Merchants traveling with their goods across dangerous territory is a common feature of many fantasy adventures. Maybe the PCs are hired to protect the caravan, or maybe the caravan is carrying goods belonging to an enemy lord, or perhaps the PCs simply cross paths with the merchants on their way to other adventures.
To help you fill out the details of the merchant caravan, here’s a free merchant generator for 5e Dungeons & Dragons and for the Low Fantasy Gaming system to make the creation of customizable merchant trains easy and fun!
Customize Your Band of Merchants
Merchant caravans carry all kinds of goods both short and long distances, often through dangerous lands. Sometimes they are well-guarded by sturdy folk, and sometimes they are in more danger than they know. Here are some ways you can bring encounters with a merchant train to life:
- Backstory: The Maker’s Forge Foe Generator will create a backstory for your merchants that you can tweak as needed to fit into the PC’s current situation. What are these merchants doing in these waters? What news do they bring of lands they have recently visited? Did they come by their goods honestly or are they stolen? Are they a part of an important guild? What do they want? And more importantly, how does what the merchants want align or conflict with what the PCs want?
- A name and vivid description: your merchants should each have their own names that can be discovered during parley, trade, negotiation, threats, or capture. Every merchant should be unique when you describe him or her to the player. Vivid description is the lifeblood of the roleplaying game. What sets this merchant apart from his fellows? Separate from the goals of the caravan, what does this merchant want? And what is he prepared to do to get it?
- Weapons and hit points: most merchants are worthless in combat, but a few might surprise you, having come from other professions or weathered more than a few dangerous lands. What tricks might they have hidden in their sleeves?
- Caravan Master: who is in charge of the caravan? Is he a guildsman of some kind or is she a minor noble on an important errand? What does this master want? How does she treat those under her command?
- Guards and guild thugs: most merchant parties travel with muscle to keep them and their goods safe on the road. Is this caravan protected by professional, well-paid and fair-minded guardsmen? Or they a pack of guild thugs looking to add to the profit of their venture?
- Loot: should the PCs end up in possession of the caravan goods and the treasure possessed by the merchants, what all does that entail?
Foe Generator for 5e D&D and Low Fantasy Gaming
So what are you waiting for? Go use the Maker’s Forge Merchant Generator to get a jump-start on a merchant caravan. It does all the grunt work for you: stats, names, short descriptions, valuables and items for trade, weapons, and HP for each merchant and guard. All that’s left for you to do is to bring the merchants into an encounter with the PCs and see what happens!