In the land of Kerethad, Silver Coin Piece often shortened to coin is the standard unit of currency, with the cost of most equipment, goods, and services weighed in silver coin. A single coin is the standard price for one day's food, drink, and accommodation for one person, of stark quality; that is to say, breakfast and an evening meal, with some form of cheap beverage, and a place to sleep for the night.

It therefore costs a character around 7 silver coin a week personally to live at subsistence level. Depending on where the characters are located, coinage may not even be used (or may be viewed with suspicion). Some cultures value barter and payment in kind more favorably than the clink of silver.

Other types of currency exist in Kerethad. Silver Pieces are at times broken into bits, which represent one-tenth the value. The other form of currency is Gold Marks which vary in value depending on region.

The general exchange rate in an Imperial City is:

• 10 Bits = 1 Silver Coin

• 100 Silver Coin = 1 Imperial Mark

Thus a single Mark would provide a character with reasonable food for 100 days. Three or four Marks would see a character roughly all the way through the year if they are frugal.

Some cultures, typically farming, nomad and barbarian communities, measure wealth in terms of livestock. A single large herd animal, such a Druhch, is worth around 100 coin. An adt or a shu is worth around 25 coin, and swarm of swips is around 15 coin.

Income, Living Standards and Class

A character’s income is a reflection of how much he makes in a given period of time. Whilst income equates to wealth, it is most common for average workers to generate income not in terms of coin, but in terms of food and shelter, or access to land which, if tended, annually generates an amount per year equivalent to their yearly income in terms of coinage. Other common forms of recompense include training – magical and mundane – favors, and trade in kind.

Civilized cultures are most likely to use coinage for income and expenditure – although only those social classes with any form of prosperity will use coins on a frequent basis. Lowly classes will rely on barter, favors, and payments-in-kind for most transactions, with coins being a rare and treasured luxury.

An individual’s standard of living is determined by their total expenditure each year on essentials: food, drink, lodging, clothes, gifts, and so on. It is natural for most people to spend nearly all their income achieving, or maintaining, the highest possible standard of living that they can. Note that this income may be required to support any additional dependents they may have, such as children, household servants or perhaps even a troop of personal guards. Those who spend more are likely to be at the top of their social
class; those who are frugal and pinch pennies can exist on about 25% less than the amounts listed in the Social Class table, and will save some of their income, but may show a lower standard of living for their class.

Anyone seeking to be socially mobile must increase their living expenditures accordingly. Note, though, that social rank often does not rely on comparatively equal incomes. A barbarian chieftain may very well be accorded more respect, and wield more power, than a civilized rich noble, yet have nowhere near the same income in terms of cash and value in property.

The Minimum Maintenance Costs table below compares the minimum required expenditures required over time to maintain the standard of living for that social class. It does not necessarily indicate the actual amount a member of that social class earns, which can be higher, but it can be used as a basis for deciding how much money a particular social class may have available in ready coin or other commodities.

Minimum Maintenance Cost

Character Income Between Adventuring

Characters are unlikely to spend all their time adventuring and, between adventures, will be engaged in professional and cultural pursuits. Characters can therefore expect some form of income from 'normal' day to day business according to their social class.

For example a noble might earn a regular income from taxing the inhabitants of their lands, or receive a stipend from their estate, requiring no direct involvement on their part; whereas a baker might be employed slavishly baking loaves every day.

A character can expect to earn an applicable coin amount for their profession and social class. This assumes all is well in the world and no disasters, natural or otherwise, have affected the ability to generate income. However, if more accurate reflection of downtime is needed, roll on the Seasonal Income table adjusting the 1d100 roll as follows:

Seasonal Income Table

The table represents the downtime profitability during the length of time the character was working or supervising his holdings, anything from several days to a year. During this period any number of things may have occurred from the failure of a harvest or theft of his property, through to an unexpected demand for particular produce or the expansion of a business.

Characters can expect to spend the income indicated in the Minimum Maintenance Costs table on general living expenses. Of course, they can squander any windfall or spend less if prepared potentially to drop their living standards, albeit at the risk of their reputation suffering in some form.

