Making Better D&D Towns: How to Make D&D General Stores
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- Опубліковано 31 тра 2024
- General stores are a classic part of the D&D experience. But how do you make stores that your players will enjoy and return to? Find more ideas at www.masterthedungeon.com/
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00:00 Intro
00:24 What is a General Store?
03:57 Setting up a General Store for D&D
09:49 Handling the Shopping & Gameplay
15:27 Common, but Important
#DungeonsAndDragons #DnD #Animatic - Ігри
On the topic of guards…remember that dogs are cheap, make great companions, AND can detect invisible intruders.
Also they can bark
You're right, guard dogs should be way more common.
Most players are also probably less likely to harm a dog than a guard or thug protecting the store.
Either a dog or a cat. Bonus points if the dog is trained to loudly and excitedly greet anyone that enters.
@@trevynlane8094 bonus bonus points of said dog is a blink dog, it'll rip you to shreds and look cute doing it
the modern equivalent of adventurers shopping at a general store is a fully armed special forces squad visiting a Target grocery store and loudly theory-crafting how to arrest suspects using trash cans and duct tape.
I dont know about the people you play with, but the ones I play with play more like the ragtag terrorrist group tipe that would 100% get stuff from target to make a bomb with.
The Avengers going to 7/11 because Bruce Banner needs some chips to recover after Hulking out
@@gabrielandradeferraz386 You work at a petrol station. You see an armored SUV pull up. There's a turret on the top. Out steps four extremely strange individuals, armed to the teeth. They don't get any petrol for their car. They walk inside fully armed with shotguns, rifles, handguns, and grenades sticking out of every container on their bodies. They ask if you sell assault drones, flashbangs, kevlar vests, or teargas. You shakily say no, looking over at what is being sold in the store; some old chips and no-brand energy drinks, maybe pepsi if you're lucky. They scrounge around like a deranged pack of racoons for 20 minutes, they find three rolls of ductape, a rope, and a leftover ethanol can you used to burn away some weeds last week. You don't sell ductape or rope. Fearing for your life, you agree to sell them the goods anyways. Trying to come up for a fair price, you say twenty dollars - You're fairly sure this is under the value of the ethanol alone.
They argue with you for an hour to bring the price down to fifteen dollars before you agree, just to get them out of there. They cheer and stagger out. You see a mechanical arm attached to one of their backs steal a bag of chips as they crash through the door and into their car. They did not fuel their car. They come back and blame you for not fueling their car.
You quit your job the next day.
@@JagEterCoola sounds like it would be an amazing session
Granted back in the medieval era they were a lot more open carry with armor and weapons back then so anyone who could afford that gear generally wore it to signify their wealth. Though I would love to see a medieval ruler so paranoid about rebellion he bans openly carried armor and weapons just to spice up the flavor of towns
I remember a DM once had us meet a traveling merchant who tried to peddle the gear we sold to a general merchant back to us. Was a fun interaction
Realistically this should be way more common and I have to say props to your DM for a little throwaway humor that actually makes the world seem like its moving around you 👏👏
That's quite clever. I think having a world react to strange things the player do is a fantastic way to build the world a bit around what the players do.
It makes sense there would be an economy around dungeon related items if the players do a lot of dungeon delving in a dangerous area.
Was he really a salesman or more of a pawn shop owner?
@@dubuyajay9964 Pawn owners are a type of salesman
That MF is getting a magic missile up his hole
Consider offering players looking to sell expensive items the option of a shop selling it on consignment. They leave the item at the shop and check in after a bit to see if someone saw it and purchased it. If it sold, the party gets paid minus a small cut for the shop.
Alternatively, have the players need to sell their things to a shop that specializes in those things.
@@kennyholmes5196 I would consider that approach if it is an item that would only be of interest to a small number of people, like a very expensive work of art, and make an adventure out of it (the noble that buys the art has a job for the PCs). You might not be able to offload many "valuables" at the general store in a small hamlet, but the players shouldn't have any trouble finding an interested buyer in a larger town or city. Making them jump through hoops just to find the right place to sell stuff is just going to aggravate most players. It CAN be a fun way to get the players to explore the town more that they otherwise might, but it can also be a serious drag.
The OPs suggestion of a consignment store is a good way of giving the PCs a place to offload their treasure without making them wander all over town visiting a dozen different stores looking for buyers. The other shopkeepers in town would know that the consignment store gets new stuff in pretty frequently and would likely visit it looking for stuff they can resell, especially if it would make for a good display item. The consignment store owner would also have a good idea of who in town would want certain items and let them know they got some in stock. You can stipulate that the specified values of items (e.g. gems worth 10 GP each) is the value the consignment store gives after taking their cut, if you want to simplify things. The PC could get a bit more if they sold these items to the proper vendors themselves, but not a substantial enough difference to push the PCs toward doing that instead (e.g. maybe a jeweler would by those same gems for 11 GP each, but they'll also try to haggle for a lower price). This way, the party CAN go all over town looking for the right shops to sell everything at and interact with a bunch of different vendors, or they can skip the hassle and let the consignment shop handle the sales for them so they can get back to adventuring.
In a similar vein, the PCs might have some servants/attendants that could do all the running around for them.
A tip for DMs who are dealing with players that just want to take everything that's not nailed down, have a bell attached to every door of the shop; The front and back door, as well as the door into the stock room. Remember to mention the ringing when the PCs enter to case the joint. "The ringing of the bell above the door calls the attention of everyone inside for just a moment before their attention returns to what they were doing upon noticing you and offering a friendly nod"
I mean that's literally how stores use to do it, have a ringing bell so the person who was working out back at the time would know a customer had come in. There's some shops that still have that in the UK, they're rare but they're the kind of shops that have been family run for a long time.
