0900 06 AUG 2000
==============
Referee's Note: as the group has reached a safe harbor, we are going to advance the timeline. Roleplaying all the aspects of a week ends up being a lot of paperwork without much to show for it. This means skip it. If you're not enjoying, drop it like you would in any face-to-face game.
"We spent the next week on something like R&R. We did not really have any duties at the moment and Top Blue Elk let us be and gave our time to get our crap together. He could see that we needed some time to reconstitute.
Our physical wounds closed up nicely, with the medics checkin' our progress everyday and Logan making sure they did it correctly. He is picky like that. The wounds to our souls were still open and bleedin' but only time would heal those. Still, we were alive and had a duty to carry on for those that we had lost.
Harris dragged out the old battalion sign, complete with our unit coat of arms. Once again, we were the 1st Battalion, 173rd Infantry Regiment (Alabama National Guard), Major Edward Harris commanding. It felt good to show our colors around those cav guys. Time to gettin' back to servin' all proper like. Wear the uniform with pride."
As noted in the NPC description, Captain Warren will interview all Americans entering the town. This should not be much of a problem, as neither side has any need to escalate the encounter. The only difficulty is the situation with Major Harris, who outranks the good captain. Instead of a direct conflict about the chain of command, I have instead decided that it would be plausible for Major Harris to reactivate his battalion, as small as it may be. The battalion may be short a few bodies, but it also provides the motivation for our next adventure.
"Harris had daily briefings with Captain Warren. She was nice enough, but you always had the feeling that somethin' wasn't quite right in the management offices upstairs, if you know what I mean. Anyway, Harris came back one day with a scheme that can only be described as hare-brained. Sure, we all knew that we would have to go back out sometime and we generally had no problem with that. The problem was not that we were going out but where we were going.
Harris sat us all down for a good talk and explained the situation. 'Over the past week we have talked to a lot of people coming in from the north. There are rumors of a lot of our brothers in arms from the 5th held in POW camps up around Kalisz. It is our duty to help them and this is something both Captain Warren and I agree on. Our mission is to return north and search for evidence of POW camps. If we should find such camps, we will attempt to rescue everyone we can and return them here, where they will be integrated into the 173rd or B Troop, depending on their preference. We will don Russian uniforms and we have obtained written orders to patrol for stragglers, so hopefully the bad guys will leave us alone. Potato will receive a Major's uniform and will pass himself off as our commander. We will take one vehicle, Can-Can and we will be travelling light, scavenging as necessary.'"
The crucial element missing here is a mechanic/scrounger to replace Mitchell. I will be developing a new character to replace him since OT-64 with it's wear value of 10 is not going to get far without one. Even with, it is doubtful.
We can assume that Captain Warren will provide fuel for the OT-64 and ammunition for the PK, as the group also needs to come back. Russian uniforms should not be a problem and the orders could have been taken from a unit ambushed by Captain Warren, meaning they are legitimate. The team has enough captured WP arms to appear real and the odd piece of NATO equipment is not going to cause that much suspicion. Still, a lot of stuff will need to be secured in their quarters.
Now it is time to reorganize before the team rolls out.
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Monday, September 9, 2019
0082 - Healin' and Tradin' - Part II
"While I was babysitting Logan, Klasha and Macron went shopping. I asked them to bring me back something nice. I was not expecting Macron to know what that means but I am sure Klasha knows. They went down to the market where appearently a lot of people were busy runnin' around. Business was good and the people were relaxed. That is always a good sign nowadays."
First on the shopping list is to find someone to repair the Mk-19. Normally, this would have fallen to Mitchell but we know how that story ended. In addition to being the only mechanic, Mitchell was also the master scrounger. The only other scrounger is Logan but he is under the knife at the moment.
This will force the group to find an armorer who can repair the Mk-19. The first stop would be the HQ platoon of B Troop. Here it would probably be best to approach 1SG Blue Elk, as any good first sergeant knows what is going on in his company, troop or battery (my personal favorite). Finding the first sergeant would not be difficult, as he is a man on a mission to see that everyone gets what they need. The question is, does the troop have an armorer.
When we look at the amount of equipment and weapons present in the troop, it is unlikely that they do not have an armorer. Still, we can ask the GME.
[GME: Does B Troop have an armorer? - Chaos Rank 5 – Likely - 5% - Exceptional yes]
I think this is to be interpreted that they not only have an armorer but most likely a fully equipped workshop, open for business. That is great. Definitely need to make a note of that in my description of the unit. Now it is a matter if they have parts or not.
I generally use the same availablity chance for the item also being the chance of having the necessary parts. I roll then for each necessary part individually. For the Mk-19, we need two parts and the Mk-19 has the following data in the price list: Mk-19: Price: $5000 (S/R). The two parts are going to be Rare and the characters are currently in a town, meaning the chances of finding the parts are 1 on D10. Not a really good chance but you never know. Unfortunately the roles (8, 3) mean we are out of luck. That is unfortunate. Maybe next time.
Next on the list would be getting some ammunition for the KPV and the PK on the OT-64. Maybe we will have better luck with something made in the east. The ammunition we need is 14.5mm B (14.5x114mm Bloc) and the standard price is $30 per case. The availability is S/C, so we have a good chance of finding some.
Common items have an availability of 7 or less on a D10. You can roll the against the availability and decide how many items you want available or instead roll a random number of items. For example, you could use the following chart:
I prefer to roll for each item individually. As soon as one roll fails, no more items made be found. This tends to keep me honest. In this case, the roll failed on the second roll. This means we have one 100-round belt available. The armorer is not greedy and we may be able to trade off some the stuff we have been picking up along the way. The asking price is (7 + 4) * 10% = 110% of the base price or $33. Maybe Klasha can talk him down:
[Convince the armorer to lower the price of the belt – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 15] - Failure, but at least it was not catastrophic this time.
We have a couple of WP Grenades that we picked up along the way and we could get rid of them. They normally sell for $20 each. The armorer is willing to "pay" (3 + 4) * 10% = 70% or $28. That is really close. Maybe Klasha can get him to up his bid:
[Convince the armorer to raise his offer on the WP grenades – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 11] - Failure. Nope, he is sticking to his price.
We are still too short on the price. We could throw in a couple frag grenades. We did capture a couple in previous encounters. He is willing to give us (3 + 2) * 10% = 50% of the normal sale price of $4 or $2 each. We would need three to meet the price and we walk away with a new belt of 14.5mm.
Now for the question of ammo for the PK. The PK takes 7.62mm L (7.62x54mmR Long) and each case has a standard price of $70 and an availability of (S/C), which is a good thing. The availability is 70% and we make the roll. Using the table above to save time, we roll 1D10 and find that he has 8 100-round belts available. The big question is what is he going to gouge us for. He wants (7 + 4) * 10% = 110% or $77 a belt. This comes to a total of $616. That is a lot.
Klasha tries to convince him to drop the price a bit, as we are buying in bulk.
[Convince the armorer to lower the price of the 7.62mm L belts – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 15] - Again, a failure.
Now to meet the price. We have 3 M231s that we would gladly get rid. They normally sell for $300 (V/C) but he will only give us (3+2)*10% = 50% or $450 for the lot. Of course we need to try to get him to up the price.
[Convince the armorer to raise his offer on the M231s – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 20] - Ouch. Catastrophic Failure and a natural 20. It does not get worse than that.
That probably means he sends us packing. Still, at least the KPV can put holes in things again.