Bartering and Haggling

In most societies shopping for services or goods is rarely straightforward. Coinage tends to be confined to civilized cultures, but in primitive, barbarian and nomad cultures, barter is far more common. Even where currency is actually used, traders rarely sell anything for a ‘standard’ price, as the value of most objects is subjective, and most purchases are haggled over.

As was once wisely said, an item is only as valuable as the amount somebody will pay for it.

Bartering

Bartering successfully depends on tendering something someone else needs in exchange for what is being offered. A civilized character in a barbarian stead might offer coins in exchange for food, but coinage does not necessarily offer any immediate advantage to the barbarian. To barter successfully then, the character must have something the other party finds valuable in their normal environment.

Trading in kind usually works well: offering to chop wood for a morning in exchange for a bowl of stew and a bed for the night, for example. More complex or specialized goods and services are less likely to succeed – unless the character can convince the other party of the need and utility.

Bartering works in the following way: The character makes an offer of something. If this is a common commodity or an essential service appropriate to the other party that is obviously going to be of benefit, then the barter succeeds.

• The character makes an offer of something. If this is a common commodity or an essential service appropriate to the other party that is obviously going to be of benefit, then the barter succeeds.

• If the character is intending to offer something of less obvious value/utility or something esoteric, then he makes a Customs or relevant Culture roll (see Barter Modifier Table below). If successful, he has spotted a way of pointing out benefits not realized by the other party. This changes the difficulty grade of either Influence or Commerce, whichever is being used to effect the transaction.

• Next the character makes an Opposed Influence or Commerce roll. The other party resists with either Willpower or Commerce - whichever is higher.

• If the character wins the Opposed roll, what he offers is accepted. If he fails, it is not. If the Adventurer fumbles the opposed roll, then there is a good chance he has insulted the other party, meaning that offense has been taken, even if not intentionally offered.

Barter Modifier Table

Haggling

Reducing a price to a reasonable amount is known as Haggling. In some cultures haggling is a major source of social interaction, a prime source of daily entertainment.

A skilled negotiator can achieve substantial discounts through careful haggling, although it is rare for any seller to allow themselves to make a loss on any transaction. To do so on a regular basis would soon place them out of business. Prices listed in the Equipment section assume a ‘standard’ profit margin for the seller, enough to reasonably support themselves.

The process works in a slightly different way from Bartering, in that participants use Insight rather than Customs to gain an advantage in the negotiation. This is followed by a Differential Roll of Influence or Commerce against Willpower or Commerce. The outcome of the roll is determined by the difference in success levels between buyer and seller:

Haggling Outcome Table

Encumbrance

A character can carry a number of ‘Things’ up to their STR Characteristic with ease. A ‘Thing’ is defined as something of weight, volume, or substance.

Example Things are:

• A single-handed melee weapon or buckler shield (2H weapons and all other shields count as 2 Things; small weapons such as daggers count as half a Thing)

• A light or heavy bow or a light crossbow (heavy crossbows and light repeating crossbows count as 2 Things); a sling counts as half a Thing

• Quiver (can carry 20 arrows or bolts at no additional weight)

• Fully laden backpack (of up to 10 Things at no additional weight)

• Fully laden sack (counts as 2 Things and can carry up to 10 Things or 1,000 coins). Collapsible containers, such as sacks and pouches, may only be carried in other containers when empty

• A book or tome

• Basic tool kit (hammer, chisel, file, stakes, spikes, and so on; or a Rogue’s toolkit)

• Purse or pouch containing 1 Thing, 100 coins, or 20 sling stones, or 10 lead sling bullets at no additional weight

• Weeks’ worth of rations

• Full water skin

• Every full 50 coins of any denomination weigh the equivalent of Half a 'Thing'

Assume that 1 SIZ is equal to 3 ‘Things’.

