How do wandering merchants survive?

[ProfessorCirno]

Really the "problem" is just another good excuse for being creative, no?

On the contrary - I think the problem people are having is that it's an excuse not to be creative. Now we have "A traveling merchant" to add to "A wizard did it."

Funny, I thought DM's created adventures for the players to play through. The "world" is something that DM's do in their spare time that has little or nothing to do with the actual game being played.

Those adventures have to take place somewhere. And I'm sorry if your players never bother to learn or try to affect the world around them.

Yet Star Wars remains one of the most profitable movies ever made.

We're not talking about movies.

A well built setting is great and all. But, it's the well built adventure that gets me going. Then again, I have never really gotten into setting porn. You want to build imaginary worlds? Knock yourself out. But, please, stop forcing the rest of us to do so as well.

If you see playing the game with your friends to be equal to watching porn, I really, really pity you.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Honestly this is one of the first things that will change if I ever run a 4e campaign. Wealthy travelling merchants able to trade in magic items will move between fairly large population centers where there are enough buyers to justify the cost of protecting a well stocked caravan. If a smaller settlement happens to be along the route, they might get a visit, but settlements in the hinterlands will not end up on the list of places to stop.

Smaller settlements might see occasional smaller, poor caravans that charge inflated prices for good purchased from larger merchants. The other thing smaller settlements will do is to send some of the residents in their own caravan to the larger settlements to buy trade for needed goods. This might happen only once or twice each year. The village goes into a "lockdown" mode as a significant portion of their fighting-capable residents goes to help protect the caravan on its dangerous round-trip journey. Failure of the caravan to return means even harder times for those who remain, maybe even forcing them to abandon the settlement.

 

[Jack99]

In the abstract, I consider the hefty markup as representing the fact that it's a buyer's market: you may find a +1 sword, but people who want it and are able to use it may be few and far between. (Recall that items now have level prerequisites, and while I haven't seen any hard-and-fast rules governing how these interact with levelless NPCs, it seems reasonable to say that most people won't beable to use items.)

Level pre-reqs? Where? Or do you mean the rings?

 

[Lacyon]

Level pre-reqs? Where? Or do you mean the rings?

You cannot create items higher level than yourself. (Rewards excerpt)

Also, NPCs and monsters have a magic threshold. (Customizing monsters excerpt)

 

[Jack99]

You cannot create items higher level than yourself. (Rewards excerpt)

Also, NPCs and monsters have a magic threshold. (Customizing monsters excerpt)

Neither = level pre-req. Anything else?

 

[Lacyon]

Neither = level pre-req. Anything else?

The one is a prerequisite to create an item. A 5th-level NPC cannot create a 6th-level item

The other is a preqrequisite to utilize an item. A 5th-level NPC cannot make use of a +1 sword.

Any further interrogation?

 

[Jack99]

The one is a prerequisite to create an item. A 5th-level NPC cannot create a 6th-level item

Yes. And that hardly does anything to what Hong said, making it harder to find a buyer, so fairly irrelevant to the question I asked Hong.

The other is a preqrequisite to utilize an item. A 5th-level NPC cannot make use of a +1 sword.

Any further interrogation?

You seem to have misunderstood it. The magic threshold doesn't disallow <level 5 npc's to use +1 swords, on the contrary, it doesn't penalize them. In fact, anything but a level 5 monster won't benefit from a +1 or greater sword. So a level 5 monster uses a +1 sword quite well. So, the better the item, the more monsters/NPC's can use it. (see below)

A monster’s magic threshold is an abstract representation of its equipment, power, and general effectiveness against characters of its level. If you give the monster a magic item that grants a bonus to attack rolls and damage rolls or to defenses, subtract the magic threshold from that bonus before you apply it. For example, if you give that 8th-level ogre savage a +2 magic greatclub, you add only a +1 bonus to its attack rolls and damage rolls, since its magic threshold is +1.
Monster Level Magic Threshold
1st–5th +0
6th–10th +1
11th–15th +2
16th–20th +3
21st–25th +4
26th–30th +5

+1 sword - 0 (magic threshold for a level 5 char) = +1.

 

[Silverblade The Ench]

EDIT, fixed typos

How do wandering merchants survive?...

they hired the now out-of-work gnomes and put them to work as pole dancers?
:rimshot:
lol, sorry couldn't resist

Well, I do think the Points of Light idea is just way over done.
Look at European history...

The Border region between Scotland and ENgland was until the late 1700s, so damned dangerous that monarchs wouldn't go through the area without a literal army or major guard.
Yet merchants sure got through.
Why?

because the merchants either went around (by sea) or more simply, didn't get bothered by the Reavers because the Reavers wanted pots and pans, Spanish steel for swords, pins and needles (very valuable, actually), spices and so on. They were happy to deal witht he merchants and thus, protected them.

Greeks and Phonecian traders worked the British isles before the Romans. So, "Points of Light" is just frankly ridiculous, for most settings.
Should be more like: "Points of light, with some empires, trade routes, having multiple wives in various tribes for safe passage, bribing locals with salt..." etc.

Degree of danger, of mystery and barbarism, should vary highly.

In times past, rulers did not have "community service", they slaughtered bandits with the utmost horrible methods possible, because they were such a threat to the state.
The Border Reavers and Highland clans got hammered by kings who wouldn't put up with their troublemaking any more (interesting to read up on).

If a king cannot guarantee that "Merchant Bob", can travel his kingdowm safely, or his army march unhindered, or his peasants create tax wealth...he's going to lose the crown. Kings won't tolerate that. They exterminate such threats, drastically.

So...Points of Light doesn't really make sense as it's throw at us, currently. Anywhere there is governance, travel and border security is absolute paramount. Thus, PCs, would be very desirable for exterminating bandits, riding "shotgun" on merchant caravans etc.

if you have true anarchy...meh, check Rome's fall. Fine if you WANT that for the millieu, but that degree of instability is not likely, as it either causes collapse, or folk hit back, hard, and re-establish.

 

[mlund]

So...Points of Light doesn't really make sense as it's throw at us, currently. Anywhere there is governance, travel and border security is absolute paramount. Thus, PCs, would be very desirable for exterminating bandits, riding "shotgun" on merchant caravans etc.

I think Points of Light makes perfect sense if you stop trying to frame D&D in a Renaissance perspective. Heck, to truly get the Points of Light in a British setting you'd have to go back to before the Battle of Hastings - maybe the Arthurian period. We're talking about Petty Kindgoms here, maybe a few cities and towns - not a secured nation-state.

Folks on the borderlands between Camelot and say, Lot's kingdom or the domains of the Picts have a lot of risks to deal with. "Border security" was typically limited to making sure you got your taxes and no other power center got control of your land. The throne running off Barbarians, Monsters, and Bandits was not the kind of thing you could regularly accomplish without a full sortie from your heartlands. You didn't do it every time some dirty Saxons with axes stole Farmer Johnson's cattle and then ran off. Sucks to be Farmer Johnson, though, since the tax collectors always seem to have the soldiers they need.

- Marty Lund

 

[2eBladeSinger]

Conceptually, I don’t see the problem with heavily/powerfully armed merchants travelling from PoL to PoL. In fact, it’s a great adventure hook. Merchants are interested in money, not doing good, which makes the world a dark place for more than one reason – not only are there monsters, cultists and brigands in the dark world, but those who are capable of fighting them (merchants and their armies) would rather swap coin, perhaps even with the very evil people fear so much.