First on the shopping list is to find someone to repair the Mk-19. Normally, this would have fallen to Mitchell but we know how that story ended. In addition to being the only mechanic, Mitchell was also the master scrounger. The only other scrounger is Logan but he is under the knife at the moment.
This will force the group to find an armorer who can repair the Mk-19. The first stop would be the HQ platoon of B Troop. Here it would probably be best to approach 1SG Blue Elk, as any good first sergeant knows what is going on in his company, troop or battery (my personal favorite). Finding the first sergeant would not be difficult, as he is a man on a mission to see that everyone gets what they need. The question is, does the troop have an armorer.
When we look at the amount of equipment and weapons present in the troop, it is unlikely that they do not have an armorer. Still, we can ask the GME.
[GME: Does B Troop have an armorer? - Chaos Rank 5 – Likely - 5% - Exceptional yes]
I think this is to be interpreted that they not only have an armorer but most likely a fully equipped workshop, open for business. That is great. Definitely need to make a note of that in my description of the unit. Now it is a matter if they have parts or not.
I generally use the same availablity chance for the item also being the chance of having the necessary parts. I roll then for each necessary part individually. For the Mk-19, we need two parts and the Mk-19 has the following data in the price list: Mk-19: Price: $5000 (S/R). The two parts are going to be Rare and the characters are currently in a town, meaning the chances of finding the parts are 1 on D10. Not a really good chance but you never know. Unfortunately the roles (8, 3) mean we are out of luck. That is unfortunate. Maybe next time.
Next on the list would be getting some ammunition for the KPV and the PK on the OT-64. Maybe we will have better luck with something made in the east. The ammunition we need is 14.5mm B (14.5x114mm Bloc) and the standard price is $30 per case. The availability is S/C, so we have a good chance of finding some.
Common items have an availability of 7 or less on a D10. You can roll the against the availability and decide how many items you want available or instead roll a random number of items. For example, you could use the following chart:
| Location | Very Common | Common | Scarce | Rare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Major City | 2D20 | 1D20 | 1D10 | 1D5 |
| City | 1D20 | 2D10 | 1-5 | 1-2 |
| Town | 2D10 | 1D10 | 1-2 | 1 |
| Village | 1D10 | 1-5 | 1 | None |
| Encounter | 1-5 | 1-2 | 1 | None |
I prefer to roll for each item individually. As soon as one roll fails, no more items made be found. This tends to keep me honest. In this case, the roll failed on the second roll. This means we have one 100-round belt available. The armorer is not greedy and we may be able to trade off some the stuff we have been picking up along the way. The asking price is (7 + 4) * 10% = 110% of the base price or $33. Maybe Klasha can talk him down:
[Convince the armorer to lower the price of the belt – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 15] - Failure, but at least it was not catastrophic this time.
We have a couple of WP Grenades that we picked up along the way and we could get rid of them. They normally sell for $20 each. The armorer is willing to "pay" (3 + 4) * 10% = 70% or $28. That is really close. Maybe Klasha can get him to up his bid:
[Convince the armorer to raise his offer on the WP grenades – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 11] - Failure. Nope, he is sticking to his price.
We are still too short on the price. We could throw in a couple frag grenades. We did capture a couple in previous encounters. He is willing to give us (3 + 2) * 10% = 50% of the normal sale price of $4 or $2 each. We would need three to meet the price and we walk away with a new belt of 14.5mm.
Now for the question of ammo for the PK. The PK takes 7.62mm L (7.62x54mmR Long) and each case has a standard price of $70 and an availability of (S/C), which is a good thing. The availability is 70% and we make the roll. Using the table above to save time, we roll 1D10 and find that he has 8 100-round belts available. The big question is what is he going to gouge us for. He wants (7 + 4) * 10% = 110% or $77 a belt. This comes to a total of $616. That is a lot.
Klasha tries to convince him to drop the price a bit, as we are buying in bulk.
[Convince the armorer to lower the price of the 7.62mm L belts – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 15] - Again, a failure.
Now to meet the price. We have 3 M231s that we would gladly get rid. They normally sell for $300 (V/C) but he will only give us (3+2)*10% = 50% or $450 for the lot. Of course we need to try to get him to up the price.
[Convince the armorer to raise his offer on the M231s – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 20] - Ouch. Catastrophic Failure and a natural 20. It does not get worse than that.
That probably means he sends us packing. Still, at least the KPV can put holes in things again.
Friday, September 6, 2019
0081 - Healin' and Tradin' - Part I
"We were busted up when when we ran into the cav troopies. We had lost Caitlyn and a lot of us were shot up bad. We had been in some scrapes and what we needed more than anything was a little time to rest and heal. A little time and a beer. Everything works better with beer."
After reaching their billet and performing the paranoid-fuelled inspection one would expect from a group of post-apocalyptic survivors, it is time to take stock of what condition we are in.
First of all, the injuries (not including Mitchell being dead). We have the following injuries:
All of the injured have previously received medical care and the Scratch wounds will not be a problem, as they will heal within 24 hours. The most recent wounds are those taken by Logan, Potato and Klasha. The rest were sustained during the battle with the primitives and have been healing since then. Robinson's head wound was infected and has been slower to heal but he is well on the way to being his old self.
Normally, first aid wound reduce a critical wound to a serious wound but since Logan was pretty much treating himself, it will have to heal naturally from the critical stage. An alternative would be to have surgery performed on the wound. This would require a doctor but the question remains, is there a doctor present?
[GME: Does B Troop have a doctor? - Chaos Rank 5 – 50/50 - 43% - Yes]
So, there is a doctor. The group wants the doctor to operate on Logan. The doc is probably want to have something for his time. As the group has medical supplies, the can use that to pay for part of the costs. So, we can assume that the doctor will ask for 5 RTs for his services. Maybe Klasha can talk him down.
[Convince the doctor to lower the costs of the surgery – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 20] - Catastrophic failure. Not only does he say no, he is really upset by it.
Maybe doc doesn't want to continue to discuss the surgery.
[GME: Will the doc refuse to operate on Logan? - Chaos Rank 5 – Somewhat Likely - 65% - No]
We got lucky on that one. Still, we need to pay for the operation. The asking price of 5 RTs ($100) is going to have to be matched. Luckily we have some stuff to trade. One of the items would be a PM Makerov ($150) with three magazines ($8 total). As the doctor is really insulted by the whole discussion, we are going to consider him Moderately greedy (-10% modifier to the "buying" price). He is willing to take the pistol at (3+2)*10% = 50% - 10% (moderately greedy) = 40% of its value or $63.
Next up, a set of Thermal Fatigues ($100). Doc is willing to give us (6+2)*10%= 80% - 10% (moderately greedy) = 70% of its value or $70. This is a total of $133, so we can assume that doc will provide the whole blood and the group will provide the total anesthetic. The deal being made, Logan goes under the knife.
"Since I was one of the ones with only a natural number of holes in my body, I got elected to watch over the proceedings. No one is left anyone alone anymore when something like this went down. American or not, the doc was getting watched and I was doing the watching, Logan got the anesthetic and his eyes fluttered a bit before he went under. I kept my hand on my pistol the whole time"
The doc has an asset level of 13. The total anesthetic will give the doc a bonus of +3 and +2 for the whole blood, for a total of +5 to the asset level, making his asset level effectively 18. The task itself is Formidable (x1/2).
[Perform surgery on Logan – Asset Level 18 – Formidable (x1/2) – Target Number 9 – Roll(s): 13] - Failure.
"The doc did what he could but the damage to Logan's head was severe and some time had passed since he was wounded. That was valuable time he would have needed but it was gone now. No use discussing it now."
The surgery was unsuccessful and Logan will have to heal naturally.
After reaching their billet and performing the paranoid-fuelled inspection one would expect from a group of post-apocalyptic survivors, it is time to take stock of what condition we are in.
First of all, the injuries (not including Mitchell being dead). We have the following injuries:
- Mashall - Uninjured
- Logan - Abdomen (Slight), Right Leg (Scratch), Left Leg (Critical)
- Griffin - Right Leg (Slight)
- Harris - Head (Slight)
- Potato - Head (Scratch), Abdomen (Scratch), Right Arm (Scratch), Left Arm (Slight), Right Leg (Scratch), Left Leg (Slight)
- Robinson - Head (Serious)
- Macron - Uninjured
- Klasha - Head (Slight), Chest (Scratch), Abdomen (Scratch), Right Arm (Scratch), Left Arm (Scratch), Right Leg (Slight), Left Leg (Scratch)
All of the injured have previously received medical care and the Scratch wounds will not be a problem, as they will heal within 24 hours. The most recent wounds are those taken by Logan, Potato and Klasha. The rest were sustained during the battle with the primitives and have been healing since then. Robinson's head wound was infected and has been slower to heal but he is well on the way to being his old self.
Normally, first aid wound reduce a critical wound to a serious wound but since Logan was pretty much treating himself, it will have to heal naturally from the critical stage. An alternative would be to have surgery performed on the wound. This would require a doctor but the question remains, is there a doctor present?
[GME: Does B Troop have a doctor? - Chaos Rank 5 – 50/50 - 43% - Yes]
So, there is a doctor. The group wants the doctor to operate on Logan. The doc is probably want to have something for his time. As the group has medical supplies, the can use that to pay for part of the costs. So, we can assume that the doctor will ask for 5 RTs for his services. Maybe Klasha can talk him down.
[Convince the doctor to lower the costs of the surgery – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 20] - Catastrophic failure. Not only does he say no, he is really upset by it.
Maybe doc doesn't want to continue to discuss the surgery.
[GME: Will the doc refuse to operate on Logan? - Chaos Rank 5 – Somewhat Likely - 65% - No]
We got lucky on that one. Still, we need to pay for the operation. The asking price of 5 RTs ($100) is going to have to be matched. Luckily we have some stuff to trade. One of the items would be a PM Makerov ($150) with three magazines ($8 total). As the doctor is really insulted by the whole discussion, we are going to consider him Moderately greedy (-10% modifier to the "buying" price). He is willing to take the pistol at (3+2)*10% = 50% - 10% (moderately greedy) = 40% of its value or $63.
Next up, a set of Thermal Fatigues ($100). Doc is willing to give us (6+2)*10%= 80% - 10% (moderately greedy) = 70% of its value or $70. This is a total of $133, so we can assume that doc will provide the whole blood and the group will provide the total anesthetic. The deal being made, Logan goes under the knife.
"Since I was one of the ones with only a natural number of holes in my body, I got elected to watch over the proceedings. No one is left anyone alone anymore when something like this went down. American or not, the doc was getting watched and I was doing the watching, Logan got the anesthetic and his eyes fluttered a bit before he went under. I kept my hand on my pistol the whole time"
The doc has an asset level of 13. The total anesthetic will give the doc a bonus of +3 and +2 for the whole blood, for a total of +5 to the asset level, making his asset level effectively 18. The task itself is Formidable (x1/2).
[Perform surgery on Logan – Asset Level 18 – Formidable (x1/2) – Target Number 9 – Roll(s): 13] - Failure.
"The doc did what he could but the damage to Logan's head was severe and some time had passed since he was wounded. That was valuable time he would have needed but it was gone now. No use discussing it now."
The surgery was unsuccessful and Logan will have to heal naturally.
Wednesday, September 4, 2019
0080 - Labor, Wealth and Slavery
Recently, on my post regarding trade in Faceboook, Jesse commented that he does not use gold in his PA game. The main reasoning being you can't eat it and it does not lend itself well to being cast into bullets. These are valid points and I thank him for his comments because it got me thinking.
Barter works fine when both sides have something that they want to trade that the other side wants. This system becomes more difficult when one side is providing a service over an extended period of time. The second problem with barter comes when one starts to think about portable wealth. More on that in a minute.
I took a look at how other PA game handle this problem. Most have a similar approach that I have, mainly a barter system. Each item has a "price" and other items of similar worth can be used to "pay" for them. As Wayne also mentioned in the comment, many of these also miss the profit motivation for the merchant. Many often overlook the fact that the worth of something is also dependent on the person's individual needs. It is great that I have 10,000 rounds of .50 BMG but what I really need at this moment is some antibiotics in a bad way. I have tried to simulate that a bit. It may not be perfect but it works for me.
You also have a work force that is going to contain a lot of people at two very different ends of a scale. The first group will contain those with specialized knowledge that is valuable in the PA, such as bakers, doctors, mechanics and such. Some of those jobs may have been looked down on before the war but this has more to do with a general feeling in our society today that associates education with the worth of a job. That lawyer there enjoys a better standing than that butcher over there. We have forgotten the people who actually facilitate the very existence of our "civilization". That has changed in the PA, as many jobs, such as the lawyer's, have lost their importance in the day to day survival of the human race. Sure, that lawyer helped you out that time in court but the butcher is the one that provided the food that your family needed to get through the winter.
Still, a lot of people with nothing to trade are going to have to find some kind of work they can do in exchange for the basics like the food needed for survival. Others, with a specialized skill, will also offer their services in order to survive. Others will offer to provide protection for anyone and anything, such as the guards that accompany merchants, and they in turn will expect something in return.
Reading through D20 Apocalypse I discovered the term Trade Unit (TU). The TU was the games equivalent of money and used to price both items and services in the game's "barter" system. A TU was equal of one day's rations for a person. This can be directly translated to T2K, as we know the daily requirements for a person as well as the "cost" of food.
Let's look at the "price" of food.
Food Type Price / kg Availability Daily Requirements/person Total Price/Day
MRE $8 (S/S) 1.5kg $12
Soviet Field Rations $6 (S/S) 1kg $6
Domestic $5 (C/C) 3kg $15
Wild $3 (V/V) 4kg $12
MREs and Soviet Field rations are desirable for their weight but literally no one is going to want to eat them all day, every day. Been there, done that and know why no one is going to want to.
If I where to chose a basis for our TU, then it would probably be domestic food. This is something that is usually tasty and may even be preserved to allow someone to put something away for the winter. This is definitely our gold standard as far as food goes.
I am not really happy with the TU term, so I am going to just call it a ration ticket (RT). You can call it anything you want, script, credits, etc. It is just a name. I am going to stick with RT.
We cannot, however, forget the "profit" motive here. Working a day to eat a day is fine, as I will survive, but I cannot put something away for a rainy day, which might be quite literal in this case. To support this idea, we can increase the value of a RT of domestic food to $20, allowing the person to put away a quarter ration to trade or eat later. Now we have something that we can use to judge the value of labor.
For simplicity sakes, we can divide laborers into three categories:
For guards, ORMO soldiers and the like, you can use the same basic categories. A barely trained ground pounder may be classified as a simple laborer while a trained mortarman may rate the category Skilled. An engineer officer with many years of experience would probably be rated as a Specialist. I am purposely keeping this list and categories vague, as how you choose to divide the laborer into these groups is up to you based on the current situation.
Let me give you some practical examples. Tomas was an accountant in pre-war society. After the war and the collapse, Tomas has been forced to turn to manual labor to keep himself alive. He spends his days tending crops of turnips and potatoes on the farm of Mr. Marek. He is grateful for the job, although the work is back-breaking. Still, it puts food on the table. Tomas will be classified as a Simple Laborer.
Marie was a baker before the war and nothing has really changed since then. Sure, the flour may not be as fine as it was before the war and she has had to substitute honey for refined sugar, but she is experienced in her job and provides the basic services the community needs. Marie is a skilled laborer.
Pavol is a former Major in a Polish parachute regiment. He has extensive experience in military matters and is responsible for the creation of the town militia and the defenses that now surround the town. Pavol has also implemented a training regimen for the militia and oversees the regular patrols into the surrounding countryside in order to nip potential bandit problems in the bud. Pavol is a Specialist.
So, how much is each group getting paid? Tomas will probably get the standard wage of one RT a day. Marie on the other hand will probably get at least twice as much, in the form of actual RT as well as having a share of what ever is not sold on that day. In the end, it may even be three times as much.
Pavol has a key position in the community. He is literally tied to its survival and he is probably going to get 3-5 times as much. This is dependent on the government of the town but one is wise not to bite the hand that protects them. Better to pay the man than lose it all to bandits.
So, we know what they make a day, but how does that work in a day to day setting? It is doubtful that some on is going to be waiting at the end of the day to hand out ration packets as the workers leave work. It may work small scale, but when several thousand people are involved, it would be difficult to keep this up. A common form would be some kind of ration ticket that could then be traded for food. These will generally be local in scope, as they depend on an organized community and some way of ensuring that they will be respected by all parties. A small family farm could simply have one or more common meals to pay their workers. A city of 2000, with people coming and going at all hours, cannot implement a common meal easily, so they may have community warehouses where the workers can draw rations or the rations ticket may be a form of currency or barter items. Now the system comes together.
Pavol has been training his militia for a while but decides to take some of the rations tickets issued by the town and do something good for himself. Taking the trip down to the market, he gathers his evening meal at a vendors stall and even manages to snag a local bear to wash it down (1 RT). Wandering the stalls, he comes up a new bike and manages to haggle he price down to 4 RTs. It the merchant had not looked so hungry, it may have cost him more. Still he traded something he had but couldn't eat for hot meals for four days. Finally, Pavol runs into Rita, a working girl. He knows of her reputation and they haggle but Pavol still hands her the 2 RTs. Looking back the next day, Pavol has to admit it was worth it. So, for a total of 7 RTs, Pavol has had an eventful evening. Good thing he saved some up.
Using this ration ticket system, a list of common services can then be established. These will generally be standardized within the community so as to prevent discussions or problems when purchasing these services.
Merchants have to transport their items but say you want to travel to the next town to buy 10 tons of grain for your community. Your community produces sailing boats and equipment but the town you want to buy from is landlocked. Your product has not value there so what is the alternative? This is going to be a common problem. One solution is an old concept called Hacksilver (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacksilver).
This allows communities to trade for items with its own population or with an different town without have to transport tons and tons of material. In a previous post, we put the price of a gram of gold at $50. This was based on the current market price for gold. Silver itself today was trading at $0.62, but of play purposes we could set the price at $1. So, to buy 10 tons of wheat (we will consider it domestic food and leave the price at $5 a kilo or $50,000 for the lot. If we were to trade an equivalent amount of ethanol ($15 a liter), we would be looking at transporting 3,333l or ethanol or an almost full 5000l tanker truck. Hart do move and very obvious.
Consider our example with the sail boats. The price is the same as 10 small sail boats but the other community does not need them. We would have to transport them to someone that does, trade for something the first town needs and transport them back. Very hard and very dangerous. Maybe we do need a system of gold and silver.
The same amount can be paid in gold (1 kg) or silver (50 kg) with less trouble. A saddlebag or pack horse are sufficient to transport the items. You can easily trade the gold and silver for RTs or barter for items at your destination. The system of Hacksilver would probably be replaced later by minted coins of standard weights. This would probably be something that large cities, such as Krakow, or organizations, such as merchant guild, would probably push for or obvious reasons.
Organized trade between major towns and cities may also be conducted by letters of credit guaranteed my large merchants and city governments. This is dependent on a certain amount of trust between the parties. A letter of credit can be given from a party for a certain amount (say $10.000) and can be cashed in at the other end by the second party. This would likely be something that large merchant guilds would practice and is a precursor to banking systems.
Either system diverges from the pure barter system but allows you to transport wealth from one place to another easily.
Slavery adds a lot of potential for conflict and adventure. The characters can set off to rescue towns people kidnapped by slavers or maybe the encounter a group on the road willing to sell their fellow human beings. The potential is there. It is also there for those players of "flexible" moral codes to also join in a slaving operation.
The price for a slave would vary greatly, depending on many factors such as the health and age of a slave as well as the general availability of slaves and the communities acceptance of slavery. I am not going to try to put a price tag on a slave but a GM should try to work a price for slaves in their campaign based on those factors. A healthy male working on a farm for 365 day will require food and upkeep but has the potential to produce a lot of work in that time. A scrawny slave may be worth less as a farm laborer but if he had a working knowledge of leather working, he would be worth more when used for that purpose.
In one of my next posts, I will be looking at an economic model for towns and villages.
Barter works fine when both sides have something that they want to trade that the other side wants. This system becomes more difficult when one side is providing a service over an extended period of time. The second problem with barter comes when one starts to think about portable wealth. More on that in a minute.
I took a look at how other PA game handle this problem. Most have a similar approach that I have, mainly a barter system. Each item has a "price" and other items of similar worth can be used to "pay" for them. As Wayne also mentioned in the comment, many of these also miss the profit motivation for the merchant. Many often overlook the fact that the worth of something is also dependent on the person's individual needs. It is great that I have 10,000 rounds of .50 BMG but what I really need at this moment is some antibiotics in a bad way. I have tried to simulate that a bit. It may not be perfect but it works for me.
Labor & Services
Let's talk about the problem of people providing services. With wide scale electrical nets and most fossil fuels a thing of the past, a lot of things have been replaced by manual labor. Any large scale project, be it building, farming and such, is now going to be very labor intensive. The field you plowed in two hours with your tractor is going to take a lot more time by hand and do not even get my started on harvesting.You also have a work force that is going to contain a lot of people at two very different ends of a scale. The first group will contain those with specialized knowledge that is valuable in the PA, such as bakers, doctors, mechanics and such. Some of those jobs may have been looked down on before the war but this has more to do with a general feeling in our society today that associates education with the worth of a job. That lawyer there enjoys a better standing than that butcher over there. We have forgotten the people who actually facilitate the very existence of our "civilization". That has changed in the PA, as many jobs, such as the lawyer's, have lost their importance in the day to day survival of the human race. Sure, that lawyer helped you out that time in court but the butcher is the one that provided the food that your family needed to get through the winter.
Still, a lot of people with nothing to trade are going to have to find some kind of work they can do in exchange for the basics like the food needed for survival. Others, with a specialized skill, will also offer their services in order to survive. Others will offer to provide protection for anyone and anything, such as the guards that accompany merchants, and they in turn will expect something in return.
Reading through D20 Apocalypse I discovered the term Trade Unit (TU). The TU was the games equivalent of money and used to price both items and services in the game's "barter" system. A TU was equal of one day's rations for a person. This can be directly translated to T2K, as we know the daily requirements for a person as well as the "cost" of food.
Let's look at the "price" of food.
Food Type Price / kg Availability Daily Requirements/person Total Price/Day
MRE $8 (S/S) 1.5kg $12
Soviet Field Rations $6 (S/S) 1kg $6
Domestic $5 (C/C) 3kg $15
Wild $3 (V/V) 4kg $12
MREs and Soviet Field rations are desirable for their weight but literally no one is going to want to eat them all day, every day. Been there, done that and know why no one is going to want to.
If I where to chose a basis for our TU, then it would probably be domestic food. This is something that is usually tasty and may even be preserved to allow someone to put something away for the winter. This is definitely our gold standard as far as food goes.
I am not really happy with the TU term, so I am going to just call it a ration ticket (RT). You can call it anything you want, script, credits, etc. It is just a name. I am going to stick with RT.
We cannot, however, forget the "profit" motive here. Working a day to eat a day is fine, as I will survive, but I cannot put something away for a rainy day, which might be quite literal in this case. To support this idea, we can increase the value of a RT of domestic food to $20, allowing the person to put away a quarter ration to trade or eat later. Now we have something that we can use to judge the value of labor.
For simplicity sakes, we can divide laborers into three categories:
- Simple Laborers: people performing the back breaking, monotonous work that does not required skilled labor. Porters, farm hands tending crops, workers clearing rubble, etc.
- Skilled Laborers: people performing work that requires some type of specialized training that is valuable in the T2K world. These will include butchers, chemists, construction workers, etc.
- Specialists: These are individuals with specialized, advanced training. These will include individuals such as doctors and other professionals, etc.
For guards, ORMO soldiers and the like, you can use the same basic categories. A barely trained ground pounder may be classified as a simple laborer while a trained mortarman may rate the category Skilled. An engineer officer with many years of experience would probably be rated as a Specialist. I am purposely keeping this list and categories vague, as how you choose to divide the laborer into these groups is up to you based on the current situation.
Let me give you some practical examples. Tomas was an accountant in pre-war society. After the war and the collapse, Tomas has been forced to turn to manual labor to keep himself alive. He spends his days tending crops of turnips and potatoes on the farm of Mr. Marek. He is grateful for the job, although the work is back-breaking. Still, it puts food on the table. Tomas will be classified as a Simple Laborer.
Marie was a baker before the war and nothing has really changed since then. Sure, the flour may not be as fine as it was before the war and she has had to substitute honey for refined sugar, but she is experienced in her job and provides the basic services the community needs. Marie is a skilled laborer.
Pavol is a former Major in a Polish parachute regiment. He has extensive experience in military matters and is responsible for the creation of the town militia and the defenses that now surround the town. Pavol has also implemented a training regimen for the militia and oversees the regular patrols into the surrounding countryside in order to nip potential bandit problems in the bud. Pavol is a Specialist.
So, how much is each group getting paid? Tomas will probably get the standard wage of one RT a day. Marie on the other hand will probably get at least twice as much, in the form of actual RT as well as having a share of what ever is not sold on that day. In the end, it may even be three times as much.
Pavol has a key position in the community. He is literally tied to its survival and he is probably going to get 3-5 times as much. This is dependent on the government of the town but one is wise not to bite the hand that protects them. Better to pay the man than lose it all to bandits.
So, we know what they make a day, but how does that work in a day to day setting? It is doubtful that some on is going to be waiting at the end of the day to hand out ration packets as the workers leave work. It may work small scale, but when several thousand people are involved, it would be difficult to keep this up. A common form would be some kind of ration ticket that could then be traded for food. These will generally be local in scope, as they depend on an organized community and some way of ensuring that they will be respected by all parties. A small family farm could simply have one or more common meals to pay their workers. A city of 2000, with people coming and going at all hours, cannot implement a common meal easily, so they may have community warehouses where the workers can draw rations or the rations ticket may be a form of currency or barter items. Now the system comes together.
Pavol has been training his militia for a while but decides to take some of the rations tickets issued by the town and do something good for himself. Taking the trip down to the market, he gathers his evening meal at a vendors stall and even manages to snag a local bear to wash it down (1 RT). Wandering the stalls, he comes up a new bike and manages to haggle he price down to 4 RTs. It the merchant had not looked so hungry, it may have cost him more. Still he traded something he had but couldn't eat for hot meals for four days. Finally, Pavol runs into Rita, a working girl. He knows of her reputation and they haggle but Pavol still hands her the 2 RTs. Looking back the next day, Pavol has to admit it was worth it. So, for a total of 7 RTs, Pavol has had an eventful evening. Good thing he saved some up.
Using this ration ticket system, a list of common services can then be established. These will generally be standardized within the community so as to prevent discussions or problems when purchasing these services.
Portable Wealth
Ration tickets will probably not be respected outside the community. When travelling from one town to another, you need some form of portable wealth. Actual items are good, but depending on the items, may be rather bulky. That tanker of ethanol is a good mine, have to admit, but you actually have to move that wealth over 160km of hostile territory. Anyone seeing the tanker will probably immediately know what it is and you are going to receive a lot of attention. Other things such as livestock or a large still are also going to be a problem as well.Merchants have to transport their items but say you want to travel to the next town to buy 10 tons of grain for your community. Your community produces sailing boats and equipment but the town you want to buy from is landlocked. Your product has not value there so what is the alternative? This is going to be a common problem. One solution is an old concept called Hacksilver (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacksilver).
This allows communities to trade for items with its own population or with an different town without have to transport tons and tons of material. In a previous post, we put the price of a gram of gold at $50. This was based on the current market price for gold. Silver itself today was trading at $0.62, but of play purposes we could set the price at $1. So, to buy 10 tons of wheat (we will consider it domestic food and leave the price at $5 a kilo or $50,000 for the lot. If we were to trade an equivalent amount of ethanol ($15 a liter), we would be looking at transporting 3,333l or ethanol or an almost full 5000l tanker truck. Hart do move and very obvious.
Consider our example with the sail boats. The price is the same as 10 small sail boats but the other community does not need them. We would have to transport them to someone that does, trade for something the first town needs and transport them back. Very hard and very dangerous. Maybe we do need a system of gold and silver.
The same amount can be paid in gold (1 kg) or silver (50 kg) with less trouble. A saddlebag or pack horse are sufficient to transport the items. You can easily trade the gold and silver for RTs or barter for items at your destination. The system of Hacksilver would probably be replaced later by minted coins of standard weights. This would probably be something that large cities, such as Krakow, or organizations, such as merchant guild, would probably push for or obvious reasons.
Organized trade between major towns and cities may also be conducted by letters of credit guaranteed my large merchants and city governments. This is dependent on a certain amount of trust between the parties. A letter of credit can be given from a party for a certain amount (say $10.000) and can be cashed in at the other end by the second party. This would likely be something that large merchant guilds would practice and is a precursor to banking systems.
Either system diverges from the pure barter system but allows you to transport wealth from one place to another easily.
Slavery
As we mentioned, the world in T2K is much more labor intensive. It will bring back the spectre of slavery because you will need a lot of cheap labor to get things done. Assuming you were just feeding them the bare minimum but they are producing a full load of crops for you, you would be making a handsome profit. I am in no way condoning this practice but one can understand how this practice would come back into existence.Slavery adds a lot of potential for conflict and adventure. The characters can set off to rescue towns people kidnapped by slavers or maybe the encounter a group on the road willing to sell their fellow human beings. The potential is there. It is also there for those players of "flexible" moral codes to also join in a slaving operation.
