Detailed Trading System
In my current campaign, the party has a ship and uses it for trading between adventures or on their way to adventure sites. They have plans in the long run of acquiring a larger vessel and ultimately in funding other trading ships.
I am using the
A Magical Society: Silk Road that a previous poster recommended. It is an excellent resource for information on trade goods and also an interesting read. You'll have to make decisions on where things are produced in your world because the 1,000 trade goods are based on the idea that you buy them where they are produced and ship them as far as possible away from there to get the best price. I've been assigning a few goods to each area they travel, rather than trying to divide up the whole 1,000 item list at once.
One nice thing is that they include information on most of the trading goods, because I didn't know what some of them were. The rest I've been looking up on the internet.
There are no specific rules in there for shipping by boat, so you have to wing a few things. In doing some research, I found that historically sailors were paid either through a small share of the final profit, through a daily wage, or through a combination of both. To this, you add the cost of feeding the crew and the party.
You also have to take into account wear and tear on the ship. I have been using a model that is roughly one-half of one percent of the ship's value in upkeep and parts each month. I have no idea how accurate that is, but it is comfortable for my group.
I apply a flat amount spent on taxes, docking fees, and tariffs. Different trading ports have different values, so the PCs can learn where to get the best value.
All and all, I think it's a great value for a $12 book. (And the same can be said for their other Magical Society books.)