@@luketfer Totally. I think most of them in the US have transitioned to a sensor that plays a chime but I wouldn't be surprised if there are some mom and pop shops that still use a traditional bell.
If you want to be a little more fantastical about this you could also use a magical effect like the D&D spell Alarm. This has the added effect of being more difficult to disable or bypass.
What if they steal the bell?
@@ZarHakkar Make it a tiny Celestial, that looks like (or is wearing an illusion of) a bell, who is very displeased to be moved from it's favorite trader's shop, where it has been enjoying observing all of the friendly interactions. It could even stress to the thief that it wants to return before Wednesday because it wants to know how Mr Benjamin's dogs liked the liver he purchased in the previous week.
Treat it like a small child, assuming the purest intentions of the thief (until given good reason to think otherwise), who is addicted to the soap opera that is playing out in the shop.
I like to think of health potions as a form of insurance system... No townsperson could afford one, but if 100 people pitch in 5 silvers, it could protect the town from many kinds of accidental deaths. Logging or mining injuries, heart attacks, animal attacks, drownings, burns... Whoever needs the potion simply gets it, and the town can easily recuperate the wealth lost when a worker can work another 20 years. And they all get to rest easy knowing it's available.
I'm a little confused. Do all NPCs get death saves in your setting? Do the NPCs take longer to die than players because a mine or forest would be a ways away from the market? Do health potions in your setting sure conditions because it lets them recover from heart attacks?
@@anthonynorman7545 You don't get death saves in real life Anthony.
@@dangnice7794 ...we're talking about dungeons and dragons: a fantasy game.
@@anthonynorman7545 Cool, doesn't mean that regular people immediately die from a broken leg ❤️
@@dangnice7794 you're the only one talking about a broken leg.
Not to sound old...but in past editions, excellent guidelines like these used to be included in the core rulebooks. 5e did an excellent job at streamlining things, and that was necessary. Still, I feel like this kind of info would've been helpful for aspiring DMs. Glad to see it available here though!
A lot of similar ideas are featured in the DMG. And more fleshed out stores are featured in campaign setting books.
One of my favorite books for some stupid reason was the forgotten realms general store book, looked like a sears like catalog wanna say 2nd ed
4th edition may have had problems, but its DM guide does a really good job on describing how to be a good DM by not just following the rules, but by being creative.
@@bhume7535That's been a common thing from as far back as the 2nd Ed AD&D DMG. Back then it was common to require down time and resources to gain levels. Say 2 weeks training per level you currently had to gain your next one once XP limit reached. With those kinds of rules in place buying from shops and spending time in or around towns was common place.
@@Ishlacorrin Dang, yeah - "training"; and from a higher lvl NPC prepared to do it, too; you could keep a whole team down-timed waiting for a year or more to get trained, taking them on trash missions were they couldn't gain any more XP just to watch their little faces crumble as you told them ".. and this is how much XP you _could_ have earned ..." Happy days...
Best deterrence also makes for good set dressing in town: consequences for thievery. Have many bandits be one-armed, showing how thieves get their hands chopped off. Wanted posters of adventurers on town boards, with bounties. Even better, reskin campaign enemies as good rather than evil if your players go on a crime spree. Now, instead of evil cultists, your group is facing Paladin investigators hunting your group down. Shops closing when you pass, people refusing to do business with you. Make the players see the world change in response to their actions, like a moral system in game. They do good, they get welcomed into town and get discounts on prices. They do evil, shops stop doing business with them and guards put their posters up to warn people away from them.
What if only some of the party are doing evil things?
@@unwithering5313 That can be difficult if it’s happening because one player is bored and wants to do murderhobo stuff while the rest of the party wants to play in town and be nice. You CAN make consequences fit for the character, but I’d be more likely to make consequences for the player: ask, “how does everybody else feel about this action?” “Stealing is going to sour the town against the whole group, so the group should have to unanimously decide to accept the consequences.” Have no shame about pausing the game whenever things get uncool for some players, and even enforce a simple nonverbal agreement sign for everybody like an “ok” sign so that the group has to sign off on the bad behavior. Good players read the room too; if one player is being super cringy, tryhard, or antisocial, say “nah, we’re not doing that.” I’ve had players try to seduce npcs and I just say “I’m not goin to roleplay seduction, that’s not the game I run.”
Bandits are not thieves
Bandits would be executed
@@thodan467 Not historically-people would be banished (the root of the word “bandit”) if they were habitual criminals and the town wanted to keep them from causing more trouble. Thievery was usually the easiest crime to pin on vulnerable communities like the Roma or Jews in the Middle Ages, so that stigma has stuck around to modern times. It is true that you wouldn’t incur a blood debt if you killed bandits outside the city, but you also wouldn’t be hailed as a hero. Laws against killing people with swords acted as a deterrent to popular uprisings, which could happen both inside and (more importantly) outside of urban centers. If the Black Plague hadn’t killed off enough of the serfdom to make labor a profitable industry, there would have likely been some bloody/bloodier rebellions in Europe’s past.
@@unwithering5313 Those who stand by and let evil happen are through their active inaction evil.
