A character's Merchant Rating (McR) is based upon his race vs the port he is in (for instance an elf in a beholder port - and note this can be based upon both acceptance and fear, a beholder in a kobold port for instance), his intelligence and his charisma (table is actually the reaction modifier for charisma, but intelligence is looked up on this also), level, time trading, class and reputation.

Look these values in the appropriate pages of the xl sheet provided with this document. Then, moving to the effects page, key in the appropriate values, and receive your final Merchant Rating for the current trade. Modify profits accordingly.

DM's and players wishing to have more interesting/variable cargo may decide to roll to see what is available or needed. Going to the random stuff page, you will see firstly a table providing a d100 roll to find the value of the goods (common unique etc). Then, roll a d20 and refer to the next table over for what the goods actually are. Apart from the value of the goods, this basically does not matter, unless the campaign is a little more specific - for instance, normally any cargo can be sold anywhere, but DM's may decide dwarves don't quite need fishing equipment, and that elves hardly need dwarven plate ;) In these cases, PC's must find challenging ways to sell their stock (either by going to various ports, or by conning NPC's into thinking the goods more valuable than they are).

This system is based upon Doubting Eric's "Merchant kit and abstract trading" post sent to the Spelljammer Mailing list some months ago. It builds upon the idea of different valued cargo, and thus varying profits. This will be re-printed here for ease's sake.

Value: The value catagory of the cargo. This will obviously vary from sphere to sphere (Steel is common in most spheres, but uncommon or even rare in Krynnspace, for example), and therefore is the realm of the DM to determine.

Unit Price: The price the merchant character pays for one 'unit' of cargo, where 1 unit=1/10 spacial ton (270 cubic feet).

Profit: It is assumed that the merchant character is selling high, and using the majority of the income to purchase similar goods with a lower local value. This number is the final profit per unit after stock has been replenished.

Liquidation: This is the amount of hard cash received when the merchant sells an entire unit of stock without replenishing. The chance of loss comes from the flooding of the market and the necessity of rapid sales. If the PC wants to take his time and sell at a guaranteed profit, that is best handled through role-playing and not an abstracted system.

Proficiency Check: The modifier applied to the merchant's proficiency check (usually Apparaising, unless a more apt substitute appears in your game.) The PC rolls his proficiency check before any sales are made, and the DM consults the following chart:

1- Welcoming market: Double profits. This represents the aforementioned lumber shortage or glassware fad.

Success, non-1 - The merchant has found a buyer, normal profits per the chart.

Failure, non-20 - The merchant has failed to find a buyer. The PC may try again with a different grade of cargo, or merely hold onto his current cargo.

20 - Hostile Market: Something Bad happens. The PC has accidentally imported contraband, or he runs afoul of a local guild, or anything the DM decides to inflict. This can be an excellent starting point for a planetbound adventure.

Note that when a PC is liquidating cargo, a proficiency check is not required, as profit or loss takes a back seat to simply getting rid of the cargo.

Custom Cargo is specific cargo, where the cargo and its shipping is an integral part of the campaign. As such, it has no abstracted rules or proficiency checks associated with it, as it is assumed such cargo is being shipped to a specific destination or person. This would also include passenger service. (Although an abstracted passenger chart might be interesting)

As can be seen, Doubting eric suggest an appraising proficiency check for success/failure. Checking, however, I've noticed that appraising is a rogue proficiency, and thus costs extra for anyone except a bard or thief. Instead, I'd suggest a standard Merchant proficiency, costing one slot, with a check based upon wisdom. Note that while intelligence and charisma have an effect on trading, this is more-so the profit made, whereas this check represents knowing what to say, when, and how, along with typical protocols of space trading etc. I would suggest making this proficiency a General one (I can't see any reason why one class shouldn't be able to trade as easy as another, but whether they are trusted well or not is another thing), costing one or two slots, depending how in-depth you wish to go. For campaigns where the PC's are likely to have to role-play a fair bit of the trading (for instance, trying to con the aforementioned elves into buying the dwarven plate), I'd suggest only making it worth one slot (ie, the trading relies heavily on interaction, not a check), whereas if it is automatically assumed a port will make the PC's money, two proficiency slots would be a more appropriate cost (it is, afterall, the only thing they have to do to make money, it should be worth a little more, and perhaps even given a penalty to its check).

Note the Mrchant Rating itself does NOT affect the PC's Merchant proficiency check. Some DM's may wish to do this, and that's fair enough, but for now, until that has been playtested, I'd advise against it (should anyone find it works well, however, email me, and ill add a note to the doc!).

Thx to Adam Miller (nghtdrud@swbell.net) for his help in assigning merchant ratings to those groups I was lacking in knowledge of, and pointing out a LOT of flaws in my structure! His help, along with Doubting Eric's original post, made this possible. This is going to prove an invaluable tool to our gaming group, and I hope others find it as useful.

Of course, total credit goes to Doubting Eric for his email to the post, and to Adam Miller for his contribution to this doc. If anyones gunna try and gimme money for it, equal to each of them thanx ;) (haha I wish!)

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