Commerce Moves and a Question

Commerce Moves and a Question

Commerce Moves and a Question

So, in Apocalypse Age, instead of barter, you have influence (on an NPC individual or social group); your wealth is intrinsically connected to the people around you. Basically you accumulate influence the same way as barter, but it has history; if you bodyguarded Marquise Gautron worth 3-influence, now you have “3 influence on Marquise Gautron.”

So I was thinking, what if the basic commerce move was, instead of, when you give 1-barter to someone, but with strings attached, something like the following?

When you offer an NPC a favor for a favor, tell them what you want and roll+influence. On a 10+, you’re cool, they’ll do it. On a 7-9, it’ll cost you; the MC says how much influence it’ll take and you say yes or no. On a miss, be prepared for the worst.

I think there’s an effect that’s interesting—if you get enough influence on someone you can get them to do a lot of stuff at a low cost—but I’m not 100% that’s a good design choice or not.

3 thoughts on “Commerce Moves and a Question”

  1. I think it depends on the cultural mores of your setting. If your setting views social interaction as very transactional (marriage as a contract, quid pro quo, mutual back scratching) then both 10+ and 7-9 should cost Influence, the difference being how much.

    If instead your culture is one of bonds of friendship and community and once you are “part of the tribe” people will do things for you without “keeping score” then maybe you only lose influence on a miss.

    If your culture has a range of social classes, you might want to make the move more nuanced. What it means to have influence on someone below you looks and acts differently than having influence on someone above you.

    I think the math on your move as you have it will likely break unless a) you cap max influence to a range similar to other scores, or b) every result requires spending it down. But I think the move itself can only be judged as good or not in the context of your cultural setting.

  2. Would another possibility be to have the target pick up bonds or influence (Hx, or whatever) with you? Cap Influence at +3 and have costs come as a choice of lost Influence or bonds/Hx/Influence to the target?

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