The presenter will probably never see this, but damn this is masterfully done, script and presentation! I have DMed for 12 years, and knew most of this, but the way this is presentes just transforms the information into pure usableness, for lack of a better word. Instant subscribe! Cheers!
Yeah! They do an amazing job of packing tons of thoughtful, usable advice into remarkably compact videos.
I like the animations, too. There’s just enough going on to keep your interest and clearly illustrate the concepts, without being distracting or making the videos overlong. Everything is just… _optimal._
Only thing I'll say that's negative is that her voice is a _little_ quiet compared to the music. That said, reducing the music volume probably isn't the way to go there.
The video is so good!!!
I have used a local shop keeper that had a deal with the monsters of the local dungeon. He would buy or trade with the monsters for the stuff the monsters got off dead adventurers that the monsters didn't want or couldn't use. The store owner would then sell the stuff to other adventurers as second hand stuff or sell it to a merchant who would take the stuff to another town or city for sale so it couldn't be tracked back to the store owner.
You can also use this with local bandits or as a front for the local thieves guild or smuggler ring.
Wouldnt that encourage more adventurers to go and die thus making the shopkeep an accomplice to murder?
@@spencervance8484 Yes. That's why the local shop keeper/ merchant keeps it secret or works for the local crime boss.
And the shop keeper is not selling information to the dungeon dwellers/ bandits. The shop keeper is making regular trips to the dungeon by secret entrance/ back door to trade after the fact. The savy party could get wise to the shop keeper and follow them to find a secret entrance/ back door where the guards aren't as expecting of trouble as they are at the front/ main entrance.
They can figure this out by clues they see in the dungeon (if it is a large one and multiple trips are required). Say they find a keg of a local beer and it is fresh, but no raids have been reported lately. Or one of the sub bosses or level boss is wearing specially dyed linen clothing that is new. I.e. things that other adventurer parties would not normally be carrying with them, but could be purchased from a merchant. That leads to the question of how the dungeon dwellers are getting them.
I once made a general shop in a small town that my players started in, it was their first role playing game ever, so i wanted to make world a little more forgiving and friendly, so in that shop, there was a mentally handicapped man working, he was very friendly and most people in town liked him, so that's why he was working there, he never tried to upsell my players, if they asked he would be happy to tell players where they can sell some of their thing in a decent price, and sometimes if my players where in really bad situation, he would buy something not really valuable from his own money because he just liked it, so my players can buy some basic stuff, once my players found out that someone sold that man some junk but convinced him it was worth much more, and because that shopkeeper thought he would make more money for shop owner buying that, he payed with shops money, so now he was working without pay (which don't really bother him that much, but he was sad for losing shop money), so when players found out, they found that guy, beat him, found his house in different town and stole most of his things (which were mostly stolen from different people), then went to that shop in starting town, gave him a little more money than he should be paid in that no-wage working time, gave money for that junk-thing back to shop owner and then taken the rest of that money from the thief, went to biggest library in the area and bought that handicapped man a thickest book with the most amount of drawning they could find (he loved books, but could not read/write)
Long time after my players left that city for some longer time, they got a letter from that man, with 3 drawings,1 drawing was that man "reading" that thick book, being very happy, second was him learning to draw from the drawing in that book, and last was him giving money to some npc traveler to find players and gave them the letter
Pretty wholesome. Nice
This is the most wholesome case of vigilante justice I've ever seen.
On the topic of security. Guilds were a thing. There could be a guild of general stores that covers the whole kingdom. Rob one in a small town and now there are wanted pictures for you in every town/city.
As soon as the robbery was noticed. The guild was contacted (via animal messenger or sending, maybe with the help of the clergy). Guild hired Caster teleported in and cast spells to see what had happened (by casting spells to see the past) & got your appearance from that.
Also a team was hired to go after you.
A guild for general stores would be powerful due to there being a store in every town. And with how much money goes through those stores it would be rich enough to do this.
I'm in love with this premise. Of course the collective interest of the guild would give them the power and resources to coordinate and protect themselves! So if people with these kinds of intelligence-gathering powers exist, the guilds would be willing to pay to get them. And then you have natural consequences for your players' actions in your world. Genius.
Medieval corporatism complete with private investigators and armies 😂
I remember a game I was a player in where the dm created alot of feel for things like the shops that when my character discovered hard candies that were a local specialty.
My character became addicted and it led to alot of hilarious shenanigans when my character was willing to do nearly anything for more of these candies.
When the store was out because of a shipping issue it led to a funny and fun side quest when my character drug the rest of the party into a crazy side quest to bring back the candy.
That's a kick-ass DM! Little details like that can really bring a game to life.
I think, when they said “more valuable goods”, they meant that value can mean a good being more sought after goods, such as goods in high demand, not high pricing.
Unrelated is an idea I had. An adventurer could purchase some basic things such as dried veggies, jerky and flour instead of ration packs themselves for better prices, as flour can pretty much just be mixed with water and baked to make hardtack, which is a very versatile bread substitute, though it doesn’t taste very good or break easily in your mouth. An alternative for the dried veggies and meat, you could simply buy lots of salt, then store meat and plant foods you forage for yourself in the salt, cutting down further on price. You could also fulfill your skyrim dreams of downing tons of food to heal by making hardtack with healing potions instead of water, though that’s quite expensive in mass amounts.
Heal-tack is an amazing idea. Thank you
There is also a major difference to be held between this and the Trading Post which is much more focused on buying out expensive trade goods from the frontier and then resupplying those who get them. This is a prime location for your adventurers to go to get restocked and sell off loot. The general store is better for small day to day actions in a more urban situation.
