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Message: <blockquote data-quote="katahn" data-source="post: 4219981" data-attributes="member: 65004">I'd compare wandering merchants somewhat to modern smugglers - both face considerable danger in getting their "product" to a market where it will make a large profit.  The latter are dealing with border guards, vicious competitors not afraid to kill, police forces, and so on; the former would be dealing with all of the hazards of a D&D world.  Since we can see the latter happening it is reasonable to assume the former is possible.Wandering merchants won't be carrying items that locals can make for themselves, they won't be carrying high-volume-low-profit items except very rarely.  They'll be like the ancient spice merchants: carrying low-volume-high-profit items and counting on those high profits to cover the costs of doing business (hiring guards and such).  They may be making the rounds through border towns looking to acquire product (magic items and other high-value-low-volume items) from adventurers to bring back to the bigger cities to sell to the wealthy.  If in doing so they happen to stumble on a wealthy borderlands adventurer willing to pay 20-40% more than a wealthy noble back in town would then so much the better right?The one thing is they wouldn't be common.  A wandering merchant arriving in a typical PoL border town would be a once or twice a year event unless said town was on a major trade route, especially close to major civilization, or in a relatively danger-free area.  In these cases said little bordertown would likely be seeing growth that would turn it into a city of its own within a few decades at most anyway.</blockquote>

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