In DnD there are fewer places more well-tread
for players than the general store. Adventuring supplies, rations, and goods of
all types typically come from some general shop in most campaigns. While it can be tempting to consider these
shops as a catch-all for any non-specialty good, they have a lot more to offer than you
might think. Let’s look at exactly what goes into making
a general store for DnD. A general store in DnD is not really for adventurers. While in game they function as the place where
players end up getting most of their miscellaneous gear, general stores are not making most of
their profits from a few wandering, would-be heroes. General stores exist for the local people
in the town they’re in. A general store usually stocks things that
either cannot be made in town or would be made by someone who can’t run a store front. Their stock primarily comes from merchants,
and they rarely make anything on their own. When thinking about what goes into these stores’
stocks you’ll want to consider this as the basis for their selection. The needs of the people are represented here. The reason adventures find so many good things
at a general store isn’t because they cater to adventures, but because they cater to everyday
workers. Rope is an important trade good. A lot of people need it, but very few towns
are making it from scratch when they can simply get it from a bulk goods merchant cheaply. Similarly, adventuring gear like rations and
other trail food is typically there for day workers that travel away from the town. Loggers, hunters, and miners all need to eat
and can’t keep food fresh during the work day. Understanding this can help paint a real picture
for what these stores are about. Even in the sleepiest of towns, adventurers
are more likely to see these as busy stores with people picking up everyday supplies like
bulk flour and simple tools. While a general store is primarily a shop
for the town itself, it is also usually the place traveling merchants unload their wares. A good general store flourishes by establishing
a rapport with traders of all types and ensuring that goods that are bought in often and on
time. Running a general store is much more about
efficient stock keeping and anticipating needs than it is about stacking up a bunch of knick-knacks
and curiosities. A great general store will consider its stock
as a fluid commodity. Nothing should sit on the shelves too long. If no one buys an object, it is taking up
space where more valuable goods could be. This ideology helps establish an idea of what
the typical traders will bring in for these stores. Knowing what the people need most often and
cannot get in town tells you what the general store is requesting and what traders keep
in their caravans. Keep this information in your notes for the
next bandit-heavy session you run in your game. While a majority of the stock of a general
store is simply general, there are some exceptions to this rule. A general store might stock some items that
are expensive for the town, but when needed, will sell. This is why you might find some simple weapons,
a few potions, healing salves, or various other kits around as well. These items will be kept to a minimum as they
don’t generate profit regularly. But if there is a need they will be sold immediately,
so a few are normal. This rule of keeping useful stock is often
bucked for a prize item of some kind. A fancy magic sword might be on display in
the window. A rare book could be in a glass case behind
the counter. These items, while valuable in their own right,
are there for clout and capital. The magic sword in the window is likely the
priciest thing in town by a long shot, so it might be a display of wealth. A rare or unique item could be used in trading
when the shop does not keep too much cash on hand. These fancy objects might even be of interest
to traders that come through and could be offloaded for a larger value to the right
individual. Now that we know that a general store should
be designed around the village and not around the needs of your players, we can start to
build out what they look like. A store layout is often simple. It will likely be a rectangular building and
more often than not will be mostly storeroom. Most people nowadays are not familiar with
old fashioned general stores, but traditionally there was no browsing of shelves or perusing
of goods. The store would be a small standing area with
a counter, and patrons would come in and request what they wanted. By today’s standards it would seem odd,
but stores once functioned more like a sandwich shop with a menu and clerk behind a counter. When stocking your shop you are essentially
making a table that you can call upon when your players want to buy something. The easiest way to fill this out is to start
with the needs of the town. Smaller towns need more basics brought in,
so consider your bulk goods first. Sure, your players will be unlikely to buy
them, but once you list them all out you’ll have a good working inventory to call from
when considering most shops in the future. The basic staples for most towns will include
some of the following: Rope or Chain
Basic Tools Flour, Grains, or Rice
Dry goods and Rations Tinder and fire starters
Blankets, Cloth, and Simple Materials Simple Oils, Cooking supplies, Grease
Nails and Basic Mechanical Supplies Raw Materials, Ingots, and Bricks
Lighting supplies like Lamps, Candles, and Torches
Fishing and Hunting Supplies Simple Paper, Inks, and Quills
Additionally, the shop might act as the face of local businesses that don’t have time
or space to sell their goods themselves. These items might contain the following:
Livestock or Butchered Meat Finished goods and crafts
Baskets, Pots, Crates, and Functional Storage After all of these items are accounted for
you can start to think about how much space would be left and if anyone in town would
need basic adventuring gear. A lot of great things can be found in here,
but not every general store will have climbing harnesses or thieves’ tools. If a town is known to get a good deal of adventures
traveling through it the chances of them having stock for them increases, as the shop can
better expect to need to meet the demands of a particular type of customer. From this knowledge, standard adventuring
gear can be pulled from the PHB section on equipment. Keep in mind that you’re only pulling a
small collection of items that are likely to be in stock. For things like weapons and armor, you should
create a blacksmith as a separate shop. The larger the town, the larger the storerooms
for the establishment would be. With a larger storeroom the shop could keep
and sell more items. But they don’t really need to increase the
size of the reception area unless they become quite wealthy and need more room for display
cases for specialty goods. As the town’s wealth rises so too does the
shop’s. While a poor town might have a shop that just
sells the everyday basics, a wealthy town might have a general store that sells sugar,
sweets, patterned cloth, or other fineries as demand for them increases. Setting the price of goods can be hard but
there are ways to make things easier. Start by using the prices from the PHB and
DMG as much as possible. These prices give you a good benchmark for
your goods. When you don’t know how much an item will
cost try to find a similar good to set the base price. A goat is a good example. We know that they cost about one gold piece. If we were selling butchered meat from the
goat instead, we know the sum of that meat and materials would cost slightly more than
a gold since the process of breaking it down adds to its value. Using this hypothetical framework you can
estimate the cost of most goods with really quick back of the napkin calculations. These prices that you’re pulling are just
the first number you should grab for a shop. Always assume your players are going to try
to haggle when you create a shop. Because of this you want to get the base price
of your goods, then establish a minimum price for each good, which is the smallest amount
of money that the shopkeeper has to sell a good for to make a profit on it. After getting these two numbers you’re pretty
ready for player shenanigans. But you’ll also want to know how much money
your shop has on hand, just in case this would tip the scales of negotiation one way or the
other. General stores in any town typically keep
normal hours. The more rural the town, the more that time
is set by the sunrise or sunset. The hours will be extended and the shop may
have shifts of clerks as shops pop up in more urban areas .
This doesn’t mean that the shop is not busy during other hours just because it’s only
open for part of the day. Before the shop opens each morning the owner
or a clerk is out buying supplies from various people to replenish their stocks. Someone is likely doing an inventory and preparing
their day’s cash on hand for any purpose. If the store is large enough there is likely
someone working stock during the day too. Once the shop closes there is more work to
be done. The books need to be kept, accounting takes
place, and another inventory is performed before locking up for the night. In addition to all this there is also the
most mundane of tasks: cleaning, rotating stock, filing promissory notes, and repairing
the store as necessary. While the shop might seem to only exist when
the players enter it from a gameplay perspective, there is a lot of stuff that happens when
they are not there. Knowing these things will help you run your
stores a little better and potentially even breathe some life into your narration as you
can paint a more accurate picture of the scene. Shops can be run in a lot of different ways. Some players like the shopping experience
in game, others think it detracts from the adventure. You’ll run your shop differently than anyone
else would, depending on your group’s preferences. Typically there are two paths for running
a general store in game: the roleplay heavy one and the mechanics heavy one. These aren’t really discrete options, they’re
two ends of a spectrum. You’ll likely find yourself somewhere in
between. In the roleplay heavy handling of a general
store your players will discuss with the clerk what they need. The clerk will tell them about stock, trying
to upsell the players on goods, and likely haggling with stingier players. The most extreme version of this involves
no dice rolls and is simply a conversation with some improvised acting from players and
the DM. On the other side of this type of shopping
experience you’ll be in mechanics only mode. Your players will look at a set list of items
available and purchase what they want. If they want to haggle it’s all skill checks
