In a setting with a multiverse where you can travel between dimensions, what would merchant trade?
What prevents them from buying as many toilet paper as they can, go to a paradisiac dimension where toilet paper is valuable as fuck, and live the rest of their days drinking cocktails on the beach?
I have an interdimentional merchant NPC in my game, and I didn't know what to answer when a player asked me this. Can you guys help me there?
Other urls found in this thread:
en.wikipedia.org
twitter.com
>What prevents them from buying as many toilet paper as they can, go to a paradisiac dimension where toilet paper is valuable as fuck, and live the rest of their days drinking cocktails on the beach?
Nothing except the process of acquiring the toilet paper and getting it from point a to point b. Actually, you just described the core of mercantilism right there. Find something people are willing to pay for, go get it for cheap, and bring it back to sell.
I came up with a character that does just that.
He is a tailor that makes suits of valuable and rare fabrics which are both stylish and armoured.
Heres a picture of his bodyguards.
Merchants aren't usually set for life after one transaction, though. If it was that easy you'd have mass migration to eden-like dimensions and nobody would work anymore after a shot while.
I'm looking for a reason for them to continue trading. The only one I found that was decent was that their dimension was devoid of natural ressources and so they bought some back in exchange of tech, but it's quite meh.
Sigh...
GURPS Infinite Worlds. And I don't even mean this as "GURSP for everything". This is one of their better settings (and pretty much default setting for all GURPS games), with entire chapters dedicated to economic endevours within the multiverse, including all possible fuck-ups.
I really miss times when GURPS was providing settings too and not just crunch for your own homebrews, those were always quality stuff.
>I'm looking for a reason for them to continue trading.
Obviously they haven't hit it big yet. Or frequently make bad business decisions. Or they just like their job that much.
How cheap is it to travel between dimensions? Is it safe? How reliable is it? What kind of objects can travel with you? How many dimensions are available at a given time? How long is dimensional transition? How much can the merchant carry with him?
Also how does he know what to stock?
OP, watch the opening operation of Valerian. It's pretty much this, and it's pretty interesting in how they handle it (you need special equipment to see the other dimension's stalls and even more specialized equipment to interact or transfer objects... such as a gun and your hand to shoot bad guys on the other side).
Interdimentional