Some say that money makes the world go round, and Golarion's merchants make this a reality. Pathfinder Player Companion: Merchant's Manifest examines commerce through the lens of important trade hubs such as Absalom, Goka, and Katapesh, where smart shoppers can secure myriad fine wares. Whether you're aiming to purchase a rare item, hire on with a trade organization, or make your fortune on your own, this player-focused volume is your key to success.
Inside this book you'll find:
A look at 17 key merchant hubs on Golarion, including key settlements such as Cassomir and Port Ice in Avistan, Anuli and Kibwe in Garund, Ular Kel in Casmaron, and Goka and Ordu-Aganhei in Tian Xia.
Dozens of magic weapons and armors, mundane items, and wondrous items that originate from these key places, plus information about the markets in which they are typically found.
Archetypes and other class options geared toward characters who are merchants, who work for merchants, or who have a personal history tied to commerce.
This Pathfinder Player Companion is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Pathfinder campaign setting, but it can be easily incorporated into any fantasy world.
ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-026-2
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
In comparison to the Adventurer's Armory 2, which I was more cool about, this book recaptures that feeling of a treasure box of neat and interesting items. Attack Badger Plush? Check. Parasitic rebreather fish? Check. Mechanisms powered by alchemical heat rocks? Check. Candles that also double as food? Check. The only gripes I have with the book are relatively minor and in no real way detract from the material in the book itself (apart from the Paladin archetype, which trades out a bit too much power for very minor boons). Definitely worth a read for all the interesting ideas the book brings out.
I hope there's at least a few rules here that relate to the rather underutilized downtime system. That will never be the focus of the game, but it would be good to see a little something for it every now and then.
Please let this include a revision of prices and regional market variations for those prices, or just some better logistical options for the potential siege and or kingdom management of the upcoming Taldor Campaign.
If this updates the city stats of Absalom & Katapesh (which only had "Pathfinder Chronicles" releases) & has a map of Goka, i'm interested.
Otherwise not.
Still, it makes sense to put the three settlements with the highest population number in the book.
A friend spoiled the surprise for me when he got upset that the book did not throughly explain how koku worked. Those first couple of pages were hilarious when compared to a typical sourcebook. There was an actual graph for rice production. :-)
Nothing to see here, just unimportant peasant conversation!
On know direction awhile back James Jacobs discussed always wanting to do a golarian almanac. I wonder if this represents a development of more projects like that.
On know direction awhile back James Jacobs discussed always wanting to do a golarian almanac. I wonder if this represents a development of more projects like that.
Getting an Inner Sea Almanac off the ground has been weirdly tough for lots of reasons I'm not gonna go into here. Having trade information in this book is one way to get that out there for folks without having to wait for an Almanac that may never actually happen to happen, though.
Umm, so bit late, but what book are you two referring to?
Spoiler:
Legend of Five Rings (the RPG) pumped out a lot of sourcebooks, mostly for the various samurai clans or groups, but occasionally a book or two about another subject. One of these was The Merchant's Guide to Rokugan. It was apparently a sourcebook about the odd economics of the pseudo-Japanese setting. The first couple of pages were simple economic stuff, and then you turn the page and get basically this:
"...okay, that's enough about that. Now that we have scared away the easily bored people, it is time to get to the point. This is not a treatise on Rokugani trade. This is the Kolat sourcebook."
Kolat was the L5R version of the Illuminati/Hydra/freemasons. It was a consipiracy run by ordinary humans, with the intent to get rid of practically every divinely-inspired clan and concept that subjugated the peasants, including the entire samurai class and the Emperor. It was the most secretive organization in the entire setting. It had to be. If it became known, any other faction would have tried to exterminate it forthwith.
I think it was a fairly late addition to the setting. It gave the metaplot a severe kick, revealing some important NPCs as secret masters behind the Kolat. A rough comparison would be a Pathfinder sourcebook that revealed that Razmir was set up by Rahadoum to discredit religion, or that Abigail Thrune I was actually a priestess of Calistria who sacrificed herself to get Hell to overextend itself in order to get revenge for some slight that happened when Rovagug was being wrangled into Golarion.
