Downtime Activity- Find the Right Buyer

 Dungeons are packed with treasure. After all, isn't that why adventurers decide to plumb their depths? While treasure finds of items that spend easily like coins of precious metals, gems, and jewelry often make up the winnings of successful adventuring expeditions; they are not the only items of value a party will haul back to the surface world.  Eager to make the most out of a group's expeditions, they often grab anything that looks like one could turn over for a quick coin or two. To turn such items into gold, though, adventurers have to locate an interested party to sell these art objects, non-magical tomes, trade goods, and other valuable dungeon oddities.

Below is a new downtime system for locating buyers for dungeon treasures not inherently valuable like coins or gems or easily pawned off due to being made of inherently high-value items (like jewelry, items made of precious metals, etc.). The activity is based on some of the other downtime systems designed by Ben L. we are using in the Twilight Age. I will also use a couple of examples from recent sessions to illustrate what the system looks like in action. This downtime is used to abstractly represent the process of selling of items in a relatively swift manner through a systematic rather than roleplaying way. As a result, the character taking the downtime will accept sales made in it without further negotiation. I am open to exceptions where another player wants to have one of their characters step in with a counter offer.

Coins earned through sales of items acquired by a party are divided by one share of the sale per player character and the share value of each hireling or retainer (typically 1/2 a share).

How to Find the Right Buyer

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When a player character moves to spend a downtime segment to 'Find the Right Buyer", they should roll 2d6 modified by their reaction bonus. The results of the roll break down as follows:

Find the Right Buyer Check
2d6 +/- reaction bonus	Result
6 or less	Complication
7 to 9	Successful but not noteworthy sale
10 or more	Noteworthy Success

Complication

If the “Find the Right Buyer” check  is a 6 or less resulting in a Complication, the item(s) are often (but not always) still sold but the seller meets with some headache. A d8 should be rolled and the following table consulted to see what occurred:

Complications to Finding the Right Buyer
1d8 roll	Resulting Complication
1-2	Just Because Someone Says It is Worth That Much Doesn’t Mean People Will Actually Pay It!- A buyer could not be found in this downtime segment. Another segment could be used to look again in the future with an asking price 5% lower than the current price.
3.	Purchased by a Dealer- The only willing buyer found is a dealer looking to resell the item(s) being shopped around. They pay 1d4+1x10% for the item(s).
4.	Black Market Sale- A buyer on the black market is the only interested party. The item is sold but the local thieves’ guild take a 10% cut from the sale price. There is a cumulative 1% chance that the selling character will gain notice of the local authorities for their black market activities.
5.	Not Mint Condition- The buyer notices some minor damage, a flaw, or some other issue of condition that brings down the price they are willing to pay. Earn 15% less from this sale.
6.	Purchased by Rival- The only willing buyer is the rival to the character looking for the right buyer like another adventuring party, a wronged lover, a political enemy, etc. They will use it to aid in interests contrary to the seller if possible.
7.	Purchased by Patron’s Rival- The only willing purchaser is a nemesis of a patron the character has started to Cultivate a Relationship with in a previous Downtime. The sale has your relationship the patron either moves one step backward on its clock or asks a favor of the selling character to make amends.
8.	Swindled- The character searching for the right buyer is caught in an elaborate con resulting in the character losing ownership of what they were trying to sell without being paid.

Example:

A party collects four particular but similar items from a quartet of strange, gray beings: soft beds filled with air that can be inflated or deflated with the touch of a button. A retainer of the member of the party Scamandros, the Neophyte Kiddo, is tasked with trying to locate a buyer for the beds. Scamandros' player Cullen rolled 2d6 for Kiddo's downtime pursuit (the magic-user's retainer has no Reaction Roll modifier) for a “6” leading to a Complication with the sale of these exotic beds. With another throw, this time a d8 resulting in a 6, Kiddo finds that the beds will only be “Purchased by a Rival”. In this case, the NPC adventuring party called the Midnight Marauders purchase the four beds for the market value of 100gp per bed earning Kiddo's party 400gp. The Midnight Marauders as the beds to their inventory of tools they use to compete with player character adventurers in the quest of looting the meagdungeon known as ‘The Complex’.

