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Merchant Ships of Greyhawk
Posted on Fri, September 10, 2021 by LordCeb
Matteus writes "

Sea trade bustles across the Azure Sea, and you’ve encountered a merchant vessel. Perhaps the party are catching a ride on a merchant ship. Perhaps the party have joined a pirate crew and hope to plunder a merchant vessel. Where did it come from? What cargo does it contain? The twelve costal realms of the Azure Sea, Densac Gulf, and Vohun Ocean are listed below. The cargo lists for each realm are mainly drawn from their respective resources listed in the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer. This is especially useful if you're a pirate crew searching for plunder, which was my point in making it.



 Origin of Merchant Ship

d12

 Port of Origin (By Realm)

1

Ahlissa

2

Domain of Greyhawk

3

Furyondy

4

Irongate

5

Keoland

6

Nyrond

7

Onnwal

8

Pomarj

9

Scarlet Brotherhood

10

Sea Princes

11

Sunndi

12

Ulek, Principality

In addition to goods specific to each realm, find below a general list of common goods which might be traded across the sea. The DM can always pick the cargo based on the situation or needs of the story.

Common Goods

d6

 Cargo

1

Medicines

2

Weapons or armor

3

Equipment or components

4

Textiles or furs

5

Pulp, paper, or parchment

6

Illegal goods or substances

Goods by Domain

Ahlissa

d12

 Cargo

1

Foodstuffs

2

Livestock

3

Cloth

4

Silver

5

Copper

6

Common Goods (see table)

7

Gold

8

Iron Products

9

Timber

10

Herbs

11

Fine ale and beer

12

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 12s)

Domain of Greyhawk

d8

 Cargo

1

Silver

2

Electrum

3

Gold

4

Common Goods (see table)

5

Platinum

6

Gems (I-IV)

7

Timber

8

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 8s)

Furyondy

d8

 Cargo

1

Foodstuffs

2

Cloth

3

Gold

4

Common Goods (see table)

5

Wines

6

Fish

7

Shipbuilding Supplies

8

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 8s)

Irongate

d4

 Cargo

1

Gems (II, III)

2

Common Goods (see table)

3

Iron ore

4

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 4s)

Keoland

d8

 Cargo

1

Foodstuffs

2

Cloth

3

Gold

4

Common Goods (see table)

5

Gems (III)

6

Fish

7

Timber

8

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 8s)

Nyrond

d8

 Cargo

1

Foodstuffs

2

Cloth

3

Copper

4

Common Goods (see table)

5

Gems (I, II)

6

Fish

7

Silver

8

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 8s)

Onnwal

d4

 Cargo

1

Gems (III, including pearls)

2

Common Goods (see table)

3

Platinum

4

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 4s)

Pomarj

d8

 Cargo

1

Silver

2

Electrum

3

Gold

4

Common Goods (see table)

5

Slaves

6

Gems (I, II)

7

Timber

8

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 8s)

Sea Princes

d4

 Cargo

1

Foodstuffs

2

Common Goods (see table)

3

Slaves

4

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 4s)

Sunndi

d6

 Cargo

1

Gems (II, IV)

2

Electrum

3

Common Goods (see table)

4

Platinum

5

Foodstuffs

6

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 6s)

Ulek, Principality of

d8

 Cargo

1

Foodstuffs

2

Cloth

3

Silver

4

Common Goods (see table)

5

Gems (II-IV)

6

Electrum

7

Copper

8

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 8s)

If a nine is rolled, then roll a d4 to find the origin of the Scarlet Brotherhood the merchant ship.

Provinces of the Scarlet Brotherhood

d4

 Province

1

Amedio

2

Lordship of the Isles

3

Hepmonaland

4

Tilvanot

Amedio

d10

 Cargo

1

Gems (I, III, IV)

2

Gold

3

Slaves

4

Silver

5

Common Goods (see table)

6

Rare woods

7

Platinum

8

Foodstuffs

9

Spices

10

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 10s)

Lordship of the Isles

d6

 Cargo

1

Fish

2

Rare woods

3

Common Goods (see table)

4

Spices

5

Shipbuilding supplies

6

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 6s)

Hepmonaland

d12

 Cargo

1

Foodstuffs

2

Gems (I, III, IV)

3

Rare woods

4

Metals (iron, bronze, copper)

5

Timber

6

Spices (including sugar)

7

Ivory

8

Slaves

9

Gold

10

Platinum

11

Silver

12

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 12s)

Tilvanot

d8

 Cargo

1

Rare woods

2

Foodstuffs

3

Gold

4

Common Goods (see table)

5

Spices

6

Gems (I, III, IV)

7

Slaves

8

Dual cargo (roll twice, rerolling any 8s)

“Merchant Ships of Greyhawk” is unofficial Fan Content permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of the materials used are property of  Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.


"
 
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Re: Merchant Ships of Greyhawk (Score: 1)
by SirXaris on Fri, September 10, 2021
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This is great, Matteus!  I think it will be of tremendous help for any DM wanting to provide a believable cargo for his PCs to protect or plunder.

I have a few suggestions for improvement.

First, each of those 12 nations bordering the Azure Sea, Densac Gulf, and Vohoun Ocean have different numbers of merchant vessels calling those nations' ports home.  Instead of a simple d12 roll, I suggest you change it to a d% roll, or even a d20 roll that allows more of a chance for vessels from nations with more merchant ships.  You could even change the percentages based on which body of water the ship is encountered upon.

Second, it seems reasonable to add Jeklea Bay to this short list of bodies of water.  In that case, you could add Sasserine as a 13th home base for merchant ships, as that city is plenty large enough to have its own home-based merchant marines.

Third, I find it unlikely that the only cargo a ship would be carrying would be gems, or even coins.  Those valuable items wouldn't take up much space and any merchant ship with so much empty space would certainly draw suspicion from pirates as to its true cargo.  Therefore, I suggest that if gems, or coins, are rolled for cargo, a second roll should always be made for a secondary cargo, which the captain pretends is the main cargo to avoid unwanted piratical attention.

Fourth, you might also add sub-tables that break down the generic cargo more specifically.  For example, what race are the slaves and where did they come from?  What type of wood is the lumber made from?  What kind of foodstuffs are they and what is their current condition (fresh, wilted, spoiled, etc.)?  Types of illegal goods, etc.

Of course, any DM can make these determinations, but the point of a set of tables like this is to help the DM do so quickly without having to think through all the possibilities him/herself.  :)

SirXaris



Re: Merchant Ships of Greyhawk (Score: 1)
by Longetalos on Wed, September 15, 2021
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Thanks for posting this article. I can see a lot of use for this in a swashbuckling campaign.



Re: Merchant Ships of Greyhawk (Score: 1)
by richardsikes18 on Sun, May 29, 2022
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Excellent work Matt. I love the accuracy of this work. sell my house fast port st lucie




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