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NAME needs few rules about equipment. Most issues are already taken care of by the game's narrative focus, careful design for skills and skill use, and diceless style.
Yet even when the main reward for successful adventuring is increasing skill and talent ratings, Players enjoy when the PC earns spendable wealth as a complimentary reward. Skill and talent ratings measure how capable a character is when following the rules, but wealth can be spent on nifty equipment that allows characters to bend or break the rules. Adventures are more fun when the PC has some tricks up his or her sleeves.
So the most important economic rules are about spendable wealth and special equipment. A table of sample effects suggests ideas for fun special equipment.
For the sake of completeness, price lists and descriptions for mundane items and services are also provided.
An adventurer deals with many types of spendable wealth. Money is obviously the most common kind. But other commodities exist: favors from influential people, access to pieces of restricted knowledge, hours spent in the baron's personal alchemy lab, etc.
For the sake of simplicity, these rules simply mention coins as the spendable commodity: a small silver piece worth half day's wages for unskilled labor. The guilds of Arlinac Town cooperately own the town mint, which produces coins at a rate decided by the town council.
During and after a successful adventure the PC is usually rewarded with wealth about equal in coins to ten times the number of skills for which the PC has a skill rating of 4 or greater. (So a new PC probably earns 30 to 40 coins for finishing his or her first adventure.) The wealth reward is often partly found during the adventure as treasure and partly paid as a concluding reward for work done well.
Wealth Reward Example
A GM is planning an adventure for a PC who has three skills of skill rating 4 and two skills of skill rating 5. If the adventure is of average length and difficulty he PC will finish the adventure gaining wealth equal to (3 + 2) × 10 = 50 more coins. The GM decides the adventure should include treasure worth 30 coins as well as 20 coins given to the PC at the end of the story as payment for finishing an assignment.
Many GMs and Players simply ignore the cost of "mundane" equipment that does not use the special equipment rules. After all, the PC is a hero or heroine! In most fantasy stories the experienced adventurers do not struggle to afford a sword, suit of armor, lantern, or even a horse. But some stories do require a more detailed economy in which mundane equipment has prices. These rules include price lists for those stories.
Note that because the wage for unskilled labor is 1 coin per five hours of work then a full ten-hour workday pays 2 coins. Continuing the math, a six-day work week of unskilled labor earns 12 coins and a fifty-two week work year totals 624 coins.
In terms of game mechanics, "unskilled labor" refers to a skill rating of 1. Skilled labor is, of course, more expensive. Each skill rating above 1 earns another coin per five hours.
In most RPGs the main purpose of wealth is to allow the PC to purchase special equipment. In a fantasy setting this special equipment might be a magic potion, flying carpet, or dancing sword. In a science fiction setting the special equipment might be a nanotech restorative, a personal spaceship, or an electrified net launcher.
Special equipment, whatever it looks like, is described with two ratings: impact and cost.
A special item's impact measures how intense and powerful an effect it produces. How much does this item allow its user to bend or break the rules? Rate the effect's power from 1 to 5 using the following guidelines:
| Rating | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | Small Bonus/Penalty - Tiny effects that can be described as a 1-point bonus or penalty to a single skill |
| 2 | Big Bonuses/Penalties - Small effects that can be described as 2-point bonuses or penalties to several skills |
| 3 | Bend the Rules - Medium effects that can still be described by the rules about skills, turns, successes, and losses |
| 4 | Break the Rules - Large effects the rules cannot describe |
| 5 | Domination - Extreme effects that allow complete control over the encounter |
The bonuses granted by special items are almost always a special item bonus, a new type of bonus of either 1 or 2 points that can combine with the previously explained equipment bonus, situational advantage bonus, group bonus, and talent bonus.
Remember that no special items should duplicate the effects of talents.
Many Bonus Example
A PC is fighting a ship full of pirates. The PC has a base Melee/Press skill rating of 3. Fortunately, this is boosted by an enchanted rapier (+2 equipment bonus), standing higher on the staircase to the forecastle (+1 situational advantage bonus), and magic dueling gloves (+2 special item bonus). The PC thus has an effective skill rating of 8, and fares well against his numerous swarthy foes.
