I was reading through the skills and noticed that the description of Trade(Merchant) says (core book, pg 108):

"Used to find, bargain and sell trade goods."

That sounds a lot like it would include the process of what is done when a character is trying to find an item. The Availability rules (pg 125) instruct you to make a successful Inquiry Test in order to find the item that you're looking for. I suspect that this is because Inquiry is a basic skill and a lot more common of a skill, hence more generally appropriate for the majority of characters.

Questions:

1. Are there any expanded rules for skill uses (similar to what was done in the Inquisitor's Handbook) for using Trade (Merchant) in place of doing an Inquiry test?

2. If not, as a GM would you be receptive to a player that wishes to use his Trade(Merchant) skill instead of Inquiry for the purpose of finding an item?

A2. I personally feel this is very reasonable, but it could also be argued that the Trade(Merchant) skill is more for finding things wholesale or in bulk. Then again, maybe the player used this skill in his background to seek out rare goods like art pieces or whatever for fancy nobles. At the very least, I think I could be convinced to give some sort of "synergy" bonus to the Inquiry skill (if the player has it). If not, then I'd be okay with just using the Trade skill.

Thanks for the reply. That's pretty much how I feel as well, but I'm also hoping someone knows of something official.

Anyone else? What are your thoughts on allowing it?

Corwyn said:

Sounds reasonable, I think RT expands on the idea of finding items and what not perhaps take a look at what they have. Perhaps if somone has Trade:Merchant- make items one category better in the avaliblity trait of an item, and additional category per +10. At Trade:Merchant Mastery increase and items quality one category. That might be an easy way of breaking it down.