Types of fantasy businesses?

[rusty_shackleford]

Very common thing in MMORPGs is to have people sell 'buffs' for money. I could see this being turned into an actual service in a high magic world.

[Tadeusz]

Very common thing in MMORPGs is to have people sell 'buffs' for money. I could see this being turned into an actual service in a high magic world.

Good idea, could be some temple services - blessings for donations.

[UltraFan123]

Very common thing in MMORPGs is to have people sell 'buffs' for money. I could see this being turned into an actual service in a high magic world.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record mentioning Eberron over and over again, but that setting also thought about this as well.

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The house mentioned here is one of the aforementioned "dragonmarked" that control every aspect of civilized life in the setting, which is a big deal since the [Heroes' Feast] spell is quite a good one.

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[maidenhaver]

Casinos in a magic world is done in Last Call.

[Tweed]

Very common thing in MMORPGs is to have people sell 'buffs' for money. I could see this being turned into an actual service in a high magic world.

Good idea, could be some temple services - blessings for donations.

This has already existed at least since World of Xeen, donate enough and the temple blesses you with a set of buffs.

[Dorateen]

A shop that sells dreams

This is a really good one

The Gold Box game "Death Knights of Krynn" had a Dream Merchant in Vingaard Keep.

[Tweed]

Very common thing in MMORPGs is to have people sell 'buffs' for money. I could see this being turned into an actual service in a high magic world.

You guys have already forgotten about those hirable npcs in MM6 and 7 who'd cast things like town portal or fly at master level.

[Valter]

A shop that sells dreams

Closest I've seen of this was in, funnily enough not in fantasy but sci-fi, Braindances in CP2077. In this case it's not explicitly dreams that are sold, but other people's memories which the buyer gets to relive. Would love to see stuff like this further explored in other games.

[J1M]

Consider the magical version of mundane convenience.

A shop that is like a storage locker, except you don't have to take stuff to them, you put it in the backpack they gave you that contains a portal. Instant, yet disglamorous, ride home if you leave your pack in the woods.

A magic bank. No, not wizards counting coins. A place where you can borrow magic affinity/power/longevity for a fee plus interest.

Spell crafting shops. A minigame that involves combining elements into a new spell. Mana cost determined by outcome of minigame.

Ghost library where the knowledge is in the ghosts who hang out there instead of books. Can be used as an in-world hint system too.

Magical hazmat team that takes contracts to drain arcane energy from places that battles have taken place or monsters have invaded.

[boot]

A shop that sells everything and sucks your ****

[Vergil]

What industries would be utterly lopsided by having certain races that live for centuries like elves? Imagine the current issues with boomers but they live for 500 years too.

[rusty_shackleford]

What industries would be utterly lopsided by having certain races that live for centuries like elves? Imagine the current issues with boomers but they live for 500 years too.

Many boomers already have outdated skills. e.g., I don't really trust older doctors at all, many of them have quite outdated knowledge and don't keep up with their field.
This would be a significant issue for elves that would likely require them to get recertified every few decades.

I think this would apply less so to skilled labor than skilled services, however. e.g., a skilled craftsman could probably keep up with his field just by performing his craft and working with peers. So maybe elves would lean towards performing skilled labor?

[Tadeusz]

What industries would be utterly lopsided by having certain races that live for centuries like elves?

I think elves won't have mental degradation problem so they can master their craftsmanship for centuries. There's usually not much industrial progress in fantasy settings anyway so their long lifespan can be a benefitl.

[rusty_shackleford]

Unless the humans have some obvious advantage like birthrates, humies would just die out or be kept around in a zoo.
They'd be unable to compete on any serious level, eventually elves would want their territory.

[DemoGraph]

If we're discussing generic magic shops,
- Mage (the Awakening?) had goblin markets, where evil toys, dreams, and unborn children could be bought.
- Ars Magica had magic fairs during tribunals (every 7 years IIRC) and Redcap (name of magic house) delivery service, with menu of what's available for sale or loan.
- Fading Suns has agoras (markets) where you can get anything, provided you're willing to pay or wait.
- Book of Hours and Cultist Sim had book auctions.

Having a shop assumes that you have monetary system and some form of a free market. Many settings don't support it (Conan, Dominions PC game, Rimworld, VtM), especially for the rarer goods. Instead you can have a house of practitioner and he might sell you something if he feels like it. Or, if you go for a realistic approach, you can have organization (Temple, Guild, Order, etc.) that provides goods, maybe temporarily in exchange for services (paladin might get a really important relic, go on a quest, and give it back to the order after it).

I'd say that we actually don't see enough of complex social interactions around rare artifacts. Markets are quite well represented, because they're easy to code and sell to modern audience.

[Norfleet]

1.Gambling den. Shouldn't be limited to games of luck, be more creative, like animal/familiar fighting.
If you're willing to treat your familiar as pokemons, that is.

This is way better than games of luck, because games of luck in a vidya game are even more pointless than real life, since they just become games of savescumming and free money. Whereas with pokeymen fights, at least there's gameplay to be had in breeding, training, and maybe even controlling, your pokeymen.

[ERYFKRAD]

You know I'm pretty sure that insurance of evil dude lairs from dungeon delving heroes and vice versa is an untapped market.

[J1M]

I like the idea of fantastic currencies and quests involving money changers but have never seen it implemented well.

If each continent has its own currency it could solve some of the fear that prevents designers from ever making anything really good for sale.