Merchant classy

This idea is probably part of a larger crafting concept for my noir mmo.
I was thinking that the Merchant Class could have an option to be a crafting-only class.
So people who don't want to be involved in combat but enjoy making and selling stuff could be an integral part of the universe. The option to do missions that involve combat would be open but not required. I have no idea how difficult it would be to do this. Extremely difficult, I would guess.

Of course the Merchant who wants a little more excitement could ease into the dark side and participate in the Blackmarket. This would require combat of course...;)

Hey, those n00bz aren't gonna pwn themselves, as they say.

Nouns and Verbs

So how would our items and actions be implemented in my noir mmo?

Lets start with items:
Clearly we would need to plumb the depths of 30's & 40's fashion which many have to make movies like L.A. Confidential, etc.
There would be Fedoras, Dungarees, Overalls, Pinafores, Jumpers, Cami Knickers, Mackintosh, Frocks, etc...
As well as various shoes and boots ... Jackets, and Formal wear.

But here's a cool thing: People in the 30's bought "Patterns" for clothes (my dad actually made us winter jackets from these patterns while we were living in Alaska), which are rice paper-like thin sheets with dotted lines detailing where the fabric should be stitched, and little marks for inserting pins.
This continued into the 40's because of war rationing. Unlike today (despite being in a war), people were encouraged to repair their clothing, not continue to spend freely.

Now we've got Tailoring as an historically apropos profession, and one that spans the 2 decades.

These Patterns ("recipes" in WoW) can be bought and sold, learned by tailors, etc.
But I think it would be cool to have non-tailors be able to learn low-level patterns not unlike how the "First-Aid, Cooking, and Fishing" professions are implemented in WoW.

Tailors, on the other hand, could em beau their creations with added benefit to the wearer: Shoes with increased Speed, Fedora with increased Diplomacy, Overcoat with added intimidation.

Other items would of course include weapons.
Pistols: Derringers, old Peacemakers, pocket model Smith & Wesson .22, and many more...
Shotgun: yes, they had sawed-off shotguns then, and lighter models like the 4-10.
Rifles: Remington, Winchester, etc.

So Gun-smith should be a playable profession.

But here's where it could get real interesting: In the war years, people often remember seeing trucks loaded with anti-aircraft guns and other large-caliber stationary munitions traveling through town.

I can picture a mob related mission to steal one of these things and use it to take out a rival's hide-out, or yacht...

Other items: books, magazines, newspapers, cigars, cigarettes, pocket-watches, monocles, wrist watches, rings, suspenders, cuff links, ties, eye glasses. And each of these things can be "enchanted" to boost a players abilities.

Other thoughts?

Class Struggle

In The Black Dahlia James Ellroy's character "Bucky", an ex-boxer turned police detective, gives me a good idea for a profession/class connection in my noir mmo.

It seems Bucky came to the attention of the police force because he'd been a prize fighter and done pretty well, well enough to get noticed, anyway.

So I'm thinking there could be 2 paths into the police class:
1) You take some performance test (starting at lvl whatever) to enter the academy, then progress normally doing low level police missions ("quests" seems like the wrong word), until you gain faction and promotions, etc.
OR
2) You gain faction via a Boxing PvP (Player verses Player) arena. You have to perform at a certain level, like x amount of wins, or x global ranking before you are approached by a police rep who wants you to join the force at an elevated level.

The Race Card

Possible Races in My Noir MMO:
Black
White
Chinese
Hispanic
American Indian
Armenian

So the touchiest subject could be race. Here's why:
You can make an orc be stronger than an elf because neither exist, and there won't be an offended party.
But you do an MMORPG with real races...what do you do?
Chinese get a +3 agility?
Blacks get +3 badassery?
Whites a +3 winning smile?

It's a real problem, especially because if realism is what you're going for, you failed because Chinese people aren't genetically more agile than American Indians, etc...

So you start everybody at the same ability level.
Ok.

Maybe you gain abilities depending on your play style. Is this possible? If you're a "bust down the door & start shooting" kind of player, your stats build more strength and stamina, and if you're a "sneak around back & cold-cock 'em" type player, your stats build agility, subtlety... that could be cool.

One of the cool things you can do in Star Wars Galaxies is become mayor of a player-created city.
I love that idea, but in America in the 1940's it was pretty damn rare (if it happened at all) that a black man (not to mention woman) could be mayor of a huge city like LA.
Should the game be adjusted to be fair?
Or do we make a mature-rated MMO?
Those don't seem to fly too well.

A Touch of Class

Choosing a "Class" in an MMO seems like the 2nd most psychological decision the player makes. The first is "Race". I want to talk about class first, because race gets a little dicey when we're talking about the 1930's and 40's in America. How much realism do you really want, right?

Ok so the classes in My Noir MMO could very well be:
Detective (of course)
-Private
-Pinkerton

-Police (Ranked)
Street
Patrol
Detective
Deputy DA, etc.

-Mob (Ranked)
Errand Boy/Girl—the Don

-Merchant (Ranked)
Street—Large Corp manager

- Movie personnel (Ranked)
Key grip—Mogul

-Newspaper Personnel (Ranked)
Paperboy/girl—Editor

etc...

Or maybe these are just professions one can choose and there is another "Class" distinction....
I don't know.