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[i]Ex terrorem, lucrabamur[/i] - Out of Terror, We Profit

[color=ed1c24]Red Markets[/color] is an upcoming RPG that I'm super-stoked about and would love to try and get a game going for on here in that world. As I backed the Kickstarter, I've been sent a preview that includes all the rules so I'd love to get a game running here.

The game is set five years into the Crash, the apocalyptic event that killed half the human species and divided the continental United States. An unknown infection referred to as The Blight appears seemingly at random worldwide, with no clear point of origin, turning humans into incredibly infectious monsters and shambling corpses. The Crash goes.. poorly. It's not a total wash, the governments of the world resorting to military invention to fight the spreading Blight. But there are only so many bullets, so many trained fighters. The cold, cruel mathematics of logistics prompt the US government to make a dreadful decision. They withdraw to the east coast, taking vital manpower and resources with them and blow the bridges. This splits the country into the Recession (east of the Mississippi river, where the U.S government has rooted out infection and rules with martial law) and the Loss (west of the Mississippi, given up and everyone left behind declared legally dead).  

As one of the legally-dead living left behind in the Loss, you probably belong in an enclave, a survivor colony. You've spent the last five years scavenging food, medicine and other supplies, sitting on pre-Crash stockpiles and subsistence farming for staple crops. But five years is a long time and scavenging isn't a forever solution. Those stockpiles are running out. Canned food is coming to the end of its edible life; even the nastiest MRE packets are beginning to turn. Most medicines that haven't been taken are simply expired. Even gasoline goes bad after so long. And people aren't making more, or at least the Loss isn't. But the Recession is. This is where the Carrion Economy comes in. It's an illicit black market trade between Loss enclaves and Recession people to carry out services in exchange for goods both sides want, backed by a form of cryptocurrency called Bounty. An example might be someone whose family was infected during the Crash hiring some Loss-based folks to go out and put their Zombie Grandma out of their misery; they pay in bounty and then that currency goes towards, say, buying Recession-made medicine the Loss enclave needs. People who engage in this Carrion Economy, who hunt zombies or scavenge in the Loss not to survive but to profit, are Takers.

A big part of the Carrion Economy is the trade in legal documentation; the Recession government is gearing up for a big reclamation push in the next 15-20 years and they want to sort out things like inheritance, land ownership, who owns what and what can the State seize, which is causing a big bubble in the Carrion Economy. You play survivors who are taking advantage of this bubble in the Carrion Economy to get rich and buy your way to a better life, whatever that is for you - bribe your way into a new life for you and your family in the Recession? Set yourself up as boss hog of a new enclave? Maybe establish a company incorporating Taker crews from all over the area? 

So, it's the end of the world but capitalism is still chugging along just fine. And it's time for you to go out, pay your bills, try to strike it rich - and not get bit. 

[hider=Mechanics][hider=Dice]In terms of mechanics, Red Markets operates a very light system based around rolling 2d10s - one red, one black. The red dice represents difficulty, factors that go against the character. The black dice represents your character's effort, skills and attempt to succeed. 

If black beats red, you're "in the black" - you succeed. 
If red beats black, or there's a tie, you're "in the red" - you fail. 

Characters add their skill rating to the black dice - so, someone with Shooting 3 rolls 2d10 and adds 3 to the black. In that example, say that they roll Black 2 Red 4. Without a skill bonus, that would be a failure. Adding 3 to the Black pushes the result up to B5R4, which passes.

The red dice might have a bonus added to it to represent an especially tough challenge; so, Shooting 3 versus a highly skilled opponent might end up with +3 to black and +2 to red on the same 2d10 roll.

If you don't have any ranks in a skill (for instance, someone with Shooting 0 firing a gun) then you "default". When you default, look at the Stat the skill belongs to. Roll a Black dice; if you get equal or below your Stat rating, you passing. If you get above it, you fail. In this example, the shooter looks at Speed, because Speed governs the Shooting skill. They have Shooting 2 and so must roll a 1 or 2 on 1d10 to pass. They roll a 3 and fail.

Finally, if the dice naturally turn up doubles (B1R1, B4R4), then the result is a critical. If both dice are EVEN (B2R2, B4R4 etc), it is a critical success. Double odds (B5R5,B7R7 etc) are a critical failure. Criticals typically offer a special edge or hindrance according to context. For example, a critical success on Research might dig up extra information that gives you an edge, while a failure might mean you end up believing a false rumour as if it were gospel truth.[/hider]

[hider=Will and Spots]Characters have a number of Will points equal to their Will stat. Will is very powerful and can be used a few ways. 

First, spending a Will can flip a dice roll. For instance, if you roll Black 1 Red 10 then you can make that roll Black 10 Red 1. 

Next, a Will can downgrade a critical failure to a normal failure. This especially comes in handy when your gun jams as a horde of the dead is descending.

Finally, a Will can be used to upgrade a regular success to a critical success, for when you absolutely need a miracle. When a Vector's bearing down on you, and you need a killshot, spend that Will.

Will is regained by acting according to your Spots in such a way that gets you (or your team) in trouble. Spots are character aspects or traits. Each character has three Spots: a Tough, Weak and Soft Spot.

Tough Spots describe how your character survived the Crash. Think of it like a "character class" or "background". Mechanically, Tough Spots provide a benefit and a drawback. For example, someone with the Tough Spot "Hustler" got by on their wits and establishing a dense network of contacts and favours; they never have to roll Networking and always "know a guy" who can help out. However, all these favours soon become debts and the Hustler has creditors on their tail; once per job, the Market can give the Hustler a Will point and declare they owe someone 1d10 Bounty - or else.

Weak Spots are character flaws and failings; a good way to think about them is "when someone complains about your character, this is what they're complaining about". For instance, someone might take the Weak Spot "Napoleon Complex" to represent a character who sometimes overacts to compensate for short stature. They might get a Will by picking a fight they don't need to to show themselves off as "the big man about town".

Soft Spots are a little more complicated; they're traits, personality traits and beliefs that [i]would[/i] be virtues were it not for the fact that you're in a zombie wasteland. For example, a character who believes "Why Can't We All Get Along?" would normally be a mediator, a defuser of tensions - but when the insane cultists are at your door with chainsaws and pitchforks, this is not the time for reasoned debate. They might get a Will by walking unarmed into the lion's den to negotiate.[/hider]

[hider=Humanity and Dependants]
No man is an island; everyone needs some kind of support network that helps them cope with the stresses of the world. This is especially true when those stresses include undead cannibals and government assassins. This is where Humanity and Dependants come in.

Humanity is your Taker's mental health and it takes a hit from experiencing the traumatic, stressful and deadening realities of life in the apocalypse. Humanity is divided into three categories: Trauma, Detachment and Stress. These tracks go from 0-15. 0 represents total mental health; at 5 and 10, your character experiences some kind of psychotic break and if you reach 15 you're such a broken human no longer playable. When your character encounters something stressful or horrific (such as witnessing someone being torn asunder by a horde of Casualties), the Market will ask for a Self-Control check. On a failure, your character will receive damage to one of their Humanity tracks (especially nightmarish events might give you some damage even if you succeed). 

Trauma damage occurs when witnessing gruesome acts of violence, or being placed in life-or-death situations. For instance, being trapped in a truck surrounded by zombies is a Trauma. 

Detachment damage occurs when your Taker loses empathy for or faith in the human species and starts seeing other people as 'just meat'. The guy who shoots his friend in the leg so he can escape the zombie horde? Yeah, that guy's Detached to all get out.

Stress represents all those mundane worries you hoped would go away when the world ended but hey, guess what, they didn't. Money, family, co-workers, those are all still things you get Stressed over. When your have to raid your hard-earned savings to replace lost gear, that's Stress. When you run out of savings? Oh BOY is that Stress. 

But it's not all bad. Dependants are NPC's who your character can spend time with each Job in order to heal some Humanity damage. These are people who are, as their name suggests, someone who relies on your character at least somewhat; they might be your children, your spouse, your friends. They aren't entirely able to survive on their own - perhaps they lack skills that are useful to the enclave, or suffered some kind of injury that prevents them from working themselves. Either way, a Dependent is a small financial burden on the Taker.

A Taker has a number of Dependants equal to their Charisma rating, as the more charming you are the easier it is to form significant relationships. Each Dependant costs 1 Bounty per Job to keep them fed, clothed and sheltered. So, if Miss Jones has Charisma 2 she can have 2 Dependants. She decides that her husband James is one of them and that he needs her help because his right arm was amputated when he was bitten so he can't work in the enclave's farm. Her second Dependant is Stacey, her former college roommate; Stacey's skill as a poet means nothing in the wasteland and Jones gives her some Bounty every now and then to keep her from going hungry. Each time Miss Jones gets paid from a Job, she needs to put 2 Bounty towards keeping James and Stacey from going Needy. Missing one payment isn't too bad but over time, if you let your Dependants go hungry they'll leave you.

However, each Dependent a Taker has heals one COLUMN of Humanity (that is, the highest filled levels off Stress, Trauma and Detachment at the same time). For instance, imagine Miss Jones has Trauma 4, Detachment 3 and Stress 4; she's on the verge of breaking in both Trauma and Stress. She also has two Dependants (James and Stacey). In between jobs, spending quality time with her dependants; she heals the 4 column, then the 3 column. This leaves her with 2 in all categories. This means that the better you can support your Dependants (and the more you can get) the more resilient you are to the Loss.
 
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Thoughts? Questions?