Chapter 04 · MerchantFM 93-07
Merchant
You worked wholesale routes out of a box truck, buying low in one county and selling high in the next. Everything you own has a price tag, and so does everything everyone else owns.
| Spec | Issued |
|---|---|
| Creation cost | −4 |
| Effective start | Commerce 5 · Nimble 1 · Silver Tongue |
| Granted trait | Silver Tongue (purchasable 6) — much lower personal vendor tax; survivors noticeably easier to hire; Commerce XP. |
| Companion cap | clamp(floor(Commerce / 2), 1, 5) — at Commerce 5 you hold 2 companions. At 10 you hold 5. Everyone has at least 1. |
| XP source | Trading itself (Commerce XP on deals), plus a small Commerce crafting tab of shop furniture. Books multiply; they do not start you. |
Who this is for
The road, not the counter. You are not a better carpenter. You pay less tax, you talk people into contracts, and you can walk with more living bodies than anyone else. Nimble 1 is the box-truck leftover: leaving a deal that went wrong. If you wanted to stand behind one counter all month, the Shopkeeper is cheaper and still a trader.
// FROM THE FILES — WHOLESALE
Groceries used to move between counties that did not talk, in a box truck with a route and a price book. The truck is gone. The prices are not. Buy low in one claim. Sell high in the next. Standing is inventory.
How to play it
- Do not found on day one, but do get a stall fast. Vendor kits require a claim and vendor rights. Join a settlement or travel with someone who will plant. Silver Tongue is wasted if you never stand next to a ledger. Read The Market for stock / till / tax.
- Appraise before you loot-greed. Inventory → Appraise. It names the best live offer or tells you nobody is buying. That is your route planner. Drive toward demand, not toward a mall-shaped habit.
- Hire early, hire legally. Wanderers in range, Talk, Hire. Wage, hours, task for labourers. The persuasion roll is kept at Net Control; Silver Tongue moves it. Pay from inventory. Unpaid wages get you “You still owe me.” Companion cap at 5 Commerce is two bodies — a protector and a labourer is the default pair. See Other Survivors.
- Standing is inventory. Kills, trades, and contracts move faction numbers; numbers move prices and whether Talk is even on the menu. Shooting a trader closes the shop. You of all people cannot afford a cheap murder.
- Craft is furniture, not a money printer. Price tags (ungated), shop sign, ledger and coin pouch at 2, scales and lockbox at 4 (you spawn at 5), strongbox at 7. Nothing in that tab turns junk into a higher vendor price on purpose. The earning loop is the deal.
- Climb Commerce to grow the party. 6 → 3 companions, 8 → 4, 10 → 5. Deals are how you climb. Sit the stall. Run supply contracts (Chapter 07). Be the person who buys scrap and sells ammo so specialists can stay at their benches.
First week
Live. Nimble helps you not die with a satchel. Find a claim. Place or borrow a stall. List something boring and true — nails, food, water — so people learn your name. Hire one wanderer as companion (Protect, not Follow). Do not hire five dreams at Commerce 5; the cap will refuse you and the wage will empty the bag.
Pair with a Shopkeeper as the stay-at-home twin, specialists as inventory, and never Easy Mark. Abrasive is the opposite of your trait; do not roleplay it onto the sheet.