A Knave in the Market
Knave's market rules are very bare bones: In a village, you can buy common items; a town has uncommon and common; and in a city, rare, uncommon and common items are available. This simple system eschews a crunchier, market simulation approach, which I very much like, but also doesn't have anything to say about local industry or the random villager that has had a magic sword handed down through generations that now sits forgotten in their attic.
Clearly, some nuance could introduce interesting opportunities without having to resort to tracking every bundle of torches in a village. To that end, I've developed this oracle.
First, determine the size of the settlement, the price category of the item, and whether the item is especially scarce or plentiful there; then add the three corresponding values together.
| size | price | scarcity | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| village | +0 | common | +0 | scarce | -1 |
| town | +2 | uncommon | -2 | average | +0 |
| city | +4 | rare | -4 | plentiful | +1 |
Now, roll a D6 for the corresponding row.
| D6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| -5 | na | na | n | n | n | nb |
| -4 | na | n | n | n | n | nb |
| -3 | n | nb | nb | nb | nb | yb |
| -2 | n | nb | nb | yb | yb | y |
| -1 | nb | yb | yb | yb | yb | y |
| +0 | yb | y | y | y | y | ya |
| +1 | yb | y | y | y | ya | ya |
| +2 | y | y | y | ya | ya | ya |
| +3 | y | y | ya | ya | ya | ya |
| +4 | y | ya | ya | ya | ya | ya |
| +5 | y | ya | ya | ya | ya | ya |
Whether the item can be purchased or found is based on the oracle codes.
| code | result |
|---|---|
| na | Unavailable, and there's a complication |
| n | Unavailable |
| nb | Unavailable, but there might be some other way to get it |
| yb | Available, but there's a complication |
| y | Available |
| ya | Available, and there's a bonus |