Unboring merchants: more than vending machines
Any NPC can fade into the background, nameless and faceless.
Or they can live and breathe, interacting with the PCs as people.
I could list off some of the common advice here:
Give them goals and motivations.
Rivalries and loves.
Fear and hope, a past and a future.
All of which is good advice… but it applies to all NPCs, not just merchants.
What can you do, specifically, with merchants to make them more interesting?
And even more interesting still than the usual advice (“make them haggle with the party!”) because that gets old, fast.
Here are some variables to ponder. You could use them all for each merchant, or focus on a couple at a time.
Profit extractors vs Relationship builders
I’m listing this one first because it carries a lot of juice.
Some folks in business - including and especially salesfolks - are in it for a quick buck.
They’ll sell anything to anyone, using all sorts of high-pressure BS to get their way. It doesn’t matter what they offer or whether the customer can afford it. Sales is just a means of extracting profit from people.
Others take a different approach. They focus on the customer first, their relationship with them second and the sale third. These people ask questions of the customer to learn what they need.
It might be what they need isn’t available here - they’ll need to go to another merchant for that. A relationship builder will tell them as much, happily referring them onwards.
The latter group tend to outperform the former.
Sometimes by orders of magnitude.
How does that work? Well, the profit extractors have zero repeat business. When the customer gets home with an unsuitable product, they’ll be annoyed.
Then they’ll remember the other salesperson - the one who valued their needs. That’s where all the repeat business and referrals end up.
So is this merchant looking to make some quick coin? Or do they respect the customer enough to be honest with them, even if it means losing a sale?
Quality products vs Affordable products
Do they offer the platinum stuff or the copper stuff?
Each fills a need. One offers something for everyone, while the other offers the extras for those who can afford it. Everyone walks away happy.
Where does your merchant lie on this spectrum? Are they the merchant of the people or the merchant to the stars?
Proud vs Bored
Do they believe in their wares?
Have they spent a small fortune sourcing only the best products?
Or are they doing it solely for the paycheque?
Ambitious vs settling
Some merchants will dream of a corporate empire. They have plans to hire young people, teach them how to sell and supply them with the goods.
They seek to grow - to help even more people.
Merchants like this will seek out adventurers. Folks like the PCs make powerful allies, know where to find exotic material and have travelled the world.
Other merchants are happy to settle. They might enjoy the work or be put off by expansion. To them, the PCs will make good customers and better conversationalists. After all, if you can’t hear the tales of literal dragon-slayers, what’s the point of doing this job?
None of these variables is a judgement call - each has its merits. Even profit extractors have their role - some offers need an assertive salesperson to drive them.
Also, this ain’t a complete list.
Still, it’s enough to give you 2^4 = 16 different merchant archetypes to play with.
If you think of our modern celebrity hypermerchants - like Steve Jobs and Richard Branson - they are relationship builders, proud, ambitious and providers of quality goods. Merchants who are bored or happy to settle never try to reach their heights. Any who focus on profit extraction end up as enemies of the people. They might be rich, but they’ll never be respected.
Anyway, you could do a lot with these four simple variables.
You can do even more with Footprints. Under goblin rule or in a bandit kingdom, which merchant styles will thrive while which will struggle?
Something to think about after you pick it up: