My pcs are on a journey to Ogo. As they struggle through the great sand wastes. I got to thinking outside of Hamanus deal with Chief Urga (warriors for obsidian) I know very little about how they would trade with merchants.
Does anyone know of any other reference materials. I read the excerpt in the dune trader, but its missing the mechanics. Ie how much for how much. Would a sack of dimonds be worth a bronze dagger? Etc.
I would still use the value of items in ceramic pieces as a guide to the value of an item to halflings. You may vary it as much as plus or minus 50%. Maybe more depending on the item.
But they probably aren’t trading ceramic pieces for items. Gems precious stones seem more likely. Small, easily-transportable objects that have real value.
For the most part, common items that are useful and valuable to other humanoids should have value to them.
I would also say they aren’t completely oblivious to trade outside their region. Unless you want to play them that way. There are examples of them integrating into other societies. And one, if I recall, runs a diner in Tyr.
Check out City-State of Tyr for stuff like:
Additionally, Stel maintains a monopoly on the trade routes to Malaka and Ogo where it trades with halfling tribes.
I have their interactions be very binary (yes/no), because halflings are not at ease speaking and trading with potential food (and thinking the traders also see them as food).
I don’t use cp values for the trading, but try to think in terms of “usefulness” and “fancy” values for what the halflings will want to buy. Weapons, tools, clothes, fabric for the useful items, and jewelry, beads, ornaments, music instruments, or colorful items as fancy items for example.
So the deals can be very advantageous for players. Some items worth nearly nothing could be jackpot, and pricy items could be traded for less than their usual market price. Depending on the mood of the halflings, an item that was a big deal once might not gather any attention the next time.
I don’t know if it might be of interest to you, but halflings use giant iguanas, giant apes (gorilla-like) or big cats as pack mounts in my campaign.
Halfings are strictly barter and CPs or money has little value to them; what are they going to do? Go thousands of miles over the mountains to Uruk and go on a shopping-spree? So, what do Halflings value? Well, your furs you got from a Tyrian-noble are worth virtually-nothing, but, you bring the carcass of an Athasian-Sloth that’s been hunting the Halfling’s companions, that’s worth more than Gold.
Ive been wondering when to add a sloth encounter! What things would the halflings barter with? I was thinking seeds, charms, furs, trained beasts? Just spitballing.
Mostly hardwoods, mushrooms (toxic, psychotropic, edible, tinder fungus), resins, nectar, feathers, furs, berries (toxic, psychotropic, edible), fruits, all kinds of nuts, dried meats, acid produced by some plants (carnivorous), and as said by The_DMs_Revenge I would also add live animals, dyes and poisons.
They could also have access to crystals and gems.
Oddly enough information in Dune Trade implies that the halflings of Ogo have a large appetite for slaves. No explanation of what they do with those slave or why they want so many of them is provided but there but House Stel regularly trades them slaves for a number of things and House Ianto lost 200 slaves while on their way to trade with Ogo.
I saw that, my pcs refuse to be slave traders and regularly spend money to free as many as they can then release them. That doesn’t mean the house that they are working with doesn’t have an argosy belly filled with them that the pcs are not allowed to see!
My pcs are trying to start their own Trading House and are looking for sustainable items to help them corner a market.
Thought in the moment. Does Athas have a equivalent to Silkworms?
Yes, the silk trade is mentioned a number of times in Dune Trader and I believe it’s also mentioned in City State of Tyr. It seems like there are silkworm farms around at least a couple of the City-States, Tyr being one of them iirc.
