Merchant
You are a merchant who buys and sells goods. Although you don’t necessarily craft the items that you sell, you are able to purchase raw goods from suppliers and finished items from artisans and craftsman, which you markup and resell at a small but worthwhile profit.
You belong to a merchant’s guild which permits you to do business in your local region or geographic area. You might sell your goods through a shop or booth in a town, or you might be a peddler, traveling to various towns and villages throughout the region to bring your merchandise directly to the people of those areas. The arrival of a peddler is a major source of excitement in many smaller villages where a travelling merchant can bring not only much needed goods, but also news of the outside world.
Most merchants have a relatively high social status, both due to their potential wealth and from the status conferred from the connections that they make during their business dealings. In general, people tend to view merchants positively, although they may resent your success or feel that they are being taken advantage in the form of high prices.
Product Specialty
Most merchants specialize in a particular type of wares, although few will pass up a chance to make a few coins profit even if the goods on offer are outside their normal area of expertise. Chose one of the merchandise specialties listed below, roll on the table, or decide on a specialty of your own.
| Roll a d12: 1d12 |
Merchandise |
| 1 |
Ore, lumber, and other raw materials |
| 2 |
Herbs, medicines, and perfumes |
| 3 |
Shoes, belts and other leather goods |
| 4 |
Livestock |
| 5 |
Pottery |
| 6 |
Foods and spices |
| 7 |
Wine and ale |
| 8 |
Furs and textiles |
| 9 |
Books and literature |
| 10 |
Manufactured goods (pots and pans, tools, toys, etc.) |
| 11 |
Paints, pigments, and dyes |
| 12 |
Gems, jewelry, and glass |
Skill Proficiencies Investigation, Persuasion
Tool Proficiencies Vehicles (land)
Languages One of your choice
Equipment A set of traveler’s clothes, a business license issued by the local ruler or merchant’s guild, a cart and a mule for hauling your wares, and a purse containing 15 vr.
Features
Feature: Information Trade
Merchants shake a lot of hands and listen to a lot of idle chatter while hawking their wares. In these meetings and conversations they are often able to glean profitable information. If you spend one day plying your trade by selling goods in a city or town, by the end of the day you will have heard most of the news and rumors of events in the city and will know who the important personalities in the area are – you may have even met and ingratiated yourself to a few of them.
Suggested Characteristics
Merchants are often openly personable, good at making connections with people, and have a knack for finding out a potential customer’s needs and wants. You might be scheming or look down upon other people with a lower social status than yourself, but it rarely pays to be unfriendly. Your flaws might be greed or barely hidden disdain of others.
Traits
| Dice: 1d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|
| 1 | You pepper your speech with foreign phrases that you learned while on a visit to a far-off land. |
| 2 | You constantly daydream of retiring to an idyllic location. |
| 3 | You always wear your best finery and clothes and refuse to get them dirty no matter what the situation. |
| 4 | Tales of your past business dealings always grow in the telling, getting grander and more exciting each time. |
| 5 | You tend to over (or under) tip when paying innkeepers, stable workers, and food servers. |
| 6 | You are always negotiating. No deal is ever fully done until goods and coins are exchanged. |
| 7 | You never outright lie but you often frame the truth to your advantage. |
| 8 | You are prone to making important decisions by flipping a coin. |
Ideal
| Dice: 1d6 | Ideal |
|---|
| 1 | A Bargain. If there is a deal to be had, I will find it. (Any) |
| 2 | Information. The contacts that I make and the secrets that I learn are more valuable than goods that I sell. (Evil) |
| 3 | Luxury. What good is wealth if it can’t me the best of everything? (Neutral) |
| 4 | Honesty. If you can’t trust a salesman, who can you trust? (Good) |
| 5 | Open Trade. The right of rulers and guilds to limit what goods can be traded is a form of tyrannical oppression that must be stopped or ignored (Lawful) |
| 6 | One-upmanship. Finishing ahead of my competition is my only goal. |
Bond
| Dice: 1d6 | Bond |
|---|
| 1 | You are obsessed with obtaining a specific unusual item, such an ancient antique, or an extremely rare commodity. |
| 2 | You pursue wealth to secure someone’s love or respect. |
| 3 | You owe a large financial debt (such as unpaid taxes) which you lack the ability to pay. |
| 4 | Your place of business is the most important location in the world to you. |
| 5 | You are deeply beholden to a mentor that showed you how to succeed in business. |
| 6 | You once had a business deal with a very dangerous client go very bad, and that former customer now blames you for it. |
Flaw
| Dice: 1d6 | Flaw |
|---|
| 1 | You are distrustful of a certain race or people from a certain nation and will not do business with them if you can help it. |
| 2 | You are easily influenced by a down-on-their-luck customer with a sad story and are prone to giving away products or selling them at a loss to help people. |
| 3 | You are prone to over promising your customers when discussing your ability to provide certain products within a limited time frame. |
| 4 | You are quick to assume that everyone is trying to swindle you. |
| 5 | You believe that almost everyone else, even those of higher social rank, is beneath you and you treat others with respect only out of necessity. |
| 6 | The only thing that you value is profit. You would sell your mother to ogres for soup if they offered you the right price. |
