1) Mundane shopping can usually be done between sessions. Saves time for all players and I usually prefer it be quickly hand waved. I also run a "inventory light" game where I only track inventory when it's story centric. You need rope? You probably have rope. You need a dragon scale? Nope... go questing.
2) Talking to the group as a group in a respectful way is usually better than going directly to the DM, especially if you don't know each other well. It's very likely that the other players or DM don't know that it bugs you and so bringing it to the group could reveal a lot about hte group itself. Maybe the other players just don't have time between sessions to do that and you all agree to start 30 min later so those players can do their DND housekeeping. Maybe no one thought about shopping between sessions. Won't know till you talk about it.
3) RPing in shops can be very fun and can indeed be part of the game. If everytime the DM RP's a shop keep, then the trope of the "I'll sell it to you but maybe you want this OTHER Thing I have... that I'll sell.. for a favor" becomes too rote and boring. So to spice up the mystery of when that will happen you need to just meet some different shopkeeps.
I ran Waterdeep: Dragonheist recently and the players had a blast meeting the various shop keeps in town, many of whom only existed as flavor NPC's. While they were DOING THE THING that required them TALK TO A PERSON I put THAT PERSON in a flat above a bakery. Said bakery was staffed by a 10 year old girl and an ogre. The ogre baked and the little girl helped pack sweets because the ogre accidnetly killed her father and so he hired her on to try to make it back up to the family who refused to be paid "charity".
4) The DM is the final authority at the table for rules and table safety but everyone (DM included) is there to have fun.
Just have someone in the party pay the gold to be a Prime ally of the Amazons, and you'll always be able to get what you need, when you need it, or at least closely time to it. I mean some in the game world may think the Amazons are despoiling the world through this supply chain, but many other folks just prefer the convenience over running around getting stuff from the fletcher, the armorer, the dried fruit guy, the wyvern jerky lady, all the different smiths, a break to be entertained by the the re-united Smiths, wherever you buy bedrolls, etc. etc.
EDIT: ADVENTURE HOOK: Party infiltrates the Amazons, and after witnessing their spartan ways solely for the purposes of amassing wealth for a would be Spelljammer, subvert the organization toward an agenda of mutual prosperity via improved working conditions.
I recently started playing and somehow have ended up in 2 different games. In one of them, we never do any shopping. On the other, we spend (waste) over an hour at the beginning of each session shopping.
The key word that I think has sparked the most discussion here is the word "waste", and it's a good one to hang on to. In my current game of Lost Mine of Phandelver, my Dungeon Master may have us roleplay shopping because NPCs tend to have useful information such as quests, rumours, and persons of interest we may want to talk to. During the election for Phandalin's new townmaster we met a potion seller by the name of Tristin, who is "our Gilmore." We love the RP with him especially because our DM puts on a bad French accent, which is better because it's bad. We have a good time despite/because of the speed bumps in the way of purchasing.
However, there are times where after shopping we might've missed an item and our DM handwaves the roleplay in favour of expediency. "You go ahead and buy another blanket, before saddling up your horses and heading North-East."
I think there's room for both. Were I your DM I'd only roleplay if other players weren't in a hurry to do something else. If everyone wanted to buy something, I'd do it. If one player did it, I'd want to try and do that before the set start time while everyone else gets their sheets and dice together and generally shoot the shit.
I almost never need to buy anything. I get a bit frustrated because it doesn't move the story any, it's just continuous bordom from me.
As others have said, communicate this. I frequently parrot the advice in Falwith's signature, but to greater emphasis: it will solve 70% of your problems in D&D; another 20 is solved by reading the books (which in this case, isn't necessary). Tell your DM that you appreciate the preparation you let players have, but don't feel this is a valuable use of your time. Ask if you can turn up a bit later or have something else to do during the allotted shopping time, or if it can be done out of session. They then may proceed to ask others at their table how they feel about this change, and may implement your idea. You can't know until you voice this though.
So I guess my question is, is this normal. Do lots of campaigns have lots of shopping, or is that just this particular one?
