You want some more money?
But your GM moans about all those die rolls?
How about making it one die roll each for the players and the GM?
Batch Haggling: Instead of haggling for each item, a PC can try to get a blanket better deal for all wares sold on this trip to town (excluding items just purchased in town - it's for selling loot, not running a trading enterprise.) Roll a Quick Contest of Merchant vs. a generic skill of 15. If the PC wins, he's gotten a good deal, he gets a price halfway between that of his current wealth level and the next wealth level. If he ties, he gets no special deals. If he fails, he gets halfway between his current wealth level and the next lower wealth level. Since this represents a series of negotiations and not a since instance, you cannot use Luck on the roll. Once the price has been established, that is the "going rate" for that item in town, even if it is sold later - once you commit to batch haggling for a group of items, you're taking a risk you might get less than the standard rate for the items. You can always exclude some items, but you can't break up the items into groups and roll separately for them, unless different PCs are selling them.
For example, someone with Average Wealth gets 40% for non-coin, non-jewel goods. If he wins the batch contest, he gets 50% instead this trip. If he loses, he gets 30% for his items.
This is risky but can be very effective for high-skilled PCs, or those who need a lot or money right now or none at all.
Black Market haggling can be handled the same way, with the usual consequences for failure and the usual options for going to a merchant, instead.
How does this work out in actual play? - If my players are willing to take the risk, we'll find out!
This is approximately how I handle things. Excluding items for which PCs have a particular type of buyer in mind (for example, monster organs or unusual substances which might be of particular interest to enchanters, alchemists, and the like), everything gets bundled up into a single batch and the price determined with the results of a single Merchant roll. It lets us get the selling out of the way quickly and move on to the far more enjoyable shopping.
ReplyDeleteI had considered doing it that way, instead of the batch-and-half results approach above. But I figured I'd like it if the system:
Delete- would still work in combination with the existing one, for items of special importance
- would aggregate success and failure so it didn't feel like a giant risk, but rather "net overall failure, with some successes" and "net overall success, with some failures" and not just all or nothing.
I like it! Maybe I will make Galoob the true skill monkey and make him good at selling stuff too. Does anyone else have this stuff? Then again, spending too many points on stuff like this will probably get him killed, so I suppose it's a balance.
ReplyDeleteIt'll only cost like 7 more points to have even odds in that Merchant contest. Or 10 points for Comfortable Wealth and an automatic +20%.
DeleteOr you can go Streetwise and sell it all on the sly, instead . . . lots of choices.
Hm, that's not too terrible. Would need to get a few more successful trips into the dungeons warrens before I feel like Galoob would merit getting something like "Comfortable Wealth."
DeleteIt wouldn't increase the money he has, just the amount he gets selling things, so it would be easily explainable as "he spent a few weeks in town building up sales contacts and goodwill."
DeleteOoooh. Well, given his rather pronounced absence from the Felltower that would certainly make sense in-game.
DeleteFunny cause when i haggle IRL my chances are better the more I buy lolz. Another great post, I oddly like Role-Playing Haggling and tough negotiations lolz, although no opportunities for such.
ReplyDeleteRight, but in this case the merchant is the buyer. The more the merchant buys, the better the deal, usually. And if the merchant out-rolls you, that's quite true. If not, you manage to find the right merchants to sell each piece too - it's all abstracted, not one PC vs. one merchant. It's one PC vs. the whole town's markets.
DeleteI've been doing it this way. I think I actually assumed that's how the rules in DF2 are supposed to work in the first place!
ReplyDeleteIt says "For each item" - although with the amount of crazy stuff I give out, it takes forever to do a QC for each and every one.
Delete