Bazaar

In the past, when I’ve attempted to track what kinds of equipment might be available in a given town, I have usually just handwaved it or gestured vaguely at the normal equipment list. For a planned hexcrawl game, I will be trying a different approach that I’m calling the Bazaar system. 

First, I assign a market theme to each letter of the alphabet. Then, I populate each theme with three to seven items and attached prices. The same item may appear on different lists with different prices. Printing each market theme on a different card, I can combine different cards to represent different markets. The principle is simple, but it lets me tune things a great deal.

• You can designate one letter as always present for market staples.
• Assign more common market themes to more common letters. Then, when I want to populate a random bazaar, I can just ask a player for a random word. The longer the word I request, the more developed the bazaar. Example: I figure a small city will have a small bazaar, so I have the players give me a five-letter word: QUERY. With the themes below, that means the city will have wood, jewelry, travel supplies, beasts, and excavation tools.
• You can use overlap strategically. Items present in multiple market themes may have different prices, meaning that players will want to shop around.
• When players go out of their way to follow leads, track down sellers, or barter, reward them with extra cards.
• When players need to replace or upgrade weapons and armor, they are not assured to get exactly what they want. With sparse options, players are more likely to take up picks, hammers, and shovels.
• This is a great way to inject setting details

Example market for the Mesomergos setting I'm developing:

A- general supplies Beer (2 cp) 1 pound soap (2 cp) Heavy cloak (4 gp) light armor 30’ rope (8 sp) Knife (7 sp) light weapon Torch (2 cp) Wooden pole (1 cp)	N- drugs Beer (1 cp) Rice wine or pomace wine (3 cp) Opium (1 sp) Absynthe (1 sp) Random narcomanta* (8 gp) Random formula (10 gp) Random gigre (25 gp)
B-armor Cuirass (13 gp) medium armor Plaited reed armor (12 gp) medium armor Scale armor (120 gp) heavy armor Wicker shield (2 gp)	O- holies Tefillim* with a random WORD (15 gp) Amulet* of a random spell (10 gp) Serpent torse of a random formula (10 gp) Idol of a random god (2 gp)
C-oil 5 pounds lard (2 cp) 1 pound soap 1 cp Candle (1 cp) Oil flask (2 cp) Sesame oil barrel (6 gp)	P-weapons Shortspear (5 sp) Sickle sword (2 gp) Sling (5 sp) Lance (5 gp) Masterwork spear (22 gp)
D- hirelings* Beer barrel (3 gp) Porter (half share) Linkboy (half share, tale of adventure) Servant (half share) Eunuch (one share)	Q- wood 10 stakes (1 sp) Mallet (1 cp) light weapon Sled (2 gp) Walking staff (3 sp) Javelin (1 sp)
E- travel supplies Beer barrel 2 gp 30’ rope (6 sp) Block and tackle (2 sp) Whistle (3 cp) Porter (half share)	R- beasts Cattle (1 gp) Dog (1 gp, promises) Tamed Onager (2 gp) Sheep (3 sp) Goat (3 sp)
F- illegal goods 1 pound iron (100 GP) Thief’s cord (1 gp) Grappling hook (5 sp) Cursed item (you don’t pay… money) Fencing service (25%)	S- fabrics Quilted linens (2 gp) Heavy cloak (3 gp) Fancy chiton (10 gp) Ciclatoun or samite bolt (20 gp) Battered narcomanta (15 gp)
G-entertainment Lalon Set (1 sp, or 1 drink and victory in a game) Ur Set (2 sp, a game) Instrument (1 gp) Minstrel (half share) Opium (2 sp)	T- magic Random magic ostentation* (10 gp) Random magic talisman* (10 gp) Random magic scroll (2 gp) Random magic scroll (2 gp) Absynthe (2 sp)
H- writing supplies Ink (1 sp) Chalk (1 cp) Scroll (1 sp) Scrollcase (1 gp)	U- jewelry Gem mantle of a random formula (10 gp) Spiralled bracelet (4 gp) Reefstone* brooch (2 gp) Ceremonial dagger (8 gp)
I- trade goods Beer barrel (2 gp) Socketed axe (2 gp) 1 pound salt (1 gp) 1 pound copper (1 sp) 1 pound tin (12 cp)	V- alchemy Acid (1 sp) Mercury draught (2 sp) 1 pound chimerite*  (3 gp) 1 dose of poison (3 gp) Dry ice (2 gp)
J- bogwork Bog mummy (4 gp) Hand of glory (10 gp) Random necromantic talisman (8 gp) Stilt boots (1 sp)	W- contracted work Indentured worker (60 gp) Banded club (3 gp) Apprentice (40 gp) Concubine (100 gp, half share, promises)
K- metal Round Shield (2 gp) Lantern (2 gp) Bronze ingot (1 sp) Hammer (1 cp) light weapon Mirror (1 gp)	X- marvels Telescope (5 gp) Lock and key (40 gp) Water clock (45 gp) Icon of Noryawes (1 sp, talking shop) Engineer (1 share, first dibs on loot)
L-claywork Chisel (1 sp) Clay tablet (1 sp) Terra cotta tool (1 cp) Urn (3 cp)	Y- excavation Pick (8 sp) medium weapon Ard plow (3 gp) Bronze Crow (2 sp) Shovel (1 gp)
M- mercenaries Jaded slinger (1 share, 1 drink) Byway conjurer (1 share) Bravo (1 share, tale of adventure) Healer (1 share)	Z-goblin market A skill (two skills) A secret (your name) A fortune (Your firstborn) A spell (your luck)