The price for a slave would vary greatly, depending on many factors such as the health and age of a slave as well as the general availability of slaves and the communities acceptance of slavery. I am not going to try to put a price tag on a slave but a GM should try to work a price for slaves in their campaign based on those factors. A healthy male working on a farm for 365 day will require food and upkeep but has the potential to produce a lot of work in that time. A scrawny slave may be worth less as a farm laborer but if he had a working knowledge of leather working, he would be worth more when used for that purpose.
Conclusion
Wealth comes in many forms and work has an intrinsic value that can be measured and compared with other items. Using the system above you can work to earn rations tickets to trade for gold that you use to travel to the next city with.In one of my next posts, I will be looking at an economic model for towns and villages.
Thursday, August 29, 2019
0079 - Trade in Twilight: 2000
Barter is the most common form of commerce in the war-torn countryside of Twilight: 2000. To make it simple, one side wants to trade for something the other side has. The question is what the "cost" of the item is and this varies depending on the current situation of each participant. If the characters are trying to buy a farmer's only weapon, he is not going to just give it away, as his life may depend on it. On the other hand, if he just finished his harvest, he may be more willing to trade for some food.
The general starting point for trade is the base price of the item. This can be determined by consulting the equipment lists. This price is modified by other factors which I will mention below.
Wear Value
Remember when selling vehicles to divide the base price by the wear value, as stated on page 152. A price of $20000 and a wear value of 8 give you a base price of $2500. So much for selling junkers.
If you want to do the paperwork, you can use wear value for basically anything in the game. Alternatively you can roll the wear value for an item when it becomes relevant. Maybe Chico has dropped those NVGs just once to often and now you are going to get nothing for it at the market. It does add interesting detail to the campaign.
Buying or Selling
Generally, I will modify the base price depending on whether the merchant wishes to buy or sell the product. The merchant wants to make a profit, so there will be a difference (generally) between the price he will pay for an item compared to the price he will ask for the item - buy low, sell high.
When buying a product, the base price for the merchant will initially offer is (D6+3) * 10%, resulting in a price that is 40-90% of the base price. Reduce the price by the following amounts if the NPC is greedy (based on his motivation):
Very greedy -15%
Moderately greedy -10%
Somewhat greedy -5%.
For a practical example, the characters want to sell an M16 (Price $400) to a merchant. I roll a 3 on a D6, resulting in a 3. The merchant is willing to pay (2 + 3) * 10% or 50% of the base price. This results in an initial price of $200. The same M16 being bought by very greed merchant would result in a base price that is 30% - 15% = 15% of the base price, in this case $60.
Selling functions in a similar way. The base price here is determined with a random roll (D6+7) * 10%, resulting in a value between 80-130% of the base price. Using the M16 above with the same roll, the base price would be (3 + 7) * 10% or 100% of the base price or $400.
Here again, the greediness of a merchant modifies the base price, this time as a positive value:
Very greedy +15%
Moderately greedy +10%
Somewhat greedy +5%.
Our M16 being sold by a greedy merchant would then be 115% of its base price or $460.
Persuasion
The characters can try to persuade the merchant to accept a different price. This is a Difficult:Persuasion task normally, but may be changed to Formidable:Persuasion if the merchant is difficult or hostile.
A successful check will reduce the base price (if the characters are buying) or increase the base price (if the characters are selling) by 10%. The task may be attempted a second time but the difficulty level is increased by one. The task may not be attempted more than twice. Outstanding success causes the price to be increased or decreased by 15%. Catastrophic Failure has the exact opposite effect. Note however, that normal failure has no effect.
Paying for it all
So, now you know the price, how are you going to pay for it? Basically, you have to come up with something of value that matches the price being asked (if you are selling) or you have to choose items you want to have.
To make it simple, I usually determine the buying price of the item to be bought compared to the selling price of items to be used to pay for it. We can, however, use the Persuasion skill again to get the seller to accept payment that is up to 10% less than the asking price, This is Difficult but failures have no negative effects. This is a go/no go kind of thing.
An Example
Let's try an example: Our very greedy merchant is offering to sell us an M16 for $460. We are desperate for some reason so we start putting things up for offer.
First of all, we have a Bicycle, with a base price of $100. We will use the variant with wear value and the 1 (practically right out of the package), giving us a revised base price of $100 (=100 / 1). Of course our merchant is not going to give us $ 100 for it. Instead he offers us (4 + 3) * 10% = 70% - 15% = 55% (greedy bastard). Klasha starts to haggle with him and has a Persuasion Asset of 8. She attempts to get him to raise his offer.
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the bicycle – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 7] - She succeeds
The merchant raises his offer by 10% or $60. Can she convince him again?
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the bicycle again – Asset Level 8 – Formidable (x1/2) – Target Number 4 – Roll(s): 8] - She fails but she at least go the 10% out of it.
We now have a total of $60 on the table of the $460 that we need. Next we have two 20l Jerrycans with ethanol. Each is worth $160 (for the ethanol) + $25 (for the jerrycan) = $185 ea. or $370. What is that cheap bastard going to give us for it? (6 + 3) * 10% = 90% - 15% = 75% or $278 (rounded).
Klasha will try to convince him again.
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the ethanol – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 12] - She fails
The old geezer is sticking to his price. We now have a total of $338. Still not enough.
Next we have a Geiger Counter, with a base price of $500. Here is something we could use the wear value on again. Rolling randomly, we get a wear value of 6, reducing the base price to 500 / 6 = 83 (like he is even going to pay that). He is willing to us (3 + 3) * 10% = 60% - 15% = 45% or $37. No we unleash Klasha on him,
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the Geiger counter – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 5] - She succeeds
He will now offer us $40. Still, Klasha persists.
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the Geiger counter again – Asset Level 8 – Formidable (x1/2) – Target Number 4 – Roll(s): 20] - She fails badly. Maybe the last comment about his family tree was uncalled for.
The price for the Geiger counter is now 15% less than it was before, meaning we actually get less than we originally had. His final offer is $34. We now have a total of $372. Still not enough.
Next up is an L42 (Price: $400). Again we use the wear value (7) and we have a base price of $400 / 7 = $57. The merchant will give us (4 + 3) * 10% = 70% - 15% = 55% or $32. Despite the last snafu, Klasha tries again.
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the L42 – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 5] - She succeeds
He raises his price by 10% or 35$. She tries again.
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the L42 again – Asset Level 8 – Formidable (x1/2) – Target Number 4 – Roll(s): 1] - She succeeds.
The price is raised by 10% again, giving a total of $39 (rounded). Now we have a total of $411. Still not there.
Finally, we have an antitank mine (Price $100). We will not use the wear value, as they are pretty durable. That gives us a base price of $100. The guy is only willing to give us (4 + 7) * 10% = 70% - 15% = 55% or $55. No need to haggle, as that is enough.
So, after some haggling, we have our M16 but somehow the feeling that we have been swindled. We leave the merchant with a few choice words and take aware our "new" M16 before we use it on him.
Gold, Gold, Gold
In major cities and towns, gold may be used as payment medium. I generally set the price of gold at $50 per gram (which I googled today, as a matter of fact). Jewelry is a convenient form of gold and the following table has a list of generic jewelry items and their average weights:
Jewellery item (Average weight)
This conjures up images of treasure boxes filled with gold, but we need coins. Here are some real coins for comparison.
So, when all is said and done, we have a barter system, a new use for the Persuasion skill and a rule set for using gold. Good days work, if I do say so.
The general starting point for trade is the base price of the item. This can be determined by consulting the equipment lists. This price is modified by other factors which I will mention below.
Wear Value
Remember when selling vehicles to divide the base price by the wear value, as stated on page 152. A price of $20000 and a wear value of 8 give you a base price of $2500. So much for selling junkers.
