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Bought & Broken: Goblin Market Costs & Prices

Welcome to the jungle
We got fun 'n' games
We got everything you want
Honey we know the names
We are the people that can find
Whatever you may need 
If you got the money honey
We got your disease
-- Guns N' Roses, "Welcome to the Jungle

Goblin markets are magical places not just because they're attended by otherworldly beings, not just because they can be staged in the Hedge, but also because nearly anything can be bought and sold there.  The books make it abundantly clear that the market is not restricted to earthly goods or to common mechanical benefits, like points of Willpower.  You can buy the sweet feeling of a young girl's first love or an alien flower or a human kidney - but what will the asking price be for such treasures?  And if you had such things to sell, what might you expect be offered?  With a playing field so broad, it is no wonder that the books only go so far into explaining market haggling.  The authors took special pains to make the game mysterious, open, and fascinating.  But sometimes, particularly on the spur of the moment, a little guidance is needed.

The chart below is meant as a quick guide that provides several things.  The first column gives you ideas for the types of items and features that can be bought and sold.  The second column gives you an idea of what might happen to a person who sells such things: a changeling who sells a dot of Manipulation will not be able to access it until they buy it back with experience points or the deal ends.  Sometimes goblins don't want something forever, but they'll take it for right now.  The third column gives an idea of how the goblin merchants will phrase such deals.  The fourth column talks about the possible side effects of buying the items in column one.  If you purchased a dot of Manipulation, for instance, you might not be able to use your highest dot of Empathy until you get used to the change. 

The last column talks about the types of markets that will trade in such things.  "Normal" goblin markets are the type most commonly found, and they'll deal in dream vessels without batting an eye, but the locals will frown on trading in body parts (at least out in the open).  "Taboo" markets deal in risque and risky rarities, such as health levels and slaves.  Most freeholds do not support the slave trade, for instance, unless slaves are being purchased with the intent to set them free in the real world.  Some things are frowned upon for other reasons that are less obvious.  That dot of Strength you covet, for instance - where did it come from?  In all likelihood, it was tricked, stolen, or tortured away from an innocent.

This is a mix and match sort of chart, and your mileage will certainly vary.  I've found it to be a handy reference and something of a security blanket; when my players ask what's at market, I don't worry as much about being caught flat-footed.  What does the Butcher have for sale?  Eyes with 20/20 vision, which will cost 3 experience points per eye (and will cause visual hallucinations).  The Praying Man (who is part priest, part praying mantis) will add your Vice of Lust to his special string of prayer beads and you'll stop feeling the urges for the duration (one prayer cycle is one month).  In return, he'll give you a dot of Clarity - but your sexual organs will be unable to feel arousal or perform, you will be unable to draw Glamour from Lust, and you will be unable to regain Willpower from your Vice.  Or maybe you'll just forget everything you knew about sex altogether (as well as every memory of sexual encounters).

Download this chart in PDF