Vrhy's Hunting Trader Rules

Rule One:Only hunt for profit. Hunt critters you can skin or drop coins and boxes, or better yet, hunt those that can be skinned and drop coins and boxes. Goblins make a good low circle critter for young hunting traders. Then you might move up to bigger critters. A few I know of, from easiest to hardest are grendels, rock trolls and arbelogs.

Rule Two:Dont hunt over your skills! You are a trader. You have no special combat abilities. Dont be in a rush to move up to the next critter. Take the time to work evasion, parry and shield up to almost equal to your weapon skills. This might just save your life when you try a critter for the first time and realize you arent ready for it. They might keep you alive long enough to run for town.

Rule Three:Save those skins and gems. Invest in a vault to keep your bundle in so it doesnt weigh you down while you hunt. Dont sell your pouch till its full, or better yet, when you fill a pouch, tie the pouch and put it in your vault. This way you might save two or three pouches and sell them all at once and hopefully mindlock your trading skill.

Rule Four:Dont get greedy. Sounds almost antitrader, but if picking up whatever skins, coins, gems and boxes you have on the ground is going to risk you getting killed, leave them. If your burden has increased a bit while hunting, dont wait till five critters are on top of you to retreat and run. If you can fight two or three goblins safely fine, but if two more walk in, start retreating, cause you might find you cant retreat later.

Rule Five:Dont hunt alone. See if someone else would like to hunt with you. If you cant get a hunting partner try to hunt where others hunt. This will help if you get into trouble and need to yell for help or have your corpse dragged out of the hunting area. If you absolutely must hunt alone and in a place where noone else is hunting, be sure to tell people where you are hunting. The local empaths have good memories and can usually be counted on to come drag you  or send someone to drag you back to town.

Rule Six:Be courteous and polite. If you pick up an item and then hear someone in hiding, drop the item, and then if you still want it, ask them. Most hunters dont mind someone taking the weapons and armor critters drop, or even the occasional skin, but ask first. If the critter you kill has arrows in it and you didnt shoot any arrows, leave them. They arent worth much usually and if they are their owner will be coming along soon to collect them. You might even collect the arrows and find the owner, who might then decide they could use a nice trader to sell that bundle they've been building.

Rule Seven:Never ignore a chance for profit. If someone notices you're a trader and wants a bundle or pouch sold, stop hunting and offer them your services. Odds are the sale will only take a few minutes and you gain in many ways. You get a bit of trading experience, you might make a nice tip, you get to deposit or vault any coins or weight you might have from hunting, and you make a happy customer who might seek you out again when they need a trader.

Rule Eight:Work those skills. I personally train three weapons, three armors and shield when I hunt. This keeps me from mindlocking too fast.  Change your stance when evasion, shield or parry get mindlocked. I keep my stance at 80/100/0, so two are being worked and when one mindlocks I switch my stance. You should also try to work hiding, appraisal and foraging when you can. Hide in front of the critters, stalk them, and then appraise them. If none are around, take a moment to forage or appraise your armor and weapons. Even if one arrives while in RT you have time before they get to melee to get ready for them again.

Rule Nine:Prepare before you hunt. Deposit all coins in the bank. Put any unnecessary weight in your vault. Bring some herbs with you, but not more then one of each that you have. Be sure you are wearing your armor and set your stance. Holding a shield wont help much if you have your shield stance set at 0. Stop by the empath area, tell the people there  where you are hunting in case you die.

Rule Ten:Know when to stop hunting. You have three weapons, two armors, evasion, parry and shield all at perplexed-mindlocked. Your encumbrance is at Very Heavy. Your body looks like you were dragged through a bryar patch naked. Its time to stop hunting and head for town. Get your scraper, your mortar and pestle, your lasmodi stones or whatever else you have in your vault. Now go to the empath gathering spot and join a class(teaching preferably till circle 30). Its time to socialize and get to know people. Now sit down and work your nonhunting skills. Ask an empath for a bit of healing, and then scrape those skins, crush those herbs, count your stones, appraise your items, play an instrument, disarm and pick your boxes, hide, search and even forage.  Lots of skills can be worked in between hunts, and you might even find someone in need of your skills to sell a pouch or bundle as well.