Haggle is a simple, system-neutral valuation system for items and services in your ttprg. Tear up your item tables and roll some dice!
Many games present items as a list with their associated costs. There are several problems with this approach. Abbreviated item lists obviously only cover only a small selection of items and 80% of the time what your players are shopping for won't be there. Lists that try to be more exhaustive become cumbersome to use but will still never be complete. Static prices make your world flat and dull. Prices in a living world are dynamic and vary by time and place, by the forces of supply and demand; a drought or bumper crop, peace or war, and nuanced causes of all sorts can affect the cost of items.
Haggle solves all these problems by providing a simple and dynamic dice-rolling system to generate item costs on-the-fly, for anything anywhere at any time. Quit fumbling through item lists only to find that a second-hand ballgown with pockets isn't accounted for. Bring your world to life by letting players find that prices have changed since they last visited this shop, or walk a couple of miles uptown to splurge on more exotic and pricier items. As GM, take this change and spin a plot thread -- why has the cost of 10-foot poles doubled since last month?
Additionally, a simple optional rule gives your players an opportunity to haggle with merchants, providing fun a social encounter with NPCs.
How to Use Haggle
From the list below identify the Value Level of the goods or services the PCs are buying or selling. Then roll the dice and apply the Community Wealth Modifier. The result is the item’s value.
Value Levels
Food or Trinkets [1d10]: Meal, rations, beverage, simple item.
Common/Cheap [2d10]: Low quality weapon, armor, or clothing, simple adventuring gear, ammunition. Mercenary and laborer monthly wages.
Rare/Valuable [2d10 x10]: High quality weapon, armor, or clothing, glasswork, simple jewelry, specialized tool, pack animal, mechanism, cart. Monthly wages for specialist.
Exotic/Expensive [2d10 x100]: Exceptional, ornate, or arcane item, fine jewelry, poison, elixir, machine, watercraft, structure.
Community Wealth Modifiers
Poor [x1]: Village or hamlet, farming communities, slums. Not likely to have Rare or Exotic items.
Modest [x2]: City or town, business district, working class. Not likely to have Exotic Items.
Opulent [x10]: Metropolis, financial district, high society.
Examples
Cheap boots from a village: 2d10 x1 coins
Meals in an opulent city: 1d10 x10 credits
Sextant from a modest town: 2d10 x10 x2 gold pieces
Haggle
When buying from or selling to an NPC, first agree on a Value Level and Community Wealth Modifier. Then one PC and the GM (for the NPC) each roll for value in secret; this is what each believes the item to be worth. Then make an opposed charisma check; the loser must make the first offer, revealing their Value Dice. The winner may accept the offer or negotiate, but their Value Dice will remain hidden. Either party can end negotiations if they feel they aren’t getting a fair price.
Licensing and Credits
Haggle is inspired by Weird North.
Haggle is licensed under Creative Commons — Attribution 4.0 International — CC BY 4.0