Market goods

Buying and selling

Different games highlight different economic systems and use different default currencies. Examples include labor units (lu),
guilders (gl), or silver pence (sp). This SRD will refer to gl as the default currency.

At character creation, a PC gains 10 × (maxWIL +maxCHA) gl, or a number between 100 and 220. For a lower-power game, simply assign all PCs 100 gl to start (this is a nice round number).

Every time a PC completes an adventure, they should earn some amount of gl. This flow of money highlights real-world dynamics (adventuring as a job) and rewards players with positive feedback in a way that has little impact on epic-scale plots.

Gear tags

Any item may have 1 or more gear tags that modify how it’s used.

Example gear tags

• AP (armor piercing) X – This weapon ignores X points of damage reduction (DR).
• Area of effect–[type] – This item affects everyone within a certain area (by type).
• Awkward – This item can’t be used at close range.
• Fast – In initiative, this item allows the user to act before others who are not fast.
• Heavy – This item doubles as a club, inflicting d4 damage if used as a weapon.
• Reach – This item can affect targets out to near range.
• Simple – This weapon cannot be well-made (see below).
• Small – This item fits in a pocket.
• Slow – In initiative, this item can be used only every other round.
• Throwable – This item can be thrown out to near range.
• Two-handed –  This item requires two hands to use.

Weapons and armor

• Damage is abstract and scales in order to offer many different options. Each weapon has a damage die, ranging from d3 to d20. Typical pre-industrial weapons inflict d6 to d12 damage. Guns inflict roughly twice as much damage as pre-industrial weapons.
• In addition to ordinary weapons, PCs can try to seek out higher-quality ones. Well-made weapons cost twice the market price but inflict an additional d4 damage.
• Discount weapons cost half the market price, rounded up, but break apart or, if a missile, misfire on an attack roll of 1.
• Armor types have damage reduction (DR) ratings from 1 to 4 or even higher. Damage reduction applies to each damage result.
• Armor can have limitations. Perhaps it is fragile, degrading over time: fragile armor loses 1 point of DR every time an attacker hits with a COM/attack result of 9+.

Example melee weapons (d20)

	Weapon	Dmg.	Notes	Price
1	Unarmed attack	2	Simple.	Free
2	Unarmed attack–trained	dCOM	Simple. Note, anyone can select the power fight as an advanced power.	Free
3	Club, brass knuckles, lead pipe, nunchaku, quarterstaff	d4		d4 gl
4	Dagger, katar, sai	d4	Fast, small, throwable.	4 gl
5	Bastard sword, dadao, falx, flambard, katana	d12	If you use this one-handed, suffer a −1 to hit.	80 gl
6	Battle axe, guandao	d8	If you use this two-handed, add +1 to damage.	24 gl
7	Flail, chain whip	2d3	Reach.	12 gl
8	Knife, chiv, stiletto	d3	Fast, small, throwable.	d4 −1 gl
9	Hatchet, javelin	d4+1	Throwable.	6 gl
10	Longsword, jian, saber	d10		40 gl
11	Mace	d6		10 gl
12	Morningstar	2d4	If you use this two-handed, add +1 to damage.	28 gl
13	Pike, bec-de-corbin, harpoon, lance	2d4	AP 1, awkward, fast, reach, two-handed.	32 gl
14	Halberd, glaive, guisarme, partisan, pudao, ranseur	3d4	Awkward, reach, two-handed.	75 gl
15	Shortsword, cutlass, dao, machete, scimitar, wakizashi	d8		25 gl
16	Sickle, scythe, pitchfork, trident	d4	Throwable.	1 gl
17	Spear	d8	Throwable.	18 gl
18	Two-handed sword, bagua dao, great axe, sledgehammer	2d6	Two-handed.	100 gl
19	Warhammer	d8	If you use this two-handed, add +1 to damage.	20 gl
20	Whip	1	Fast, reach, simple.	5 gl

Example missile weapons (d20)

