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Shopkeeper NPC Generator — Merchants with stock, quirks & hooks

Merchants, traders and curio dealers with a shop, a price and a story behind the counter.

Portrait

Stat block

Backstory

Roleplay quotes

Describe your character

Try

Portrait, 5e sheet and story in about 30 seconds.

What is the Shopkeeper NPC Generator?

This free D&D shopkeeper generator creates a merchant NPC in about 30 seconds: a portrait, name and race, what they sell and how they haggle, a personality with trait, ideal, bond and flaw, a hook to start an adventure from the shop floor, and a 5e stat line. No account needed.

Example NPC: Pell Quillon

A character made with this generator, with a 5e stat line and the closest SRD stat block to run them with.

Pell Quillon

Gnome · Curio dealer, Quillon’s Oddments · chaotic good

“That price is for people who don’t ask questions. Ask me a question.”

Appearance

Three pairs of spectacles on a chain, a waistcoat of a hundred pockets and ink on both thumbs.

Mannerism

Swaps spectacles depending on whether he is reading, haggling or lying.

Personality trait

Tells the full history of every item before naming a price.

Ideal

Curiosity. Every object has a story, and stories should be sold to people who will continue them.

Bond

Is still looking for the music box his grandmother sold before he was born.

Flaw

Will sell anything to a customer who tells a better story, even things that aren’t his.

Quest hook

A customer sells Pell a locked music box, and every night since, something has been trying to get into the shop to wind it.

Secret

Half the shop’s “antiques” were made by Pell last month.

5e stat line

AC 11

HP 10 (3d6)

Speed 25 ft.

CR 0 (10 XP)

Proficiency +2

STR

8 (−1)

DEX

12 (+1)

CON

10 (+0)

INT

15 (+2)

WIS

12 (+1)

CHA

14 (+2)

Skills Arcana +4, Insight +3, Persuasion +4; passive Perception 11

Equipment Jeweller’s loupe, tinker’s tools, ledger, a hidden hand crossbow

Run with the SRD Commoner stat block

Shopkeeper NPC tips for the table

Players spend a surprising amount of time shopping. A shopkeeper with a personality turns that time into roleplay: a gnome who won’t sell to anyone who can’t pronounce the item’s name, a dwarf who haggles in insults, a merchant who is selling stolen goods back to their owners.

Describe the shop as well as the person — a curio stall, an alchemist, a blacksmith, a travelling caravan — and the generator fills in the stock, the haggling style and the trouble.

Every shopkeeper comes with a hook. The best ones are about an item: something that was sold that shouldn’t have been, or something that came in that nobody can identify.

Give them a place on the map

The free map generator draws their tavern, town or keep, and a free account lets you pin them to it.

Open the map generator

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I make shopping fun in D&D?

Give the shopkeeper one strong opinion and one thing they want. Haggling becomes roleplay, and a shop visit can turn into a quest when the item has a history.

What stats should a shopkeeper have?

Most merchants use the Commoner stat block (CR 0). A caravan trader who travels dangerous roads might use Bandit (CR 1/8) or Scout (CR 1/2).

Does the generator create the shop’s inventory?

The result describes what they sell and their speciality. Save the merchant to a free LoreKeeper world and ask Lore Assist to draw up a full price list for your setting.

Can I generate a magic item shop owner?

Yes. Describe a magic shop and the generator gives you a merchant with an arcane background and stock to match.

Is the shopkeeper generator free?

Yes. No account is required, within a small daily allowance. A free account lets you keep generating and save.

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