A special item costs more if it is more powerful. An item with higher impact is more expensive. Items whose effect has a greater elusion requirement, area of effect, range, and/or duration are also more expensive.
To find an item's retail price per use, start with 10 times its impact and make the following four adjustments.
First, consider the elusion requirement if the effect is harmful. Normally a harmful effect has an elusion requirement specified by an appropriate skill and a numeric threshold equal to the effect's impact. Also, characters who pass the elusion requirement are completely immune to the effect.
Second, consider where the effect happens. Normally the target of an effect is one appropriate item or person, and the range of an effect is either the person using the item or something the user touches.
Third, consider how quickly the effect achieves its full potential. Normally the effect is instantly at full effect.
Fourth, consider the duration of the effect. Normally an effect either does its work instantly (such as a lightning bolt or spray of acid) or has a meaningful duration that lasts a few minutes.
The final value measures the retail cost in coins per use of the special item. Most special items can be repaired, restored, or recharged for half the original cost when nothing else about the item is changed.
Characters that know how to craft special items can create them for half the retail cost per use and re-charge items for one-quarter the retail cost per use.
Here are some examples of common special item effects found in fantasy stories and RPG adventures.
| Effect | Impact 1 Small Bonus/Penalty |
Impact 2 Big Bonuses/Penalties |
Impact 3 Bend the Rules |
Impact 4 Break the Rules |
Impact 5 Domination |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Immobilization | target is fatigued and suffers 1-point penalty to Dodge | target is sluggish and suffers 2-point penalty to all physical skills | target is slowed and only acts every other turn | target falls asleep but is easily wakened | target is completely paralyzed |
| Mental Domination | 1-point bonus to aggressively using Bargain/Wonder | 2-point bonus to making suggestions with Bargain/Wonder, Intuition/Provoke, or Etiquette | automatically succeed when making reasonable suggestions | even unreasonable requests will be obeyed | control another person like a marionette |
| Burliness | 1-point bonus to Wrestle | 2-point bonus to all Brawn Skills | causes one extra loss with successful combat skill use | breaks down doors, bends metal bars | attacks automatically defeat opponents |
| Sneaking | 1-point bonus to Stealth | 2-point bonus to Stealth, Dodge, and Escape | nearly invisible: Stealth always succeeds against unwary people | complete invisiblity until make or hit by an attack | remains completely invisible for full duration |
| Lightness | 1-point bonus to Acrobatics | 2-point bonus to Acrobatics, Stealth, Dodge, and Escape | effectively weightless when carried | slow levitation | fast and nimble flight |
| Finding | 1-point bonus to Perception when searching | 2-point bonus to Perception and Track | automatically find traps | see through all disguises, illusions, and invisibility | |
| Communication | 1-point bonus to Etiquette | 2-point bonus to Etiquette and Bargain | telepathic communication with one ally | detect surface thoughts of everyone in the area | |
| Locks | 1-point bonus to Machinery when dealing with locks | 2-point bonus to Machinery when dealing with locks | automatically pick locks | automatically pick and alter locks | |
| Blizzard | 1-point penalty to Shoot from winds | 2-point penalty to Shoot/Throw and Stealth | severe storm limits movement to 1 map square and prohibits ranged attacks | severe storm also limits visiblity to 4 meters (2 map squares) | encase all foes in blocks of ice |
| Heat | 1-point bonus to Wilderness to ignite kindling (usually enough to succeed) | 2-point bonus to Wrestle to endure heat | burst of fire hurts all in area | shoot one fireball each turn, it can defeat one foe | fill the area with a raging inferno |
| Explosion | 1-point bonus to Stealth (from a distracting "bang" noise) | 2-point bonus to Stealth and Exit/Escape | can use Shoot without a weapon | knock out one foe per turn | huge explosion levels the entire area |
| Anti-Magic | 1-point bonus to Identify/Lore about magic | 2-point penalty to being magically detected or enchanted | can attack magic effects (the impact equals required losses to defeat) | entire area is an anti-magic field | entire area is a selective anti-magic field with only desired effects remaining |
The only standard rule about equipment involves encumberance. As mentioned in the description of the Wrestle/Disarm skill: "As a rule of thumb, a character can comfortably carry a backpack and other equipment weighing at total of fifteen times his or her skill rating (in kilograms) without penalizing physical skills such as Acrobatics and Dodge." Beyond this guideline, an unusually bulky load (even if not especially heavy) could hinder skill use. The GM may impose a situational disadvantage for using physical skills such as Acrobatics/Climb, Melee/Press, Shoot/Throw, Wrestle/Disarm, Exit/Escape, or Stealth/Track when carrying an awkward burden.
The GM and Player should agree on how much detail to include about equipment choices creating situational advantages and disadvantages for skill use. For example, weapon and armor types can realistically affect combat: chain armor defends against cutting much better than impacts, and polearms are very effective against an enemy's mount. Some GMs and Players appreciate including more realism, whereas others desire simplicity.
Most fantasy settings have a few weapons or devices that do extraordinary damage (explosives, poisons, seige weapons, etc.). In NAME these are not "mundane" but are created with magic or technology. Because such items require a high skill rating (usually in Machinery or Alchemy) to create, they are quite expensive and very rare. Furthermore, they are normally illegal to own and being seen with them triggers a cultural stigma that associates them with evil people who have no interest in survivors (hired assassins, butchering pirates, mad inventors, and so on).
The retail cost of any mundane item is based upon a formula:
retail cost = [ material cost × (labor hours / 5) ] × [ 0.5 + (minimum skill / 2) ] × scarcity
The material cost is zero for animals, metals, and some trade goods. These three categories serve as materials for crafted items.
The labor hours is divided by five because unskilled labor costs one coin per five hours of work.
The minimum skill to create the item is a multiplier, incrementing by 50% of the cost of unskilled labor.
The scarcity is either 1 (normally available), 2 (somewhat rare), or 3 (very rare). It can represent either a material that is difficult to find, an item whose demand exceeds its supply, or a crafting specialization only known to a few crafters.
The descriptions below provide sufficient information to reproduce this formula for any listed item.
Note: I have very little personal experience with animal husbandry, mining, and medieval crafting. If you have the expertise to correct my inadequately-researched conclusions about how much time and skill is required for certain items, please send me an e-mail and correct me!
| Animal | Coins |
|---|---|
| Lizard | 2 |
| Songbird | 3 |
| Goat | 20 |
| Sheep | 20 |
| Donkey or Llama | 90 |
| Ox or Cow | 120 |
| Horse | 450 |
Lizards and songbirds represent wild animals that are caught in a snare with a few hours (six and twelve, respectively) of effort. The listed prices for livestock are the cost to buy healthy animals that have recently reached breeding age.
Goats and sheep require no skill to raise. Donkeys, oxen, cows, and horses require an minimum Animal/Wilderness skill rating of 2.
Goats and sheep only require about 100 hours of individual attention to raise. Cattle require much more time: 300 hours for a mule or llama, 400 for an ox or cow, 500 for a horse.
The only scarce animal listed is the horse, which is very rare in and near Arlinac Town.
So far no one has been able to use golem labor to help catch or raise animals.
| Metal (per kilogram) | Coins |
|---|---|
| Copper | 24 |
| Zinc | 39 |
| Cast Iron | 72 |
| Tin | 533 |
| Silver | 720 |
| Gold | 5,040 |
Mining is usually unskilled labor. The only exception is producing cast iron, which requires a Machinery skill rating of 2. (In Arlinac Town there is no market for iron ore or pig iron. Mining businesses turn these into cast iron before selling the iron.)
Copper, zinc, and iron are not scarce. Mines for tin, silver, and gold are very rare near Arlinac Town.
Copper is the easiest ore to mine. Getting one kilogram of copper hour takes half a month's work (120 hours). Iron is as easy, but creationg cast iron requires additional smelting and refining for a total of a month's work (240 hours).