Every table does things differently. Some like dedicated 'shopping episodes' (which will be the next one or two after some exhaustive combats lately at my table), some like to quickly nip into a shop and simply trade coin for things in the PHB, and others like a mix of both, or something else entirely.
What I can say is that D&D puts a lot less emphasis on shopping than other tabletop RPGs; the cyberpunk genre especially hugely encourages modifications to weapons and one's person. I'd buy the catalogue supplements just to read them!
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Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
The key word that I think has sparked the most discussion here is the word "waste", and it's a good one to hang on to. In my current game of Lost Mine of Phandelver, my Dungeon Master may have us roleplay shopping because NPCs tend to have useful information such as quests, rumours, and persons of interest we may want to talk to. During the election for Phandalin's new townmaster we met a potion seller by the name of Tristin, who is "our Gilmore." We love the RP with him especially because our DM puts on a bad French accent, which is better because it's bad. We have a good time despite/because of the speed bumps in the way of purchasing.
However, there are times where after shopping we might've missed an item and our DM handwaves the roleplay in favour of expediency. "You go ahead and buy another blanket, before saddling up your horses and heading North-East."
I think there's room for both.[...]
This is a problem I'm trying to solve in my head. I don't want to have to roleplay every single shopping instance. That's boring and a waste of time - players can produce a list of items that they want out of game, and I can approve it and move on within 30 seconds. On the other hand, taverns, shops and other commercial areas are natural place for plot hooks and quest drops to take place. I like the idea of having players go about their normal business and, if they're being observant or otherwise qualifying for those hooks, then they can be approached and have that semi-spontaneous roleplay with rewards.
The issue is that isn't always going to be the case, sometimes the barkeep is just a barkeep, and I don't want to provoke the "Ah, DM is having us roleplay this, then that must mean that if we behave ourselves, something special must happen". I'm not sure how to reach a compromise that gives the best of both worlds there.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
The key word that I think has sparked the most discussion here is the word "waste", and it's a good one to hang on to. In my current game of Lost Mine of Phandelver, my Dungeon Master may have us roleplay shopping because NPCs tend to have useful information such as quests, rumours, and persons of interest we may want to talk to. During the election for Phandalin's new townmaster we met a potion seller by the name of Tristin, who is "our Gilmore." We love the RP with him especially because our DM puts on a bad French accent, which is better because it's bad. We have a good time despite/because of the speed bumps in the way of purchasing.
However, there are times where after shopping we might've missed an item and our DM handwaves the roleplay in favour of expediency. "You go ahead and buy another blanket, before saddling up your horses and heading North-East."
I think there's room for both.[...]
[...]I'm not sure how to reach a compromise that gives the best of both worlds there.
Sorry for getting back so late, and for what is going to be an unsatisfactory answer: I don't know either and it's not an exact science. Sometimes it's best to ask players every now and again how they feel about the roleplay during a time-out, break, or out-of-session, and sometimes you may just want to wing it. What do you and your players want to accomplish in that session, a nice spot of roleplay or the adventure to move along at a pace, and then decide which you want more of.
Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
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Lots happening here.
1) Mundane shopping can usually be done between sessions. Saves time for all players and I usually prefer it be quickly hand waved. I also run a "inventory light" game where I only track inventory when it's story centric. You need rope? You probably have rope. You need a dragon scale? Nope... go questing.
2) Talking to the group as a group in a respectful way is usually better than going directly to the DM, especially if you don't know each other well. It's very likely that the other players or DM don't know that it bugs you and so bringing it to the group could reveal a lot about hte group itself. Maybe the other players just don't have time between sessions to do that and you all agree to start 30 min later so those players can do their DND housekeeping. Maybe no one thought about shopping between sessions. Won't know till you talk about it.
3) RPing in shops can be very fun and can indeed be part of the game. If everytime the DM RP's a shop keep, then the trope of the "I'll sell it to you but maybe you want this OTHER Thing I have... that I'll sell.. for a favor" becomes too rote and boring. So to spice up the mystery of when that will happen you need to just meet some different shopkeeps.
