MERCHANT CARAVANS
Traveling traders moving between settlements — caravans that arrive on schedules or wander routes, bringing goods, news, and trade opportunities to the player's door, or serving as escortable/raidable targets in the world.
- SOLO-DEV COST MEDIUM
- TIMING REAL-TIME / TURN
- COMMON IN OPEN-WORLD · COLONY-SIM · RPG · SANDBOX
RimWorld's visiting caravans (and the player's own outbound ones) structure colony commerce, Mount & Blade's caravans are the visible bloodstream of its living economy — raid them, escort them, or run your own — Kenshi's roaming traders make its wasteland feel inhabited, and Death Stranding builds a whole game from being the caravan. Designers use caravans because they embody the economy in physical, interceptable form: rather than abstract market menus, trade becomes bodies on roads, which creates gameplay at every layer — commerce when they arrive, protection contracts when they're threatened, banditry when the player is the threat, and strategic warfare when cutting supply routes starves a city. Scheduled arrivals also give isolated bases a heartbeat of anticipation. Key decisions: whether caravans are real simulated agents carrying real inventory (Mount & Blade's price-responsive routes) or theatrical spawns with shop menus, how the player's actions affect routes (raided roads should eventually be avoided), and what beyond goods they carry — rumors, quests, recruits, disease. Pitfall: consequence-free caravans — if robbing every trader changes nothing about prices, patrols, or future visits, the living-economy promise collapses into an ATM with pack animals; even lightweight reputation and route-avoidance systems make the world feel like it noticed.