Varying Prices with a Selling Table

by Edward Connery

On a cool day in the month of Freshet, a battered warrior approached the Chapel. A Knight of the Order answered her knock.
"I am the Amazon," she said. "I seek to hire one of your Knights to do battle with a fearsome dragon on yonder Crag. I have adequate gold to offer..."
"A moment," spake the grim Knight. "You are neither friend nor ally to us; we must consider." (A rumble as of thunder shook the air, and a ghostly voice muttered "Six - trouble".) "No," the Knight said, "we really don't like you very much." (Another rumble, and the voice of doom again, "Six again! Blocked!") The other Knights emerged, surrounded the Amazon, and the Head of the Order ordered, "You will remain here in our custody this day throughout." The Amazon fled that eventide, escaping the hostile Order.
A few days later, the bedraggled Amazon approached the Chapel once more.
"You again!" challenged a Knight. "You dare return?"
"I surely do dare!", she sneered. "In fact, I want fifteen gold pieces from you for this Glimmering Ring, which I stole from the dragon while it slept heartily." "Fifteen gold? Certainly! Here is the money." So the Ring was traded for coin, and the Amazon strode away, shouting "Victory!"

As this little fable illustrates, there is an obvious problem here. Under the basic rules, one's worst enemy will automatically hand over the full value in gold of any item presented, and one's best friend will make exactly the same deal. Instead, be it here suggested that characters wishing to sell items roll on the Selling Table, which is used in much the same manner as the "Meeting Table".
In conjunction with the Selling Table, use the following rule modifications:

41.4 Whenever a character occupies the same Clearing as a native leader, he can attempt to buy or sell cards or counters to or from that leader's group.
41.5 A character must use phases of his turn to buy or sell items to or from a group. These phases are TRADE phases; a character must record "T" to identify each TRADE phase in his turn.
41.51 Whenever a character executes a TRADE phase, he can try to buy one item from any native leader who is in his Clearing; or he can try to sell one item to any native leader who is in his Clearing. If there are no native leaders in his Clearing he can do nothing and loses the phase.
41.52 When a character executes a TRADE phase, he announces which group he is trading with and whether he will buy or sell items. Then he specifies which card or counter he would like to buy or sell, rolls two dice and consults either the MEETING TABLE or the SELLING TABLE (depending on the action chosen) to determine the price he must pay or may receive for the item.

The Optional Rules 5.1 through 5.8 are stongly recommended when using the Selling Table.

Aside from making sale of items more rational, the Selling Table provides some opportunities for profitable trading. The would-be merchant prince can now buy an item from one group and hope to make a fair profit in selling it to another (friendly) group. Two players may even combine their efforts to buy from a group friendly to one, and sell to a group friendly to the other - splitting the profits in some equitable manner. Happy Capitalism!

THE SELLING TABLE

Notes:

a) All fractions are rounded up.
b) "Opportunity" and "Trouble": as listed on the MEETING TABLE.
c) On results of "Price x 1/10" and "Price x 0", the character must yield the item for the listed Price (if any), or be Blocked immediately.
d) Items with Conditional Fame can be sold to the named group on the column of the table one level friendlier than normal. If the group is already an Ally, subtract one from the die roll (0 = Price x 3).
e) Visitors buy their listed Artifacts and Spell Books on the Friendly column, using the inflated values from Rule 57.7/3 as the base price, but each character may roll only ONCE, take or leave it (Opportunity = Price x 2). If the Visitor is Friendly to the character, subtract one from the die roll (0 = Price x 3). If the Visitor is Unfriendly to the character, add one to the die roll (7 = Price x 1/2).

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