Eldritch Earth: Five Hacks Deep

The chance of finding and the number available depends on the size of the market and the price of the goods. Check the size of the market below (generally, most shopping will be in Kingston–Class III, or Jorvikburg–Class 4) and cross-reference the cost of the good.

EQUIPMENT AVAILABILITY BY MARKET CLASS

Examples: Frank wants a Lute (25gp) in a Class III city, he'll find that there are 2 available for sale that month. If he wants riverboat (2000gp) he'll find that there is only a 25% chance of one being available for sale.

Class I: 100,000+: Constantinople
Class II: 25,000-100,000 Rome, Paris
Class III: 8,000-25,000: London, Kingston
Class IV: 3,000—8,000: Jorvikburg, Leifsby, Thorsburg
Class V: 1000-3000: Red Lion
Class VI: less than 1000

Quick and Dirty Method: if players do not wish to spend game time shopping, they can declare “I spend I week shopping (paying their upkeep for themselves and their entourage for that week)” and then they can buy anything that meets the availability on the Market Class Availability chart above.

Selling goods found in the gear book as loot or second-hand generally yields 1/3 of list price. Selling stolen goods, or goods suspected of being stolen, generally yields 1/10 of list price.

Quick and Dirty Selling Method: if you have a bunch of stuff you want to sell at without fuss, declare “I want to spend a week selling stuff” and spend the maintenance for that week. The DM adds full value of the gems, jewelry and the like, plus the 1/3 value of the ordinary goods or 1/10 value of stolen goods, for a grand total. Add the LOWER of the character's CHA or INT bonus to 1d8 if at Kingston, 1d6 if at a smaller town, and multiply the total by 10, this is the percentage of the total value the player will receive.

Retainers: If players want to recruit Retainers, spend 1 week (and maintenance) looking. In Kingston, roll 2d6 adding the player's CHA bonus to the roll for the number of retainers drawn from the deck. In smaller towns, roll 1d6 plus CHA bonus. In a village roll 1d4, but only Laborers will show up. Retainers expect 10gp per HD per day and are hired for a single expedition.

Henchmen: If players want to recruit Henchmen (and are eligible for such) spend a week in Kingston to attract 1d6+ CHA bonus or 1d4+CHA bonus in a smaller town for candidates. A Charisma check must be passed to recruit a candidate. Henchmen are permanent followers, swearing an oath of homage, they require no salary, but cost 1 gp per HD per day in general living expenses, and only advance if you give them a treasure share.

Vassals: Vassals can be recruited in Kingston in the spring months (March-May). They come in 2 sorts–Prepared and Unprepared. The Prepared Vassals have tools, maybe some animals, and are ready to get settled and build a farm. Unprepared have nothing but the shirts on their backs.

A player desiring to gain vassals can make one recruitment effort per year. He spends 3 weeks in Kingston mixing with the arrivals making contacts and arrangements. At the end of the time he gains 10 Prepared people per point of Charisma Score and 20 Unprepared people willing to swear an oath of fealty to him and to come to his settlement.

A player can recruit as many Unprepared people as he wishes by sailing to Europe, spending a month recruiting, and paying for their food, passage and other expenses to cross the sea.

Housecarls: housecarls are either henchmen of a Lord, or can be recruited by a separately in a group of 1 per CHA point (see Lordship and Vassals

See LORDSHIP AND VASSALSfor further details.