9:53 I'll probably attach a sticky note to my GM screen just like that
Great insight into local businesses... there's always something to learn from all around us that could transform the game into something a lot more immersive and engaging
There's some interesting ideas here, but I agree with another commenter below suggesting this script applies mostly to modern, large-city stores. Even today one-horse towns might be lucky to have a single general store and might instead rely on all it's inhabitants knowing each other and keeping a small stock of common items relevant to their profession, sometimes in their own homes! and direct travellers to them when and if they show up. There's often not enough internal trade to warrant a dedicated store open 8 hours every day of the week.
Today you are less likely to find such a store because such places can exist. In times like the average D&D setting takes place, very small towns would be next to unheard of. For safety people would gather in significant numbers, there is also the point that most towns would only form around fresh water and known trade routes or other naturally important places like mines. While today you can come across a town with only a few dozen people in it, back then you would have 3-4 times that many at least. Even more so in D&D settings where monsters and the like are a thing, not having the numbers to fight off enemies would kill most very small settlements.
One of their homes could turn into a general store if the town gets bigger
@@Ishlacorrin Well, that depends on your interpretation of the fiction. For once, as much as in D&D there are wandering monsters, there are also epic heroes and magic, so that a single person could defend themselves or a small community from most low level creatures and brigands. On the historical side, I'm quite sure In times and regions of peace, plenty of people lived pretty much alone or with a small family; hunters, sheppards, etc. But if security was such a concern so that people _had_ to crowd in large tows, then they wouldn't just let any stranger from distant lands in, would they? That would be pretty un-safe. The idea that you can "drive" into any town and just walk around their shops is also extremely modern, and rests on the widespread common understanding and enforcement of modern national laws.
It's a really good point. Lot's small settlements would probably rely on travelling peddlers or having a communal wagon trip to the "big city" to get supplies. There are entire sets of game drama to be found from such settings and folk in need.
One thing about a general store is it can be a local hangout for older retired people or farmers who want to get out of the house between planting and harvest so it can be a good alternative to a tavern for picking up local rumors.
A good trick for the minor adventurer goods that a small shop has: use a starting pack, like an Explorers Pack.
The main factor I use to decide how roleplay focused I want the shop to be is how big the city is. If they want to go to the shopping district in a big city I'm likely to tell them they have everything just use the PHB charts. If it's a small town with a few small stores than I'm more likely to do a full roleplay. Specialty shops are also more likely to involve more roleplay.
the lowly general store is often overlooked, your take on this is greatly appreciated. Really helps DM's rethink or honestly THINK about those locations and what is likely to be there, and how to make for the best experience for players...very well done!!!
Next to the local tavern, general stores were always one of my favorite locations for story building when I was running a game. Even without any special items or encounters in the store, it's a natural place for rumors and gossip to be overheard between customers and other local townsfolk, or to find work from someone or from some kind of message board where people can post public notices. I also like my merchants to have a backstory sometimes like knowing magic and having their store and merchandise kept safe with cantrips, or being a skilled thief so they'll catch most any other thieves trying to steal from them. Shopkeepers can share space with other specialized merchants too, adding other specialized NPC interactions like an someone who sells animals, an alchemist or an enchanter, or a cartographer and historian.. Lots of fun possibilities for a general store.
The idea for a small side-quest missive posted outside for items that the shopkeepers might want to collect for their inventory is an excellent idea I had never thought of.
Video Idea: "Consequences for your actions" Maybe a good Law structure for if a player steals or breaks any laws or just in general consequences for making stupid decisions ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If a party ever decides to attack a castle in a game of mine where magic is somewhat common, they will be met with a spice based aos that has two easy saves, but causes blindness on the easiest and muteness in the easy second one the effect also last for a minute
Whenever my players steal from, attack, kill or do anything bad to some seemingly random person, I sometimes roll to see if that one person as actually like a super important noble or parter to a noble, so my players might then find "Wanted" posters on all towns & bounty hunters going on their trail after they mugged that "random" woman
I had my players at the beginning of the campaign sign binding contracts with the Duke of a Province that hired their characters, stipulating various legal protections and rights they have as private contractors under the Duke's employ. Basically what they can do (within reason) and what they can't do that will get them in trouble with the law. The Paladin wanted to be a lawyer, a 9ft white wooly mammoth Loxodon by the name of Grognak the Destroyer Attorney at Law.
Ex: They can not be incarcerated for, but may be subject to fines at the discretion of local law enforcement or magistrate:
Murder so long as it falls under the specified guidelines of an agreed upon contract signed by a member of the state
They actually used this to successfully win a court battle with the local sheriff, who tried to arrest them for kidnapping. They proved the kidnapping was justified under the contract, by proving the victim was apart of group of serial killers.
Murder them for killing a chicken
@@CountKibblesNBits oooo that's really good
I love learning about stuff like this, because you see it in people's reactions to miniscule stuff in Video Games too.
No one had to model the fact that you can break a window pane into little pieces for MW2... But someone modeled it, another person realized it completely on accident and then made a video about how, even after you shoot out the window, you can still continue to break the glass into smaller pieces...
If you do something like this in your game, have it be a store with regular patrons to the point where there are few times throughout the day when people aren't shopping, when your players do notice it they'll be incredibly impressed. It's easier if you center your campaign around a hub town, but even with a more nomadic party... Just having an idea of what goods are readily available and what ones need to be imported can say a lot about a location
Thank you for inspiring me to homebrew some more intricate shops! I'd already improvised a horse / carriage rental called "Equenterprise," but now I want to make a large general store themed around trench warfare. It'd make it really tough to rob, too. If the store room is legitimately a concrete bunker, imagine even TRYING to coordinate a heist.
