Free Trader (Starfinder Archetype)
(art by BengalTigerVN on DeviantArt)
It’s a simple fact of reality. If there is civilization, there must be ways to transport between them, both in terms of people, and in terms of good. Whether it be the merchant caravans of old, the modern supermassive shipping boats, or indeed the scifi freighter ships of the far future, logistics is simply a fact of civilization.
In the far future of Starfinder, there are certainly powerful shipping vessels out there funded and paid for by the powerful megacorporations, but when goods need to head to distant colony worlds, space stations, and of course sovereign worlds far from the main shipping routes, that is where free traders come in.
Like the name suggests, free traders own or serve on shipping vessels that are owned independently, not beholden to a larger company’s policies or expectations. While this gives them the freedom to pick and choose their clients (at least when money isn’t tight), it does mean they are more reliant on jobs going right to get a decent payout.
Even still, the appeal of such a life attracts many to it, and they can be found pretty much anywhere in the galaxy, delivering medicine to distant colony worlds, taking a surplus of goods off the hands of an overstocked warehouse to sell elsewhere, and so on. Sure, you might encounter pirates and the occasional space monster, and sometimes the buyer tries to screw you, but one has more power to do something about that, and the excitement is part of the charm, some would say.
As is appropriate, free traders have a lot of expertise when it comes to acquiring and selling goods, from recalling information about local trade law to learning whose buying what and who is selling, to negotiating a price.
As they grow in skill, their organizational skills increase as well, letting them pack more and more into their cargo holds than others safely. Additionally, their preparations in protecting their goods from damage or theft help them minimalize losses from unforeseen complications.
True masters become legendary in trading circles, commanding respect that allows them, with a little bit of resolve, to command the best price from goods bought or sold.
And you get all of that for the price of whatever 2nd-level ability your class gives up for archetypes. Yeah, that’s all one ability, but it makes sense as the benefits don’t disrupt normal gameplay that much. That flexibility means that there is no class in the game that can’t do well with this archetype. The ex-military soldier that now acts as a gun-runner for resistance cells? The charming envoy that could sell an oven to a novian? The magical merchant of any spellcasting class that sells magical items while loading mystical crystals in bulk? All of these and more are possible while barely disrupting the more adventuring-aimed aspects of the class.
When you work as a free trader, you try to be as friendly as possible to ensure that you get repeat buyers and sellers, but you won’t get far without being able to fight, not just to protect your cargo but also to stand up to those that would browbeat and bully you to their own advantage. As such, free traders can typically pull of many personas as part of their job, though which, if any, are the real one is another story entirely.
With her natural gift with understanding all languages as a vulkarisu, Kobari easily found work aboard the crew of a freightliner vessel, where she served for many years. After her captain passed away, she stepped in and took over for him, going independent and becoming one of the best known traders in the Volai Arm. If you need something, it’s a fair assumption she’ll be able to help.
The party is contacted by a trader merchant with an offer: Capture and bring back multiple live olghuths, powerful psychic amphibians for a research team. What the merchant didn’t mention is that the job was for a research group that served as a front for other piscine horrors, ones that believe the olghuths might be some missing branch that fleshwarped themselves into a tormented, dead-end form.
The universe is an absurd place, and those that brave the vast unknown are more likely than not to experience a thin but diverse slice of it. When the party is contracted to serve as guards aboard a cargo vessel, they might have expected pirates and the like. What they did not expect, however, was a group of scalpers after their cargo: the latest release of a popular trading card game. More than that, they didn’t expect the leader of these raiders to be a major fan theming all her summoning magic around the game.