Merchants & shopping: how much do you roleplay it?

[Unoriginal]

As a DM, do you spend time fleshing out merchants and other sellers of goods the PCs interact with? Or do you generally handle shopping with just "you find [insert thing the player want to buy] for [insert amount of money]"?


As a player, do you find interacting with merchants beyond just "spend X to get Y" to be interesting?


For me it's generally a mix. You don't need to do a grand roleplaying scene whenever someone want to buy a sandwich and a dagger, but it can be nice and make the setting feel more alive when there is some interaction, especially when a) the good the PCs want is expensive/rare/non-mundane b) the PCs are just browsing without needing something mundane in mind.

[ZorroTheFox]

Unfortunately, AL time constraints limit non-critical RP locally.

A 4 hour module run between 1830 hours (if you get the cats herded) and 2200 hours keeps you on path or the adventure crashes.

When it was 0D&D and we were all single or without children... different.

[rahimka]

Depending on my players and factors like how much time we have in the session, I try to strike a happy middle ground. At the very least, I try to give them a description of where their character is finding the stuff they want to buy (an open air market full of the sounds of people bartering over various goods, a mysterious curio shop on a seedy street, etc) and who is selling it to them. This is especially true if the PCs are new to the settlement, I think of it as a great chance to give them a feel of the local setting. Once they know the place, a handwave of "you head back to X's shop and pick up the potions you want" is usually sufficient.

Some of my players will TRY to engage with the NPC merchant and others won't (and I know which is which after a few sessions), so I try to just roll with it. I might have a few colorful characters in mind or throw in a funky accent for flavor, but I'm not going to drive myself crazy prepping every possible merchant they could interact with.

If I know the session is going to / may involve a shopping trip, I find it better/simpler to have 2-3 NPCs in my back pocket (like a surly male halfling, a matronly female dwarf, and a bubbly human man), then just assign one of them at random to whichever shop(s) the PCs actually end up going to ("You search the market for a potion dealer and find a grumpy looking Halfling running a stall filled with a wide array of colored bottles"). The players won't know the difference and it saves me time, energy, brain space

[strangebloke]

Magic item purchases are part of the experience. I always try to make a big deal of that.

But everything more basic... eh, couldn't care less.

[Spiritchaser]

As A DM, most of the vendors are generally pretty special, because they can be. It's relatively uncommon for the players to visit one, so it's not that much of a workload to make a few quick options to call up as needed. That shady backroom smuggler can have some NPC tie ins with other parts of the character's history, and or background. There are a lot of fun personalities to play off of in most parties, a slightly... "off" vendor can be a relatively harmless and fun way to do it.

That imperial quartermaster can be a total waste if the party never ends up going to him for supplies so I don't do any detailed work for specific positions, more general character ideas that I can pick and slot into the role as needed.

Enough of a framework to build on if they get called into existence in a particular role by player action. A paragraph of notes and ideas is usually plenty.

[Darkstar952]

Generally mundane items get glossed over, any unique or custom items possibly get a small bit of RP as the details are haggled over.

The trade of any magical items tends to involve the largest amount of RP, i tend to have a table of buyers and sellers that I roll on when trading magical items. The table includes all sorts, honest traders, collectors, criminals, scam artists, evil mages etc. This has occasionally resulted in basic sales of magical items actually leading to short side adventures, or in one case leading to a whole story arc that grew from nowhere.

[Man_Over_Game]

Shopping generally isn't something that needs to stand out. Consider your own shopping experiences. Do you want exciting things to happen, or is something boring preferable?

I do use a d100 to determine what special events might occur while doing random things about, depending on how common oddities are.

For example, buying mundane items in a safe part of the city has something bad happen between 1-5, or something good happen between 96-100, with the bad-good scale being how high/low the values are (a 4 is something you want being slightly overpriced, 1 is that someone attempted to pick your pocket).

On the other hand, checking out an alchemy store in the Izzet district of Ravnica has a 1-20 chance of something bad, and a 91-100 chance of something good, ranging from having your color being changed, to accidentally preparing a stray stolen spell in your head for the next day, to having a Drow's vulnerability to bright light being accidentally transferred to you (hopefully temporarily).

Interesting things should happen but they shouldn't be the norm, unless it IS the norm.

[Orc_Lord]

It depends on what I want to convey to players. All encounters, and I define this as any scenes the players experience from combat to social interactions should have a purpose.

So maybe this is a new city and I want them to learn more about it, then I will role-play it so that I can indirectly show the the vibe of the city.

For example in my last campaign my players ended up teleporting to a new continent and ended up in a desert. A semi crazy camel seller found them and told them about the city build by an oasis close by.

When they got there the first thing they wanted was supplies so I absolutely role-playes that. I indirectly told them how the city worked, they saw beggars begging for water, not gold. They saw little kids running a con, they passed by various stores, so of them they went into, others they visited later.

For that session, 95% of it was buying supplies.

Other times, if they have a target, and they need to prepare, things look be "we need torches and arrows", because they are going in a underground cave system and they are in a familiar place, I will just tell simplify or even enhance. Simplify "you go to Adventurers Nest, and buy torches and arrows for X gold". Enhance looks like this "you go to the Adventurers Nest, Og sells you X torches and Y arrows for Z gold. Og asks you, 'are ya guys going to stay there a while? Want some of my green stuff (sells drugs), how about some climbing gear?'". They might say no, yes, role-play with one another because the rogue wants the green stuff, but the paladin thinks it's horrible and the druid buys it all and we move on.

Hopefully this gives you some ideas.