That name is sooo good!
@@masterthedungeon6094 Thank you so much! Do you have any pun name suggestions for a trench warfare themed equivalent of Costco or a grocery store? I'm thinking maybe something like "Stop & Shell" or "11/11" in reference to the day the Great War concluded; 11/11/1918
@@WarChallenger what about War of Nutrition?
@@kimcooper596 Love it! Every food item can come in a strangely similar package to one-another, all wrapped in a paper-like foil with plain black wording to indicate what it is. Anything that can be canned is canned, and they buy back and reuse the cans for 5 copper pieces per can like a modern grocery store.
I have a small issue with your general store layout, why would the store room be at the other end of the standing area from the counter? Shouldnt it be behind the counter so employees dont have to push their way through the crowd during busy hours?
The reason for that is mainly because you want the counter close to the entrance for security and customer flow.
@@thekirbycrafter7229 ok take the layout shown in the video but put the storeroom behind the counter instead of behind the the customer standing area. The counter would be the same distance from the door so customer flow is not effected, security only gets better from what I can tell because all of the merchandise would be on the shopkeep side as apposed to the customer side, and the shopkeep like I said in my original comment wont have to go through the customer side when fetching items from the storeroom. I honestly cant see a functional reason for the layout as is
@@EdsonR13 some buildings have more advantageous architectural layouts than others but I see your point.
Easy workaround for that is an employee's only route to get to the storeroom
@@KaitouKaiju or above/below the main floor.
In my games I have turned the "general store" into market places with multiple shops or stalls. It adds a lot more to the experience letting players go stall to stall meeting new NPCs and find interesting things in the market. Not many catch all stores let's my players befriend more NPCs and build a data base of characters to assist them in finding specialized stuff.
The insight about why these stores actually exist is so good, thank you! Makes me rethink things, and that's a good thing!
Remember that the best deterrent to thieving is not a hard fight or the guard, but rather the *social* consequences of stealing. The general store operators are among the most interacted-with people for anyone in a given town and, as such, hold a surprising amount of influence on the townsfolk. Your PCs might not have a hard encounter in a small town for taking something while the shopkeeper is distracted, but crossing them might draw the ire of the entire town.
-Party of new players walks into store
-Wizard PC asks the shopkeeper if he has any spell scrolls or spellbooks
-Shopkeeper answers magical writings are pretty rare and expensive, but he has a chest full of old books people dropped by there and the PC's free to check
-PC asks if there's a spellbook there
-I call for an Investigation check
-Nat 20
-I describe as he digs to the bottom of the chest, he finds a charred book with magical writing inside, while mostly destroyed and useless, it contains a couple spell formulae still usable
-PC buys it for 5gp from the shopkeeper
One major general good that I felt was missed by the video is water skins or other water carrying tools. Everybody drinks water and the water skins would also be perfect for the day worker example since they could be far from a source of clean/safe water, during their work.
I like the idea of different general stores having different items and such. A general store by the sea might have things like fishing rods, bait, even a rare potion of water breathing. While a store near the mountains might have pickaxes, rope, ect.
Great video! Especally the part with the sliding scales rung a bell, as just recently my party was haggling with a sentient octipus, who runs the shop in the main pirate hub of my campaign.
It was pretty much all roleplay each time they went there, going from personal bickering between the octopus and charakters that were former pirates, him introducing a new slave each time that run the storage, all of them being called Jonny, one of the pcs getting thrown out after they tried to steal something, trying their best to **not** have to go back there, eventhough they were the one wanting the ammunition they planned on buying and my favorite one of one of my players googling what octopus like to eat, just to siccessfully tempt him with some delicious clams and crabs.
The old Dorbey remains one of my favorite npc and i think overall thats propaply my big takeaway from running stores as a dm, the experience is as enjoyable as the npc running the store, atleast if its roleplay heavy :)
As the store manager of a grocery store, I found this video insightful.
A thing to remember is that a general store in real life would be different from one in say, the forgotten realms. They would want to keep things like alchemist's fire in reasonably high supply because if a troll attacks, or acid and large amounts of flammable oil. Just a tiny amount won't be enough to protect the town. Also, D&D worlds would tend to be a good deal more martial than real world, I know a lot of modules keep to peasants everywhere, but in the books, a pretty good percentage of people seem to be capable of manning ramparts or using a bow to a small extent - they live in a world where a group of hill giants might decide to bully their town after all - food is generally easier to obtain than in the real world (because prayer to gods actually works sometimes) but the dangers are much more significant
Are matters too: Around the troll moors, they'd have a lot of stuff to create fire or use acid, if they're in an area frequented by hill giants, they might have lots of caltrops in stock, if zombies are a concern, holy water might be more common
Yep. Basic supplies for threats the town is likely to face would be in stock just like general stores in the old west carried a small selection of guns and plenty of ammo.
