New Commerce rules

So... each commerce is it's own influence? Commerce generates resources lvls automatically, equal to the commerce's lvl? Other then the Linked example where trade made Robert vulnerable to his competitor's monopoly, do they cross interact? Why did Robert's competitor notice his iron? Was Robert trying to sell it, or do monopolies also notice all non smuggled stockpiles of the monopolied material? Can we get some examples of the auto resources that commerce generates?

Are there limited numbers of goods that can be traded, or can we buy up monopolies on whatever we can make up?

Correct Commerce works similar to influence in that they are their own category, iron, wool etc.

Any information gathering background, merit or ability has the potential of finding out if someone is smuggling something into the country, however it's not always the case. Someone has to be watching a specific resource in order to try and figure out if it's being smuggled in, and things like influence and allies can hide these actions pretty well.

Mechanically wise goods are limited to a single dot worth per dot in commerce, and each single dot is double of what it's previous dot was worth, so if wool was 1 ton for 1 dot, it would be 2 tons, 4 ton, 8 tons then 16 tons respectively. Keep in mind this is a new mechanic and we're working on fleshing these things out and making them fair and useful, however any single dot will be enough for crafting purposes.

Some regions in the game will have an impact on the amount of dots that are allowed to be gathered things like famine and abundant rain, new veins of ore discovered or schools where mining techniques are discovered will all affect how much can be gathered as of right now everything is very basic, but people can improve domains to improve their yields

Maybe stay away from exponential increases for linear costs. If a lvl 5 is worth 4 times as much as a lvl 3, no one will want to stop there. It makes it an all or nothing environment. If I can't have a 5, why compete at all?

As for as useful, how would you use this in game play? Is there supply in demand? Will there be plots where we may need a certain number of tons of wool? I see a lot of potential, but I am just not sure what you guys are planning.
It would be cool to account for mine locations or farmlands and who has control and who wants what. And if you have a fully realized map you can come up with some interesting influence games as people try to cut off resources to a specific region or put up a blockade.
As a side note, I've been working on a large map that might be useful for just such a purpose....

I'd really like the map to be available online, rather then just at session.

We are working on putting a map online, placing all resources, domains and towns as well as other player or st points of interest.

Question, know it states that you pick 1 item of trade when you start, my question is if and when you get level 5 do you pick another but a rare item of trade?

So said player would have 2 items one Item that's Common & one that is Rare?

You don't automatically get a second item, rare or otherwise, you have to spend downtime actions to trade with other regions at level five though it's possible to trade for rare items of worth.

ok wasn't sure if I was reading level 5 right or not thanks

No problem

This system makes me kinda want to play that Tzimisce from John's old game.

"I have the best milk in the country. Many strong children from my cows. These sheep, exquisite and of a long-lived breed. Feel this wool. Taste this mutton. You will give me the firstborn daughter of your line for three generations as the price for such luxury."

Very nice