If you want to do the paperwork, you can use wear value for basically anything in the game. Alternatively you can roll the wear value for an item when it becomes relevant. Maybe Chico has dropped those NVGs just once to often and now you are going to get nothing for it at the market. It does add interesting detail to the campaign.
Buying or Selling
Generally, I will modify the base price depending on whether the merchant wishes to buy or sell the product. The merchant wants to make a profit, so there will be a difference (generally) between the price he will pay for an item compared to the price he will ask for the item - buy low, sell high.
When buying a product, the base price for the merchant will initially offer is (D6+3) * 10%, resulting in a price that is 40-90% of the base price. Reduce the price by the following amounts if the NPC is greedy (based on his motivation):
Very greedy -15%
Moderately greedy -10%
Somewhat greedy -5%.
For a practical example, the characters want to sell an M16 (Price $400) to a merchant. I roll a 3 on a D6, resulting in a 3. The merchant is willing to pay (2 + 3) * 10% or 50% of the base price. This results in an initial price of $200. The same M16 being bought by very greed merchant would result in a base price that is 30% - 15% = 15% of the base price, in this case $60.
Selling functions in a similar way. The base price here is determined with a random roll (D6+7) * 10%, resulting in a value between 80-130% of the base price. Using the M16 above with the same roll, the base price would be (3 + 7) * 10% or 100% of the base price or $400.
Here again, the greediness of a merchant modifies the base price, this time as a positive value:
Very greedy +15%
Moderately greedy +10%
Somewhat greedy +5%.
Our M16 being sold by a greedy merchant would then be 115% of its base price or $460.
Persuasion
The characters can try to persuade the merchant to accept a different price. This is a Difficult:Persuasion task normally, but may be changed to Formidable:Persuasion if the merchant is difficult or hostile.
A successful check will reduce the base price (if the characters are buying) or increase the base price (if the characters are selling) by 10%. The task may be attempted a second time but the difficulty level is increased by one. The task may not be attempted more than twice. Outstanding success causes the price to be increased or decreased by 15%. Catastrophic Failure has the exact opposite effect. Note however, that normal failure has no effect.
Paying for it all
So, now you know the price, how are you going to pay for it? Basically, you have to come up with something of value that matches the price being asked (if you are selling) or you have to choose items you want to have.
To make it simple, I usually determine the buying price of the item to be bought compared to the selling price of items to be used to pay for it. We can, however, use the Persuasion skill again to get the seller to accept payment that is up to 10% less than the asking price, This is Difficult but failures have no negative effects. This is a go/no go kind of thing.
An Example
Let's try an example: Our very greedy merchant is offering to sell us an M16 for $460. We are desperate for some reason so we start putting things up for offer.
First of all, we have a Bicycle, with a base price of $100. We will use the variant with wear value and the 1 (practically right out of the package), giving us a revised base price of $100 (=100 / 1). Of course our merchant is not going to give us $ 100 for it. Instead he offers us (4 + 3) * 10% = 70% - 15% = 55% (greedy bastard). Klasha starts to haggle with him and has a Persuasion Asset of 8. She attempts to get him to raise his offer.
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the bicycle – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 7] - She succeeds
The merchant raises his offer by 10% or $60. Can she convince him again?
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the bicycle again – Asset Level 8 – Formidable (x1/2) – Target Number 4 – Roll(s): 8] - She fails but she at least go the 10% out of it.
We now have a total of $60 on the table of the $460 that we need. Next we have two 20l Jerrycans with ethanol. Each is worth $160 (for the ethanol) + $25 (for the jerrycan) = $185 ea. or $370. What is that cheap bastard going to give us for it? (6 + 3) * 10% = 90% - 15% = 75% or $278 (rounded).
Klasha will try to convince him again.
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the ethanol – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 12] - She fails
The old geezer is sticking to his price. We now have a total of $338. Still not enough.
Next we have a Geiger Counter, with a base price of $500. Here is something we could use the wear value on again. Rolling randomly, we get a wear value of 6, reducing the base price to 500 / 6 = 83 (like he is even going to pay that). He is willing to us (3 + 3) * 10% = 60% - 15% = 45% or $37. No we unleash Klasha on him,
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the Geiger counter – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 5] - She succeeds
He will now offer us $40. Still, Klasha persists.
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the Geiger counter again – Asset Level 8 – Formidable (x1/2) – Target Number 4 – Roll(s): 20] - She fails badly. Maybe the last comment about his family tree was uncalled for.
The price for the Geiger counter is now 15% less than it was before, meaning we actually get less than we originally had. His final offer is $34. We now have a total of $372. Still not enough.
Next up is an L42 (Price: $400). Again we use the wear value (7) and we have a base price of $400 / 7 = $57. The merchant will give us (4 + 3) * 10% = 70% - 15% = 55% or $32. Despite the last snafu, Klasha tries again.
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the L42 – Asset Level 8 – Difficult (x1) – Target Number 8 – Roll(s): 5] - She succeeds
He raises his price by 10% or 35$. She tries again.
[Convince the merchant to raise his offer for the L42 again – Asset Level 8 – Formidable (x1/2) – Target Number 4 – Roll(s): 1] - She succeeds.
The price is raised by 10% again, giving a total of $39 (rounded). Now we have a total of $411. Still not there.
Finally, we have an antitank mine (Price $100). We will not use the wear value, as they are pretty durable. That gives us a base price of $100. The guy is only willing to give us (4 + 7) * 10% = 70% - 15% = 55% or $55. No need to haggle, as that is enough.
So, after some haggling, we have our M16 but somehow the feeling that we have been swindled. We leave the merchant with a few choice words and take aware our "new" M16 before we use it on him.
Gold, Gold, Gold
In major cities and towns, gold may be used as payment medium. I generally set the price of gold at $50 per gram (which I googled today, as a matter of fact). Jewelry is a convenient form of gold and the following table has a list of generic jewelry items and their average weights:
Jewellery item (Average weight)
- Small ring / Women's ring (2 grams)
- Big ring/ Men's ring (4 grams)
- Chevalière (8 grams)
- Thin mesh bracelet (5 grams)
- Medium and rigid mesh bracelet (15 grams)
- Big mesh bracelet (20 grams)
- Thin mesh necklace (10 grams)
- Thick mesh necklace (30 grams)
- Small pendant (1 gram)
- Big pendant (4 grams)
- Pair of earrings (6 grams)
This conjures up images of treasure boxes filled with gold, but we need coins. Here are some real coins for comparison.
- 1 Ounce Gold Britannia (31 grams = $1500 in T2K).
- 1/2 Ounce Gold Britannia (15 grams = $750 in T2K)
- 1/4 Ounce Gold Britannia (7 grams = $350 in T2K)
- 1/10 Ounce Gold Britannia (3 grams = $150 in T2K)
So, when all is said and done, we have a barter system, a new use for the Persuasion skill and a rule set for using gold. Good days work, if I do say so.
0078a - First Sergeant John Blue Elk
Name: First Sergeant John Blue Elk
Appearance: Top Blue Elk is a barrel of a man but not fat but rather powerful. HIs appearance is Native American and he has let his hair grow out, with his long strands of salt and pepper hair held back by a bandana made from an old guidon. He looks and acts like a professional warrior and carries himself as such.
Quote: "The Russians won't care what doesn't work when they get here so find something that does!"
Background: Blue Elk is a professional soldier and has been since he turned 18. To hear him tell it, he has been all over and done everything but he uses that experience to the benefit of his troops.
