Would this be a breach

[joshua johnson]

I have a character trying to obtain certain materials (iron) to help a friend and travelling companion.
The character and companion are gathering resources (hematite, and crushed hematite) to take to another town to trade for the processed iron the friend wants.
However, in the town they plan to go to to trade the hematite for iron, I happen to have another character that is in the iron business, and happens to need what they are going to bring there. I don't know if the other character will still need this when they get there or not, but it is likely he will and will be interested in their goods.

How do I handle this?

It seems to me, that I could have the travelling companion handle the trade if my other character is still looking for hematite when they get there, but that also might be unusual.

[Bowser]

The Players Department has helped me in the past to separate characters that ended up in the same location. One of the main questions they asked me was, "Why did your character go to that town?"

Are you and your companions going to this iron town because you have a character there or would they still have gone there if you had no character there?

Does your character know there is iron in this town because you have another character in this town?

The PD will probably answer your post as well and give you even better advise. They are very helpful and always looking to help us keep the game pure and fair.

[TheTheorist]

Yeah what Bowser said are the main issues. If that town is further away from another town that is also known to process Iron it will be seen as a breach.

I had a smilar scenario with 2 character's in a Forest. Everyone traded wood for food from one of my characters as there wasn't any source of food there. But my other char wasn't allowed to trade with him at all which I found unfair. I just had to trade through someone else... If you do it all through a third party I think it's okay.

[joshua johnson]

They are both acting independantly,
The one character whose companion is searching for iron was told (actually the companion was told) that was the town to get it in. His companion and he decided to go gather hematite to bring in trade, since the most valuable thing in their town was potatoes, which the other place had already according to them map.
The character with the iron business has some hematite, and just sent someone for more, but is in need of it. It is probably another 10 days before the traveller gets to town. The iron maker spends a lot of time inside, so he may never know, but I think more likely the travellers will be directed to talk with him.
If the travellers are directed to him I am thinking that my travelling character can have the companion negotiate, since she is the one who wants iron anyway. My iron guy can have his managing employee negotiate. That's the best I can think of at the moment if they should meet.

[kroner]

personally, i'd just play them each as they would act normally, and if that means trading with each other, than so be it. that happened to me a while ago where my characters met and traded. but i think that may not be the official opinion on the matter so maybe don't listen to me. the PD may not trust people to be honest when doing this and perhaps rightly so, because i'm sure there are probably also abuses.

[The Industriallist]

When I had two characters in the same place (and at some risk of trading) I decided at each login which would be awake, so they had the communication lag of characters of different players.

[jeslange]

Joshua, the suggestion in your last post about how you could have them interact sounds great.

[west]

When I had two characters in the same place (and at some risk of trading) I decided at each login which would be awake, so they had the communication lag of characters of different players.

oooh...that's a good idea.

[TheTheorist]

Yeah Jes suggested I did that with my 2 chars in the same location... Eg hunt with at least and hours difference etc and not look like they're both awake together etc... Works for me!