humanoids, but as a way to increase their own abilities or to perhaps spread their offspring.
Say one becomes a "Legendary weapon" but instead its the mimic learning new tricks or adapting to its environment. This gets the mimic experiences and thus more tricks and also ways to spread its offspring and even be seen as valuable so it gets protection and even food.
Well Bramble is just delightful, despite that....thorny personality :D
That noir gun moll diction made me smile every time!
I can totally see Bramble running her shop in The Bronx, telling customers to buy something or move along before they "have an accident, see?"
I feel like she would make for an interesting POV roleplay
Bramble... that name hits hard right now.
backstory if my newest char, Bramble is... was... her son... and he was drowned by the bad guys in game D:
the moment ginny said to add character to the shopkeep, i immediately thought of the time i worked at a grocery store and imagined a bored cashier who doesn’t own the place & is relieved their boss is almost never around. they don’t like haggling too much bc they don’t have any say in the prices, but if the PCs play their cards right, the cashier is more than sympathetic & will absolutely find little ways to give them deals & screw over their boss (like giving them damaged merchandise for free even tho they’re not supposed to do that). y’all can have that one for free lol
Chaotic working is so much funnier than "quiet quitting"
i had run a game of shadowrun, and one day the group ran into a bee burger restaurant (think of mc donalds... of 1970s with fancy costumes and a child area, teleported to the year 2070)
and the NPC i had as a cashier was so done with everyones shit in that world... outside some go gangers shooting up the street? not his problem. windows thrown in? not his problem, etc.
and in my most monotone voice i uttered
'welcome to beeburger, where the burgers are bee-tastic'
and he was a sudden success... he even has cameos in every other game i played or DMd from that moment on... he appeared in 2010 in my game, and has had about 20 appearances over the years in all kinds of settings ;D
@@Xingmey oh i love that! that’s one of my favorite types of characters, just a complete monotone despite their over the top surroundings
My fiance ran Dragon of Icespire Peak for us and when we were introduced to a Giant Sentient Crab we absolutely fell in love with him. We completed a quest for him and the result was his companion (that was a spirit after death) was released from the material plane. We asked what he was going to do now that his companion was gone and he said he didn't know, that he knew no other life. We offered to take him on our travels, but he was hesitant and not too interested in a life of adventure. We discovered companionship was important to him, though, and so convinced him to come along with us back to Phandelver.
Here, the townspeople accepted him and he replaced the recently slain resteraunt server, working only for tips and only because he liked how shiny the coins were. He kept the job to be near people every day and horded his tips stash in the bottom of a mud puddle within the city limits (that he also slept in.)
He revealed to us that his name was Oliver, and whenever we entered the resteraunt to eat, conduct business, or visit our friend, Oliver, she would play the Crab Rave song and describe Oliver dancing around the floor with his serving tray, giving out drinks to the patrons and collecting their bills.
He still makes a cameo whenever different parties pass through the area, no matter who from the group is running the game. It's been a really fantastic addition. We look forward to seeing Oliver so loved and accepted in his new home every time we come around.
There will come a day when all the tips he's collected and not recirculated into the economy will have consequences on the town, but what a guy!
I was just starting to plan for next session when my players said they wanted to go shopping. Perfect timing!
Yeah, I'm currently stuck on preparing a market for my PCs next week, so this is really helpful!
It’s amazing how Ginny is consistently able to make a video that immediately relates to what I’m working on
bro same
Lucky bois.
What’s great too is it can be something totally simple that makes your PCs love the shop.
In a random shop in the adventure I’m running I just made the shop keep act and speak like an inpatient New Yorker.
I’ve never had a more popular shop. The person 100 percent makes the shop.
In the anime Konosuba, there is a shop run by an undead who the main characters (well, most of them) like.
Her products run the gamut from useless to dire curses, but the characters go there frequently anyway.
The interesting thing to me is that part of the "well run shop" is a small table and chairs where the proprietor is obligated to serve customers tea.
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I get inspiration for shops and inns from a lot of different media.
Heck, you can get some great inn and tavern ideas from tourism sites!
"Come see the only night club in a former opal mine, a perfect way to end your day at Coober Pedy!"
