The Merchant War of 655 aka All About Trade Goods by John Josten is a role playing game supplement published by Board Enterprises. This is a generic supplement. 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 larger.
The supplement is available as a 44-page PDF for free from DriveThruRPG. One page is the front cover.
The Introduction explains that one way of making economics interesting to players is to involve the merchants in a war. All About Caravans & Cartage and All About Courtiers and Wealth are recommended for the details they contain on the organisations and other editions have details on Brinston and Forsbury.
The Fletnern Wiki has a number of articles duplicated from the setting. These are all dates, covering various festivals. There are some other wiki articles later on.
The Sounding Board duplicates several blog posts. A Merchant War in Forsbury covers the chief players in the brewing war.
A Bone to Pick with “City Building Tools” explains that Paris and London are the two main cities with enough historic information to use in city building, but most cities aren’t Paris or London. It has numbers showing how the tools will not necessarily give useful figures.
Hiring an Assassin considers the ramifications of hiring an assassin, such as when it doesn’t work or when the assassin doesn’t keep their mouth shut.
The Sociology of the Merchant War explains that the Merchant Houses of Brinston and the Forsbury cartels do not expect to lose or be seriously affected.
Lifestyles of the Magical and Mundane starts by looking at shopping. Shopping wasn’t self-service; customers asked for goods and they were got for them. Some are no frills and other shopping is done at markets. It looks into the process needed for a person to buy flour from a grocery store. This also looks at the difference between Forsbury, a depot town, and Brinston, a customer. This has a different effect if merchants or customers don’t want the goods. Wealth looks at the wealth of the nobles of Forsbury and Brinston, and how little of this is in cash. Depot Town looks at what makes one of these. Cartels defines them as used in the supplement, and compares them to a merchant house. Camp Followers explains that caravans don’t tend to have such; caravans, by their very nature, go where people are. Information Sellers looks at how information is found and sold and the effects of it.
Wet Behind the Ears explains that the Merchants’ War is not really for starting characters and gives some options as to how the characters could come together, including an example of several people who grew up in the same neighbourhood, did different things and ended up in the same place.
News of Fletnern looks at the Council of Baronies, with wiki articles on several of the baronies, together with a map of the region. The Cartels has details on the merchant houses and cartels involved in the war.
The Enlistment Report has details on a number of mercenary organisations involved.
The Good Life starts with What is a Trade Good?, defining it as any product worth moving more than two days from where it is produced. In some cases, the good would first be changed in some way, such as refining ores, or to make an abundant good worth shipping. Smuggling looks at Brinston and its tax collectors, which naturally lead to smuggling. Nobles pay less taxes, due to them providing military units, which leads to them sponsoring some boats. Barrel Making looks at how barrels are made and their uses. Culture: Brinston vs. Forsbury looks at the differences between the two cultures and Merchant Houses and Cartels looks at the differences between their mercantile organisations. Good Guys vs. Bad Guys explains that this conflict is just between two opposing forces. Slang & Superstition has some details on various terms.
$ilver Sense looks at containers, which is related to how goods are shipped and what they are shipped on.
Campaign Starter Kit has some notes on Merchant War 655 and Campaign Organizational Structure explains it is a sandbox campaign.
Church Bells looks at the patron god of Brinston and his involvement in the matter, and the goddess of death and change, who believes it is time for Brinston to come down.
Y? Y? Y! looks at transporting goods.
What’s Missing describes everything in the full version, and In Conclusion wraps things up and gives various links.
Cartels has a list of the cartels, their names, sizes, headquarters and typical goods.
Weather Timeline looks at weather over the period.
The Merchant War of 655 aka All About Trade Goods in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents is less thorough but is hyperlinked. Navigation is decent. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be mostly free of errors. There are a number of stock black and white illustrations. Presentation is okay.
As usual for the series, this is a collection of sometimes fairly loosely connected articles on a subject, in this case trade goods with some details on the trade war and the effects it may have. As is also typical, some elements go into far more detail than the average fantasy setting would, where realistic portrayal of economics is not considered important. This supplement does show how economics can have an effect, though. The Merchant War of 655 aka All About Trade Goods is an interesting collection of articles and it can be downloaded for free by clicking here.
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