Contraband

The Five Trade Goods

Each good has a base price and a volatility rating. The base price is the anchor the market fluctuates around (bounded at 0.5× to 2.0× of base), and volatility is how wildly it swings. Higher-tier goods have bigger absolute profit potential — and bigger swings.

The buy price is always set so that the sell price is exactly 1.3× the buy price at any given moment. That means a flat 30% markup is available on every good at every price — but because prices fluctuate, the absolute Denarius profit per unit is much higher when you buy low.

How Prices Move

Every 5 minutes, the market re-rolls. Each good's buy price is shifted by a random amount within its volatility band, then clamped to 50%–200% of its base price. The sell price is recomputed as 1.3× the new buy price.

So a Frankincense bought at the floor (5,000) and sold at the same moment still yields 6,500 — but if you wait for the buy price to climb to its ceiling (20,000), the spread on a stockpile bought cheap is enormous. The skill is in buying when the market is low and waiting for it to rise.

The Aedile — Inspection Risk

Every time you buy a good, there is a 10% chance the Aedile (the Roman market official) inspects your shipment. If that happens:

• Your purchased goods are confiscated (removed from your holdings).
• You are fined 50% of what you just paid for the shipment.
• You hear an angry villager "no" sound and a red warning message.

The inspection roll happens at the moment of purchase, not at sale — so you know immediately whether your shipment survived. Over many trades, the 10% loss averages out, but a single bad roll on a big Frankincense buy can sting.

The /contraband Command Family

Tab-completion works for both subcommands and good names, so you can type /con<tab> buy fr<tab> 10 in a couple keystrokes. The good names accept any case (garum, GARUM, Garum all work).

Reading the Market Board

When you run /contraband, you see a row per good with the current buy price, sell price, and how many units you currently hold. The spread between buy and sell is always 30% — the question is whether the absolute prices are low (good time to buy) or high (good time to sell stockpiles you bought cheap).

A simple mental model for each good:

• If the buy price is near the floor (0.5× base), it is a great time to stock up — the market can only rise.
• If the buy price is near the ceiling (2.0× base), sell any stockpiles you bought cheap and wait for it to fall before buying again.
• The middle of the range is a holding zone — neither a great buy nor a great sell.

A Sample Trade Run

1. Run /contraband and check Frankincense. Buy price reads 6,200 — near its 5,000 floor.
2. Buy 10 units: /contraband buy frankincense 10. Cost: 62,000 Denarius.
3. The 10% inspection roll fails this time — your 10 units land in your holdings.
4. Wait two re-rolls (10 minutes). The buy price climbs to 15,000; sell price is now 19,500.
5. Sell: /contraband sell frankincense 10. Revenue: 195,000 Denarius.
6. Net profit on this run: 133,000 Denarius in ~10 minutes.

Of course, if the Aedile had inspected step 2, you would have lost the goods and a 31,000 Denarius fine — which is why spreading risk across smaller buys matters.

Tips for Profitable Trading

• Buy low, sell high is the whole game. Patience is the skill. Wait for floor prices before loading up.
• Trade the volatile goods for bigger swings. Frankincense and Silk move the most in absolute Denarius terms.
• Spread your buys to dilute the 10% inspection risk across many rolls.
• Keep capital on hand. You need Denarius ready when the market dips — do not tie up all your money in long-term investments.
• Check the board often. The 5-minute re-roll means opportunities open and close fast.
• Mind the floor and ceiling. A good at 0.5× base is a buy signal; a good at 2.0× base is a sell signal.
• Pair contraband with mining. Mine between re-rolls so you are earning passively while you wait for the market to move.