Silver and Jade

Permutations

• Resources Rating vs Resources Purchases

Investing

• Every investment is rated as a Resource purchase.
• Every investment has what is called a turnaround time, which is the amount of time it takes an investment to determine success or failure,and the degree thereof.

Shielded Resources

Resources that come to a character through Backing of some kind are far more reliable and solid than normal Resources. Where unshielded Resources are based on the character's own wheeling and dealing, making money where he can and generally tending to his own finances, Shielded Resources come to a character through the organization to which he belongs. This may be in the form of a salary, or it may simply reflect investments and income that come about as a result of association with that organization.

A Backing Background can protect up to its rating in Resources. Multiple Backing Backgrounds do not stack; the Resources of that character is simply protected by the best of them.

Benefits: Shielded Resources benefit in the following ways:

• Regeneration: Instead of Resources rating dropping permanently by a single dot when a Resources purchase of equal value is made, the drop occurs only until the next month. This, of course, is only the case if the Backing shielding the Resources rating is of equal or greater rating.
• Immunity to Attack: Shielded Resources ratings are immune to attack by the Silver and Jade system, to a degree. Shielded Resources cannot be eroded below the rating of the Backing serving to shield them.

Resources Ratings & Resources Purchases

The Resources rating, for the purpose of these rules, is the number of dots a character has in the Resources Background. It represents an overall, often times regenerating buying power of the character in question.

A Resources purchase is a single expenditure of funds. These are rated on a scale comparative to the Resources rating. These ratings reflect how expensive the item is; if someone with a Resources rating equal to the Resources purchase scale makes that purchase, it reduces his Resources by one dot.

Example: Gilded Coin has a Resources •••• rating. The purchase of an estate is a Resources •••• purchase. If he makes the purchase, his Resources are reduced to a rating of •••.

The Mercantile Action

The mercantile action is a dramatic action intended to find, buy or sell an item. Generally speaking, this action uses two Skills at different points in the process: Bureaucracy to find the items in question (or buyers if one possesses the items) and Presence to handle the haggling thereof.

The system assumes that the basic price of any given item is a Resources purchase. Of course, with a culture that lacks the concept of standardized pricing, there is no such thing as a fixed price. As a buyer, there are three steps in this process: Finding Goods, Evaluating Goods and Haggling. As a seller, there are two: Finding Buyers and Haggling

Finding Goods or Buyers

The first step in any mercantile action is finding someone with whom to trade, whether that means finding a buyer for one's goods, or finding someone with the thing you want. This requires a Perception + Bureaucracy roll, with a difficulty of the Resources price of the item(s) to be sold.

This can be affected by a number of modifiers, all of them manifesting as external modifiers (i.e. adding or subtracting successes from the roll). Many very basic purchases receive so many positive modifiers that a roll is utterly unnecessary - finding food (Res. 1) in a good harvest season (Scarcity: +4) in an agricultural trading center (Market: +3) is an automatic success, with successes to spare. Others are a bit more difficult, however: finding an orichalcum daiklave (Res. 5) outside of the Scavenger Lands (Scarcity: -3) in a small province that hasn't actually seen an Exalt in a few generations (Market: -3) is quite a bit more difficult.

The roll to find a buyer or product takes up a certain amount of time, based on its price:

• Resources •: One hour per roll
• Resources ••: One day per roll
• Resources •••: One week per roll
• Resources ••••: One month per roll
• Resources ••••••: One season per roll

This amount of time can be sped up by taking a -2 external penalty per step above the appropriate category to the Finding Buyers or Goods roll. Likewise, those who are having trouble finding buyers or product may take a bit of extra time to search, gaining a +1 external bonus per step down the chart taken.

This roll receives the normal -1 external penalty associated with retrying an action. This penalty goes away once an increment of time equal to the next step down from its price above has passed. Thus, failing to sell a Resources • item means waiting a full day before trying again in order to do so without penalty, and a Resources •••• item won't be rid of that penalty until a season has passed. It requires the passage of a full year before trying with a Resources ••••• item.