	Weapon	Dmg.	Range	Notes	Price
1	Boomerang	d4	Close–near	Throwable. If you roll a 6 or above to hit but your target still dodges, the boomerang returns to you.	6 gl
2	Bow	d6	Close–far	Two-handed.	8 gl
3	Carbine	2d10	Close–far	AP 2, heavy, two-handed.	200 gl
4	Chitin-disc thrower	3d3	Close–near	A zany bone-box mini-catapult, worn strapped to a forearm. You can fire up to 3 times per round; if you fire 2 times, each shot suffers a −1 to hit; if you fire 3 times, each shot suffers a −2.	72 gl
5	Crossbow	d10	Close–far	AP 1, heavy, slow, two-handed.	75 gl
6	Dart, blowgun needle, shuriken	1	Close–near	Fast, small, throwable.	1 gl
7	Derringer	2d3	Close–near	AP 1, fast, small.	45 gl
8	Grenade (fragmentation)	4d4	Close–near	Small, throwable. Area of effect–radius: hits everyone within close range of where it lands. When you roll a 1, it goes off within close range of you.	20 gl
9	Hand crossbow	d6	Close–near	AP 1, small, slow.	35 gl
10	Horse pistol	2d8	Close–near	AP 3, slow.	75 gl
11	Jezail	2d12	Near– beyond	AP 4, awkward, heavy, slow, two-handed.	90 gl
12	Longbow	d8	Near– beyond	Two-handed.	24 gl
13	Magnum pistol	2d10	Close–near	AP 3, small.	100 gl
14	Musket	2d10	Close–far	AP 3, heavy, slow, two-handed. After you have attacked once, you must spend one round reloading.	50 gl
15	Pepperbox pistol	d8	Close–near	Fast, small. Four-barreled: you can attack up to 4 times per round. When you have attacked 4 times, you are out of bullets and must spend 1 round reloading.	50 gl
16	Pistol (modern)	2d6	Close–near	AP 2, fast, small.	80 gl
17	Rifle (small-caliber)	2d8	Near– beyond	AP 3, heavy, two-handed.	160 gl
18	Shotgun–shot	2d6	Close–near	Heavy, slow, two-handed. Area of effect–cone: hits all targets directly in front of you within near range.	150 gl
19	Shotgun–slug	3d4	Close–near	Heavy, slow, two-handed.	150 gl
20	Sling	d4	Close–far	Fast, simple, small.	1 gl

Example armor (d10)

	Armor	DR	Notes	Price
1	Provincial shite	1	E.g., fungusbark. −1 penalty to CHA checks.	10 gl
2	Provincial livery	1	E.g., saurianhide, tooth-studded bark, bone, shell, gambeson.	20 gl
3	Riot gear	2	−1 penalty to non-dodge MOV checks.	15 gl
4	Living armor	2	Requires as much food per day as a human does or it attacks the wearer for d20 damage each round until scared off using fire or copious smoke.	60 gl
5	Chainmail	3	−2 penalty to non-dodge MOV checks.	35 gl
6	Wytchsuit	3	A wearable fluid of nano-scale robots. Converts HEA damage into GRT damage until you reach 0 GRT.	666 gl
7	Bend, hauberk	3	“Bend” is a superplastic that is lighter than metal but similarly strong. −1 penalty to non-dodge MOV checks.	85 gl
8	Exosuit, skeletal	4	Functionality dependent on plating and bioelectric input. −1 penalty to non-dodge MOV checks.	250 gl
9	Quicksuit	4	This film of nanorobots speeds up humanoid metabolisms. +1 bonus to MOV/dodge checks. Costs 5 GRT per day to power: you can just set this cost aside—i.e., lower your maximum GRT by 5—as long as you’re wearing it.	300 gl
10	Bend, full plate	5	−1 penalty to all MOV checks.	175 gl

Example mounts and vehicles (d8)