"Come away in for a traditional Highland welcome at The Old Forge - Remotest Pub in Mainland Britain."
i always feel weird commenting on a creator’s appearance without mentioning the content of the video (which is fantastic, by the way), but GINNY IM SO IMPRESSED WITH HOW WELL UR HAIR & HEADBAND MATCH UR SHIRT WTF ITS MAGICAL
It was clearly spun and woven by Bramble's seamstress sbling!
HAHA thank you! I bought a 10-pack of pastel headbands once and they have been serving me so well 😂
I was going to say something similar. Ginny always has such cool outfits, even when she's "just Ginny" and not one of her characters!
The shop keep that had the biggest impact in my campaign was a reserved and fire obsessed young woman. I based her character loosly on Wednesday (this was before the Netflix series)
She convinced the pyromaniac tabaxi monk to burn some papers in return for free stuff. In doing so they burnt the contract that had the girl bound to the shop. Turns out she was a fire elemental slaved to a human shell as a slave. She then burns the shop to the ground. The dragonborn falls in love with her upon seeing her flying about casting fire, "so beautiful". They met her again a few sessions later and the elemental saves the dragonborns life. So now the dragonborn and the fire elemental are now in a committed relationship 😅
I normally brush over the shopping thing, except for one time, when the party got split up and we alternated playing Group A and Group B. To make it interesting, I handed out NPC sheets of several NPC (mostly shopkeeps) to the players who's characters where inactive in this session. each of those NPCs had 4 sections: stats, what everyone knows, what you know, what you want. So every NPC was involved in some mischief of some sort and they wanted to get out of it without losing face. If the characters could help them do so, they would reward the players accordingly. And then I leaned back and watched the players DMing/playing the session more or less on their own, being very careful to not accidently blurting out the wrong word and tiptoeing around each other. It was amazing, I can really recommend it!
I remember one person online talking about a shopkeep run by an evil Beholder who would sell you the items looted from adventurers he previously killed. If you asked, he would gleefully tell you how the adventurer who donated item X died.
Of course, the party loved him.
Word to the wise: always expect your throwaway NPCs to become lifelong members of your worlds because your players will want to see them all the time, protect them with their own lives, and will definitely ask about their details you didn’t prep
And if the players can spot the throw away NPC then they will intentionally interrogate you for their full life story. (1 such sign is if the DM forgets the bame of the NPC they just introduced)
These are open characters filled in by the character encounters they have
Improv is quite fun, and nothing is official until a player writes it down. Making up stuff on the fly is fun, don't feel the need to plan everything out, you'll only get burned out... Have fun bantering about a character you just made up, it's an NPC!
Ginny: "We don't care about businesses, we care about people"
All businesses: *surprised Pikachu*
This is such simple advice, but it really hits home.
Ooh, another thing that helps: Make the process of *finding* the shop interesting.
My DM has a goblin shopkeep named Goldie who runs a magic shop hidden behind a blank wall in a seemingly random alley. It was a big city and there were other magic shops around, so we probably never would have known about it just from wandering around looking.
I found out about it by asking the night desk at a fancy hotel if there was any place still open that would sell a magic pen I happened to want--he gave me the location and the way to get in, and told me that pretty everyone in the hospitality industry buys from her. She's well known, but only to certain people.
I get to the alley and there's a golden dagger on the ground, which I learned with a super high investigation check is attached to the wall with a near-invisible thread. As instructed I tap the dagger on the wall three times, a door appears, then disappears as soon as I walk through.
It immediately became our go-to shop.
Ginny you went SO hard for that cosplay, I love her so much! And your shirt goes so well with the theme 🤩
Always a good day when Ginny posts
As a fledgling DM this is been a lot of of help
1 addition tip is to limit the number of items available to the party at once, just to avoid the analysis paralysis of the entire book worth of magic items being on sale at once.
For some shops like non-magical weapons and armor its reasonable enough to let the party just make any customizations they feel like.
But for the magic item shops, keep the menu simple, a couple consumables like healing potions, a couple items reasonably within budget, and 1 or 2 items out of budget to be put on the wishlist, or pool the party funds for. (Carrying over previously available stock is optional but i would keep most unpurchased items available if a player asks about them, unless you have a reason for it to be unavailable this time)
I love the thumbnail! One of my first shopkeepers that I ever ran as a DM actually was a pixie. It was a wineshop, and since I assumed that pixies would have a not very great ability to hold liqor, the shopkeeper was basically always super drunk. They went to that shop quite a few times, eventhough the shop only sold wine, which is obviously not something they would have a lot of reasons to go to.
