My Merchant Rp

[*WhenWizardsWar]

Many of the old veteran players know this, some have forgotten and others havent been told, and i also know we have plenty of new players who are unaware of certain things.

This is not a rant, or me venting as im not even upset over it but i figured i would just throw this out there for common knowledge.

Here are a few do's and do not's when interacting with me on miranda.

DO:Have patience if you step into to her tower during her business times, there are plenty of slow times where she deals with one customer at a time but at other times ive had as many as three or four people in a holding pattern, shes only one person and im only one player so please be patient and understand it may take five min to get to you or it may take an hour!.

DO:Feel free to send me a tell and ask if she is open, the reason i will answer yes or no is because icly when she is doing business she usually makes a magical display of somekind.

DO:Expect magical and merchantile RP, with miranda it is mandatory, if you come to her tower she will treat you like a merchant and i ask that her customers play the part too, (i understand people are in a hurry sometimes but just rushing in, asking for +X this and rushing out with little to know rp is a turn off, you came all the way to the ladys ward to visit her shop, stay awhile and listen))

Those are the big three DO's, now for some DO NOTS.

DO NOT:Send me tells asking if Miranda has X item or material etc etc. Sigil does not have internet shopping, asking me in tells will earn a polite response telling you your asking the wrong person, you need to ask Miranda and not me.

DO NOT: Expect instant inventory reloading when you sell her something. I see this almost every time when i rp with her, but PC A will sell Miranda something and then PC B (owned by the same player will happen by looking for that same item). This, while not against the server rules since the other PC is spending resources on it, I personally think its skirting a grey line so this is what you will find.

PC A see's that miranda is short of a building material by one peice of X material, so they take their other PC B who happens to have one of the missing materials so they have that PC sell the material to Miranda, so then PC A suddenly comes back to have the item made.

Well if you do that, your going to hit a dead end because you will find out that Miranda still only has the one peice of material in stock. ICLY:She does this on purpose because she has to evaluate the items she buys on a dailey basis to examine them for flaws and potential dangers to her customers and she has to decide on what price she is going to sell the item for and a bunch of other things that are parts of her normal procedures. If you intend to sell something to her and expect it to be immediately available for another one of your pcs, then your going to be dissapointed, check back at a later time when she has a chance to process the days aquisitions and place them into circulation.

Those are the IC reasons, and I do this on an OOC level to slow down the amount of grey line muling that people skirt all the time, its kind of a moral thing on my part.

DO NOT:It doesn't happen very often, but please understand Mirandas tower is TALL, it is not WIDE. Her doors are magically set up to allow customers of all heights and girths but not lengths, and I hate to do to it, but im mainly pointing the finger at you dragons. If you want to come into mirandas tower, change down to a reasonable size, her tower simply wont accomodate the length of some dragons.

Obviously if your a young dragon or one of the smaller size catagories your fine, this mainly goes to the LONGER residents and the larger of the dragon sizes.

The last thing I would have to mention isnt really a DO or DO NOT per say but I encourage everyone who interacts with merchants, especially miranda to try and roleplay out icly, asking for what ever it is you may need. We have a extensive list of Jargon in common circulation that we use to describe magic and abilities in game, and if we dont have one in common use we will make one up!.

Example:It's commonly excepted and encourged to ask for a "fifth tier enchantment" on your sword but its not common to ask for a +5 (plus five) sword.

The word Tier itself is useful in almost ANY magical situation in which there are different grades of magic available.

Take bags of holding.

10%, 40, 60, 80 and 100% weight reduction, look at that, five grades!. You can ask for a first or second, third fourth or fifth tier bag of holding, or just ask for a true bag of holding and most will know what your talking about.

Most of the time the enchanters or merchants will be nice enough to ask what tier of magic you want, and if your not sure just ask!.

Now, that being said somethings its hard to express icly when discussing, such as the elemental damages, so if you ask for a flame enchantment and the merchant asks you what tier, just ask for clarification, most merchants at this point might send you a tell along the lines of "First tier does 1d4, second tier does 1d6" or something relevant since thats something that isnt always easy to put into IC Words.

