Bargaining: A successful skill roll allows a character to get the best deal available for goods, services, or information. It’s not usually possible for a character to bargain someone into giving him very much for nothing.
🪙 Racial Variants #
| Variant | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Dwarven | Quality Audit | Dwarves don’t haggle over “feelings”; they haggle over craftsmanship. They scrutinize for impurities, structural flaws, or inferior materials to justify a lower price. |
| Elven | Patronage of Art | To Elves, a transaction is an investment in the seller’s future. They “bargain” by offering long-term prestige or artistic critique that can make a merchant’s reputation for decades. |
| Halfling | The Hospitality Exchange | Halflings rarely use gold alone. They bargain by bundling goods with “favors”—a home-cooked meal, a shared story, or a promise of future lodging. |
| Gnomish | Speculative Trading | Gnomes bargain with potential. They might convince a merchant to give them a discount now in exchange for a “prototype” or a share of the “discovery” they plan to make with the item. |
🌍 Regional Variants #
- The High-Context Consular (Metropolitan/Diplomatic)
In established cities, bargaining is a delicate dance of status. You never open with a price; you open with a compliment.
- Specialty: Relationship-Based Pricing. By spending time building a rapport or “saving face” for the merchant, they unlock hidden discounts or premium stock not shown to strangers.
- The Dust-Road Haggler (Desert/Nomadic)
In regions where resources are scarce, bargaining is a high-energy ritual. It is expected to start with an “insultingly” high price and work down.
- Specialty: The War of Attrition. These bargainers use mock outrage and theatrical “walking away” to test the merchant’s bottom line. They are immune to the pressure of time.
- The Port-Side Opportunist (Coastal/Trade Hubs)
In fast-paced ports, “time is money.” Bargaining is brisk, blunt, and focused on volume and efficiency.
- Specialty: Bundle Logic. They excel at convincing sellers that moving a large quantity of goods quickly at a lower price is better than waiting for a single high-paying buyer.
- The Silent Marketeer (Underground/Black Market)
In places where the law is distant, bargaining happens with the eyes and the wallet, never the voice.
- Specialty: Information Brokerage. They “bargain” by trading secrets or leverage. A successful check might allow the character to get a discount simply by knowing which authority figure the merchant is currently dodging.
Design Tip: You might consider a “Cultural Penalty” (-2) if a character tries to use a high-energy “Dust-Road” style in a “High-Context” city, where directness could be seen as a grave insult.
