Bartering & Apprasial
Often when shopping, the character is going to want to haggle to get a better price for their goods. Bartering is a common tradition within the world and can often get you great items for cheap. However, bartering isn’t just for buying and selling goods, as it is also used to appraise items in order to know their value. This can be helpful for if a shopkeeper is trying to sell your wares that are overpriced. Also, if you have a treasure that you are unsure of how valuable it is, the bartering skill helps to identify its value. There are three ways to barter: selling, buying, and appraising equipment. Performing barter checks can reward reputation.
Appraising Equipment
Often characters are going to find treasure and other equipment that they are going to want to know its value. In order to determine an item’s value, the character makes a barter check. Bartering is used because it relates to buying and selling equipment, of which relates to the value of items. Appraising an item does not tell you how it works, only its value.
When making this check, it is per item, and each item has their own range of rarity. It is up to the game master to determine how rare an item is if no rarity is listed. Different situations or settings can also make some items vary in value. Items within this chapter have a common rarity unless otherwise stated in their description.
If you roll below ten, the value of the item will remain a mystery. The table below shows the difficulty you need to beat in order to know the value of the item. The rarer the item and the higher quality, the harder it is to appraise.
Appraisal Difficulty
Buying Equipment
When buying equipment, it is listed as basic quality which reflects on the prices in this book. This can give you an idea of how much value an item has, which is helpful when trying to barter the price down. Bartering to lower the price uses a bartering check versus the clerk’s (or the person selling the item) barter check. The difficulty of the barter is based on the skill and experience of the clerk. If you are in a more refined shop, such as a jewelry shop, owned by the merchant guild, bartering would be harder, as the clerks would have been trained and educated. A small-town general goods shop might be very easy to barter, as the clerk might not be as skilled or educated as the jewelry clerk. To determine what the shopkeeper’s barter skill total would be, refer to Civilians in the Creature Guide except in the back of the book.
Character’s Barter Vs. Clerk’s Barter
The percentage off the item’s price is double the difference between your barter check and the clerk’s check. This is only if your check is higher than theirs. For example, if you are bartering with a commoner clerk for an item and the clerk rolls a ten but you roll a fifteen, you would get a ten percent discount. So, the higher your barter skill is and the better chance you have at chaining your roll, the larger discount you can get. However, the maximum discount possible is seventy percent off.
Drunken Bartering
Being drunk while trying to barter gives you a 50/50 chance of being able to increase your chance to chain your bartering check by one increment. On a d100 if a fifty-one or higher is rolled, your barter checks chaining chance increases by one increment. If fifty or less, you have unlucky rolls with bartering and lose any chaining increments if you have any.
Selling Equipment
When selling equipment to merchants the pricing can be adjusted based on bartering. The base selling price of used equipment is 20% of the original cost listed. Selling equipment uses the same method as if bartering to buy them. Instead of lowering the price, you are bartering to get a higher price based on the percentage. The items’ starting price is based on its durability and condition. The better condition the item is in reflects the starting selling price the clerk will give. You can't expect a high profit if the condition is poor.
Good Condition
No durability lost. Can be sold for 20% of the original cost.
Bad Condition
Each durability point lost reduces the percentage by one until it reaches zero, which means the item is in poor condition.
Every -1 Durability = -1% to the Selling Price
Poor Condition
The resale value has been reduced to zero (0% of the original cost) and the only way to increase its value is through bartering. With a high enough bartering skill, it is possible to sell lower condition items for higher prices. Even poor condition items can be sold if the seller knows the right words to say by rolling high barter checks.
Stolen Goods
If you’re someone who wants to sell goods that were taken from another person without their permission or knowledge, you cannot sell them at a local shop. In order to sell them, you need to find a fence in the black market. To find a fence, you must either know the thieves’ marks or know someone who does. Once you have that down, a fence is easy to find, and stolen goods can then be sold as normal. Just don’t expect a local thief to give you access to the black market without some questioning and possibly a fee.
