Chapter V: Equipment
Most people in the Old World see very few gold coins in their lives. In lieu of hard currency, many commoners rely on trade for support, perhaps crafting a wagon wheel in exchange for a sack of flour. Adventurers, on the other hand, encounter far more gold than the
average person, and so can have more assets than most people. For more information on income and rates for common people, labourers, and artisans, see Table 5-1: Income , which presents rough pay guidelines.
— a VaIlabIlITy —
H aving the money doesn’t always guarantee the desired good or service is at hand. Hamlets and small villages are a lot less likely to have expensive goods than, say, a large city of 10,000 people. Moreover, finding a high quality sword in a backwater village is far more difficult than locating such a weapon in a teeming metropolis. To reflect availability, each good and service has an associated availability, ranging from Very Rare to Abundant. These notations are a base availability and should serve as a starting point for determining whether a town has such an item or not. For example, Marienburg is a coastal city, and naturally,
fish would be more common there than in a place like Karak Kadrin, situated as it is in the World’s Edge Mountains. Hence, feel free to adjust the levels of goods and services to suit the location of your game. Characters searching for a particular item or service must make a successful Gossip Test modified by the availability of the item ( Table 5–2: Consequences of Availability provides a baseline modifier for Gossip Tests to find an item in a community of 1,000 people or less). For communities larger than 1,000 people, reduce the difficulty for finding an object by one step for communities of 10,000 or less, or two steps for communities of 10,000 or more. If the community has 100 people or less, increase the difficulty by one step. Table 5–3: Availability by Population shows how the difficulty changes based on population size. Example: Aaron needs a new sword. A sword is a common item, and so he gains a +10% on his Gossip Test to find it in an average village. If he looks in a hamlet, with a population of 100 or less, the difficulty is Average (no bonus) or if he looks in a city with a large population (say about 8,000 people), he could find a sword easily (gaining a +20% bonus as the difficulty lessens to Easy). — C rafTsmanshIp — N ot all goods are of the same quality. Some equipment is shoddy, in poor repair, or of exquisite craftsmanship and beauty. A haunch of spoiled meat has far less value than a well-prepared roast, just as a polished sword from a Dwarf forge is far more valuable than a rusty sword found in the bottom of a lake. All goods and services described in the following sections are of Common craftsmanship, meaning the goods and services are of average quality or performance. For characters desiring something less or greater than the average, use the following adjustments to cost and availability. Normally, craftsmanship has no affect on game play for regular goods and services. A poorly crafted tallow candle may refuse to stay lit, or sputter, or give off a foul odour, while the best-crafted wax candle may burn brightly, resist gusts of wind, and so on. In the case of weaponry and armour, there are effects on the item’s performance or encumbrance, but in cases of general goods and services, differences of quality are merely descriptive. The GM may reduce the difficulty of certain tests, but it is entirely at her discretion.
T able 5-1: I nCome
Job
Yearly Pay ( gc )
Monthly Pay ( s ) Weekly Pay ( p )
Peasant
9-15 15-25 20-30 20-40 20-50
15-25 25-45 35-50 35-65 35-80
45-75 75-135 105-150 105-195 105-240 120-400 150-495 195-750 750-2505 1245-2505 1500-4050
Rich Farmer Innkeeper
City Shopkeeper
Mercenary
Skilled Craftsman 25-80
40-135 50-165 65-250 250-835 415-835 500-1350
Typical Fence
30-100 40-150 150-500 250-500 300-800
Physician
Artisan
Lesser Noble Wizard Lord Greater Noble
1000+ 5100 + All yearly wages given are before regional taxes have been applied. T able 5-2: C onsequenCes of a VaIlabIlITy Availability Difficulty Gossip Skill Test Modifier Very Rare Very Hard –30% Rare Hard –20% Scarce Challenging –10% Average Average +0% Common Routine +10% Plentiful Easy +20% Abundant Very Easy +30% 1700+
T able 5-3: a VaIlabIlITy by p opulaTIon ————————Difficulty by Population—————————
Availability
Below 100
Below 1,000
Below 10,000
10,000 or more
Very Rare
GM’s discretion
Very Hard
Hard
Challenging
Rare
Very Hard
Hard
Challenging
Average Routine
Scarce Average Common Plentiful Abundant
Hard
Challenging
Average Routine
Challenging
Average Routine
Easy
Average Routine
Easy
Very Easy Automatic Automatic
Easy
Very Easy Automatic
Easy
Very Easy
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