I liked most L5R sourcebooks. Especially Way of the Shadow, which still creeps me out.
I can't wait for this! I love these kind of books. I've always wanted to do a campaign where the characters establish their own merchant house and trade empire form the ground up. A mix of the travels of Marco Polo and the rise of the Medici and similar families during the Renaissance.
I think you might be having unrealistic expectations if you are expecting more realistic economy simulation ._.
I mean, I'm pretty sure its not possible to turn game mechanic adventurer economy into realistic one <_<
t be fair 'll be happy if it just rebalances the prices of trade goods, a pound of black pepper should not be cheaper than a chicken in the sort of economy Golarion has and I'm more looking for details on orchestrating trade deals anyway.
@ StarMartyr365 - "I can't wait for this! I love these kind of books. I've always wanted to do a campaign where the characters establish their own merchant house and trade empire form the ground up. A mix of the travels of Marco Polo and the rise of the Medici and similar families during the Renaissance.
Books like this are instabuy for me."
Seconded!!!
I have always wondered what exactly my character is supposed to do with all his wealth at the conclusion of an adventure....
This would be ideal if the character makes investments in trading expeditions throughout the world.
I would also ****LOVE****LOVE****LOVE****LOVE**** to see a companion sourcebook detailing investment opportunities for our characters to put their money to work for them. I have seen some stand alone articles on investments especially the February 2000 Dragon article by Kevin Haw which discussed investing for characters. I made a post about investments in the Homebrew thread that may get some traction with the members.
Will we get either a list of key trade routes or a couple of map pages (for avistan and garund) with directional arrows and names of goods?
I'm hoping to get at least a macro idea of traded goods/routes for an Andoran campaign I'm working on, and would like to know a little more than 'lumber goes from Falcon's Hollow to Augustana and Almas'... (I have Guide to DMV, Andoran CS, etc.)
Thanks,
Zanzibaran
P.S. I vote for the almanac too. Even with the CS and Guide to DMV, there's a vast amount of NPC daily life I'll have to invent session by session and track for consistency...
James Jacobs wrote:
BobTheCoward wrote:
On know direction awhile back James Jacobs discussed always wanting to do a golarian almanac. I wonder if this represents a development of more projects like that.
Getting an Inner Sea Almanac off the ground has been weirdly tough for lots of reasons I'm not gonna go into here. Having trade information in this book is one way to get that out there for folks without having to wait for an Almanac that may never actually happen to happen, though.
Count me as one of those who are interested in this one!
Major trade routes (including which commodities get traded in which direction) would be good.
Do we have a PF city stat block for Absalom? IIRC, the one in Guide to Absalom was a 3.5 stat block, and I don't recall having seen a more recent one. (Please let me know if such exists, and where to find it!)
Naturally, PF city stat blocks for other cities are also welcome. What about Darklands trade hubs?
I’ve found Occultist to be remarkably useful as a merchant class- they automatically identify items, as well as getting a bit of history (useful for telling if something is looted off a fresh body). I’m hoping they get some love, but Silksworn is sufficient if not.
I'm cautiously optimistic. The last time there was a companion book focused on (for lack of a better description) purely roleplay scenarios it turned out surprisingly well.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Oh hell yes! I'd just created a merchant character, I'd love to see what kind of archetypes will be available! I'm guessing maybe Alchemists and Rogues, potentially Druids, Witches... I'd love to see one for the Mesmerist, but it's doubtful! Other than that, I'm glad to see some stuff for Tian Xia- could we potentially be getting more official stuff from there in future? ;D
Got my Pending notice! PDFs should begin arriving next week.
This seems like it might be similar to the Adventurer's Armory books with respect to new 'stuff' but giving us background on the people/locations these things come from. Excited to see it!
A book about merchants? And its a player companion? Oh please let there be anything in there that makes item crafting more wonderful! That is all I want at this point.