The Maiden Saga: Role Playing Game (10 page)

For this reason traders have adopted the Dwarven system when dealing with other peoples. This is eminently practical and will serve for the game. The values of metals are judged according to a scale that takes into account both their practicality and their rarity. Vendjome is the largest, most populous nation and the centre of trade, which has led the Dwarves to asses one gold Imperial as one weight of gold.

The basic unit is a “Weight”, a small coin which can be copper, bronze, nickel or any similar alloy. An unskilled labourer would expect to earn about three weights a day. Staying at an inn or passage on a ship costs around ten weights per day. Ten weights make a weight of silver, a “Silver”, and ten weights of silver make a weight of gold, a “Gold”.

At the start of the game your PC has the same number of Golds as their total Game Points in Wealth. You can keep as much as you like, but it is probably wise to exchange some for kit, while if your PC is a person of consequence they will require retainers (see below). This is only possible before the game starts.

Incurable accountants may wish to consider the expenditure of every copper weight, but for general purposes it is assumed that PCs can get by on a day to day basis unless the GM decides that circumstances dictate otherwise. For example, if a PC has just escaped from captivity they would be expected to justify how they pay for their next meal.

If you want to make a major purchase you need to justify having enough cash, and so you should keep a tally of how much money you have as you go along. Prices are never fixed, while whoever you encounter, be it an Aeg blacksmith or a Vendjomois slave and beast merchant, will be out to maximise their profit. Most of time the trader will be an NPC, in which case it falls to the GM to demand a high price, but not a ridiculously high price. The PC can accept this, which is considered an act of largesse and gains 1 Glory Point, or can walk away, or can make a counter offer of no less than one tenth the amount. They then begin to bargain.

Bargaining is a conflict in Guile, in which the more practical peoples are at a disadvantage. The trader always rolls first, in response to the offer. With each six you throw, your opponent not only loses a Game Point but must give way by 5% of the gap between the demand and the offer. When the offer equals or exceeds the demand a bargain has been struck, unless either person runs out of Game Points in Guile first, in which case they must pay whatever price is being demanded or offered by their opponent at that stage. (See example 4.)

The usual rules for loosing your cool apply, in which case you are simply arguing rather than trying to strike a bargain. If combat ensues the winner may take the object in question as well as anything else to hand, but should bear in mind that murdering shopkeepers and plundering their stock tends to raise eyebrows among the civic authorities. You may choose to back out of a bargaining session at any stage, but your Game Points in Guile do not refresh until you have had a night's sleep.

If the trader is a PC they may make whatever demand they consider appropriate, but the potential buyer is always entitled to walk away, in which case the trader may wish to make a new, less extortionate, offer, or not according to circumstances. For example, if you are trying to buy a sword in the market at Oretes and your fellow PC, a merchant, demands ten thousand weights of gold you need merely make an appropriate gesture and move on to another stall or shop. On the other hand, if you are being pursued through the wilds, unarmed, and chance upon the same sword merchant you will probably be happy to bargain.

You can only pay what you have, but if the amount struck in a bargain is more than you have in your possession you can try to get credit under the normal rules, but bear in mind that creditors can very quickly become enemies.

Alternatively, you can try to barter, but you must have something worthwhile to offer, meaning it has a similar value to the sum required. Again, value is dependent on circumstances.

A PC always has the right to refuse to bargain for their last two weapons, their last riding beast and their last two items of apparel.

 

Guidelines to values –

† This sort of thing is not going to be available in the typical market, although PCs are perfectly welcome to attempt to set themselves up as gun runners.

 

 

Trade

 

PCs wishing to act as merchants might benefit from the following table of relative values, in which 1 represents a cheap product made locally and 8 a rare, expensive import. This is only approximate and does not include curiosities -

 

Kit

 

Each PC starts out with the clothes on their back, in a style typical of their region and status. Anything else must be exchanged for Golds from the amount they carry. This does
not
reduce their Game Points in Wealth, only what they have on them at the beginning of the game. At the start of the game you have a choice of three levels of kit, which must be appropriate to your people. A Stranger may carry one piece of armament appropriate to their culture per weight of gold spent, but it is incumbent on the GM to ensure that any PC bringing a magically rechargeable energy weapon gets buggered by trolls within a few turns. Otherwise -

Don't forget that wandering around the streets of an Aprinian city with a rifle and half a dozen bandoleers of ammo is going to get you arrested, fast. On the other hand, a highborn lady of Mund keeps a dagger with her at all times, even in the bath. This sort of thing may lead to cultural incompatibility.

 

 

Retainers

 

Over the course of a game you might pick up any companion from a Vendjomois slave to a tame troll, but at the start you can only have retainers from your own people. The only exception is if you're playing the Stranger, in which case you can take your pick but need to beware of the consequences of your choice.

You may purchase retainers as follows –

 

1 Gold gets you a basic retainer of 40 Game Points distributed according to their national characters -