That would also be a great way to handle death. It might be a bit strong from a balancing perspective since you could be very reckless with little downside, but it would be fun.
There is a trade skill that reduces the wages for caravans, IDK about anything else though. And to clarify when you say they take time to get there are you saying that the caravan profits increase over time, or are you talking about the first couple of weeks where the caravans make no money?
Alright that's what I'll try to do in my next save. I misspoke a bit in my first post though. Ignoring my party's wages I was losing on average ten deners a day on the caravan, and some days I would loose up to 200 deners on the caravan. It was much less common for me to profit off of it. Do you know what I can do to make sure that my caravan is actually worth building?