He has been with Captain Warren since the balloon went up and has become increasingly worried about her mental state. Although he has not really said anything, he is watchful of her actions.
Roleplaying: Top's first and last thought everyday is the welfare of his troop. Sure, Captain Warren says where they are going but Top and his NCOs get the work done. He is constantly patrolling the troop area and will always be on the look out for things that need to be straightened away, troops that need support or a good talk and any situation that may be detrimental to the troop. He is loud and outspoken and speaks in terms that even the thickest of soldiers will understand.
Stat Block: Veteran NPC (Initiative: 6, Attributes: 7, Assets: 13, UCD: 4)
Combat Assets: Small Arms (Rifle), Armed Martial Arts, Autogun
Other Assets: Scrounging: 12, Instruction: 13, Persuasion 8
Motivation:
War Leader: The NPC is an unusually good leader in combat situations. He has an instinctive grasp of tactics and a good eye for terrain, and never panics in a fight. In game terms, treat the character as having an Initiative of 6. In addition, the referee should assume that the NPC can anticipate many situations in combat and will make the best allowances for them possible.
Very ambitious: The NPC will be overwhelmed by a desire to manipulate and control the people around him, to become a ruler of men.
Location: Dobrodzien, Poland
Hits:
OOOOO OOOOO OOOOO OOOOO -1 Initiative
OOOOO OOOOO OOOOO OOOOO -2 Initiative
Note: initiative modifiers are cumulative.
Main Weapon: M16A2 with 2 magazine(s)/belt(s) and 10 loose rounds
Melee Weapon: Hatchet (This is what the generator spit out. Still, at tactical tomahawk has potential....)
Grenades: Fragmentation Grenade []
Equipment: Fatigues, Steel Helmet, Pack, Flashlight
Food: 5kg of Domestic Food and 3kg of Soviet Field Rations
Meeting 1SG Blue Elk: If the players attempt to enter Dobrodzien, they will meet first sergeant Blue Elk. He generally sizes up all groups seeking to enter the town and takes cares of integrating new soldiers into the troop.
0078 - First Contact
1145 30 JUL 2000
==============
"They still had the pennants flying. Seeing those little red and white flags did a lot to relax us. They had some form of discipline and unit cohesion, so that was a good sign. Still, we approached the city like one would any other town nowadays: with the finger on the trigger and our heads on a swivel."
Upon reaching the city, we can assume that the team can make contact easily enough. They have heard the voices on the radio and would probably have taken the opprotunity to make radio contact. This means that their approach will not surprise anyone. We also know that Captain Warren is going to want to interview them but given her addtional responsibilities as the commander of the town's defense, it is unlikely that she will meet them at the checkpoint in person.
"We entered the kill zone in front of the first checkpoint. A bulldozer had been used to tear up the road, creating holes and berms that we navigated around under the watchful eyes of the cav troopers. They were calm but vigilant, just like we were. Macron stopped us about 20m from the barrier and I dismounted. Being the vehicle commander of the first vehicle, I got the "say hello" honors. These days, it is a big thing and you wonder if you have on clean skivvies in case someone shoots you. I was pretty sure I had but somehow reluctant to put it to the test.
I identified myself as '2LT Marshall, 1/173rd Infantry, Alabama National Guard, 256th Infantry Bridgade Team, 5th Infantry Division'. A slight murmur went through the barricade when I mentioned the 256th but nothing I could really hear. Appearently we had made the news somewhere.
After a couple of seconds, a first sergeant moved around the barrier. He was a barrel of a man with a name tag that read "Blue Elk". To me he seemed to Native American and he had let his hair grow out, long strands of salt and pepper hair held back by a bandana made from an old guidon. He looked and acted the part of a professional warrior.
Together we investigated the remaining vehicles and I introduced the team. He took it all in, appraising us and our condition, before waving us forward, 'Turn right here and go about 50m. There is an abandoned market with a big parking lot. You can billet there. Down this street is an old vetinary clinic on the right. That is the medical building, there you can have your wounded checked out. The quartermaster is in the town hall and you can talk to her about anything you may need but remeber there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.Speaking of which, chow is at 1800 in front of the church. Do not be late and there are no seconds.'
We moved out and found our billet. Not much to look at but it was dry and offered some good cover. We parked the vehicle out front, ready to beat feet if things went south. It was nice to be around our countrymen again but no one relaxes because they here familiar accents. The world has changed to much for that."
So, for the moment, our team has a safe place to sleep. We also have a new NPC and have used my T2K generator to generate the stats, making Top Blue Elk a veteran NPC. For the motivation, I got War Leader and Very Ambitious. Top knows what he is doing and knows how to get what he wants. Definitely a man with a purpose.
Now the team can set about getting some supplies and fixing things.I also need to think about a replacement mechanic, as Mitchell was killed. This is definitely a skill the group will need.
==============
"They still had the pennants flying. Seeing those little red and white flags did a lot to relax us. They had some form of discipline and unit cohesion, so that was a good sign. Still, we approached the city like one would any other town nowadays: with the finger on the trigger and our heads on a swivel."
Upon reaching the city, we can assume that the team can make contact easily enough. They have heard the voices on the radio and would probably have taken the opprotunity to make radio contact. This means that their approach will not surprise anyone. We also know that Captain Warren is going to want to interview them but given her addtional responsibilities as the commander of the town's defense, it is unlikely that she will meet them at the checkpoint in person.
"We entered the kill zone in front of the first checkpoint. A bulldozer had been used to tear up the road, creating holes and berms that we navigated around under the watchful eyes of the cav troopers. They were calm but vigilant, just like we were. Macron stopped us about 20m from the barrier and I dismounted. Being the vehicle commander of the first vehicle, I got the "say hello" honors. These days, it is a big thing and you wonder if you have on clean skivvies in case someone shoots you. I was pretty sure I had but somehow reluctant to put it to the test.
I identified myself as '2LT Marshall, 1/173rd Infantry, Alabama National Guard, 256th Infantry Bridgade Team, 5th Infantry Division'. A slight murmur went through the barricade when I mentioned the 256th but nothing I could really hear. Appearently we had made the news somewhere.
After a couple of seconds, a first sergeant moved around the barrier. He was a barrel of a man with a name tag that read "Blue Elk". To me he seemed to Native American and he had let his hair grow out, long strands of salt and pepper hair held back by a bandana made from an old guidon. He looked and acted the part of a professional warrior.
Together we investigated the remaining vehicles and I introduced the team. He took it all in, appraising us and our condition, before waving us forward, 'Turn right here and go about 50m. There is an abandoned market with a big parking lot. You can billet there. Down this street is an old vetinary clinic on the right. That is the medical building, there you can have your wounded checked out. The quartermaster is in the town hall and you can talk to her about anything you may need but remeber there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.Speaking of which, chow is at 1800 in front of the church. Do not be late and there are no seconds.'
We moved out and found our billet. Not much to look at but it was dry and offered some good cover. We parked the vehicle out front, ready to beat feet if things went south. It was nice to be around our countrymen again but no one relaxes because they here familiar accents. The world has changed to much for that."
So, for the moment, our team has a safe place to sleep. We also have a new NPC and have used my T2K generator to generate the stats, making Top Blue Elk a veteran NPC. For the motivation, I got War Leader and Very Ambitious. Top knows what he is doing and knows how to get what he wants. Definitely a man with a purpose.
Now the team can set about getting some supplies and fixing things.I also need to think about a replacement mechanic, as Mitchell was killed. This is definitely a skill the group will need.
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