Hi, everybody!
So, I thought of an idea a few minutes ago, and thought I'd share it before I act on said idea. I want to create a trading guild, but not in the traditional "pay fees, bid on traders, maybe sell stuff, repeat" cycle. About a week ago I was browsing the forums and found where people could turn their homes into businesses. It inspired me to develop the system in which I will now describe:
I want to run this guild like a company, so I would have multiple positions available to interested "employees" of the company; some paid weekly, some paid by contribution, and some paid through commission. I would name these positions according to their role (of course). So, an example of a "contributory (dictionary check, please?) worker" would be the "Whistleblower", who would send me mail and statistics on the various prices of items and mats per my request. The pay wouldn't be marvelous, but it's something. An example of the "commission-based worker" would be the "Stock Merchant". Their responsibility would be to provide "stock" for the shop. They would be paid a maximum of 60% of their sold item. If I couldn't sell it within 1 week, starting on the current week's Monday, I would return their item. They could suggest a price that they would want to sell it for, but it may not be taken into consideration if the price is absurdly high. A "weekly paid" worker might be my personal "Bookkeeper", the one who manages what is and isn't sold should I take a leave of absence.
Now, as I have said, I don't want to use a guild trader; I want it all to be player-to-player based. Kind of like how a real organization would work. This is where I see all the conflict sending it's attention towards. You are probably asking yourself "How do I know you aren't just going to steal my item and use it" or "How do I know I will get my cut?". Well, quite frankly, you don't. However, I believe this is where an opportunity strikes. We can start to build trust within our little community by starting off with small deals, and working our way up.
I was wanting to add maybe a role-play element or two, as well. Such as using my house as a shop that people could visit and "browse my goods", so to speak. This would also open up an opportunity to hire a "Shop Decorator". I would pay a one time fee to somebody to arrange furniture that they have crafted or acquired in my "shop" to make it look more appealing to customers. If I liked the results, I could re-hire that person to do the job for me again when I move to a new house.
I would really like everyone's opinions on this idea, and I would like to hear suggestions as well. Thanks for reading this post.
Best regards,
Killbot