Have an awakened hamster in a glass ball he scampers about on rails and shelves known as “The Proprietor”. An elderly couple do the physical labor while he schmoozes the clientele. He is also the contact for certain organizations. Love this sort of stuff. Had a potion maker who had a fire so their wares were in the back of a wagon with a few guards selling them as part of the cost for damages and repairs.
Love the flavor and your little fey is another great idea! Love it!!!
My current character is a wizard with a guild merchant background who sews, knits, and embroiders clothes. I think that's all you need to understand how much I enjoy in game shopping 😅
one of my favorite things one of my Friends made up was a shop, with "broken" items like a wagon wheel with some missing spokes, or the bird cage without the bottom in it.
The shopkeep was a Goblin, that loved to haggle, and generally saw nothing wrong with the items, that to the players always seemed to be missing something for it to be complete.
Getting the players to kitbash or find ways of repairing the items that actually was very cheap, as in around 50% cost of a full funtional version of the item, so as to make the items they could get from there storied by virtue of the built in quirks of having to kitbash them to make them work, the whole experience fun for the table hopefully.
of course this should be a 1 off shop not located in a large city, but rather a small town, as to make the shopping more fun to figure out if you can get something usefull out of it.
Remember this was meant to be a "get creative" kind of a shop, so have some fun with it if you decide to use the idea, make it something to be colaborative for the hole group, make the shopkeep fun for the group to interact with in some manner ^^
The local rag man or junkyard is often necessary.
A memorable shop moment is seeing my brother's character admiring a very strong sword as the charismatic yet weird store clerk (throw away NPC) trying to mark up the already expensive weapon to an insanely over priced one. Meanwhile the shop owner came in and promptly fired the clerk, I assume to add to the overly silly situation.
Long story short my brother rolled lying and told the store owner that he already paid the clerk who just left after being fired.
I created an urchin guild. Street urchins the players/characters can give a list of items to, and get their shopping delivered to them a few hours later. These urchins are often savvy with which stores have discounts on any given day, and can also answer whereabouts in town. It's also handy they all have the same voice, all of which makes shopping much easier on me :P
Players are still free to seek out certain specific NPCs who run stores though, however most of these are like... they require a specific service, or like an upgrade to their ship, etc. Things you couldn't just put on a shopping list. But that's okay, because it cuts down on so much time already.
An "Open Mic:" night in D&D? Interesting idea. (Although to me the most interesting thing would be the explanation of how the microphones are created and powered and how they work.)
Most of the time we just hand waved shopping in our D&D group. But then again, our group didn't have a Ginny Di.
no no, you misunderstand. it's Open Mike night. a guy named Mike stands next to you and repeats everything you say really, really loud.
@@GinnyDi An explanation that includes a groaner pun. I like it!
I did a double-take - a pixie called Brambles was one of my first characters!
you, me, and Laura Bailey! 😂 good company I guess!
How I handle shopping/downtime falls into two categories:
1. If there's too much to handle for each individual character it happens outside of game time via emails, so the session(s) don't turn into one player talking to me sorting out the one thing that affects them while everyone else sits around bored.
2. I throw weird shop keepers with weird products at the players. Why does a healing potion have to be a potion? Wendle's healing meat pies are very popular with dwarves.
Pieing a dying PC to heal them would be quite funny
I think how we go about shopping time in my groups comes down to the context. If it’s us trying to rp and relax, we slow it down. But if it’s just before a quest or prepping for a journey, we basically keep it short.
Never underestimate the appeal of "weak" magic items that have flashy or entertaining aesthetic effects. The Cloak of Billowing is a perfect example. Offer an armoire that cleans, folds, and irons any clothing placed inside. A shield that changes colors based on your pet's emotional state. A pen that only writes what you really mean. A scarf with a rippling rainbow pattern that animates down the fabric. And then make your NPCs really care about that sort of thing.
