The old Intro

The Merchant Rules allow the PC to set up a network of trade ships or caravans to trade around the wider area. This is the quickest way to get rich (within the context of the kingdom rules. It doesn’t give you extra cash to buy adventuring gear.) but the rules are fairly complicated and you have to work hard to negotiate permission to build your land based assets. This gets more complicated when you try to move into foreign cities where you don’t have much influence.

Merchants start off small, often just bringing goods to town from the surrounding towns and villages. Over time, you develop trade routes between local towns, but things really start to take off when you have a base in your local city and you start trading with towns and cities in other regions.

A Merchant House is one of the few businesses that will try to raise money from their business developments and use them to buy assets in different areas. To do this you need to liquidate assets in your home region and use them to make your initial purchase in the new area. Once you are established, you can use locally generated funds to build normally.

Local merchants are the life blood of a community, bringing produce from villages, farms and fisheries to their base and redistributing it as required. Normally they are based around a jetty and a few fishing boats or a serai and mule trains – that operate over short (5-hex) trade routes. It is a nice straightforward little business built around a single Village, Town or City, which gives you some local influence and generates a basic income.

Local Base:

• Minimum Requirements are
• Can be built in a Village, Town or City.
• Land: A Serai and a Mule Train
• Water: A Jetty and Fishing Boats.

• Benefit: +1 Influence

Most merchants make their money trading between different towns and cities across the region. Medium length (10-hex) trade routes operated by Ox trains and Shallops support, or even replace, the local trade routes. As the Merchant House becomes known across a wider area, so their influence increases.

Town Base

• Minimum Requirements are
• Can be built in a Town or City. (not in a village)
• Land: Merchant House, Warehouse, Serai and at least one Ox Train
• Water: Merchant House, Warehouse, Jetty and at least one Shallop.

• Benefits: +2 Economy, +2 Stability, +2 Loyalty, +3 Influence (for each town base)

If you want to be an important merchant you need to step your game up, and upgrade to larger premises (City Base) with better ways of moving goods around. Caravans and larger trading vessels allow you to develop longer trading routes, and allow you to control more of the goods coming through your city. Your influence and reputation increases as your vessels and caravans pass through distant towns and cities.

City Base

• Minimum Requirements are
• City location
• Land: Merchant House, Large Warehouse, Caravanserai and at least one Caravan.
• Water: Merchant House, Large Warehouse, Pier and at least one Trade or Merchant ship (Keeler or Sailing Barge).

Benefits: +6 Influence and +4 economy, +4 Stability, +4 Loyalty, (for every City Base that your business owns)

As you add bases in more places, you start to become a dominant player on the trade routes.

A Great Merchant House has bases in a number of different towns and cities, and can wield as much influence as many nobles houses may well be able to manage the flow of goods along a trade route.

So far, the merchant has probably built and developed within their own community - but now they must expand into new areas. The build points that the merchant has used to build warehouses or buy ships are a local currency made up of favours, services and all sorts, and don't transfer easily to a different area. There are a number of different strategies the merchant can use to get a foothold in a new city - but none of them are cheap or straightforward.

At the end of each Campaign Turn go through the following process to ascertain and document your expenditure.

Income Phase

This is how many BP you generate from buildings and developments in your stronghold. Every Campaign Rules Round you earn …

• +1BP for every 2 points of economy that your business owns.
• +1BP for every external trade route you connect to. Stolen Lands Game In The Stolen Land this means building a base in Pitax, Mivon, Restov or New Stetven

Acts of DM: Sometimes Kingdom Event Rolls, or other similar things, will affect income. Particularly good weather might mean that trade is boosted across the land, while a flood or famine might mean extra costs for everyone. It might just be one area, or it might be the whole region …

Development Fund and Treasury

To calculate how much you have to spend on new developments subtract the Consumption from Income + Treasury. Treasury is just BPs you own that haven't been spent yet.
Development Fund = (Income + Treasury) - Consumption

Events Phase.

This is when you change things, if you want to. Once everything is settled up for the turn, you know your BP balance for the next turn, so now you can do any or all of the following.

• Build or Buy something

Any BP that you have left over can be kept in your 'treasury' for next time.

To build one of these Mercantile Developments, you need the permission of the Land Owner. These are the things that are most relevant to merchants, but there is nothing to stop you from choosing developments from any of the other Business lists - so long as you follow the same basic requirements as any other business person. In getting permission to build things on this commercial list, you will be asked to contribute funds towards Civic or Defensive developments - these buildings pass into the control of the stronghold and have no direct affect on your holdings.

These developments work in the same way as any other business developments - you need the permission of the land owner to build them. However, they are the the developments that allow you to make use of the Tax Free developments described below.

Mule trains, Vessels and Caravans do not count against a settlement's Economy value, so you can buy them without permission from a land holder. Settlements do not gain from these investments, however, you must have the appropriate land based development to benefit from any of these investmnents - so it is good to stay 'in favour' with the town, city or stronghold administration.

(M) = Mobile. Vessels, Pack Trains and Caravans can be moved between bases at no cost.

Descriptions might vary slightly from buildings in other sections of the rules. But realistically, you can 'flavour' these however you like.

(M) = Mobile. Vessels, Mule Trains and Trade Caravans can be moved between bases at no cost.