Travellers who are moving from town to town with the aim of selling or trading goods can benefit from a marchant’s pack.
What is a merchant?
An adventurer with a career other than being an adventurer can be fun to play. One such character is a merchant. A person who travels for business. Perhaps they have some supplies that are hard to find in a certain area and so they can make a nice bit of coin for a successful delivery. And maybe they stumble into danger and realise they love the thrill of adventuring.
HLG designed this pack as a cool starter pack for players who want to have a character who is a merchant.
Here’s a description of the inventory, cost and the reason for each item.
Merchant’s Pack
Suggested cost 18 gp
Tools of the trade. These are tools that allow a travelling merchant to keep track of quantities, store good and make sales.
Abacus 2 gp 2 lb.
Scale, merchant’s 5 gp 3 lb.
Lamp 5 sp 1 lb.
Oil (flask) 1 sp 1 lb.
Tinderbox 5 sp 1 lb
An assortment of containers and holders for your personal equipment as well as the goods you are selling or trading with
Chest 5 gp 25 lb.
Barrel 2 gp 70 lb.
Basket 4 sp 2 lb.
Pouch 5 sp 1 lb.
Sack 1 cp 1/2 lb.
General tools to make travelling easier
Dagger (it’s always a good idea to have a dagger. They are multi functional tools that can cut, pry and pick at things) 2gp
Whetstone 1cp
Hammer 1 gp 3 lb.
Rations (5 days) 25 sp 2 lb.
Waterskin 2 sp 5 lb. (full)
Bedroll 1 gp 7 lb.
Blanket 5 sp 3 lb. you absolutely want the extra comfort of a blanket even though the bedroll already has a blanket
Mess kit 2 sp 1 lb.
Tent, two-person 2 gp 20 lb.
Pot, iron 2 gp 10 lb.
Optional extras
The costs of these are not included in the initial pack
Magnifying glass 100 gp
Hourglass 25 gp1 lb.
Book (to write down your inventory or notes) 25gp
Ink pen 2cp
Ink bottle 10gp
Donkey or mule 8 gp 40 ft. 420 lb.
Saddle Pack 5 gp 15 lb. – saddle for pack mount or get the cart to carry more
Cart 15 gp 200 lb.
Worth noting
All of these items can be found in the player’s handbook at the costs we stipulated above.
The price we suggest for the kit is based on the overall cost of the items at a discount for buying it as a kit.
We would also add some actual trade goods. You can find things like salt, wheat or even gold and platinum in the player’s handbook for trade.
If your Dungeon Master (DM) allows you to then get these items before the game starts or if you don’t have the gold for it yet then you can pick up the items as you go. Just be sure to let your DM know that you want to do that so they are prepared.
As a DM you can also have a merchant selling these kits to possible investigators. They can either be selling them as part of a legitimate trade business or at an inflated rate if they know the demand for them is high.
