Bargain

Time Taken: One minute to an hour.

Specializations: Kind of merchandise to be purchased or sold — spice, weapons, droids, datapads.

Characters use this skill to haggle over prices for goods they want to purchase or sell. The difficulty is often an opposed roll against the gamemaster character's bargain skill.

The gamemaster should determine the local market value of the good. In general, the item's value should be close to the value listed on the Cost Chart, but some goods in some marketplaces will be very expensive or very cheap compared to other locations. Likewise, some merchants will charge exorbitant fees, either as part of the "bargaining process" or because of the local situation.

This skill is designed to be roleplayed rather than simply rolled. The gamemaster may also use a mixture of roleplaying and die rolls to determine how the character is doing. The player always has the choice to refuse a deal. If the gamemaster feels that the character's roll represents an unfair deal, without the player embellishing by roleplaying the situation, he should allow the gamemaster character to refuse the deal as well.

To resolve the haggling, make an opposed skill roll using any modifiers appropriate. Find the results on the "Bargaining Results" chart below.

Modifiers:
 * No modifier: Bargainers who have never dealt before.
 * +5 or more to purchaser: Buyer and seller have good relationship. The buyer is a frequent customer, pays on time and never has a serious complaint.
 * +5 or more to seller: Customer has been a "problem" customer, so buyer has a vested interest in getting as good a price as possible, or even risk losing the sale in order to get personal satisfaction.
 * +5 or more to purchaser: Local market is flooded with this good, and the prices have been driven down by easy availability.
 * +5 or more to seller: Product isn't readily available, and thus has a high demand.
 * +10 or more to seller: Local merchants work together to artificially inflate prices.
 * +5 or more to buyer: Item is damaged. The seller will pretend to drive a hard bargain, but will let goods go at a lower price and hope buyer doesn't notice damaged item. If customer makes appropriate Perception check to notice that good is damaged, modifier should go to +10 at a minimum.
 * +5 or more to seller: Seller makes up extravagant claims about abilities or qualities of good in hopes that customer will accept claims at face value. If customer makes an appropriate value skill check, customer will realize which claims are false.

Bargaining Results
If rolls are within two points of each other either way, then purchase price is at local market value.

Bribery
Bargain can also be used to bribe others. This skill use requires more than simply handing someone a stack of coins. The character must gain that person's confidence so they will believe the bribe will remain a secret. Bribery may also take the form of having to do favors: "You know, if you allow me to 'buy back' my blaster (slipping the inspector a 100 credit coin), I can find out when Jabba's smugglers are going to be delivering the next shipment of Kessel spice. I'm sure that anyone who could bust that kind of shipment would receive a large reward ..."

Note that there are few officials above accepting a bribe now and then — it's just a matter of figuring out how many credits or what favors will get the individual's attention. Characters make opposed bargain skill rolls when negotiating a bribe — if the recipient of the bribe rolls higher, he should be able to demand more money or favors for his cooperation.

The type and size of the bribe depends on the situation. Petty local officials may want 100 credits to get a confiscated blaster back or several thousand to get a ship out of the impound yard. A character may have to pay 15 or 20 credits to get a specific table at a restaurant, or possibly several hundred just to get a certain room at a posh hotel. If the official is famous or very powerful, bribes will have to be correspondingly large or somehow subtle (for example, giving an official's wife a loan at a very favorable interest rate). Remember that some characters have no use for bribes.

The size of the bribe also determines how well it is received.

Modifiers:
 * +10 or more to target's roll: Bribe is insultingly small (less than half of what is reasonable). The bribing character may be reported to local officials.
 * +5 to target's roll: Bribe is small (less than 90% of what is reasonable).
 * +5 to bribing character's roll: Bribe is larger than expected.
 * +10 or more to bribing character's roll: Bribe is much larger than is expected.

A note on bribery: Imperial stormtroopers cannot be bribed. They can be tricked, conned, intimidated and, of course, killed, but bribing one is like trying to teach a rancor table manners.