>
> > Unfortunately, House Caroman, the new proprietors of
> > Fay Jee have
> > discovered that the pesky local clans and tribes
> > don't actually like
> > indigo all that much. They much prefer their tatoos
> > and blue dye
> > from the woad plant, despite its inferior hue and
> > durability.
>
> Well, I gather indigo does have a nasty habit of dying
> the skin of the wearer better than the cloth it's
> supposedly colouring...
Not really. Indigo takes very well. The problem is that *making* the dye is a long, nasty, semi-poisonous process. It has a tendency to dye the workers skin blue and or yellow. And causes lung-rot.
But that's okay. Plenty of folks willing to work in the dye vats as Blues. Its still better than living out in the Wenelian hills.
> > Quite possibly. The duDerysi family are from the
> > eastern reaches of
> > the Trade Road until their holdings were destroyed
> > by Graymane about a decade ago.
>
> er... when are you defining as "now"?
Oh, more or less now in Trader Prince timeline terms. Now, for Trader Princes is "sometime between the Opening and whenever Harrek stops being a pirate.". Most games will be set a year or two after Harrek sacks Fay Jee the first time in or around 1615.
> Right! So the purple robes are both a reward and a
> sponsorship deal. Any of his literate sage colleagues
> will realise that not only are they purple, those
> Mystic Runes round the hems say "Buy your dye from the
> duDerysi!"
Possibly. But it may be that Goldgotti made sure the duDerysi got sub-standard information from the know-it-all sage. Otherwise, they'd concentrate on something more useful such as harvesting oysters for export. Amazing how far they can travel if packed in sea water. Oysters from the Thames estuary were a prized export in Rome during the 2nd and 3rd centuries.
It did occur to me while writintg that one could make a Travellerstyle 'we have a riverboat/caravan and need cargo' kind of game but that might something writing be for another time. I do not derive much joy out of simple economics, though that style of play is rather popular in some groups. Instead I stuck with a Hosue style play where the heroes become part of a community and assist its survival. In the end, they may even end up running House Caroman. Trader Princes really is about who you know, and what you know about whom!
That said, the thought of a Grand Survey of the Trader Houses (a-la Traveller Boxed Set) is sufficiently Old School and road-trippy enough that I may flesh something like that out.
Jeff
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