Trader new player guide
This is a page for the Trader specific page for the Newbie Help Guide. Whenever possible, overlap with the general guide should be minimized.
For details, rules, and the other pages involved, see Category:Newbie Guide Contest.
How to Trader
Traders, you either love them or loathe them, but you are here and taking the first steps to become one or getting the 411 on how they tick. Back in the day, there was only one way to Trader and that was usually with a caravan or pack animal on the long, solitary roads all around Elanthia. It was an endless circle of running from one outpost to another. Joy, joy!
Modern traders now enjoy many ways to be. You have the classic Caravan Traders, and then the Gem Shop Traders, Market Traders, Combat Traders, Student Traders, etc. So many choices that traders can dabble into; either specialize in one or a master of all.
Getting Started
Joining
- Starting Stats: Deciding where to spend your TDPs can help you determine what type of Trader you'd like to be. Of upmost importance is Charisma, since it increases the profit you make whenever you sell items to NPC shops. More profit equals more experience in Trading, your primary skill. Strength can also be useful for Traders that will spend a lot of time forging or carving, while Agility helps with carving, outfitting, and mechanical lore (although this will soon be retired). Reflex also helps with Tailoring. Discipline, Stamina, and Intelligence can help with speculates indirectly by increasing concentration. There are other uses for all abilities, and if you plan on focusing more on combat you'll want to consider that when you decide where to train.
- Find the Guilds: You can use the DIR syntax to help find your way to guild in either starting town (Crossing or Riverhaven). This will lead you directly to the Guild Leader in each Guild Hall. You may find maps of the Crossing Guild Hall and the Riverhaven Guild Hall useful in navigating these locations.
Tools of the Trade
- Ledger
- Feedbag
- Beasts of Burden
- Pack Animals
- Caravans
The Many Arts of Trading
- Early Trading Ranks - When you first start out as a Trader, you can get really good experience by foraging sticks/branches and selling them to Mags in Crossings or Old Maisie in Riverhaven (a good place to do this is outside the Northeast gate). Be sure to pause your selling when you've maximized your learning, so you don't waste any of it. After making about 5 Gold or so, they will be done with you and from there you'll have a few different ways to train.
- Work Orders - Completing Work Orders through one of the Crafting Societies will earn you some Trading skill. You can use the gold you've earned from selling branches to purchase a set of starter tools, or possibly find a friendly adventurer to craft a set for you. Since you can ask for a work order repeatedly until you get a certain item, it is also possible to craft several of a certain item prior to getting the work order. This can allow you to turn in several work orders in a short time. At circle 8 you can learn Speculate Finesse which will give you a Charisma bonus, increasing the amount of money you earn. This is the primary method of learning for a lot of Traders, as crafting will also give you access to items you can later sell in your shop.
- Tasks - Completing skinning and foraging Tasks will yield some Trading experience. The tasks are repeatable roughly every minute, making them a preferred method of training Trading through the first twenty circles or so.
- Selling
- Skins & Lumpy/Tight Bundles - You can sell single skinned parts from creatures you hunt at the local Furrier. There is one in both of the starting cities, Crossings and Riverhaven. You can use DIR FURRIER to find them. Traders aren't the best of warriors, so early on you may find it difficult to produce bundles fast enough yourself. Selling other adventurer's bundles is a bonus for both of you, but foot traffic doesn't always allow for simply loitering.
- Gems, Nuggets - You can sell single gems or nuggets to the Gem Shop regardless of circle or skill level. There are shops in both of the starting cities, Crossings and Riverhaven. You can use DIR GEM to find them.
- Gem Pouches - When you have gained enough skill in Trading and Appraisal, and have trained your Charisma to a significant degree, you will be able to sell pouches full of gems to the Gem Shop.
- Pawning - Another good way to get some starting ranks in the Trading skill to to pawn items at your local Pawnshop, this is done by use of the SELL command. Runestones should teach well at the start and are plentiful, often found in donation areas or just laying around. If you plan on training Thievery, you can also sell some of your stolen goods.
- Commodities
- Contracts: Local and Interprovincial Trading used to be the only way to learn Trading early on. Now, however, it's fallen out of use by many Traders. There are some fun mechanics with Caravans, but the profit per time spent traveling will not be as great as other options.
