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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 9673364" data-attributes="member: 29398">Which then puts it on you to ask about the availability and-or prices of the specific things on your shopping list.The Guide Merchant, to begin with, doesn't know what you - as opposed to all the other shoppers - are specifically there to buy today; so the only useful up-front info he can give is the store's hours &quot;we're open until 7 tonight, you've got lots of time&quot;, some general sales and promotions &quot;we have 20% off all our bread, today only&quot;, and how busy the place is &quot;there's a long line at checkout right now&quot;.After that, it's on you to ask questions and-or indicate why you are there.&nbsp; &quot;What's your selection of frozen dinners?&quot;.&nbsp; &quot;Do you have tinned sardines?&quot;&nbsp; &quot;What's the best-before date on the milk?&quot;, etc. etc.In-game, this would mirror you-as-player asking &quot;What can we find out about this 'Bebekki Ruins' shown on the map?&quot; or &quot;You mentioned Orcs have been raiding farms to the north, give us more detail on that&quot; or &quot;Is there anywhere we can go that could provide Wizzy an opportunity to expand his spell selection?&quot;, etc. etc.I think we'd agree this is preferable to the Guide Merchant just launching into an hours-long litany of every single thing available in the store and all the relevant info about each of those products.And that's something we have to accept when playing with a real-life human DM, that our imaginations have to do some of the work of filling in the blanks; as opposed to playing in a video game where, as far as the programming allows, we can and do get more of a sense of first-person observation.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 9673364, member: 29398"] Which then puts it on you to ask about the availability and-or prices of the specific things on your shopping list. The Guide Merchant, to begin with, doesn't know what you - as opposed to all the other shoppers - are specifically there to buy today; so the only useful up-front info he can give is the store's hours "we're open until 7 tonight, you've got lots of time", some general sales and promotions "we have 20% off all our bread, today only", and how busy the place is "there's a long line at checkout right now". After that, it's on you to ask questions and-or indicate why you are there. "What's your selection of frozen dinners?". "Do you have tinned sardines?" "What's the best-before date on the milk?", etc. etc. In-game, this would mirror you-as-player asking "What can we find out about this 'Bebekki Ruins' shown on the map?" or "You mentioned Orcs have been raiding farms to the north, give us more detail on that" or "Is there anywhere we can go that could provide Wizzy an opportunity to expand his spell selection?", etc. etc. I think we'd agree this is preferable to the Guide Merchant just launching into an hours-long litany of every single thing available in the store and all the relevant info about each of those products. And that's something we have to accept when playing with a real-life human DM, that our imaginations have to do some of the work of filling in the blanks; as opposed to playing in a video game where, as far as the programming allows, we can and do get more of a sense of first-person observation. [/QUOTE]

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