Meeting Yourself

[The Industriallist]

I have two charactes who will meet soon. While that generally isn't any problem, one of them has a business that the other might have an interest in dealing with.

I THINK that the interest is purely IC, and would agree with both the goals and the thought process of the character. But the other character has been starved for business since he established himself, and this could be his big break.

[.::. MysticGötén .::.]

If you talk IG about business or trading with your chars and treat each other as you normally do to others it isn't a big problem.
I also face my other chars sometimes but it is hard not to do when your the only one who can make or provide in a certain resource or service.
Only if you treat one char abnormal, like giving him more then he deserves it would be a breach.

Of course this is my opinion I might be wrong.
I usually try not to do to much business among my chars but sometimes it is inevitable.

[Sparkle]

My characters run in to each other every now and then. I may even have 2 staying in the same town if he decides to take up an offer and make the place his home. I play them as if the other char. is played by someone else. If they mention something that my other char. is interested in, just like if it was someone else asking, my char responds. It is harmless.

In other situations my char comes into a town with another one of my chars. and doesn't even talk to each other except introduction.

I am very good at rping my chars. individually. One of my chars. is in a position to kill criminals and if my other char. was to cross him, he or she would die just like if the char was played by someone else.

But I really don't like my chars. in the same town because its less action since both of your chars. have the same events. So I try to keep them in different areas.

[The Industriallist]

One of them is a sort of nomad, so he wouldn't be around for too long.

What really makes me wonder is that no other character has actually dealt with my character's business yet, even though it has been advertised for some time.

But my other character always reads business notes, and I think he would understand it (he is smart), and the service would be ideal for him. So the 'for' position is that even if the other people are too dumb to see the point, my character isn't. The against is that maybe he wouldn't be without carryover understanding via the player...

[Thomas Pickert]

It's good that you bring up the discussion about your problem. And it's good that you spend thought on whether your character is really only motivated IC.

To me it looks highly unlikely that from all the possible characters, who would do business with your service-providing character, it would be one of yours who would be the first.

It's also strange that one of your characters opens up a business that fits the needs of your other character perfectly, while no other character of any other player appears to be needing that service.

I'm not saying that your intention is to break any rules, on the contrary, actually, but probably your characters found each other because of a subconscious slip?

[The Industriallist]

There are, beyond any doubt, other characters that need the service. Those characters either don't understand it or are not in the right places, but they do exist!

And no, my traveling character was headed that way before the other character spawned, I think (it is located at a choke point...As far as I or my character knows there is no way to go around it), and I swear I didn't think about this at first, when I created the business. If I had I would have expected someone else to deal with it by patronizing my business first.

It isn't that perfect, either. The service is aimed at professional traders, which my character is definitely not. But it's still useful...

I'm certain I didn't create the business to service the other character.
The question in my mind is whether it is in-character to understand the concept of a business that no one else seems to.

[Thomas Pickert]

A good solution would be, if a third independent character would point your traveller to your businessman, when he asks for the required service.

That implies, of course, that at least one other character has to understand what kind of service you offer...

[kroner]

i've had this problem as well. it's not so unlikely that two of your characters would happen to be on either end of a favorable business deal before any others. the economically conscious characters tend to be few in this game and probably also played by a small group of players. most people just don't get it and they can get away with that because it's so easy to survive in cantr without trade. what this does mean is that if you have characters who make serious attempts at business, there is a very limited section of the population they can do business with and it will often be your own characters.

i have a trader on the k-island who passes through a location where my other character lives. she sells food at a reasonable price, but not cheap. most people won't buy. they don't realize that because they would have to travel to get it themselves, it's a good deal. i as a player understand that it is and so my character who lives there wants to buy because he understands too, but it would look fishy so he starves instead.

[The Industriallist]

The thing is, my traveller has never heard of or imagined this service before either. It is original throughout all of cantr (I think) to the businessman. So a newcomer wouldn't walk up and say "where is the best ****** in this town?" because he has no idea what a ****** is.

There is a note on the ground and semiregular announcements from my other character...

[nitefyre]

...
The question in my mind is whether it is in-character to understand the concept of a business that no one else seems to.

Why is it your patronning character would be the only one to understand the business offering? Especially when none of the surrounding characters as you admit, understand it? So if your business character wanders into the same choke hold town, it'll require a lot of explaining to the patron-other than that....

On a different note, I just got my turn report: Number of players: 700 [woohoo] Number of characters: 3708.

[The Industriallist]

There the difficulty is that I don't actually know why no one is patronizing my business. I think it is because they don't understand, but I don't understand why they don't understand, so...

In general I come to the conclusion that they are all STUPID!!! But that probably isn't right. I just don't get it...

For reference, the meeting brobably won't happen for at least ten days, maybe over a year, so plenty of time.

[Thomas Pickert]

Why again is your traveller going exactly to that location?

[trage]

He siad it was a bottle neck and the only way onto the next stage of the journey.