ThE GILdEd COmpANY OF mERChANTS Fire fell from the heavens, the seas boiled, and the very laws of reality were torn apart. Through all this tumult, though, one thing has stayed true: people need things, and someone has to sell the things to the people.
The Gilded Company of Merchants uses Reach to get buyers for their produce and to understand the true worth of the things they encounter.
Creating a Company To create your Company, choose a name, stats, doctrine, lifestyle, history and moves.
Stats Choose one: Reach 2, Grasp -1, Mood -1, Tech 0 if they grease palms and shower friends with gifts.
Reach 1, Grasp 0, Mood -1, Tech 0 if they’re canny operators with a shrewd eye on the budget.
doctrine Choose one:
Traders in Stories and Song: When your Family puts on a performance in a new location, they take +1 forward in dealing with that community.
Cutthroat Extortionists: When a customer wants your goods but can’t afford them, your Family can convince them to perform any favour as payment instead.
Men of Wealth and Taste: When your Family gains a luxurious or extravagant Surplus, they take +1 forward.
Lifestyle Choose one:
Nomadic: When your Family comes to a new area, tell the group what hidden resource brought you here.
Dispersed: The transport of goods and messages between settlements is another Stock in Trade for your Family.
Settled: Everyone who carries something valuable to your settlement will bring it to your Family first.
history Pick two Surpluses: ✛✛ Barter Goods ✛✛ Contacts ✛✛ Recruits ✛✛ Camaraderie ✛ Culture
Pick three Needs: ✛✛ Justice ✛✛ Weaponry ✛✛ Medicine ✛✛ Reconnaissance ✛ Leadership
Then, look at the other Families. Everyone, like it or not, has to trade with your Company. Take 1-Treaty on all the other Families.
One of them came to your rescue when a deal went way south. They take 2-Treaty on you.
Traditions Populace: loose confederacy of traders, aristocrats living off their pre-Fall heirlooms, enthusiastic but eccentric collectors, something else.
Style: Luxurious silks and furs, elegant but hardy trail wear, packs and pockets bulging with curios, something else.
Governance: Decadent merchant-princes and their indentured servants, an open market of favours and votes, independent trade under a strictly enforced charter, something else.
Alliance move When you make another group part of your trading operation (suppliers, distributors or vendors) gain 1-Treaty on them.
Company moves Take Stock in Trade and one other:
Stock in Trade: Your Family has a particular product range they trade in, and you can expect to have those wares around unless your Family is deeply in need and Mood is at -3. Choose one, two, or three.
✛✛ Arms and ammunition.
✛✛ Art, music and culture.
✛✛ Books, maps, and instruction manuals for forgotten things.
✛✛ Drugs, spices or venoms.
✛✛ Food, fresh or preserved.
✛✛ Living creatures, bred or captured.
✛ Mementos of the World Before.
Once per session, you can draw on one of your Stocks in Trade instead of exhausting a Surplus.
Cabinet of Wonders: When you delve deep into your Family’s reserves in search of something useful, describe what it is and what you want it for. It should fit with your Stock in Trade or a Surplus of yours. The GM will give you 1-3 downsides, and then you can decide whether you still want to take it.
✛✛ It’ll be useless afterwards.
✛ Its value will be immediately obvious to anyone who sees you carrying it.
✛ You’re taking it away from an agreed buyer, and there’ll be consequences if it isn’t returned.
✛ You’ll need help from a specific character or NPC to use it well.
Brand Loyalty: Your Family never needs to roll to get Access to someone you have traded with before, and they will always be willing to at least listen to what you have to say.
Rationing: Your Family is skilled at wringing every last benefit from their resources. Whenever you exhaust a surplus for any reason, hold 1; spend 1 hold to get +1 forward to another action that surplus could help.
Avaricious Appraisal: When your Family tries to work out the worth of a new acquisition roll +Reach; on a 10+ you have a good idea how much you could get for it, as well as some details on its past owner(s). On a 7-9 choose one:
✛✛ It’s useless to you, but one of your allies could make use of it.
✛✛ It’s incredibly, maddeningly valuable. Someone in your family becomes obsessed with it, and you’ll have to deal with them or Hold Together to successfully sell it.
✛ It’s very valuable, but one of your enemies or rivals knows you have it and they’re making plans.
Whaddaya Buying? When your Family brings goods to market roll +Reach. On a hit you’re able to sell them for a fair price. On a 7-9 pick 1, 10+ pick 2:
✛✛ You hear an interesting rumour.
✛✛ You make friends with another merchant, giving you easy access to another Stock in Trade while in this area.
✛✛ They don’t realise the true worth of what they paid with.
Gear Characters from this Family can start with as many as they like of the following:
✛✛ Well-fitting and stylish clothing.
✛✛ Well-crafted and storied weapons from famous artisans (melee or ranged, elegant).
✛✛ Well-trained servants (Follower Quality +1, Expertise: grooming and pampering).
✛✛ Well-preserved food, enough to put on a lavish feast