Red Markets: A Game of Economic Horror

351 RUNNING THE MARKET

352 Shades of Red “Playing the Market” (p. 171) teaches the game’s rules, discusses this book’s intentions, and defines economic horror. It is recommended that anyone looking to run their first game of Red Markets read that section first. The task of the Market is very different than that of the players. Huge sections of the setting are created, interpreted, and implemented by the person running the game. Essentially, once a session of Red Markets begins, the game leaves the book and becomes a collaboration between everyone at the table. The Market’s responsibility is to facilitate that collaboration. “Running the Market” contains tools for navigating the Loss with your game group: customization options for the game, the structural breakdown of a typical session, rules for creating new settings, and tables for randomly generated setting content. Market vs. GM Many readers have likely served as game masters (GMs) in other tabletop games. This section speaks more to some preconceptions those readers might have than it does those brand-new to role-playing. If this is your first RPG, you can skip ahead to Boom vs. Bust (see p. 353). Expect experienced players to dismiss the name “Market” as another sad attempt to appropriate an old concept with an unnecessary new title. It’s up to the individual reader to decide whether this “GM-by-anyname” criticism is apt, but some might find running Red Markets so different as to warrant the new name. The degree of separation between Markets and GMs depends less on this book than a person’s previous experience. Certain RPGs share a play style very similar to Red Markets, whereas others couldn’t be more different. Running the Market is a bastardized fusion of more recent “story game” aesthetics and old-school mechanics. Big sections of the narrative, such as the nature of a campaign setting and the cast of NPCs, are determined as much by the players as the Market. PCs choose what Contracts they want to pursue rather than being forced into the adventure the GM happened to write that week. Vignettes inside the enclave are closer to improvisational acting than the role-playing required of many traditional RPGs. Spots and Will serve as disassociated mechanics that give PCs power to control their own fate through force of personality. Finally, much of the procedural information other games obsess about, such as how much damage different weapons inflict or how much a character can carry, are glossed over for the sake of convenience. Yet Red Markets also has some distinctly old-school tendencies. The Market has a ton of control over where jobs take place and what is to be found there. NPC clients are designed and played by the Market, their personalities shaping the narrative of whole sessions. The goal of many Contracts boils down to the classic “kill monsters and take their stuff” story that founded tabletop RPGs. Most importantly, Markets are responsible for creating job lines: multi-faceted jobs that take place over many sessions, crafting campaigns larger in scope than the episodic limitations of one-off jobs. But the path to the job site, the structure of the Contract, and the price of the Takers’ services can all be randomly generated. These predesigned encounters and tables are meant to add another element of chance to the game beyond the success and failure of player actions. Certain jobs can be cakewalks, providing massive payouts for little risk. Conversely, fate can be cruel and present horrific obstacles every step of the way, eating into profits and destroying lives. The Loss is capricious and unpredictable even to the Market. Like old-school RPGs and roguelike videogames, random encounters make every adventure dangerous; the players can’t necessarily rely on their GM’s kindness to get them out of dangerous situations, and

353 movies than cable dramas or horror films. Consequences are for poor people, so we won’t have to worry about them for long. Get in. Get out. Get paid. Fuck the rest. That’s a Boom game. When we use the term “Boom,” we mean for the PCs and not the setting. Here’s why: In economics, the broken window fallacy refers to the idea that, on the surface, destruction seems like an excellent way to stimulate growth. Break a window, exchange capital with the glassmaker and carpenter, who respectively exchange goods and services resetting the window. The new window advertises each worker’s quality to the rest of the community, thus increasing the demand for that specific glassmaker and carpenter. The businesses and their employees suddenly have more disposable income, which in turn gets spent in the community and starts a virtuous cycle of increasing returns. The broken window theory fallacy fails to account for opportunity cost and globalization. The time spent repairing windows is not spent making new glass for new buildings. Value that could have been added has been merely replaced, causing financial stagnation. Furthermore, nothing about the global economy demands the glassmaker and carpenter’s surplus stay in the community. The excess can be spent in other markets, thus costing the community additional wealth on top of the damages. In the broken window situation, the contractors probably aren’t performing as well as they could be and the economy as a whole definitely suffers. The Crash set up the biggest broken window economy in history. While this means that the world at large is in trouble, one thing remains in the PCs favor: perhaps their best skills weren’t in demand before the casualties came. Shooting people in the head, thievery, smuggling — all these vital economic skill sets suffered from a lot of risk before society collapsed. Now, the risk of criminal activity is purely physical and free from concerns like prison. unpredictable dangers test players’ skill. The power of the dice has the added bonus of relieving the Market of a lot of responsibility between sessions. Most jobs can be written up in about 1,000 words, fewer still if playing in an established campaign setting. The dice and this book take care of the rest. In general, traditional GMs wield an enormous amount of power over the narrative while in many story games, power is shared equally amongst the whole group. Red Markets tries to walk the middle path — the Market as a guiding hand: interpreting randomly generated content, implementing player contributions, and steering both sources towards a satisfying narrative. Boom vs. Bust Depending on the Market’s impression of the Loss’s economy, games usually fall into one of two broad categories: Boom and Bust. Groups can go hard to one side of the spectrum or the other, or negotiate a centrist approach by picking and choosing from the alternative rules sets. Regardless, it’s useful for Markets to think about how they want to characterize the setting before running the first job. Boom A Boom game is high-octane, action-heavy, and fast-paced. High-tech gear and rich clients make for sleek, flashy jobs more akin to action

354 checks because they don’t know the rules of the game. They fall for simple Scams. They rarely offer job lines or get to know the PCs’ spots well enough to call them on their bullshit. 5. Focus on combat and horror. Nobody would be making this much money if it weren’t insane to hop over the fence. Randomized legs in a journey should be replaced with more grueling and draining encounters. Complications at job sites should be huge, challenging, and mindshatteringly terrifying. High rewards only come with high risk, and PCs speculate with their lives. 6. Accentuate the negative perception of Takers. The term intentionally suggests the occupation is linked with theft and exploitation. Groups playing Boom must frequently compromise their Humanity for bigger profits and a faster escape. This can lead to resentment of Dependents even when relationships are healthy. 7. Present plentiful opportunities. Everybody wants to get rich quick, but only people like the PCs know how. There’s no shortage of paying jobs at any given point, and the Takers’ skills are in great demand. If they design Scores, it’s only because the players want to contribute more to the setting. 8. Relish escapism. The characters are cool, crafty, and skilled enough to escape the Loss and they’re going to look damn good while doing it. PCs are hood-rich in the enclave, and they’re going to have fullblown, “fuck-you” money once they retire. Bust A Bust game is all about the grind. It’s a poverty simulator with zombies thrown in. Staying solvent means lowering overhead and securing meager profits through the use of minimal resources. Hacking down one debt sees two more spring up in its place. There’s still action and scares, but the consequences of both are never far behind. The unyielding demands of the Loss chips away at people, In a Boom game, Takers are the outliers, profiteers capable of turning the tragedy of the Carrion Economy into opportunity. Every disaster leaves a select few better off and playing Boom means the Market wants it to be the PCs. The Loss won’t be around forever: the surviving nations of the Recession could fall or, worse yet, exterminate the undead and re-establish rule of law. Like the California gold rush and sub-prime mortgages, there’s a short window in which fortunes can be made. Boom groups exploit the terrors of the Loss as much as possible, looking to win big and cash out. What does this mean for a game? Playing Boom means giving the characters big rewards and even bigger risks. The potential for profit wouldn’t be so high if the danger wasn’t real. The questions PCs face in a Boom aren’t “will I have enough?” so much as “will I be alive to enjoy it?” Boom groups are rarely at risk of starving or losing a loved one to the grind of poverty. Far more concerning is what kind of expensive gear they’ll need to get through the insanity of the next job. Retirement plans become ever more important because it’s only a matter of time before some disaster strikes. Every Contract is all about getting more bounty, more quickly, and damning the consequences. Gear eats up bounty fast, and profit-obsessed decision-making deprives characters of Humanity quickly. Market’s that want to run a Boom game should do the following: 1. Use some or all of the Boom rules. Check the index for a full list. 2. Expect a shorter campaign. Due to the danger and the big payments, characters die and retire often. 3. Hand out frequent +Rep spots. Remember that the PCs are elite and singularly capable. 4. Create noob clients. Big paydays mean the people offering the Contracts have deep pockets and shallow sense. They waste the final round in a negotiation on Sensitivity

355 require complex Scams to fool. They offer job lines and repeat business because it allows them to remember a Taker’s spots and exploit them for bigger discounts. 6. Focus on randomness and stress. Sometimes the Loss rewards a Taker beyond all expectation; other times it stacks the odds against them like an angry god. The dice always decide. The anxiety such uncertainty creates in players manifests ten-fold in their characters. The alternating dreams and nightmares of what lies over the fence eats away at a Taker and affects even the quietest moments with family. 7. Accentuate the positive perception of Takers. Part of the term comes from “undertakers,” an occupation dedicated to providing solace in the face of death. The difference between the PCs and the rest of the enclave isn’t need; they have the courage to face the creatures that threaten to destroy everything and get the job done. 8. Present scarcity at every opportunity. There should never be enough to go around, either in bounty or in clients offering to pay it. Scores become more than a chance for the players to exercise their creativity the setting: they are essential to survival. Teams must constantly hustle to survive, and player creativity translates directly into character rewards essential for supplementing the meager opportunities on the ground. 9. Relish challenge. Anybody that escapes the overwhelming odds offered by such a capricious and uncaring world is nothing short of a hero. The success of the few who survive is made that much more enticing by the many that fell along the way to death, infection, madness, and despair. A character’s suffering sweetens a possible victory and heightens the probable tragedy. Bust-style groups care most about giving their characters big, satisfying character arcs rather than happy endings, and they’re willing to climb a steeper difficulty curve to get it. transforming PCs and their Dependents slowly and creating tragic character arcs. At best, survival is a balancing act, but it more often means triage and sacrifice. A Bust game acknowledges the statistical truth of the broken window fallacy described previously: when disaster strikes, it’s disastrous for most people. Nobody is going to come out ahead from the Crash. The greatest possible hope is escape, and players in a Bust game need as much luck as skill to stay alive. A Taker’s heroism comes from their stubborn insistence on chasing the dream, doggedly pursuing a slim hope of a better life that may be no more than a delusion. Players in a Bust game want any Cinderella stories to be really earned, and they’re just as happy when a character meets predictably tragic ends. Markets that want to run a Bust game should do the following: 1. Use some or all of the Bust rules. Check the index for a full list. 2. Use the MBA rules. They provide more opportunity for profit, yes, but that comes along with increased risk and greater anxiety over picking the best investments for time and bounty. 3. Expect a longer campaign. Not every job results in profit. Characters can die off suddenly, but they can just as easily bleed out over several sessions, slowly losing health, Humanity, and any hope of financial salvation. Similarly, while big windfalls are possible, progress towards retirement tends to be hard-fought and incremental. 4. Being cursed by -Rep spots is a constant danger. People in the Loss like to gossip and hate parting with their bounty. Any indication that the crew might fail to deliver is taken seriously and always exploited to drive prices down. 5. Create experienced clients. The unforgiving nature of the carrion economy means only the most cunning and ruthless rise to the level of job creator. Clients know how to work a negotiation. They

356 a choice of what adventure to take at the beginning of every session, and preparing for the next week can be as easy as writing a single Contract to replace the completed one. Certain sections of Contracts can be entirely randomized every session. The equilibrium price point is as easy as rolling two dice and consulting a table. Generating casualties to fight doesn’t even require a table. Finally, the Loss Encounters section (see p. 446) can generate specific procedural scenes for PCs to move through as they head to a job site, or it can craft general prompts for Markets to improvise on and dramatic cues to encourage role-playing. Extended play takes even more work off the Market’s responsibilities. Building an enclave is a collaborative effort, as are vignettes with Dependents at the beginning of every campaign session. Once an enclave is statted out, another component of the standard Contract template is taken care of for the remainder of the campaign. Finally, elements like Scores, retirement plans, and Mr. JOLS stay collaborative. SIgns of a Healthy Market There’s no wrong way to run the game so long as the group creates some kind of pleasurable experience. But the game was designed with a certain experience in mind for both the players and their Market. Here are few indicators for the Market to check that the rules are working as intended. Fast PreparatIon Red Markets seeks to streamline a lot of the front-end work required to design an RPG scenario and automate the rest of it. Each Contract creates a story using seven modular components that, written together, don’t need more than 1000 words. These elements remain in control of the Market, but there are also tools in this chapter for randomly generating Contracts, either for improvisational play or as writing prompts. This allows Markets to write multiple scenarios in the same amount of time it takes to prepare a single game session for many other RPG systems. Players are given

357 Will are both vital to a character’s survival. Planning out dramatic scenes beforehand is further incentivized by the Interlude mechanic (see p. 446) which exchanges the unpredictable dangers of a Loss encounter for the unpredictable emotional toll of human interaction. Fleshing out a Taker dramatically can mechanically assist the physical survival of the whole group. Finally, player-designed Scores (see p. 394) require the group to exert a lot of creative effort building up the setting. Because of this, Scores can be some of the most lucrative jobs possible, free as they are from the compromises of negotiation. Thinking about the enclave, the surrounding area, and the Loss as a whole inbetween game sessions creates financial rewards for the characters, in addition to the satisfaction any player feels when contributing to the narrative. Red Markets wants to reward players that think about their characters in their offhours. It wants to reward them explicitly, using as many incentives as possible. If people arrive to game night prepared, suggesting lots of Scores and scenes, the game is working as intended. Fast Play By minimizing preparation for the GM and rewarding player engagement, the final result should be a game that steadily progresses forward. The one-and-done rule, Scam system, and player-facing checks in combat reduce chances for player dithering and mathematical distractions. Dramatically, scenes that lose focus can be steered towards clear mechanical goals such as regaining Humanity or fulfilling an Interlude prompt. Whether the unit is Legs, charges, Shamble, or Haul, the game’s measurements are defined by their narrative economy rather than their physical quantities, and each term’s effect on the characters is clear. An optimal game should start quickly, provide frequent creative opportunities for the players, and progress quickly towards the Contract’s goal. In short, healthy Markets choose to put a lot of preparation work into building a session of Red Markets only because that’s their preferred style of play. The game’s engine is working well when players get equally satisfying experiences through collaboration with the book and each other. contInuous Engagement Red Markets is meant for the table, but it also seeks to utilize the RPG’s potential for closet drama. Many people read RPG texts for pure enjoyment due to a lack of a gaming group or time to play. Even outside a game, there is much pleasure to be had merely thinking about playing the game. Planning what gear to buy or developing subplots for one’s character has whiled away many a boring hour. The gear list is posted for free online, available for players to browse even if they don’t have a copy of the main text. Furthermore, the No Budget; No Buy variant (see p. 228) rewards players that tinker with their character sheet before the next session of the campaign starts. If you didn’t budget for it, you can’t buy it...at least not without causing a lot of anxiety. These systems encourage players to do their homework, minimal though it may be. Though about materialism, Red Markets wants to sacrifice the minimum amount of playtime possible to imagined materials, so players are rewarded for coming to each session with a plan about how to best equip their characters. More important than the logistics of the crew are the personalities that make it up. Every session of campaign play begins with a series of vignettes dealing with the Taker’s life in the enclave. Players do best imagining guiding questions for the vignettes, new wrinkles to add to Dependents they may be playing, and scene ideas for their characters. Without these vignettes, characters take expensive hits to Humanity. Equally powerful is the exploitation of spots. Knowing ways to play an NPC client or complicate the life of a PC for some extra

