Selling certain goods...

[garrett]

Ok, this thought occurred to me, in the course of discussing the Defense Contractor idea.

But I believe I'd need GM approval to utilize this RP.

It works like this.

Items that can only be obtained in a raid are classed as "Rare"
Items that only come from mobs are classed as "Exotic"

The idea is, for Exotic items, my guild farms them. Naturally this only applies to Bind-on-Equip stuff. ICly, the guild labels the items as having been crafted by the guild ((and for all intents and purposes in the RP, they have been)). They then sell the items to the consumer that wishes them.

In the case of the Rare items, it's a bit more complicated, and this is where the GM approval partially comes in. Say we have a sword that drops in Zul'Gurub. Party A wants the sword, and I have it listed as being available for purchase from my guild. The cost for all Rare items would be 360g. There's a reason for this.

After the RP, the consumer would take 350g and purchase a Silver Token. They would give the 10g extra to my guild. The GM could then reward them with the item for the Token, but the RP of things is that my guild produced the item and they bought it from us.

Now, could this work as a method of ICly obtaining gear? Obviously the Legendary stuff is still out of the question, but in terms of other gear could we do it?

I was also thinking about applying this to other aspects of Warcraft. For example, breeding companion pets to sell. The farm is OOC, but what if I had a section of the guild that was solely responsible for capturing and breeding companion pets, ((at least the ones that exist in Azeroth and can be bred. Things like the Mini Diablo would not be sold)). That could work ICly as well, couldn't it?

Some thoughts and ideas for this would really be appreciated

Edit: To further limit things, and because I neglected to mention this before, the quality of the item factors in on whether we sell it.
Epic stuff would only be open to those Revered or Exalted.
Rare stuff would be open to Friendly or higher.

And those neutral to the faction could only purchase Uncommon or lower goods.

This only applies to the Rare and Exotic goods, however. Goods acquired through professions would more than likely be open to anyone.

I think there would also be a list of restricted materials, like Saronite for instance, due to it's IC properties of inflicting madness upon the wield. That'd be a highly hazardous material, so it'd probably have a much higher price due to the working conditions. ((Assuming the GM's would allow that sort of thing to be sold ICly.)) And since it's so hazardous, that'd definitely take either a high price tag or a high rep with the guild to even warrant a discussion on purchasing it.

[DaveM]

You're mixing the IC and OOC aspects, I believe.

It's fine to RP makers/sellers of objects.

There is, however, no need at all for that to have any in-game mechanical aspect, not mention how much of it can be covered by GHI.

Farming it doesn't mean you IC legitimately have an object, and not having farmed it doesn't mean you can't RP having it. Raids and the items that come from them are not linked IC, raids basically don't exist IC for that matter.

IC payments don't need to be made with real money unless the players feel like it.

Not to sound mean, but the WOW server is a medium for RP, not the other way around. For objects to get around OOC we have the auction house.

Of course you can sell all that stuff IC, and you can do the "Token-for-what-you're buying from me" gimmick. But you ceirtainly don't need to in order to achieve Roleplay of any type, even "Commerce RP".

[Vrahn]

Davemwow pretty much covered it.

The system in WoW is very limiting with regards to what we can do in RP, after all it'd be near impossible to find a liquid explosive item in game but may be a trivial thing to create for your character. I'd give GHI a whirl if you're interested in representations of your goods.

Besides, no one likes farming. :P

[garrett]

I wasn't saying that by farming the items, I acquired them ICly.

Here's an example.

A sword is dropped by the elemental's in Winterspring. I forget what it's called. But it's a 2H one.

OOCly, that's how my guild would be acquiring it, farming it off mobs.
ICly, my guild blacksmith's would be using their talents to forge the weapon, which could then be sold.

I can't really say I am going to sell you this sword without having acquired the sword first. That's how any items dropped by a mob would be handled. All IC aspects will be my guild crafting the items. It's just a matter of actually acquiring things OOCly.

I could create stuff in GHI, and that's good for IC fights, where you just use /roll and RP. But when it comes to a fight where you are actually fighting, those weapons can't be equipped, so they are essentially useless.

That's why I was working on this system.

So if someone wants <weapon x> for their character, if it can be acquired without tokens, my guild could OOCly farm it, then ICly forge it for the character. If it requires tokens, the only difference is that my guild ICly forges it, and they OOCly acquire it from the GMs and Tokens.

In response to the previous post:
GHI is good when you need to make items that aren't in game. The above is a way to acquire items that exist in game ICly. Besides, farming isn't that bad, the drop rates are raised enough to make it plausible. And any items that are mob drops will naturally be a request item, in which you have to request it from the guild, before it gets farmed.


Edit: It occurs to me that a more graphical comparison might help with the idea I'm trying to get across, so.....

1) Example 1 - My Method
IC: Rick really wants a nice looking 2H sword, and he selects [item]647[/item] as his desired weapon. He approaches the Syndicate, to inquire as to price and such. The Guild Rep Rps over the details with him, and they come to an agreement.
OOC: Sylea goes to Winterspring, slaughters elementals, acquires [item]647[/item]
IC: Sylea stashes the weapon in the Guild Bank, then proceeds to the forge in Ironforge, where she gathers up her materials and proceeds to RP the crafting of the weapon, probably with other craftsmen involved in the various things required to make such a sword. Rick stops by to observe the forging process for himself, allowing the group to converse while working. Upon completion of the sword, Rick takes up his new IC weapon that he can proudly say was crafted by the Syndicate.

2) Example 2 - GHI method
IC: Rick desires a 2H sword, he approaches the Guild to talk about price and such. They come to an agreement. The blacksmiths gather and "forge" a weapon, which is created in the GHI environment. Rick is presented with the weapon, and he now has a brand new 2H IC weapon.

Both examples are pretty much exactly the same, but with different results. In example 1, Rick has an IC sword that he can equip and wield in a fight anytime he desires. In example 2, he has the same IC sword, but mechanically, it's useless in true fights (those in which you actually fight, not the RP fights that don't involve the game mechanics).

Some may prefer the second method, others the first. The RP is the same, but you get a lot out of it.

As far as the pricing goes, if it's over a certain amount, usually it'll just be RP'd as being paid. But if it's a minimal cost, then odds are it'll be added in, because after all, it is a merchant guild, we need some gold to keep certain parts running smoothly.

I think I'll revise it so that the goods that require a token will only cost the consumer the 350g that a token costs, but ICly, it'd probably vary into as much as a 1000g for something. But for most weapons, I doubt very much the cost would be over 50-100g.

[Errata]

No one likes farming.

Sure, you could create a merchant guild but to farm mobs just to get a sword.

I'd say you get the players to get the sword themselves and then resolve it in RP by saying you crafted it or just use GHI.

[garrett]

I don't mind farming all that much. Since the drop rates are higher here. And I don't foresee that it'll happen so often that it becomes annoying.

Right now I'm more interested in working up a working economy model xD To determine the values of goods.

I am right now mainly looking at Copper Ore. It vendors for 5c each. That means it's probably being sold at 10c. So I figure I can sell it for the 5c to people, but then turn around and have the RP price at 10c, to earn a 5c RP profit.

xD I want to be able to show an accounting of my guilds worth overall.

[QuantumLegacy]

Gryphonheart Professions. When it makes it out, you won't have to worry about creating your own economy, it will all be done for you.

[garrett]

Yeah, but given how things are going, it could be months before that comes out.

So in the mean time I'll just work it out to keep track of that sort of thing.

I have big plans for my merchants xD And I need lots of gold to accomplish those plans.