In my game we have Danika Ferris of the Ferris & Family General Store. Danika is an 8 year old girl who wants to be an adventurer and somehow keeps obtaining cursed magic items or captured by sewer goblins. She does provide a delivery service though. When you just overturn your bag of holding or behind a rock. Danika's probably hiding nearby with the interesting skill of having a trinket that makes a portal to the counter of her parents shop. Ring the bell, leave a note and some money and collect items. Unfortunately despite all the great stuff that Danika has per parents just run a perfectly ordinary general store. No potions, armory, weapons or holy water, just mundane equipment from the gear list. It's a way of helping players who have forgotten to have bought something before we left, run out of arrows or food.
I made a shop that I've used a couple times where every time the party enters, I roll 1d4 which determines what it looks like on the inside and the shopkeep had corresponding personalities. Like, when the characters first enter it may be an organized lab space with a neurotic nerd shopkeep and the next time they go in (which could be the same day) it's overgrown and kinda disorganized and the shopkeep is a chill hippie. I call it The Fantastic Lambuni's Magical Market of Arcane Wonders and Exotic Wares.
2 shops that went surprisingly well with my party when I DMed were
1 Ebony Bay, a rare to find store where all are connected by magic circles of teleportation, where odds and ends from other adventurers are sold, like the -1 sword of fire, yes minus, it did fire damage as an upside so crits were better but default damage was -1 because the metal was softened by the heat, or the shield of nope which gave +4AC but needed both hands to be used as a shield since ti was so awkward and big.
2 Ally's Chemary, an alchemy store that sold potions, ammo for the warlocks gun and sometimes had quests where a big bit of the gimick was that Ally the enby running the place was sampling some of their stock so was always high or something and the party later learnt part of the reason was to reduce pain since they had to quit adventuring after serious injury, and they can still defend the store somewhat with their own alchemic pistol custom made to hold multiple shots, not for sale.
Literally thought of a character idea yesterday about a sassy fairy blacksmith who is also an Armorer Artificer who pilots her full size armor like a medieval Gundam.
I love my original Seeker’s Guide, I’ve already backed for the new one!
This video inspired me to think of a frantic fairy shopkeep/tinkerer with a fear of meeting new people who seeks a crossroads to the Feywild.
I could picture him protecting himself with a myriad of sprites to assist and cast Heart Sight on others, while permanently being under the effects of Detect Thoughts to process transactions much faster.... and for a touch of mystery, you could also make him a tinkerer who specializes in cursed magical items.
Edit: this would also make for an interesting swarmkeeper, if your DM would allow the sprites.
I had a bit to spice up my merchants. My players tend to only shop at one store and it’s fairly rare for them to do so. So I made it that regardless of where they went, it was the exact same npc. Like nurse joy in pokemon except not even twins, literally the same guy, any time period, any place. I made him slightly crazy, which added to his mystery.
Completely on point & accurate, as always, Ginny! A shop is a great opportunity for a variety of character interaction & dissemination of campaign hooks. As a seasoned retail & customer service professional, I possess a huge collection of experiences to use in my role-playing. Now that my wife (who LOVES to shop…) is playing D&D with me, she is likely to have an encounter in-game that is eerily similar to something I told her after work one day…
For one of my games I made up a shopkeep on the spot because my players needed to buy a net to capture a monster for a quest. Then after realizing that an aarakocra who only sells nets may not be the most sane or logical individual, Ravioli the net salesman instantly became my player’s favorite npc and even got to take down the big bad of the campaign.
Your outro reminded me of something. My party's healer (a NPC) is an awakened shrub named "Holly." Being a Holly bush she always has her casting focus.
I homebrewed this adorable seaside hamlet as the base location for a beginners campaign. Before setting out on the next task the party wanted provisions so they went to the bakery. Having decided that they wanted to try to get a discount, the party laid the flattery on thick. Ultimately, the halfling barbarian challenged the muscular young baker woman to arm wrestle for a discount. Better than an hour was spent role playing the negotiating of muffins with a NPC that I made up on the spot.😂❤
I LOVE shopping sessions! My DM always makes the most fun shopkeeps even just on the spot. Some have deep lore and quests and some are just really fun characters to meet and interact with
My best shop so far as a rather new DM was a shop with thousands of weird and many seemingly worthless things in it. A very old shop where the owner doesn't really care much about things as mundane as gold and would rather trade you for something he doesn't already have. Little does the party know that the shop keep is actually a metallic dragon in human form who just wants to connect with humans as they are peculiar creatures, so he opened a shop in town when it was settled (like 400 years ago) and just changes form regularly to seem a little older, then this form leaves and gets replaced by a "new owner" he also plays.