I've always ran a general store as a place where the GENERAL goods is. If my players wanted something unique enough, then they might find a shop for it in the town or another one
Either that or send them to a Specific Store
I like how you drew the shop keeper's apron in a historical style, with a corner at the top attaching to a shirt button. Nice video, too.
one thing i added to my game is a travelling hotel/tavern
just a flatbed wagon and a wizard. he props up a plank, casts Mordenkainen's magnificent mansion, then charges the party for entry.
a great npc to meet in the middle of nowhere :)
he can also smuggle and sell a lot of cool magic items and supplies with secret chest or even a demiplane set up as a shop
I made my players laugh with an armor and weapon shop called Professional Pain… In a town called Striklan… run by a halfling named Hank Underhill. They didn’t put it all together until i had the owner introduce himself. “Hello and welcome to Striklan Pro Pain, we are pro-pain and sell pro pain accessories.”
May I bring you: The Traveling Thrifter. A merchant who's been collecting possible magic items and trinkets but he just likes em cause they're pretty. You can buy from him, haggling a must to teach newbies how, but you have to find someone else to identify the items as magical or not. DM can roll off for it being magical or not, etc. not only could this be a fun way to introduce magic items without directly saying it and also a great side quest trying to identify that awesome sword he sold you or maybe he found a really cool chalice that ends up being a never ending water supply.
Most interesting! I never knew that stores in days of lore sometimes ran more like a sandwich shop. It's a great idea! I also agree, and I used to run it this way, a general stores generally don't have things like weapons and armor. Also I believe typically small towns and villages wouldn't have anyone that could produce such things for you. For that you really need like a small City or more of something that sits at a crossroads well-traveled trade military etc. Anyway great video I found it very informative.
I think a small village local blacksmith would be able to make most of the weapons in the Simple catagory, but if you want like a longsword or a rapier then you'd have to go to a town or small city at least. Villages often have to deal with wolves and maybe a small goblin attack here and there and having someone who can make or mend your handaxe or spear would generally just be a good idea.
It's actually really interesting how we went from the old time way of telling the shop keeper your list and they gather it. To modern markets where you shop yourself and then now back to order pick up where you tell the store what u want and they go get it
I remember loving the touch of the old ordering catalogs as the ship menu in Red Dead Redemption 2. I think those old stores would let you put non basic things on order, then theyd place the order, sell it to you when they got it and take their cut.
How I've dealt with thieves in the stores, its a bit of a sliding scale.
1. Bell on the door, fairly basic and even hamlets will have this. If this is enough, then you'll never use whats down further on the list, and the next bullet point will actually lead to players loving the shop.
2. Guard dogs in the shop, first being the dog owned by the owner which is more a hunting dog, but if the players are known for stealing, an actual guard dog or a couple of them. Good for villages and hamlets. If your players don't steal, this will probably be all the security you need.
3. Shopkeeper knows people in the area, or is a bit more evil and makes trade deals with monsters. While not directly threatening to the party in the moment, can be a good deterrent or lead to a fun arc where they oust the shopkeeper potentially. Can be used in any shop type that is not major city.
4. Retired adventurers like you said, either as the storekeeper or that just hang around the store because they like it. This will deter most parties from stealing, or have them plan the theft which can lead to RP. Hopefully this is as far as you'll need to go. Best used in Villages or above.
5. Shopkeeper is a Silver or Gold dragon. These dragon types are known to polymorph into humans and in the case of the silver dragon, are totally fine living their lives as shopkeepers. You'll use these if your party is full of murderhobos on top of shop stealers. Hopefully you never have to use these, and they should only be used in Towns or small cities and above, but yeah, its an option.
6. The shopkeeper was once a high leveled wizard, cleric, or paladin. Only really use these if you absolutely need to, as these shopkeepers have the ability to summon high level celestials or fiends to defend themselves. Even a party of murderhobos will think twice about attacking a shopkeeper if they can summon a Solar.
Also, you can upgrade the guard dog to a well trained:
Wolf
Blink dog
Baby dragon
Exotic monsters
Ect.
Obviously higher upgrades of guard dog will result in more explaining to do, and more threat. Maybe the shopkeeper rescued a baby wolf and now its his hunting dog that sleeps in the shop at night.
Maybe he bought a blink dog from an adventurer and it 100% will teleport to him and then the cops in the event of a robbery.
Exotic monsters will probably need to be there either of their own free will (like a fey creature facinated with the goings on of the shop keeper, like its own personal drama and nobody can threaten its entertainment) or as the pet of that retired adventure who just want to be a deterance and enjoy some oleasant conversation with the shop keeper and patrons.
"Guard dogs" certainly don't need to be dogs, and if your party aren't murder hobos they will absolutely love the blink dog mascot of the general store.
Great content! This popped up in my recommended feed and I not only loved the way they explained the use of a general store, but when I came back to rewatch the video later for some session prep I was shocked that it only had 3.5k views. I knew I had to leave a comment not only to say how much I appreciate the video but to also help the algorithm gods, keep up the great work!
We appreciate it!
I think the general store I have been most proud of was one that I had in the long entrance to the underdark. It was carved into the wall and was basically a kinda gas station store with implications of a second housing level for the family that ran it. It sold mainly rations, lanterns, and rope, and was entirely empty except for the clerk, who was reading a book when the players entered.
Great video! I particularly like how you point out that historically shops did not encourage browsing and kept most things behind the counter. Very easy to forget how modern that type of store is (essentially unheard of until the 20th Century, really)
[edit] And you remembered Promissory Notes exist! Right, that's a sub. This channel knows what's what.
On the subject of setting prices, I've noticed D&D has a pretty consistent (if approximate) 1cp = $1 conversion rate. I've found this to be a great way to quickly come up with reasonable prices for things you can't readily look up.
