Additional Hall(s) of Trade to allow rival merchant companies

[Egon the Monkey]

The Hall of Trade is better than any other stall, and if you have it, you have it until you die. There's no real way to fail at it. If there were 2-3 of Halls, there could be competition among merchants as opposed to just joining up with whoever currently runs the one Hall. If we're playing a setting about intrigue, we need things to compete over. If, for example there was one trade hall run by each League, that'd really encourage factionalisation, League member discounts, and all Leagues having a mercantile arm to buy votes with.

[Pandip]

be a real man and plot the death of your competitor so you can steal their shit.

buy a property and run your mercantile endeavors out of there.

apply for a stall placeable next to your "base" after you've made a name for yourself.

[Egon the Monkey]

If you kill your competitor, you've just broken your favourite toy. Why on earth would I want to assassinate the other merchant, that's not beating them at merchanting! If I was playing a merchant, I'd want to be able to have a rival who's a peer and can challenge me. Winning is boring. If there's more than one Hall, there's more than one Big Group of Merchants. As opposed to one incumbent and a lot of part timers.

The reason the Hall is so good is that it's got a stall *right there* and one that populates directly from the chests IIRC. It provides massive OC convenience.

If you build the opportunity for rivalry, it generates rivalry. Right now, you may as well collaborate rather than compete, as that gets you access to the Really Convenient Storefront. Provide more ways for people to merchant conveniently, and you can up the amount of low level conflict.

[Anonymous Lemur]

The hall IS something to compete over. I assume you're aware that any legates can repossess properties for any reason. So there is an element of requiring some standing with the political elite to maintain ownership of that property or most properties for that matter. You'll find the story behind how the current owner of the Hall gained control of it is a lot more interesting of a story than simply purchasing it.

[knifey]

Apartments and lofts in the Souk for the Voiceless merchants and otherwise visiting irregulars of the Well. Higher rates than the Krak, smaller rooms. Subject to Janissary search.

[Walrus Warwagon]

I do like the idea precisely for the idea of increased competition, and for representatuon on how ephia's market grows.

Counterarguments so far do not provide any remotely equal alternative. Apping for a stall isn't even plausible - I doubt we will see any ephian stall outside of souk. Better think on other reasons why this suggestion could be awesome than try shoot it down.

[Egon the Monkey]

The hall IS something to compete over.

Yes, but there's no competition over who's the top merchant because it's 'whoever holds the Hall'. If you've taken it you don't have anyone in the same tier to compete with. You are just the new stable incumbent until someone else pulls a Massive Scheme. This all came about because I wondered how I'd make a new serious merchant PC. And step 3 was always 'murder Zina or get her turfed out of the Hall'. Which was rubbish because then I'm The Only Big Merchant rather than The Best Big Merchant. I've out-aggressioned someone rather than out-selling them. It'd be like if I made a Janissary and somehow managed to just obliterate the Rose. Oh, shit, I just lost the faction that generated a lot of my conflict for me!

If there were multiple halls, there'd be competition both to hold the halls, and between the 2-3 PCs who have access to them. Rather than desperately trying to hold onto one overwhelming advantage, you're trying to draw customers to yourself. That's a lot more mercantile PvP. The killer features are the massive backroom, the persistent catalogue that works when you're not there, and a janissary NPC to make violent or sneaky PvP require a DM. You can spend most of your time there, rather than making constant round trips to a box room.

I feel EfU suffers a bit from sunk costs. When you've got the expensive fashion loot or the Hall of Trade or the fancy house, hard to get back, so why take risks? Whereas things that are more lightly held are easier to fight over and harder to get attached to. Legates work pretty well in that regard as they do seem to change hands on the regular. Much more so than faction officers or properties seem to.

The reason I suggested it'd be particularly good to have a Hall run by each League, is it would make it much harder to form a boring stable cartel. Because each landlord would have a separate set of interests, and an incentive to demand competition be fierce. We'd get the equivalent of 'the bar you don't drink in if you wear a certain colour'.

[Walrus Warwagon]

Fair. PCs live a long live, and rarely change or purchase gear past some point. There are just not enough customers.