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*While using a gigre, narcomantas are used to share the benefits and drawbacks with allies. Think a rallying banner, but it gets you high.

*Tefillim, amulets, and other ostentations are simple magic items used to reroll a magic or WORD die.

*Talismans are simple magic items that allow you to automatically memorize a spell.

*I strongly feel that you shouldn't have to track hireling wages per day. Just give them a full share if they're expected to fight and a half share if they're not.

*Reefstone is cut from living above-ground reefs

*Chimerate is the catalyst for magical transformation from which the chimera gets its nam.

d10 Economic Exchange Systems and a Draft for Barter Systems

d10 Economic Exchange Systems

1. Currency (coins)
2. Currency (coins and notes)
3. Currency (coins and notes and stock and capital)
4. Currency (rai stones)
5. Barter (simple)
6. Barter (Dzamalag)
7. Barter (debt)
8. Gift economy
9. Stockpile allocation (communal)
10. Stockpile allocation (tyrannical)

As my first Holy Selmat campaign winds down, I have the chance to look back and tweak things that did not go so well. One convention of the game which I loved in concept but which proved difficult in play is that most of the word does not use currency, and instead the barter standard is common. Players found this endlessly inconvenient, and often tried to juke it, looking for commodities that were “equivalent” to a gold piece, a silver piece, and so on. Worse still, I found it clunky enough that we often skipped over any actual barter and exchange.

So this is the first draft of my new barter economy. One resource which will be relevant to my travelling rules is “supplies.” One supply is enough to sustain one person for five days in food, warmth, water, and the like. Another resource is labor, skilled and unskilled. Unskilled labor can usually get you resources at the rate of one supply every five days, thus working for bed and board. Skilled labor will vary much more, but generally I’ll treat it as yielding two supplies every five days.

So the base denomination is time spent in work, a reality that successful parties will likely avoid. If they have devoted followers, they can reduce their upkeep in cities or even make a profit by finding work for them. 

Yet notably, the barter economy is incomplete. You are unlikely to purchase a sword with servitude or food. You have to engage in classic barter: the exchange of one valuable item for another. In this case I might have there be a simple procedure:

• Person 1 proposes a trade.
• DM decides if the trade is very roughly equivalent in person 2’s eyes.
• If so, person 1 and person 2 test their charisma.
• If the trade is roughly equivalent, the DM rolls 2d6 to determine if person 2 wants to make the trade, with higher numbers indicating higher degrees of interest. If both succeeded their test or neither did, take the average. If person 1 succeeded, the roll has advantage. If person 2 succeeded, the roll has disadvantage. 
• On a high roll, person 2 errs on the side of accepting the deal. On a low roll, person 2 tries to get a better deal.

Finally, the gathering of supplies provides an interesting logistical challenge for long journeys. It is wholly possible to wander a month between cities in Holy Selmat, and you can’t carry a month of supplies on your back (One supply is equivalent perhaps to five equipment slots.) Hunting can ameliorate the upkeep, (either skilled or unskilled labor, depending on several factors) but you will need ways to carry supplies even then. This is where porters, carts, mules, and the like come in.

Gathering supplies

• Bovine, milk: 2 supplies/month
• Skilled labor: 12 supplies/month
• Unskilled labor: 6 supplies/month

Harvesting supplies

• Bovine, meat: 70 supplies
• Pig: 10 supplies
• Wheat, bushel: 20 supplies

Carrying supplies

• Bovine: 20 supplies or one cart or half a wagon.
• Cart: holds 40 supplies
• Covered Wagon: holds 60 supplies
• Donkey: 10 supplies
• Horse: 10 supplies
• Mule: 15 supplies
• Person: 1 supply for every 5 strength they possess
• Porter: 3 supplies