Quick question... what lipstick are you wearing? I looove it. ❤

Actually I made this shopkeep in my first dnd campaign i was dming hes a goblin from the faywild he's really old and basically like a God who's super fast has the ability to telaport him and the shop he loves to joke. My players absolutely love him I bring him through every new campaign, and there always so excited to see him

@DogwoodDove it's Maybelline Superstay 24 Color in Very Cranberry!

That's a magnificent shirt. Did U build your room around it?

My over all magic shop is Omar's Magic Shoppe. No matter what town or city they come Omar is the owner of the shop. And there a barrel of sword for sell for 1000gp. It a random roll sword table in the DM guild.

Ha! My Exalted party needed to medic once and ended up bringing her on weird global adventures of at least 3 years....

I still have PTSD about the NPC who could make one potion per day that would expire when they made the next one and, for some reason, that was the most exciting thing in the entire campaign and my players put way more energy and effort into trying to convince this gnome with two hit points an no abilities to join their level 8 party so they could have one extra potion on tap.

I had a trio of frost giants attack the PCs in a Scion game in an Italian restaurant. The players dealt quickly and mercilessly with the first two goons, leaving the third 10' tall goon to fall to his knees, crying out, "Don't kill me, I got lil ice cubes at home!" I wound up with an NPC that would be a background character for years. "If you want to live, start by cleaning up the mess your friends made." Giant finds a broom and dustpan, starts sweeping up broken glass while singing "dum dum dum duh duh dum dum..." No such as a throwaway NPC.

My players latched onto a random npc that insulted them when they first entered a town, they tracked him down and I turned him into a cartel boss who was smuggling "fey dust" and the party went on a side quest to stop him.

So true

I was about to say something along these lines. What Matt Mercer is doing here is using the shop keepers to set mood and tone in scene. But you don't need to do this too often for the players to get it. And it doesn't need to take long. In my experience, even with interesting, entertaining NPCs, shopping in D&D is adds little more often than not. Down time should still be advancing the story. True, it's the lull between high points, but it's a way to deepen the context of the campaign and where complications can be brought to light. It's where the PCs discover while they've been out tomb raiding, the villains have not been idle. Ginny is spot on in how memorable NPCs make for great story telling opportunities and help players invest in the world. But those interactions need to count for something. Just because you have an interesting, quirky character concept for an NPC doesn't mean they belong in the story. In HBO's Rome, for instance, we do not meet all the slaves in Caesar's house---we only meet his sharp tongued body slave, Poska, who is quickly established as a literate, keen, and capable of doing business on Caesar's behalf, so very a valuable slave. And whenever we see Poska in scene, we know he is there on Caesar's order--he is a capable, smart extension of Caesar's will. A quirky, memorable NPC usually isn't enough to put them in scene. A quirky, memorable NPC who advances the overall narrative is an absolute must have. (Now I don't have magic shops in my world because I feel that reduces magic items to the newest, latest smart phone. If PCs haven't paid for their magic items in blood, they haven't earned them.) Aristotle in his Poetics says drama is real life without the boring bits. That's what screen writers call shoe leather--that is unless there is a narrative reason to have the characters in a market place, skipping it is usually best. Even in downtime, where the characters have returned to town, the story needs to be advancing. Generally speaking, I have the players give me a list of what they are wanting and I'll say either yes or no as to it's availability. If it's something clever that might take time, I'll let them know. Or if it's something that might involve a side quest, say obtaining mercury so a highly skilled smith can gild the party's steel weapons with silver. Obtaining the mercury might be a side quest that first takes them to a barber surgeon that treats prostitutes and their patrons at a local brothel---but he's only got a very small amount and he hasn't seen his supplier in a long while. The players run down the supplier only to discover he's had his throat cut by thieves leading the party into a confrontation with the thieves guild. So on and so forth.

Pumat is indeed very charming

And Gilmore is also an iconic character and not just a shop keep

@@thedanishcatgirl3205 What about the powder merchant :D

@@TheBiggreenpig I was about to mention that. Victor the gunpowder merchant was a super memorable and super effective NPC in Campaign 1...with a combination of a funny voice and a funny personality, Matt was already able to captivate the players to him, but in future visits Victor was also helpful as a narrative driver forshadowing that Anna Ripley is still around. Plus, each and every time the players visit Viktor, there are more and more incidents of Viktor accidentally blowing himself up with the gunpowder which was hilarious!

That noir gun moll diction made me smile every time!

I can totally see Bramble running her shop in The Bronx, telling customers to buy something or move along before they "have an accident, see?"

I feel like she would make for an interesting POV roleplay

Bramble... that name hits hard right now. backstory if my newest char, Bramble is... was... her son... and he was drowned by the bad guys in game D:

River Song vibes, I love it!

Reminds me of Ramiris from TenSura, especially with the time paradoxes and labyrinth theme. All in all a really fun idea, especially as the time shenanigans keeps the party on their toes and they could even meet characters from the past or future in the shop. Imagine them going in and seeing a past version of the BBEG, who is utterly innocent of any wrong doing and just wants to do the right thing. Or they run into a kid they met looking to be an adventurer only to meet his jaded and dying of a curse future self...

Yoink; stealing that!

They're a Mimic that survived for so long, and grew so much that they gained sapience, made a Pact, and is now a Sorcerer, aren't they? And either the "items" - or, better yet, the _packaging_ the items the players buy - are its offspring, dormant until discarded for a time, after which said offspring begin to consume more and more of the available items in their environment, wherever they end up.