I know this only increases the time it takes to interact with other pcs, especially merchants but in the long run it benefits the merchant community as a whole and the players who interact with the merchant pcs. It makes us feel like we are actually playing knowledgable merchants and not just expensive item dispensers.

Anyway, this ended up being a longer post then i had intended but i just wanted to throw some of my own personal DO's and DO NOT's and some friendly advice on interacting with your fellow merchant, and please...if any other merchant pc (or customer) out there has constructive do's and do nots they would like to add to this list please feel frere.

Feed back from other merchants and our customer base is more then welcome and can only lead to prosperity for all involved but please KEEP IT CLEAN AND PEACEFUL.

ALSO:As I finish writing this, I want to know from the merchant pcs and those who deal with them, how useful would you find something on the forums that is a comprehensive list of IC terms, Jargons, slang what have you that you can reference?.

Maybe we can even come up with kind of a consumers Alminac that visitors to the cage can pick up that tells about the dedicated, active merchants out there?.

[*Sinlinara]

Feed back from other merchants and our customer base is more then welcome and can only lead to prosperity for all involved but please KEEP IT CLEAN AND PEACEFUL.

Hello. I have a few thoughts and I believe I am qualified so I would like to make a few comments.

DO NOT: Expect instant inventory reloading when you sell her something. I see this almost every time when i rp with her, but PC A will sell Miranda something and then PC B (owned by the same player will happen by looking for that same item). This, while not against the server rules since the other PC is spending resources on it, I personally think its skirting a grey line so this is what you will find.

I have had people do this to me as well. The most uncomfortable part is that they are effectively asking you to help them skirt the server rules and it is not a place anyone wants to be in.

The last thing I would have to mention isnt really a DO or DO NOT per say but I encourage everyone who interacts with merchants, especially miranda to try and roleplay out icly, asking for what ever it is you may need. We have a extensive list of Jargon in common circulation that we use to describe magic and abilities in game, and if we dont have one in common use we will make one up!.

Example:It's commonly excepted and encourged to ask for a "fifth tier enchantment" on your sword but its not common to ask for a +5 (plus five) sword.

The word Tier itself is useful in almost ANY magical situation in which there are different grades of magic available.

I hate this and the people who do this drive me crazy. This is not RP. At this point you are basically just talking using game terms but using different words to do it. It's borderline metagaming and it annoys me to no end because there any number of creative ways an individual can refer to a magical item to describe its properties other than referring to game mechanics.

And, by the way, this practice of referring to items in this way is also discouraged in one of the pinned threads on the In-Character Forums. The same thread also has a short list of suggestions talking about other, more immersive ways to go about trading items.

[*edmaster44]

Another thing, PC D Insults my Character IClY then acts all surprise when said character is refused service and proceeds to OOCly bother me. If you act like a Dick, don't expect great service. Common sense and what not ..
PC d, see what i did there? Hehehe

[*Mick64]

My 2 cents as a frequent merchant (I play Anything and Adeline).

Totally on the same boat at those above when it comes to semi-muling. I usually don't pay much attention, so it might slip by me, but if I catch you doing it you might not have my PC's shops open to you anymore.

RP vs magical walmart: I of course much prefer when people RP, but I also understand that sometimes you just have your new character and want to get gear so you can go kill stuff. That said, taking time to RP or barter or such is highly recommended, you're very likely to get better prices, access to unlisted goods or even free stuff some times. (Especially with Anything)

And yes, merchants are still characters, they might not sell to certain individuals, or offer better prices to others, etc etc.

[*Tomekk]

Example:It's commonly excepted and encourged to ask for a "fifth tier enchantment" on your sword but its not common to ask for a +5 (plus five) sword.

The word Tier itself is useful in almost ANY magical situation in which there are different grades of magic available.

I hate this and the people who do this drive me crazy. This is not RP.

