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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Damon Griffin" data-source="post: 982189" data-attributes="member: 3568">Commerce & CaravansThe first thing that comes to mind is some information on what characters might expect when contemplating the acquisition and subsequent development of land for commericial purposes (including but not limited to the farming of cash crops.)We've just hit kind of a wall in our current campaign because our characters have done a huge service for a very powerful ruler, and we're being rewarded with cash in the form of a matching fund we can use to purchase land and investment properties.  The problem is, there seem to be no d20 rules covering the purchase of land of any sort; all the sourcebooks that mention this sort of thing in any way either assume that you're "clearing a hex of wilderness" and staking a claim to land for which no one has to be paid, or that the local economy is based on the Medieval feudal system and you don't so much own the land as manage it for someone higher up the social ladder.We're in a Roman Empire that avoiding being sacked by the barbarians and is now into its sixteeth century of continuous operation.  Neither of the two conditions above applies to us.  Fortunately our DM is a big history buff, so he's gradually working out some of the details, but he's having to do it all from scratch, and it is proving to be very hard to make the numbers behave.Another thing I'd like to see in a commerce and trade book is a bit more realistic treatment of transport vehicles and containers.  Added complexity for its own sake is a bad thing, and I don't want to turn a chapter of Commerce & Caravans into a physics text, but the existing 3e rules for carrying capacities, containers and transport vehicles are simplified to the point of absurdity.For example, a wagon is defined by the PHB as a four-wheeled, open vehicle for transporting heavy loads, generally pulled by two horses.  More specifically, we're told that a wagon weighs 400#, will carry 2 tons, and costs 35gp.  This is apparently true of all wagons, regardless of design, construction or dimensions (no dimensions are given for the standard wagon.)  Carrying capacity for a wagon seems to be fixed at 2 tons no matter how many horses (or mules, or elephants) are in harness.  No mention is made of the increased power needed to pull a wagonload up a hill.  Sure, you can haul 2 tons over level ground, now try it up a 30 degree incline for a length of six or eight miles.  Different story.  Again, ultra-detailed treatment of this sort of thing would be unwelcome with most players, but some mention should be made that you can't load a wagon to its full capacity if you plan on negotiating hills or mountains, and the players should be given some idea of how much of their load needs to be cut back -- 10%? 40%? -- or how many draft animals will need to be added to make up the difference.</blockquote>

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