@@jamesnoneyabizness5611 Okay real talk though? Young mimics disguising themselves as a container that's meant to be thrown away in order to spread is utterly brilliant. I might legitimately steal that idea.

@@Starfloofle No! Thou Shalt _Not_ Steal! ... take it for free, with my blessings for a full table of _terrified_ players. Merry Yule, ya messy meatsack murderhobos. 😉😁😂

@@jamesnoneyabizness5611 Honestly, this feels like the Mimic equivalent to the Oblex and I'm here for it. I could also see a type of mimic that becomes a "copy cat" specifically for items, but not a way of hunting humanoids, but as a way to increase their own abilities or to perhaps spread their offspring. Say one becomes a "Legendary weapon" but instead its the mimic learning new tricks or adapting to its environment. This gets the mimic experiences and thus more tricks and also ways to spread its offspring and even be seen as valuable so it gets protection and even food.

Chaotic working is so much funnier than "quiet quitting"

i had run a game of shadowrun, and one day the group ran into a bee burger restaurant (think of mc donalds... of 1970s with fancy costumes and a child area, teleported to the year 2070) and the NPC i had as a cashier was so done with everyones shit in that world... outside some go gangers shooting up the street? not his problem. windows thrown in? not his problem, etc. and in my most monotone voice i uttered 'welcome to beeburger, where the burgers are bee-tastic' and he was a sudden success... he even has cameos in every other game i played or DMd from that moment on... he appeared in 2010 in my game, and has had about 20 appearances over the years in all kinds of settings ;D

@@Xingmey oh i love that! that’s one of my favorite types of characters, just a complete monotone despite their over the top surroundings

My fiance ran Dragon of Icespire Peak for us and when we were introduced to a Giant Sentient Crab we absolutely fell in love with him. We completed a quest for him and the result was his companion (that was a spirit after death) was released from the material plane. We asked what he was going to do now that his companion was gone and he said he didn't know, that he knew no other life. We offered to take him on our travels, but he was hesitant and not too interested in a life of adventure. We discovered companionship was important to him, though, and so convinced him to come along with us back to Phandelver. Here, the townspeople accepted him and he replaced the recently slain resteraunt server, working only for tips and only because he liked how shiny the coins were. He kept the job to be near people every day and horded his tips stash in the bottom of a mud puddle within the city limits (that he also slept in.) He revealed to us that his name was Oliver, and whenever we entered the resteraunt to eat, conduct business, or visit our friend, Oliver, she would play the Crab Rave song and describe Oliver dancing around the floor with his serving tray, giving out drinks to the patrons and collecting their bills. He still makes a cameo whenever different parties pass through the area, no matter who from the group is running the game. It's been a really fantastic addition. We look forward to seeing Oliver so loved and accepted in his new home every time we come around. There will come a day when all the tips he's collected and not recirculated into the economy will have consequences on the town, but what a guy!

In the anime Konosuba, there is a shop run by an undead who the main characters (well, most of them) like. Her products run the gamut from useless to dire curses, but the characters go there frequently anyway. The interesting thing to me is that part of the "well run shop" is a small table and chairs where the proprietor is obligated to serve customers tea. - I get inspiration for shops and inns from a lot of different media. Heck, you can get some great inn and tavern ideas from tourism sites! "Come see the only night club in a former opal mine, a perfect way to end your day at Coober Pedy!" "Come away in for a traditional Highland welcome at The Old Forge - Remotest Pub in Mainland Britain."

Yeah, I'm currently stuck on preparing a market for my PCs next week, so this is really helpful!

It’s amazing how Ginny is consistently able to make a video that immediately relates to what I’m working on

bro same

Lucky bois.

It was clearly spun and woven by Bramble's seamstress sbling!

HAHA thank you! I bought a 10-pack of pastel headbands once and they have been serving me so well 😂

I was going to say something similar. Ginny always has such cool outfits, even when she's "just Ginny" and not one of her characters!

And if the players can spot the throw away NPC then they will intentionally interrogate you for their full life story. (1 such sign is if the DM forgets the bame of the NPC they just introduced)

These are open characters filled in by the character encounters they have

Improv is quite fun, and nothing is official until a player writes it down. Making up stuff on the fly is fun, don't feel the need to plan everything out, you'll only get burned out... Have fun bantering about a character you just made up, it's an NPC!

This is such simple advice, but it really hits home.

1 addition tip is to limit the number of items available to the party at once, just to avoid the analysis paralysis of the entire book worth of magic items being on sale at once. For some shops like non-magical weapons and armor its reasonable enough to let the party just make any customizations they feel like. But for the magic item shops, keep the menu simple, a couple consumables like healing potions, a couple items reasonably within budget, and 1 or 2 items out of budget to be put on the wishlist, or pool the party funds for. (Carrying over previously available stock is optional but i would keep most unpurchased items available if a player asks about them, unless you have a reason for it to be unavailable this time)

The local rag man or junkyard is often necessary.

you, me, and Laura Bailey! 😂 good company I guess!

no no, you misunderstand. it's Open Mike night. a guy named Mike stands next to you and repeats everything you say really, really loud.

@@GinnyDi An explanation that includes a groaner pun. I like it!

Pieing a dying PC to heal them would be quite funny

Someone's been playing Resident Evil 4.

Well, good news, that item description is included in The Seeker's Guide to Enchanting Emporiums 😜