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We can finally talk about base prices, and this topic is a prerequisite to introduce price fluctuations and encumbrances.
For every good we have to define a base price, assuming that this price does not reflect the price for a single unit of good, but yes represents the price of a single load.
So, a bulk of beer is not just a barrel, liter, a gallon or whatever.
We have published the awesome Merchant Guide, a pdf available on DrivethruRpg. Just have a look at the preview to have an idea of the content.
Also, if you already have an idea on how to run your own trading campaign you may want to have a look at our Trade Goods Generator.
We consider a bulk a crossbreed between the weight and volume, or a compromise between both if you prefer.
So, every good with a base price, represents the cost of a load expressed in bulks.
Now it’s time to fill the summary of goods up, the ones we saw in the previous article.
We also made a restyling of such tables, because they really sucked.
So, every good in every category has now a base price and the standard encumbrance we called bulk.
Example: A load of bricks “weight”/”occupies” 400 bulks and costs 350 gp. This represents also the minimum size of a load. In other words, a merchant cannot buy a load of bricks smaller than 400 bulks.
As you can guess, when we will talk about vehicles and animals we will calibrate the capacity of each vehicle so that they somewhat reflect the bulks. For example, we can decide that a medium wagon’s capacity is 400 bulks, exactly what it takes to ship a load of bricks.
We do this to simplify a bit the things. Imagine what kind of mess if we had to take note of fractions of loads and thus calculate prices accordingly. Too much in my opinion.
In the next article, we will discuss how to manage price fluctuations.
Price fluctuations is a core part of the whole experiment to create a supplement useful to run a trade campaign. It is thanks to price fluctuations that a merchant can ever hope to make a net gain on her buy & sell operations.
Next article…D&D – Merchant #7 – Price Fluctuation