Free Role Playing Game Supplement Review: Coins of the Road aka All About Trade Goods Part II

Coins of the Road aka All About Trade Goods Part II by John Josten is a generic role playing game supplement published by Board Enterprises. This is part of the Small Bites series and is the “World Walker” version. The full version is only available to Patreon supporters and is about three times longer.

The supplement is available as a 19 page for free from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover.

The Introduction explains that this month’s issue is about fantasy brand name products and for details on cartage, see All About Caravans and Cartage and All About Trade Goods (Part I).

Pull Back the Curtain references Grain into Gold and 100 Bar Drinks but states this book stands on its own and is designed to develop trade between cities.

Unusually, this is then followed by the Table of Contents. The Fletnern Wiki entry is the Brand Name Goods section later..

The Sounding Board duplicates articles from the blog. Loot aka Is Trade Really that Important? looks at the Beaver Wars, also called the French and Iroquois Wars, and the effect that war over beaver hides had on politics. It also mentions bandits and sea bandits, aka pirates.

Cost of Goods looks at what goes into the cost, which is labour, materials and, for transporting goods, the not insignificant cost of packaging.

The Dry Goods Store looks at what might be in stock in a small village store.

News of Fletnern starts with The Story of Millgro which is used as a replacement for cinnamon, an expensive spice, and resulted in the cost of cinnamon dropping.

The Story of Ivory explains how mammoth tusks being sold in quantity resulted in elephant ivory decreasing in price too, and the sorts of uses for ivory and other sources of it in a fantasy setting.

The Good Life starts with Types of Goods, which are essentially commodity based and specific.

Spices explains that this is a valuable and lightweight good to transport.

Building Materials explains that such things are rarely moved any great distance, due to weight, especially stone-based items.

Clothing and Textiles lists the major textiles for Fletnern.

Containers covers primarily barrels, which are reused and may even cost more than what’s inside them.

Foodstuffs looks at agriculture.

Magic looks at how magic items become a trade good in a high-fantasy setting, especially as rulers are willing to spend a lot on the military.

Raw Materials are almost always general items.

Tools & Weapons are often manufactured locally and, in some cases such as armour, will be unlikely to be available as a trade good.

Brand Name Goods lists a variety of different named items, manufactured by specific organisations or specific strains, divided into tobacco, alcohol, ceramics and leather, hide & furs.

The final pages are What’s Missing, which describes everything in the full version, and In Conclusion wraps things up and gives various links.

Coins of the Road aka All About Trade Goods Part II in Review

The PDF is decently bookmarked with major and some min or sections linked. The Table of Contents is not quite to the same level of depth. There are also a number of external links. Navigation is decent. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of black and white stock images. Presentation is okay.

As always, this is a collection of different articles around the same subject, but the subject is more coherent in this issue, as everything is to do with trade and the effects that trade has. The subject may be a little broader than the Introduction might suggest, but the articles are all around the same general subject, with some related diversions. Coins of the Road aka All About Trade Goods Part II is an interesting collection of articles, with some specific examples of goods, and it can be found by clicking here.