With the Blood Mist gone, regular long-distance travel is possible, and hence trade routes can be established between settlements that are no longer isolated, allowing commerce to grow.
This creates an opportunity for adventurers to set up caravans with their acquired wealth, as opposed to building a Stronghold.
Has anyone tried establishing a Trade House in the Forbidden Lands?
Re: Trade Houses instead of Strongholds
Yes actually! But the rules are ramshackle and the PCs concentration on Stanengist have left it hanging. But, it's based around "traderouts" that have "type of product" (basic, luxury etc) and "lenght (basicly no. of hexes) and then have different "upgrades" such as "caravans" "safe rout" "waterway" "guards" etc. Each year a manipulation roll is made to see the profits or loss from each traderout. You get penatly dies if you have not visited the ends of the rout that year!
Re: Trade Houses instead of Strongholds
There are several reasons why I think it wouldn't quite work in the forbidden lands.
First is the general isolationist nature of most cultures. Even the hollows is on the brink of a civil conflict between a businessman who is tired of paying higher taxes to ship his stuff down river and a isolationist government that wants to shore up their own supply. This close to being after the blood mist most peoples contact with outsiders is the Rust Church. Which isn't great. With that happening how much is any settlement willing to give away when they have been producing mostly what they need to survive on their own for the last 3-500 years? There really isn't a huge excess to sell to a trade caravan. Most people hunt and gather for themselves. They don't have money. They have food and clothes and such. It's a classic medieval population problem. There just isn't a lot of money/stuff in circulation.
Then you have to consider that there are no established trade routes and no governments keeping them safe. Bandits will be plentiful and the more stuff you have the harder it will be to protect it.
Then you have to consider that there ARE in fact some governments. The west (especially the south west) is a theocracy run by the Rust Brothers and Zytera. They might just take your things like any other bandit. The east is run by Xertome (that is for sure not spelled right) and his Aslene clans. The Goblins won't want you anywhere near the Halfling villages. The orks will be happy to raid you. The elves have no need to trade as anything other than a curiosity, the Wolfkin are as likely to be openly hostile as they are to trade, and the Dwarves don't trust anyone but the elves. Establishing trade is going to be more of a long term politics game then anything else.
The Forbidden Lands is simply not a nice enough or civilized enough place yet to have something like that without MASSIVE risk.
First is the general isolationist nature of most cultures. Even the hollows is on the brink of a civil conflict between a businessman who is tired of paying higher taxes to ship his stuff down river and a isolationist government that wants to shore up their own supply. This close to being after the blood mist most peoples contact with outsiders is the Rust Church. Which isn't great. With that happening how much is any settlement willing to give away when they have been producing mostly what they need to survive on their own for the last 3-500 years? There really isn't a huge excess to sell to a trade caravan. Most people hunt and gather for themselves. They don't have money. They have food and clothes and such. It's a classic medieval population problem. There just isn't a lot of money/stuff in circulation.
Then you have to consider that there are no established trade routes and no governments keeping them safe. Bandits will be plentiful and the more stuff you have the harder it will be to protect it.
Then you have to consider that there ARE in fact some governments. The west (especially the south west) is a theocracy run by the Rust Brothers and Zytera. They might just take your things like any other bandit. The east is run by Xertome (that is for sure not spelled right) and his Aslene clans. The Goblins won't want you anywhere near the Halfling villages. The orks will be happy to raid you. The elves have no need to trade as anything other than a curiosity, the Wolfkin are as likely to be openly hostile as they are to trade, and the Dwarves don't trust anyone but the elves. Establishing trade is going to be more of a long term politics game then anything else.
The Forbidden Lands is simply not a nice enough or civilized enough place yet to have something like that without MASSIVE risk.
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