Original fluff, some crunch based on the Finnish edition of Clinton’s book.
Near after the Skyfire is in a state of disintegration. No civilization has survived such a calamity intact, ever. Many individual communities are isolated, with their knowledge bases slowly eroding and value systems convulsing, knotting up like a wounded animal dying in a deep burrow.
The long southern coastline of the Sea of Teeth is sparsely populated. Vaguely Khalean marsh tribes and roving bands of hunter bandits eke out a primitive living that gets worse every year as the communities prey on each other. Villagers from neighboring valleys do not understand each other’s speech; the old roads are all but gone; specialized knowledge is replaced by the common necessities of survival.
No nation of Near is able to survive alone, but neither do the borders seem surmountable. Things are even worse on the eastern coasts, and nobody really knows what savagery is happening in the interior wilderness nobody has visited for a generation.
It is a questionable hope, but the caravans and trade ships of Ammeni are the first touch of the larger world to many isolated communities that have experienced slow decline since the Skyfire. Ammeni traders are the only diplomats and explorers in a world with its sights broken.
The merchant princes of the Houses are exalted beings in this day and age. They wield wealth that is not only all but monetized, but greater than any one man could ever hope to consume. They have capital, a concept near unknown in great parts of Near. This is a condition that allows the princes unprecedented options in elevating and ruining themselves and others.
This wealth is not trivial to create. The SECRET OF FORTUNE is extraordinary and mechanically challenging to create. A character wanting it needs to use SECRET OF QUEST to execute a business plan of some sort or get the fortune from another character, willingly or not. My take is that I allow at most one character to take the Secret in character creation; let the rest become clients to the independently rich if they want.
The Ammeni plantation industry is predicated on cheap human labor. They do not hesitate to enslave new peoples when opportunity arises, and they encourage their stock to breed in captivity to increase the wealth. Bred slaves are prized, and the institution certainly has its painful and uncomfortable moments: Ammeni culture as a whole does not have an over-arching legal theory for slavery, so often a person’s status as a slave or a free man is a matter of opinion, resolved by the people present and how they view the claimant to freedom: deeds of ownership are usually honored by the Houses, as well as brands and other such marks, but lacking those leaves the putative slave-owner with little but his own strength to enforce his claim. Only Zaru, goblins and similar distinctive subject peoples are presumed slaves without further proof; the only issue with them is finding the legal owner.
It is important to distinguish that while slaves often have little mechanical impact to what happens in individual scenes of the game, this is not because they do not have individuality, value or purpose as human beings to us; rather, we deal with a bunch of plantation slaves exactly the way we would deal with a bunch of guardsmen or free peasants or nobility at a soiree: as extras who don’t have direct impact on this particular story as long as we choose not to look closer.
Specifically, when the SECRET OF SLAVERY says that slaves always perform with MEDIOCRE (0) Ability when conflicting for their master, this is not to say that slaves in the setting are always non-remarkable in every way; rather, the relationship of the slave to his master deprotagonizes him when it comes to the master’s goals. The same slave might turn around and act as a MASTER (3) in the very same scene, should he have reason to act for himself as a human being instead of as a tool for another.
Ammeni law is set by the Council of Houses first and foremost to facilitate trade. Although some other things are touched upon when the Houses act in agreement, trade is the common priority. What’s more, the authority of the Council in this role is accepted with surprising sincerity by the Ammeni: free traders do not lightly renege on a fair deal between unencumbered traders, even as the cynical princes of the Houses follow the law as a convenience only.
Ammeni trade law makes clear distinction between House trade and independent speculative endeavors; the differentiation is essential, because the preferential trade clauses commonly used in treating with trade partners are only enforceable in House trade; meanwhile independent trade is free from having to defend stapling and market rights from falling to disuse. In practice this arrangement means that while internal and well-established trade routes in Ammeni are carefully allotted as House monopolies by precedent and their ability to demonstrably service the trade, the same Houses compete with the most adventurous independent merchants when it comes to speculative trade.
Ammeni trade law divides trade privileges conceptually into MARKET RIGHTS and ROUTE RIGHTS. The former concern rights connected to local control of territory: for example, the right of House trading depots to inspect and delay travel through the depot, most often situated in a waterway access of some sort. This might also involve rights of first offer or mandatory market participation by any merchants passing through the depot. In Ammeni lands only Houses hold market rights, while elsewhere Ammeni traders have to negotiate for these rights with the local rulers; typically a House trader would set up an enclave within an existing settlement or start a new trade station in the area after negotiating for exclusive rights to conducting the local market. Such rights would then be enforced against other traders with the help of the local ruler. It is entirely conceivable for an Ammeni trade master of this sort to eclipse the wealth and authority of whatever local ruler his position depends on.