- Horse Trading
- Market Tables
- Auctioneering
- Gem/Furrier Shop Financing
- Shop Ownership
With Experience, Comes Prestige
- Hirelings
- Personally Own Caravans (POC)
- Speculates
Lore Skills
Traders are Lore primary, meaning Lore skills are your bread and butter. You will learn them faster than all other skills, making them important for your advancement for both circling and gaining TDP's.
All lore can fall under the Lore Skillsets for Traders but the following ones will usually apply for them in this requirement.
All Crafting Skills
- Alchemy
- Enchanting
- Forging
- Outfitting
- Engineering
Enchanting is not yet released, nor do Traders currently have magical abilities. The other four are released to some capacity. Outfitting is a popular choice for Traders as it can be worked on while on the go. The Carving Discipline in Engineering can be performed with either stone or bone. Stone is very heavy and has to be trained within the confines of the Engineering Society Building. For that reason, some people choose to carve with bone instead. Blacksmithing is a popular choice in the Forging skill as it lets Traders make tools they can then sell. With enough Outdoorsmanship, Perception, and Appraisal (all of which Traders typically train!) it is possible to mine your own raw materials. Rare materials can be sold to other players for a profit. While entirely optional, it is recommended that a Trader pick up at least one crafting skill for their Lore requirements.
- NOTE: Stonecarving objects are VERY heavy. Bundling the items with your logbook does NOT remove their weight from your encumbrance. Be VERY careful (or use deeds!) when attempting to complete a work order if you don't have a lot of Strength and Stamina. It is possible to create something you cannot lift!
- ADDITIONAL NOTE: Careers and Hobbies are useful for gaining techniques that will make crafting easier. However, it is STRONGLY ADVISED to wait awhile before committing to a career and/or hobby as the choice is irreversible!
Mechanical Lore
With the introduction of Crafting skills, Mechanical Lore will become an obsolete skill in the future, and will eventually lose all ways of training it. It is not recommended to train Mechanical Lore for circling purposes because of this. However, since Traders are Lore Primary, training Mechanical Lore will still yield TDPs. If you're sitting around listening to a class and have nothing else to do, you can always BRAID some grass or vines that are readily foraged up to train Mechanical Lore.
Appraisal
As a Trader you must train this skill. The guild has a requirement that you gain a few ranks every circle in order to advance to the next circle. However, Traders have an edge in this field. Beyond the standard training methods of appraising untied bundles and gem pouches, we also have access to Trader Jewelry which has expanded appraisal values over normal items in order to teach us better. You can get a few pieces within the Trader Guild, Crossing Shop but be prepared to pay a hefty sum for it. Regardless of the amount paid, they are a worthwhile investment and will provide you with something to appraise at all times.
Tactics
Tactics is the offensive counterpart of the Defending skill. Offensive in nature, it allows you to identify weaknesses in your opponent's defenses and exploit them. Since it is a Lore skill and you are required to train a single weapon, it is advisable to train it to some degree. If you're going to focus on fighting to a greater degree, it becomes even more important.
Trading
Next to Appraisal, this is a hard requirement for advancement, as well as the defining skill for a Trader. Trading, is what makes us Traders. Your first ranks should be learned by foraging branches for Mags or Old Maisey. Past that, selling items to the pawn shop, bundles of skins to the furrier, local provincial contract trading, Tasks from various NPCs, and completing crafting work orders will be staples until further means of learning become available.
Scholarship
Scholarship is all but required for Traders. It is gained through listening to and teaching classes (both of which can be done while doing just about everything else, including combat!), STUDYing crafting books, studying primers for Origami, reading books in libraries, and many other ways that can be found on the Scholarship page.
Performance
A popular skill choice for Traders due to the ability to train this skill nearly anywhere. Also, you can both APPRAISE and ANALYZE your instrument to train the appraisal skill.
Survival Skills
Evasion
Simply put, evasion is the skill which determines how well you avoid attacks. Aside from classes in the subject, the only way to learn is to get out there and use it within combat settings.
Athletics
The main use of the Athletics skill is to overcome natural obstacles, such as climbing a tree or swimming a river. A good place to start training this skill is the town walls in whichever town you started in.
