1001 Nights variant: birr and resources
Game rules - homebrew
Here I want to steal from Vaesen and replace the use of birr in the game with a resource system. Firstly because it's in keeping the simplification I'm going for across these house rules - a removal of bookkeeping at least - but secondly because it allows me to tie it in with the increased in-game value I'm trying to get with social status and character backgrounds.
A system of favours and debts
I'm going to work from the idea that, though there is an accepted currency in birr, as there is no central banking authority and no universal agreement that the Zenithian way of doing things is the one and only way, local acceptance of birr cannot be guaranteed. Instead, I'll work from the basis that an Arabian, early second millennium system is more likely to be accepted across the Horizon: hospitality can be assumed and that purchases are generally made as trades in goods, services or favours. Merchant and banking houses can act at a distance still and so people might use them as intermediaries but even without them even individuals can trade with what they have to offer.
If your social status is equal to or greater than something's resource value then you can be assumed to get it with relative ease in 'normal conditions' - i.e. you're in a civilised area and sellers of that kind of thing would be reasonably common enough. Variations in resource value and purchasing power occur with circumstance
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Any item, service or favour can have a resource value. Maybe the PCs earned the favour of a local Dar or Dabaran, who's promised to help them out when they're in need; perhaps they received a diamond as payment for saving a merchant's life; maybe they have to consider selling their services as guards to a trade caravan in return for food and water. Whenever the PCs obtain a notable, one-off valuable the GM should give it a resource value. This valuable can then be traded in a one-time deal for something of the same resource value. Do people give change?
Maybe. Birr is still in the game and someone might be able to give you a value 3 good plus the difference in birr for a value 4 item you give them. This could also be the source of a challenge for the PCs: the value 6 item they have might be just too hot for a plebeian merchant to deal with and she doesn't want to risk being mugged for it later. JUMP TO CONTENTS
Checking through the equipment lists in the Cores Rules, this does seem to allow people to buy a reasonable range of goods at each level, restricting expensive items to higher social levels for everyday NPC.
The problem of ship debt getting into 1 to 2 million birr for an average class III ship means that the doubling in resource value probably needs to break at higher social levels - levels that might only be available to organisations rather than individuals though, so a change in rule could be explained away with that.
So let's say your party had a ship worth one level 10 resource. To pay that debt off to their patron they'd have to go on missions and earn goods, services and favours to the tune of:
The ability for privileged PCs to buy so much more than plebeian PCs means there needs to be a balancing factor; I've chosen in-game plot balance: here the privileged PCs need to feel the burden of keeping good society functioning and plebeian PCs need to be almost completely free of it. If there's ever a crowd of people that have a problem - fire, argument, riot, whatever - the crowd will look to the privileged amongst them to sort the problem. If they do then their privileged position will be left to stand, despite society's painful inequities. If they fail then a bad reputation develops and all of a sudden people's jealousy of what the privilege have will start to boil: people are expected to earn their privilege. Plebeians on the other hand can vanish from sight and no-one will think anything of it. Favours and debts can be called in
What goes around comes around. Someone in a PC's family might trade a favour for a good, knowing that their sister - the PC - will be able to offer an equivalent service in payment - and there are numerous variations on this theme, all of which means that the PCs could occasionally find themselves having to perform a service to pay off a debt. Again, privileged PCs should suffer more requests than stationary PCs, who will receive more than plebeian ones. JUMP TO CONTENTS
JUMP TO CONTENTS
I'm going to work from the idea that, though there is an accepted currency in birr, as there is no central banking authority and no universal agreement that the Zenithian way of doing things is the one and only way, local acceptance of birr cannot be guaranteed. Instead, I'll work from the basis that an Arabian, early second millennium system is more likely to be accepted across the Horizon: hospitality can be assumed and that purchases are generally made as trades in goods, services or favours. Merchant and banking houses can act at a distance still and so people might use them as intermediaries but even without them even individuals can trade with what they have to offer.
Purchasing goods as a PC
All goods from the Core Rules now have a resource value to compare to your social statusIf your social status is equal to or greater than something's resource value then you can be assumed to get it with relative ease in 'normal conditions' - i.e. you're in a civilised area and sellers of that kind of thing would be reasonably common enough. Variations in resource value and purchasing power occur with circumstance
Reputation | Where the GM thinks it reasonable, a character's local reputation is added to their social status.
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Scarcity | In the middle of a desert, access to goods and service work by nature's laws, not by those of good society and no amount of social status might get you even a glass or water. Equally, you might be in an area where certain items rare elsewhere in the Horizon happen to be in abundance. The GM can apply a modifier to raise a normal resource value up or down, as befits the PCs' current location. |
Treasures and valuable items and favours
One-off purchases can be made by trading valuable items and favoursAny item, service or favour can have a resource value. Maybe the PCs earned the favour of a local Dar or Dabaran, who's promised to help them out when they're in need; perhaps they received a diamond as payment for saving a merchant's life; maybe they have to consider selling their services as guards to a trade caravan in return for food and water. Whenever the PCs obtain a notable, one-off valuable the GM should give it a resource value. This valuable can then be traded in a one-time deal for something of the same resource value. Do people give change?
