kontextmaschine:

See it’s called “customer” because you’d be “giving custom” by customarily getting your iron from this one forge or having a standing order with this cheesemaker for X pounds each winter, because you might buy one-off finished or consumer goods from artisans or marketplace traders, but established merchants dealt in bulk staples and intermediary goods

The RPG “item shop” is a backwards projection of a general store concept that dates to the 19th century

(Potion shop actually has earlier precedent)

I do appreciate how in Jeff “Spiderweb Software” Vogel’s Exile/Avernum tactical CRPGs the “general merchant” role was often filled by “quartermaster of an outpost, trading from its stores”, that’s pretty historically plausible

kontextmaschine:

Wonder how Jeff Vogel’s parsing the way it’s only because every future creative with a Mac pirated them that Exile/Avernum are still discussed and “lizardmen use polearms, nekomimi are bow rogues” is part of the fantasy imaginarium now

I mentioned the G.I.F.T.S. in the notes but another Spiderweb thing that stays with me is quickfire. It’s actually a really good angle that as you go through the Exile series Dispel Barriers and Create Barriers gradually become more of a thing but quickfire is always there in the background.

Wonder how Jeff Vogel’s parsing the way it’s only because every future creative with a Mac pirated them that Exile/Avernum are still discussed and “lizardmen use polearms, nekomimi are bow rogues” is part of the fantasy imaginarium now