Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 zombiegleemax Jan 19, 2005 12:00:59	My friends and I, we're playing for many years now and we've been back and beyond. We have cleared the ToEE, and clamed it toghether with the moathouse We have sacked one of the bandid kingdoms ;) And we have been on the outer planes challenging demons :D We are quite high level characters, and we've had it with the hack and slash Some of us are active in politics , others use there wealth to become a merchant. And for the first time in a decade, we've been able to do something to wich our DM has no answer Are there any rules concerning the income of merchants? We have sugested to use a system like they do for thieves guilds. In this case you have to take in account how big the city is, and wether you have a poor/average/rich guild. And from that you have a fixed income plus the throw of a dice. Anyway, our DM is very reluctant to make such a system himself. This for the greater glory of gamebalance. Are there rules about this, or do you have sugestions?
#2 Mortepierre Jan 20, 2005 4:20:54	This should provide you with some answers.
#3 zombiegleemax Jan 20, 2005 8:34:07	Thanx Mortepierre, but I don't think that this product has rules for individual merchants. They focus more on guildstructure and guild income, I think...correct me if I'm wrong. On the other hand, from what I've seen on the free download from that book, I even wonder if they talk about guild income at all...it looks to me that this book is only about structure. Again, correct me if I'm wrong. Thanx for your help
#4 Mortepierre Jan 20, 2005 15:53:07	No.. actually, you're right. There isn't much about what merchants can earn in that book. Hadn't read it in a while and was slightly confused over the content. Silly me. That said, I doubt you'll find specific info anywhere. There are so many possibilities. It depends on the type and size of the business. Even then, prosperity isn't a certainty if you can't attract the 'right' sort of customer (or if you attract the 'wrong' sort..) Were I your DM, I would hesitate too. At the very least, I would insist on you and your friend demonstrating for awhile that you can administer properly your shop before turning it into a steady (and trouble-free) source of cash... Sorry
#5 zombiegleemax Jan 20, 2005 16:26:54	I've deffinitely never seen rules or even suggestions on how to go about such a situation. Campaigns seem to have such a differing level of economies. It would be hard to make suggestions for naother person's campaign. In my campaigns 1 copper = 1 gold in another's campaign. I'm interested to see if anybody has any well-thought ideas on this subject though. Would be good discussion.
#6 zombiegleemax Jan 21, 2005 11:02:29	I'm a DM in the Realms, and as general rule for individual income I take 50GP/level per month (average income), 200GP/level per month (wealthy income). This differs ofcourse a bit from city to city. So if somebody want to hire a 7th level fighter, he would pay 350GP/month. For merchants one could do more or less the same, only now the income must be variable due to good or bad months (weeks). What if it would all depend on a %-roll? Roll a d100 for the following result : 01-23 poor week 3GP/level (12GP/level per month) 24-75 average week 12,5GP/level (50GP/level per month) 76-97 good week 50GP/level (200GP/level per month) 98-00* festival 100GP/level (treat a festival-week as doubble of a good week) If festivals are known, use them and treat 98-00 as a good week. I use 1 roll every week since festivals are never longer than a week, and you also have more variation in a month income (one could roll 3 poor weeks and one good week). You could say that this is still a lot of money, but a merchant needs a lot of things before he has merchandise and is able to sell it. I had to build a big compound with warehouses and barraks for my staff and militia. I have to pay a lot of wages, and I need to buy everything to be able to transport cargo from Dyvers to Verbobonc and vice versa. I need to pay for the armor and weapons of my militia, the horses, chariots, and, and, and... Ofcourse buying all this things is a one time thing, but wages aren't! All the people I need to run this business, are a huge cost! Plus I'll need to feed them as well, so it's not only there wages. So even with this d100-system, one could be out of business before he knows it. Abysslin, you can still convert this to any world. One could still take 1 copper for 1 gold.