Armor Encumbrance

For simplicity, worn armor does not count toward Things carried for characters proficient in, and accustomed to the armor they wear. However, for characters not proficient in armor, or in the case of additional armor pieces being carried, they have a value of 1 Thing per Hit Location for light armor, and 2 Things per Hit Location for heavy. Thus, a full suit of light armor being worn by someone without training, or carried by anyone, is a total of 7 Things, and a full suit of heavy armor is a total of 14. On top of that, a full suit of heavy armor won’t even fit in a backpack.

It should be obvious that even the strongest character cannot wander around carrying eight different weapons, spare armor, full traveling gear, a barrel of beer, and enough gold to ransom a kingdom.

Burdened

When a character carries a number of Things equal to or above their STR Characteristic they become Burdened. The following penalties are felt by burdened characters:

• Initiative is reduced by 1 for each Thing carried beyond the character's STR

• Skills using STR or DEX as part of their base (including combat skills) become one grade harder

• Base movement drops by 2 meters, and the character can no longer sprint

• Carrying the load becomes a medium activity for Fatigue purposes

Overloaded

When a character carries a number of Things equal to or above twice their STR Characteristic they become Overloaded. The following penalties are felt by overloaded characters:

• Initiative is still reduced by 1 for each Thing carried beyond the character's STR

• Skills using STR or DEX as part of their base (including combat skills) become two grades harder

• Base Movement Rate drops to half normal, and the character cannot move faster than a walk

• Carrying the load counts as Strenuous activity for Fatigue purposes

A character can never carry more Things than 3x their STR Characteristic.

Accommodation

Accommodation can be permanent or temporary, fixed or transportable. Prices for rented temporary accommodation, such as a room at an inn, are per night. Food is extra.

As always, accommodation costs will vary with seasons and demand. In busy periods – markets, festivals, and so on – prices will climb with demand, and larger towns and cities will charge more, in general, than smaller ones.

Accommodation Table

Food

Assume that food bought is a meal which, for a very basic, cheap meal typically includes some kind of broth, pastry or bread, and some brewed or dairy beverage. More expensive meals include larger portions of meat or fish,
a wider range of seasonal fruits and vegetables, and a better grade of beverage. A superior meal consists of several varied courses, and luxuries of some sort such as rare meats, spices or imported fruits.

Trail rations consist of food preserved for long life, such as dried and cured meats, cheese, bread (usually unleavened flatbread for ease of transport), and cereals, either nuts or grains.

Characters need to eat and drink at least once per day or begin to suffer penalties, see Skills ➞ Survival.

Food Table

Equipment

The remainder of this chapter is given over to equipment: armor, weapons, clothing, tools and other sundries characters rely on when adventuring.

Any piece of equipment is described in terms of one or more elements (some apply more than others). These are:

• Cost (in Coin or Bits)

• Armor Points: the natural resilience of the item to damage

• Hit Points: how much damage the item can sustain before being destroyed or rendered useless

Some items, typically clothing, and very small, light things, have only cost listed: it can be assumed that such things do not contribute towards Encumbrance limits and can be damaged relatively easily. Others, such as weapons, armor, and tools, display all four elements.

Armor

Armor reduces the amount of damage a Hit Location sustains by its Armor Point value. For example, Ring Mail has 3 Armor Points and so reduces any damage by the same amount. A dagger strike for 3 points of damage would be completely blocked, for example. The downside to armor is that it can be heavy and restrictive to movement; fighting for sustained period in metal armor takes its toll in terms of Fatigue, and slows down the ability to react.

No matter what material armor is made of it cannot be layered with other types – such concepts are already incorporated as part of its construction. Armor is assumed to come with whatever lining or padding would normally be expected as part of the complete panoply.

Each type of armor is defined by the following qualities:

• AP: The number of Armor Points given to each location covered by this armor.

• Cost: The cost, in Silver Coins, per location.

• Encumbrance: Worn armor does not count towards 'Things' carried for characters proficient in, and accustomed to the armor they wear. However, for characters not proficient in armor, or in the case of additional armor pieces being carried, they have a value of 1 'Thing' per Hit Location for light armor, and 2 'Things' per Hit Location for heavy. Thus, a full suit of light armor being worn by someone without training or carried by anyone, is a total of 7 'Things,' and a full suit of heavy armor is a total of 14.