Scarcity

The Scarcity of a given product indicates how easy it is to find in the current location. This can fluctuate fairly radically, ranging from impossible to find (-5) to being in a major production center for that good (+3-+5, depending on the level of production). Some example modifiers apply below:

• -5: Impossible to get anywhere in Creation.
• -4: Impossible to get anywhere in that Direction.
• -3: Nearly impossible to get in that Direction, and are the province of rulers.
• -2: Very difficult to get, possessed on by the very wealthy.
• -1: Difficult to find, with a specialized market for them.
• +0: Not too difficult to acquire, with the right money.
• +1: Easily acquired, within the same Direction as some place that produces that product.
• +2: Common, found within roughly the same area of a Direction as some place that produces that product.
• +3: Fairly common, located in a shared area with some production center for the product.
• +4: Very common, in a production center of large town size for that product.
• +5: Extremely common, such as in a major production center for that product (blades and metalworks in Nexus, glassworks in Chiaroscuro, etc.)

Market

The Market of a given product determines how large of a demand there is for that product in the area - it is easier to find a product in places where it will sell, after all. Some example modifiers apply below:

• -3: No one in this location would purchase such a product. (Artifacts in an area with few Exalts and Gods)
• -2: Only very specialized purchasers seek this product. (Artifacts in an area with plenty of Exalts and Gods)
• -1: Professional or wealthy buyers are the only ones who seek this product, but it is in fair demand among such customers. (Thaumaturgical Items of Rating 3)
• +0: The sale of the product is fairly common, though hardly considered vital or greatly desired. (Thaumaturgical Items of Rating 1-2)
• +1: A popular item with half the populace or so.
• +2: An item considered a staple or favorite purchase by nearly everyone.
• +3: In demand by nearly everyone.

Other Modifiers

A number of other modifiers come into play for the process of discovering a product or buyer. These are as follows:

• Trade Barriers: Varies. Trying to purchase or sell something that a major trade consortium or other organization is trying to either block from being sold or putting their weight behind the sale of can tremendously modify the ease by which such things are done. Generally speaking, these modifiers are based on whether the organization wants it to sell (positive modifier) or is trying to block it (negative modifier) and the size of the organization in question:
  • small local government or influential local trader (+/-1)
  • provincial government or trade consortium (+/-3)
  • a massive empire/confederation or the Guild (+/-5)
• Legality: The legality of an item is applied as a penalty; items that are not illegal simply are unmodified by this entry. The level of legality varies, based on how stringently it is persecuted:
  • minor misdemeanor for possession (-1)
  • crime worthy of imprisonment (-3)
  • execution for possession (-5).
• Magical Nature: Magical items, or products used solely for magical functions inherently have a more limited nature. This is normally reflected by the Market of an item - thaumaturgical items are easier to get, while actual Artifacts are always difficult to find (doubly so in areas with few Exalts or gods). This modifier is altered by what the item in question is made of:
  • non-Magical Material (+1)
  • Jade (+0)
  • Orichalcum or Soulsteel (-1)
  • Moonsilver or Starmetal (-2)
• Guild Proliferation: This modifier is based on how well the Guild has gotten into the area in question. With the Guild comes enhanced lending networks, increased transport of goods and a general strengthening of a non-local market. These modifiers range from:
  • No Guild Presence (-2)
  • Basic Guild Presence (+0)
  • Major Guild Center (+2)

Evaluating Goods

Before haggling begins, the prospective buyer generally makes an Intelligence + Bureaucracy roll, with a difficulty of the item's Resources rating. The prospective buyer may also use other Abilities appropriate to the purchase being made instead of Bureaucracy: a combat Ability for a weapon that uses that Ability, Survival for an animal, Socialize for clothing and jewelry, Medicine for slaves, appropriate Crafts used to make the item in question and the like.

A dishonest seller may take steps to make the item seem worth more than it is, through sweet-talking the buyer and/or underhanded little tricks such as adding a discreet layer of wax to make something that isn't in the best condition shine, or otherwise concealing flaws in the item.

• Physical Tricks: Each success on the seller's Dexterity + Larceny adds one to the difficulty to determine the true value of the item. This generally requires some time, based on the item's size and complexity.
• Sweet Talking: Each success the seller scores over the buyer's MDV in a Manipulation-based social attack increases the difficulty by one as well, unless the target spends a point of Willpower.

Success: If the buyer succeeds at this roll, he gains an automatic success on the following Haggling roll, or three successes if the seller resorted to physical tricks or sweet talking.