358 are involved, Takers are compensated for retrieval rather than the items themselves. In game terms, Contracts are plot hooks devised by the Market and presented for players to choose from. Equilibrium: Roll Black and Red. Separately, the numbers describe the price of a good or service in the Red Markets world on a Supply/Demand chart. Add the numbers together. That’s the starting price when negotiating a Contract for services, or the price per unit when planning a Score. Job: the general term for a play session. Regardless of goods or services, the players get together on game night to put their characters through a job. Job Line: a string of jobs offered by a single client. Together, they develop an episodic story that forms a major plot thread in extended play and affects the setting. See “Long-term Investments” (p. 406) for an explanation of job lines. Job Creator The stories of lives are shaped by the material circumstances that surround them. The Market generates those circumstances. The demands of the Carrion Economy remain constant, so the components of each adventure written for Red Markets have been standardized. This section defines the elements of a game session and provides tools for generating their content. For the sake of clarity, let’s nail down a few terms essential for any Market’s vocabulary. Client: any NPC character offering to pay a crew of Takers to perform a task. Clients are unique as NPCs because they are statted out with spots. Contract: a game session in which the characters have agreed to perform a task for a client in exchange for a negotiated price. In economic terms, Contracts fall into the services category. Even where goods or assets

359 a play session. This standardization eases preparation, streamlines pre-generated scenarios, and establishes a procedure for when groups decide to design jobs collaboratively. But don’t mistake workplace essentials for a full-blown prescription. Markets are encouraged to fill in each section as creatively as they wish. If you have to treat it like dogma, think of the essentials like jazz changes; the standard chords change in a set order and time, but there’s still a lot of room for improvisation. What’s presented here should be considered the most useful tools for making a compelling one-shot job, components that fit well into any session of Red Markets. Markets with a grasp of the essentials can move on to “Contracts” (see p. 379) for some inspiration. For information on player-designed jobs, check out “Scores” (see p. 394). For campaign play, check out “Long-term Investments” (see p. 406). Finally, experienced Markets looking to add additional complexity to their games should check out the “MBA Rules” (see p. 424). EssentIals At-a-Glance Think of the essentials as a list of questions. You write enough answers to come up with a job’s premise and then the whole group plays through to discover the rest. 1. Goods and/or Services How are the Takers going to be paid? If they are securing goods to sell — either to a wholesaler or through their own business — that’s a Score (see p. 394). Scores are collaboratively designed scenarios made by the group and the Market. The group is paid in the equilibrium price per unit. If the Takers are performing a service for a client, that’s a Contract (see p. 379). Even if goods are involved (such as retrieving something for the client), anything involving services counts as a Contract. Takers bid for Contracts and get paid according to the best price they can negotiate with the client. Market Forces: any NPC violently opposing the PCs whose actions are dictated by the Market. Score: a game session largely planned by the players in which the Takers fight to secure some asset or goods to trade with a buyer. In economic terms, Scores focus on goods. The price of the Score is determined by supply/ demand equilibrium, liquidity, and the PCs ability to manipulate the economy. In game terms, Scores are planned collaboratively and skip the negotiation requirement in favor of offloading goods to a wholesaler. The Golden Rule Risk = Reward. A more expensive job should have more cagey Clients, more bloodthirsty competition, more travel time, more casualties, and more unpredictable complications. Takers that return from the Loss uninjured should be hurting in their wallets and toxic to their Dependents. Those that come back broken, bleeding, and sobbing should be rich. There can be exceptions: crews can get lucky or get screwed. But, generally, big money should mean big problems. When in doubt, assess what the Takers are doing. If it provides a reward, ensure they are risking something to earn it. If the characters are already risking something, how can the Market quantify a reward for their actions, either financially or emotionally? If neither is true, offer something the Takers want, but lock it behind a risky situation. No matter what part of a job you’re in, keep the risk = reward rule in mind and the game stays on track. Workplace EssentIals In a game of economic horror, the workplace essentials cover the moments players need if their characters are going to be challenged and defined by the setting. Since the essentials are so important to the gameplay experience, they are defined here in the order in which they typically occur during

360 7. Complications Something goes wrong. In the Loss, something always goes wrong. If disaster weren’t inevitable, everybody would be a Taker. So what unpredictable obstacle arises, how can the crew overcome it, and how does that make them cooler, tougher, or smarter than the average survivor? Goods/ServIces A Market’s first task when writing up a job is to define what earns the Takers’ compensation. Are they selling a good, or performing a service? Contracts: Adventure Is a ServIce If the Market presents a plot hook and the PCs accept, it falls into the services category. All services in Red Markets are classified as Contracts, even when they intersect with goods. As a general rule, if the Market had a big role in shaping a job, it automatically becomes a Contract. Only player-designed jobs focus on goods, and those are called Scores. The reason the Market deals exclusively in service jobs is because, by the very nature of presenting a plot hook in character, they are joining the traditionally service-based economy of most RPG plot hooks. Quest, task, and hero’s journey archetypes fit the model inherently: go DO this thing for me. Think about it. It’s rare for a group of Dungeons and Dragons adventurers to dive into a crypt just to see what they can loot. More often than not, they are sent at the behest of guild masters, princesses, or mysterious old men lurking in taverns. These sword-and-sorcery types perform a service for the community by clearing out the local monster infestations, and they are compensated with salvage rights to whatever they find along the way. The service is the point; the goods are a perk. That’s a Contract. To use a more contemporary example, many cyberpunk RPGs might seem like a goods-based economy because the PCs are selling stolen data and items. But the typical 1A. Equilibrium Roll 2d10 and add the numbers together for equilibrium prices. The result is the starting price in negotiations for Contracts and the bounty-per-unit price for Scores. The Market consults the Supply/Demand chart to explain the economic situation that resulted in the equilibrium. 2. Economy Describe the enclave, settlement, or community in the Recession where the job is offered. How is the population governed? How do their laws and customs affect trade? What other operations in the area compete or cooperate with them? 3. Client Clients are NPCs that offer Contracts (see “Negotiations” p. 359). What do they need done, and why can’t they do it themselves? Clients are statted out with weak, soft, and tough spots to be exploited in negotiation. They might also carry a gift spot to sweeten deals. 4. Competition Who else is in town looking for work? What’s the crew’s name and specialty? Are they local or passing through? Friendly, professional, or hostile? The bigger the job, the fiercer the competition. The only exception is job lines, which are initially offered as no-competition bids. 5. Travel Time How many legs of travel does it take to reach the job site? The number of legs determines the number of encounters the Market designs or rolls on an encounters table. 6. The Site Where does the job take place? Why hasn’t the place been looted yet? What task needs to be completed there? How does the place make the job more interesting and difficult? What happened at the job site during the Crash, and what has happened in the years since?

361 Contracts are all about doing. Scores are all about having. Markets should make sure players express exactly what they want to sell, where they are going to get it, and to whom they are going to sell it. Example Goods/ServIces WrIte-up Megan wants to design a new job for her group. Since Megan is designing it, she knows she’s making a Contract: the players have to DO something in order to get paid by an NPC client. If they don’t like the price, they can bid for one of the other Contracts Megan designed for that session or create a Score of their own. After some thought, Megan decides that slingshots would be in pretty high demand in the Loss. They can accelerate projectiles fast enough to crack skulls and ammo is as plentiful as gravel. Salvaged wood or metal of any type could make tongs and handles, so they’d be easy to mass-produce. As a means of clearing casualties off the fences, they’d allow enclavists to keep their distance and turn the horrifying task into a game of marksmanship. The problem, she decides, would be finding enough high-quality rubber to make the slings. But that’s what Takers are for! Here’s what she writes to prep for the game session: “Menace, the Loss’s foremost manufacturer of high-end slingshots, is having supply problems. His rubber has gone cracked and dry, slowing production to a halt. Menace knew this day would come — through extensive research, he’s discovered a manufacturer of baby toys that once existed in the area: First Joys Inc. Before the Crash, the company was the biggest producer of pre-K accessories in the United States, capable of producing thousands of pacifiers, teething rings, and bottle nipples per minute. First Joys Inc. likely had enough rubber on site to supply his business until the T-minus Never, but there’s no way Menace is going to risk getting himself killed hauling it back to the enclave. He’s looking for Takers to solve his problems before his business goes bust.” structure of such games has the group tasked to steal something by a fixer at the beginning of each adventure. The group can’t sell any goods because they retain no ownership of any goods and produce nothing. Economically, the fixer is the one stealing something, but he’s subcontracting the theft to a third party. That’s a service, and it’s the service that defines those games’ characters. So, as a Market, express the job in terms of what they need to DO in order to get paid. The task might be no more than picking something up and hauling it back, but the task is what receives payment. For jobs based around goods, let the players plan a Score. Scores: Be Your Own Boss Cooking homemade pies, running your own clothing line, blacksmithing — productive, goods-based small businesses form the beating heart of most economies. They would also be dull as hell to play through. The Loss’s production and manufacturing operations might be dramatically interesting, but they lack the frightening action that makes a game of economic horror. Nobody wants to play through the day-to-day drudgery of customer service or assembly lines. Thankfully, the carrion economy allows players the same opportunity for creative expression small business owners experience without bringing all that tedious work to the game table. Whereas some goods in Red Markets are produced, most are recovered. If Takers can secure salvaged goods that meet a community demand, they stand to make profit without an NPC client playing middleman. When players want to sell goods directly to customers, they need to design a Score. Unlike Contracts, it’s not for the Market to tell them what the community needs and wants. The PCs must be sharp enough to spot opportunity, bold enough to meet it, and creative enough to survive. Those groups that want to be their own boss should design Scores instead of bidding for Contracts.

362 but the carrion economy is a post-rational economy. Price is determined randomly, but the supply/demand curve creates a narrative situation PCs must manipulate to alter that price. In Red Markets, economics charts serve as plot hooks rather than complex mathematical predictions. To determine an equilibrium price, the Market should do the following. 1. Roll the Black and Red. 2. Black equals Demand. Red equals Supply. 3. Add the two numbers together. This is the equilibrium price (in bounty) for the good/ service. It’s either the starting price for negotiations (Contract) or the bounty-perhaul of a good (Scores). 4. If the characters made a successful Research check to learn the equilibrium, tell them. If not, write a note in case the crew bids for that job. 5. Consult the supply/demand chart. The intersection of Black and Red determines the narrative situation required to manipulate the equilibrium price. EquIlIbrIum Every good and service has an equilibrium: the price people are willing to pay. In the real world, equilibrium is determined by a “Supply/Demand Curve.” Demand determines the price. Increase supply and demand drops. Increase demand and supply decreases. This is the most fundamental principle in economics. In its infancy, most economists assumed human beings were rational actors that always pursued their best interests. However, history and a litany of other economists teach us that rationality fails to model a lot of markets. The sub-discipline of Behavioral Economics deals with the irrational and surprising ways in which humans actually behave in markets. Branding, marketing, governmental regulation, and cultural bias conspire to move prices away from supply/ demand equilibrium. It would be more accurate to say that prices hinge upon perceived supply and demand. Artificial scarcity and inflated demand mean high supply/high demand goods are possible. So what does this mean for Red Markets? It means Markets don’t have to mess with any forecasting or complex math. Mathematically, supply/demand should limit each other, Economists have a singular method of procedure. There are only two kinds of institutions of them, artificial and natural. The institutions of feudalism are artificial institutions, those of the bourgeoisie are natural institutions. In this, they resemble the theologians, who likewise establish two kinds of religion. Every relation which is not theirs is an invention of men, while their own is an emanation from God. -Karl Marx

363 price gouging for goods as essential as water is frowned upon by the collectivist culture of the survivors. The enclave’s government could have even fixed the price of water with legislation. Whatever the explanation, some reasoning as to why value remains low gives the players an idea on how to manipulate the situation. Since it requires a lot of work to inflate demand for subsidiary commodities, Markets should consider compensating groups taking low equilibrium jobs by eliminating the competition. After all, who would want to risk trouble for so little pay off? For Takers: Scams to raise equilibrium out of subsidiary range are simple: increase demand by anticipating an increase in demand. This is called speculation. If the consumers can be convinced that, at some point in the future, the good or service will be valued far higher than it is now, they will pay in an attempt to get a deal. Use greed and a fear of missing out to get people to buy something they don’t need. The speculators increase demand by buying cheap, decreasing supply, and creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. So, for instance, comic books aren’t worth much to the Loss, but citizens in the Recession will pay big for recovered masterpieces once the reclamation starts. Persuasion, Profession: Advertisement, Deception, Criminality — any number of skills The chart summarizes each condition, but what do those numbers really mean? How does the Market turn two random numbers into a setting and story? How do Takers exploit those conditions for greater profit? SubsIdIary Subsidiary goods aren’t kept in supply because there is so little demand. Subsidiary services have few or no providers because of narrow profit margins. A lot of things became superfluous in the wake of the Crash; subsidiary markets exist for commodities hovering just above the line of totally useless. The key to working a job in the subsidiary range is increasing demand... or at least anticipating it. For Markets: The most important thing to provide when a good or service lies in the subsidiary range is an explanation. Why is this job valued so low? Often, the reasons are obvious: vintage comic book collections, for instance, don’t have a lot of use in the apocalypse beyond kindling. Other explanations might require more creativity. What if a Score to secure drinking water rolls a B1/R1 equilibrium? How can the enclave offer such low prices when such a vital resource is about to run dry? Well, maybe the rainy season is coming and the public anticipates a surplus. Or perhaps

364 Flooding the market even more can work as well, at least in the short term. Scores that secure massive quantities of goods can be dumped on the enclave all at once in hopes economies of scale make the narrow margins worthwhile. However, flooding an already flooded commodity runs the risk of causing a crash and pissing off the many competitors in the field. Since repercussions are likely in such instances, it might be better to sabotage competition outright, thus decreasing supply and increasing demand. Though difficult to pull off, a Scam that creates artificial scarcity is the most sustainable. Keeping stockpiles of goods hidden can artificially inflate equilibrium, but schemes like these require a lot of trust and cooperation amongst competitors. Scarce The platonic ideal of economic opportunity is scarcity. Hard-to-obtain goods and services can be sold for a significant mark up until demand is met. Exploiting scarce markets requires speed and liquidity. Every second spent meeting demand drives prices down and risks a flooded market. It’s often better to off-load wholesale rather than selling slowly and sacrificing the equilibrium. For services, limited time offers work well to maintain a healthy margin, but expect competition the second stories of success spread. In situations where scarcity is common — such as the need for timber in a desert — really smart Takers do their best to establish stable monopolies. For Markets: Much like the flooded category builds setting through surplus, enclaves are also defined by what they need. No one is a master of every skill, and no single community can support all the needs of all its people. Scarcity defines an enclave’s imports, critiques its leaders, and implies the surrounding geography. What does the community need, and why can’t they provide it themselves? An enclave in need of energy might be located in a colder climate where the cost of heating the enclave is a constant drain on resources. A well-defended ammunition could be used to create an artificial demand for otherwise useless items. Alternately, Takers can anticipate scarcity for goods with a high use value. If you hack into the enclave’s e-copy of the Farmer’s Almanac and change the predictions to drought, the price of water might skyrocket a week before record-setting rains. flooded Flooded goods and services were in high demand before everyone tried to get rich quick. Now, the economy carries too much surplus for profits to remain high. Pricing remains highly competitive, dropping constantly as businesses try to snag jaded customers. Dealing with flooded commodities requires dealing in large quantities, driving out competition, or moving into a new enclave suffering from deflated supply. For Markets: Flooded goods and services make for a golden opportunity to define the character of an enclave. Surplus goods are typically the first to be exported. The price of seafood in a fishing village is next to nothing, but the same fish would be worth a lot in the deserts of Utah. Similarly, mastered skill sets become the services for which a community is known. The mechanics at the garage don’t make much working on each other’s cars, but the one desperate amateur that comes for help can fund operations for months. Be it fishing villages or garages, places are defined by their surpluses and specializations. So, in the instance of the flooded equilibrium, what does this surplus say about the enclave the PCs are working in? Did the community come into a recent windfall, or have they always been known for this specific excess? Answering these questions for the players is essential not only for Scams, but as a way of immersing the group in the setting. For Takers: Increasing the profitability of flooded economies can be as easy as finding another buyer. Export excess and beat the enclave’s low prices. For services, use Ubiq to contract with enclaves lacking groups with the proper expertise.

