Dungeon Shop vs Intrepid Merchant

What's the difference between Dungeon Shop and Intrepid Merchant?

Some examples of the latter match the former:

There's no reason one merchant couldn't be both.

Intrepid Merchant is how he gets his stock ("An Intrepid Merchant is a merchant that goes to the far corners of his world, bravely seeking profit. He is a treasure-hunter but the treasure is not hidden, it is in the bazaar waiting for him after he has crossed the deserts, mountains, seas, or trackless gulfs of space. The chief characteristic of an Intrepid Merchant is that he is both a merchant and an adventurer."

A Dungeon Shop is where he sets up shop. ("In videogame dungeons, in the midst of Everything Trying to Kill You, one may find shops selling all sorts of items... If the shopkeepers are standard NPC types, there is the Fridge Logic question of how they made their way down there in the first place without getting slaughtered, and what shortcuts they are using to bring supplies in.")

The sample context for Intrepid Merchant does not support that distinction.

But the definitions do. That's the rather more important part. Bad examples need to be cleaned up.

edited 3rd Jun '17 8:19:37 PM by Madrugada

An Intrepid Merchant doesn't have to sell his stuff in dungeons. Simple enough.

And a Dungeon Shop can be owned by a monster who lives there naturally.

I can think of some Dungeon Merchants that are mechanics and basically sell their services which end up just being shop menus.

The Kiseki Series has them often as an engineer will support you by hanging around the entrance to dungeons you can't leave, he crafts things with his tool kit as you bring crystals and money to make things. Occasionally it's actually a party member doing it and still charges you.

Those are definitely not Intrepid Merchant, more of a support staff.

Question, calling or accessing a shop via Cellphone or fantastic communication device in a dungeon, is or is not a Dungeon Shop? IE Final Fantasy XIII's save points that were also access points to access shops.

edited 5th Jun '17 9:41:42 PM by Memers

That fills the same role from a game mechanics point of view, but not from a narrative point of view. It kind of sidesteps all of the practical issues with it, but it might still be worthy to point out, as the explanation for why the shop exists there seems to be the main point of the trope, even if it's just something as "simple" as magical teleportation.

You can't ignore the narrative intent. If there's a shopkeeper in some distant city that you can contact via magic portals that just happen to be in dungeons (or that you bring into dungeons with you), that sidesteps the Fridge Logic issues inherent with a Dungeon Shop. It's one thing to diversify one's delivery network and quite another to physically set up a store front in a smelly cavern or whatever amid hordes of ravening monsters.

edited 6th Jun '17 6:14:54 AM by Fighteer

What prevents said monsters from walking through the portal network?

Umm... magic? That's not really the major concern here, although I suppose it could form a sort of Fridge Logic if the shopkeeper's portals remain active 24/7 and permit free flow of physical objects without any sort of safeguards.

Rather, I picture it as an on-demand feature: you communicate via magic with the shopkeeper, who sends a portal your way (or you have a magical device that opens the portal from your end, whichever). You shop, goods and money are exchanged, then the portal closes and you go on about your business.

edited 6th Jun '17 6:54:50 AM by Fighteer

But the Fridge Logic isn't inherent in the trope. There's none there if it's a monster shopkeeper. That's just someone selling stuff in a place she belongs.

Yes, but why does the monster shopkeeper sell to adventurers when all the rest of its kind are trying to kill them?

I admit that it does get a bit fuzzy, but fundamentally, the Dungeon Shop trope forces the following questions: How/why is there a shop here, and why does it sell to adventurers instead of (or in addition to) the denizens of the dungeon?

edited 6th Jun '17 9:28:38 AM by Fighteer

Umm... magic? That's not really the major concern here, if we define the trope as "players can buy/sell gear in the dungeon instead of returning to town" rather than Fridge Logic being a mandatory supertrope.