The 400gp is divided by Scamandros, Kiddo's employer, and her three other party members equal with an additional 1/2 share each going to Kiddo and the party's hireling Yeoman Klang resulting in 80gp going to each player character while Kiddo and Klang each earn 40gp.

Success

If a 7 to 9 is rolled, the item is successfully sold. The seller earned market value coin for the item(s) but nothing additional results from the downtime action.

Noteworthy Success

If a 10 or more is rolled, then the seller has achieved a Noteworthy Success. Generally, this means that either the item(s) was(were) sold for more than market value or along with the item(s) sale, the seller has started to Cultivate a Relationship with a party interested in purchase future items called a Patron. A d8 should be rolled when a Noteworthy Success is thrown and the following table consulted for the result:

Noteworthy Successes
1d8 roll	What was Noteworthy About the Sale?
1-2.	I Just Have to Have It!- An enthused buyer offers 1d12% more than market value for the item(s) offered for sale.
3.	I Like the Way You Do Business...- The buyer pays market value and throws in a useful piece of information helpful to a current goal of the seller (if feesible) due to how much the buyer enjoyed doing business with them.
4.	Bidding War- The price is driven up by several interested furiously attempt to secure the item(s) offered for sale through competitive bidding. Earn an additional 1d4+1 x 10% of the asking price from the sale of the item(s).
5-7.	Find a Patron- The items(s) are sold to a wealthy buyer interested in acquiring similar items. The transaction goes so well that the seller opens a custom Cultivate Relationship clock with a Patron. In the future, no downtime segment needs to be expended if the seller seeks to sell items to the Patron in the category(ies) they are actively collecting.
8.	Enthusiastic Patron- As result (5-7). In addition, the Patron will pay an additional 1d10% for the item(s) being sold.

Example:

The thief known as Dogmouth was part of a dungeon delve where a party of adventurers found several valuable but hard to sell items including:

• Alchemical Ingredients worth 1000gp

• A silk gown colored the darkest of blues with gold embroidery worth 300gp

• A gown made of a black and silver, silk-like material that provides protection like leather armor (and useable by magic-users) worth 1000gp

• A painting of an old-looking maculine-presenting person with eyes like night wearing plate armor covered in elaborate etching worth 2500gp

• A 30lbs. stack of books including such titles as Hasran Run- The Plane of Dust, 7 Tips for Cleaning Entropic Energies, Manticora Buricos, Contracted: The Influence of Covenants of Sandestine Indenture on Modern Imperial Employment Law, several volumes in the Savi Syldoon series, and a handful of other titles all worth 1000gp

Dogmouth’s player, Sam, decides to spend Dogmouth’s downtime segment after the adventure to ‘Find the Right Buyer’ for these unusual treasures. With a 2d6 roll on the ‘Find the Right Buyer Check’ table, Dogmouth’s result is a ‘10’ or ‘Noteworthy Success’ after reaction modifiers are applied. Next, Sam throws a d8 on the ‘Noteworthy Success’ table to see what was so special about this sale. Sam got a ‘10’ again which results in Dogmouth’s ‘Finding a Patron’. In this case, the Patron is the Lady Valoris, the youngest ward of the ruler of the Impossible Fortress known as the Rani. Based on the items sold and Dogmouth having established the first clock in Cultivating a Relationship with the Lady Valoris as a Patron, she will purchase from Dogmouth any fashion-related, alchemical, or literary unusual treasures he finds at market value. In the future, Dogmouth will not have to spend a downtime to sell such items to Valoris as their preexisting relationship eliminates the need to spend time tracking down an interested party.

Now that Dogmouth has a relationship clock started with Lady Valoris, he can spend downtimes further cultivating her relationship to him as a Patron resulting in things like increases in what she will pay Dogmouth for items, limited access to her resources as a favor, having her back potential expeditions aligned to her interests, and other benefits.

The 5,800gp earned from the sale of treasures to Lady Valoris is divided equally among Dogmouth and his three fellow party members with their hireling and retainer each earning a 1/2 share. Each party member earns 1,160gp while their hireling and retainer each earn 580gp.

Look for future posts delving into the special Cultative Relationship clocks of the Adventuring Patron.