Review: Loresmyth's Ultimate Guide to Remarkable Shops & Their Wares

A few weeks ago, I picked up a few physical pieces of TTRPG stuff to add to my collection. Remarkable Shops was one of the books I grabbed. I didn't realize when I bought it, that it is originally from a successful Kickstarter that raised over 100,000 Euros, with over 3,100 people backing it. That is definitely something worthy of praise.

Initial Thoughts

What first caught my eye when I was at the store is the claim that it works for any TTRPG system. I will say that I don't think that this is perfectly true. For starters, it feels heavily focused on the realm of magical fantasy worlds - and so much of the content would feel somewhat out of place in sci-fi games or games set in the real world. I don't think that this is a major issue, there are definitely elements of the book that you could implement in your grame even if it isn't a fantasy setting, but it is definitely something worth noting.

My other initial thoughts on the book are, it certainly feels well made. I haven't had it long enough to really get a good idea of its longevity, but so far it feels like it is up to the standard set by books like mainline 5E books, Zweihander, and the Witcher TTRPG. I also really like the art in the book, and I think the information on the back cover does a great job of getting across exactly what the book contains to potential buyers.

It was also cool to see the VIP & Special Backer credits on the third page, right with the table of contents. It fits well, but also it isn't stuck somewhere that is easy to miss by readers.

Every Item has a Story

The first section of the book is pretty straight forward and typical of many other TTRPG books I've read. It acts as a quick section on how to use the book with a chapter of explanation for each of the chapters and appendices.

Chapter 1: The Remarkable Shops

Chapter 1 is a series of pregenerated shops that come with information on what they sell (including exclusive items), who works there, who shops there, and plot hooks (rumors & secrets). Each shop also has a quick 1/4 page section that details their wealth, prices, level of security, influence, wares, services, disposition, and favored customers.

All of it is very useful information, and the shops are all interesting and varied (for example one is a cute little mill and there is another that is a badass underwater shop).

I do have an issue with the disposition and favored sections. They reference classes and races that the shop either prefers to have as customers or not. I can understand including classes, a forge focused on equipping mighty warriors with equally powerful weapons not wanting to have sorcerers visit makes sense to me, but including races that are unwelcome in a shop feels wrong to me (there is enough racism in games and in the real world we don't need it here).

Chapter 2: Bringing Your Shops to Life

As the title of this chapter suggests, it is all about bringing your shops to life. It includes explanation of their ranking systems for wealth, prices, security, and influence from chapter one and what they mean in terms of mechanics and lore.

It also includes a bunch of neat stuff like new armor, outfist, & weapons. It also includes a section with books to study that can provide characters with bonuses (including but not limited to stat bonuses).

Chapter 3: Player Operated Stores

This chapter is a full rundown from building to running and determining profits & hitches for a PC run business. I feel like it could be used well on its own, but it also could work well in partnership with the information in Waterdeep: Dragon Heist if your party already owns the inn there.

Chapter 4: Creating Your Own Shops

This section provides the tools you need as the GM to build your own remarkable shops. This section has a really neat set of tools that you can use, including random tables to help quickly create unique stores. I gave myself a quick test and I was able to roll up a whole store in 7 minutes, and each roll gave me inspiration to expand on it in my game.

Appendices: (1) Creating Custom Staff & (2) Creating Custom Items

Both appendices are similar to chapter 4, but with a focus on staff (customers too) and custom items. It took me 5 minutes to use the random tables to roll up a shopkeeper, an assistant, and a customer. I noticed while going through the first appendix that it uses some problematic language - for example one of the options on the customer table is that they could be "insane" which is used in a gross and ableist way.

Overall, I don't mind the book's content. With that being said, I don't think I would have bought it had I been aware of the element of fantasy racism in the first chapter and the ableist language in the appendices.

Interested in checking it out for yourself? If you have my luck, you can probably find it at your friendly local game store. You can also check it out on DriveThruRPG

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