Not everyone RPs or speaks english very well. A tragedy, we know.

[*Ariella]

Just as a small note using PC merchants to mule will still log the muling attempt. PC's doing this might find the muled item or all items removed when you log in.

[*Jelkia]

Not everyone RPs or speaks english very well. A tragedy, we know.

Exactly. Ah run inta tha sorta situation now an then wit folks so thank ya fer mentioning et Tom.

Ah understand tryin ta promote RP but nah everyone wants RP every time they login. Some times yer jus wantin ta get somethin bought er sold an go on ta somethin else ya had planned. On top ah tha.. catchin merchants en tha bazaar es typically ah spur ah tha moment thing. Caint count on em ta be on 24/7 so ya gotta get whatcha can while tha gettin es good. Tha means folks aint always gonna have time fer RP jus at tha moment an maybe needed tha one thing from ah merchant they been waitin on fer ah build.

Ah'd be totally fine if ya'd prefer ta do OOCish merchantin via tells er somethin so ya don have IC stuff goin on bout +5's an such. But if tha OOC buyin an sellin es gonna bother yer merchant character then do folks ah favor an put "RP Only" on yer booth signage er on one ah yer merchant chests? Maybe "RP Only Shop" outta be ah tag fer tha scry tool?

Dunno bout anyone else... but ah'd sure appreciate et so ah don end up jus wastin both our times.

Tha said ah do appreciate everyone who does player merchantin an deals wit all tha work tha goes along wit makin et happen. Ets ah nice resource ta have available ta new folks an alts.

[*Whitefly]

"Me want shiny big sword! Not strongest what people got for sells, but next best fing."

Is better than...

"I would very much like to purchase a greatsword enchanted to the fourth tier."

Honestly I hate it when people say, "fifth tier", and stuff like that. It's such a half-baked, lazy attempt at RPifying game mechanics. It's like those people who ask, "What season are you?", in a bid to figure out what level you are. I always respond, "Spring? No wait, summer!"

[*Vesper]

However, I happen to think that it is important to respond when someone is advocating for use of terms that is immersion-breaking, as happened in this thread.

I personally feel that when I have a recipe book with five recipes in it, each taking a different gem, each consuming progressively more gold and progressively more powerful essences, then it is very reasonable to talk about five different 'tiers' of enchantment in a way that talking about a 'plus 5 enhancement' would not be, the latter referring to a mechanic that appears only on someone's character sheet, with no corresponding in-game manifestation. Rather, I would be more surprised if there were not a way to talk about such things with precision, at least among professional all-magic friends.

One might argue that this would be a term of art, not commonly known, but planeswalkers are professionals after their own fashion, and it is often incumbent upon them to educate themselves about such things. The five recipes are on display in the laboratory for anyone to peruse, after all. Of course, one might also choose to play as if their character were ignorant of them if one would prefer.

[*Pellease]

This!

"Me want shiny big sword! Not strongest what people got for sells, but next best fing."

Is better than...

"I would very much like to purchase a greatsword enchanted to the fourth tier."

I have had to resort to this sometimes when merchants are swarmed with people and we have to be as efficient as possible, but I just feel cheap breaking things down into tiers. I understand it works with the game mechanics and the way we do recipes on here, but in a fantasy setting I'd cry if you hero found a Tier Three Longsword in the Lich's crypt.

It's just that magic sword, or a name'd sword from legend, and maybe it's a good magic sword, better than most others, but it sucks to have it so definitively classified. It's one of the things that really is the shittiest bit about DnD and the magic systems. In order to make magic work mechanically and equally for everyone you have to cookie cutter it all. Same reason why I cringe when people chat about fireballs and Melf's Acid Arrows, it just feels cheap. Takes the wonder and awe out of it.

It's like those people who ask, "What season are you?", in a bid to figure out what level you are. I always respond, "Spring? No wait, summer!"

I didn't even know this happened. I think I'd just start backing away slowly and ask if they feel all right in the head.