Actual trade items someone can buy

#1

Posted over from reddit:

D&D as a game keeps the minutiae of everyday life out your way for simplicity’s sake, but I am interested in knowing what SPECIFIC trade items you can think of that an inhabitant of a city-state, or a slave tribe, or clan of herder/hunter/gatherers would trade for?

I already have ideas (some from Dune Trader tables):

  • earthenware for eating, for water, for cooking, and something to burn: dried dung, wood, wood coal
  • bamboo cutlery
  • clothing, cloth
  • hammock
  • rope, from the thinest (silk) to the largest radius (giant hair rope)
  • large bone rings (to attach leather or rope to)
  • clothes, and crap rags to scrap off crap with (yup, romantic past and all)
  • shit sticks (yep, all real world items)
  • basic soap
  • weapons, including the basic kitchen/house bone knife everyone has
  • seeds, under rare occasions
  • food
  • furniture, both wood and bone, with leather and rope, and cotton (or other) stuffing
  • rugs
  • baby and young children’s simple toys
  • jewelry, from the non-metallic, non-precious ordinary to more fancy stuff
  • candy
  • chalk
  • incense
  • mirrors
  • cosmetics
  • lamps and lamp oil; candles
  • perfume
  • tools
  • work animals, saddles and farming equipment, and animal feed
  • household animals for pest control
  • glassware
  • bags
  • adult gaming equipment of all sorts, like dice or a board with pieces
  • ritualistic items such as statues, incense burners, special clothes
  • medicine in the form of herbal teas, powders, poultices
  • replacement tooth made from wood or ivory

Note: consider that city-state houses and appartments do not have kitchens, and most of the city eats at eateries; nobles have fountains, trees, atriums, and kitchens (and slave cooks, of course)

3 Likes
#2

What other everyday things do you describe being sold in baazars and emporiums as your PCs walk by?

#3

Super fun topic. Some of these probably overlap with what you had in mind, or are already covered in lists somewhere. Nevertheless:

  • Hair ties, pins, clips, ornaments
  • tattoo inks, body paints (stuff like henna)
  • pouches, purses, backpacks
  • themoses, water skins, buckets, barrels, water filters (apparently water filters were invented by Hippocrates)
  • footwear (boots, shoes, sandles, vibrams)
  • headwear (hats, turbans, etc)
  • basic gardening implements (spades, pruners, hand rakes)
  • farming implements (theshers, sickles, hoes)
  • construction supplies (hammers, nails, levels, chisels, trowels)
  • sewing equipment
  • spices (Thrak puts Nibenese lemongrass on everything he makes)
  • smoking supplies/firestarting kits (pipes, tobacco… I was just reading the Athasian Emporium and it statted out a bunch of narcotics too)
  • compasses, star charts
  • first aid supplies (bandages, gauze, tweezers)
  • tents
  • I like that you mentioned toys. It’s not talked about much, but Athasian societies would have to devote a lot of resources to child-rearing, and I assume their society tends toward large families (the only comfort in a brutal world, and historically common). So cradles, swaddles, baby slings, playpens, walkers (apparently these were common in medieval societies)… I guess they used worm-eaten wood dust as baby powder.
1 Like
#4

Fascinating article on infants!

1 Like
#5

A towel…

One should never be without one’s towel.

1 Like