This applies to most things I do, even travel. I also do it to fast forward things if need be. Let's say the party goes to the aforementioned cage but it's the wrong one, I might as well tell them. Again I might say something like "you arrive at the cave, it looks rather small, roll investigation are you start looking around....you are pretty sure this cave was once inhabited by a bear, bit there are no other tunnels leasingng out of it, and no goblin tracks anywhere"

If we were in a time crunch, like we only have one hour of game left and I want the party to progress a little or maybe I see them getting a bit mentally bored..so combat could help I might even speed it up more "you go to the Crystal cave, it's obvious this is not where you want to be, only some bear tracks can be seen, it hits you, Old Vincent said Brystal not Crystal, half an hour later you are still Brystal cave a goblin sentry lazily pking the ground with his spear".

I hope this gives you some perspective.

[Edenbeast]

I really dislike just giving players what they ask for, as if they're visiting a modern day shopping mall. Instead, I prefer to use item availability based on rarety and the size of the village they're visiting. There are are some useful tools around such as the D&D Shop Catalog (https://www.scribd.com/document/351511865/D-D-Shop-Catalog-Free-Edition-V-1-0) and the Random Shop Generator (https://donjon.bin.sh/5e/magic/shop.html) on Donjon (has several great and useful tools). If the players look for something specific they could ask a crafter/enchanter to create it, which can be a (side)quest on its own; e.g. finding someone, and then the ingredients.

[noob]

Magic item purchases are part of the experience. I always try to make a big deal of that.

But everything more basic... eh, couldn't care less.

Honestly if the fighter who still have no magic weapon goes to the smith and asks for 5 daggers and 4 swords then goes to the shop that sells bows and asks for 5 bows and that some time later he sees some panels with written "a group of bandits is arming itself" it can be quite fun when the adventurer explains it is all for personal consumption and shows its fighting style.

Unless somehow you are one of those boring fighters that does not drops weapons for switching weapons matrix style(it is optimal as long as you have no magic weapons because you can always have the right weapon for the situation so a bow when the opponent is far and a sword when it is close and a dagger for grappling(change the list depending on your fighting styles)).

When will we get a matrix fighter subclass that get bonus damage from using a weapon it have never used before?

It is quite cool that due to 5e having less magic items is a game that promote matrix fighting style because I find it is an awesome fighting style.

[Laserlight]

If it's just "we want to get these items" and they're in a town, here's a PHB equipment list, mark off the gold.

I don't think any of my players has ever even asked to buy a magic item other than the potions on the equipment list.

Sometimes they have ulterior motives. Seduce the shop clerk so the party rogue can get into the alchemist lab behind the shop. Talk to the dressmaker to find out if Lady Wachner will be attending the festival. For those, we RP it.

[Edenbeast]

When will we get a matrix fighter subclass that get bonus damage from using a weapon it have never used before?

You don't need a fighter subclass... You could just add that weapons deteriorate with use. For example, a completely new and unused weapon deals +2 damage, loses one point (-1) every two standard adventuring days, or whenever you roll a critical miss. When you have the tools, you can sharpen/fix the weapon to undo one point of deterioration. When they've worn down to -2 damage, they start having a 50% chance to break, etc. You can also add material and build quality to the mix.

[noob]

You don't need a fighter subclass... You could just add that weapons deteriorate with use. For example, a completely new and unused weapon deals +2 damage, loses one point (-1) every two standard adventuring days, or whenever you roll a critical miss. When you have the tools, you can sharpen/fix the weapon to undo one point of deterioration. When they've worn down to -2 damage, they start having a 50% chance to break, etc. You can also add material and build quality to the mix.

It does not promotes switching weapons 3 times a day.
In fact with that rule you damage your stock of weapons faster when you switch 3 times a day.
Not that the fighter cares because anyway the fighter will probably have some contract for getting delivery in weapons every day because usually when he use a weapon and drops it it does not grabs it back because it takes time that could be spent on advancing in the dungeon or short resting.

(in retrospect it might be why we are sent armies: maybe people think we are an advancing army)

[Vogie]

It really depends. I'm running W:DH, so I break it down by ward.

When the party goes wandering through the Dock Ward at first light in the beginning of winter as the harbor freezes over? No, the shops are closed. You do find a tavern where a sailor is offering a rusty weapon or broken shield for half price and some ale.

Wandering through the Trade Ward in the afternoon? You find all the things.

[Bubzors]

For anything mundane, I just let the players do it at home or in a minute or two of downtime during the session. No need to roleplay that. Find it extremely boring to talk to the city blacksmith just so you can get 10 gp worth of arrows.

Book keeping is boring and as DM I do enough of it, so just tick off the gold and say you got it. Done.

If it is a special request or strong magic item, then sure, but usually just to set the hook for an adventure if the item is grand. Not just to meet "Wonky Local Wizard" to get that potion of fire resist

[Sigreid]

It varies. Usually not much unless there is a reason like they're getting to know the town.

[GreyBlack]

Depends on the group.

I'm the first proponent of the PC's having to haggle with the NPC's in order to get better prices and such, and am that weirdo who would normally take a couple ranks in appraisal in older editions. I also am a fan of creating more of a living world for the PC's to inhabit and explore, letting them tell their own stories alongside the ones that I'm telling.

That is not how most PC's tend to experience the world, and some get frustrated by that. They don't want to haggle with some shopkeep; they wanna kill some orcs.

If I have a group who is more interested in the character/roleplaying aspects of the game, I expand the shopkeeper/other NPC roles out to give them something to bounce off of. Those groups less interested in that and more interested in the combat/rollplaying, I will tend to just say, "You find a shopkeep, prices are X compared to the PHB. He doesn't like you too much/ he's thankful you saved the town."