Where, Oh Where Are Those Traveling Wares?

Today, we’ve got a fun follow-up to one of our free Wilderness Trek Wandering Monster table entries, thanks to a recent Kickstarter mailbox delivery that’s out of this world!

Running into fellow travelers on a popular country road is a common DnD experience and can make for a zesty encounter. This NPC could be a vital resupply option and even provide critical mission intel to the party. DM Ben just wants to be better prepared for this type of gameplay interaction and thinks he has some great new accessories to complete his offerings.

Previously, we did a fun DnD blog post for our d20 Wilderness Wandering Monster table and introduced the world to Fenton Hindergrass. This mild-mannered, very large man walks the most popular paths around The High Forest and peddles his wares to any adventurer who wants ’em.

In that article, we provided a handy list of items he could offer the group and even found a Reddit thread d100 table for even more ideas!

• Healing Potion (50 gp)
• Restoration Scrolls (400 gp)
• Ranged Ammo (a few bolts, arrows, etc)
• Additional 50 ft of rope
• Antitoxen Vial (advantage on poison saves)
• Lock Picks/Thieves Tools (25 gp)
• Lock and Key (10 gp)
• Manacles (2 gp)
• Candles or Torches (2 cp)
• Empty Vials & Bottles (2 gp each)
• Signal Whistle (1 gp)
• Flask of Oil (1 sp) | Holy Water (25 gp)
• Flare Arrow (15 gp)
• Firecracker (2 gp) | Wind-up Toy (6 gp)
• Unique, mysterious Items (see image above)*

The players recently took a long rest, and low and behold, they drew Fenton as their next encounter. DM will have a down-and-dirty printout of this list for his players to peruse in our next session.

3DRPG is all about continuous improvement, so our next scheduled DnD session can be as fun as possible. Coincidentally, a highly anticipated Kickstarter came to our doorstep the other day, and one of those RPG accessories is the perfect fit for ol’ Fenton.

Worlds at a Glance: 5E tools to describe towns, shops, and NPCs was a highly successful Kickstarter campaign in 2024. The thought and detail they put into their DnD 5e supplements are top-notch. Our favorite is the Towns & Villages Shop Cards. No more frantic book table searches that bring your game to a screeching halt! These TTRPG item cards are simply perfect.

These shop cards are of the highest quality and will save any DM a ton of time. You get two copies of each card (80 cards in all) to pass the applicable shop’s available wares around the table. We just can’t say enough good things about these various shop cards (including Black Market, Harbor, Tavern, Inn, Jeweler, Potion Shop, and on and on and on).

In addition to our home-brewed curated list above, he will have the items on the five General Shop cards. DM Ben will create a house rule where any d20 roll of 1-3 means a previous customer beat the player to that item.

You have noticed all those papers bursting out of Fenton’s oversized backpack. DM Ben wanted to have some fun with our Wandering Merchant miniature by Crippled God Foundry and include some one-time spell scrolls in his offerings. So, he grabbed some Pathfinder item cards and some Wizkids Spellbook Cards to make a few more handouts.

Assembly was a snap. One clear card sleeve with a scroll on the front and then a spell card on the opposite side. Easy peasy, right?! We made the following: Detect Magic (50 gp), Find Traps (50 gp), Magic Missle (100 gp), Knock (100 gp), Misty Step (100 gp), and Animate Dead (250 gp).

But wait! There’s more! Next, DM Ben grabbed his coveted Game Master’s Fantasy Toolkit book by Roll & Play Press! This wire-bound (why aren’t all books like this?) D&D supplement has a table for everything. We’re constantly flipping through it for new game ideas and inspiration.

One table leaped out at us: Bargain Spell Scrolls. Fenton buys and trades from all sorts of folks, and let’s be honest, sometimes a particular seller can be a bit slim shady. Naturally, he can’t verify every item in his inventory, and occasionally, an edgier item slips through quality control.

He’s willing to sell the group plenty of handy spell scrolls, including Knock, Detect Magic, Misty Step, and so on. However, sometimes a particular item isn’t what it seems.

So, DM Ben picked two from Roll & Play Press’ nifty table: Visibility & Water Talking. Our merchant wants to unload these for 50 GP each (rather than 100 gp & 250 gp respectively). The crackpot Wizard that initially traded these two spell scrolls to Fenton didn’t do a very good job transposing the arcane magic to paper. Alas, when the player goes to cast one, an unintended effect will go off!

Imagine your player going to cast what he thinks is Invisibility and instead becomes “bright orange and luminous” for one minute. #Oops. Besides, nothing is more amusing to DM Ben than unexpected events at his game table.

See how our traveling NPC merchant encounter just improved exponentially?! We came up with a short list of offerings, crafted several unique magic items, added some extremely useful shop cards, and even mixed in a few bargain scrolls to keep the group on its toes! Wonderful.

Until next time!