I really do like the communal tanning tub idea. No one really wants tanning tubs all over their city; it would stink. With that said, here is my idea…
Each tub would require a key to unlock it. A player would stop off at the town hall and pick up their key and proceed to the tanning tub.
When the key is picked up a 24 hour counter would start. It only takes 16 hours to process leather and so 24 hours is plenty of time for a player to create their leather and retrieve it.
A key will automatically return to the town hall and become available to other players again after either the holder removes their leather from the tub, or 24 hours elapses, whichever happens first.
If after 24 hours elapse and there are items left in the tub they become “Spoiled Leather” and will have to be thrown out. It adds a bit of realism as any hide left too long to process would get ruined. This also prevents players from camping on tubs hoping someone doesn’t show up to claim their leather.
There could also be a 1 hour lockout timer on a player being able to go back and pick up the same key again. That way if there is a shortage of available tubs they can’t just pull their leather and run and grab the key because they know when it will be showing back up in the town hall.
I know @Wennid mentioned a Tanner NPC and I think that could even be combined with my idea. Use a key for the public tubs and that of course is free or players could choose to go and pay the Tanner NPC to do it for them. The difference, the NPC costs gold but has a longer time limit for picking up your leather (perhaps 48 hours instead of 24.)
You could even add on to the NPC idea with things like
- You failed to pick up on time now there is a small fine
- You are more than a week late your item is now in offsite storage pay a fine and come back in two days.
Those are my thoughts anyway.