So I enjoy Jade Regent a lot. Fun characters, nice flavor, lots of potential. Getting into prep-mode to run it myself, I figure I want to do for my players what I wish had been done for me; A GM-instituted system for governing how a group of players can use their caravan as a profit-making enterprise, as well as just a machine to get from A to B in the plot.
So, I set about reading a lot of the threads on these forums and assembling some ideas I like to fix some problems I don't like. We'll start with the easier of the two, economy.
When I intend to run JR, the caravan part is going to have a lot of pit stops and towns along the way, both to resupply, possibly find adventures and bounties, but also to do some large-scale trading.
The system starts by setting out a list of classifications for every type of settlement, and you choose what the place they're visiting falls under. Each has a list with it of the amount of trade goods of each value tier it has to offer, and this makes up Section 1. (Sorry to whoever on the forums seeded this idea, I don't remember your name. You can have all the credit here.)
The goods themselves are basically just that, a "trade unit" of goods that would occupy 1 cargo spot in the Caravan. They come in different cost tiers, which means each one is a monetary investment on the part of the players. Due to the scaling nature of profits, the more they invest in more expensive goods, the greater the return.
Then we go about defining what goods fall into each tier. This is a quick list, and is by no means final. You can add anything you want to the tiers. This makes up Section 2.
Then we go into the sim-style trade route system, for determining what each settlement buys and sells. Since some people like less complex things, you can leave this out and just make profit a flat value based on, say, distance the goods were carried. But I prefer to have settlements be a bit more 'living'. So we assign different "classes" to each settlement, which seek to describe what general type of economic situation exists in that settlement and what goods they would have access to and thus export, as well as what they do not have access to, and thus would pay more to import.
These lists can be simple 3-4 item lists, or complex things that include all the available goods provided in Section 2. Up to you. So for example, a Farming Village 'class' would probably not have access to mining or smelting operations on any large scale, so logically that would be the place to sell any metal ingots, metal tools, and weapons/armor you brought from a Mining Village that had such goods to sell. Since Farming Village cannot make them on their own, it is an ideal place to offer higher profit for those particular goods.
As an addition, I had considered giving every settlement a "wildcard" in the form of a specific good type among what they export that they would be considered famous for manufacturing at a higher quality than other places. Meaning that specific goods of that type bought from there would sell for much higher profits in other settlements.
Lists:
Hamlet
10gp x4
20gp x1
Small Town
10gp x9
20gp x6
50gp x3
Large Town
10gp x20
20gp x13
50gp x9
100gp x2
Small City
10gp x45
20gp x25
50gp x18
100gp x8
250gp x2
Large City
10gp x100
20gp x60
50gp x30
100gp x10
250gp x8
500gp x5
100gp:
Fine weapons, Gold ingots, Small magic goods, Jewels, Rare animals, Fine imported clothing, Exotic hides
250gp:
Rare weapons, Fine armor, Worked gold, Adamantium/Mithral ingots, Medium magic items
500gp:
Magic artifacts, Large fortunes, Dragon materials,
-------------------------
Settlement Classes;
>Farming Town
Import --
Fish
Brick
Mail
Stone
Weapons
Tools
Metal
Coal
Export --
Wheat
Wool
Clothing
Meat
Pelts
Hay
>Mining Town
Import --
Meat
Wheat
Fish
Wool
Livestock
Mail
Pelts
Leather
Export --
Metal ingots
Coal
Wood
Brick
Cheap weapons
Armor
Tools
Gold Ingots
Silver Ingots
Jewels
Smelted metal
This post is already ridiculously long, so I'll leave it here for now. I'm still working on this, a lot of the classification here is largely dependent on the GM running the game to decide what the places his party will be able to visit are, and how he wants to classify them.
Coming soon will be some more in-depth ideas to address transporting cargo and mapping trade routes, as well as starting on overhauls to the Caravan rules that I feel could use addressing.
If you've read this far, please give me some feedback. Even if it's just to say it's a boring and stupid idea.
Nice work. I did same but with wider range of prices.
And for local color I set that sandpoint has 1/2 prices for Rum and glassware, but characters can't sell them with full price until they leave Varisia. But there is some hindrances. If the morale of crew is low, they might drink the rum (which can also be used to rise morale). Also, the goods might break if caravan takes damage.
I have not actually touched Skulls and Shackles, but I may have to if there's rules to reference there.
A little update, I talking with the GM of the game I'm playing in currently, and he was excited to mention that he had already prepared a set of villages and towns along the caravan route basically with the exact same classifications I proposed, so the trade good aspect slipped in very well. We'll see how they work out.
He pointed out, and rightly so, that my spitballing of having things like Dragon materials and artifacts cost 500gp per unit was dumb and made no sense, and I totally agree. I'll be revising that to make more sense.
Still working on a comprehensive overhaul to Caravan stats and leveling, as well as jobs and whatnot, but that may just be an amalgam of ideas I've collected around here and mashed together.
What DOES a caravan get when it levels up, RAW? Still not sure.
I modified the trade rules in the caravan for my campaign - too long to post, but you can find here.
Also some Jade Regent maps, editable caravan PDF, player files, intro texts, relationship tracking matrix, our critical hit/miss charts I am using for my campaign - here
