Instead of an artisans’ guild, you might belong to a guild of traders, caravan masters, or shopkeepers. You don’t craft items yourself but earn a living by buying and selling the works of others (or the raw materials artisans need to practice their craft). Your guild might be a large merchant consortium (or family) with interests across the region. Perhaps you transported goods from one place to another, by ship, wagon, or caravan, or bought them from traveling traders and sold them in your own little shop. In some ways, the traveling merchant’s life lends itself to adventure far more than the life of an artisan.
Rather than proficiency with artisan’s tools, you might be proficient with navigator’s tools or an additional language. And instead of artisan’s tools, you can start with a mule and a cart.
- Skill Proficiencies: Insight, Persuasion
- Tool Proficiencies: Vehicle (choose land, water, or air)
- Languages: One of your choice
- Equipment: A mule and Cart, an abacus, a letter of introduction from your guild, a set of traveler’s clothes, and a pouch containing 15 gp
Your guild can be an ocean shipping or covered wagon Caravan. You may oversee legal fees, loans, banking, or real estate. You may simply be a humble kiosk owner in a grand market, you may run the market yourself, you may work with mines, sawmills, or farms to provide raw raw materials to artisans or other shop owners, or you may be a well known community shopkeeper. Work with your DM to determine the nature of your guild. You can select your guild business from the Guild Business table or roll randomly.
| d6 | Guild Business |
|---|---|
| 1 | Boat, camel, owlbear, and carriage caravans |
| 2 | Bankers, loan agents, real estate brokers, and contract negotiators |
| 3 | Treasurers of plantations, sawmills, mines, hunting lodges, or cattle ranches |
| 4 | Commodity stock broker |
| 5 | Shop owner |
| 6 | Appraisers and money changers |
As an established and respected member of a mercantile guild, you can rely on certain benefits that membership provides. Your fellow guild members will provide you with lodging and food if necessary, and pay for your funeral if needed. In some cities and towns, a guildhall offers a central place to meet other members of your profession, which can be a good place to meet potential patrons, allies, or hirelings.
Guilds often wield tremendous political power. If you are accused of a crime, your guild will support you if a good case can be made for your innocence or the crime is justifiable. You can also gain access to powerful political figures through the guild, if you are a member in good standing. Such connections might require the donation of money or magic items to the guild’s coffers.
As a member of the Mercantile Guild specifically, you're aware of the local economy. You know the best places to buy and sell, based on the supply and demand. If you don't sell an item yourself, you usually know who does.
You must pay dues of 5 gp per month to the guild. If you miss payments, you must make up back dues to remain in the guild’s good graces.
Suggested Characteristics
Guild traders understand the value of hard work and the importance of community, but they’re vulnerable to sins of greed and covetousness. They are often drawn to the adventurer's lifestyle by a means to further secure their financial holdings, a decision to put their old life behind them after financial ruin, or simple old fashioned curiosity.
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | I believe that anything worth doing is worth doing right. I can’t help it — I’m a perfectionist. |
| 2 | I look down on those who won't work hard to improve their station. |
| 3 | I never forget names, faces or personal anecdotes. |
| 4 | I’m full of witty aphorisms and have a proverb for every occasion. |
| 5 | I’m rude to people who lack my commitment to hard work and fair play. |
| 6 | I like to talk at length about my profession. |
| 7 | I don’t part with my money easily and will haggle tirelessly to get the best deal possible. |
| 8 | I loose sleep and sanity, when I hear of superior goods, services, and/or prices from a competitor's business. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Community. It is the duty of all civilized people to strengthen the bonds of community and the security of civilization. (Lawful) |
| 2 | Generosity. My talents were given to me so that I could use them to benefit the world. (Good) |
| 3 | Freedom. Everyone should be free to pursue his or her own livelihood. (Chaotic) |
| 4 | Greed. I’m only in it for the money. (Evil) |
| 5 | People. I’m committed to the people I care about, not to ideals. (Neutral) |
| 6 | Family. Someone else's hard work lead to the business I inherited. Now I work hard to honor that privilegeand one day pass the torch. (Any) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | The master who taught me my trade is the most important person in the world to me. |
| 2 | My supplier created a great work for a client. I then found their intentions for the object deeply troubling. I still owe the artist for his work. |
| 3 | I owe my guild a great debt for forging me into the person I am today. |
| 4 | I pursue wealth to secure someone’s love. |
| 5 | I took a loan from shady characters to start a business that failed horribly. I never repaid them and still await their response. |
| 6 | I will get revenge on the evil forces that destroyed my place of business and ruined my livelihood. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | I’ll do anything to get my hands on something rare or priceless. |
| 2 | I’m quick to assume that someone is trying to cheat me. |
| 3 | No one must ever learn that I once stole money from guild coffers. |
| 4 | I’m never satisfied with what I have — I always want more. |
| 5 | I would kill to acquire a noble title. |
| 6 | I have a hard time choosing between my ethics and the financial bottom-line. |
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