Bartering

Bartering Social Proficiency [Personality] 200 hours Barter is the exchange of goods for commodities. Gold can be a commodity, so this skill is used to get the most value in your purchases. The simple way to use this skill is to make a skill check against the other person's Willpower. Each point you either succeed or fail by affects the price by 5%. The more involved (and more enjoyable) way is for the Game Master to make the skill check secretly and role-play the encounter. This skill works for both buying and selling. If both player and non-player characters have this skill, make an opposed skill check. Subtract the lower-rolling character's result from the higher-rolling character's to find how to modify the price. For example, Corwin wants to get a better deal on his armour. He has both milled-wheat and hard coin for the deal. Corwin—or the Game Master—rolls against the smith's Willpower (14) and the smith makes a skill check against Corwin's (9). The smith's total roll is a 16—7 higher than Corwin's Willpower; Corwin only rolled a 12—he failed by 2. The difference between the two skill checks is 9 (the smith's +7 minus Corwin's -2), for a total modifier of +45% that Corwin has to pay for the armour—poor bastard. Had Corwin made his roll by 2, rather than failing, the final price would have been only (7-2=5 or 25%) one-quarter more than the base price rather than almost half-again as much.