Gold and merchants without combat

I have been wondering if it is possible to have purchasable items in a game that doesn't use combat or skills. How would purchasing items benefit you if they can't be used in combat, and what types of things could the player buy? If you use the model of purchasing things to advance in the game or have an advantage, how could you use a non skill or battle item to do so?

You can have...
-Key Items that you need to move on with the story, or some sidequest.
-Items that interact with map like a lockpick or something that can help you with impassable terrain like freeze bomb to open hidden ways in lava dungeon. If it's not a key item then these can be consumable that you need to stock up.
-Material items for crafting.
-Quest items that you simply need them to give to people so they can give you better equipment and skill.

Just because you don't have combat, doesn't mean you won't have other needs, such as hunger, thirst or exploration that you'd need to fulfill.

Harvest Moon does that, and it's a farming game. Let player buy seeds and tools so they can run their farm more efficiently. Also sell furniture to customise the player house with.

ahem.



all games are long puzzles in the end, where you need to get all the pieces to the final stage.
combat is just another aspect of it.

It really depends on what kind of game you have in mind for these items.

But to answer the question in the topic, try to think out of the box. Don't think of RPGs, but other games.

Real life, or, you know, The Sims is actually a fairly good example of where there is (almost) no combat, but there are plenty of items, like a phone, food, clothing or luxery presents. Cinematic novels are a good example too, where these items either help progress the plot, increase or decrease certain aspects of the character or potentially unlocks new endings or options.

Appearance changing items are fairly common too, giving the ability to change the appearance of someone or something. Even if it's a slight change. People are usually willing to buy such things in-game if it doesn't affect the gameplay too much, like it being too expensive.

you could have items that increase atk, def, mat, mdf, agi, luk while using these stats as a type of social/physical skills like elder scrolls or D&D.
muscle in place of atk. intimidation in place of def.
wisdom in place of mat. persuasion in place of mdf.
stealth for agi. decption for luk.

can have dialog options and a RNG system using the social skills
while muscle/wisdom/stealth could also allow you to get extra tips on puzzles. have certain event not even doable unless has enough muscle to bend bars or something. detection/stealing system that uses your stealth.
the potions gives boost to those stats and wear off in 1 step or 100 steps
clothing can also effect them.

Good examples can be found in Animal Crossing, The Sims, and especially Neopets, where as of this writing there are a whopping 55,920(!!) different items in their database, only a small minority of which relate to battle or stats.

So, what are different Items used for in Neopets?

• Wellness - maintaining your characters' physical and mental health:
  • Food to keep your characters so they are well-fed (which, in an RPG, should provide bonuses; don't outright penalize hunger nor let your characters starve)
  • Toys to entertain your characters and keep their mood high
  • Medicines to cure diseases which can befall your characters as they explore the world (again, none are potentially fatal, but you need to cure them to get your characters back into action)
• Access- gaining access to different areas or activities - for example, entry tickets to festivals/games, runes that unlock explorable areas, and even individual pieces of treasure maps that, when all 20 pieces are collected, will reward the player with access to new places
• Quests - where NPCs ask you to find a specific item for them in return for a reward
• Investment - if demand for a certain item increases, you'll be able to sell it for more than you bought it for
• Ingredients - some items are ingredients that are used in recipes create other items, which can be used in any of the other ways listed here
• Building - many items can be used to build your Home, which aside from being a fun side-activity on its own, can have certain benefits for your characters
• Transformation - many items allow your character to change species or skin color
• Customization - clothing/accessories let you customize your characters' appearance
• Collection - a ton of players just seem to enjoy trying to collect all of the items of a certain type, or making a collection of items that they like the images for
• Prestige - there are leaderboards of, for example, which characters have eaten the most Gourmet Food items (in a single-player game, this dynamic might use Achievements rather than Leaderboards)

Maybe your game is about running A shop? Selling stuff, restocking inventory etc.
Maybe your game is about being diplomatic and have A need for gifts etc.
Lot of ways where money and items could play A large role without any form of battle

My game is a linear story type game. I was unsure about how I could implement gold within it. The character has to get a new job as part of the story, and I want to motivate the player to go back to work every day. The only way I could think was if the player was required to pay to stay at their hotel, but I'm not sure if I want to implement more than I have to. I've been working on this game for a pretty long time.

Well if having(not just getting) that Job is part of the story and the story element also play out at work or with colleauges for instance you wont need gold to motivate the player. The story should do that and other mechanics could help aswell but that would be very dependend on the exact nature of your game, It's story and the game mechanics .

Okay, thanks. In my game the character has to go to work to move the story forward, I guess I'm just overthinking it. I get worried about how to guide the player to get through the game to the ending.

The gameplay is what is most important. As long as it is fun, the player will figure out how to move forward so they can keep playing.

But to answer the question: cool hats

If your game is linear and you're just looking for a way to force the player to go somewhere, then there's no need to overcomplicate things. Have the player be required to go to their workplace to move the plot forward. If it's not obvious to the player they should go there, and you don't outright bring them there, then have them say something like "I need to go to work before I go out exploring" or whatever. Easy.

Then, you can still have them get paid and give them cool things to do with the money they earned (per all the other responses in this topic). Even if it's not necessary to do this, it's undeniably cool.

Cool! I don't think a money system would be hard to implement at all. I'll save it for last and get my game done so I don't distract myself with more stuff haha then I'll add it if it fits.