and dice rolls to see how things work out with some light narration from the DM about
how they succeeded or failed. Your game will likely fall somewhere between
these two extremes with a mix of roleplay and mechanics. Depending on how far you lean to either side,
you might want to prepare some additional information about the NPC shopkeeper that
will make roleplaying a little less taxing. While a general store may be wealthy by commoner
standards, it is not necessarily wealthy on the same scale as your players may be. Especially at higher levels, your players
will quickly see buying anything at these stores as a trivial matter. The main purpose of a general store for players
is not always purchases though. It can also be sales. A player character will have a load of stuff
they want to convert into cash as they play and general stores are sometimes a good place
for that exchange to happen. When you are considering the shop’s propensity
to buy certain goods, remember that a store has limited funds. Most of the store’s wealth at any given
time is tied up in their stock. Before a player even enters a shop you should
have a good idea of how much cash on hand the store has. The smaller the town, the smaller this number
will be. Beyond the ability to buy something, the shop
has to want to buy something. In most cases a store owner will consider
if they can buy it from your players and sell it to anyone else for a higher value. Occasionally they will take some risks, but
typically they know if they have any room to make money from purchases. Remember that general stores are typically
well connected to merchants, so they could offload most goods if they really needed to. While players often have stuff they want to
sell, sometimes the store will be looking for certain goods. General stores in towns and villages will
sometimes have posted buy lists that can act as an adventure catalyst for any cash strapped
party. Certain foragables, reagents, or rare goods
could be in high demand and a general store could post these lists for your party or other
adventures to take advantage of. With these lists the store could post the
items they are after, what they’re willing to pay, and any bonuses for bringing higher
quality or quantity of goods. Finally, buy lists also act as a way for your
shopkeepers to say no to purchasing goods. Some have a hard stance and don’t buy anything
not on their lists. Others might be more flexible, but at the
end of the day they are trying to make money. While you shouldn’t have to prepare for
your party to steal everything from a shop, we’ve all played DnD before and know what
some players are like. If it’s not nailed down, players will walk
away with it. If these are considerations you need to keep
in mind for your players, you’ll need to think a bit deeper about the shop, the town,
and the deterrence for thievery. Most general stores have lodging either attached
to or on top of the building. The easiest way for a shopkeeper to know their
goods are safe is to never be far from them. Beyond that, your average shop won’t have
a lot of security. Simple locks on the doors, probably a windowless
storeroom or barred windows at the most. To be completely honest, your players are
far outside the average power curve of the wider world somewhere around level 3. A wooden wall isn’t stopping your players
from taking whatever they want from the average peasant. However, if your players have stickier hands
than most and want to perform a heist at every shop, additional security can be put in place
very easily in the form of hired or retired adventurers. While most games won’t need this, a good
deterrent that is on par with the players in the game will be a hired adventurer who
also has a character sheet. Not everyone has positive feelings about player
class NPCs, but for these purposes they make the most sense. You want them to be powerful, but you also
want them to be present. You need a character who stands in the store
during the day and is obvious security. The NPC doesn’t necessarily want to apprehend
thieves nearly as much as they want to prevent the need to do so at all. For this reason you would be best served adding
either menacing looking characters or highly versatile NPCs that the party will understand
appear dangerous if they were to cross paths. If you have to resort to using security for
stores, be sure to place NPCs that are two to three levels above the party. They won’t necessarily be a good match in
the action economy in a fight, so stronger hired help is better. As you can see, there is a lot to consider
with what at first glance appear as the most boring of shops. While the general store is not as fun or exciting
as a magic item dealer or even a blacksmith, it is far more likely to be the most used
store type in any game. You can easily get by with an extremely minimalist
approach to creating a general store, but we hope you’ve come to see the value in
understanding what goes on behind the scenes in the shop. The better you understand these businesses
in your fantasy worlds, the better you can weave them into your stories as an integral
part of the game. If you’re trying to create more meaningful
towns, check out our video on building better taverns. You can find more resources at MasterTheDungeon.com. Subscribe to the channel if you haven’t
already and consider supporting us on Patreon. Happy DMing!
