Shop Inventory Generator

Players love shopping in D&D — but DM-side, "the merchant has whatever you want" gets old fast. This generator builds realistic shop inventories tied to the settlement's size: a hamlet sells common gear at +40% prices, a metropolis stocks rare magic items at –15%. Six shop types: general store, blacksmith, alchemist, magic shop, tavern supplies, and jeweler.

Pick a shop type and a settlement size (hamlet under 100, village 100–1k, town 1k–6k, city 6k–25k, metropolis 25k+) — the generator returns a stocklist with item names, quantities, and prices in cp/sp/gp. Rarities are filtered by settlement: a hamlet won't stock rare magic items, but a city will.

Pair shops with the Tavern Generator for adjacent locations and the Kingdom Name Generator for the wider region.

Why Shop Inventories Matter for Worldbuilding

A shop is a fingerprint of its settlement. The contents of a smithy in a hamlet (rusted nails, a single dagger, no shield) tells the party more about the region's economy than three NPCs explaining it. The generator scales four dimensions automatically:

Settlement	Stock Count	Price Multiplier	Rarity Cap
Hamlet (<100)	3–5 items	×1.40 (scarcity premium)	Common only
Village (100–1k)	5–8 items	×1.20	Common + rare uncommon
Town (1k–6k)	8–12 items	×1.00 (baseline)	Common, uncommon
City (6k–25k)	12–18 items	×0.95 (competition)	Common, uncommon, rare
Metropolis (25k+)	16–24 items	×0.85 (deep markets)	Common, uncommon, very rare

The size and richness of a settlement's shops is one of the easiest ways to communicate the world's shape to players without exposition.

The Six Shop Types

Each shop has its own curated catalog, drawn from 5e PHB equipment, the DMG's magic item tables, and common-sense fantasy commerce:

• General Store. Adventuring kits, ropes, lanterns, basic tools. The most common shop in any settlement.
• Blacksmith. Weapons (mundane and silvered), armor (leather through plate), shields, tools. Quality and availability scale dramatically with settlement size.
• Alchemist. Potions, antitoxins, alchemist's fire, herbalism kits. Higher-rarity potions only appear in cities.
• Magic Shop. Spell scrolls, wondrous items, arcane focuses. Rare in small settlements — even a town might only have a "wise woman" stocking common items.
• Tavern Supplies. Food, drink, lodging. Useful for stocking taverns and inns.
• Jeweler. Gems, finished pieces, jeweler's tools. Mostly appears in towns and larger.

Pricing in 5e — What's Realistic

5e's economy is loosely calibrated to a "1 gp = a skilled worker's daily wage" baseline. Common items follow that scale (a 1 gp longsword shaft, a 1 sp loaf of bread). The generator preserves PHB prices as a baseline and adjusts by settlement.

Tips for using the prices at the table:

• Round to player-friendly numbers. 17 gp 4 sp 3 cp is a math problem. 18 gp is a purchase decision.
• Let haggling matter. An Insight or Persuasion check can shift price by ±20% — but only once per shop. Don't turn every purchase into a skill check tunnel.
• Stock matters more than price. The fact that a hamlet doesn't have a longsword is more interesting than the hamlet charging 18 gp for the longsword they have.

Making Shops Memorable

An inventory list is a starting point. The memorable shop comes from:

• A specific shopkeeper. Roll one quick NPC — use our NPC Generator. The shopkeeper's personality is what gets remembered.
• An item with a story. "And there's this one sword behind the counter — it belonged to my brother. I don't want to sell it. But for the right price…" That sword launches a quest.
• A rumor. Every shopkeeper hears things. A throwaway "I hear the duke's daughter went missing again" can become next session's hook.

For broader settlement-building context, see the Location & Setting Design cluster and the DM Toolkit for full prep workflows.