- For more information see Athletics.
Perception
Perception is rather simple and not all that dangerous to learn. Collecting rocks is the most common outdoors method to learn perception, while collecting torn cloth inside is helpful. Collecting is done with the Collect verb, and to reduce clutter kick the piles after collecting. It will also teach the skill Outdoorsmanship. Initially you may need to gain a few ranks by doing simple foraging, use the FORAGE verb. Perception is one of the main skills used in order to prevent yourself from having your coins stolen. For Traders who enjoy running Trading Routes, this can be pretty important.
While in combat you can train perception by using the Hunt verb.
Additionally you can gain perception through normal box popping, during the disarm ID, and pick ID steps, and also the disarm analyze steps.
Stealth
Stealth will help you avoid being detected as you travel from location to location carrying coins and goods. Likewise, this is a rather easy skill to train while also gaining other skills in combat.
- For more information see Stealth
Locksmithing
This ability lets us get into places others do not want us. The primary use for this skill is opening boxes dropped as loot from critters. By getting into these boxes, you will be rewarded with gems (which you can sell at a gem shop to learn Trading skill) coins, runestones (which can be sold at pawnshops to learn Trading skill) and/or special items. It will be rather easy to train if you choose to hunt things which drop boxes when you're looking for combat training.
- For more information see Locksmithing
Thievery
While generally the bane of most Traders, this skill is actually practiced by some who find it easy enough to work because most of their time is spent in the city anyways. It's important to note that Traders caught stealing will suffer a penalty to contract values in the associated province for a period of time. However, there are many Traders who focus more on their private shop or crafting and do not care about the penalty because they don't use Trading Routes.
- For more information see Thievery
First Aid
Useful for tending wounds and keeping yourself alive when injured. Learned by TENDING wounds and STUDYING Anatomy charts.
Outdoorsmanship
There isn't much use for this skill as a Trader, but it is becoming an important gathering skill within the Crafting system and can be easily trained while training perception.
- For more information see Outdoorsmanship
Skinning
One of the most popular choices of survival skills, it can also be a quick way to working your Trading skill by selling your own bundles. This skill also has the benefit of being one of the easiest to train. However, in order to make use of it you must combat creatures which can be skinned.
- For more information see Skinning.
Combat Skills
Being that the guild itself is developed as having Armor and Survival in the secondary skillet placement, with Weapons being in the tertiary, you can expect to see your fair share of combat as you progress. You will always have an armor requirement you must meet, and many survival skills can be trained while actively vanquishing foes. The equipment you use is purely your choice, however, there are some suggestions that can be made and they have been provided below.
Weapons
Many Traders like to focus on Charisma first in order to hit that magic point in time where you can start selling gem pouches. Because of this, it often leads your more combat oriented stats to fall behind. That is why the writers of this guide suggest that you begin your foray into combat using the lightest and least tiring weapons. You only need a single weapon skill to circle, so pick one you like and you can decide if you want to train a wider variety later. All three of the light class weapon styles (Small Edge, Small Blunt, Light Thrown) are a good choice and often you can find all three trainable with a single weapon.
Armor
Choice of armor is a little more important due to the guild having this in the secondary placement for skillsets. You can expect to require ranks in two different armor skills to advance within the guild and what you choose could make this easier over all. It is our suggest that you make your primary armor skill the Shield skill. This will allow you to easily gain circles without having to spend as long in combat. For your secondary armor skill, you can choose one of the types of armor (Light Armor, Chain Armor, Brigandine, Plate) or the Defending skill. Likewise, you can wear a mixed set-up in order to learn more than one.
Role Playing a Trader
There are a number of books published in game which focus on the Trader lifestyle and are highly recommended for any Trader to read. You can view most of them in the Crossings guildhall, or click the links below to read them here:
| ItvTNG | Trader Novice Guide |
| RmoTCG | Trader's Courtesy Guide |
| RahWET | Words Every Trader Should Know |
In addition to those, there is also a book which gives some brief history of the guild as a whole. It is available in game at the Riverhaven guild library, or you can view it here:
| HwmTGH | A Trader Guild History |