The PC's encounter a man in a long cloak pushing a sales cart around advertising magical items at cheap prices. There are some impressive items like a ring of invisiblity or amulet of feather fall. If they are foolish enough to make a purchase they find they are a rip off each and every one. The ring disappears when you put it on and the amulet falls very slowly... But nothing touching it does as well. No refunds.
If they investigate further they may discover this is all just a front. A password will allow you access to the real shop, entered through the man's coat. An interdimensional store front ran by a genie buying and selling genuine magical items in every city they can get their roots in.
What's the best little flavor thing you've implemented?
The most interesting thing in the game so far has been a half or a roll of single-ply toilet paper that the rogue in the party swiped. There is no significance to the toilet paper, but time will tell.
I have a bar called the King o' Rats that my group ended up visiting. Kinda a neutral zone for seedy buisness and lowlifes due to the owner/bartender being a former thieve's guild master in his prime. Being in the military and having had fun with the ceremonial dining-in (look it up), I decided to incorporate a grog bowl behind the bar. Essentailly, since any street ruffian can enter, some may not have coin to drink, but if they have something to add to the grog they can partake. One player gave the dried fruit from a ration, another emptied a potion of healing. The MVP moment was when one of them thought it'd be a good idea to empty an alchemy jug full of mayonnaise into the bowl. The bar tender loved it, surly bastard, and told him he could drink free for the night if no one tossed him out or killed him for it.
I made an NPC using the naming chart on the DM screen and wound up with Pejedhi. I pronounced it Puh-Jed-ee and gave him an Italian accent. He was just an NPC that the PC's would get info out of but they wound up talking to him about his life and just falling in love with him, so he turned into this stupid silly Italian guy with the charisma of the Fonze.
I created a lich for a tomb of horrors run that was a mix of Dokapon Kingdom and The Adventure Zone. The players could spin this wheel of sacrifice to gain an item, but they'd lose other shit. And the lich that had the wheel was this strange lich named Weber. He referred to the players as "kids" and offered them whatever they wanted in exchange. He was hella creepy.
My Brother in Law ran a Tyranny of Dragons campaign and he created 2 of the greatest shops/shopkeepers ever:
1.) The Potion Store- In a caravan, we ran into a potion seller named Larry. Larry was hard to bargain with and had ridiculous prices. He had a bit of a squidward-esque attitude and whenever we spoke to him he would fold his hands in that triangle way in front of his face. We'd bargain with him and he would listen, nod, and then the price of the potion would go up 25 gold. We finally just gave up on him. We reached Waterdeep later in the campaign. Who should be running the shop but his brother Barry. We were in Waterdeep a lot so we got a lot of Barry. Barry was just like Larry, but had a Goliath husband that was kind of the muscle for the shop. Fast forward to another campaign, Out of the Abyss, we're in the deep gnome city, go into the potion shop. We ask to speak with the shop keep, he sighs, turns around, holds his hands the same way Barry did and says "I'm Snarry." DEEP GNOME BROTHER! It was hilarious.
2.)Krusty Pete's Magic Shop- Our rogue was looking for a fence to sell some stolen goods and found this seedy shop in an alleyway. Guy's got all sorts of cool magic items. He's got an eye like Mad-Eye Moody that looks around a lot and it can detect magic. He spoke like a pirate and we referred to him as Krusty Pete. But we only called him that to his face once and his reaction was like "...wh-...that isn't even my name".
I have an NPC who was supposed to only feature in one small quest, but has ended up being my go-to as the party love him so much.
His name is Teshet Stander, but he refers to himself only in the third person, and only ever as "Teshet Stander, Master Thief... and Superb Lover!" He's an opportunity to play maximum ham at all times. I literally can't make him too flamboyant. He's a lot of fun.
My very first DM, when I was a kid, had this extremely theatrical personna he'd slip into whenever Elminster turned up.
You'd know when Elminster was present, because the DM would sit back slowly, relax all over, take on this sort of heavy lidded, slightly vacant gaze, and pop his pen in the corner of his mouth like a pipe. It became so recognizable that any time I've ever used Elminster in all the years since, I've used the same physical tell-tale traits.
