I've had this idea for awhile knocking in my head. Please let me know what you think of this. Has anyone written a tale about the NPC shop keepers in games? I'm think she has zero offense and along the line learns merchant skills like appraisal and identify object as well as crafting. The one real spell she has is return. The adventures is her sponsoring a beginner adventure for a cut of the loot (and the use of return since he's a fighter so zero mana) which she sells in the shop. Starting from crap like copper swords, healing leaves...etc to more specialized requests like dragon blood which is where the real money is but you sell like one per 10 years or something so it's by request only. Now the steaks. She is accompanying the raid party since she is the one casting return. living a sheltered life like most humans her HP is 10. It's a one hit KO for her meaning that she is in fact a liability to her party. Second steak. She has a target to meet at the end of each lunar cycle. Paying back the loan she inherited with the shop... to the demons of the Netherworld Bank. The interest keeps going up and they are just waiting for her to miss one payment to claim the shop, her soul and her grandparent's souls (original shop owners before she inherited it) so their representative actively sabotages her though at times helps if he thinks the payoff is worth it. It's just hard to tell him being a demon and an accountant no less! But if he either hits his target collection or get to Repo man her he'll finally be promoted from lesser demon so win-win right?
I've heard bad things about that game... apparently they ripped of a game from 2009 (recettear) and just removed the price tags on the items. I've played quite a few games where you own a shop and they're my fav. though Recettear is the best of them still. I just worry it might be a dumb idea seeing how it's more fantasy with game mechanics (You are controlling the shopkeeper npc after all). I'll start on a draft in the morning and see how it goes, might be a fun side project and if it sucks I'll just hide it!
They made a game that was very much like Recettear, but saying they ripped the game off is like saying Halo (2001) ripped off Doom (1993) or Starcraft (1998) ripped off Command & Conquer (1995). They're similar in a lot of ways, but there are some rather stark differences, as well.
It's just what I heard. I didn't like the art style so not bothering with the game. There are a few games that have the same basic idea. Open a shop / restaurant / bar. Go dungeon crawling for the stuff and sell them to customers, maybe craft them to increase your profits (Wheat is 1 gold but if you craft it to bread that's 5 gold, add walnuts and that's 45 gold for walnut bread!) . It's a very simple idea but apparently that game was too close to recettear for people. we need more of these games honestly. A lot of the ones like this are five minute mobile apps with zero depth when the concept could be so much fun!!! Then again I'm a hoarder in-game so telling me to go gather items and sell them for cash is like asking me to breath. LIKE DUH! why do you think I'm playing this? For the plot?
I'd like to add a "me too!" to this. Back to the subject at hand, I think the idea has a lot of merit. Perhaps while she goes on adventures, she actually learns new adventuring skills, and as the story advances, she could learn new spells and generally be helpful to the adventurers she's sponsoring.
Maybe but since her class is merchant they will be more supportive in nature. Have any suggestions? I haven't decided on the personalities yet since those come to me as I write. I love character driven tales but I get carried away sometimes.
That sounds like that could be an interesting character arc to me. Definitely a bit different than most LitRPGs, but still has the elements that have potential to be a ton of fun.
Well... what skills would a merchant have? A keen eye, so high Perception. Knowledge about the value of goods, so high Appraisal. The tenacity to haggle or barter well, so high Negotiation. The ability to repair damaged goods, perhaps? So maybe a Crafting or Repair skill of some sort. She "knows people," so some kind of Connections ability (whether a skill, talent, or feat). She also needs to be able to show off her goods, so while she'll never be, for example, as good a swordsman as the fighter, she might be able to pick up a few pointers from him. Same with a mage for magical items, and so on. Most of those abilities should be useful, at least to some degree, to the party. Perhaps she is allowed to pick up a second class, too, like Alchemist, so she can make healing potions (which she can sell at her shop or provide to her adventuring team).
I might use some of that. I was thinking of making her a bit of a simpleton if I go the comedy route. Personality is everything IMO and I always laugh when one character (demon) is super smart and devious but everyone around them is a moron so he's plans and schemes fall flat. I know, my sense of humor is under developed. Sue me! Repair basket = It caught fire... nobody knows how. Negotiation = If another simpleton then yay friend! If normal we might be at war now. Appraisal and identify get better with time. She will be starting at zero so might end up scammed quite a bit at first. Perception = surprising, anything with fluffy and cute will be spotted within a million mile radius. anything else... coin toss!
It's been done, a lot. There's an entire video game franchise based around grinding for materials and crafting items with them (the Atelier series), and another entire video game franchise based around grinding for materials and crafting items with them (Monster Hunter), and at least two separate games where you take on the role of an item merchant as the MC. The Atelier games got an anime adaptation for a few of the franchise entries, and there was one episode in Sword Art Online where a crafter accompanies Kirito and is generally useless except for getting him in more trouble. There have been others, but those are the only two that come to mind, but the others are all based on LNs or video games. Also one currently airing anime that may or may not count (Holmes of Kyoto), because I haven't been watching it yet. I'm waiting for a sufficient backlog so I can binge it if it passes the 3 episode test. So the idea is around in books, games, and (loosely defined) "movies/TV series".