I ran Waterdeep: Dragonheist recently and the players had a blast meeting the various shop keeps in town, many of whom only existed as flavor NPC's. While they were DOING THE THING that required them TALK TO A PERSON I put THAT PERSON in a flat above a bakery. Said bakery was staffed by a 10 year old girl and an ogre. The ogre baked and the little girl helped pack sweets because the ogre accidnetly killed her father and so he hired her on to try to make it back up to the family who refused to be paid "charity".
4) The DM is the final authority at the table for rules and table safety but everyone (DM included) is there to have fun.
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Just have someone in the party pay the gold to be a Prime ally of the Amazons, and you'll always be able to get what you need, when you need it, or at least closely time to it. I mean some in the game world may think the Amazons are despoiling the world through this supply chain, but many other folks just prefer the convenience over running around getting stuff from the fletcher, the armorer, the dried fruit guy, the wyvern jerky lady, all the different smiths, a break to be entertained by the the re-united Smiths, wherever you buy bedrolls, etc. etc.
EDIT: ADVENTURE HOOK: Party infiltrates the Amazons, and after witnessing their spartan ways solely for the purposes of amassing wealth for a would be Spelljammer, subvert the organization toward an agenda of mutual prosperity via improved working conditions.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
The key word that I think has sparked the most discussion here is the word "waste", and it's a good one to hang on to. In my current game of Lost Mine of Phandelver, my Dungeon Master may have us roleplay shopping because NPCs tend to have useful information such as quests, rumours, and persons of interest we may want to talk to. During the election for Phandalin's new townmaster we met a potion seller by the name of Tristin, who is "our Gilmore." We love the RP with him especially because our DM puts on a bad French accent, which is better because it's bad. We have a good time despite/because of the speed bumps in the way of purchasing.
However, there are times where after shopping we might've missed an item and our DM handwaves the roleplay in favour of expediency. "You go ahead and buy another blanket, before saddling up your horses and heading North-East."
I think there's room for both. Were I your DM I'd only roleplay if other players weren't in a hurry to do something else. If everyone wanted to buy something, I'd do it. If one player did it, I'd want to try and do that before the set start time while everyone else gets their sheets and dice together and generally shoot the shit.
As others have said, communicate this. I frequently parrot the advice in Falwith's signature, but to greater emphasis: it will solve 70% of your problems in D&D; another 20 is solved by reading the books (which in this case, isn't necessary). Tell your DM that you appreciate the preparation you let players have, but don't feel this is a valuable use of your time. Ask if you can turn up a bit later or have something else to do during the allotted shopping time, or if it can be done out of session. They then may proceed to ask others at their table how they feel about this change, and may implement your idea. You can't know until you voice this though.
Every table does things differently. Some like dedicated 'shopping episodes' (which will be the next one or two after some exhaustive combats lately at my table), some like to quickly nip into a shop and simply trade coin for things in the PHB, and others like a mix of both, or something else entirely.
What I can say is that D&D puts a lot less emphasis on shopping than other tabletop RPGs; the cyberpunk genre especially hugely encourages modifications to weapons and one's person. I'd buy the catalogue supplements just to read them!
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
This is a problem I'm trying to solve in my head. I don't want to have to roleplay every single shopping instance. That's boring and a waste of time - players can produce a list of items that they want out of game, and I can approve it and move on within 30 seconds. On the other hand, taverns, shops and other commercial areas are natural place for plot hooks and quest drops to take place. I like the idea of having players go about their normal business and, if they're being observant or otherwise qualifying for those hooks, then they can be approached and have that semi-spontaneous roleplay with rewards.
The issue is that isn't always going to be the case, sometimes the barkeep is just a barkeep, and I don't want to provoke the "Ah, DM is having us roleplay this, then that must mean that if we behave ourselves, something special must happen". I'm not sure how to reach a compromise that gives the best of both worlds there.
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.
Sorry for getting back so late, and for what is going to be an unsatisfactory answer: I don't know either and it's not an exact science. Sometimes it's best to ask players every now and again how they feel about the roleplay during a time-out, break, or out-of-session, and sometimes you may just want to wing it. What do you and your players want to accomplish in that session, a nice spot of roleplay or the adventure to move along at a pace, and then decide which you want more of.
Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft