Buying & Selling items

Oryan77 · Jun 19, 2006

Someone mentioned something about this recently and it made me wonder if making PC's roleplay shopping is necessary.

My PC's usually roleplay when they are buying/selling stuff. I enjoy it when I'm DM'ing but it's not something I require. If they choose to just make a shopping list and a for sale list, I don't mind going through it quickly telling them what they find for sale and what they can sell (and for how much).

As a player, do you prefer to roleplay out your time in the market? Or does it even matter?

*edit*

Well I blew this post. It was supposed to be a poll but for some reason it posted without the poll (I even filled out the poll and did a "preview" of it...I never published it!)

Here were my poll questions:

Option #1
I like to roleplay it out with merchants every time.

Option #2
I like to roleplay it, but can do a shopping list for the DM to keep the adventure moving.

Option #3
I prefer to hand the DM a shopping list every time & never roleplay it.

Option #4
Other.

Treebore · Jun 19, 2006

I only have them shop for the really expensive stuff, such as potions, plate mail, and other expensive stuff. The only time I have them roleplay shopping for foods/clothes is when they go for "specialty" foods and custom clothes, saddles, etc... Plus my daughter is very artistic so she draws up some of the custom clothes, saddles, etc... which makes it all extra cool.

Plus some of the funnest adventures start in a pie shop plagued by fairies, especially faerie dragons.

Michael Silverbane · Jun 20, 2006

I have a home brewed mechanic for doing shopping stuff, which I use if I don't see any character/story driven need to roleplay out my players' characters' shopping. I still use it when there is going to be roleplaying involved, but supplement it with whatever roleplaying stuff I want to do.

For instance, if Fred the Archwizard wants to stop buy whatever town is nearby to refill his spell component pouch, then he uses the shopping mechanic (which he is pretty much guaranteed to succeed at, for such a trivial item). If the nearby town also happens to be his hometown and he wants to catch up on the recent goings-on, then I also do the roleplay between Fred and Wally the Shopkeeper who remembers when Fred the Archwizard was just Fred the Lowly Apprentice and is so proud to see such accomplishments and tickled that Fred would still remember Wally's spell component pouches after all this time and, no... His wife passed just this last winter, when the plague first came to town... but he knows that she's in good hands... and so on and so forth.

Later
silver

Shadowdancer · Jun 20, 2006

Option No. 2.

If we're just buying and selling routine stuff, and it has no importance on the adventure or campaign, a shopping list is fine.

But if it's important, or key to the adventure or campaign, or involves something out of the ordinary, let's roleplay it.

genshou · Jun 20, 2006

My players usually prefer to gloss over that stuff, so I tend to create shopkeepers with personalities in key locations in my gameworld, so they'll enjoy interacting with those shopkeepers more than the usual, boring ones. So far it's worked well and the PCs keep going back to those stores.

Hand of Evil · Jun 20, 2006

Option 1 - how else are they going to use some of those skills!

lukelightning · Jun 20, 2006

Anything non-magical I prefer to have happen "off screen," perhaps with the DM saying "these things aren't available, these things are 25% more expensive/cheaper, blah blah blah."

It sucks to be the ready-to-go player while some other player is taking up time with bargaining over cloaks, hammers, and silk socks. *yawn*

Thornir Alekeg · Jun 20, 2006

Option #2 for me as well, both as player and DM. I hate the pointless "roleplaying" that often occurs around shopping. Most often, one side or the other is not prepared to turn the purchase of lamp oil or rations into something other than banal conversation and haggling over whether the item will cost +/- 10% of the PHB cost.

Menexenus · Jun 20, 2006

Hand of Evil said:
Option 1 - how else are they going to use some of those skills!

As a DM, I'm fine if players want to hand me a list. I'll tell them what they can find and what the shopkeepers are asking/offering, but the prices will be the shopkeepers' initial (worst) offers. The PCs might be able to get a better deal if they use some of their skills (as Hand of Evil pointed out above).

So if the PCs don't mind being over-charged/under-paid, they can do it without role-playing. Otherwise, they need to role-play the encounter.

kigmatzomat · Jun 21, 2006

I generally make mundane stuff a hand-wave, unless they are buying a lot (like a cross-country trek). Adamantine, mithral and magic items justify a bit of roleplaying, though if the party says "hey bard, go buy this" then I'll do it with him during a smoke-break or something.