how do you make shops & shopping more interesting? i would

give the shopkeeper some personality.
put in some magical trinkets that don't really do anything important, but they're convenient or fun.
make the shopkeeper chum lee.

>>53210322
Magic thrift store.

Bin of unlabeled potions. A sign on the wall that says "MANAGEMENT NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR CURSED ITEMS - TEST BEFORE BUYING." The jewelry case a particular necklace, the Amulet of What The Fuck Is That, whose bizarre, non-euclidean geometry prompts anyone seeing it for the first time to say "What the fuck is that?" A set of painted wooden figurines that are suspiciously similar to the PCs in shape, clothing, and equipment. A used spellbook that's been heavily annotated and scribbled in the margins by previous owners. The Flail of Healing(Have faith, my son, and hold real still!)

File: 1450348558497.png (1MB, 992x730px) Image search: [Google]

1MB, 992x730px

>>53210322
Do what videogames do, make the shopkeeper someone the party interacts with alot, who occasionally gives quests from time to time like retrieving stolen goods, protecting a lost shipment, or retrieving rare materials. Then, as the party does quests for said shopkeeper, have their inventory expand to offer rarer and more useful goods.

Aside from this, make the shopkeeper someone who's well connected. If the party needs information on anything happening locally (or possibly beyond, if the shopkeeper is part of a large trade work) they'll be the one to ask. News, rumors, advice, whatever. Make a shop that the players's "friend", that friend that knows a little bit about everything and can get what you need if you return the favor.

>>53210322
Interesting shopkeepers. Also every shop name should be a terrible pun.

File: 0b87d5465cb882b3dc56b4838b200d3b-d7robpu.jpg (488KB, 1000x647px) Image search: [Google]

488KB, 1000x647px

>>53210322
If you're just looking for a money-sink, you could make shops into an investment thing. I usually recommend doing this with "home bases" of sorts like guild halls and such, but the principle is the same. If the party acquires a ton of money, allow them to purchase the services of a smith or an alchemist or something (or in this case invest in an alchemy shop) and then every once in awhile, have that alchemist give them a couple of free potions or something in exchange for their investment. It doesn't even matter if they invested 100 times the worth of those free potions, it still fellates the players' egos and makes them feel like people who are respected and important and have formed important ties in the setting. Those ties, in turn, give the player working relationships with NPCs who are experts in their field when the party needs information or research done on something.

Basically have your players shopping for investment opportunities and "perks" rather than items themselves.


Can also be combined with >>53210646, as any NPCs the players are interacting with alot are great sources of plothooks and mini-adventures.

Don't blow it all on shopping for items and instead buy a home or a farm.

Carry random junk items in the store. I once, through ingenuity and the DM enjoying the cleverness of it all, navigated my whole party of five through a heavily guarded castle without killing a single soul using cat bells, fishing string, oil, and a magically enhanced elf girly magazine.

When players know they can get creative, you get to see some fun shit.
>>53210411
This is also good

>>53212107
>a magically enhanced elf girly magazine.
if you're not american, you're inspired by american-style fantasy at least. do people really enjoy medieval/renaissance-oriented settings with such modern trappings? i find that hard to fathom.

>>53210322

like everyone else said, give the vendors personality, especially the ones the party are likely to be repeat buyers from.

my venders include a dwarf weaponsmith and a human armourer who are neighbours and good friends, an obese halfling produce salesman, a capricious gnomish sorcerer whos almost been shut down several times over health code violations, a more established and fancier magic shop ran by a human wizard from the mages guild, a adventuring gear store selling everything from heavy duty rope and lockpicks to ten foot poles and climbing gear ran by a veteran human fighter and former adventurer, a alchemy and herbalism store ran by an incredibly shady old woman who's actually a yuan ti pretending to be a human and struggling and a bizarre 16 foot snake monster who looks like pick related and runs a book store

its also important to remember that your store vendors don't live at the store, and its more than possible to see them around town after their shop is closed.

and as other people said, shop vendors are a very good source of side quests that the party may undertake to expand their wares

>>53212536
Well, it was a partially steampunk world, and honestly I think the DM originally made it up as a joke, but I couldn't resist attempting to own it for myself.

File: Merchsection.gif (19KB, 615x534px) Image search: [Google]

19KB, 615x534px

>>53210322
>how do you make shopping more interesting?
cards and tokens

Make them sell services as well as products. Identifying and storing items. Doing chores for you. Drop off your equipment and they'll get it cleaned and repaired while you spend a couple of days relaxing in the Inn. Send messages and packages for you. Like a magical convenience store.

or make it like Kerubims shop where every single item has a rich tale behind it.

File: CapitalismHo.jpg (10KB, 241x300px) Image search: [Google]

10KB, 241x300px

>>53210322
> Pic related

>>53210681
>Also every shop name should be a terrible pun.
Or just make the party snigger.

>>53212107
>and a magically enhanced elf girly magazine.
Was the magazine magically enhanced, or the elves?

File: Splynn Dimmensional Market.jpg (2MB, 1920x1080px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 1920x1080px

My DM included a meat merchant that was supposed to be a minor character at a large cities bizarre and we were so enamored with the character's personality we spent nearly an entire session roaming the markets talking to all kinds of merchants, from clock makers to silversmiths to the docks and so on and so on. We only left because we ran out of money to spend and room to carry things.
We also repeatedly made excuses to return to the meat merchant.
So i'd take your larger cities and make a table of all the shops you can think of, from truly mundane things to the usual shops they'd go to (armourers and weaponsmiths) and even some really inane stuff if the city is big enough.
When they want to go shopping ask what they're looking for, roll, and tell them what shop catches their eye while they're wandering. Eventually they make it to the shop they wanted but on the way they meat a myriad of other shop owners selling all kinds of wares. If they seem interested in a particular store you introduced make that character more fleshed out
If your players are interested in this kind of thing they'll find shops they like eventually.
This requires a lot of work on your end as a DM but lots of systems have tables like this if you care to look for them we were in the Splynn Dimmensional Market in Atlantis from Rifts so he had basically an entire book to work off of but you don't have to be quite that detailed if you don't want to be
Pic's a stretch but kinda related.

>>53218057
Both.

>>53218057
The pictures danced. That was the real allure of it.

>>53211275
This actually works pretty well, and makes the PC's a lot more conscious of their actions in a town. Also means they eat any plot hooks the local guards throw out instantly.