Zinc is more time-consuming to mine than copper or iron, requiring 80% of a month (192 hours) to mine one kilogram. Tin takes almost four months (888 hours). Silver requires five months (1,200 hours). Gold requires 35 months (8,400 hours).
Golem labor is becoming more popular for moving mining carts. But golems lack the intelligence to follow an ore seam or mine it well.
As I mentioned earlier, I have no idea how long it really takes to mine types of ore. I researched a ballpark for copper. Then I increased the time proportionally to how rare the minerals are in the earth's crust. Someone must have better estimates for mining times!
| Trade Good | Coins |
|---|---|
| Clay (1 kg) | 0.4 |
| Wood (25 stove logs) | 1 |
| Wine (1 liter) | 2 |
| Flour (for 5 loaves) | 3 |
| Wax (for 2 candles) | 3 |
| Flax/Linen (for 1 shirt) | 4 |
| Honey (1 kg) | 4 |
| Paper (1 quality page) | 7 |
| Wool (for 1 shirt) | 9 |
| Soft Leather (for 1 shirt) | 21 |
| Brass (1 kg) | 29 |
| Wrought Iron (1 kg) | 109 |
| Bronze (1 kg) | 126 |
Not trade goods are scarce. All but two are made with unskilled labor. Creating wax requires a skill rating of 2 in Animals/Wilderness. Creating wrought iron requires a skill rating of 2 in Machinery.
Because Arlinac Town is on a river, gathering pottery-quality clay only requires two hours. The nearby forests mean gathering enough wood to make 25 stove-sized logs takes five hours.
Golem labor helps with watering and milling grain, and with beekeeping. Flour for five loaves requires a total of fifteen hours of cultivation, harvesting, and milling. Wax for two candles requires ten hours. Honey requires sixteen hours of work per kilogam.
Grape vines and flax/linen are too delicate for golem labor. Making one liter of wine requires a total of ten hours work. Making enough flax or linen for one shirt (or one meter of thin rope) takes twenty hours. Similarly, paper-making cannot yet be done by golems, and takes thirty hours per page.
Wool is easy to work with. Shearing, carding, and spinning the wool from one-third of a sheep's annual fleece takes ten hours. Soft leather had a higher material cost (one-sixth of an ox, instead of one-third of a sheep) but only requires four hours to tan.
Brass is made with 70% copper, 30% zinc, and one hour's work. Wrought iron adds an hour's work to cast iron. Bronze is made with 80% copper, 20% tin, and one hour's work.
| Food | Coins |
|---|---|
| Tavern Meal with Wine | 1 |
| Produce (5 kg) | 2 |
| Poor Meals (5, cooked) | 3 |
| Dried Rations (5) | 4 |
| Mule Feed (weekly) | 5 |
| Hard Sugar Candy (1 kg) | 9 |
| Fancy Confections (1 kg) | 27 |
Most food preparation is unskilled labor. Candy making is an exception: hard sugar candies, made mostly of honey and flour, require an Alchemy skill rating of 2. Creating very fancy confections require a skill rating of 3.
Only very fancy confections have any scarcity: they are somewhat rare.
A basic tavern meal includes a quarter loaf of bread, half kilogram of cooked vegetables, and a quarter liter of wine. Some taverns use their flour to make noodles instead of bread. Old cold days the taverns, inns, and restaurants in Arlinac Town will have soup and stew on the menu.
Poor meals suffice for bare sustainance, and represent what people eat in the slums. Most people in Arlinac Town spend about 1 coin per day on food, and cook their own meals.
Dried Rations are biscuits and jerkey. They provide unsatisfying nourishment for hunters who do not want to light campfires, and eaten in small portions as snacks by people traveling with merchant caravans.
Growing produce requires about two hours of active labor. Preparing rations requires one hour. Producing mule feed requires two hours. Making hard sugar candies requires about six hours, and making fancy confections requires ten.
| Clothing | Coins |
|---|---|
| Cheap | 30 |
| Common | 60 |
| Soft Leather | 162 |
| Fancy | 396 |
| Elite | 660 |
No clothing is scarce. Cheap and Common clothing is made with unskilled labor. Making Soft Leather requires a skill rating of 2 in Animals/Wilderness. Creating Fancy or Elite clothing requires a skill rating of 3 or 4, respectively, in Etiquette.
