The Merchant Wars of Forsbury – aka All About Caravans & Cartage by John Josten is a role playing game supplement published by Board Enterprises. This is a generic supplement and is part of the Small Bites series. This version is the “World Walker” edition; the full version is about three times as long and is only available to Patreon supporters.
This is an eighteen page PDF which is available for free from RPGNow. One page is the front cover and one page is an ad for the author’s blog.
There is a brief Introduction to both the series in general and this supplement in particular, followed by the Table of Contents.
Next is a Glossary of various caravan-related terms used and what they mean in this supplement.
The Fletnern Wiki has various posts duplicated from that. These are various groups, regions, individuals and a city connected to caravans, Forsbury and the surrounding area.
The Sounding Board is a collection of generally related blog posts.
Building up your History is about how the author decided to delve into the histories of the various Forsbury cartels, even though that information may never be released. The reason being that cartels rise and fall, and fallen ones could mean annoyed people with a desire for revenge, and knowing their history creates adventure hooks.
Risk Takers is essentially an article on business, with how the established merchants like the status quo and new ones take risks.
Grain Into Gold versus Coins of the Road (or why fantasy trade goods are really tough to figure out) mentions the supplement Grain Into Gold and why the companion supplement Coins of the Road is still not finished. This delves into some of the consequences and determining factors of trade in a fantasy setting.
Urban Adventures covers adventures in an urban environment, and how they can easily result in the party being split up.
What’s Money is why what is valuable to one group may not be as valuable to others.
Importance of Calendar covers why it is important to know what is happening and when, so that stuff doesn’t happen at the same time or (commenting on Game of Thrones by the looks of it) armies don’t travel faster than birds or ships.
Lifestyles of the Magical and Mundane: The Caravaneer is the life of those who work the caravans, and that of the wives they leave at home.
News of Fletnern covers a comparatively recent war and how it affected Forsbury.
The Good Life: Slang & Superstitions is essentially a second glossary for more terms used in the supplement.
What’s Missing lists the articles that are in the full version.
Finally, In Conclusion wraps up the supplement together with various links.
The PDF is bookmarked but only the major sections are linked. The Table of Contents is to a similar level of detail. Navigation is not as good as it could be. The text maintains a two column format and a few minor errors were spotted. There are a number of black and white stock illustrations, generally related to the caravan trade. Presentation is okay.
This is, as usual, a collection of generally related articles rather than a coherent whole. In this edition, the articles are more connected than is sometimes the case, covering quite a few things related to caravans and trade, sometimes in rather more detail than the typical GM would.
The Merchant Wars themselves do not appear to be really covered in the abbreviated edition; they may or may not be covered in more detail in the full one, as the In Conclusion section says that there is too much information for one supplement.
This is a useful supplement for anyone interested in the mechanics and theory of trade in RPGs, and there are ways in which such can be developed into adventure hooks.
The Merchant Wars of Forsbury – aka All About Caravans & Cartage can be downloaded for free by clicking here.
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