His shop is full of his HOARD of various items he finds unique and interesting for his own reasons ("This broken cart was the most prized possession of the young Timmy Hodgkins, now an old man, when he lived with his parents farther up the street. Actually broke his leg when he crashed with it at 9 years of age"). He wouldn't sell you a broken wooden toy for the 20 gp you're offering but if you've got a rusty goblin dagger he'd be interested in trading.
OMG, congratulations on your creation of the Hedgerow Shop - I'm super excited to look into it when I get the PDF. Happy to contribute to the Kickstarte early :D
BARD: 🎶If there's a Bramble in your Hedge Row, don't be alarmed now. It's just a discount for your PCs. 🎶
BRAMBLE: No discounts, kid. And no "Stairway to Heaven!"
BARD: Still better service than the Guitar Center...
A good way to make the shopkeep more interesting is a memorable voice and personality. I’m pretty sure we all fell in love with Pumat Sol purely from the way Matthew Mercer played him
My last shopkeep was an Ex-gladiator half Orc. He was wasn't smart or charismatic, but very wise and had an unnatural eye for good weapons.
Super flavorful but he hated haggling.
Thanks for these tips Ginny!! My players spend a lot of time wanting to ask questions around town and investigate via social mechanics rather than find the physical clues or dungeon delve. So I need to keep making a variety of NPCs and make shopping engaging. Right now they have become really attached to the Owner of the General Store NPC I made, so I try to make each time they visit her full of personality and quirky little moments. But Id love for them to get this invested in some of the other ones. Your video has made me pause and really think about what makes that NPC successful though, and I think that will help with future shopkeeps, Inn proprietors and Tavern workers a lot.
I'm always reskinning items and trying to keep shops interesting. I have one shop run by a shapeshifted gold dragon, whenever she opens a shop in another city it connects to one her main shop, each location is seperated by floor and invisible to the naked eye if its not the door you enterred through. (the last part is to help avoid my players abusing the fast travel, its a feature that is available to them if they are in the dragon's good graces, but i dont want them to use it to get everywhere from day one)
I love your videos and the insights they give into world building. I'm not into D&D, but there is some great information for creative writing as well.
One of my easiest tweaked items that gave my Lvl 1 players a lot of utility was a 'Pouch of Holding'. Same thing as a Bag of Holding but 1/3rd the size and carrying capacity. All the fun aspects of a Bag of Holding without feeling it's too overpowered for early level play.
Few things bring me as much joy as a shopping session.
Man this is some great advice for DMs, I'm glad I came across this channel.
Great Video! It's important to me to let you know I have been watching for a while and every video I get something out of. Sadly I started getting into playing just before 2020 didn't even get to play until it was mostly over and was still doing that online and then the whole OGL thing hit. So just getting started with TTRPGs was difficult for me. But thanks to you, Bob world builder, Critical Role, DND shorts, professor DM, the Dungeon Dudes, Jocat and so many others I got to fill the hole not being able to play was filled. I want to thank all of you for what you do! Have a great holiday season and a great new year!
I've got three:
A travelling wood elf alchemist named Roboute, who's shop is a portable hole/well thing.
Jenkins "Old man Jenkins" Oldman, another alchemist and retired adventurer, his shop is a nice little downtown building that is very often on fire, and he does not appreciate Roboute's competition.
and his brother Beckett "Old man Beckett" Oldman, an artificer. His shop is a lighthouse overlooking a lake.
I have my first ever campaign staring in a couple weeks and I gotta say binging youre videos has helped me get ready,and sooth my anxiety so much so thank you !!!!
I am currently running my first campaign and was planing for the next session to be a shoping one. The video really helped. Thanks!
Absolutely love your positive, equitable and bright style! Very much needed for those of us who prefer the brighter side of life 😊Thankyou!
Very informative and lots of good advice/info. I love Bramble sassy shopkeep nature. Definitely gave me some ideas for one of my RPs.
Really nice advice there, Ginny. Thank you. Keep it up! I keep coming back to your videos.