1. Bicycle – You can ride hundreds of km per day on a bike, but you eat double rations. 50 gl.
2. Draft horse or pony – You can’t ride a draft horse for more than 6 hours, or cover more than 40 km per day. COM d4, MOV d10, REA 1, WIL d8, CHA d4, HEA 18, GRT 12, d3 damage (bite). 40 gl.
3. Hoverbike – Faster than all of the other entries in this list. Costs 20 gl per day to charge. 3,000 gl.
4. Jird (mega-gerbil) – Jirds don’t like to jump for hours on end, and they frighten easily. But they can travel across the roughest of terrain. COM d3, MOV d8, REA 1, WIL 1 or as rijder, CHA d4+1, HEA 10, GRT 5.
5. Riding horse – Scores as a draft horse. A riding horse can cover about 50 km in 8 hours. 50 gl. You can usually rent a horse for 5 gl a day.
6. Saurian, trained riding raptor – These dark, sleek killing machines are the pride of the most elite rijders. COM d10, MOV d8, REA d3, WIL d6, CHA d4, HEA 20, GRT 7, DR 1, 2d6 damage (bite). 400 gl including transport and feed for one year.
7. War horse – A war horse is a riding horse that doesn’t fear battle. 75 gl.
8. Zog (riding chicken) – Zogs are colorful, common, and—in a pinch—delicious. COM d4, MOV d10 to d12+1 by breed, REA 1, WIL 1 or as rijder, CHA d4, HEA 14, GRT 4, d4 damage (peck). 50–175 gl, slowest to fastest (50 gets you MOV d10; 100, MOV d12; 175, MOV d12+1).

Example tools (d20)

1. Arrows or crossbow bolts (20), or bullets and powder (20) – 1 gl.
2. Backpack, tent, or other piece of rugged outdoors gear – 2 gl.
3. Bedroll – 1 gl.
4. Candles (20), tinderbox, or torches (3) – 1 gl.
5. Chirurgeon’s tools (bandages, lances, razors, saws) – 15 gl. Free at 1st level if you don’t buy any weapons.
6. Climbing gear (pitons, boot tips, gloves, and a harness) – 5 gl.
7. Clothes – 1 gl (or 10 gl, if fancy).
8. Compass or hourglass – 12 gl.
9. Crowbar, whetstone, work hammer, or other simple tool – 1 gl.
10. Fife or flute, or other simple musical instrument – 6 gl.
11. Fishing rod and tackle, or hunting trap – 2 gl.
12. Lamp – 2 gl; enough lamp oil for 1 night (or 1 day underground) is 1 gl.
13. Magnifying glass – 7 gl.
14. Manacles (1 pair), or rope, 100 feet – 2 gl.
15. Meal, decent (e.g., hot fungal crumble in pandan curry), or portable rations for 1 day (e.g., a tin of “wall fish”—a brown paste made from arthropods) – 1 gl.
16. Mirror – 8 sp.
17. Pharmacopoeia of plants – 13 gl. Good for 2d10 treatments.
18. Quiver or holster – 2 gl.
19. Spyglass – 27 gl.
20. Waterskin or tankard – 1 gl.

Rare finds

‘Avvenging “treasure”

The PCs may think of themselves as “heroes,” but more often they are scavengers (or, in the idiom of sci-fi luminary John Crowley, ‘avvengers): they scour dangerous ruins in search of long-buried relics. In game terms, these treasures may grant characters new powers, augment scores, and/or curse them with colorful afflictions.

In non-magickal settings, alien and advanced technologies that cannot be purchased at markets—archaetech—may allow the PCs to inflict massive amounts of damage (roll some d20s or even d100s!), mirror Weird powers, survive travels through space and even time, and otherwise push the game in a more epic and often more random direction. Archaetech should feel truly non-human, ancient, and/or rare. (If you can buy it at a market, it’s by definition not archaetech.) Oddments (see below) are often low-power archaetech.

In fantastical settings, the PCs may find truly magickal items that somehow feel ordinary, being manufactured as luxury goods.

Example treasures (d12)

