Astral Shops and Items

[Starstarfish]

Besides, I think just having "cool" things for mages that aren't lethal to someone are the best thing possible for the theme.

Arguably being a mage being "cool" however isn't really the theme. The theme is that being a mage or interacting with mages is dangerous, risky, forbidden. When things make it too "easy" a major aspect of the threat is lost.

Also ... there's the bounty board system and mail there's ways to get things from other people mage/thief or otherwise that doesn't always involve meeting face to face. Trust me, one can indeed get sent ... all sorts of interesting things in the mail from mages should they so feel like it.

[Geras]

Sure they can, but backrooms in the game can be more-or-less located on the store location itself. This backroom could be deep in someones phome as a hidden room in nondescript area, making it really impossible for a burglar to find.

This is of course nitpicking a bit and can be countered with implementation, but it's always been that if you want the safe-heaven for mages training - you join up with manus. Of course then if order busts into manus tower, or turns a mage onto them, they will likely wipe out the whole ongoing iteration - so when it goes down, it goes down big. And astral shops remove a lot of risk from non-manus mages, giving them very much a buff, which I don't think they need at all. It's supposed to be life full of risk, where you constantly have to evaluate who to trust and who not to trust. This just plain removes it, giving a safe-heaven marketplace for magic items.

Having an unexplained room in your home is a big red flag if someone robs you though. And there's a good chance they will.

And risky doesn't have to mean lonely. In fact it's mutually exclusive. Giving mages the means to associate with other mages increases the risk of discovery.

[Puciek]

How would they even find the unexplained room? I mean really this is splitting hair, this doesn't increase the need to associate at all - it reduces it, how can it not since instead of having to meet/arrange a drop off with another mage I can simply meditate and go into their store to get the goods I need? And the room you mention they already have to have to store magical items, just that now it also serves as store backroom.

[Geras]

They find the unexplained room the same way they find any unexplained room. Any entrance I had for Manus always got discovered. Even stuff in a phome gets sniffed out. It's just how the game is. There are people who liked sneaking around in this game and finding things.

Personally I think storing things off on their own would be safer though.

You're going to be going to/from your store room more often than your regular hiding spot though to collect gold and replenish stock. And you could very well be selling mundane items even. Having some overt

Maybe even the ability to steal the shop itself (have a mundane object that corresponds with it) would be something to consider.

"this doesn't increase the need to associate at all - it reduces it, how can it not since instead of having to meet/arrange a drop off with another mage I can simply meditate and go into their store to get the goods I need?"

It doesn't change the need to associate. It just makes it more convenient to do so. It creates natural meeting places in the Astral and reasons to be in there to run into each other. It makes the introduction. It shifts non-Manus mages from self sufficiency to interdependence. That has a risk associated with it. That risk needs to be counterbalanced with convenience.

[Puciek]

There is zero risk from running into someone in astral unless you will volunteer out some details, absolute none unless there were some recent changes. So no, just making it a focal point for a meeting doesn't add risk at all.

[kipperialovskii]

This has already been pointed out as an inherent issue due to IC physics and likely deeplore. Think of the astral less as Urth 2.0 and more of what your spirit inhabits as pure energy. You will still be stopped by the matter of Normieverse but you cannot truly interact with it entirely too well.

Normieverse dead-drops are easy to arrange and can be relatively risk-free and encourage RP, if you consider the following factors:

Wearing hoods is not a faux pas out in the streets and it's basically expected. You'd be seen as a fool not wearing one if it's raining. (Just make it rain!)
Creating fake mail accounts to interact with both Normies and Mages is a surefire way to enable RP, since there's no evidence a 'Vivian James' doesn't exist.
There are means of using magicks to calm Normies and Mages down, if it ever comes to it.
Just by acting like a Normie, people treat you like a Normie. Bedside manner can make a Normie or Mage go from 'REEEEE'ing to calm.

When a non-manus Mage, as with being a non-guild townsman, inherently, you understand that RP relating to your trade will be sparse with other tradesmen. You are making the deliberate choice to be independent. Meeting other mages -should- be sparse if you're not connected to the mainline World Wide Mage.