Maybe. Birr is still in the game and someone might be able to give you a value 3 good plus the difference in birr for a value 4 item you give them. This could also be the source of a challenge for the PCs: the value 6 item they have might be just too hot for a plebeian merchant to deal with and she doesn't want to risk being mugged for it later. JUMP TO CONTENTS
Exchange rates and large debts, like that to a patron
This really needs playtesting - it's my starting idea Working from Core Rules table 6.1 I can see what characters need to spend per segment to maintain their expected lifestyle. I shall then assign these lifestyle levels as an approximate amount that someone of each of the different social levels can access normally with their resources, without causing their personal (or family) economy any distress. The values approximately double with each level in status going up.Social status | Who they are | Living expenses from table 6.1 Core Rules |
---|---|---|
7 | Privileged with an influential archetype | Extrapolate to 20,000 birr |
6 | Privileged | 10,000 birr - luxury living in an advanced environment |
5 | Privileged with a problematic archetype Stationary with an influential archetype | 5,000 birr - luxury living in an ordinary environment |
4 | Stationary | 2,500 - normal living in an advanced environment |
3 | Stationary with a problematic archetype Plebeian with an influential archetype | 1,000 - normal living in an ordinary environment |
2 | Plebeian | 500 birr - spartan living in an advanced environment |
1 | Plebeian with a problematic archetype | Extrapolate down to 250 birr |
Social status | Approximate purchasing power in birr | Extrapolated, simplified exchange rates | |
---|---|---|---|
10 | 2,000,000 - so could just acquire a good small ship without trouble | Four level 9s | |
9 | 500,000 | Four level 8s | |
8 | 100,000 | Four level 7s | |
7 | 25,000 | Two level 6s | |
6 | 10,000 | Two level 5s | |
5 | 5,000 | Two level 4s | |
4 | 2,500 | Two level 3s | |
3 | 1,000 | Two level 2s | |
2 | 500 | Two level 1s | |
1 | 250 |
- Four level 9 resources
- Or 16 level 8s
- 64 level 7s
- 128 level 6s - they'd have to accumulate the equivalent of the personal favours of 128 average privileged people
Resources and trades as a source of plot
Game balance requires certain plot pointsThe ability for privileged PCs to buy so much more than plebeian PCs means there needs to be a balancing factor; I've chosen in-game plot balance: here the privileged PCs need to feel the burden of keeping good society functioning and plebeian PCs need to be almost completely free of it. If there's ever a crowd of people that have a problem - fire, argument, riot, whatever - the crowd will look to the privileged amongst them to sort the problem. If they do then their privileged position will be left to stand, despite society's painful inequities. If they fail then a bad reputation develops and all of a sudden people's jealousy of what the privilege have will start to boil: people are expected to earn their privilege. Plebeians on the other hand can vanish from sight and no-one will think anything of it. Favours and debts can be called in
What goes around comes around. Someone in a PC's family might trade a favour for a good, knowing that their sister - the PC - will be able to offer an equivalent service in payment - and there are numerous variations on this theme, all of which means that the PCs could occasionally find themselves having to perform a service to pay off a debt. Again, privileged PCs should suffer more requests than stationary PCs, who will receive more than plebeian ones. JUMP TO CONTENTS
Standard resource values
As a guide and a further test of the system above, these are some sample values that I'm matching to my Analysis of tech and wealth levels. It's not too far off...Item - birr | Plebeians | Stationary | Privileged | Resource value |
---|---|---|---|---|
Arrash - 25 | Common use | Common use | Common use | 1 |
Communicator, personal - 200 | Family only | Common use | Common use | 1 |
Communicator, short range - 500 | - | Accessible | Common use | 2 |
Communicator, long range - 1000 | - | Family only | Common use | 3 |
Communicator, pulse function - 1000 | - | Family only | Common use | 3 |
Computer - 10,000 / 15,000 / 20,000 | - | - | Accessible | 6 / 7 / 7 |
Holograph 1,500 to 7300 | - | Rare | Common use | 4 - 6 |
Kambra - 250 | - | Accessible | Common use | 1 |
Language unit - 10,000 | - | - | Accessible | 6 |
Modulator - 12,000 | - | - | Accessible | 7 |
Musical instrument - 100 to 1000 | Accessible | Common use | Common use | 1 - 3 |
Opor - 50 | Accessible | Common use | Common use | 1 |
Proxy helmet - 500 | - | Accessible | Common use | 2 |
Proxy trip - 100 | - | Accessible | Common use | 1 |
Tabak - 25 | Common use | Common use | Common use | 1 |
Tabula - 2000 | - | Rare | Common use | 4 |
Tag - 50 | Common use | Common use | Common use | 1 |
Talisman - 50 | Common use | Common use | Common use | 1 |
Transactor - 100 | Accessible | Common use | Common use | 1 |
Main: 1001 Nights variant overview
Related
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- 1001 Nights variant overview
- 1001 Nights variant: character backgrounds
- 1001 Nights variant: character stories
- 1001 Nights variant: skills
- 1001 Nights variant: combat
- 1001 Nights variant: the ship as a character
- 1001 Nights variant: re-rolls
- Analysis: '1001 Nights' system variant
- GM style: Darkness Points
- GM style: Narrative games and rolling dice
- House rules summary
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