In my setting some players rule over small domains. Some of them have invested 10k gp to have little urban settlements and others have continued with basic 1 hex rural domains.
Which is the difference between their markets?
In JJ page 200 we can see an anotation where it says, about settlements with fewer than 75 urban families, “* a class vI market will exist at the domain’s stronghold only.”
What does this really mean? Players don’t mind if the market is in the stronghold or the town square, the location is not a difference-maker.
I was tempted to treat this domains as manors, with markets only once a week, or without capacity for arbitrage trading, only minorist commerce…but I don’t know what is the developers real intention.
Maybe they work the same way and the first step in the urban investment does not change anything about market? Inhabitants determination doesn’t look to change between Hamlets and Small Villages.
To establish an urban settlement, you need to not just spend 10kgp, but also move at least 75 peasant families over to found it. So any newly founded settlement will be at least Class VI.
In domains where "a class vI market will exist at the domain’s stronghold only”, the ruler has not actually founded a settlement. There is no urban settlement in such sites - no one ever spent the 10kgp and moved families over to found one.
The designer has essentially said that, while there’s no market for you to purchase from at such spots, there are people and ergo there will be some very limited ability to buy and sell things, so Class VI is the appropriate quantities to use. I would not permit arbitrage trade in such places, and would require a dedicated activity to purchase supplies rather than an ancillary. Having a weekly market where it functions as an actual Class VI is a fun idea I know some others on the Discord have run with.