Goods Increment SheetMerchant Adventures SystemWhilst trade-based businesses at ports and markets represent smaller commercial ventures, the most lucrative ventures are the cross-continental caravans and trade ships that move goods between provinces. These voyages are typically fraught with danger but can yield vast rewards for the wily entrepeneur.
In its simplest form, a Merchant Adventure consists of three steps; buying goods at a port or market, transporting them to the point of sale and then selling them there. Like many systems, this is simple to start in but difficult to master. The price of goods is affected by supply, demand, legality and a certain amount of luck. Transport must be rented or one's own vessels built and risked on the seas or roads. Pirates and bandits are an eternal threat. Worse, perhaps, than any of these is the threat of one's own creditors.
A very few lucky merchants might start out belonging to one of the Storm Coast trading guilds. These fine individuals may not have a penny to their name, but can draw on up to 5 Ducats of credit from the guild bank to get started. This line of credit only lasts one year, so they typically have to get returns before then or they will be forced to pay back the balance or go to debtor's prison. This is a fine avenue for new merchants, but those more established may find that the demands the Guild places on them become constraining. If they are rich enough, they might leave and chance their own fortunes or else even try to form another guild, or else get expelled by the Guild for reasons of internal politics.
Forming a Trade Guild: The smallest Trade Guild must be started as a Size 3 Trade Business (requiring 12 ducats of capital to start and returning 4/year). Once established, any character may join as a member. The Guild may then extend credit to its members to a maximum the total value of the Guild business at any one time. The guild may offer more than this amount to traders, but may only extend this much at once.
Credit that remains outstanding for more than a year must be paid immediately by the Guild. If the Guild does not have the fund, enough of the business will be liquidated to pay the outstanding fees. This may be enough to bring the Guild down to below Size 3, at which point it cannot operate as a Guild (or extend credit). Since credit can only be extended for a year, it is not generally a viable use for expanding businesses with, only embarking upon merchant adventures and other short-term ventures.
Goods bought in one province must be transported to another to be sold. They may cross sea or land by ship or caravan respectively and merchants must purchase or hire the vessels used to transport them. Transports can only travel through so many provinces in a season, though naval provinces tend to be much larger than land provinces to respect the greater speed of sailing ships.
Every time a vessel enters a new province it is subject to a RtD roll:
1 or lower (natural or otherwise) results in bandit/pirate encounter*.
2 results in poor weather causing the transport to arrive late. (+1/-1 penalty to purchase price roll)
3-4 means the journey went as planned.
5+ means excellent time was made and the transport beats any competitors to the market. (-1/+1 bonus to purchase price roll)
There is no overshoot penalty for a natural 6.
Each bandit regiment or pirate ship in the province decreases the travel roll by 1. Roads through land provinces increase the travel roll by 1. Travelling as part of a convoy with other merchants increases the travel roll by 1 but prevents the bonus from arriving early.
*Although bandits may appear, if your cargo is sufficiently well-defended they may choose not to attack because of the risk. Alternately, surrendering to the bandits or pirates will typically let you keep your caravan/ship in exchange for any goods aboard. Trying to surrender an empty caravan/ship to bandits/pirates will probably not go well for you.
Hiring Caravans
Purchasing caravans is not an option for merchant adventurers and would not be worth the overheads if it were. Caravans can be hired at a fee of 0.5d/year/cargo space. Each cargo space allows them to carry one shipment of goods. Caravans may travel up to 4 provinces per season over rough ground, but up to 8 along provinces connected by road (treat each road-containing province as a half-province for transport times).
Caravan Guards: Mercenary companies will offer their services at a cost of 0.5d/season. This will usually get you a disciplined infantry regiment that will only defend caravans (they will not follow any other orders). Some merchants might find it easier to hire their own regiments. Caravan guards are only legal in countries that permit their hire.
Building Roads: Roads are a massive infrastructure expense. Decent highways across an entire province cost a flat fee of 5 Ducats, plus 1 Ducat/year thereafter. If they stop being upkept they fall into disrepair (negating their bonuses) but another party can restore them thereafter by just paying the overdue upkeep. If a road has been left to go fallow for 5 years it will need to be rebuilt.
Hiring & Purchasing Ships
Unlike caravans, merchants can build ships rather than hire them. As a long-term strategy, this might well be preferable unless you forsee a lot of losses to piracy. The downside is that you do have to wait for sufficient Sailor specialists to become available to build new ships. Otherwise, ships tend to be available at the following rates:
Cargo Ships: Cargo ships tend to rent by the cargo bay at a rate of 1d/bay/year. Each cargo bay will take 1 shipment of goods. By default, these are standard light ships with the Cargo Bay upgrade.