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In one of my D&D campaigns (A module, the name of it escapes me. It's actually turned into it's own thing now I think!), my Tabaxi Bard, Dew On Leaves (Dew), has a Crossbow of Magic Missiles because my dad (our DM) thought that the *Wand* of Magic Missiles that an encounter had felt out of place, so now it's a crossbow!
HUUUGE shout-out to him, he's an awesome DM and really cool dad. I love him lots.
Lots of good advice here, as per usual.
The idea of a shopkeep providing a quest, and how the players handle that quest then leading to changes in the shop's inventory, both good AND bad, is particularly interesting idea. Like in your example, Be careful that you don't damage the shop! In video games, one can often use spell effects that LOOK devastating but are nothing but spectacle and enemy damage.
This here shows influence on the world.
One thing I've found useful, as a recovering CCG addict, is to combine item cards and those card protective pages of which I had a ton laying around, to make a shop inventory that's mobile, protected, and has all the information you wish to show to your players. (and none of the details you might rather they not read) While your video is focused more on making the shopping interesting rather than quick, I think this one is more focused toward speed. If you are swimming in pages like I am, you can also have enough inventories for all of your players to pore over their own personal list, which can be a welcome buff to their patience with one another.
Awesome, I always love stuff like this. Reminds me of the old Citybooks series.
I once made a magic shop owned by “Sirava the Secluded”, a yuan-ti woman who only made creepy magic items
The shop had no lighting, was full of taxidermied creatures and Sirava always got a spooky joy whenever she was sold body parts, particularly fingers
The party loved Sirava so much, and always looked for reasons to go shopping there 🙂
Planning on doing a shopping session just before Christmas and I properly start my Keys from the Golden Vault thread so this was perfectly timed for that shopping inspo!
I'm strongly reminded of Pumat Sol's shop, the Invulnerable Vagrant.
And, of course, the Dust of Deliciousness.
Such a great video. So well done and inspiring.
Thank you so much, Ginny. While others like Pointy Hat or the Dungeon Dudes offer great lore or mechanical content, you are the D&D youtuber I come to for roleplaying advice. You never disappoint.
I normally skip shop interactions but...thinking of shops as defined social encounters seems like a great idea.
PreCOVID I was at a table with rotating DM’s that usually were in the same campaign world.
There was a chain of magic shops called Chemcheaux run by a short, but strong, human named Mortimer.
He was a 12th level wizard when most NPC’s had a hard time getting above 6th level.
And he was at ALL of the branches.
The other members of my party/table figured it out before I did.
The back rooms were connected.
Mortimer could fast travel between various cities almost instantaneously.
Also, he had a few rooms to rent for storage, or overnight stays. For a price.
And you could conveniently travel to another shop. For a price.
He never wanted gold.
Usually spell components to resell in the shop.
We got TPK’ed trying to cut the stinger from an ill, baby wyvern’s tail.
We didn’t see mama until it was too late.
My first shopkeeper was a Necromancer who was lawful good. He was a former grand wizard from a northern land. His land was beset by a dragon and he escaped with his family... Of skeletons. They don't talk but they have unique personalities. His little sister sold them their first bag of holding, which was based on a meme, it was a craft bag originally and everything they put in there has glitter all over it.
I'm currently homebrewing a small system with hopes of running a one shot for my friends soon and this is giving me sooo many ideas!
My favorite shopkeep to use is a mysterious shopkeep who is always found in shady areas with the oddest goods, they never get a name, but due to their nature it always brings my party looking for them every chance they get
Someone's been playing Resident Evil 4.
I made a shoppkeep for my current campaign that was inspired by Dylan hollis and is so much fun to roleplay!
Hes a flamboyant archfey that sells enchanted baked goods and dishes that cause random magical effects when eaten.
The importance and fun factor of Shopkeeps should NEEEEEVER be undersold!
In one of the campaigns I’ve been in there was a cramped cursed item shop that felt homely in an eerie city with a crazed- yet experienced- man running the place. Every interaction with him caused the party to light up, and the most fun was when two of us went to work in the store and one sold a legendary item (while I stood in the corner being useless while holding a cursed shield over my head so it wouldn’t explode if people bumped into it).
Very good times!!
One of my all time favorite recurring NPC characters was originally a throw-away other customer at a store when the players walked in that wasnt even planned to be there, just complete in-the-moment improv
great content. I especially liked the special effects that brought your pixie ti life.
