Frontier Trading Post by Joseph Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with Cepheus Engine. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.
The supplement is available as a 41 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter and three the Open Game License.
The opening paragraphs explain that these trading posts can be found on the fringes. They are dangerous, often criminal and a source of goods unavailable elsewhere.
Game Master Notes has tips for placing the trading post, which should be somewhere on the frontier. It also works as a source of adventures.
Key to the Frontier Trading Post covers the locations in the settlement, together with stats for some of the NPCs, some of whom are covered in more detail.
Random Bar/Restaurant Patrons has a 4d6 table of stats for people to encounter, some of whom have more details.
Random Cannibals is another 4d6 table of NPCs, this time of planetary inhabitants who sometimes raid the trading post, some of whom have more details.
Random Visitors to the Trading Post is another 4d6 table, this time regular visitors to the post. Again, some have details other than the stats.
Random Residents and Guards is another 4d6 table of NPCs, following the same design.
Random Merchants at the Market is another table, but this time 2d6.
Random Commodities for Sale is a 4d6 table of things that can be bought.
Rumours is a 4d6 table of rumours to hear, which are marked as to whether or not they are true.
Potential Patrons at or Around the Trading Post are those NPCs, often duplicated from earlier, who may have jobs, which are expanded on.
Collecting Bounties explains how characters could get the rewards for those NPCs who have bounties on their heads.
The final page of content is a map of the trading post.
Frontier Trading Post in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are no illustrations bar the map and covers. Presentation is adequate.
Like Starport, this isn’t an adventure but a collection of plot hooks connected to NPCs. Again, there’s a definite feeling that not every NPC needed different stats; instead, they could have had the same stats with just a bunch of names. Also like Starport, characters are unlikely to encounter many of the plot hooks unless they spend a lot of time at the trading post, which is unlikely unless they make it a base of operations. It may be better to strip out the NPCs and drop them into different places. Regarding the bounties for various NPCs, they seem a bit all over the place; often the amount seems to have little to do with what the NPCs’ crimes are. Frontier Trading Post is perhaps best treated as a resource to be scavenged from and it can be found by clicking here.
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