1) Create benefits for having the Appraise and Persuade skills.
2) Create reasons for characters to journey across the trade roads linking settlements.
3) Create opportunities for mechanically-supported banditry and blockades.
Summary of the Suggestion:
Characters can craft physical trade packs at one settlement that must be brought to another settlement for profit. Characters may only convey trade packs via walking overland, and may not avail of the many quick-travel options. Characters with trade packs are conspicuous and those characters drop carried trade packs upon death. Anyone can turn in a trade pack at a settlement for profit.
Trade Pack Crafting
- Trade packs are crafted objects that may be made only within the confines of a settlement.
- A trade pack represents a settlement's export products.
- A character may carry only one trade pack at a time.
- Quick travel does not work while carrying a trade pack. Ships will refuse to run unregistered cargo due to prior contracts, skiffs can't carry the weight, caravan masters will refuse to work for competitors, and goods-laden characters become too bulky for teleport (magic is fickle).
- Trade packs slow movement speed and, if possible, disable running.
- While carrying a trade pack, a character suffers severe penalties to hide and move silently.
- Trade packs are bulky loads shown conspicuously on a character, by *looks* feedback and/or physical representation such as a backpack or back banner.
- When a character dies, the trade pack is dropped and left next to their corpse.
- Settlement NPCs are not interested in purchasing their own trade packs.
- Settlement NPCs will pay for trade packs from other settlements.
- Lengthy or high-risk journeys produce higher rewards. Trade routes that are trivial (e.g., Cordor to Burrowhome) will produce lesser rewards.
- Appraise improves the pay-off of a trade pack.
- Settlements will not accept trade packs from settlements they are at war with. (Persuade convinces the merchant to accept the trade pack 'under the table,' allowing for smuggling.)
- Governments have the option to bid for trade goods. If this option is turned on, their treasury will drop and the appropriate resources will rise for each trade pack turned in within their settlement. Each settlement's trade pack is comprised of two different resources. Governments can choose which settlements' trade goods to bid on.
- Governments have the option to sell resources at reduced cost. If this option is turned on, the treasury will rise and the appropriate resources will drop for each trade pack made within that settlement. While this policy is active, a lower-cost trade pack recipe for the settlement is available. This policy allows a settlement to liquidate excess resources for cash, encouraging exports.
Trade Treaties
- Settlements may create free trade agreements with each other. This increases the rewards given for each others' trade packs and slightly increases the resource and treasury revenue from government trade policies.
- Each active free trade treaty reduces the Spot skills of the settlement's NPC guards by X amount. This reflects the cost to security from free trade policies.
- Settlements may embargo other settlements, refusing to accept trade packs from that settlement without going so far as to declare war. (Persuade allows a PC to sidestep an embargo, supporting smuggling)
Special NPC bandit encounters may spawn for characters carrying a trade pack in the wilds. The chance of these encounters triggering increases as the server population decreases. In short, NPC hazards will take up the slack to challenge people running trade packs during slow server hours.
Possible Rewards
- Gold. Run trade caravans instead of grinding dungeons.
- Unique components for crafting. Settlement NPCs may barter off unique components in exchange for trade packs. Some special craftable items may only be made by combining the unique components produced by two or more settlements.
- The satisfaction of roleplaying a successful trader! (or a successful bandit!)