I've got a nice little magic shop for you
The PC's encounter a man in a long cloak pushing a sales cart around advertising magical items at cheap prices. There are some impressive items like a ring of invisiblity or amulet of feather fall. If they are foolish enough to make a purchase they find they are a rip off each and every one. The ring disappears when you put it on and the amulet falls very slowly... But nothing touching it does as well. No refunds.
If they investigate further they may discover this is all just a front. A password will allow you access to the real shop, entered through the man's coat. An interdimensional store front ran by a genie buying and selling genuine magical items in every city they can get their roots in.
What's the best little flavor thing you've implemented?
The most interesting thing in the game so far has been a half or a roll of single-ply toilet paper that the rogue in the party swiped. There is no significance to the toilet paper, but time will tell.
I have a bar called the King o' Rats that my group ended up visiting. Kinda a neutral zone for seedy buisness and lowlifes due to the owner/bartender being a former thieve's guild master in his prime. Being in the military and having had fun with the ceremonial dining-in (look it up), I decided to incorporate a grog bowl behind the bar. Essentailly, since any street ruffian can enter, some may not have coin to drink, but if they have something to add to the grog they can partake. One player gave the dried fruit from a ration, another emptied a potion of healing. The MVP moment was when one of them thought it'd be a good idea to empty an alchemy jug full of mayonnaise into the bowl. The bar tender loved it, surly bastard, and told him he could drink free for the night if no one tossed him out or killed him for it.
#OpenDnD. #DnDBegone
I made an NPC using the naming chart on the DM screen and wound up with Pejedhi. I pronounced it Puh-Jed-ee and gave him an Italian accent. He was just an NPC that the PC's would get info out of but they wound up talking to him about his life and just falling in love with him, so he turned into this stupid silly Italian guy with the charisma of the Fonze.
I created a lich for a tomb of horrors run that was a mix of Dokapon Kingdom and The Adventure Zone. The players could spin this wheel of sacrifice to gain an item, but they'd lose other shit. And the lich that had the wheel was this strange lich named Weber. He referred to the players as "kids" and offered them whatever they wanted in exchange. He was hella creepy.
My Brother in Law ran a Tyranny of Dragons campaign and he created 2 of the greatest shops/shopkeepers ever:
1.) The Potion Store- In a caravan, we ran into a potion seller named Larry. Larry was hard to bargain with and had ridiculous prices. He had a bit of a squidward-esque attitude and whenever we spoke to him he would fold his hands in that triangle way in front of his face. We'd bargain with him and he would listen, nod, and then the price of the potion would go up 25 gold. We finally just gave up on him. We reached Waterdeep later in the campaign. Who should be running the shop but his brother Barry. We were in Waterdeep a lot so we got a lot of Barry. Barry was just like Larry, but had a Goliath husband that was kind of the muscle for the shop. Fast forward to another campaign, Out of the Abyss, we're in the deep gnome city, go into the potion shop. We ask to speak with the shop keep, he sighs, turns around, holds his hands the same way Barry did and says "I'm Snarry." DEEP GNOME BROTHER! It was hilarious.
2.)Krusty Pete's Magic Shop- Our rogue was looking for a fence to sell some stolen goods and found this seedy shop in an alleyway. Guy's got all sorts of cool magic items. He's got an eye like Mad-Eye Moody that looks around a lot and it can detect magic. He spoke like a pirate and we referred to him as Krusty Pete. But we only called him that to his face once and his reaction was like "...wh-...that isn't even my name".
I have an NPC who was supposed to only feature in one small quest, but has ended up being my go-to as the party love him so much.
His name is Teshet Stander, but he refers to himself only in the third person, and only ever as "Teshet Stander, Master Thief... and Superb Lover!" He's an opportunity to play maximum ham at all times. I literally can't make him too flamboyant. He's a lot of fun.
My very first DM, when I was a kid, had this extremely theatrical personna he'd slip into whenever Elminster turned up.
You'd know when Elminster was present, because the DM would sit back slowly, relax all over, take on this sort of heavy lidded, slightly vacant gaze, and pop his pen in the corner of his mouth like a pipe. It became so recognizable that any time I've ever used Elminster in all the years since, I've used the same physical tell-tale traits.
definitely the sour blue raspberry kobolds