Route rights are involved in a different way, as they range from trade secrets to legally enforced monopolies. A speculative trade route increases in value greatly after it has been proved feasible by successful exploration. At this point the route does not have any protection aside from obscurity. However, a House that conducts regular trade along a specific trade route and improves it with waystation arrangements may in time claim ownership over it; such ownership over an abstract trade route is not legally enforceable against foreigners, but the Houses themselves do not compete on routes claimed by other Houses in this manner. Independent Ammeni traders might or might not respect route claims; if caught, however, they lose negotiation privileges for right of passage and trade in the lands and markets of the particular House, which would often be a crippling blow for an independent trader: all Houses hold established steadings on the Poison River, which any may bar against trade at their own cut-off point.
The Ammeni trade law is in many ways orthogonal to old civil law of the Empire, and in many ways its direct opposite. This is no constraint to the Ammeni traders, who follow their own laws in their own land and no law at all anywhere else, unless forced to it by a local power.
Characters may know or have rights over individual trade routes or markets as Effects, created with TRADE ROUTES (R), VAGRANCY (I) or appropriate LOCAL (R) Abilities. These might be useful in wielding influence over the area or in traveling safely, just like any Effects. Characters may also wield actual dominant influence over a particular ROUTE or MARKET by getting the associated Secret, collectively called TRADE RIGHTS. For these purposes think of markets as geographical areas like towns or counties; routes in turn are travel arrangements between markets.
Possessing the Secret to a route or market is not exclusive, unless the possessors make it so: characters can force others to relinquish their hold on trade rights with appropriate Ability checks, provided that they are themselves established with the same trade right.
The Story Guide is ultimately responsible for the particulars of the setting, but some examples of what I’m thinking of in geographical terms won’t hurt.
Hungry Mouth is the narrow, stormy strait that connects the Sea of Teeth with the Eastern Ocean, making it crucial to sea trade. The route is controlled by Khalean barbarians, a savage bunch of pirates.
Tafalla Undermarket is the second, unofficial market of the large border city lying on the Absolon’s Way. Not only illegal trade, but also local merchants too poor to pay the fares of the main market.
Southern Route is a coastal trade route to Maldor and Goren. The “long” route ends with metals from western Maldor, while the “short” one off-loads spices in eastern Maldor, hires mercenaries and trawls the insular region for slaves to fill the holds for the return journey.
The key to using the trade material in play is to realize that there is no real and appreciable difference between economic and political power. The Ammeni trade crunch is one rename away from being a set of tools for re-establishing the Empire.
That’s the socialistic narrative, anyway: merchant princes wield enormous power, which is counteracted by human decency. The alternative reading is that the soft power wielded by traders in the post-Shadow Near is by its nature cooperative and egalitarian, opposed to feudal arrangements of Maldor. It is a way for the world to find itself without conquest.
Either way, it is a good idea to tie merchant characters and their business onto issues of human identity; the character is easy to leave shallow if his only driving force is to succeed in his trade endeavor for no particular reason. The background is important: is he a member of a House, knowing that the pride of his parents ride on his success? Is his caravan backed by his community, their prosperity depending on his success? Is success in trade a way out of the gutter for him? The ultimate tension for all this trade material is simple: is your character part of the problem, or part of the solution?
| Wealth (R) |
|---|
| The skill of handling and using wealth. This is somewhat different from BARGAIN (I) in that the character knows how to preserve, increase and spend wealth efficiently over the long term; Wealth presumes a moneyusing economy, or nearly so. It’s useful for hiding wealth, trading it, turning it into money, moving it, buying things with it, tracking it in accounting and so on. |
| Slave Driving (V) |
| Ammeni Houses employ a considerable number of slavers and slave managers who deal with human property on daily basis. This Ability can be used to socially dominate any acclimatized slaves, and to train newly captured subject people into slavery. It is also used to direct slaves in work; normal labor is not so much a matter of the slave’s competence as that of the slave driver. |
| Trade Routes (R) |
| Established House trade routes and speculative trading by independent merchants make for unequaled geographical knowledge base in Ammeni. The Ability can be used to know and recognize far-away places and things. It is also useful in practical travel. |
| Secret of Fortune |
|---|
| The character has more than any one person could ever need. The form of the wealth might be specific or ever-changing, depending on the character. Any material Effects he chooses to garner by wealth come to him effortlessly, without Pool cost. Similarly, he pays a Pool point instead of an Advance to wield mundane equipment that can be bought. The only limitations to this are practical, such as time and availability; the Story Guide might consider one application per scene a good rule of thumb on this. The Ability used in the procurement of Effects and equipment is WEALTH (R), unless the task is left to a suitably skilled client. The character still pays Effect upkeep on refreshes for any Effects he chooses to maintain, and he has to invest the Advance to keep any equipment at the end of the session. |