Making an outfit of cheap clothing requires sixty hours of labor (one week) and enough wool for four shirts. Common clothing requires 120 hours of labor (two weeks) and the same amount of wool. Both include a shirt, hat, either pants or a dress, and either a vest, bodice, or apron.
Soft Leather clothing requires 120 hours of labor (two weeks) and enough leather for four shirts.
Fancy clothing requires 720 hours (three months) of labor and enough wool for six shirts.
Cheap clothing requires 960 hours of labor (four months) and enough wool for eight shirts.
| Armor | Coins |
|---|---|
| Hard Leather, Unfitted | 198 |
| Hard Leather, Fitted | 360 |
| Ringmail | 669 |
| Scale | 833 |
| Chain | 943 |
| Plate (Fitted) | 6,890 |
Normally armor does not effect skill use, except from an equipment bonus if of excellent quality or beneficially enchanted. However, if two combatants have equal skill but different types of armor it is fair to give a situational advantage to the person wearing better armor. Consider the list of armor types: use a 1-point the situational advantage bonus if the armor types are adjacent in the list, or a 2-point situational advantage bonus if the armors are more different.
No armors are scarce. There is so little demand for the more expensive types that armorers are able to avoid creating any unwanted surplus.
Hard Leather armor is by far the most common armor in and around Arlinac Town. Enough soft leather to make four shirts is cut, shaped, boiled in oil and wax, shaped again, and dried. A full set weighs 10 kilograms, and includes arm and wrist bracers, cuisse (thigh) and greave (calf) pieces for the legs, a brigandine (vest) and helmet. Most hunters and merchants wear Hard Leather armor outside of Arlinac Town as protection against bandits and monsters. An armorer with an Animals/Wilderness skill rating of 2 can make "unfitted" Hard Leather armor that is bulky (as encumbering as if it weighed 15 kilograms) in 240 hours. Wearing a set of Hard Leather armor fit for someone else also counts as "unfitted". An armorer with an Animals/Wilderness skill rating of 3 can make properly fitted Hard Leather armor in 480 hours.
Ringmail is soft leather sparsely covered with metal rings. It provides equivalent protection to Hard Leather armor while allowing slightly greater mobility. It weighs 12 kilograms. Ringmail is worn by most of Arlinac Town's guards, bodyguards, and mercenaries. Because it uses soft leather it need not be carefully fitted; its expense is from the time spent creating rings from two kilograms of wrought iron. Creating Ringmail requires a Machinery skill rating of 2 and 720 hours.
Scale armor is a soft leather backing covered with overlapping metal scales of various sizes. Very much like Ringmail, it is not carefully fitted, weighs 13 kilograms and its creation also requires 720 hours and a Machinery skill rating of 2. It proves better protection, with more weight and cost. Usually only elite guards, bodyguards, and mercenaries can afford Scale armor.
Chain armor is an entirely metal suit of linked rings worn over wool padding. It provides equivalent protection to scale while being more comfortable and expensive. (It feels "fitted" but is not.) It is made from enough wool to make three shirts, and four kilograms of wrought iron. It only requires a Machinery skill rating of 1, but takes 2,400 hours to create. It is worn by rich nobles who want to flaunt their wealth while participating in tournaments.
Plate armor is solid plates molded to the body, held together by leather straps which are covered by metal. This is the most protective of armor, but is incredibly expensive. It weighs 25 kilograms, requires 3,600 hours to create, and requires a Mahcinery skill rating of 3. It is only used by a few gate guards. All Plate armor is fitted: it is impractical to try fighting in Plate armor made for someone else.
Scale and Chain armor is encumbering enough that its wearer suffers a 2-point penalty when attempting tracking, jumping, acrobatics, sneaking, unarmed combat, dodging, or projectile combat. In Plate armor those actions are impossible. Furthermore, someone wearing Plate armor suffers a 2-point penalty when attempting hiding, escaping, or throwing.
Sleep is not restful when wearing armor.