How to play
You are a trader on foot with a small purse, a waterskin and a head for numbers. The town square is your front door; the road is your living.
The loop
- Look at the market. Prices tell you what the town has too much of and what it lacks.
- Buy something cheap here that is short somewhere else. Drag it to your pack, or click it. Shift buys 5, Ctrl 20, both together as many as you can.
- Walk the road. Roads are real: you can stop to rest, turn back, or meet other players and the lords' traders on the way.
- Sell in the next town. Taxes and the market's cut come off, so a good trade needs a real shortage, not just a small difference.
- Spend your profit on a rucksack, books, training, and eventually a mule or a horse.
Keep yourself going
- Stamina, fatigue, hunger, thirst are the four bars at the top right. Starve or dehydrate and your stamina drains; at zero you collapse and wake at the last inn you slept in, a little poorer.
- Fill your waterskin free at any town well. Eat at the tavern or carry travel rations. Bandages heal.
- A mule carries a lot and walks at your pace; a horse is faster but carries little, and both need feed, water and rest. A spent animal slows down.
- Travel light (a nearly empty pack) and a feather appears beside your bars: a speed buff, with your dog, boots and animal gear shown the same way. Level 1 travellers are never robbed. After that the bandit gang can stop you, but never takes more than 20%, and your bank balance is safe.
Your first ten minutes
Every new character starts with a short guided tour from Old Bram, a retired caravan master who knew your late uncle Ansel. He walks you through the screen, the well and your pack, the market, the tavern and the road, and shows you how to make a first profit. Arrows point at doors, gates and goods, the part of the screen he is talking about glows, and his journal in the side panel always says what to do next.
- The Guild gives you a small purse to get started, and for your very first trade the prices are fixed so the lesson always ends in a profit. After that the prices belong to the realm itself.
- The tutorial ends with your first level, a few trait points to spend, and a farewell. It is played once per character. You can skip it, but you cannot repeat it, because that would change what the character owns.
- Little one-time hints pop up later the first time something new comes up (nightfall, the stable, the bank). You can switch them off in Settings.
Controls
| W A S D | walk (hold Shift to run) |
| Mouse | hold a button and move the mouse to look around |
| Both mouse buttons | walk forward, and steer by moving the mouse side to side (the way you may remember from other games) |
| E | talk to a merchant, enter a door, step through a gate |
| I | your character and pack |
| M | the world map: click a town, a road or a gate for its card (distance, time, tiredness) and walk it. Scroll to zoom and drag to move; your own caravan is highlighted, and hovering another traveller shows their name, level and caravan size (never what they carry) |
| Tab | show or hide the side panel |
| X | sit down on a bench or the ground, and stand up again (sitting rests you faster) |
| Mouse wheel | zoom out to see yourself and your caravan, and back in |
| 1 2 3 4 | the four slots of the action bar at the bottom of the screen. Right-click a slot to choose what it does: use what is in your right hand (a whip cracks on the road), drink, eat, bandage, fill your waterskin, water your animal, feed your dog |
| / | jump to the chat box, ready to type. Press / again to start a command (//dance), or just type to talk (/hello says "hello" to the town). Esc leaves the chat |
Everything you hold or wear is an icon with a coloured border for its quality (white, green, blue, purple, orange); hover over it for the words. Buffs (a bench rest, a riding crop, the whip, a craft in progress) are icons down the right side of the view. /help lists the chat commands in the game.
Pick a class
Nine starting classes, each with its own traits, its own growth as you level, and a starting kit. The three trades (Teamster, Factor, Provider) can also craft their own soulbound gear; everybody else can still buy plain versions at the shops.
Pedlar
Smooth-talking and sharp-eyed. Gets the best prices and spots trouble early.
Strength 3 · Endurance 5 · Constitution 2 · Haggling 9 · Perception 6. Grows: Haggling, Perception.
Porter
Built like an ox. Carries the most and tires the least under a load.
Strength 9 · Endurance 6 · Constitution 6 · Haggling 2 · Perception 2. Grows: Strength, Constitution.
Wayfarer
Lean and tireless. Walks all day, rarely ambushed.
Strength 3 · Endurance 9 · Constitution 4 · Haggling 2 · Perception 7. Grows: Endurance, Perception.
Guardsman
Sturdy and steady on the road. Starts with a cudgel and a leather jerkin.
Strength 7 · Endurance 5 · Constitution 8 · Haggling 2 · Perception 3. Grows: Strength, Constitution.
Clerk
Numbers and details. A sharp bargainer with a lantern for late roads.
