Your players have defeated the monster, collected the reward and asked the question you prepared least for: “What’s for sale?” Merchants, Markets, and Dubious Deals helps you answer with something worth buying. Part of the Tabletop Toolkit series, this practical, system-neutral book gives Game Masters memorable sellers, distinctive merchandise and deals that can end in a satisfying purchase. Complications are available. They are not compulsory. Inside you’ll find: • 80 random tables covering markets, merchants, merchandise, objects with a history, strange stock, negotiations and life after the purchase. • 202 substantial item entries, from clever mundane equipment and affordable second-hand finds to tempting luxuries and minor enchantments with clear limitations. • Knowledgeable craftspeople, reliable traders and sellers whose idea of a bargain deserves closer inspection. • Barter, credit, auctions, commissions, guarantees, delivery and repairs, with prices you can adapt to your campaign. • Six ready-to-use specialist stalls, worked examples, practical advice and record sheets for remembering who bought what. Build a shopping scene in four steps: choose a merchant, offer something useful, something tempting and something unusual, establish the price, then add a complication if you want one. Fantasy provides the starting point, with guidance for adapting the material to other settings. Plain-language descriptions explain what an item does and why the party might want it, without tying it to a particular rules system. For the Game Master whose players inspect every stall, negotiate over every coin and somehow leave with the one object nobody budgeted for. Because sometimes the mysterious merchant really does just sell excellent socks.
