I got into some RP the other day with characters about the Pot Helm, and its uses. I am personally, of the opinion that the majority of ex-slaves do not have much of a mercantile skill. I think the best they have of it is a more intimidation, biggest thug gets the best mentality. Alternately, they may have had mini-black markets where they were, sorta like bartering for cigs, booze, clothing and food with cigs, booze, clothing and food.

Am I right to say though, that plenty of the ex-slaves have no background in merchanting, and even if they did, many adventurers do not wish to go around like some "common" merchant, hawking their wares?

I personally find it odd that people can escape from slavery, and almost immediately turn into expert merchants and adventurers right off the bat. But wait! Thats what I did!

Should I have done it? Does it bleed into the immersion, or has it already become very normal for somethinglike this to happen?

Act bewildered, upset and desperate for a while. Ask around, have your character get their bearings.

Then RP your character making some sort of resolve. IE. "I'm going to escape this shit hole or die trying" or "I'm going to rule this shit hole and be number one" or "I'm going to protect this shit hole with my life, it is the only thing that has saved me from the Underdark and I'm going to do my best to make sure others are saved too"

Not everyone was born as a slave. Also, not everyone has ever even been a slave. I'm just trying to point out that some characters might have lived a relatively long life on the surface before they even became slaves or somehow wandered into Sanctuary. Some were even born in Sanctuary? Considering this, I think it's only perfectly sensible to play a merchant character.

As said, you might be bewildered for a while (or a longer while if you wish so), but eventually everyone would try to cope with what they've got. And no, a slave might not be depressed at all to find Sanctuary, I'd see anything better than drow slavery. Returning back to your old ways is perfectly normal, and if that includes merchanting, why not?

Dopson is right. Meh, my guard has never been a slave. He end up down there in a whole different way from the surface. He could have very well been a merchant up there.

My character actually has been a merchant on the surface, trading in various potions on his own account, and he had to coordinate, find potential buyers and ensure the quality and quantity of the wines and vintages for his House. That, at a point, lead him to even convert to Waukeen, over Oghma.

The only thing is, not everyone can currently be bothered for merchanting. If I am looking at the current stock the Pot Helm Consortium (for example) has now, and I don't mean this to be offensive in anyway, but it's junk. If you come into possession of actual powerful items, other players will start to see the benefits of being a merchant as well. I, for one, might take up merchanting in the future, in rare and exquisite items, if I think the time is ripe for it. Which I currently don't think it is, yet.

Perhaps, and this may be an actual good tip, you should make contracts with potion-brewers, so they give you heaploads of potions at a reduced price, and in the contract make it say that they will only sell their potions to you. This will not only assure you a certain monopoly over potions, but as well, if people start to buy these potions from you, you can try and convince them to buy other items as well.

My 2 euros.

Heh, my character is a member, but you might often see her selling items at ridiculous prices (either low or high, depends on my whim). Now why is that? Background-wise she's from a real small backwater farming community and you can assume she has never seen magic items before, not even with such low enchantments as there are on EfU (low compared to the epic items you can get in HotU, of course, duh), that's why she might dismiss their use more easily or misestimate the price. But my prices aren't fix-prices of course so if you don't like it, take time to RP with me and bargain and don't just say "Too much for me, sorry" and back away. Please :wink:

(And whaddaya mean, Coldie, it's junk. It's a pretty damn fine selection, given what you CAN find in those settings :P )

Linelle But my prices aren't fix-prices of course so if you don't like it, take time to RP with me and bargain and don't just say "Too much for me, sorry" and back away. Please :wink:

Now that's an excellent point. It's a bit frustrating when people do that really. Whenever I'm playing a merchant, I usually always set the price a bit high at first. That's because I expect people to bargain with me. I'm not a walking supermarket with ready set prices, I'm a merchant and I want to RP it out a bit instead of being a standing stall with ready prices. Sometimes I do start dropping the price a bit myself though, just to point out that the prices are negotiable.

Yeah else I need to hire a thug who pops up from behind the table whenever people won't barter, like in "Life of Brian". :D

Righto you guys are...all the characters have backgrounds here. Personally, my character Kor'rsus was part of an elven training mission that had its leader killed. All we were left with was our training and a vague goal.

I treat the market here as odd, not knowing what price a good item may fetch considering the poor surrounding economy. On many occaisions I have sold items I knew were valuable for what was offered to me, or given them away outright to PCs I knew could use them. This is partly due to the fact I can't carry around all that weight for nothing and also because I would like to see all those items our DMs have made go to good use by someone who can actually use them. For instance, I did a quest with a hin who was the self proclaimed "best dart thrower" around. I thought it was a great character hook so I helped him out by selling him several darts I had accumulated, but had little use for. 8 darts that did pretty good INT damage poison on hit and several (maybe 6 or so) silver darts. Probably worth a lot on the surface, yet nigh worthless to me. I took the 30 gold he offered me. Why? 30 gold is a small price to pay to allow someone else to shine doing what they do best. What happens when he nails a chosen arcanist with those darts? His moment to shine maybe. So, I have hopefully furthered someone elses RP by doing a small courtesy to them by creatively looking at the economy here in EFU.

Further, I have outright given away items that would likely sell for thousands were this any other server, just because I knew someone could use them. What about me? WHat about what I get? Often later that very same player has returned with a gift for me. I can't use the stuff, so why not give it away to someone who can?