DF/DFRPG: What would an agent charge?

[tbone]

An agent in Dungeon Fantasy (or DFRPG) is the townie who picks up news of dungeons to raid, finds sponsors, sorts the legitimate quests from the scams, helps delvers score deals on gear, advises delvers on gear selection, finds appraisers and buyers for dungeon loot, rounds up henchmen (and smugglers, and fences, and other shady types) where needed, keeps an eye out for (or bribes) the taxman... Some or all of all those tasks. (There's a fine agent writeup in DF 15: Henchmen.)

What would an agent charge for such services? It'll vary a lot with what the agent does and how well, of course. But for a general "capably helps delvers locate, prepare for, and extract the most cash from dungeons", what's a ballpark cut of the loot?

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking the same payment as a delver – i.e., if there are 5 delvers, the agent gets his share of a 6-way split.

(I'll note that an agent doesn't risk his life like the delvers, but hey, in-town specialists cost money. He should be saving them money on prep, boosting their income from selling, and, maybe most important, letting delvers put their time into delving instead of shopping & selling & finding jobs... and letting them put their CP into delving abilities, instead of Merchant & Propaganda & Current Events & all that.)

Any advice on what to charge? Is this topic covered in some supplement or Pyramid article already?

[Turhan's Bey Company]

Finding a Sponsor in DF2 kind of points in this direction. Someone putting up goods up front wants a 200% return. You could do the same with labor: figure out how much time an agent spends working on this stuff, determine what income level a "dungeon agent" should have, calculate from those factors how much that labor is worth, and multiply by three.

That said, "takes a share" is plausible, as is a conventionally agent-y 10% or 15% off the top. I'd go with whatever's easiest to calculate.

[Tenex]

The problem with the equal or partial share concept is the agent is continually at risk of being cheated.

I had an NPC that was loosely affiliated with a couple criminal organizations who would provide tips for a flat fee. The better the target and the more inside info he had on the target, the greater the fee. That way he got his money up front if the players bungled the burglary and got caught or died. He was also a fence so he picked up a cut on the backend of successful thefts. That way he got something akin to a share, but also got some upfront money.

I never used an "agent" for traditional dungeon runs.

I had sages kind of fill a similar role, although they weren't involved in outfitting the party. They conducted research for a flat fee and then could be involved in assessing the value of significant spoils, although not as a traditional fence.

[Extrarius]

I'd say use the GURPS jobs and wages tables unless DFRPG has significantly different pricing.
For a TL4 Comfortable job (which I'd guess would be the level of a talented agent), the wages are $1600/mo. Determine how many groups an Agent can support simultaneously, and then you know how much each group needs to pay the agent to support his lifestyle.
However, some of the Agent's income might be covered by their own skills in a way - if an Agent can get 10% more selling items, he could take 5% and still save the adventurers time and get them more than they'd get on their own. Perhaps an agent would charge a moderate retainer fee (to help cover the Agent maintaining relationships, and ensure at minimum regular income of $800/mo), and then take a share plus a portion of the added value.

If an agent can support, say, 10 groups simultaneously (which seem a reasonable wild guess), then he only has to make $160/mo from each to be comfortably wealthy. If you go with the retainer fee, that is $80/mo, which would require his shares and 'savings fees' to cover the other $80/mo, which seems doable if not guaranteed.

Considering than agent needs several skills at decent levels, several contacts, and a good social network, they might even qualify for higher levels of income. Once you pick the baseline and decide on the value of the knobs, the math is pretty simple.

[evileeyore]

If he's pounding cobblestone wrangling hirelings, finding rumors, getting research down for the group, he's paid Day's Wages.

If he's exchanging loot for cash, half of the difference between what the party would get without him and what he brings to the table.

[tbone]

Thanks for all the thoughts. Lots of ways the agent/delver monetary relationship could work... which makes perfect sense.

Overall, I think a per-party modest retainer fee, plus some cut of dungeon loot, is a likely combination – though, as noted, it requires the agent to trust that the delvers are reporting all treasure. (They don't need the agent at all to sell gold and gems.) If reporting loot is really a problem, agents might insist on embedding a watchful henchman in the delving party.

Maybe the most workable setup would an agreement by which the PCs pay:

1) A small monthly retainer to funnel leads to the PCs
2) A fee for each dungeon the PCs accept (higher fee if the agent helps with shopping, research, etc.)
3) Any other relevant expenses fronted by the agent
4) After returning, a portion of any loot sold with the agent's help

4) could also be an agreed-upon flat amount, similar to the flat amount returned to sponsors (as TBC noted). The difference is only that a sponsor initially puts up money, while an agent puts up time and services (and maybe some money).

Overall, though, I imagine agents would skew heavily toward getting the money up front. They'd know better than anyone that delvers can fail to reach a dungeon, or change course mid-trip to chase some other rumor, or die in the dungeon, or hide the good loot from the agent, or just run off to a new town with all the loot.


Side thought: Where an agent could really make a difference is in DFRPG, if the PCs are poor and the agent is rich. The Wealth difference would mean a BIG jump in income from selling loot, at least part of which would come back to the PCs.

But... I think that'd be a big violation of the intent of DFRPG's Wealth rules. IIRC, low Wealth is defined as a lack of good contacts for commerce – i.e., the PCs don't have an agent who can sell high. If they did, they wouldn't have low Wealth.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by tbone

But... I think that'd be a big violation of the intent of DFRPG's Wealth rules. IIRC, low Wealth is defined as a lack of good contacts for commerce – i.e., the PCs don't have an agent who can sell high. If they did, they wouldn't have low Wealth.

They don't have contacts that they aren't paying for. If they did have contacts that did it for free, they'd have high Wealth.

Average and lower Wealth requires they pay for those contacts.

[Donny Brook]

If the agent is one among many who provide services that are legal in a competitive market, 3-5%.

If the agent is one among many who provides extra-legal services, or takes any personal risk 15%

If the agent is the market maker, a monopolist, or represents or provides the fundamental element to the enterprise, etc., 50%

[tbone]

Originally Posted by evileeyore

They don't have contacts that they aren't paying for. If they did have contacts that did it for free, they'd have high Wealth.

Average and lower Wealth requires they pay for those contacts.

DFRPG doesn't address agents at all, so I can see playing it either way:

1) Keep things really abstract – "You have an agent who helps you make money? Okay, let's call that a higher level of Wealth"; or

2) Get into the nitty gritty of what the agent does, how much extra he earns for the PCs, and how much the PCs need to pay him.

The first one feels more like the DFRPG style to me, but whichever the group prefers is the right way, of course.

[evileeyore]

Originally Posted by tbone

DFRPG doesn't address agents at all, so I can see playing it either way:

Sure, but if in DFRPG the PCs are wanting to hire someone to go selling for them, then you might want to do something more than just say "Oh, that's what Wealth is for" and shut them down.

Or not. It depends on the style of your game.

But if I'm allowing the PCs to hire people to go fight for/with them... then it stands to reason they can hire people to do the 'not fighting' parts too.