365 the Loss, but everything becomes a matter of timing. The market must eventually correct itself, adding competition and reducing prices rationally. In the worst case, the bubble doesn’t so much deflate as it explodes, causing a crash large enough to destroy entire enclaves. Getting rich quick means getting out before it’s too late. For Markets: There are only two situations that explain volatility in an enclave: monopoly and speculation. Neither is sustainable long term, but both make for fantastic story conflicts. In the case of monopoly, the only way to keep prices high without scarcity is to control the entirety of the supply. This means that, before the PC Takers arrived, somebody has already sewn up all goods and services within that area. There’s no way someone else hasn’t already tried to get at those sweet profits, which means that the cartel has some means of enforcing their claim. Any group of Takers trying to horn in on volatile profits has just asked the Market to create a new antagonist for them. factory might be so specialized it possesses no means of growing its own food. Whatever the scarcity, it says something about the enclave that suffers from it, and the PCs become that much better defined through their unique ability to provide for that need. For Takers: With low-supply/high-demand goods and services, the negative impact of competitors can’t be overstated. Lost customers take a significant chunk of profit with them. Any Scams Takers can undertake to steal the other guy’s base have the potential for major gains. Just don’t expect success to last long. Nobody in the Loss can afford to ignore opportunity, and the get-rich-quick schemers fill any vacuum quickly. For every competitor eliminated, expect two more to take its place. Monopolies fix the problem of competition, but the resentment of driving others out of business magnifies ten-fold when Takers exert the kind of force necessary to drive everyone out of the game. The risk to safety may not be worth the amazing gains of a sole provider position. The most profitable Scam in the shortterm is provoking the enclave into a scare. Anticipating an even greater scarcity to come for a high-demand good or service can provoke a glut of spending. However, this is always followed by a much longer period of hoarding and economic depression — hard times a crew could be blamed for if their manipulations become common knowledge. Takers should think long and hard before inciting a scare; such scorched-earth economic maneuvers won’t win them many friends. VolatIle A volatile equilibrium lives the impossible dream: a high-demand price with deep reserves of supply. For some reason, the situation has momentarily escaped economic law. People are buying, and no matter how much they consume, prices remain the high. Takers that can exploit volatile goods or services are well on their way to escaping

366 Example EquIlIbrIum Megan can wait to set the equilibrium for her job until right before negotiations start, but she doesn’t like to improv much and would prefer some time to think about how to describe the situation to her players. Megan decides to determine the equilibrium early and record it in her notes. Megan rolls B10/R5. That means negotiations with Menace start with 15 bounty on the At Value box of the Sway tracker (see p. 487). On the supply/demand chart, that puts retrieval jobs at the cusp between Scarce and Volatile. Megan figures that means retrieval of raw materials was once a rare and dearly priced service, but now the word is out. Other Taker outfits want in on the huge profits retrieval crews have been raking in. The retrieval economy is tipping towards speculation and a possible crash. If Megan’s players want to Scam the equilibrium price higher, they’ll need to scare off the amateur Takers looking to horn in on their business. Or they could slander them, marketing their own crew’s experience. What Megan actually ends up writing in her notes is “B10/R5. 15 bounty At Cost. Barely Scarce. Discourage competition to raise.” Economy If there is a god cruel enough to rule the Loss, his name is capitalism. But though the apocalypse has allowed for forgotten heights of exploitation, it has also reintroduced Though it may seem safer, the thugs and threats of a monopoly are actually preferable to wild speculation. If everyone in the enclave is getting in on the action, it means massive scarcities or increases in demand have been predicted. In such instances, there’s no outcome that doesn’t end in economic disaster. Does the predicted scarcity happen? Now everyone is hoarding their goods, leading to a recession. Does the predicted scarcity never arrive? The exact same situation occurs, only now because there isn’t enough demand. And what if increased demand doesn’t meet expectations? The real-estate crisis, the tech bubble, beanie baby collection — history is littered with micro-economies destroyed by such speculation. Markets that roll high equilibrium need to answer a few questions: what caused this economic anomaly, how bad is going to get when the market corrects itself, and will the PCs be able to escape the blowback? For Takers: Working in volatile goods and services means deciding where to take the hit. Do you want the pain now or later? If the answer is the latter, run Scams that utilize the resentment the populace likely feels towards their economic captors. For instance, let’s say the local enclave is run by a cartel that controls all the available drinking water. Everybody hates the Water Barons, so they’ll be happy to keep their mouths shut if your group starts selling jugs for a discount on the edge of town. But no matter how secretive the populace might be, word is going to get out once profits start to drop. Expect retaliation. In fact, retaliation is so certain as to suggest a pre-emptive strike. Why wait for the Water Barons to counter-attack when the Takers could kill them and take over the racket? As before, blood will spill... it’s just a matter of who strikes first. If there’s no monopoly to break up, speed is the key. Run Scams to reinforce the prediction of coming scarcity or demand. Whip speculators into a fervor and try to cash out before the inevitable crash. Confused Players Maybe your group wants to manipulate equilibrium but is stumped for ideas. Rather than let them languish in confusion, Markets can ask for Foresight checks. After all, the characters have had five years to learn the ropes; their understanding of enclave economics is going to be superior to the players’. Success provides some strategic information on how to manipulate the price using a Scam.

367 regulatory system that favors the government over the individual, but citizens still choose their employment, set their own prices for the majority of goods, and compete amongst each other in markets where the state hasn’t established a legal monopoly. When China compels economic inputs from the populace, it is with the force of law and serves as a defining characteristic of their communism. So, for instance, if the state desires to flood your town to build a dam, it can legally compel the “sale” of the land through censure and use of force. The United States, in contrast, has a much more lax regulatory system, but people still pay income tax, insider trading is still illegal, and toxic waste dumps can’t be built next to preschools. These regulations limit capitalist enterprise and, therefore, aren’t capitalistic. When the United States wants to compel economic inputs from the populace, the law is not always on the side of the state and protections exist that favor the individual. However, as history has shown, just because compelling the private citizen isn’t as easy as it is in China, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen all the time in the US. If Uncle Sam wants to flood your town to build a dam, it can bankrupt you with decades of court cases, rezone your home until it’s an unlivable hellhole, buy your debt just to “renegotiate” your collection terms, or claim eminent domain to purchase the land for pennies on the acre. Pure capitalism, or laissez-faire capitalism, is as rare as totally controlled systems, largely because both economies tend to destroy themselves once they reach a certain scale. Most long-term, functioning economies are mixed. Whether these mixed economies should lean further towards free markets or planned economies is the origin of almost all political doctrine. LaIssez-faIre Laissez-faire, or “let it be,” is the argument that economic forces should be free of all governmental interference and only governed diversity. There are numerous flavors of capitalism adopted by different communities, and each can have a major effect on how jobs are bid and prices set. Furthermore, the isolation and autonomy of certain enclaves allow for experimental economies completely divorced from the capitalist model. Takers face a whole new set of challenges when dealing with these alien systems. The mechanics of Red Markets are based solely on a desperate form of disaster capitalism, so the effect of different economies on the game remains purely narrative. But this doesn’t mean describing the material philosophy of an enclave should go ignored. Defining the economic landscape is one of the best tools a Market has to get players invested in the setting. What follows are brief definitions of macroeconomic types an enclave’s economy can be based on. MIxed Chances are you are living in a mixed economy. Mixed economies are fundamentally capitalistic, but they rein in the chaos of a completely free market with anti-capitalist regulations. Whether a government lies on the less or more side of the regulatory spectrum defines the majority of all existing political entities. Though Americans typically refer to modern China as a communist country, in truth they utilize a mixed economy just like the USA. China’s “communism” is a differing Economy in Extended Play Markets running extended campaigns only have to answer the economy question once. Fleshing out an enclave covers all the necessary material and more. Since campaigns are based around the Takers’ home enclave, the economy only changes if PCs take the show on the road or migrate.

368 and present-day North Korea use absurd vocational reassignment to kill all economic specialization, retarding growth by forcing trained doctors to harvest crops and similar nonsense. This is not to say that all communism or socialism is monstrous. No mixed economy system provides for all its citizens equally. In every capitalist system, there exist exploited, disenfranchised, and oppressed populations, and more humane regulation is essential for justice. Furthermore, the degree to which it is even possible to “control” an economy is a matter of contention, as even the most totalitarian of regimes develops extensive, anarchocapitalist black markets. Like laissez-faire, the exact moment when government regulation tips into too much regulation is a matter of political debate beyond the scope of this game. If Takers are dealing with perfectly rational cultural Marxists, describe the economy as mixed with a socialist bent. But if Takers are dealing with dictators or corporate-controlled dystopias, use controlled economy in the pejorative sense. It’s more interesting to play against an entirely antagonistic economy, and the potential to profit off its inevitable black market rewards players for the added risk. Other For extreme deviations from mixed economy capitalism without negative connotations, refer to those systems with their own names. Markets hurting for idea can find examples of experimental economies detailed in “Contract Generator” (see p. 379). Whether using an economy from the book or designing one’s own, Markets should remember that the mechanics of Red Markets are steeped in capitalist ideology. As such, dealing with experimental enclaves should add a step of translation to the narrative. For instance, if the town of Pelt only has a barter system, the players face the additional challenge of turning their fees into a list of easy-to-fence goods. Conversely, a town of Odoists completely divorced by Market forces. Taken to its extreme, this takes the form of anarchocapitalism: economic systems ruled solely by individual self-interest and assuming what Smith called “spontaneous order.” A more generous term used to describe these economies is “market economies.” Some would say that modern-day Somalia and the historical Wild West are examples of anarchocapitalism in action, but both are straw man arguments. Nothing about the chaos in Somalia is intentional. It’s a failed state, not a hands-off state ethos. Similarly, the Wild West’s lawlessness came from it being an unincorporated territory. The “wildness” came from a failure of policy enforcement rather than a policy of noninterference. As manifest destiny progressed, the regulatory powers of the United States were implemented with violent and terrifying force, especially if you happened to be Native American. The ethics of laissez-faire capitalism have been under critique since the term was coined, and the degree to which a state can exist at all while still claiming a laissez-faire economy is a source of constant debate in libertarian circles. For the purposes of Red Markets, laissez-faire refers to the ideological extreme, if only because it makes for more dramatic games. If the Takers are dealing with well-meaning libertarians, describe their enclave as a mixed economy with an independent bent. But if the Takers are dealing with lawless, might-makes-right postapocalyptic gangsters, call it laissez-faire. The dangers of such economies are obvious, but profit comes easy for those ruthless enough to seize it. Controlled A controlled economy monopolizes all forms of production and capital for the state. The government dictates even the most basic aspects of labor. Feudalism enforced these rules through rigid caste systems and ironclad codes of inheritance. Communist disasters such as Mao’s Cultural Revolution

369 Example Economy WrIte-up Megan is running a one-shot, so she’ll need a short description of the enclave she wants to locate her Contracts in. She decides that since Menace needs industrial quantities of rubber, his slingshot operation is probably fairly large. Specialized manufacturing implies deep specialization, so that means this enclave has to have some system in place to feed itself while some people spend all day making improvised weaponry. After some thought, she writes up the following. “Menace operates out of ‘Home.’ Once a national distribution center for a major hardware store, survivors have painted over the remainder of the defunct company’s name and turned the warehouse complex into a thriving industrial enclave. Using the wealth of tools and materials on-site, Home specialized in manufacturing, machinery, and construction services. The lumberyards (their content long since burned or used from the idea of possession requires an extra set of negotiations before they’ll even agree to compensate the Takers at all, not to mention how much. Unless they want to move there and retire, Takers working inside experimental systems can only expect more obstacles standing in the way of their bounty. Nothing frees them from the ruthless demands of the carrion economy. The nightmare of a Taker is living through the world’s end and watching capitalism carry on without it. If they somehow escape the cycle of scarcity, the game can still be good... it just can’t be Red Markets. If the players want to start the revolution and build the worker’s utopia, good for them! But the charge system isn’t going to make much sense after that, nor Buy-a-Roll, nor any other mechanic for a game about economic horror. Make the triumph of the proletariat a retirement goal; this game is for the grinding struggle against poverty necessary to get there.