It also makes it a lot easier on DMs. You don't really need to have a whole list of shop goods prepared. Just have the shopkeeper ask the player what they're after. If you think they should totally have that, they do. If there's no way, they don't. And if you're on the fence, set a percentage and roll for it.
You delightful, helpful sprite. I have been struggling with price conversions in my world. Your mention of 1cp to 1 dollar is going to make my life SO much better!🤩
Your explanations of these shops and locations are incredibly focused on the things it needs, very cool, i had never run a general store, and mostly had all little items a player would need at the same store where the magical items would be sold, with this idea, its completely changed my store making, XD
"High Heals" was too good to be a throwaway on the dm screen
I'm the kind of DM that plans every aspect of towns to the last detail and even I would never bother figuring out what the exact inventory of a basic farming shop is or whether someone is taking stock at 10pm. If s player asks for something that would realistically be present that you didn't consider, surely you would just let them have it anyway. I think this a crazy amount of prep that you could have spent on other things TBH.
I have been watching a bunch of these videos and they give me the gitty feeling I somehow lost after dming for 6 years. Thank you for revitalizing and renovating my love for this game. #ForeverDM
A seriously great way to experience how a party dealing with stores and selling/buying goods should feel is to watch Pawn Stars. Super serious. The way that Rick and the others deal with their customers is exactly what most small town salesmen dealing with out of town adventurers would try to pull
Another good deterrent for sticky fingered PCs is to have a local thieves guild logo hidden in the shop face... indicating that the shop has paid their dues and is in good standing and under protection. Then make sure the local thieves guild is strong enough to hassle the players enough that they don't wanna cross them. Perhaps the local owner of the General Store is the local fence or is directly connected to them some how if it's a larger town or city.
So, they are basically a typical modern general store that:
* Can also serve as a sort of pawn shop, used goods store, and/or a middleman for craftsmen & traveling merchants
* Have a menu of items with said items stored in a locked storeroom/warehouse area.
Very cool.
A place where everyday people gather sounds like a great place to establish a good foundational narrative of that location. What the average joe can give insight on common or abnormal events.
I run a rural medieval style campaign so there are very few stores outside of large towns. There is a blacksmith in most villages that will repair most weapons and armour, and sell basic tools and perhaps knives and small axes. Slightly larger villages and towns might have a baker and farmers markets to buy food, rope, fodder, fuel and horses. Most farms sell food like eggs and ham depending on the season. Flour comes from mills. If they want anything unusual like an oil lamp or weapons they have to go to a city. Players should have to work and travel for stuff, not just go to the fantasy equivalent of Amazon.
Awesome as always.
Didn't consider shops Were different in the past
If you ever have A DM who loves world building, I HIGHLY recommend playing a merchant yourself. Traveling merchants make for great adventurers, and you always have a role-playing entrance to any town you visit. My favorite character is a merchant.
Fantastic video! This greatly helps in designing shops for my new campaign. The only part where I do not agree with you is that goat meat is more valuable than a goat. A goat can give milk and reproduce whilst meat will only rot away. Hence, the animal is worth more than its meat.
however, in a more medieval-esq setting like most d&d campaigns meat is more of a luxury food than a staple for a majority of people. As you said, milk and reproduction do provide more long term value, so slaughtering a goat for meat NEEDS to be worth more to offset that potential loss.
I think it was used as an example of economic relativity. For an adventure group, they're not likely to be raising goats as livestock, but if a player were skilled in cooking/butcher, they could prepare and sell meat as a means to gain more value than just selling the goat at the 5e defined 1gp. It was just an example for raw material vs finished product value.
Having been in the sales and customer service REAL WORLD for over 30 years,
I think I GOT THIS!
The art on this channel’s videos are really lovely, does the artist(s) have instagrams to follow?
Not currently, but you can check out the MTD instagram here: instagram.com/master_the_dungeon/
Sometimes there are bonus images not included in the videos.
Solid information here. Still new to the DM department. This video has helped ask and expand on questions I have not explored. This gives me a plethora of ideas and makes me feel more confident as a DM. Appreciate this, appreciate you.
This channel is painfully underrated
Of course, while common to D&D, general stores are an element of many D&D settings that owes more to Westerns than to fantasy or medieval history: the idea of general stores didn't really become commonplace in history until the 18th and 19th century, and they were most common in small or remote settlements that couldn't support large numbers of craftsmen and tradesmen and where travelling to other places was difficult. They're typical of the stereotypical "Old West Frontier Town" aesthetic that D&D sneakily borrows from, with medieval fantasy aesthetics painted on over that (and there's nothing wrong with that, but it's a useful thing to keep in mind when worldbuilding).
The common alternative was travelling pedlars, who'd provide a similar function, but travelling from place to place, buying and selling as needed and carrying news and rumours. This makes the travelling pedlar a fun, if often overlooked, option for buying and selling gear in RPGs, and they can be more interesting than a general store in small villages and the like.
In larger communities, you might be more likely to encounter large markets that open a day or two each week, with stalls from not only local tradespeople, but also those who've travelled from nearby small communities to sell their wares. Many craftspeople may also sell directly to customers, but they won't so much have a shop as a workspace where they also sell things. The variety of these options (and the quality they can produce) will increase the larger and wealthier a settlement is, because the most skilled artisans will go where they can make the most money.
Wow. This is a great guide to giving so much life to your settings! Too bad my players are stuck in the Feywild and my fighter just paid for a pie with his ability to dance. I’ll file this away for later lol
I found this very useful in preparing for my first session as a dm
This is a great way to add to the significance of money making more sense in DnD too.
