Social Engineering: Haggling - Broken?

~~Peter Knutsen~~ · 02-12-2012, 12:00 PM

To elaborate a bit on my previous post, if an item is very standardized, it should perhaps sometimes be dropped one Haggleability Class. That's mostly to do with guild standards, e.g. a bolt of "guild standard linen cloth", and since there are no guilds in my Ärth setting, at least not in pagan or Catholic lands, it's not something I've thought much about. If this causes an item to drop below Class A then you cannot haggle. Trying to do so will be futile, as the outcome of the process is always 100% no matter how well or badly either haggler rolls.

Standards have to be very strong for a Class shift to be warranted, though. Apart from guilds, the seller can sometimes get away with pleading "known quality". Barliman Butterbur may say to a frequent visitor that "you know my beer is always good. Stop trying to haggle!" thus accomplishing a Haggleability Class downshift (to Class 0). That's a "local" or "location-based" shift, though, and if there is a bad harvest (or rumours of one), it's reasonable to expect Butterbur to start skimping on beer quality, so at that point he can no longer claim "known quality".

02-12-2012, 12:00 PM	#8
~~Peter Knutsen~~ Banned Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Europe	Re: Social Engineering: Haggling - Broken? To elaborate a bit on my previous post, if an item is very standardized, it should perhaps sometimes be dropped one Haggleability Class. That's mostly to do with guild standards, e.g. a bolt of "guild standard linen cloth", and since there are no guilds in my Ärth setting, at least not in pagan or Catholic lands, it's not something I've thought much about. If this causes an item to drop below Class A then you cannot haggle. Trying to do so will be futile, as the outcome of the process is always 100% no matter how well or badly either haggler rolls. Standards have to be very strong for a Class shift to be warranted, though. Apart from guilds, the seller can sometimes get away with pleading "known quality". Barliman Butterbur may say to a frequent visitor that "you know my beer is always good. Stop trying to haggle!" thus accomplishing a Haggleability Class downshift (to Class 0). That's a "local" or "location-based" shift, though, and if there is a bad harvest (or rumours of one), it's reasonable to expect Butterbur to start skimping on beer quality, so at that point he can no longer claim "known quality".