Trade Merchant
Advanced, Crafting, Interaction
Fellowship While the Barter skill covers immediate, short-term negotiations, the Trade (Merchant) skill represents the strategic manoeuvring and long-term dialogues necessary not only to close the deal but also to bring the other party to the table in the first place. Thus, you use Barter when haggling over the price of a data-slate, but use Trade (Merchant) when negotiating the rights to a stellar trade route between Landunder and the Lathes, or exclusive import rights to Hecuter firearms. These are discussions that may take months as opposed to minutes, and acts as a prolonged Interaction skill.
Various other Interaction Skills may have effects on the results of the negotiations: Blather, Charm, Deceive and Intimidate. The GM may have the characters roleplay specific meetings of the negotiations, for which he may grant a one-off bonus or penalty of +/–10 to the Test for that time interval as detailed in Step 4: Test Roles of the Crafting Rules. Alternately, he may allow the players to make an appropriate Interaction Skill Test for a similar modifier if they do not wish to roleplay the situation.
Fellowship While the Barter skill covers immediate, short-term negotiations, the Trade (Merchant) skill represents the strategic manoeuvring and long-term dialogues necessary not only to close the deal but also to bring the other party to the table in the first place. Thus, you use Barter when haggling over the price of a data-slate, but use Trade (Merchant) when negotiating the rights to a stellar trade route between Landunder and the Lathes, or exclusive import rights to Hecuter firearms. These are discussions that may take months as opposed to minutes, and acts as a prolonged Interaction skill.
Various other Interaction Skills may have effects on the results of the negotiations: Blather, Charm, Deceive and Intimidate. The GM may have the characters roleplay specific meetings of the negotiations, for which he may grant a one-off bonus or penalty of +/–10 to the Test for that time interval as detailed in Step 4: Test Roles of the Crafting Rules. Alternately, he may allow the players to make an appropriate Interaction Skill Test for a similar modifier if they do not wish to roleplay the situation.
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