Escorts: Light defensive-drilled warships might hire themselves out at a rate of 0.5d/season. Heavy carracks are more likely to charge 1d/season, with some specialised defensive carracks charging 1.5/season instead.
Ships travel at a rate of 6 provinces/season, unless they have the Clipper upgrade (enabling them to travel 10 provinces/season). Travelling from one port in a sea province to another port in that same sea province uses up one province's worth of travel. Be warned.
Warehouses
Merchants seeking to exploit seasonal variation, or just to build up stockpiles of certain goods, might want to look into hiring warehouses. A warehouse costs 1 Ducat/year to hire and can store up to 10 shipments of goods. Be warned that warehouses can be subject to raids by bandits or other ill-meaning factions. On a successful raid, bandits will usually make off with a number of shipments equal to the regiments they brought into play. They will usually take the most typically valuable items first.
Production or availability of goods in any given region is not limitless, even if the only limitation is the speed at which goods can be extracted or produced. Use whichever limit is highest for a given good.
+ Up to 6 units of a good may be purchased/season in any province where it is produced. This applies to each instance of produced goods in the region (so a province that produces Wool and Iron can export 6 units of Wool and 6 units of Iron in the same season).
+ Up to 6 units of staples may be purchased from a single province.
+ Up to 3 units of industrial or military goods may be purchased from a single province.
+ Only 2 units of luxury goods may be purchased from a single province.
The latter three limitations apply to all goods of a given class, except where the good would fit into multiple classes (in which case it applies to whichever class has the highest limitation). These limitations do not apply to produced goods.
For example, if Oberwich produces Cloth and Iron it may export 6 units of Cloth (a staple) and 6 units of Iron (an industrial and military good) but still export 5 units of Salt (a staple and military good), 1 unit of Copper (an industrial/military good), 1 unit of Low Quality Lumber (a staple/industrial good) and 1 unit of Arms (a military good). It could also technically export 2 units of Liquor too. Note that it would probably not be in the interests of most merchants to buy these latter items, as they would not be enjoying the production discount.
The same rules apply in reverse to a region because at the very least there will be limitations to the ability of merchants to distribute goods:
+ Up to 10 units of staples may be sold to a single province.
+ Up to 8 units of industrial or military goods may be sold to a single province.
+ Up to 4 units of luxury goods may be sold to a single province.
Buying and Selling: Allowance
People cannot buy goods if they do not have money. The Trade Potential of a region determines its Allowance; how many ducats in available cash a province has per season. Buying goods from a province will increase the available cash, but you can only sell as many goods to the province as they have money to buy. If your goods are more expensive than the Allowance of the province you will either have to sell them at a reduced price or sell them elsewhere.
Every type of good available in the game has a certain base price and a price increment by which the cost of the good goes up or down. Factors such as the production and demand for the good affect the base price in a specific province (see below) but there is also an element of luck. This is determined by a simple d6 roll when trying to buy/sell goods.
+ On a roll of 3-4, the good is equal to the province's adjusted base price.
+ Every point less than 3 decreases the price by 1 increment (e.g. a roll of 1 would decrease the price by 2 increments).
+ Every point greater than 4 increases the price by 1 increment (e.g. a roll of 6 would increase the price by 2 increments).
No matter how low the roll or other factors, the price of a good is always equal to or greater than the value of 1 increment. i.e. If iron has an increment of 0.3, the base price of iron can never go lower than 0.3d, even though it could theoretically drop to 0.2d if it went 6 increments below base price.
Province are classed as staple goods, industrial goods, luxury goods and military goods. Some belong to multiple categories.
Factors that affect the Province Base Price
+ Seasonal goods are 1 increment cheaper during their 'low season' and 2 increments costlier during their 'high season'.
+ During war or periods of strife, military goods and staple goods are 2 increments more expensive. Where goods belong to both categories, they are 4 increments more expensive. Luxury goods are 3 increments cheaper.
+ Industrial goods are in greater demand in regions with a higher urban potential. Every 4 points of UP above 0 raise the price by 1 increment, e.g. a province with UP 14 would command a +3 increment price increase to industrial goods.
+ Luxury goods are in demand in regions with higher urban population (equal to the tax/year from towns) due to the greater disposable income from the middle classes. Every 3 pts of population (i.e. tax/year) raise the price by 1 increment.
+ Staple goods are in greater demand in urbanised regions. Every 3 points of urban population raise the price of staple goods by 1 increment.
+ Peasants on the other hand tend to look after themselves. Every parcel of non-urbanised open land in a province reduces the price of staple goods by 0.2 increments (rounded down).
+ Any good produced in a province has its price lowered by 2 increments.
+ Contraband goods are automatically 2 increments more expensive.
