Guild Exemptions for City Metrics

[Geras]

So the way things work currently, shops (including player owned shops) are generally designated as selling to gentry or to freeman. If class relations get low, those designations become exclusive.

My suggestion is shops be able to have an additional guild designation. So for example, an instrument shop might be designated gentry bard, meaning even when city metrics are low, freemen bards could still buy music instruments. Freemen non-bards would still be barred from purchasing instruments until metrics improve though.

I think this would just make intuitive sense. A shop that specializes in selling to bards is not realistically going to care what class the bards are. Same goes for shops selling to merchants, etc.

Thoughts? Obviously the downside is it would weaken city metrics and hurt non-guild types (like myself), but it would be a boon to anyone with a shop.

[mystry]

I wouldn't mind this. I do know of at least one NPC shop on grid that has been set to all social classes because it's crucial that members of a guild always have access to it regardless of city metrics; but that had the side effect of letting non-guild members access it too, despite metrics.

[Sparkles]

I definitely think if nothing else that the GL shops need to be set exempt from this, if they aren't already.

(I know it was an issue at points in the past, Metrics cutting off GLs from getting supplies in their own GL shop which just creates a ) about getting new players/chars in and RPing.)

[Inertia]

I understand the logic in this suggestion but I think any benefit of the system just breaks down once you start adding (more) exceptions. If the obstacle is too easy to bypass then it's less likely to generate any RP - and while I know most of us probably aren't looking to make a whole lot of RP about buying a stock item from an NPC vendor anyway, there are really only a handful of conflicts in the game that you can't outright ignore forever, so I'd rather this particular inconvenience remain as is.

Alternatively, I'd be down for adding an option to any shop or at least NPC ones where you could bribe someone to deal with you, maybe based on CHA, and have to pay an extra 20 silver or something for whatever it is you're trying to get as the wrong social class.

I definitely think if nothing else that the GL shops need to be set exempt from this, if they aren't already.

(I know it was an issue at points in the past, Metrics cutting off GLs from getting supplies in their own GL shop which just creates a ) about getting new players/chars in and RPing.)

^ Yeah, GL shops are more of an OOC convenience thing!

[mystry]

I think the only exception that's being suggested is when guilds need certain things to do their work, like morris medical supply for the Physicians or Gailiech ores for the Merchants; stuff like that, where they HAVE to buy from on grid shops to do their guild thing.

Oh and as far as I know, GL shops that sell key copies and other things like that are already set to always sell regardless of class. Which makes sense.

[Inertia]

I think the only exception that's being suggested is when guilds need certain things to do their work, like morris medical supply for the Physicians or Gailiech ores for the Merchants; stuff like that, where they HAVE to buy from on grid shops to do their guild thing.

Oh and as far as I know, GL shops that sell key copies and other things like that are already set to always sell regardless of class. Which makes sense.

Do you think the changes to the jobs system will make it easier for people to say "Hey I need a (class) person to help me do my job?" Really, as someone who's not a huge fan of the system but who HAS gotten pretty good RP out of it, I'm coming from the angle of "It is what it is; can we work with it NOW or is it priority enough to ask to put low staff resources on it?" But I'm also a really aggressive crafter and hoarder so I might not understand how often other guild types hit this wall!

[wimple]

I think the only exception that's being suggested is when guilds need certain things to do their work, like morris medical supply for the Physicians or Gailiech ores for the Merchants; stuff like that, where they HAVE to buy from on grid shops to do their guild thing.

Oh and as far as I know, GL shops that sell key copies and other things like that are already set to always sell regardless of class. Which makes sense.

The Physicians have a guild-only shop that can sell items (and at least one item sold contains a ton of medical stuff in it) and they have a store room for free-access to items for guild members, so they should have options that wouldn't block their work if they cannot purchase from Morris as long as they are keeping track of those things. I'm not aware of it having been a problem in the past, but if it has, then it means they have to keep Freeman physicians in addition to Gentry, which I think is probably a good pressure on a guild that may be naturally gentry-leaning. I think this same argument can be applied to the Merchants.

[Geras]

It cuts both ways. For someone who owns a p-shop that caters to a specific guild, being cut off from half or more of your clients can be rough.

[Inertia]

It cuts both ways. For someone who owns a p-shop that caters to a specific guild, being cut off from half or more of your clients can be rough.

I was trying to avoid specific case solutions so it didn't look like I was missing the overall point, but I definitely feel this one, as a pshop owner myself. You can have more than one vendor attached to the same backroom. It's maybe an -expensive- solution, but it does work, as you can have one catering to freemen and the other to gentry+.

[Sparkles]

It cuts both ways. For someone who owns a p-shop that caters to a specific guild, being cut off from half or more of your clients can be rough.

I'd honestly caution against anyone designing and running a pshop that is meant to cater to people of only one particular Guild. That's going to have very limited draw for sales and RP.

If anything, I'd honestly put out the idea that I feel like sometimes some of the issues with shopkeeping and crafter RP would be settled by encouraging more communal efforts between various PCs rather than the lone wolf approach. I think that tends to encourage a lot of pressure and burnout.