The most excruciating thing that can happen regularly is that your carts break down and you're crippled, particularly if you just spent all your money on goods (which is reasonable) and you arrive someplace where it's cheaper than what you paid for it. Excruciating random events: Early in the game, the random tolls and attacks and what-have-you are minimal. Surely, Ore will be consistently cheaper in cities near mountains, right? Nope! Kaidan is an economic system where cities don't appear to have specialties, even though they may claim them, and prices change almost magically. you can buy food sometimes for 5 (which is about as low as you'll see it) at Orvoros and a neighboring village could have it for 12.

Seemingly arbitrary economic system: So, villages produce food and cities consume it? But. And you're right, that makes no sense and serves literally no purpose other than to make the game that much harder by cutting into your profit margins. Practically, this means that if you buy food for 10 and go to a place where it is being sold for 11.5, you will not make a profit even though you are transporting a commodity from where it is plentiful to where it is more scarce. Every good's selling price is less than its buying price at the same location by a given percentage. In MoK, the system is slanted against you. Port Royale, Patrician) you can buy and sell goods at the same location for the same price. Bad Profit Margins: The economic system the game forces you to operate in is really, really intense. If you've looked up this guide, you're probably having trouble so you're probably encountering these problems (which are the problems I encountered): It's really only difficult in the beginning. Terminus467's Guide to Merchants of Kaidan

Merchants of kaidan gameplay