• Penalty: Amor can be heavy and impede movement. This is simulated through Initiative Penalty. The more armor one wears, and the heavier, the greater the penalty. Add the penalty for each location and round up. A full suit of plated mail, has 7 locations with a penalty of each of 1.2, thus (7x1.2) = 8.4, rounded up to 9. A character wearing a full set would reduce their Initiative by 9.

Flexible Armor Table

Rigid Armor Table

Armor and SIZ

Flexible armor will generally fit one point of SIZ more or less than the SIZ it was designed for. Rigid armor is crafted to fit a wearer of specific proportions, so it will only fit the same SIZ and frame for which it was designed.

Armor Penalty to Initiative

Armor can be heavy and impede movement to some degree. The vast bulk of those who train in weapons also train in armor, and so become accustomed to armor’s rigors, but this does not mean they are free from its more restrictive effects. Simulation of this is through the Initiative Penalty. The more armor one wears, and the heavier or more encumbering it is, the greater the Initiative Penalty. This penalty is applied to a character’s Initiative. Its calculation is simple enough; add together the Penalty or all the armor worn rounding up. A full suit of plated mail, having a Penalty of 1.2 per location, and covering seven locations has an Armor Penalty of (1.2x7) = 8.2, rounded up to 9. Thus a character wearing a full set would reduce his Initiative by 9 points.

Melee Weapons

In many societies it is deemed both necessary and desirable to carry some means of defending oneself. Customs always vary though, and the type of weapon carried depends very much on circumstances. Having a sword and dagger anchored to one's belt may not be unusual, for instance, for one born free into the empire, whereas carrying a halberd or greatsword would be deemed unthinkable unless one is actively preparing for war. By default, all one handed weapons count as a single 'Thing' and all two handed weapons count as 2 'Things.'

All weapons are governed by a series of characteristics which are as follows:

• Damage: The amount of damage the weapon delivers if an attack is successful.

• Size: Every weapon is rated for its mass, leverage and stability. The Size is used to determines the weapon's ability to inflict and Combat ➞ Attacks and Parries. The size categories are Small (S), Medium (M), Large (L), Huge (H), and Enormous(E).

• Reach: Every weapon is also rated for its Reach – its length and ability to hold a foe at bay due to its length. The longer the weapon the greater its ability to prevent an opponent getting close enough to inflict damage with their own weapon. The Reach categories are Touch (T), Short (S), Medium (M), Long (L), and Very Long (VL).

• Combat Effect: The design of the weapon allows its access to weapon specific Combat ➞ Special Effects. Swords, for instance, slash and stab, and so are permitted access to the Impale and Bleed effects, whereas a mace is unable to produce those effects but could inflict Stun Location instead.

• AP/HP: All weapons are rated for their Armor Points and Hit Points; their ability to withstand direct damage, and how much damage they can tolerate before breaking. Those weapons that rely on metal for their damage capability are assumed to be either bronze or iron.

• Cost: The weapon's cost in Silver Coin.

• Traits: Some weapons, due to their specialized nature, have certain qualities, or traits, that differentiate them from weapons of a similar style.

The common traits are:

• Barbed – If impaled it will cause full rather than half damage on being yanked free.

• Defensive – If used to parry an attacking weapon, that weapon is considered one size smaller than it actually is. So a Large sword is considered Medium, and a Medium sword is considered Small. Weapons already Small in size are unaffected.

• Double Ended – If broken in combat, the length remaining in the hand can be reversed, and used as a shorter version of the original weapon.

• Entrapping – As per the Defensive trait, but also allows use of the Pin Weapon special effect without needing to roll a Critical.

• Flexible – If the opponent is using a shield to parry, the shield is considered one size smaller than it actually is. So a Huge shield is considered Large, a Large shield is considered Medium, and so on.

• Mount – The weapon must be used from the back of a moving mount.

