Pending Review Pay For Lore, Sell It Later

My proposal is to create a system where player merchants can purchase dark blue lore items to sell and turn a profit. The preliminary steps are as follows:

1. 3 players create a business to play in Regalia.
2. Players rent a regalian region.
3. Players pay the fee to convert the shop into a business.
4. Players decorate the store to look like a shop.
5. Players make a forum thread to signal the opening of the business.

These first steps are necessary to create a "legitimate" business that has invested time, money, and resources with the desire to be a player-ran business and generate roleplay. So far, I'd say 400-500 regals have been spent to create the shop. roughly 10x as much money most players have in their balance.

With the shop created, the system can be utilized:

1. Players go to a forum thread to apply for lore item(s) creation.
2. Players link to their region and business thread to verify legitimacy.
3. Players then write down the item name, enchants, and lore.
4. Staff will review the application and approve or deny the lore item(s)
5. Players pay a purchasing fee of 100 regals for 9 lore items (with a single chest costing 300r)
6. Staff deliver the created lore items, leaving the players to do with them as they wish.

Ideally, the players ordering the lore items will want to earn a profit on their lore items (to buy more later) and sell their items for a markup. This in turn requires item collectors to earn more money to purchase these items for their collections, or personal use in game.

These are my personal reasons for why this system should be implemented:

• Merchant RP is dead. I remember players going to shops, purchasing something, and obtaining an actual lore item from them. The Golden Willow even allowed player bartenders to sell lore items via quest signs, and I enjoyed that.
• It creates money sinks and incentives. Merchants have a large investment to make before they can start turning a profit. Money sinks are always good, even right now when the economy is fairly stable. But, the economy is also stagnant, and spending money to buy new lore items only to sell them back for a markup is an incentive to keep at it. You will make money from the lore items that can be re-invested for more lore items.
• Staff have the final say. Adding on to the previous point, Staff are able to control the amount of lore items entering the economy. They might put a cap of 27 items per month, or decide that the lore items in question are too bland and lacking in lore. Ultimately, they will be able to tell which businesses are genuine about creating a thriving business, and which ones just want to pay for lore to give to their buddies.

That's my suggestion, and I'd love to see a similar system implemented one day. I think having lore items sold by merchants will give them desire to man their shops, and give players desire to enter their shops for rp. Tavern pleasantry rp it the pits, and shopping rp is an underappreciated niche without the key part of it present: shopping.

 

I'm not looking to create some IC economy or spreadsheet system with this idea. It's an OOC system where players have to jump through hurdles dumping money into a business, further paying to get a few lore items made for them, and then trying to turn a profit by selling them via rp, using actual game regals instead of pretend IC ones.

It's a opt-in system, used to enhance merchant roleplay for those who want to try and make some regals through a small investment. If a merchant wants to continue selling imaginary items or premium gold lore, they can go for it.

 

Emperor's Ember doesn't use blue lore, though this suggestion does. I could see this business as an example of a player merchant that would benefit from the suggestion.