Various calculations show that 1gd should be about $100USD to $150USD... so a general store or any store in a small town/village realistically will not have the cash on hand to buy a lot of things, nor sell a lot of things, and prices can get more for basic items the further you are from a supplier of those things.
General store in the bonnies will have cheaper wheat than in the city, but flour might be more if there is no windmill. A town in the middle of nowhere salt might be super expensive. etc.
Just found out this channel. I really loved the video, looking forward to see more of it :) Keep up the good work!
I'd just like to say that I stumbled upon this channel a week ago, and it already gave me SO much inspiration! (Even though I am not creating a campaign right now, but that's beside the point)
I love the illustrations too!
It's also worth mentioning that there wouldn't be anything like a "general store" to be found. If you want food you go to the food stalls or to the farmers directly. If you want rope you better hope that there is a decent port in town with a rope house. If you don't know where the rope house is you really need to look one up they are a fascinating bit of naval history.
Love your videos. You get get right to the point without long lead ins, yet they're very informative and provide good detail and information on how to improve game design and story
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"Got any grapes" made me actually laugh out loud.
This was both fun and informative. The general store is kind of an abstraction though; the reality would have been more individual stores specialising in certain things, often made on-premises (likely due to aggresive defense of each shopkeeper's niche): you want flour - got to the miller, you want bread - go to the baker (and before they shut at lunchtime), you want metal tools - go to the smith, you want rope - go to the chandler (the rope walk is the straight 1,000ft long street behind them - lots still exist in name), you want meat - go to the butcher, you want cheese - go to the dairy, you want veg - go to the greengrocer, and so on. The general store just removes the need to create a townful of NPCs. There's also market day - where those who don't own a store sell their wares directly.
For those who've never been to a store where everything is on the counter or behind it, basically imagine a deli, or the trade counter at a builder's merchant (or if you want a laugh too, google the two ronnies forkhandles sketch). The stock room is invariably behind the counter for ease of use, and security. The stuff you can pick up and bring to the counter is the low cost bulkier stuff, or it's display/fake - shopkeepers are a savvy bunch (the huge display bottle of whisky stolen from my parents shop - that was filled with cold tea). Is the "magical" sword in the window actually what it claims to be ...
Wow your videos are super packed with useful information and tips and stuff! Thank you!
I learned more from this video about business management than from an entire year taking that subject in high school.
I wrote my first oneshot this week for a birthday and added a general store in the town. I didn´t do it so the party can buy stuff there, but because the person who runs the store might be related to the stolen mead in the tavern...
Wow, I love this channel! Lots of things to think about in every video. Thanks for putting these out!
Great video, this one!
Always important to add personality and details and such to everything in a good game!
I just found your channel today, and I love what I've seen so far. The depth you go into topics like this helps a lot. Subbed!
Great video. Very useful and good information to ground the setting in something more real, which helps manage expectations.
I've been designing my own modules for years and had a similar idea, so this was extremely validating to watch.
Thanks for some solid ideas and some lovely artwork.
Excellent content and art! Subscribed. Thank you!
I like to separate shops out in a more modern way and by size:
1. General stores are like a Dollar General in a small town and a Walmart in a large town.
2. A smaller town will have a smaller pawn shop, but a larger town has a Pawnstars shop
3. A smaller town would have a church that help with a small heal for tithing, but a larger city would a full on emergency room, Urgent care, and a mega church run by Billy Grahm.
I'm astounded. So good. I'm obsessed with economic systems in my game and this level of depth blows my mind. Mad respect.
This is perfect! I'm a DM with a party that loves Mysteries and Investigations. The most difficult part about world building for such themes is knowing how the world operates so that I can create a world that's easy to pick up and thus quick to notice when something is off or where clues can logically lead too.
9:24 This is the most important for my games. Because this is how PCs find clues and proofs for narrowing down suspect lists, discovering key players/locations (who delievered a stolen good, where it was stored/delivered from).
Thanks for the awesome ideas. Never thought about towns like this before.
In any town of medium sized or larger I'll have one or more general stores, blacksmiths, and herbalists. You can also have other specialists like a carpenter, or a leather worker that probably sell through the general store, but you can go directly to them for specialty and custom items. In larger towns you can find blacksmiths who specialize: armor and arms, household goods, farrier for horseshoes, and even white, yellow, and red smiths for tin and brass/bronze and copper work. (copper knives can be useful for druid or fey work).
Now this is a valuable commodity! Thanks for adding depth an value to my game (again.)
Man, I love your videos. They really help.
it's a magical singing sword!
(but it only sings Never Gonna Give You Up)
Some good inspiration here. Thank you for this video!
I have been watching a couple of your vids and these are really good! I envy your players, since the world seems so living and ongoing!
This is the kind of video I’ve been wanting to see for ages. This was great. Subbed
This channel has provided so many useful tidbits of information. Thank you! You've made me a much better world builder.
recently fount this channel and I love it. Great insight for building a believable world. Keep up the good work!
Subscribed!
Really informative video, thank you! Really enjoyed all the animations
This is a fantastically detailed video, thank you! It makes me excited to run a general store haha!
Great video with intriguing insight
That was a lot more info on general stores than I thought I needed. Good job!
Whoa, that is a really great vidéo on all points. Thanks !
This is absolutely invaluable to me as someone who is about to start his first campaign. Instant sub.
I absolutely knew this video was going to be well worth my time. Great content as always.