+ Slaves are 1 increment more expensive in any province that produces resources from mining or agriculture (but not herding).
+ Certain manufactured goods increase demand for certain primary products by 1 increment.
Liquor: Grain
Cloth: Wool, Cotton
Tools: Iron, Coal, Tin, Copper
Machinery: Iron, Coal, Tin, Copper
Arms: Iron, Coal, Tin, Copper, Livestock, High Quality Lumber
Naval Supplies: Low Quality Lumber
If the ruler of a region has put a special tax on certain goods, or if certain goods are illegal, merchants can try to smuggle goods into the market with an straight d6 roll. On a 2 or less, the merchant is caught.
A merchant may establish a 'special relationship' with port officials for a fee of 1 Ducat/season. This will raise the roll by 1. Each additional Ducat/season will raise the roll by an additional 1.
Since certain goods can have deleterious effects on the populace (or the port owners rather want the associated tariffs), governments may use troops to enforce their border security. Every regiment stationed in a port or market reduces the roll by 1.
If the merchant is caught, it might not be all over. A d6 may be rolled:
On a 1 or less, the goods are seized and the merchant is charged with smuggling.
On a 2, the goods are 'seized' and the officials don't bother to write things down.
On a 3, the officials 'fine' 4 Ducats and give you a warning.
On a 4, the officials 'fine' 2 Ducats.
On a 5 or better, the officials let you off with a 1 Ducat 'fine'.
If you have a 'special relationship' already in place, receive a +2 to the roll (+1 for every extra Ducat/season being spent on this relationship). Every regiment stationed in a port of market reduces the roll by 1.
Hans arrives in Miring, not a penny to his name but fortunately with a line of credit from his Guild. He immediately hires a ship for 1 Ducat (putting him 1 Ducat in debt to the Guild), who will convey his wares for the rest of the year. Miring happens to be in the middle of a civil war, so staples and military goods are very expensive right now but everyone is trying to flog their jewellery to afford food and weapons.
Luxury goods enjoy a -3 increment discount by default, including General Luxuries, so Hans visits the market and rolls a 2. This would lower the increment discount to -4, but since -3 already put luxuries below their minimum cost (2.5d) the price to purchase a shipment of luxuries remains 2.5d. Hans purchases the general Luxuries and heads to the port of Vasir. Along the way he rolls a 4 - fair weather and no piracy issues. The Storm Coast is 1 province away, so Hans has 5 provinces' worth of travel left this season.
Hans arrives in Vasir. The high population of Vasir means there is a demand for luxury goods (+2 price increments from urban population), putting the base price of his Luxuries at 13. Hans rolls for the real price and gets a 1, moving the real price down to 8d. He sells the luxuries off, putting him 4.5 ducats in pocket.
Vasir happens to be the chief Arms manufacturer in the Storm Coast. Even better, it is presently at peace, so there is not a major demand for military supplies. This puts the base price of Arms at 5d, well within Hans' limits. Hans rolls a 3, so the base price is the real price. Hans purchases 1 unit of Arms. He dearly wishes he had the cargo space to transport a second unit, but even if he did he could not afford a second shipment because his credit limit is too low.
On the journey back, Hans rolls a 5 - good weather puts him ahead of his competitors. He returns to Miring with his unit of Arms. Miring is war-torn, so the base price of Arms is actually 15d. Even better, Arms are contraband, raising the price even further to 20d. Being contraband, Hans has to make a smuggling check to get past customs - oops, he rolls a 2. There's still a chance to get out of this, so he attempts to bribe the officials. He rolls a 4, so the officials ask for a moderate bribe of 2 Ducats, which Hans pays.
Now that Hans is no longer under threat from the law, he goes to market and rolls a 6. Fantastic! This would give an actual price of 25d/shipment for the Arms being sold. Sadly, Miring does not possess this much money. The province has a Trade Potential of 14, giving it a base Allowance of 14d/season. The 2.5d spent by Hans earlier have raised the real Allowance to 16.5d, but there is no more available money in the system. Hans has just enough credit left (2.5d) to try and buy some more luxuries if he gets lucky, but rolls a 5 - the price of the last unit of Luxuries in Miring has risen to 3d. Hans sells the Arms for 16.5d and is now 14 Ducats in pocket. He spends 3 of that on the last shipment of Luxuries in Miring - nobody else will be able to buy luxury goods in Miring this season, as it does not produce any.
Hans sets sail for Vasir once again. He will have 3 provinces of travel left this season, but during the journey he rolls a 1. A pirate warship appears on the horizon! Now Hans must decide - try and outrun the pirate, out-fight him, or surrender the luxuries aboard his ship to the scallywag's demands?
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