How does Opposed Broker skills work?

[MrUkpyr]

It wasn't until quite a way into our first campaign that my group and I discovered something we had been forgetting about trade.

All of those rolls are supposed to be opposed by the broker you are doing business with.

That one little tid bit of information changes a lot. There is nothing in the book that says the referee's NPC broker doesn't have just as high, or higher, broker skill than the character.

I took this from another post to ask a question.

How do you handle the opposed broker skills when doing trading?

I *think* that you have PC make his roll, then have NPC make his roll, but I'm not sure how the NPC's roll affects the PC's roll.

If someone could post a walkthru as an example I would be very grateful.

Thanks in advance for the assist.

 

[Duroon]

I would use the effect of the NPC's broker roll as an additional negative DM to the player's broker roll myself. If the NPC broker roll fails however that could be a positive DM for the player's.

Say the NPC winds up with a 6 and fails his roll by 2 then that gives the player an additional plus 2 on his roll. If the NPC rolls and winds up with a 12 then the player get's a negative 4 to his roll.

 

[FreeTrav]

I haven't looked to see how MGT handles things, but in Classic and Mega, I've handled it two different ways:

1) The difference between the skill levels is the PC broker's EFFECTIVE skill level. If the result is negative, then I look at what the POSITIVE skill level DMs would be, and use that as a NEGATIVE DM instead. Then, the player rolls normally, and that DM is applied. I use this when I want a quick resolution.

2) Both the PC broker and the opposed broker roll, with their appropriate DMs, but the opposed broker is rolling on the SELL table, and the PC broker on the BUY table (or vice-versa, if the PCs are sellin). The settlement price is the product of the two rolls - e.g., if the PC broker rolls a result of "buy at 90% of standard price" and the opposed broker rolls "sell at 125% of standard price", then the final settlement price is 112.5% of standard price (125% * 90%). I prefer this one, as it takes into account both skill levels (each is rolling on his table with appropriate skill DMs), AND it simulates reasonably well the variability of the brokers' respective negotiation ability - a bad roll means that the broker in question is simply having an 'off' day, even though he's normally pretty sharp. It is, however, somewhat more complex for the referee to administer than just offsetting the DMs.

 

[DickTurpin]

The rules do not state that the price is determined by an opposed roll. It cannot be since you are rolling three dice with Broker skill as a DM rather than making a Broker skill check.

From the SRD:

Determine Purchase Price
To determine the purchase price, roll 3d6 and apply the following modifiers:
+ the character's Broker skill (or the local broker’s skill).
+ the character’s Intelligence or Social Standing DM, whichever is higher.
+ the largest Dice Modifier from the Purchase DM column.
- the largest Dice Modifier from the Sale DM column.
- any Dice Modifiers from the supplier. Some especially rich or powerful suppliers can demand high prices.

There is nothing wrong with having the NPC broker make a Broker skill check (with two dice as normal) and using the effect of that roll as the supplier DM rather than just assigning one if you like.

 

[CosmicGamer]

The rules do not state that the price is determined by an opposed roll. It cannot be since you are rolling three dice with Broker skill as a DM rather than making a Broker skill check.

From the SRD:

Determine Purchase Price
To determine the purchase price, roll 3d6 and apply the following modifiers:
+ the character's Broker skill (or the local broker’s skill).
+ the character’s Intelligence or Social Standing DM, whichever is higher.
+ the largest Dice Modifier from the Purchase DM column.
- the largest Dice Modifier from the Sale DM column.
- any Dice Modifiers from the supplier. Some especially rich or powerful suppliers can demand high prices.

There is nothing wrong with having the NPC broker make a Broker skill check (with two dice as normal) and using the effect of that roll as the supplier DM rather than just assigning one if you like.

I take 'Dice Modifiers from the supplier' to be the NPC brokers skill DM (and int or Soc too) negated (multiplied by -1).

For example, if the NPC broker has Soc 5, Int 6, and broker 2, there would be a (-1 for soc, +2 for broker skill; reverse the sign) -1 DM for the PC to determine price.