370 weapon or army. They’re movers and shakers destined to come out on top of any deal, unless Takers figure out how to turn their egos against them. Markets can dedicate however much effort they want into describing a client, but all that’s really needed to get the game rolling are the spots. NPC spots differ slightly from PC spots because their uses are limited to negotiations, but each descriptor covers roughly the same information. • Weak Spot: a pervasive character flaw or blind spot that can be used to provoke a reaction. • Soft Spot: a point of sympathy or positive bias that can be exploited to manipulate behavior. • Tough Spot: instead of an explanation for the character’s survival (unlike PCs), a client’s tough spot represents a certain demand for the Contract under bid. What makes this job something the client can’t do personally? Why do they need specialists instead of regular employees? Finally, clients get one more spot that no PC has: the Gift. • Gift: particularly wealthy clients can afford to give away pieces of useful equipment to their contractors as a means of gaining extra Sway in negotiations. Example ClIent WrIte-up Megan writes the following description of Menace. “Menace grew up in a rural area with a gunnut for a father. He hated the damn things: loud, smelly, and dangerous. This disappointed the old man and his redneck friends to no end. The only thing Menace ever found to alleviate the mark on his character was other forms of marksmanship. Leave the shotguns and rifles to everybody else; if you wanted someone to teach you how to bow-hunt or throw a tomahawk, you went to Menace. in fortifications) have been converted into farmland to support the populace. However, the acreage inside the fence is barely enough to sustain the population and requires constant care. Home is a mixed economy whose major regulation is a variable labor tax on all full-time residents. Anyone wanting to stay in the enclave must devote 60 hours a week to the care of its agriculture, fortifications, and cleanliness. Other means of economic production are encouraged by the option to buy off portions of the labor tax with bounty. Enterprises that attract enough trade to Home reward their owners by buying off time tending the fields. Though good for the enclave’s bottom line, the ability to buy off all responsibility for menial labor has led to a stark class divide. The only thing that keeps Home’s serfs-byanother-name from revolution is the mayor’s even-handed enforcement of policy: the second someone comes short on their bounty payments, they find themselves back digging dirt and taking out trash.” It should be noted that for any other Contracts Megan offers to the characters while they are at Home, she won’t have to rewrite the economy section. The macroeconomic situation won’t be changing on account of one job, and this description will remain accurate until the players move or something affects the enclave as a whole. ClIent(s) Contracts need clients offering to compensate the Takers for their services. These NPCs are more than a collection of hit points and weapons. Each client has enough disposable income to escape the Loss but, for some reason, does not. Perhaps they’re citizens and exploiting homo sacer as cheap labor. Maybe, like the Takers, responsibilities to their loved ones anchor them in hell. Or they could be ideologues, too proud or comfortable in their new lives to suffer the indignities of the cowardly Recession. Whatever the reason, clients possess outsized personalities with more power to shape the Loss than any

371 CompetItIon Aside from simulating a free market, NPC competition exists as a way to define the PC crew’s ethos. Are they untrustworthy profiteers, sabotaging others frequently, or out-and-out warlords that eliminate financial threats with a gun? Do they keep things professional, trusting their reputation to beat out the bargains offered by other desperate crews? Do they see all Takers as allies alienated only by circumstance, a guild of master craftsmen that fakes animosity to play the rubes in the crowd? How a group reacts to their competition does a lot to shape the enclave’s perception of Takers as well as generate + and -Rep spots. The amount of competition also gives the Market a tool for communicating a job’s difficulty; a Contract with multiple competing crews must pay big and, therefore, be quite dangerous. NPC competitors also give Negotiators an easy prompt for persuasive appeals — slandering the other guys is the world’s oldest form of advertisement. In addition, rival Takers with their own vivid A hobby became a survival skill during the Crash — suddenly weapons that didn’t need a reload seemed like a great business decision. The man’s hobby of absent-mindedly whittling slingshots turned into one of the more profitable businesses in all of Home.” Megan knows she doesn’t need to write that much, but she like to get into the heads of her characters. Now she has to think up some spots the PCs can use to push her client around in negotiations. She figures that, though successful, the slingshot mogul can’t afford to hand out gifts, so she skips that one. That leaves her with the following: “Weak Spot: Hit Your Mark” The discipline required to master archaic tools of marksmanship has left its mark on Menace. He has nothing but scorn for quitters and sloppy execution. If the Takers can make themselves seem like keen, precise professionals, he’ll be more likely to give them a good price. Alternately, they could paint the competition as spray-and-pray amateurs to achieve the same effect. “Soft Spot: Odd Ducks” Menace was a country kid that hated guns. He also prefers rap music to country. This didn’t stop him from wearing wranglers, attending rodeos, and fitting in other ways, but he’ll always have a soft spot in his heart for people that don’t quite fit the mold. Show Menace you’re a round peg in a square hole and he’ll be sympathetic. “Tough Spot: Farming is Beneath Me” Menace didn’t work so hard building his slingshot business just to have it go belly up and leave him a lowly field hand. Despite his humble beginnings, success in the Loss has left the man snobbish and soft. The rubber shortage has him backed into a corner, and playing on Menace’s desperation to maintain his station is good for extra Sway in negotiations. Skipping Clients Groups planning Scores don’t need clients; they need wholesalers. Hopefully, these wholesalers are interesting NPCs (hopefully, all NPCs are interesting), but they don’t negotiate. Profitable Scores are all about dealing in bulk, reaping the equilibrium price as much as possible. So, when a group plans a Score, they don’t need to stat out a client’s spot. Similarly, if the client has appeared before in campaign play, their spots don’t change much. One of the benefits of working a job line is knowing how to push the client’s buttons. The only things that change are the client’s tough and gift spot, depending on the specific requirements of the Contract. Like the economy element, extended play relieves the Market prepping a ton of a new material every session, meaning the group gets more jobs to choose from with the same amount GM work.

372 Boom Rule: Labor Shortage To make securing high-paying Contracts even easier, the Market can roll a 1d10 of any color. On an even number, the competition finds their own work and doesn’t pursue the PC’s chosen Contract at all. There’s more than enough work to go around, and players that do their Prep Work know they can focus Scams entirely on the client. On an odd number, the competition tries to undercut the job normally. Example CompetItIon WrIte-up Megan’s players are pretty new to Red Markets, so she doesn’t want to throw a ton of hostile competition at them yet. She decides that she’ll only have one other group competing for Contracts this session. She’ll make sure they’re professional and not a fringe group likely to respond with violence if they lose a job. Finally, since she’s hoping her players will like the game enough to request a full campaign, she plans to communicate some aspect of the Dakotas setting she has in mind. After giving it some thought, Megan writes her competition element: “Counting Casualties (CC’d, to their friends) is visiting Home looking for work. Operating out of Red Cloud, an enclave that arose from the local Lakota reservation, CC’d is run by a young woman named Wasuya. She’s renowned on LifeLines as one of the funniest Takers on the forums, and she’s been running a crew since the Crash came down. CC’d is perhaps the most likable crew in the whole Loss, if not the most profitable. They’re what’s referred to as a “non-profit outfit:” subsidized Takers that return 100% of their profits to the home enclave. The residents of Red Cloud have no desire to escape to the Recession or be converted into a Settlement — most had quite enough of the US government even before the Crash — and the proceeds of each Contract gets dedicated to improving the enclave’s infrastructure. Since they’re playing such a long game, Wasuya consistently puts the welfare of her crew above the demands of the job, walking personality can inspire negotiation tactics in those otherwise stumped. Finally, it’s important to provide competition to spread the work of negotiating prices around the group. While Scams offer everyone an opportunity to shine in the pricing of Contracts, intimidating, sabotaging, or eliminating competitors occupies characters that may prefer action to words in nonetheless vital business roles. Bust Rule: Competitive Market To make the game more difficult, the Market can roll a 1d10 of any color. On an even number, a Contract only has one competitor. On an odd number, the Contract has two different crews trying to get the job. If the Takers don’t do something to sabotage competition in their Scams, they might get undercut twice as the surplus of providers creates a bidding war. Alternately, the Market can say that only one rival crew is undercutting the price; the other one is trying to sabotage the PCs just like them. Add a complication and a few more die rolls to one Taker’s Scam as rival crew tries to discourage the PCs from taking the job. Competition in Extended Play As long as the PCs don’t murder everyone to prevent an undercut, competing NPCs can become recurring characters in any campaign, serving as professional acquaintances, frenemies, consistent annoyances, sworn enemies, or all of the above. Like the economy element, one write up for competition can serve for a whole campaign, and established NPCs can later be combined with new competition on particularly attractive Contracts. Furthermore, job lines offered by recurring clients don’t suffer from competition. The trade-off for the client knowing the Taker’s spots already is luring them in with a no-contest bid. This balances the negotiation mechanics to keep repeat business profitable and further relieves the Market of writing responsibilities.

373 with bounty just waiting to be salvaged, and commutes can sometimes pay more than the jobs they serve. No amount of preparation can predict whether a crew is destined to feast on the carrion economy or be consumed by it. So as not to require detailed maps and calculations of average land speeds, distance in Red Markets is calculated in Legs. Legs measure units of story rather than distance. Every Leg constitutes one encounter or Interlude scene, and it costs each Taker one charge of rations to continue the journey. Markets can dictate each Leg represents an hour of walking, the distance travelled between breakfast and lunch, or an entire day’s hike. Whatever distance is convenient for the story the Market is trying to tell, that’s measured in Legs. Markets remain entitled to create new Legs for any Score or Contract they run. See the “Loss Encounters” chapter for dramatic and procedural leg prompts as well as a d100 table of pre-generated encounters. Example Travel TIme WrIte-up Megan likes using the tables, and none of her players are familiar enough with the book to be bored by its encounters. She makes a short note that the job site is three legs away. During play, she’ll roll the Black and Red, read that entry from the encounter table, and run her players through the situation; no other preparation required. The SIte The site is where the Takers go to get the job done. The site is the core of any Contract or Score. The names of job sites get screamed as often during celebratory toasts as during night terrors. It’s the place where Takers triumph, profit, go mad, lose hope, and/or die. In Red Markets, the consumerist society we live in is the dungeon. The items people take for granted every day are treasures. The enemies are made up of scared people competing for the resources, fanatics gone mad from suffering, dystopian corporate and governmental agencies, and zombies. Threeaway from profitable Contracts on more than one occasion to protect her team. When they do complete a job, it’s always pleasant and professional, but their “nice guy” brand hurts the crew’s chances with nervous clients, losing them as many Contracts as it gains.” Since CC’d is looking for any work Home has to offer, they’ll serve as the competition for every other Contract on offer this session. Travel TIme Job sites rarely share the same location as the Takers. If they did, why hire anyone? Traveling to the necessary site is one of the greatest dangers Takers face. The Loss is brutal and unpredictable, plagued by wandering Casualties, severe weather, and unhinged survivors. But it’s also stuffed

374 C. For jobs where an exact map of the location is unnecessary, look up evocative photos to set the mood by searching terms like “ruin porn” and “urban exploring.” 3. Once a location has been found, create Taker copies and Market copies. For printouts, these are literally copies. If using electronics, Markets should annotate their copy on a personal device and have the default URL version be the Taker copy. 4. Markets should think about the following questions. Keep in mind, the answers likely intersect with or decide the job’s complication (see “Complications” p. 376). A. What happened to this place during the Crash and pull back to the Recession? How can the history be “written on the walls” of this space so it is available to the players? B. What here, besides the main element of the job, is of value to my players? Where is this value located? Mark this information on the Market copy. If the players would be able to discover it, indicate important locations on the Taker copy as well. C. Why hasn’t this location been stripped of its value before now? Was the opportunity concealed before this job? Overlooked? Is it protected by some danger only the players were brave enough to face, or have others tried before and failed? D. How does the map differ from the landscape? How would the archived information available on Ubiq about this place differ from the reality of it after five years in the Loss? In what ways could these unpredictable changes challenge and surprise players? Mark the surprises on the Market copy, and leave the players to discover them the hard way. E. During the game, reward paranoid and prepared PCs with Taker copies. Allow and reward rational plans that exploit the terrain. But there are things out-of-four times, antagonistic settings can be adapted directly from the news. Markets can invest as little or as much effort as they choose into world-building the job site. One GM might invent a new state, fictional country, and alternate timeline for their setting, rebuilding the “History of the Crash” section from the ground up. An equally good game could be run from plot hooks as written in “History of the Crash” and “The Loss.” But even that much effort isn’t required. Designing a job for Red Markets is as easy as turning your hometown into a zombie playground. Nursing homes, mega-churches, university recreation centers — all provide complex challenges to the players, rewarding their planning and preparation while still hiding dangers around every corner. And none requires the Market to get out a ruler and grid paper. Preparations are as simple as printing off some blueprints from the internet. Of course, Markets should prepare for a game in whatever way makes them feel most comfortable, but the workplace essentials are about minimizing GM work so it’s possible to present players with an economy’s worth of adventures from which to choose. What follows are directions for the least laborintensive way to construct a job site and an example in action. DesIgnIng Job SItes 1. Think of a place that would house the good or service the Takers need (see “Goods/Services” p. 360). 2. Search the internet for appropriate buildings, structures, or neighborhoods. A. An impressive amount of blueprints and floor plans are available for free with a simple image search. B. Services such as Google Earth make entire real world neighborhoods available as maps for players to use in play. Groups that use tablets and other electronics at the table can keep constant track of where their players are at the job site, or printouts can be used.

375 It’s time to answer some vital questions about First Joys. Most complications that can occur during a job intersect with the job site, so Megan decides to figure out both elements at once. Here’s what she writes up: “First Joys Manufacturing Division was abandoned before the Crash and left untouched during the worst of the outbreak. As the government retreated and it became apparent people would be left on their own, a group of former employees gathered up survivors from surrounding towns, sourced supplies, and headed to the factory. The plan was to use the existing fencing and fortress-like modernist architecture to form an enclave ironically name Bounce. The plan worked initially. Scavenged food and medicine was rationed as the people worked to establish agriculture, and the industrial equipment left behind was being refurbished to provide some trade with the other enclaves popping up around the Loss. Everything was going fine until Bounce was infiltrated by a cult of The Meek a few months after the Recession. The believers worshipped the Blight as a divine salvation, viewing themselves as unworthy of the ascension and forced to ‘spread the gospel’ as penance. Members of the Meek intentionally infected the main housing center of Bounce, poisoning a stew with casualty flesh. No one survived the resulting tide of Vectors. Now, the once hopeful decorations and half-finished construction of the would-be enclave are only dusty ruins strewn across the factory floor, casualties of long-dead victims shambling aimlessly among the dead alleyways. On the plus side, there are numerous nonperishable goods available for salvage among the remains of Bounce, such as vehicles, tools, and ammunition. However, reaching the rubber supply and anything else of value requires descending into the undead-choked street of a dead shantytown. To make matters professional Takers can know (the Taker copy) and things no one could predict (the Market copy). Example SIte WrIte-up Megan likes architecture. She wants her rubber factory to be the famed modernist Brynmawr Rubber Factory. Though the building was really located in Wales, there’s no rule saying she can’t transplant the building to her setting in the Dakotas. She decides to rechristen the complex the First Joys Manufacturing Division and starts doing research. Megan already thought of the type of place her goods would be located at when she made the Contract. An infant toy manufacturer would have to have extensive injection-molded rubber and plastic equipment. At one time, the real world Brynmawr Rubber Factory was one of the largest rubber manufacturers in the world. Megan is in luck. As a major architectural milestone, there are numerous blueprints, floor plans, AND photos of the Brynmawr Factory available online. After identifying some basic maps to provide her players, she finds that a number of urban explorers have trespassed on the factory ground since its shutdown in the 80’s. The pictures of the dilapidated interior and abandoned machinery are unsettling and totally appropriate for an apocalypse. Megan prints a few of these photos to help establish a mood, noting where they were taken on the floor plan when possible. Megan’s group likes to keep it low-tech at the table, lest the dreaded phones make an appearance and steal everyone’s attention. She prints off a copy of the floor plan for every player and a couple of pages of photos to set the mood. If PCs make a Research check, she’ll give out the floor plan. If someone makes a Foresight check, she’ll let them know that the rubber is most likely located in Factory C. Beyond that, the rest of the notes go on the Market copy. Extreme remedies are very appropriate for extreme diseases. -Hippocrates

376 “The only living souls left at the plant sane enough to communicate coherently are Ma and Pa; this sickly older couple leads a group of three more Meek cultists left over from the initial fall of Bounce. If the Takers head directly into the warren of decaying tents and shanties to retrieve the rubber, they’ll raise all the ladders to the catwalks, call their fellow believers from their hiding place, and fire a sniper rifle from above. However, if the Takers head to the catwalks first, Ma and Pa introduce themselves civilly. They impersonate Shepherds instead of Meek, hoping to gain the characters’ trust by highlighting the reverence for casualties both faiths share. A Sensitivity check reveals something is off about the twitchy older couple. Takers that see the trap coming can interrogate the pair of psychos with CHA skills. If forced to talk and promised something in return (escape, the survival of their “babies,” etc.), they reveal that a service tunnel beneath the complex opens near some crates containing bars of raw rubber.” Completed Job WrIte-up What follows is everything Megan needs written down to run her job. The whole thing comes out to about 1000 words, plus a couple maps printed directly off the internet. If Megan wanted to create more jobs and give her players a list of options, the additional write-ups could recycle the economy and competition sections, requiring even less work to prepare. Everything else — be it casualty placements or encounters in the Loss — can be generated by the dice. worse, a few of the Meek survived the initial sabotage, staying behind to tend the flock. These madmen haunt the catwalks above the factory floor, hanging perverse totems made of scavenged children’s toys and throwing kidnapped travelers into the hungry mobs below.” ComplIcatIons There’s no single word in English for the paradoxically shocking, yet somehow reliable, sense of disappointment a crappy day at work can generate. We have to make do with Same Shit; Different Day. It’s a feeling everybody who has ever worked for pay can relate to, and in Red Markets, it’ll kill you. Things WILL go wrong. That’s the complication element. The complication is solely the purview of the Market. Even in player-designed Scores, the Market has to come up with the complication and spring it on the group. A good complication seems simultaneously obvious and impossible to predict, touching on every element of the job previously established without being obvious. It could be a secret the client was trying to hide, an unpredictable antagonist inhabiting the job site, or an act of god. Whatever complication the Market writes, the goal is to make the surviving PCs feel powerful and tough for overcoming it. Any fool with more balls than brains can make a buck in the Loss; overcoming unforeseen complications is what separates the amateurs from the real Takers. Example ComplIcatIon WrIte-up Obviously, the complication has to revolve around the believers and their victims in the forgotten enclave Bounce. Megan decides the Meek’s unique brand of ritualized serial murder probably doesn’t attract a lot of converts. It also suggests a pretty unhealthy lifestyle. She decides that only a few of the original saboteurs remain, but they’ve survived because of exceptional cunning and savagery. We shall some day catch an abstract truth by the tail, and then we shall have our religion and our immortality. -Henry Brooks Adams

377 Contract: Don't Bounce Back Goods/ServIces Menace, the Loss’s foremost manufacturer of high-end slingshots, is having supply problems. His rubber has gone cracked and dry, slowing production to a halt. Menace knew this day would come — through extensive research, he’s discovered a manufacturer of baby toys that once existed in the area: First Joys Inc. Before the Crash, the company was the biggest producer of pre-K accessories in the United States, capable of producing thousands of pacifiers, teething rings, and bottle nipples per minute. First Joys Inc. likely had enough rubber on site to supply his business until the T-minus Never, but there’s no way Menace is going to risk getting himself killed hauling it back to the enclave. He’s looking for Takers to solve his problems before his business goes bust. EquIlIbrIum R5/B10. 15 bounty At Cost. Barely Scarce. Discourage competition to raise. Economy Menace operates out of ‘Home.’ Once a national distribution center for a major home hardware store, survivors have painted over the remainder of the defunct company’s name and turned the warehouse complex into a thriving industrial enclave. Using the wealth of tools and materials on-site, Home specialized in manufacturing, machinery, and construction services. The lumberyards (their content long since burned or used in fortifications) have been converted into farmland to support the populace. However, the acreage inside the fence is barely enough to sustain the population and requires constant care. Home is a mixed economy that’s major regulation is a variable labor tax on all full-time residents. Anyone wanting to stay in the enclave must devote 60 hours a week to the care of its agriculture, fortifications, and cleanliness. Other means of economic production are encouraged by the option to buy off portions of the labor tax with bounty. Enterprises that attract enough trade to Home reward their owners by buying off time tending the fields. Though good for the enclave’s bottom line, the ability to buy off all responsibility for menial labor has led to a stark class divide. The only thing that keeps Home’s serfs-by-another-name from revolution is the mayor’s even-handed enforcement of policy: the second someone comes short on their bounty payments, they find themselves back digging dirt and taking out trash. ClIent Menace grew up in a rural area with a gun-nut for a father. He hated the damn things: loud, smelly, and dangerous. This disappointed the old man and his redneck friends to no end. The only thing Menace ever found to alleviate the mark on his character was other forms of marksmanship. Leave the shotguns and rifles to everybody else; if you wanted someone to teach you how to bow hunt or throw a tomahawk, you went to Menace. A hobby became a survival skill during the Crash — suddenly weapons that didn’t need a reload seemed like a great business decision. The man’s hobby of absentmindedly whittling slingshots turned into one of the more profitable businesses in all of Home. Weak spot: Hit Your Mark Soft spot: Odd Ducks Tough spot: Farming is Beneath Me CompetItIon Counting Casualties (CC’d, to their friends) is visiting Home looking for work. Operating out of Red Cloud, an enclave that arose from the local Lakota reservation, CC’d is run by a young woman named Wasuya. She’s renowned on LifeLines as one of the funniest Takers on the forums, and she’s been running a crew since the Crash came down. CC’d is perhaps the most likable crew in the whole Loss, if not the most profitable. They’re what’s referred to as a “non-profit outfit:” subsidized Takers that

378 return 100% of their profits to the home enclave. The residents of Red Cloud have no desire to escape to the Recession or be converted into a Settlement — most had quite enough of the US government even before the Crash — and the proceeds of each Contract gets dedicated to improving the enclave’s infrastructure. Since they’re playing such a long game, Wasuya consistently puts the welfare of her crew above the demands of the job, walking away from profitable Contracts on more than one occasion to protect her team. When they do complete a job, it’s always pleasant and professional, but their “nice guy” brand hurts the crew’s chances with nervous clients, losing them as many Contracts as it gains. Travel TIme 3 Legs (to be rolled on the encounters table) The SIte (Taker and Market copies of the Brynmawr Rubber Factory included) First Joys Manufacturing Division was abandoned before the Crash and left untouched during the worst of the outbreak. As the government retreated and it became apparent people would be left on their own, a group of former employees gathered up survivors from surrounding towns, sourced supplies, and headed to the factory. The plan was to use the existing fencing and fortresslike modernist architecture to form an enclave ironically name Bounce. The plan worked initially. Scavenged food and medicine was rationed as the people worked to establish agriculture, and the industrial equipment left behind was being refurbished to provide some trade with the other enclaves popping up around the Loss. Everything was going fine until Bounce was infiltrated by a cult of The Meek a few months after the Recession. The believers worshipped the Blight as a divine salvation, viewing themselves as unworthy of the ascension and forced to ‘spread the gospel’ as penance. Members of the Meek intentionally infected the main housing center of Bounce, poisoning a stew with Casualty flesh. No one survived the resulting tide of Vectors. Now, the once hopeful decorations and half-finished construction of the would-be enclave are only dusty ruins strewn across the factory floor, casualties of long-dead victims shambling aimlessly among the dead alleyways. On the plus side, there are numerous non-perishable goods available for salvage among the remains of Bounce, such as vehicles, tools, and ammunition. However, reaching the rubber supply and anything else of value requires descending into the undead-choked street of a dead shantytown. To make matters worse, a few of the Meek survived the initial sabotage, staying behind to tend the flock. These madmen haunt the catwalks above the factory floor, hanging perverse totems made of scavenged children’s toys and throwing kidnapped travelers into the hungry mobs below. ComplIcatIons The only living souls left at the plant sane enough to communicate coherently are Ma and Pa; this sickly older couple leads a grounp of three more Meek cultists left over from the initial fall of Bounce. If the Takers head directly into the warren of decaying tents and shanties to retrieve the rubber, they’ll raise all the ladders to the catwalks, call their fellow believers from their hiding place, and fire a sniper rifle from above. However, if the Takers head to the catwalks first, Ma and Pa introduce themselves civilly. They impersonate Shepherds instead of Meek, hoping to gain the characters’ trust by highlighting the reverence for casualties both faiths share. A Sensitivity check reveals something is off about the twitchy older couple. Takers that see the trap coming can interrogate the pair of psychos with CHA skills. If forced to talk and promised something in return (escape, the survival of their “babies,” etc.), they reveal that a service tunnel beneath the complex opens near some crates containing bars of raw rubber.

379 In a contest between a story someone wants to tell and what it says in the book, the individual story always wins. So, for instance, if the Market has a very clear idea for a series of Legs to throw at the players, the d100 table should be ignored in favor of a personal write-up. If the setting material doesn’t allow for the story of east coast Takers the Market was excited about, rework the setting so it works. If the equilibrium price doesn’t match what the Market feels would be fair, change the price to fit the context. The book is meant to assist the construction of jobs when faced with a blank slate. It shouldn’t be used to override elements a designer wants to include in the job. Contract Generator Sometimes, Markets can be stumped as to what to offer next, especially if they’re putting multiple Contracts up for bid every game session. Use the following d10 tables to spark some inspiration and make jobs in a hurry. This section also serves as a good list of options for players stumped designing their own Scores. CreatIng Contracts A play session of Red Markets is referred to generally as a job. All jobs contain some traces of the previously mentions “Workplace Essentials” (p. 359). From there, jobs come in two varieties: Contracts and Scores. Contracts have two characteristics: 1. Contracts are services performed for clients. Even where goods are involved, Takers are being paid a fee for delivering, securing, destroying, or otherwise performing a service. 2. The Market designs Contracts. The players choose which Contracts they want to bid on. This section explains a few concerns special to Contracts and provides a tool for randomly generating them. Market FIat The right of game masters to design the games they want to play is referred to as Market Fiat. Red Markets contains a lot of tools to help randomize and democratize content generation; Markets are encouraged to use these tools, but they are not required.

380 Goods Table The goods and services tables can be used separately or together. If a goods description is too vague to spark an idea, roll on the services table to narrow down the possibilities. Goods, Services, and Job Sites The story of the job site depends on the goods found there and the services the space demands. As such, there’s no randomization table for job sites. Markets should come up with the job’s “Where?” after answering the “What?” “Why now?” and “How much?” questions of goods and services. MREs, protein powder, canned goods, sports drinks. How has the material gone so long without being salvaged or spoiled? How is it transported, especially heavy liquids? 1 Food and Water Clothing, tents, shipping containers. Do the Takers need to transport the materials back or secure them until the client arrives? 2 Shelter Engine parts, sheet metal, lumber, rubber, plastics. What does the client need the material for and how might that inform the complication? 3 Raw MaterIALS Guns, ammo, accessories, explosives, melee weapons, specialized equipment. What kept this in-demand good out of the Market until now? Whatever protected or obscured the stash defines the job site. 4 WEapons Wood, diesel, aviation gas, solar panels, batteries, uranium. Most enclaves and settlements ensure their energy needs are met first. What has caused a shortage or an increase in demand? 5 energy Antibiotics, recreational narcotics, bandages, surgical tubing. Supplies are easy to scavenge but drugs have a short shelf life. Five years after the Crash, what about this newfound supply is likely to cause the Takers trouble? 6 medICINE Items of a collectable nature, intangible appeal, or of personal value to the client. Films undistributed before the Crash, rare toys, classical artwork, historical artifacts. What kind of client would risk dealing with intangibles in this day and age? Or is the buyer already lined up? 7 SPECULATIVE Cars, trucks, motorcycles, RVs, drones, combines, tractors. Have these assets gone overlooked so long, or have others tried to salvage them before and failed for some reason? 8 VEHICLES Evidence, search algorithms, census rolls, deeds. The Carrion Economy is still partially an information economy. Why does the client need this information recovered? Is the client using secrets to gain the upper hand on a rival, or seeking to protect themselves from incriminating truths? 9 DATA Organ trafficking, corporate headhunting, kidnapping, closure jobs, rescues, indentured servant escort. Human resources are inextricably tangled up with services and moral compromise. What kind hard choices are this client’s appetites going to force on the Takers? 10 HUMAN RESOURCES

381 In instances such as this, the services table should be rolled on to give an idea of what the client has to offer the Takers. ServIces Table There are times when someone can’t afford to pay with materials goods and would rather offer manpower or hours as payment. Establish a trade route between locations, map a red zone in the Loss, or find goods within a likely search area. What has kept the job site from being scouted until now? How does the uncertain nature of the locale mask a complication? 1 SCOUT Lure Casualties away from a vulnerable location or draw them near a certain target. Perhaps the term is meant literally and the crew has to distract some authority while another group performs a dangerous task. Do the Takers serve as both bait and trap, or must they cooperate with another crew? 2 dECOY Recover goods not being utilized or reclaim assets left abandoned. The story of how the opportunity became available is likely the story of the job site and the complication. 3 SALVAGE Transfer something or someone safely into the client’s possession. If it’s a person, are they willing to go? What dangers specific to this instance necessitate an armed escort? 4 eSCORT Kill the casualties, feral animals, or other creatures infesting a valuable property. What drew the nuisances there in the first place, and why does the client need the problem wiped out right now? 5 eXTERMINATE Using knowledge of the victim’s previous life and fate during the Crash, track down and put a single casualty out of its misery. Clients only hire crews for expensive and uncertain closure jobs due to extreme emotions, but that emotion need not be love. Why must this specific monster die, and what does that say about the client? Perhaps it is carrying the key to something the client needs? 6 CLOSURE Destroy a functioning piece of infrastructure or stockpile of goods. Is this for the client’s business or pleasure? Do the owners of the assets know what’s coming? 7 SABOTAGE Get someone or something across a protected border, into or out of the Recession, a settlement, a locked-down enclave, or hostile nation. What needs to be transported? Why can’t it travel normally? Is the border lockdown justified precaution or totalitarian paranoia, and how does that affect the ethics of the Taker’s actions? 8 SMUGGLE Gain intel by spying on some secretive or exclusive group. What secrets is the group trying to protect? What opportunities do the Takers have that the client can’t utilize personally? 9 INFILTRATE Kill a person or group of people for the client. Why does the client want the target dead? Why involve a third party? Does the target deserve it, or is the pay too good to even ask? 10 ELIMINATE

382 Essentials on p. 359. This randomizer prompts Contract designers with dramatically interesting mixed economies good for challenging player assumptions and creating political intrigue. Economy Table The imports, exports, and geography informing the economy of an enclave or settlement depend on the Market’s vision for the setting. The three major classifications of economies can be found in Workplace The enclave is owned. Every square inch of it. The soil, the air, the fence, the sun — access to everything is taxed. A single owner or group of “lords” has generously patronized enough powerful “knights” (read: criminal enforcers) to stake their claim, but the majority of the population remain serfs. Nearly the entire labor output of the community goes to serve the wealth of the ruling classes, though they may invest in copious propaganda endeavors to make the system seem more egalitarian, up to and including deifying those in power. Production is used primarily to dissuade the constant threat of eviction, and all other needs become secondary. Whether the claim of ownership is legitimate or not is a moot point; might makes right in any feudal system. But control isn’t absolute. Feudal systems are plagued by disputes over inheritance, social upheaval, and institutional hindrances to innovation. The only people with enough surplus to hire Takers will be the ruling class, but their grip on power is tenuous and prone to paranoia. Do the Takers exploit the fear of revolution to raise their prices, knowing that the people will suffer? 1 FEUDAL Cooperation is key in collectivist enclaves. Though individual property rights still exist (i.e. my tent, my table, my chair), the means of production and major infrastructure are owned by the entire community. The responsibility for maintaining these assets falls to “everyone,” and “rent” is collected in the form of labor. Additional capital can be gained through business endeavors owned privately, but the government ensures that each resident’s contributions to vital industries such as defense, agriculture, and manufacturing are first fulfilled. Collectivism is a double-edged sword. In small communities, the sense of fairness and joint purpose leads to a better quality of life. Cooperation bleeds into every facet of the culture, building robust social support structures. However, the system grows increasingly susceptible to abuse as it grows. Increased demands for subsistence goods puts a cap on labor specialization and stifles innovation. The reliance on social shaming and cultural enforcement creates a privileged class of bullies. Any hypocrisy is thrown into sharp relief, and preventing the system’s breakdown requires increasingly harsh methods of oppression. Are the Takers working for a genuinely collectivist group acting in the community’s best interests, or are the clients gangsters armored in the guise of egalitarianism? 2 cOLLECTIVIST

383 Theocracies are essentially collectivist economies that prioritize intangible spirituality over practical goods and services. Members of a monastery, for instance, still have an economy; they must trade goods and labor of various values amongst each other and outsiders to survive. However, it’s doubtful that an economist would regard the construction of a cathedral or the carving of an icon in the group’s rational self-interest, especially without the possibility of tourism or other monetizing options unavailable in the Loss. As the primary “export” of a monastery is worship and sufficient structures already exist to support it, things like charity and religious art waste capital. They might serve a larger macroeconomic purpose, but a closed system dedicated primarily to spirituality is destined for economic stagnation. In a true theocracy, social capital is the only currency. The ability to project one’s adherence to the doctrines of the faith is the only means of personal advancement. As such, what little surplus capital a primarily theocratic group has is managed by the most faithful. Takers will likely be hired if the job expands the ranks of the community or deals with some imminent threat they aren’t capable of handling. But theocracy is even more vulnerable to corruption than collectivism. As soon as someone gains enough social capital to shape the religious narrative to selfish ends, such systems can devolve into a tenacious feudalism. Finally, the flavor of a theocracy is obviously informed by the faith that dictates its political structure. What oddities of public policy are peculiar to this specific sect of believers? 3 THEOCRACY Due either to a large surplus of wealth or a dedicated volunteer class of public servants, certain enclaves legitimately promise their residents life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Minimum income is a social welfare program that assures everyone enough healthcare, food, and shelter to live. That’s it. Minimum income covers no discretionary spending whatsoever. Meals may be disgusting, housing cramped, and medical care barely sufficient, but no one gets to waste away, even if they’ve never worked a day in their life. People that want a better quality of life work for it, creating wealth for the community. All labor above the minimum income assumes the property rights of a laissez-faire market economy. The only controlled aspects are access to the essentials and whatever institutions that maintain that supply. Citizens with assured minimum income enjoy a lot of labor specialization and superior psychological health. Freedom from the fear of eviction and starvation allow for a lot of innovation as people pursue their passions within the safety net. The downside to such a system is sustainability. Those that maintain whatever labor and production sustains the minimum income may one day demand more compensation or cease their duties altogether. Initial surpluses can dwindle, challenging the noble impulses of the populace with the harsh reality of scarcity. Finally, even effective minimum income enclaves have serious immigration issues. They must employ total secrecy to keep word of their charity from leaking to desperate refugees they can’t support. Failing that, a downright draconian immigration policy must be in place, threatening serious violence to anyone violating the border and carefully vetting any new citizens for necessary skill sets. That Takers have been contacted at all means the enclave is desperate, or the crew is made up of residents seeking to gain disposable income by risking their lives. 4 MINIMUM INCOME

384 Barter economies do not accept any of the currencies utilized in the Loss or the Recession. This could be from lack of access, lack of confidence, a holdover from the post-apocalyptic thinking common immediately after the Crash, or a cultural manifestation of P.A.S.S. Regardless, this economy trades only in the direct exchange of goods and services, with no currency to mediate rates. Such systems are remarkably inefficient, volatile, and prone to abuse, though the fixation on use value (i.e. worth is determined solely by personal utility) is enough to perpetuate barter indefinitely. Long-term distrust of currency, the political systems that control it, and the people that accept it remains likely in this economy. Self-reliance is highly valued in such cultures, and the occasional necessity of outside contractors is resented. The challenge of dealing with a barter economy is that, once a Contract price has been agreed upon, the players must express that price with a list of goods from the gear list or in units of Haul for a single good. Essentially, this makes the payout of a Contract the physical take of a Score. Any goods not used and incorporated into a character’s upkeep must be transported to another enclave not operating under a barter economy and sold. Fencing a large amount of gear requires Networking and other CHA checks. However, a series of successful checks can provide more profit as the negotiator gets the fence to accept a higher mark-up. 5 bARTER Enclaves without strong executive leadership descend into tribal economies. Family usually delineates between tribes, but groups with strongly held religious or political beliefs can fracture just as easily. The demands of the Loss and limited geography of most enclaves force the factions to interact, but trade is scarce and plagued by intense skepticism. The political landscape demands each group seek wealth as much as they sabotage the advancement of their rivals. Tribal economies are zero sum gains, tending towards agrarian systems with roughly equal land shares or a series of interconnected monopolies. If one group does manage to gain enough power, their reforms adopt a more efficient model by dissolving the opposing groups through economic incentive, coercive violence, or cultural assimilation. Working inside a tribal economy is like navigating a minefield. Any Takers hired from without instantly become targets for every other tribe in the enclave. If the Takers are part of a tribe, they can expect “loyalty to the family” as a constant excuse for inadequate pay. Working for a second tribe will be viewed as betrayal, even for outsiders. What led to this primitive tribal economy? How are the lines drawn? Are relationships between factions confined to quiet resentment, or do the Takers need to view other possible clients as potentially deadly competitors? 6 TRIBAL Every economic system, whether Capitalist or Socialist, degenerates into a system of privilege and exploitation unless it is policed by a social morality, which can only reside in a minority of citizens. Every church becomes a vested interest without its heretics. Freedom is always in danger, and the majority of mankind will always acquiesce in its loss, unless a minority is willing to challenge the privileges of its few and the apathy of the masses. -R.H.S. Crossman

385 Humans naturally tend towards structure and order, so the design of bureaucratic systems is often an enclave’s first priority after they’ve assured the means for survival. To exist at all, the majority of residents inside truly anarchocapitalist enclaves share an ideological resistance to any and all control structures, no matter how seemingly well-intentioned they may be. Considering the deadly betrayals perpetrated by most governments during the Crash, there is no shortage of these survivors. Takers working for anarchocapitalists must learn to navigate the “spontaneous order” of their systems. A truly laissez-faire enclave might risk starvation, invasion, and death without developing any cooperative plans to address the issues, trusting instead in the rational self-interest of their neighbors and the guiding hand of the market. Security and police organizations, if they exist at all, are privatized, just like every other facet of vital infrastructure. But despite all this uncertainty (or perhaps because of it), anarchocapitalists have some of the healthiest economies in the Loss. Takers can expect no end of opportunities, but only if they can bypass the bevy of cultural problems attached to such wealth. The distrust of government, though sometimes an unspoken assumption amongst the populace, often solidifies into an oppressive ideological structure akin to a theocracy. The lack of social safety net means death from disease and deportation are much more common; fear of the same causes increased stress in the lower classes, leading to outbursts of violence or outright revolution. Most importantly, the privatization of every vital service makes the enclave’s survival fragile. When developing an anarchocapitalist enclave, the Market must ask what aspects of the society are stronger for competition and freedom from regulation, and what aspects are neglected or unstable as a result. 7 aNARCHOCAPITALIST Pirate economies either have no means of production or lack the skill to operate them. Nothing is produced in a pirate economy. Every good required to sustain life, along with all comforts and amenities, must be stolen or salvaged from other communities. This leads to drastic and deadly boom/ bust cycles dependent upon the availability of “prey.” Pirate economies differ from anarchocapitalism in that, if someone were to utilize the lack of regulation to develop a successful business, that person would then either be robbed, killed, or regularly extorted by their neighbors. The lack of governmental structure is replaced by a totalitarian government elected solely by might-makes-right. As such, one of the risks anarchocapitalist economies face is descending into a pirate system, which is the failure state of laissez-faire. Takers need a very good reason to work with pirate economies. In addition to the problematic morality, pirates are as keen to steal the labor of others, as they are their goods. Hiring Takers means that the pirates can’t coerce cooperation through the threat of violence. It does not, however, mean they will actually pay when the job is done, and violence is the culturally engrained method of dispute resolution. These groups depend entirely on the wealth of salvage left over from the Crash; they are essentially giant Taker crews in and of themselves. Why do they need the help of another group? And if salvage in the area dries up, will the enclave disband and immigrate to more stable economies, or will they resort to violence and theft like other groups before them? 8 PIRATE

386 The stability of exploitative economies relies on the labor of an enforced underclass. In short, exploitative economies need slaves. Due to social progress before the Crash, slave-based economies remain rare, but a few have succeeded in the Loss. Exploitative systems resemble feudalism, but rather than chaining the oppressed labor pool with pure ideology, the ruling class utilizes violence and bondage, Rather than pilfer goods from external sources, exploitative economies steal labor through force in order to stimulate production. The exploitative economy builds an entire hierarchy atop an enslaved base. A small middle class develops that the masters hire to perform the day-to-day brutality that sustains them. Though it greatly reduces overhead, slave economies are extremely inefficient. The labor pool has little incentive to maintain quality or speed, requiring many more people than it would take to perform the same job in a decent enclave. As such, slaves outnumber their masters by large margin, thus requiring increasingly monstrous tactics to keep the masses under control. The rationalizations slavers use to justify their loathsome practices are sickening and can cause moral injury to Takers by mere proximity. The stigma of working with slavers far outweighs the short-term profit. In fact, the only way to profit long-term from work in exploitative economies is to destroy them. If Takers can’t undermine such regimes through their work, being complicit to their existence is sin enough. 9 EXPLOITATIVE A few groups trapped in the Loss experimented with a radical redefinition of social and economic models. Deriving their name from Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Dispossessed, Odoists take collectivism to the extreme by denying all personal property rights. Odoists share everything, eschewing every traditions that might imply ownership. Though no state structure exists to enforce law, marriage and monogamy remain taboo in Odoism. Children are raised in communal homes by volunteers from the entire community, never knowing their birth parents. Personal pronouns are stricken from the language: “my hand” becomes “the hand.” The psychological dismantling of every existing human social norm wouldn’t have been possible without the nightmarish tragedy and forced cooperation of the Crash. Many Odoists have suffered in ways most people can’t even imagine, and this makes their demeanor disconcerting to outsiders. Dealing with Odoists is challenging. Their unwavering anarchocollectivism runs counter to the entire Carrion Economy. If Odoists request Takers, something has gone wrong. Yet, regardless of the severity of the situation, Odoists won’t “hire” a crew to do anything, meaning Takers have limited options for getting paid. They can claim goods as necessary for the Contract, then abscond with the assets to sell elsewhere. Alternately, Odoists can pay in the form of +Rep spots to be used elsewhere in the Loss. Finally, most Odoists recall capitalism before the Crash. These clients might risk censure and banishment by their peers and pay Bounty, if Takers can keep the transaction hidden. 10 oDOISM

387 randomly for spots and write a personality to fit the traits. Remember, the specific demands of the job make up a client’s tough spot. Write one implied by the goods/services and how they fit into the economy. ClIent Table The backstory of clients should fit the goods/ services they need and the economy they function within. Markets are encouraged to make up spots in tune with that description, but it can sometimes be interesting to roll The client is sensitive to the fact that, merely by having enough income to hire labor, she exists in a higher class. The client recognizes that a lot of luck went into ascending the economic ladder and remains concerned about being mistaken for a greedy oligarch. Pointing out the privileged position can shame the client into concessions. 1 DIDN'T ASK FOR PRIVILEGE This client goes goofy at mere mention of puppies, kittens, and other adorable creatures. To this person, the death of all those household pets is the saddest thing about the Crash. Ironically, elevating the humane treatment of animals despite the enormous pressures of the Loss is one of the only ways the client maintains a connection to humanity. Show this client the negotiator is a fellow animal lover to build instant rapport. 2 ANIMAL LOVER The client practices some faith, either one of the new believer movements or an established religion. As a result, this person innately trusts fellow members more than the average person. If the negotiator happens to be one of the faithful, all the better, but the price tag bumps up all the same for those that can passably impersonate one or shame the client’s subtle prejudice. 3 THE FAITHFUL MUST STICK TOGETHER 1 AUTHENTICITY IS EVERYTHING The client is very concerned about working with “real” Takers. The exact definition of what real entails reveals a whole list of personal prejudices and privilege. Painting one’s outfit as authentic or others as posers is a good way to manipulate this client. Sometimes a bad boss makes employees suffer because an even worse boss sends shit rolling downhill. In these instances, satisfying the middle manager’s desire to crawl from under the boot is the only way to get concessions. This client has to take orders from someone higher up in the enclave or business. Convince them hiring the crew advances their personal position to earn Sway. 2 AMBITIOUS The sensation of being outwitted and underprepared seems totally alien to this client. The meritocracy of survival has deprived them of social graces normally used to compensate in such instances, and the client has grown unaccustomed to humility. Crews should try show off their own intelligence or, better yet, get the client thinking more favorable terms are actually his idea. 3 SMARTEST PERSON IN THE ROOM

388 No one suffered more in the Crash and resulting madness than children. While the necessities of physical and financial survival have hardened the client to the suffering of fellow adults, the melancholy pull of innocence lost never ceases. This client is hardwired to put the needs of the young first. Takers that show pictures of their own children or can somehow promise increased child welfare if they are hired get a boost in Sway. 4 ThINK OF THE CHILDREN Fears of conformity are typically healthy, but some conflate a healthy sense of self-reliance until they worship the new for its own sake. This client has been rewarded so many times for leaving the beaten path that she no longer considers any procedure or prescription trustworthy. The client would much rather take a chance on the weirdest, most iconoclastic group of Takers in the Loss than an “average” crew with impeccable reputation. Highlight a crew’s weirdness — or just flat-out lie — to utilize this social blind spot. 5 STRONGER SWIMMERS OUTSIDE THE MAINSTREAM Though keen to point out the horror of the Crash in mixed company, some people secretly regard the Blight as the best thing that ever happened to them. Perhaps a life sentence to inconsequence and predictability was lifted by the zombie terror. Maybe they found reserves they didn’t know they had, virtues that now serve as the foundation of a new personality. The client could be one of the few whose life was actually worse before the Crash. Regardless, this client’s favorite topic of conversation is the horror that led to the carrion economy. Hook the boss with a daring tale of survival, and then make her pay more to hear the end. 6 LOVES A GOOD WAR STORY 4 VINDICTIVE “It’s just business” doesn’t mean much to this client. Personal slights, both real and imagined, strongly motivate financial decisions. Find someone that offended this person, paint hiring the Takers as a blow against the rival, and reap the profits. Or, offend the touchy bastard, and then feign disinterest in a dangerous job. He’ll irrationally pay more to get you over the fence just so he can pray you get bit. FOMO manifests in lots of ways. Sometimes it’s being overly concerned about the latest cultural trends. It can also show up as the old “keeping up with the Jones’s” fallacy, exacerbated by the advent of social networking. When staying in the black means staying alive, it can take the form of bargain hunter’s disease, convincing people to buy things they don’t need under the illusion of a limited-time offer. This client has a bad case of FOMO; exploit it. 5 fEAR OF mISSING OUT (fOMO) Due to indoctrination by a pundit, childhood teachings, or a tendency towards sophism, this client has divided humanity into two camps, “Those who X, and those who Y.” Those with firm handshakes, and those without them. Those that can hold a gaze like a man, and those that can’t. Butchers and meat. Alphas and betas. The aphorism has been repeated so often that the person is blind to the inherent value statement and doesn’t register identifying with one side as prejudice. Of course, such tidy little generalizations never predict behavior, but they’re certainly useful for separating fools from their money. 6 THERE ARE TWO TYPES OF PEOPLE IN THIS WORLD

389 Lying on job applications is as old as jobs, and it’s not too hard to find others to join in the fiction. Still, employers exist that continue to worship at the altar of a good reference, yet can’t be bothered to do the extensive research required to vet such unreliable sources. This client has a reputation for going with the crew with the most buzz. Use a +Rep spot for three Sway instead of two, or bribe a Reference to snowball the rube into coughing up a big payday. 7 SUCKER FOR A GOOD REFERENCE The client does not like surprises. At all. Survival for many came in the form of memorized procedures followed exactly, and this client worships routine as savior and provider. Crews that can project the most robotic response to the task get the job. Overwhelm the client with tons of Taker rules, guidelines, and contingency plans. Putting the deadly and unpredictable into tidy boxes comforts the client and loosens the wallet. 8 THE RULES WILL SAVE US 7 POOR IS ANOTHER WORD FOR UNMOTIVATED Bootstraps! This person retreated from class guilt into the comfortable lie that everyone, everywhere, deserves everything that happens to them. The only person that can suffer from bad luck is the client; everyone else just doesn’t want to work hard, or they don’t maintain a positive attitude, or they want to mooch off others, etc. Conversely, everything good that happens to the client comes from their own carefully planned actions. Narcissism predicates this delusion. Smart negotiators pretend to be a mirror version of these clients and get paid for letting the self-absorbed bastards talk to themselves. Whether they’ve been burned in the past or merely fear it happening in the future, this client hates nothing more than someone still learning a trade: the living embodiment of the Catch-22 “can’t get a job without experience; can’t get experience without a job.” This person wishes the Crash happened earlier so he could hire Takers with more than five years in the field. Highlight a crew’s longevity or paint the competition as noobs to get this client on your side. 8 LOATHES AN AMATEUR Those with enough bounty to outsource work can live an isolated existence. Poverty and need abound; everyone wants what they have and resents them for having it. Basic human kindness, if it can be passed off as genuine affection and not manipulation, lowers this client’s defenses and opens up more options. 9 Just wants to make frIENDS Salesmen don’t speak to each other in the same way as customers. It’s foolish to bullshit a bullshitter, and this client considers himself a bullshitter. The person offering the Contract recognizes that all advertisement is based in deception, but mistakes the value of a business by its volume of deception. Show the client that the entire Taker persona is just an act, a show for the punters, and they’ll be convinced an obvious Scam is actually a bargain. 9 DON'T GET HIGH ON YOUR OWN SUPPLY

390 Everyone is lying to everyone else, all the time. The truth is so rare as to be nonexistent, and it’s hard to fault anyone for abandoning it. This cynical client would much rather work with sneaky bastards she can predict than a perfect angel. A few well-placed and poorly crafted lies make the client feel like they’re too smart to be fooled. By being caught once trying to deceive, negotiators paradoxically get away with successive lies much more easily. 10 PREFERS A DEVIL SHE KNOWS Nothing rewards paranoia like the total breakdown of society. This client has been rewarded so many times for pessimism and excessive planning that the slightest kernel of doubt can grind things to a halt. One way for crews to exploit this is to leave nothing to chance, presenting themselves as a sure thing. However, it’s far easier to paint the competition as untrustworthy and reap the benefits of being the lesser of two evils. 10 SKEPTICAL TO A FAULT

391 succeed, the PCs have to drive their prices down, intimidate the rivals into fleeing, or eliminate them. Even if the Takers get the job, the competition might arrange for an “accident” out in the Loss. CompetItIon Table Competition doesn’t want the Takers to get the job done so they can steal the client, fulfill a personal goal, or pursue a vendetta. This faction tries to undercut negotiations. If they Though rare, a few Takers operate solo out of concern for their profit margin or an antisocial attitude. Those that survive long enough to make a name for themselves are indisputably capable and more than likely a little unhinged. What has drawn this lone operator to this job? What reputation does this person have? Will it help or hinder a bid? How can facing the Loss alone warp a personality? 1 LONER Starving enclavists and bored citizens sometimes enter the game late. The competition for this job is a group of inexperienced Takers that have yet to establish turf or reputation. Why risk this line of work? Are they well-equipped adrenaline junkies with too much bounty and not enough brains? Exploited populations risking death for the chance at a better life? Desperate refugees with nothing left to lose? Whatever the reason, Noobs always come to the table with something to prove and undercut any price to get their foot in the door. Do the Takers convince them to leave it to professionals or pick up the pieces after the Loss punishes their hubris? 2 nOOBS Besides Takers, Fencemen have more experience with casualties than anyone else. The thankless task of killing and removing the dead from the borders, not to mention the tendency to double as a group’s law enforcement, puts them in the good graces of the community. Experience might be enough to get a Contract, but clearing the undead from fortifications is quite different than wrestling with them on their own turf. Furthermore, goodwill can be manufactured and exploited. Are these Fencemen really up to the task or merely overconfident? What motivates them to leave their post for speculation out in the Loss? 3 FENCEMEN The heyday of post-apocalyptic piracy fades with every year post-Crash, but a few tribal bands still “live Darwin” and subsist by consuming the spoils of others’ labor. In their dotage, some of these groups have devolved into little more than protection rackets, demanding no bid Contracts that they can sloppily complete for pay. Raiders aren’t used to not getting their way. If the Takers steal a Contract from them, will the raiders take violent action against competitors or the client? If it’s the latter, does the crew even care so long as they get paid? 4 RAIDERS The crime lords of the Free Parking ghettos often sponsor their own Taker crews and send them over the Recession border, skimming profits and making smuggling connections to feed their desperate customer base back home. These groups are usually made of some combination of fanatically loyal lieutenants and unfortunates trying to pay off debts for family members coerced by the crime boss. What valet runs this crew? Will this person be impressed or enraged when the PCs dare to steal a Contract? Can the disparity in the crewmembers’ motivations be used against them? 5 VALETS

392 The monstrous brutality of narco-traffickers suited them particularly well to life post-Crash, and demand for their product in the remaining states has never been higher. Along their lengthy supply routes through the Loss, cartel enforcers occasionally accept Taker work to boost their margins or fulfill their bloodlust. Cartels rarely need the work, but their obsession with maintaining everyone’s respect and fear make them prone to extremes. How does the cartel’s reputation affect negotiation with the client? How can the Takers counteract their threats? Will the cartel laugh off losing a Contract or take it as a personal insult? 6 CARTELS Rival crews often look for work in the territory claimed by a local group. Sometimes, they are nomads that only do business on the run, or crews in need of supplemental Contracts en route to a distant job. Cases of hostile takeover are more rare, but they do occur; nobody on LifeLines gets a protected monopoly except the Moths. Competition among Takers is complicated by professional appreciation. What about this opposed crew’s brand makes them seem right for the job? How does camaraderie make fighting over the scraps that much worse? Resorting to violence or dirty tricks to get a Contract likely incurs a -Rep spot, but is that worth it to prevent the rival crew from escalating the situation first? 7 TAKERS Fanatics still need to eat. Some do Taker work to fund their operations or proselytize a certain method for living in the Loss. For example, Black Math is going to handle an extermination job very differently than the Shepherds or Archivists. What about this Contract attracted these people, or are they acting out of desperation? Faith often turns the professional into the personal at unpredictable times; do the believers regard the PCs as friendly rivals or view any competition as a blasphemous assault on the faith? 8 BELIEVERS The betrayal of the Recession won’t be forgotten. The Crash drafted many trained warriors into the desperate ranks of an army whose only mission is revenge. Stranded foreign spies, stateless military diaspora, treasonous units that refused to abandon their posts, and vindicated survivalist nutbags, among others, continue a war against the government pre-dating the casualties — all these groups need to fund their continued political operations somehow. The extremism of most rebel groups is deemed acceptable considering their training and equipment. How can the Takers make themselves appear more professional than the professionals, or do they merely undercut them? Will the rebels understand the necessities of the market, or do they view competition as counter-revolutionaries in need of elimination? 9 REBELS The absolute worst thing a Taker can hear is that the Feds have an interest in their business. DHQS maintains numerous intel assets in the Loss, and they occasionally find it cheaper to bid for Contracts that might infringe on their interests than to exterminate everyone that stumbles onto a black site. But as a method of counterintelligence, they’ll often hire out their death squads for meaningless tasks to keep the Loss guessing about the agency’s real priorities. The government mercs are infinitely more qualified and willing to work for almost nothing; Takers competing with a DHQS black squad have to rely entirely on a shared hatred of the Feds to get a job. Even if they succeed, is the bid a DHQS bluff or an actual attempt to discourage interference in their affairs? If it’s the latter, Stewards have no qualms about ordering an entire crew murdered. As far as the government is concerned, they’re dead already. 10 DHQS

393 other circumstances. These generalized complication “families” suggest a variety of disasters to keep the Market from falling into a rut. ComplIcatIon Table Complications define themselves from the job’s other elements. The Market’s creativity is required here more than anywhere else to develop a twist fitting the job’s Some unforeseen obstacle blocks entrance to the job site. The crew must add Legs to the journey to bypass the obstacle, find a different job site, expend resources to eliminate the obstruction, or risk serious danger to gain entry. 1 detour Climate change causes an anomalous and extreme weather event at the site. Flooding, tornados, extreme heat, gigantic hail, locusts — the natural disaster complicates everything about the job. Planning becomes more difficult, execution more dangerous, and extraction more uncertain. If goods are involved, the event negatively affects them, and the Takers must take even more risk to secure their payday. 2 weather In order to protect their pride, reputation, or safety, the client has intentionally left out some vital information about the job. An especially dangerous task could have been made to sound routine. Morally disgusting motivations could be obscured in hopes that once the PCs learn the truth, they’ll be too invested to turn back. The client has manipulated the crew in such a way that more danger, resources, or Humanity must be expended to get the job done than was promised. 3 INCOMPLETE BRIEF This is similar to an incomplete brief, but even the client doesn’t know the true nature of the job. Some jobs are lures to bring unwary crews into an ambush. Contracts are really performed at the behest of third parties that don’t make their true intention known until the crew is out in the Loss and away from witnesses. Anything requiring such complex machinations is, at best, extremely distasteful and, at worst, an out-and-out betrayal. Takers must not only figure out how to survive; they have to figure out a way to turn their misfortune into profit. (Note: as is always the case, Markets should allow the Takers an opportunity to meet their agreed upon price or greater. The group might not be able to capitalize on the opportunity, but the chance for a successful job should always be available.) 4 CAT'S PAW Some aspect of the job meant to reduce risk and entice providers into accepting the Contract achieves the complete opposite effect. The “nearempty” mall is crawling with casualties. The fleet of trucks has no tires. The safe is locked after all. Whatever the case, the Takers have to adapt to the new logistical demands if they want to get paid. 5 Bad Intel A migrating stampede of casualties moves through the area. Whatever prey brought them here has long since died or escaped, leaving the site absolutely infested with undead. The primary challenge is chumming and luring the horde to strategic locations so others can traverse the crowd without getting eaten. But once those with the short straw have drawn the attention of the hungry mobs, how will they escape? 6 HOT ZONE

394 What Is a Score? A Score is an opportunity Takers make when they get tired of waiting around for the knock. As is the case with most DIY businesses, the only way to scratch a profit out of nothing is to skimp on labor: namely, your own. That’s what Takers do when they chase a Score; Scores don’t account for services rendered. Takers waive compensation for the danger they face in exchange for full ownership of the goods they salvage. Scores are based solely on goods. The more valuable goods the Takers secure, the more profit they stand to make. Since it’s all about what the group can Haul out of the Loss, Scores are Scores What’s the point of self-employment if you can’t be your own boss? Part of Red Markets’ plan for breaking the GM monopsony is a system that allows players to write their own games. The Market still plays a vital part, but players take the active role in the scenario’s design. Alternately, characters can contribute to the process, forcing their players to engage with the setting through the hungry eyes of entrepreneurs. In addition to defining exactly what a Score entails, this section provides procedures for developing Scores both in and out of character. The site is occupied by some human presence. It could be an undiscovered enclave, a believer stronghold, a faction taking temporary shelter, or some group trying to steal the job. Regardless, the presence of others complicates the job, requiring Takers to negotiate compromise, sneak into the site unnoticed, or eliminate the interlopers. 7 SQUATTERS A nearby community, crew, faction, or other group has succumbed to a fresh infection. Vectors haunt the area, screaming apologies and puking blood. The job site holds clues as to what happened to these poor souls. Can the Takers find out what went wrong and complete the job without succumbing to the sprinting cannibals? What else is located around the site? Do the Takers shoulder the responsibility of clearing out these dangerous monsters before they climb the walls of the nearest enclave? 8 OUTBREAK StopLoss, DHQS, or one of the many other corporate/governmental interests setting up illegal operations in the Loss has invested in the job site. They may have laid claim to the Takers’ interest or have other goals, but the access to the site is somehow restricted. Well-funded groups might have installed surveillance equipment or automated defenses to keep the site safe. Mercenaries could be garrisoned to guard the perimeter. Perhaps the site is scheduled for a bombing run to make room for incoming human resources, or maybe the cleanse has already occurred, leaving the remains on fire or poisoned by chemical weapons. 9 EMINENT DOMAIN The worst-case scenario is the one you can’t prepare for. Aberrants violate the already shaky physical laws governing the Blight’s epidemiology, creating singular nightmares that threaten a Taker’s understanding of reality and continued survival. The site is haunted by one or more of these abominations. Does LifeLines have any information on how to escape these monsters? If they do, how does the group separate fact and fiction, truth from trolls, while fighting for their lives? If it’s never been seen before, do they risk life and limb documenting and learning about the anomaly or call the job off altogether? 10 ABERRANT

395 creative responsibility is divided amongst everyone at the table. Here’s everything required for a Score at a glance. 1. Goods and Equilibrium What are the Takers going to sell? How much is each unit worth? While the “service” part of the job still makes up the bulk of the adventure, Takers have no responsibility to please a client or work a certain way. They are gambling their lives and labor on securing the goods. No goods; no profit. 2. Economy If the Takers aren’t running out of their own campaign’s enclave, which type of economy serves as a market for the good, what characterizes the community, and how might the Takers manipulate the price of their goods inside this system? 3. Wholesaler Wholesalers replace clients in Scores. Who is going to buy the goods off the Takers for use in their own business? What kind of personality enables someone to run such a successful enterprise in the Loss? 4. The Site Why hasn’t someone gone after this Score before? Is it secret? Already claimed? Protected? Inaccessible? What is going to make the Takers earn their money? 5. Market Responsibilities Experienced Takers know something is always going to go wrong, but nobody knows what. The Market still decides elements like travel time and complications, surprising the players with them once the game starts. This is why Scores are most often devised at the end of game session, to give the Market more time to prepare. Goods and EquIlIbrIum The definition of services stays fluid in a Score. Whatever needs to be done to wrest the goods from the chaos of the Loss, that’s what the Takers have to do. For free. potentially the most profitable jobs in the game, but the requirement of distribution (i.e. carrying all the shit back) means that reward stacks more heavily with risk than ever before. Most importantly, Scores say something about the characters and the world they live in. Value correlates with need, and the biggest paydays are going to sustain and alter the enclave Takers work in. Furthermore, when Scores are written by PCs, they say something about the characters’ personalities. After all, if somebody else knew about unclaimed treasure hiding out in the Loss, why wouldn’t they hire a crew to go get it for them? The subject of Scores relates inherently to something unique about a character’s skill set or backstory; it’s a job only they can do. Scores At-a-Glance Scores share many similarities with Contracts. The primary difference is the way

396 eaten up by the loot. Loading down with goods greatly increases risk, so the rewards enjoyed by those that survive is justified. Economy In truth, it’s unlikely groups are going to have to characterize the economy at all when devising a Score. Red Markets groups typically don’t start planning Scores until playing in a campaign, at which point they’ve already exhaustively detailed the economy during Enclave Generation (see p. 406). But if the group has travelled or wants to plan their Score as a one-shot, they need to establish a basic description for the economy the goods will be sold in. The description need be no longer than those found in a Contract, but information about the economy can’t be left blank — while there is no negotiation in Scores, characters can still conduct Scams to manipulate prices. Having some information about the enclave’s economy can help when it comes time for players to drive the price per unit up. Wholesaler To escape the complications of supply/ demand represented in the Small Business rules (see p. 425), Takers need to foist that responsibility off onto someone that runs a full-time retail business. This means selling to a wholesaler. Wholesalers exist within economies of scale. They can move product fast enough to make narrow profit margins add up quickly. But since margins are so narrow and they control so much market share, wholesalers remain notoriously inflexible about price. They will buy goods at the equilibrium price. Haggling messes with their mark-up and they won’t put up with it. Mechanically, wholesalers prevent players from developing NPCs they can push around. The wholesaler’s personality can’t be exploited to screw with the price in negotiation because there is no negotiation. But this isn’t to say that groups can’t have fun writing their own colorful NPCs. Someone bold and capable enough to grow The goods in question are to be determined by the players as they design the Score. If the group is struggling to come up with ideas, the Market should prompt them with the following questions: • What is something of unique value only someone like your character would recognize and know how to find? • What does this specific enclave need on a regular basis? • For the people of this enclave, what desire has gone unfulfilled for too long? • What does the geography in this area necessitate to survive? • What are the most successful business ventures around here, and what supply do they need to keep doing business? Once goods are decided upon, the Market rolls 2d10 and adds the results together. The sum is the equilibrium price of the good, and the interaction of the two numbers describes the economic situation on the Supply/ Demand Chart (see p. 363). The major difference is that while Contract equilibrium describes a single service, Score equilibrium is price per unit. How much constitutes a unit? That’s up to the Market. If the Score calls for salvaging vehicles, the unit should obviously be one vehicle. If the Score is parts for the vehicles, it would be best expressed in terms of Haul. Nothing should be expressed in units smaller than a Haul for a few reasons. Firstly, Markets that say every diamond is worth 18 bounty just ended their own campaign. A pocket full of loot lets a character instantly retire. Secondly, the game needs the Golden Rule (Risk = Reward) in order to tell a compelling story. Thus, goods should be expressed in terms no smaller than Haul because that abstract unit of measure is limited on the character sheet. This is not to say that characters shouldn’t be rewarded for cleverness. Smart planning and good rolls still mean huge paydays, but the fact remains that Haul is a finite resource

397 a lead on some hot salvage won’t share the information with anyone except their wholesaler. This saves the Market some work, but competition would make for an excellent complication. It’s pretty common for shady crews to trail their rivals, lay an ambush, and rob them of whatever they have.... Another Market responsibility is travel time. If the Takers lived on top of the Score, somebody would have claimed it already. It’s going to take some walking to get to the site, and the nightmare waiting over the fence is the Market’s job. Market Fiat can be used to create each Leg’s encounter from scratch, or the GM can consult the d100 Loss Encounters Table (see p. 457). All that matters is that the PCs don’t know what’s coming. Besides the complication and travel time, all that’s left is taking notes and elaborating on the players’ suggestions. Draw or research floor plans for the site they described. Write a backstory for the wholesaler implied by his personality. Or just wing it. Players tend to be heavily invested in any scenario they designed themselves. Markets that want to do a lot of preparation should design Scores at the end of a session, giving themselves the time between games to work. But those comfortable with improvisation can launch straight into playing the Score once players finish writing it. DesIgnIng Scores So how does the group cooperate to design a Score? There are a lot of possible methods. Which one is right for your group depends on your preference for role-playing and group dynamic. What follows is a description of each method, a prescription for the type of game it best fits, and an example of the method in action. In-Character Opposed (StrategIc ThInkIng) Strategic Thinking is best for groups with a narrative focus. If you want the Score to be a role-playing challenge, but still want to ensure the elements remain grounded and realistic a retail business in the Loss is bound to be an interesting character. How did they get started? What’s the business called? How do they advertise their brand to enclavists and settlers? What’s distribution look like? What’s their personality like? The SIte Before players start developing a job site, it’s important everyone understand one hard and fast rule: nothing about the site can be pleasant. Whatever the good and wherever it may be found, one immutable fact remains: if it were easy to get, someone would have done the Score already. Beyond that, there are no requirements. Some Markets research a real-world location and pull floor plans before the game starts; some just wing it. Either is okay. If the group is stumped for ideas, the Market should ask the following: • What kind of place would have the good you are looking for? • Why, besides ignorance, hasn’t anyone found this stash before? What has prevented people from stumbling onto the treasure trove? • What complicates removing the goods from the site? • What other enclaves, factions, and threats are known to be in the area? • Who else might be considering this Score? What, if anything, is stopping them from going after it? Market ResponsIbIlItIes Complications are the primary responsibility of a Market when designing a Score. The Loss just sucks: always and forever. No matter how favorable the conditions may look, something is going to go wrong. Every. Fucking. Time. Just like Contracts, Markets need to surprise their Takers with a reliable disaster, preferably as soon as it seems like they might get away with it. Markets need not concern themselves with competition. Unlike Contracts, Scores are closely held trade secrets. Takers with

398 constantly thinking of ways to get ahead. Players may choose to pass if their Taker would share another person’s plan. Anyone passing their turn abstains from Step 4. Step 4: Once everyone has proposed for that element, all the players roll Black + Foresight. Reroll ties until a winner emerges. Step 5: The Taker with the highest roll has the best sounding plan. That’s what will be there, unless... Step 6: The Market rolls a Red and hides the result. If the Red is higher than the player’s modified Black, then something about the prediction is off. Exactly what is up to the Market. For example, if the Taker thought they were going to steal a pallet of baby formula, they’ll be disappointed to learn the powder is contained in a giant vat and hasn’t yet been packaged. Are they going to stick the stuff in their pockets? Step 7: Repeat the previous steps until every element is decided, but acknowledge for the setting, this is the method for you. No one aspect of the job gets overloaded with content, and there is plenty of room for the Market to engineer surprises for the group. Basic Setup: Takers are always looking to get ahead. Every moment not spent trying to stay alive gets devoted to figuring out the next big Score. These people want escape, and everything they have goes towards figuring out how. When clients become scarce, there’s no shortage of suggestions about where the crew should start hustling. Step 1: Everyone rolls Black + Research. Reroll ties until a winner emerges. Step 2: Speaking in character, the Taker with the highest roll proposes some rumored stash of goods ripe for a Score. Step 3: Going around the table clockwise, every other Taker proposes a different stash of goods they think would make for a better payday. After all, everyone in the crew is

399 roll Black d10s and add their Foresight skill. Philly has the better plan, so GMO seeds are established as the Goods for the Score. Now the Market rolls a Red d10 in secret and ends up beating Philly’s roll. After some thinking, she figures that GMO crops are there, but they’re only designed to produce seeds when a proprietary fertilizer is used. The Takers have to get both the seeds and the fertilizer in order to get paid. In-Character CollaboratIve (Rumor MIll) Rumor Mill is best for groups that want to make sure everyone has a chance to contribute. This method produces varied elements with a lot of content. There isn’t as much surprise built into the elements as Strategic Thinking, but the combination of differing suggestions still makes for unpredictable moments. Basic Setup: A lot of conjecture makes its way onto the LifeLines. For every hot lead, there are a dozen commenters piling on the bandwagon carrying nothing but bullshit. Separating the fact from fiction can mean life or death. Step 1: Everyone rolls Black + Foresight. Reroll ties until a winner emerges. Step 2: Speaking in character, the Taker with the highest roll proposes some stash of goods they think would be ripe for a Score. Step 3: Whatever the first Taker proposed is now fixed: the Score is definitely about going to get that specific good. Now, going around the table clockwise, the next Taker proposes something else they heard about the goods. In improv terms, this is called “Yes, and....” Players aren’t trying to contradict each other so much as add wrinkles to the existing plot. For instance, if the first Taker proposed stealing crude oil, the next Taker may have heard it’s more than crude oil; an on-site refinery is producing gasoline. Step 4: When every Taker has shared a rumor overheard about the job element in question, every player except the one who went first (that element of the job is now that all previous elements are now fixed. For instance, if the group established it was looting baby formula, no one would be suggesting a wholesaler for car parts. However, every Taker in the crew would “know a guy” that could fence baby formula. The winner of the Foresight roll wins. Perk to the Market: In making sure the predictions for failed Foresight checks are slightly off, you probably already developed a good complication for the job. Congratulations! You’re halfway done! Example In-Character Opposed It’s a two-player game. The characters roll Research checks. Philly is up first. Philly: “My contact in the Detoxins tipped me off to a bunch of GMO crops being developed at this Alosine research lab. Apparently, they’re operating out of the Loss to protect their genetic patents. Those crazy hippie cultists want to burn the place to the ground, but I figure those super seeds would fetch a great price.” The other player has a different idea, and he says as much in the voice of his character. 8ch: “Plants? Look man, if you ain’t got your plants this late in the game, you already dead. Nothing more scarce out here than ammo. I got a line on this factory, see? Place probably has pallets of the stuff.” With the propositions made, both players Default Rolls and Scores There is no defaulting in Red Market according to the “Plus One or it can’t be done” rule (see p. 176). However, designing Scores in-character only utilizes a few skills. If a character wasn’t trained in those few skills, the player couldn’t participate in the process. As such, designing Scores is one of the few times a +0 roll is allowed. The character still only has a 45% chance of success, but they aren’t cut off from participating.

400 Sherlock: “I, too, find the man rather loathsome. You all know I always keep an eye out for literary diversions at a good price, but I’m told by many trusted associates that Worm’s establishment is only to be contacted if I want to be harangued into buying a Japanese comic book full of robots fighting scandalously dressed school girls. But alas, even the socially tone deaf are sometimes unavoidable in the world of business.” Sherlock and Hellion’s players make Sensitivity checks. Both end up making it. The Market sighs; it looks like he’ll have to brush up on his funny voices and manga. The Market glares hatefully at the players, waiting for revenge until they get to the Site. Out-of-Character Consensus (Oh! That's Cool!) This method isn’t so much a method as an unspoken agreement. You’re all adults here. Everyone realizes it’s just a game. Nobody is going to get their feelings hurt, so you don’t need some elaborate procedure to police interactions while you design a Score. Let’s get it over with. The “Oh! That’s Cool!” method is only listed in case your group needs permission to throw out the rules when something universally interesting is proposed. This is that “throw out the rules” rule. Basic Premise: Out of character, everyone talks about what kind of Score they want to play. They decide on elements one-by-one until the Score is done. Step 1: The first person with an idea says it. Step 2: Other people in the group propose contrary ideas (à la Strategic Thinking), add something to a previous proposal (à la Rumor Mill), or abstain. Step 3: The Market counts to three. On three, everyone points to the person with the idea they like best. Players can’t vote for themselves, and the Market breaks any ties. The person with the most votes decides the element, along with any additions made by players that didn’t want to compete because they liked the idea. Perk for the Market: Keeping it casual. immutable) rolls a normal Sensitivity check. If the roll is a success, there’s some truth to the rumor. On a failure, the Taker has been duped by one of the many hoaxes plaguing Ubiq. Secret Sensitivity Option: Instead of rolling out in the open, the Market makes the Sensitivity checks for the players in secret. The players won’t know the difference between truth and conjecture until they complete the job. Step 5: Go clockwise around the table, starting from the person that won the original Foresight check. The person to their right gets to propose the next element of the job. That person’s contribution is immutable. Step 6: Everyone else now gets to add a rumor on top of the proposed element, rolling Sensitivity to check its veracity. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until the Score is finished. Perk to the Market: Nobody gets left out. The stacking rumors also provide a ton of material to work with for each element of the job. Example In-Character CollaboratIve Grizz, Hellion, and Sherlock are trying to figure out the best person to fence a large number of survival manuals. Sherlock’s player started the last round’s Rumor Mill (he won the Foresight check), and Grizz’s player sits on his right. It’s his turn now. Grizz: “No question. We take the books to Worm. He’s the only bastard crazy enough to start a bookstore in the middle of the zombie apocalypse. I hear he taught half the nearby enclaves how to set up their irrigation. He’s got the customer base and reach we need to get a good price.” Since it’s Grizz’s turn, the group is definitely using Worm as a wholesaler. Anything the other Takers say just goes to further define the NPCs personality and business practice. Hellion: “Ugh. I know you’re right, but that guy is such a dweeb! I hear his voice is so nasal you can hear him breathing from a block away. That commercial of his sounded like he’d just sucked down a balloon full of helium!”