I'm creating a campaign where the party starts (level 1) abandoned in an uncharted land with relatively few humanoids. I'd like to:
A.) Avoid miraculously stumbling onto a village every time they need to buy.
B.) Avoid every treasure they find having exactly the gear they need.
C.) Give them choices about their equipment (at least some).
Looking for some creative ways to mix it up. Thanks.
Option 1. Let them craft, possibly giving them the feats to do it for free if you don't want to see fullcaster parties.
b)Change wealth by level from an allocation of magic gear to mystical bonuses that everyone gets. A fighter that wants a +1 sword gets the mystical ability on level up to make their sword stronger merely by holding it. That sort of thing. I believe Kirthfinder takes this approach.
If you have access to it, check out the Unchained book for alternate wealth options. There are really cool ideas akin to Vow of Poverty in 3.5 DnD (basically takes big 6 items completely out in exchange for passive bonuses).
This'd allow you to use magic items with actual impact, or let them craft items that they'll find useful.
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I ran a campaign where the bbeg was a merchant/wizard, and would bring his magical tent to the adventurer's whenever they completed one of his tasks so they could buy his wares and sell their loot. It worked out wonderfully as they didn't realize they were completing part of his evil plan, and even made friends with him along the way. Led to a pretty awesome finale.
Give them an item that casts Word of Recall with a permanent location set to Absalom, that works once per week.
They can get to Absalom and make custom orders or browse for general good they have in the city (largest city on Golarion).
Getting back to where they were could be a chore, depending. But still this is a pretty easy solution.
Most groups once they are high enough level will use teleport to travel to Absalom for all their shopping needs anyways.
You could give them a Mercane contact that they could send for when they need to trade.