Strength 3 · Endurance 3 · Constitution 3 · Haggling 8 · Perception 8. Grows: Haggling, Perception.
Teamster trade
Lives by the road and its animals. Strong and steady, and the only trade that can craft the riding crop, the carrot on a stick and the double harness.
Strength 6 · Endurance 6 · Constitution 5 · Haggling 3 · Perception 5. Grows: Endurance, Strength, Perception.
Factor trade
Money, paper and good manners. A fine bargainer who can read from the start, and the only trade that can craft the brass scale, signet ring, merchant medallion, diplomat quill and reading glasses.
Strength 2 · Endurance 3 · Constitution 3 · Haggling 9 · Perception 8. Grows: Haggling, Perception.
Provider trade
Lives off the land and keeps what it carries. Hardy and hard to rob, and the only trade that can craft the canvas cloak, false-bottomed crate and secret pocket.
Strength 5 · Endurance 6 · Constitution 7 · Haggling 3 · Perception 4. Grows: Constitution, Endurance, Strength.
Journeyman
A bit of everything. Nothing special, nothing missing.
Strength 5 · Endurance 5 · Constitution 5 · Haggling 5 · Perception 5. Grows: Strength, Endurance, Constitution, Haggling, Perception.
Chat, friends and emotes
Type in the chat box at the bottom of the screen. Plain text is heard by everyone in your town (or near you on the road). Commands start with a slash.
| /w Name message | whisper to one person who is online, wherever they are. Only the two of you see it. /r message answers the last whisper, and clicking a name in the chat log starts one. |
| /friend Name | add somebody to your friends list, which shows who is online and where. /unfriend Name removes them. It is a private bookmark: they are not told. |
| /dance | dance in the square (for about 1 min) |
| /sit | sit down (for about 2 min) |
| /crouch | crouch (for about 1 min) |
| /talk | chat away with your hands (for about 30 s) |
| /jump | jump for joy (for about 4 s) |
| /wave | wave (for about 4 s) |
| /stop | stop what you are doing |
Emotes are for fun: everybody in your town or building sees your character do it, and \"Name dances\" appears in their chat. A step ends the emote. You cannot emote on the road.
The free trial
The download comes with a free 5-day trial: make an account, make a character and play. The days count from the day you make your account. When they run out your characters stay safe and you can buy the game to carry on. Every account, trial or bought, plays by exactly the same rules.
Updates
The game checks its version against the server each time it starts. When a new version is out you see an Update button on the title screen: press it and the game closes, and the installer, which lives in the game folder, brings the new version. A small update is optional; a big one must be installed before you can play, so everybody is on the same rules.
Animals, carts and wagons
At the stable you can buy a mule (carries a lot, cannot be ridden) and later a horse (fast, can be ridden, carries little). A cart takes one animal, a wagon two and a covered wagon four, and all the animals on one wagon must be the same kind. You may own one wagon for every ten levels. The caravan travels at the pace of its slowest member: a mule in the string holds a horse back, a walking trader holds everyone to a walk.
The Animals button shows each animal on its own: its pace, how much it carries, its feed, water and stamina, and four gear slots (harness, saddlebags, horseshoes, carrot on a stick). Feed and water each animal separately, at the stable for coin or from hay and water you carry. Animals never die; an unfed one just slows down.
Contracts and the notice board
At the town hall the notice board lists storms, harvests, bandit gangs, shortages and politics near you, and the contract board lists deliveries that towns will pay for: take one, pay a small deposit, and deliver on time. If you are ever down to your last coins (40 or fewer), the board also offers small courier jobs: the town lends you the goods with no deposit and pays a small fee when you deliver, so nobody is ever stuck. A better ledger (made at the library, or found on a shelf now and then) adds price trend arrows, then price charts, then a route book of what each road earns you, then notice-board clippings that reach twice as far.
Merchant Companies
From level 10 you can pick up a charter at a town hall, ask five traders of level 5 or more to sign it, and found a company (5,000 coin). A company has a hall in every town (its own room for each company), a shared bank, dues, a storeroom, a workshop, a tabard in its colour and a chat. Members build the company's projects together; the work is hidden man-minutes and you only see a bar. The hall rent is paid to the crown from the company bank, so a company that cannot pay finds its halls locked. Companies can take great contracts: loads so big and so tight on time that no single trader could deliver them.
Guards and the world log
The lord's guard pot pays for the guards you see in the square: some stand at the town hall and the gates, the rest patrol, and they relieve each other every few minutes. Beside the chat, the world log writes down what is happening to the towns (never what players trade): storms, harvests, bandit gangs, shortages, rebellions, elections and new companies.