What Should I Carry & Sell?

[Tibbaerrohwen]

I'm looking forward to playing a merchant. I haven;t had the chance to recently, but have always wanted to.
Several of my previous build attempts all had Artificer in them and, as such, they crafted their own merchandise.
The current build does not. He simply sells services and trinkets. I'm currently trying to figure out what kind of goods he should carry with him (in a cart pulled by two horses) and whether he should have any craft ranks to make goods while he travels.

Thoughts?

Thanks.

[Serpentine]

When rolling up a dragon horde with input from my group, we determined that the dragons had taken out a confectioner's caravan. Sacks and sacks of sugar, cocoa, chilis, etc. Also, in a previous game, it was declared that you get jelly crystals by disintegrating gelatinous cubes.

Just, y'know, putting that out there :I

[Yora]

Why do you want to cart around a load of goods for? I imagine in most campaigns, it would only slow you down and the profits would be marginal.

What kind of campaign are you going to play and what kind of role do you want your character to take in the party?

[Aneurin]

If you're going on the purely role-playing side of things here, then some basic ranks of Craft (Weapons) is a good one, just so's you can sharpen knives and things, which are a source of income for a peddlar - you buy blunt knives and sell sharp ones.

Carry salt, wheat, corn, dried fish to inland villages anything that'll keep, really, and might be wanted - for example, I doubt you'd sell any bread in a village, but you may be able to sell a strain of wheat that's resistant to frost. Honey-pickled plums or something, too - specialty foods, foreign wines and spirits. Blankets, pots, ink, paper, cloth, thread, needles, furs, oil.

Charge for carrying mail, and bring news and gossip. Maybe you could take on contracts to carry packages of goods, too.

Just think about the little things a village couldn't provide for itself, and stock those, and take a few ranks of craft skills that allow you to do basic repairs and chores.

[FelixG]

Fun way to tease your GM:

When you guys loot enemies, tell them you are keeping all of the mundane weapons. Then when you get to a city, tell him you are selling them for full listed price instead of half, after all, SOMEONE has to sell those full priced weapons to other up and coming adventurers! :smallbiggrin:

[PirateLizard]

Fun way to tease your GM:

When you guys loot enemies, tell them you are keeping all of the mundane weapons. Then when you get to a city, tell him you are selling them for full listed price instead of half, after all, SOMEONE has to sell those full priced weapons to other up and coming adventurers! :smallbiggrin:

That's a great idea. For some reason my characters always gravitate towards illegal contraband. If it's illegal...it sells for more.

[Zylle]

That's a great idea. For some reason my characters always gravitate towards illegal contraband. If it's illegal...it sells for more.

Of course, with illegal merchandise, the greater reward comes with proportionally greater risk of lawful good authorities getting on your case :smalltongue:

[Tibbaerrohwen]

Why do you want to cart around a load of goods for? I imagine in most campaigns, it would only slow you down and the profits would be marginal.

What kind of campaign are you going to play and what kind of role do you want your character to take in the party?

I'm doing it for RP purposes.


If you're going on the purely role-playing side of things here, then some basic ranks of Craft (Weapons) is a good one, just so's you can sharpen knives and things, which are a source of income for a peddlar - you buy blunt knives and sell sharp ones.

Carry salt, wheat, corn, dried fish to inland villages anything that'll keep, really, and might be wanted - for example, I doubt you'd sell any bread in a village, but you may be able to sell a strain of wheat that's resistant to frost. Honey-pickled plums or something, too - specialty foods, foreign wines and spirits. Blankets, pots, ink, paper, cloth, thread, needles, furs, oil.

Charge for carrying mail, and bring news and gossip. Maybe you could take on contracts to carry packages of goods, too.

Just think about the little things a village couldn't provide for itself, and stock those, and take a few ranks of craft skills that allow you to do basic repairs and chores.

Ya, I was thinking that a few ranks in Craft wouldn't be a bad idea.

Carrying some basic goods wouldn't be a bad idea. I was thinking wheat and preserved food items wouldn't be a bad idea.

Like I said, it's purely RP.

[opticalshadow]

if your going to get into crafting id suggest jewl crafting or some such higher end thing. my reasoning is this.

by virtue of the game, its not hard to raid on weak enmies (gob's and orcs and such) and aquire furniture, weak valuable, mundane items, clothing and the such, which are all fine and have a value. things like food, take alot of space, weigh quite a bit, and can be destroyed very easily along the way. that said they bring a profit, but IMO the effort is a bit more then the reward.

by dealing in items of higher quality and value, such as simple jewlery to more noble quality jewlery you can achomplish 3 importent things.

first, you will come across jewls and metals along travels very often, with only minimal ranks into profession/craft jewler you can turn a few peices of gold and run of the mill gems into decent grade wears for middle classer's, and with a good amount of points you can turn out even higher quality wears with relitivly the same timeframe. so first, your more resource efficent.

second, the mark up of time+effort+resources is higher then lets say farming. and third, if you can make nice wears, you can sell to higher ups in towns, this opens the possibility of contacts within city officails.

now i use jewl crafting as an example because its just what i wound up doing (since we found gems and gold a plenty, so my meterial cost was nothing, because at worse i wound up with an item worth the same as the meterials sold just as easy in the time during breaks on the road) but this can be used for any form of craft that can be done without aid of major equipment. carving, painting, writing (dont underestimate what knowladge checks and adventures stories can sell for, i once had a wizard who started an encycolopedia series by making knowladge checks for information at the end of each day)

these things on their own are nice, but they are quick things to do on the road, to supplement your income as a whole, your main goal as a merchent should be IMO establish a location in a city, and build reputation, and slowly open up other shops, and trade routes. what my group did was when we got a keep we got it near a main river and crossroads, giving us major travel expsposer, it started as a spire, and with our protection the poor came to start over, we grew to a village and then a town, became a major trade link between to cities, and became quite welathy, then retired by level 14.

[Tibbaerrohwen]

if your going to get into crafting id suggest jewl crafting or some such higher end thing. my reasoning is this.

by virtue of the game, its not hard to raid on weak enmies (gob's and orcs and such) and aquire furniture, weak valuable, mundane items, clothing and the such, which are all fine and have a value. things like food, take alot of space, weigh quite a bit, and can be destroyed very easily along the way. that said they bring a profit, but IMO the effort is a bit more then the reward.

by dealing in items of higher quality and value, such as simple jewlery to more noble quality jewlery you can achomplish 3 importent things.

first, you will come across jewls and metals along travels very often, with only minimal ranks into profession/craft jewler you can turn a few peices of gold and run of the mill gems into decent grade wears for middle classer's, and with a good amount of points you can turn out even higher quality wears with relitivly the same timeframe. so first, your more resource efficent.

second, the mark up of time+effort+resources is higher then lets say farming. and third, if you can make nice wears, you can sell to higher ups in towns, this opens the possibility of contacts within city officails.

now i use jewl crafting as an example because its just what i wound up doing (since we found gems and gold a plenty, so my meterial cost was nothing, because at worse i wound up with an item worth the same as the meterials sold just as easy in the time during breaks on the road) but this can be used for any form of craft that can be done without aid of major equipment. carving, painting, writing (dont underestimate what knowladge checks and adventures stories can sell for, i once had a wizard who started an encycolopedia series by making knowladge checks for information at the end of each day)

these things on their own are nice, but they are quick things to do on the road, to supplement your income as a whole, your main goal as a merchent should be IMO establish a location in a city, and build reputation, and slowly open up other shops, and trade routes. what my group did was when we got a keep we got it near a main river and crossroads, giving us major travel expsposer, it started as a spire, and with our protection the poor came to start over, we grew to a village and then a town, became a major trade link between to cities, and became quite welathy, then retired by level 14.

Could this be accomplished with Profession skills rather than Craft skills? Because of levels in Master, Profession skills are practically free.

Right now I am thinking of food items and spices, primarily. Most early adventurer's don't eat the greatest and it gives the character another in with the party (do you want tasty food? Of course you do).

Profession (Merchant) doesn't really require any goods to sell. The business is for RP reasons only. It might be used for Merchant Prince later, but I'm not sure.

[deuxhero]

Be sure to take Mercantile background (Some FR book. Possibly PGTF).

[Tibbaerrohwen]

Be sure to take Mercantile background (Some FR book. Possibly PGTF).

I plan to. It seems like a must. The issue is that I'm still loosing 25%. If I do not craft the items, such as with spices and such, I need to buy them at 100% and sell them at 75%.

Is there a way I can turn a profit from this, instead of taking a massive loss?

[Aneurin]

Get a ruling from the DM that you buy them at 50% list price (as a merchant) from certain providers. Which is kinda how shops work. Or have the list price as the guideline price merchants buy at and goods are actually sold at... whatever price the merchant can sell them for.

In return for this, offer the DM a roll to see how many people buy things, and have the price you charge them affect that roll (e.g. if you sell above list price you get a penalty to how much you sell, if you sell below it you get a bonus). Similar bonuses and penalties to initial buy prices and sell-on prices for things that are out of season or have a short shelf life.

That's the only way I can think to do it.

[hex0]

I plan to. It seems like a must. The issue is that I'm still loosing 25%. If I do not craft the items, such as with spices and such, I need to buy them at 100% and sell them at 75%.

Is there a way I can turn a profit from this, instead of taking a massive loss?

1. Play a Dwarf
2. Cut and set gemstones in rings that you craft
3. ???
4. Profit

I hear gemstones are on a lot of loot tables. Or maybe my DM just liked giving out a bunch of them. :smallconfused:

[Lord Bingo]

I suggest gold, silver, copper, electrum(if you are using it), platinum and precious stones. These things are always in high demand with your fellow merchants and are thus a practical means of securing whatever you might need in this ADVENTURE game.

[Dr.Epic]

Salts and spices. In the Middle Ages, those were highly valued.

[Tibbaerrohwen]

Get a ruling from the DM that you buy them at 50% list price (as a merchant) from certain providers. Which is kinda how shops work. Or have the list price as the guideline price merchants buy at and goods are actually sold at... whatever price the merchant can sell them for.

In return for this, offer the DM a roll to see how many people buy things, and have the price you charge them affect that roll (e.g. if you sell above list price you get a penalty to how much you sell, if you sell below it you get a bonus). Similar bonuses and penalties to initial buy prices and sell-on prices for things that are out of season or have a short shelf life.

That's the only way I can think to do it.

I'm not sure most DM's would go for it. I wouldn't plan on abusing such a ruling, but it is easily abuseable.
Is there anything in RAW that can help me?


Salts and spices. In the Middle Ages, those were highly valued.

Right now I'm peddling my services (protection or forging paperwork) and cook supplies (primarily exotic spices). I also carry tobacco.
My issue right now is profit. I'm not looking for huge profit, but buying items at 100% to sell at 75% leaves me 25% in the hole.

Thoughts?

[deuxhero]

Trade goods sell for their full value.

50% selling is also the rate for PCs who want an item gone now. A mercant who has time can sell thins for 100% (The places where PCs buy stuff from)

[Diefje]

^-- just find out what common trade goods are. Money in a setting like this is just a set weight ( 1/50 lb.) of precious metal shaped into small disks. Tobacco is the same everywhere. Salt is the same everywhere. They're all considered trade goods by SRD and thus you can buy and sell them at 100%. For pure RP that sould be fine, as long as you're not losing money.

Now if you want to make money from it. You could try talking things up with Bluff and oppose it with both Sense Motive and Appraise checks. If you beat both, you get a bonus of 1% per skill difference you beat em by. Making poor saps easier to con than experienced merchants.

If you want to go a little more illegal, you could mix in cheaper product to get more volume. Mix some dried grass/herbs with tobacco. Blend some cheaper spices with the expensive ones.

To me, I'd just try to set up a supply for where there is a demand. Yes it's more expensive than "listed" but you are also supplying convenience. Travel takes time and money too, and as long as you can keep your mark-up under that amount, you're golden.

[Tibbaerrohwen]

Alrighty, sounds good. Thank you very much for the info.
For increasing the amount goods sell for, I think Diplomacy works for haggling, does it not?

Thanks.

[Socratov]

appraise, with bluff and diplomacy would work, if you feel like larceny, take intimidation

[Aneurin]

I'm not sure most DM's would go for it. I wouldn't plan on abusing such a ruling, but it is easily abuseable.
Is there anything in RAW that can help me?

I honestly fail to see how you could abuse it when all the DM has to say is; "They think your prices are too high and don't buy anything from you. Also, your dried fish got wet last time it rained and are now growing fur and smelling bad" if they think you're doing too well, or abusing the ruling. They're the one controlling the purchasers, right?

If they need a good reason to deny, could easily be that there was a poor harvest and the local ruler raised a levy tax so he could go fight Duke Whatsisname's army, or put down bandit trouble on the roads, and that the village simply doesn't have any money.