1. Arzachian harpoon – 3d20 damage plus dangerous: if any damage die result is a 1, you suffer bleed 1. Costs d20 GRT per use. A struck target is automatically harpooned (grappled) and suffers disadvantage on MOV checks.
2. Beam sword – 4d4 damage plus explosive: whenever you roll a 4 for damage, roll another d4; this can theoretically go on forever.
3. Dancing lynx claws – At night, these ghostly, mist-made cat-claw gloves allow you to attack foes a distance—however far you can see—for d6 damage, twice per round. By day, they appear to be two mummified cat paws, worthless.
4. Devouring fermion portal – This black hoop of engineered stone opens a permanent timespace portal from this moment and cosmic locus to a random one. 20 GRT per use. Each time you use it, make a REA check or it blows up.
5. Echo torch – When this binocular-like device is looked through, stalks like cannolis filled with self-motivated malt balls permanently replace the looker’s eyes. The echo torch allows you to “see” in UV and all lower frequencies down through radio. You gain double advantage on WIL/perceive checks (roll 3 times, taking the highest single result), but most people now find you discomforting to behold.
6. Gravity mace – d10 +dCOM damage (wielder’s dCOM). Normally two-handed. If you fight with this one-handed, you suffer a −1 to hit.
7. High-frequency sword – 2d6 damage. Each time you hit a target, they must pass a WIL check or experience severe disorientation due to the sword’s nauseating vibrations. Disoriented targets suffer a −1 to hit. This penalty is cumulative.
8. Micro-singularity rifle – Instant kill, out to beyond range: a struck target must make a MOV check and take 3d8 damage or die. Obliterates any solid matter it touches, even starship armor. Two-handed. Highly illegal to possess.
9. Mirrorcloak – A shawl of silvery beak-shapes, a mirrorcloak projects copies of the wearer around them: burn 2d10 GRT and make a REA check; you project a number of copies equal to your REA check result +your level. These copies do what you want and can even speak, but they are deeply “wrong.” The copies persist for a number of rounds equal to your REA check result, but you can burn d10 GRT each round to keep them around.
10. The Superstructural Flood Shatterer – This robot giant arm-like spyder-thing, yellow-gray in color, was designed to generate rubble. Costs 3 GRT + 6 HEA per use. To use it, you have to push super hard—then it destroys all edifices within a d4-km radius.
11. The violet torc – This stiff neck-ring of twisted violet metal allows the wearer to use any Weird power they have personally seen, paying the GRT cost as written. The wearer suffers no Weird disadvantage other than a strong desire to never remove, under any circumstance, the violet torc.
12. Voluminous milk – This unbreakable octagonal metal vial is filled with milky liquid that, if injected into the body of a sapient (biological or informatic), makes the user’s voice ten times louder than normal for 1 hour. This effect cannot be turned off, and it affects all sounds, giving the user disadvantage on MOV/sneak checks. There are d6+2 doses in the vial.

Oddments and burning oddments

Oddments are scraps, gewgaws, or and incomplete pieces that function as random character elements as well as one-off get-out-of-jail-free cards. Every PC gets 1 oddment at 1st level. An oddment serves a specific role in character creation: it allows a PC to set off with a cool piece of old tech, a one-of-a-kind pet, or a major clue for down the road without throwing off the game’s balance of power.

Any time a PC is in a dangerous situation and rolls a 1, gets shot up, opens the wrong door, etc., they can burn an oddment: doing so permanently destroys the item but reverses their immediate ill fortune. The player should describe this reversal, placing the burned item at the center of the narrative twist.

Example oddments (d20)

1. Hammer that makes metal pink on contact
2. Fyrepuma cub, runt (which can theoretically be reared and trained…)
3. Horn of a tarraskon howler (priceless, radioactive)
4. d100 sleeping pills inside a snowglobe
5. Huge belt that says GRAVEDIGGER
6. Paladyn’s hymnbook, full of lewd drawings and limericks
7. d4 books from the Chained Library of Morvecàn; one of them contains an important secret
8. Axe head made of indestructible meteoric hypernickel
9. Jug of rancid “centaur milk,” causes vivid and spiritually orienting hallucinations
10. “The Pearl of Dusk”—an ochre crystalline orb that strongly attracts moths
11. Marmalade of jabjabyr fruit and munkey tallow—delicious
12. Miniature guitar—sounds great, very hard to play
13. Depleted enerjawn coils (capable of powering a starship) that look like metal toast (that is, like junk)
14. Televator control cards for an advanced posthuman military installation… somewhere
15. Cheap comm (smart phone) full of mystery novels and true-crime podcasts
16. Petrified hand of Yrthan the Tutor, an alien sage
17. Swordcane of Lletho, the famously cranky duelist
18. Deck of alien playing cards
19. Cage home to 2d6 lobotomized brainrats
20. Strong rope made of the mane-hair of the last taigal umbravore of Ylanx

Random interactions with technologies (d6)

1. Explodes the technology (d20 damage, everyone within close range)
2. Shoots out an arc of lightning (3d6 damage, 1 random target within far range)
3. Emits an unbelievably loud howling noise
4. Alerts a cthulhicate entity (a dangerous moon-sized alien) to your location
5. Creates a candy-smelling fog
6. Repairs or repowers the technology (+d6 charges)

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