This video gave me so many ideas! Thank you!
Very well put and worth a pre session re watch
This was a delightful video! I feel inspired.
I need to bookmark this one! Thanks Ginny!
After watching your video I noticed all of the successful shop locations I ever had followed this format. My most successful was a tavern in Sharn in eberron called the Rusty Fist. It was run by a Minotaur named Rusty with one mechanical arm who was trying to develop a type of ale that could get warforged drunk.
This is all fantastic advice. A store keeper that the party visits repeatedly is a wonderful sleeper who can suddenly become important to an adventure. That is especially true for a side-quest session when the table is missing some players. That pixies-run plant shop is brilliant; so many quest possibilities. Every unusual plant the party finds suddenly becomes treasure! How the heck do we get this weird tree back to town anyway??
My table runs several campaigns concurrently, each at different levels. One of my tables current campaigns, half of the PCs are shop owners of some kind (We are currently lvl 13 and starting a new arc). Our character backstories are wrapped around past lives as less than respectable adventurers turned upstanding citizens in a town they once helped rescue magnificent 7 style with everyone putting down roots there.
My character is one of the town’s smiths (Fey Wanderer/Battle Smith). The party wizard is order of scribes with a scroll and general magic shop with the party arcane trickster/alchemist.
The other half of the party is involved in managing churches or administrate part of the towns services. We sometimes roll play ourselves if one of our other campaigns comes to town since 3 of us regularly DM in the same world for the table.
If you're in Eberron. Greywall has some very interesting ways on how shopping works due to the monster pipulace using monster teeth as currency.
For example. Maybe you trade some basalisk teeth for a sword; or something else a Harpy or troll found and is bartering.
Another way to spice up shopping is to have unique shops like Sorcererus Sundrunys from Baldur's Gate 3.
Fantastic video! Love the cosplay and it is so cool to get an insight into how that project went for you :D Goodluck with the Kickstarter and thank you for all of this juicy inspiration >:3 Merry Christmas!
You endlessly help me be a better DM for my players. Thanks again for these great ideas
Fantastic ideas. Thanks, Ginny. 😊
this is so helpful and fun, i love it!
Ginny fit today is amazing love the headband matching the shirt !
The individualised item description of a "basic" +1 sword is very reminiscent of the original Baldurs Gate games, where magic items by and large had unique names, and the item description had some of the story behind the item. I still remember what could have been just simply "boots of speed" being called the "Paws of the Cheetah", and that some previous adventurer who had possessed them for some time was known for his battle cry of "you can hide, but you can't run! "
I have two shopping episodes this weekend. One as a player, one as a DM! Thanks!
Very on point recommendations! and super fun NPC :D
Beyond the items, yeah the shopkeeper is EXTREMELY important. So far my players have met a goblin trapped in a cat’s body, a beholder in a trench coat, and an eccentric tiefling with an illlithid partner.
A good shopkeeper will stick in their heads and make the crunchier aspects of shopping way more fun.
I’m setting up a town for a campaign with my niece and nephew who are new to the game, and this is good advice to keep in mind!
One of my favorite magic items I offered my party was a Wand of Magic Missiles (that could go off for literally no reason). It was dirt cheap and tempting enough for them to go for it. Any time it was used, I had that player roll a d20 and on a 1 all the remaining charges would be used up and spread amongst the party (this could not cause the wand to be destroyed). Or if they took a heavy fall from some silly roleplay or something and I remembered the wand, I would also have them roll to see if it went off. Lead to incredible life saving moments when all the charges were used to down a bad guy or two but also a lot of tension to see if it would also end up hurting the party.
I love a good broken magic item! Just don't spring this on your players. Inform them of the consequences before they spend their gold or use something that could hurt them.
Thanks for the video! Great advice!
i have one shop keep named Adamastor and eveytime a client comes in he offers them tea and he likes to chat, the players sometimes can just enter to chat with him and drink tea, he hear ther stories and tell stories of himself as well, it kinda makes the world more alive and also give me time to "relax" wighout having to do combat math hehe
The kidnapping dryads sounds like a good side quest. Especially if find out later teenager started problem as a prank gotten way out of hand and is trying to run. 😂