Hey everyone, just found the game a little while back and my friends and I love what we’ve read. We’re planning to start a game soon, but I have a few questions I hope you can help with/offer advice on.
1. How have you made Kaiju Threat Alert work? Does the player just decide they want to scout for signs of a behemoth attack, and then they just make up a prophecy? Does the GM need to follow that, or are they just encouraged to work with the player?
2. How have you made the whole buying & selling thing of the Merchants work? Since there’s no real concept of money that I can tell, I’m not certain what benefit special abilities like Avaricious Appraisal gives? Honestly there are a few moves that the Merchants have that seem a little out of place without some form of economy built up around them.
Thanks for all your help! Can’t wait to play!
For Kaiju Threat Alert, as GM, I have followed what the player has come up with. As it’s so central to the playbook, I enjoy the extra narrative influence they have here and players are generally better at predicting awful things happening than I am 🙂
For the Merchants, there is still trading at a Family level. Whether it be simply in the narrative or resources like Surpluses, Data, and Relics, there can be a lot of trading. I see Avaricious Appraisal as a move by which the GM tells you with certainty how much something is worth to other NPC factions ie what you would get in exchange for it.
On saying that, it’s really up to the Merchants player to create and foster that kind of trading behaviour in play as well.
First of all, welcome in Michael Barrett!!
1. It works as well as the player describes the Threat Alert. If describe something too wild, the GM can even unleash the behemoth, and it can be stopped, but the condition of the Alert won’t come to pass. And the Order suffers when that happens. So, we wanted a system that encourages good suspenseful narrative, in balance with the theme and feel of the Homeland.
2. Well, the Merchants deal heavily with barter, services and favors to control markets. Money and credit are just some of the tools to regulate economy (no matter how pervasive and efficient they are for us today).
Hope you have lots of fun with our game! 🙂
Awesome, thanks everyone – that helped a lot. The first question is totally clear now.
The second one I’m still not sure on – I can’t imagine telling another Family they can’t sell things, or be able to discern the “price” of something, so what does that actually mean for the Merchants? THey don’t seem particularly better at it.
I guess the thing with the Merchants is that they’re primarily great at making use of resources, and only a small part of that is getting lots of money for selling something. They always have access to interesting products from Stock in Trade and can use that to boost their efforts; they can use their sales to boost their diplomatic and resource gathering operations with Brand Loyalty and Whaddaya Buying; Rationing lets them get more use out of Surpluses; and Cabinet of Wonders and Avaricious Appraisal help them gear up their characters with strange and wonderful things.
They don’t have moves to negotiate in-person deals, though, because that’s a matter for the character layer. A Merchant Envoy is bar none the best salesperson in the game.
Thanks James Iles – One of my players also pointed out that they get all sorts of bonuses that others don’t when they do sell, and that Avoracious Appraisal would mean they could find someone out there (an NPC) that is particularly willing to pay for something.
Sorry for necroing the thread, but I still really don’t get Whaddaya Buying.
The goods to sell still should be something? Right? Like a surplus or a piece of tech?
Would option 2 give you access to your move a second time this session? Or every session as long as you are in that area?
What kind of thing could be gained from option 3? It’s just so vaguely described that I can’t get any ideas from it except that the Merchants leave the deal with a more than fair deal… but what sort of thing could that be?
James Iles
Victor Segell The important thing is that something doesn’t need to be a mechanical widget (like a Surplus or Tech) to be worthwhile. Things you could sell with Whaddaya Buying could be:
– Your Family’s stock in trade.
– Cool gear you’ve found.
– Valuable knowledge you’ve found – the location of treasure, or safe passage.
– Services – cooking or bodyguarding or scouting or whatever. Works well setting up character scenes.
– Captive beasts or – if your family has no moral qualms – slaves.
Anything you could think that people might buy, you can sell.
Option 2 would mean that so long as you’re in the area – and so long as those friendly relationships remain in place – the range of things you can use your 1/session Stock in Trade use to boost. If you’re normally musicians and dancers, getting a supply of arms and ammunition can make a lot of difference!
Option 3 means you get something cool, or interesting, out of the deal. Maybe the glowy doodad they paid with is something you recognise as an access key? Maybe the power cell is normally pretty useful, but in your particular case it’s exactly what you need to power your armour? Maybe the book they traded has a map hidden in it?
Does that help?
Thank you James Iles, it really does! I feel like I understand how to interpret it in the fiction better now. 🙂
Ah that’s great to hear 🙂