| Cost: 1 VIGOR to use mundane equipment. |
| Requirements: Difficult to achieve, see main text. |
| Secret of Client |
| The character is client to a powerful and rich patron who has the SECRET OF FORTUNE. He may use the patron’s wealth as his own (as if he had the Secret himself), contingent on the patron’s pleasure. He may also provide his Ability checks for the patron, interchangeably from the patron’s own in most situations. Should the client refuse his patron and lose this Secret, the patron decides whether the client gains back the Advance expended on the Secret. |
| Requirement: Continuing pleasure of the patron. |
| Secret of Slavery |
| The character has a number of slaves at his disposal. The slaves are MEDIOCRE (0) when compelled to act for the master, but they can be objectified into a piece of equipment as well by training. Slaves allow the master or his representative to use SLAVE DRIVING (V) to achieve whatever goals a bunch of subjugated people could. |
| Requirement: SECRET OF FORTUNE |
| Secret of House Slave |
| A house slave is utilized for his special skills and usually has somewhat less strenuous tasks than a field slave. The slave with this Secret can act with his own full Abilities to fulfill the master’s interests. |
| Requirement: owner has SECRET OF SLAVERY |
| Secret of Contract |
| The character knows how to create contracts with suitable Abilities, such as WEALTH (R) or BARTER (I). The contract is an Effect that may be spent by the player freely as penalty dice against a contracting party as long as the contract stands unfulfilled. Should the contract be completed, the remaining Effect value becomes experience points for each contracting party separately. |
| Secret of Route (specify) |
| The character is established on a specific trade route. He can activate any of the trade right Secrets without needing to know them. Additionally, any messages he sends along the route reach their target in time with a successful TRADE ROUTES (R) check. |
| Cost: 1 appropriate Pool plus Secret’s cost to activate each Secret. |
| Secret of Market (specify) |
| The character is established at a specific market. He can activate any of the trade right Secrets without needing to know them. Additionally, he can use any trade route going through his market with permission from the owner of the route, or he can prevent such routes from functioning with an appropriate LOCAL (R) check. |
| Cost: 1 appropriate Pool plus Secret’s cost to activate each Secret. |
| Secret of Travel |
| The character can get safely and quickly from one place to another within his trade right. A successful TRADE ROUTES (R) check allows him to arrive in his destination for his very next scene. |
| Cost: 2 VIGOR for seemingly impossible distances. |
| Requirement: some trade rights |
| Secret of Rarity |
| The character has access to goods or services not normally available in the environment, but available in some part of his trade right. A TRADE ROUTES (R) or LOCAL (R) check may be used to procure an appropriate item, knowledge or other thing from a distant land; they will usually appear surprisingly quickly. |
| Cost: 2 REASON for a seemingly impossible find. Requirement: some trade rights |
| Secret of Spy Network |
| The character has informers in his market area, and is generally aware of significant events therein. A LOCAL (R) check allows him to know of the events of any scene happening locally after the scene but before the next one. This works for routes with TRADE ROUTES (R) as well, but only very narrowly along the established road or shipping line, or at waystations. |
| Cost: 2 INSTINCT for seemingly impossible spying. Requirement: some trade rights |
| Secret of Smuggling |
| When the character’s illegal trade affair falls through, the player can establish a reasonable means of escape and damage control retroactively with a THIEVERY (I), TRADE ROUTES (R) or LOCAL (R) check. An extra boat moored behind rocks, a waterproof alibi, or whatever makes sense to the group. This only works within the character’s trade rights, however. |
| Cost: 2 INSTINCT for seemingly unlikely preparations. Requirement: some trade rights |
| Key of Corruption |
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| The character has fallen prey to vices and entitled abasement unimaginable to the common man. |
| 1xp: Spend wealth frivolously. |
| 3xp: Hurt others for your amusement. |
| Buyoff: Lose your Fortune |
| Key of the Slave |
| The character is an acculturated slave in the Ammeni society. |
| 1xp: Obey a master. |
| 2xp: Disobey the master. |
| 5xp: Get punished severely. |
| Buyoff: Escape from slavery. |
| Key of the Deal |
| The character strives for mutually beneficial, consensual decision-making. Or he might just think himself smarter than the next guy, and able to benefit from it. |
| 1xp: Try to negotiate for a deal. |
| 2xp: Close a deal. |
| 5xp: Fulfill an important bargain. |
| Buyoff: Renege on an agreement. |
| Key of Slave Trade |
| The character has no problem trading in ruinous and inhuman stock, such as slaves, poisons, mercenaries or worse. He might have scruples about getting his own hands dirty, however. |
| 1xp: Further evil aims with soft power. |
| 2xp: Refuse to participate directly in human abasement. |
| 5xp: Profit handily from your ruthlessness. |
| Buyoff: Save your victims. |