Entrepreneur’s Master Merchant talent says "when buying or selling goods, take 2 strain to buy for 25% more or 25% less” - but how far does that extend. Any transaction gets an automatic 25% off the top (after spending the strain, of course)? Sure it’ll apply to the crate of blasters you’ll be selling on the secondary market, but what about one blaster to replace the one that fell down the sewer grate when you rolled a despair? Just need a one set of armor instead of a six pack? Big ticket items like ships? That's a hell of a savings!

Yeah, you’ve got a really good point. IMO, Master Merchant sounds like something that should only apply to Wholesale items, not Retail.

OTOH, Wheel and Deal sounds like it could be applied to both Retail and Wholesale items.

So, buying in bulk, like you would if you were going to re-sell the items, Master Merchant could come into play. But buying onesies and twosies, that would be Wholesale and Master Merchant wouldn’t be a factor.

I can imagine using both Master Merchant and Wheel and Deal to get your Wholesale selling price close to Retail value, and on the flip side then using Wheel and Deal to buy retail things at a price closer to Wholesale.

I don’t think it would be likely to ever overlap far enough that you could buy at reduced Retail prices and then turn around and sell at increased Wholesale prices and still make a profit, but you might be able to shave the losses down quite a bit.

Of course, there’s always the whole supply and demand thing, and if people see you coming they might decide to try to adjust their pricing a bit to compensate, but I would imagine that would all be handled through the narrative plus dice rolls for things like Streetwise, Cool, Negotiation, etc….

A merchant paying 50% of an items list cost is actually pretty realistic.

If the concern is for all the credits that player potentially saves by buying low then reselling for profit, keep in mind you still have to have a buyer for said goods and planetary and Imperial business liscenses could substatially cut into their operating expenses doing so, and the risk of making a sale without having paid for such runs the risk of seeing your goods confiscated.

Which leaves you with selling on the black market, which carries its own risks.

Well it's not called Mediocre Merchant. I say it does what it says on the tin.

If someone has the stones to go with one of the merchant classes I'd give them full benefit of the talents.

IIRC, Wheel and Deal only applies to selling, not to buying.

If you have a combatant who is awesome at killing things you would work out appropriate challenges for them. So why change the rules in the middle of your game for a guy that is a support character? He decided to go down this path now you're deciding to take away the advantages he has earned with the experience you have given him?

I'd also allow a player who spends his xp on trading talent to use them when selling single items - after all, it is a different kind of help for the team. One guy shoots things dead, another collects their gear and sells it. Or replaces damaged/lost items. I don't think it's a gamebreaker, but rather a good reason to play an interesting character.

I'd first talk with my GM if s/he plans on having this kind of a game. For example, in rebel teams (doing missions from a secret base etc.) this character and such talents would be often useless.

I'd first talk with my GM if s/he plans on having this kind of a game. For example, in rebel teams (doing missions from a secret base etc.) this character and such talents would be often useless.

Well, at least for my question at hand, we're already in the middle of the game - and yes, it's appropriate (we're running a bar on a frontier world) - I just wanted to make sure that when I started throwing around strain and picking up my discount, that if the GM's go "Are you sure thats how that works?" that I had my ducks in a row.

You guys are ammunition for my (potential) future arguments.

Trader/Entrepreneur is a pretty powerful combo, simply because of all the money-related talents. I'd say let him have his fun, but it just wouldn't apply in certain situations (One does not simply go Lightsabre shopping)

Edit: 100 Posts!

Something else to consider is the Trader's reputation. If he is always getting a great deal, and giving poor ones, eventually buyers and merchandisers are going to walk away when they see him approach.

"I'd like to see that Aratech up there."

"Sorry, sold out."
"But I can see it right there."
"Nope, nothing there. We're closing now."
"It's the middle of the day!"
"Bye."

Something else to consider is the Trader's reputation. If he is always getting a great deal, and giving poor ones, eventually buyers and merchandisers are going to walk away when they see him approach.

"I'd like to see that Aratech up there."

"Sorry, sold out."

"But I can see it right there."

"Nope, nothing there. We're closing now."

"It's the middle of the day!"

"Bye."

Building up Charm (and possibly Kill with Kindness) can really help overcome such issues. A good seller can screw you over and leave you wondering why you ever agreed to the deal, but a great seller can screw you over and leave you thinking you are the one that got a great deal.

To help with the whole "I can buy the galaxy and sell a wookie a set of clippers but cant hit the broad side of a parked star destroyer." syndrome. In the EotE core book there are plenty of droids in the NPC section available for purchase.

Should not be a problem at all for a savvy trader to purchase a security droid and hell, he should even be able to buy some modifications for it!

Posted this in the Ask A Dev thread, but I thought I'd post it here too:

I said:

The Master Merchant talent for Entrepreneur says "when buying or selling goods, take 2 strain to buy for 25% more or 25% less" - does that apply to all transactions?

Of course it'll apply to the crate of blasters that our merchant will be selling on the secondary market, but what about one off items like "Oh, I just dropped my blaster off a cliff and I need a new one". Or big ticket items like ships? It seems to run counter to the theme of the character to buy things at a discount for personal use versus several crates that he's going to flip at the next port of call.

TL;DNR version: does Master Merchant apply to everything the Entrepreneur buys or just wholesale items only?

Sam said: