Caravan demographics

[weckar]

There are quite a few resources out there that tell us the population numbers and demographics for various sizes of settlement. However, I have thus far been unable to find such data for permanent trade caravans. I'm looking for total population, professional distributions, age/gender distributions and maybe suggested racial distributions.

If anyone has such a resource it would be well appreciated.

[Falcon X]

It doesn't answer your question, but I remember them having a nice caravan example in Hoard of the Dragon Queen. It was notably flavor heavy and didn't give precise numbers. Course, I went through and fleshed that part out myself in an impressive publisher document :)

[BowStreetRunner]

I'm not 100% sure I understand what you intend by 'permanent trade caravan'. One likely possibility is a nomadic tribe that relies primarily on trade - whether a bedouin patriarch who has shifted focus from herding to mercantile enterprise or something more like a band of wandering romani who subsist mainly on trade. In fact, most such merchant groups were fairly modest in size and only gathered together into large caravans when planning a journey with high risk (and rewards) and would then come together into large caravans with other similar groups for mutual protection.

The Silk road and other such frequently traveled routes would sometimes have regular runs - governed by a combination of the seasonality of the goods (harvest times, etc.) and the conditions along the routes (avoiding the worst weather) there would be a single major caravan each year and all the merchants would gather at the same time to make the journey. In these cases, a particular caravan organizer might be present who arranges the annual trip.

[Gildedragon]

There are quite a few resources out there that tell us the population numbers and demographics for various sizes of settlement. However, I have thus far been unable to find such data for permanent trade caravans. I'm looking for total population, professional distributions, age/gender distributions and maybe suggested racial distributions.

If anyone has such a resource it would be well appreciated.

Probably just use the thorp or hamlet ones. People size is pretty good.
Otherwise just use a sort of extended family; plot a rough family tree that looks a bit pear-shaped

Something like 1d6-1 elders (venerable)
2d6+1d4 per elder for generation below (old/ middle age)
3d6+1d6 per elder for the middle age/adult generation
2d6 children

[Flickerdart]

It depends entirely on the culture and purpose of the caravan. When in doubt, steal from the Silk Road:


A caravan could consist of 150 or so camels (8 or more files), with a camel-puller for each file. Besides the camel-pullers the caravan would also include a xiansheng (typically, an older man with a long experience as a camel-puller, now playing the role of a general manager), one or two cooks, and the caravan master, whose authority over the caravan and its people was as absolute as that of a captain on a ship. If the owner of the caravan did not travel with the caravan himself, he would send along a supercargo--the person who will take care of the disposal of the freight upon arrival, but had no authority during the journey.

So we have a crew of 12-13 men (8 camel-pullers, one manager, one or two cooks, one caravan master, and the owner or his supercargo) managing the actual caravan. Guards would not be very necessary on a well-travelled and well-policed path such as the Silk Road, but let's say 1d6 guardsmen for your setting. There would be some passengers, let's say another 1d6. Outside of passengers (and perhaps a concubine or two) there would be no need for non-employees in a trade caravan, which means no women for a society where they are mostly domestic servants, and definitely no children.