• Offensive – The weapon cannot be used to parry.

• Passive Block – The weapon can passively block multiple Hit Locations, which must be contiguous to one another.

• Ranged Parry – The weapon can partty ranged weapons.

• Set – The weapon can be set to receive a fool or mounted charge.

• Stealth – The weapon must be used from ambush

• Thrown – The weapon can be used as a ranged weapon as well as a hand to hand weapon.

One Handed Weapons Table

* Counts as 1/2 of a 'Thing'
** Counts as 2 'Things'

Two Handed Weapons Table

* Counts as 1/2 of a 'Thing'

Shields Table

** Counts as 2 'Things'

Ranged Weapons

Ranged weapons deal damage at a distance, and do not require physical contact between combatants; such as a thrown rock, a bullet from sling or an arrow from a bow. Being able to harm an opponent from range has clear advantages: one can take advantage of cover and greater protection and, unless the opponent has a ranged weapon himself, the chances of you being injured are lessened.

Since dealing damage at range inevitably means imparting velocity to some form of projectile, ranged weapons are difficult to defend against. Without a shield or other form of solid cover that can disperse the energy of a projectile, ranged weapons cannot be parried; meaning that the best defense, if one is aware of an incoming missile, is evasion. However evasion often puts the defendant into a situation where returning an attack, even a ranged one, is difficult.

Ranged weapons have very similar characteristics to Melee Weapons, although there are some differences as noted below:

• Damage: The amount of damage the weapon delivers if an attack is successful.

• Damage Modifier: Not all ranged weapons can take advantage of a character's damage modifier. A Yes or No entry dictates whether or not the user's damage modifier can be applied.

• Force: Each ranged weapon possesses a force rating equivalent to the 'Size' of close combat weapons. In the case of projectiles, this does not relate to the firing weapon itself, but rather to how much 'impact' its ammunition has. The value is used to determine whether the weapon can overcome any shield which may parry it. The size categories are Small (S), Medium (M), Large (L), Huge (H), and Enormous (E).

• Load: This shows how many turns are required to load or reload a weapon which fires ammunition.

• Combat Effects: As per Close Combat weapons.

• Impaling Size: The effective size of the weapon or its ammunition if it succeeds in an impaling attack.

• AP/HP: All weapons are rated for their Armor Points and Hit Points; their ability to withstand direct damage, and how much damage they can tolerate before breaking. Those weapons that rely on metal for their damage capability are assumed to be either bronze or iron.

• Cost: The weapon's cost in Silver Coin.

• Range: This is a measure of the weapon's effectiveness at three distances separated by slashes, representing the maximum Close, Effective, and Long ranges of the weapon or its ammunition. Ranges are expressed in meters. Note that Combat ➞ Distance Penalties to the user's skill are independent from the weapon.

Ranges:

• Close Range – The distance over which Choose Location may be used as a non-critical special effect, provided the target is stationary or unaware of the impending attack.

• Effective Range – The distance over which there are no significant modifiers on the weapon's accuracy or power.

• Long Range – The distance over which the weapon can still inflict harm, but the amount of damage is halved, and its Force is reduced by one step.

Unless specified otherwise, all Ranged Weapons are equivalent to 1 'Thing.'

Ranged Weapons Table

* Counts as 1/2 of a 'Thing'
** Counts as 2 'Things'

Ranged Weapon Ammunition

Weapons such as bows and crossbows use ammunition to deliver damage. Arrows, bolts, darts, and bullets can be made by anyone with the appropriate craft. skill, for example Craft. (Fletcher) for arrows, if the appropriate raw materials and a suitable work area or workshop are available for the task. All ammunition is sold in quantities totaling 1 ‘Thing.’

Ammunition Table

Tools

Tools include all the items any self-respecting adventurer can be expected to own: rope, sacks and bags, candles, lanterns, and so on. Unless specified otherwise, all tools are equivalent to 1 ‘Thing,’ or sold in quantities totaling 1 ‘Thing.’
All items in this list are deemed to be of reasonable quality.

Tools Table