Bear and Bison Trading Post

[levism84]

While I do not know exactly how the episodes will play out with other survivors and NPC interactions, I think it would be nice and thematic to have a trading post somewhere. A place where you could trade in extra supplies for harder to come by stuff, such as trading game meat or pelts (we need to be able to loot pelts with a high enough skill) for ammunition, medicine, or other items. For this example, I give you the Bear and Bison Trading Post:

A robust cabin with attached pavilion far removed from the major game trails hunters use, the Bear and Bison (also known as the B&B) Trading Post acts as a hub for survivors in the aftermath of geo-blah-blah-blah [inset plot advancing dialog here].

The pavilion would act as minimal shelter from the elements, making it somewhat beneficial but not so much so as the player wants to set up a permanent camp there. Additionally, since it would be far removed from game trails, it would be difficult for a player to remain close while gathering supplies to trade. Much like the trading posts of real life (I imagine, having never been to/seen/studied/operated one), players would get the most benefit by collecting items with high trade value, making a trek to it, trading for items with high survival value, and treking back to their base camp.

Under the pavilion would be a trading window (modified after the events of the story) to act as a barrier between the trading post staff and survivors that would rather take what they want instead of trade for what they need. This could be done with a simple interaction (LMB) and a trade menu.

How would items be traded? What would be their value? Well, I have always been a fan of the Trade Unit system set up for d20 Apocalypse. Essentially, 1 TU is the equivalent of 1 days worth of survival: 1 pound of food, 1 gallon of water/gas, 1 bullet. Being as the game has a much higher demand for food and water, the pricing of things would need to be adjusted, but otherwise the trading post would have its own system of value for each item.

Anyway, it should be possible to get into the trading post by either breaking in (pry bar on the locked door) which makes a lot of people hostile towards you, ends in a firefight that either kills you and gives you access to a one-time cache of awesome supplies, or you should be able to earn the trust of the trading post staff by completing minor missions for them, finding rare and unique items to trade, or otherwise working hard. In that case, you could get a key to access the inside of the trading post which would provide: protection from the elements, an always burning fire to make potable water, and some discounts on items. Of course, you could always get inside and ambush the staff for the aforementioned one-time cache of items. Now that would make for some compelling role-playing options.

Anyone else have suggestions on how a trading post might work in the game?