Every group is different, every game is different.
I wanted to preface this post with that statement because everything from this point is based on my own experiences as a GM, and as such what I identified as a "problem" with TDE5 may not be one for some other groups (my esteemed fellow writers for this blog included).
Whilst running my fourth session of TDE, one of the characters had been rewarded a suit of scale mail, great! However, he had a suit of chainmail that was of no use to the rest of the party, naturally* the parties first idea was to sell it. It was at that point that I realised there was one thing I'd not spotted in the TDE5 rules... a basic rule covering the value of items being sold by players**.
I've been GMing and Playing TRPGs for over twenty years, and this struck me as surprising. But it turns out that when DSA (The original, German language version of TDE) was being play-tested, the play-testers generally didn't track wealth much and didn't see the point in those rules really being a thing. A number of players on the Ulisses official discord echoed that sentiment, saying they have never (not once) needed to worry about characters selling items. This is fine, again, refer back to my first point!
It did create an interesting question for me however, was my expectation for some basic rules out of the ordinary? To check this, I ran a couple of polls, one on the Tabletop Role-Playing Games facebook group, and one on r/RPG. I've put links to both at the end of this article. At the time of writing, the facebook poll had 113 votes with only 4% never needing rules for selling items, the r/RPG poll had 196 votes with only 16% never needing rules for selling items. From this, I took it to mean that actually, at least a simple "base %" rule would have been a sensible inclusion in TDE core rules. But there were still enough responses saying that it didn't come up often that I can see why it might not be deemed important.
I should also note, the game specifically has “Merchant” as a profession, and “Commerce” as a skill, which is clearly intended for selling items as much as it is for buying (there’s even special abilities specific to selling). So, it’s not a mechanic the designers didn’t think should be totally ignored.
Back to the actual "problem" at hand. I personally prefer to reward characters with items as much as money in games I run. Sometimes they'll be temporarily useful items, other times they'll remain useful for a long time, but by doing that, it's going to create a necessity (from my players perspective) to need to sell things at some point. So, I decided to have a go at using the tidbits of rules available across a few of the English books (mostly the Core Rules, Armoury and Compendium), and combine them with my own thoughts on what would "fit" the world.
I want my players to have to think about these things, because to me, it's part of feeling like you're living in a world. Not all groups care, some will hand-wave living costs, which is totally fine, I like the idea that when my groups get rewarded with a free meal and lodgings, its a big deal. I'm also aware that eventually, some of the problem will go away due to the characters becoming more wealthy, which is fine too. They'll feel like they earned it.
Here is the solution I’ll be using, if you try TDE and stumble into the same snag, you’re welcome to use and modify it:
The starting resale value shall be 50% for most items.
The starting resale value for raw resources such as precious metals, or gems, is 100%.
Selling always requires a commerce check. The winner improves by the value 10% in their favour per QL they win by to a max of 50% (per commerce skill rules).
Weapons and armour lose a further 10% value per level of damaged/wear they have (these are new conditions in the Aventurian Armoury p114-116). Generally, most won’t have more than one level, but armour and weapons looted from enemies will ALWAYS have at least one. Four levels of either condition makes the item unsellable.
Selling multiple of the same thing will increase the difficulty of the commerce check for each additional item (innately making it more likely you get less from it).
You need to find someone willing and in a position to actually purchase the item in the first place. Which will vary in difficulty depending on where you are (major cities, should be easy enough generally, but nobody will be interested in bloody, soiled clothing).
The purpose of the above, is to give some clear guidelines for me to always have in mind as a GM. In addition, it also allows players to understand the value of things they might find and also provides further reason to actually improve the commerce skill.
When characters want to buy items, I can actually use some of the same rules, if characters buy in bulk, I can give them a situational bonus on their commerce check, meaning they stand a slightly better chance at haggling the price down. In terms of base selling prices, I use (a translated copy of) the Aventurian Championship, which has a small section on pricing levels for stores ranging from 50% of base price to 400% of base price.
Facebook: Tabletop Role-Playing Games Poll:
r/RPG Poll:
* I say naturally, because I've not played many games at all, across multiple groups were taking things and later selling them has never come up. There are of course exceptions, some games have you playing soldiers where money isn't a consideration (such as FFG Deathwatch RPG, or an Age of Rebellion Star Wars RPG) or they use abstract means to represent finance (such as Dresden files)
** It surprised me because if games cover rules for using money, they cover at a bare minimum, a base resale % rule, anything from D&D (50% to 100% based on item type) to RuneQuest (50%) and even narrative-heavy games like FFGs Star Wars RPGs (25% base)
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