A quick question; How useful is a Journeyman Mercantyler to an adventuring party?

One of the players is a journeyman mercantyler and wants to know how useful his characters is to a group of adventurers?

Any thoughts, and yes Roy Denton's Mercantyler pdf has given out but, just looking for some thoughts before I also delve into it

Thanks

George

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For what it's worth, that's the way I see it

The answer depends more on what type of game you run and what the party's goals are than on anything inherent to a given occupation.

That said:
Among the things Mercantylers tend to be good at: Rhetoric and Intrigue. Consider the uses of these skills. Does the party tend to get involved in business or political wrangling? Do they often need to persuade someone to do something or adopt a certain viewpoint? Do they need to gather clues in a social setting? More directly, are they in need of someone who can handle business negotiations, contracts, and the like? If so, then there are clearly advantages to knowing a mercantyler. Mercantylers are literate and often know one or more additional languages, which can be a plus in many situations. Additionally, mercantylers may have valuable contacts at various social levels that other characters may lack.

In one campaign I ran, one of the PCs was a mercantyler who functioned as the group's logistics expert and negotiator. He made sure they had all the necessary equipment and provisions for their journeys, and was very useful at gathering information about the local situation when they arrived in a new settlement.

My very first character in Harn back in '88 was a journeyman mercantyler from Shiran.
He was a devout Halean and quite fun to play.

Having a mercantyler in the group opens many more doors that are otherwise closed. The Mangai often operates like a secret society with a host of intrigues that could involve the group by proxy. Because guild privilege is vigorously protected he can provide a reason for the adventurers' conspicuous portable wealth. Also the group can pose as guards for the mercantyler and somewhat justify their arms.

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Ia Araka Kalai! Ilvir Fhtagn!

Depending on the nature of your game and party, mercantylers also make good con men or smugglers.

Six year apprenticeship and they don't really get much more than a Beggar does in skills for 1 year (Don't forget they would normally receive five years of skill development rolls) and possibly even less in you are capping starting mastery skill levels..

Consider giving them Seaman (Super Cargo) and or Teamster skills.

One very important aspect that is open to guilded mercantylers is the ability to sell things to other guildsmen without necessarily having to answer a lot of questions. Buying materials from a mercantyler is looked at as legitimate. Buying goods of some random "adventurer" on the street is more than a little shady. So if the players are looking to unload their ill-gotten gains, having a mercantyler on board will certainly help.

The other thing a mercantyler can do is allow the party to make money when traveling from Point A to Point B by arranging to purchase small lots of goods that need transport. This entails some risk because you never know if the market where you're going is necessarily going to have a high demand for your goods when you get there, but even a single mule's worth of goods transported from one settlement to the next has the potential to help the PCs finance their adventures.

In our previous campaign, one of my players owned a Talbar and another was a journeyman mercantyler. Together they acted as captain and supercargo. Without the mercantyler on board to help them turn a profit as they traveled, they'd have been losing money hand over fist just trying to feed and pay their crew.

If the player is looking for a combat role, then a mercantyler would not be a good choice. But if he is looking to play a talker and someone could open doors for the party as far as the guilded class is concerned, a mercantyler is a great occupation.