The economy of the Tyr-region is based around the ceramic piece: small, glazed
and fired tiles that can be broken into ten bits, called (uncreatively) bits. Each
city-state mints their own, though all are generally accepted as currency in any
city-state and there are measures in place to prevent forgery.
Copper, silver and gold coins are minted as well, and are
worth a great deal more than the ceramic piece, by increasing factors of ten (i.e. -- a
copper is worth ten ceramics, a silver is worth ten coppers (one hundred ceramics) and a
gold is worth ten silvers (a thousand ceramics)).
Assume that a wealth of 1 is equal to a few bits, a wealth of 2 is equal to a few
ceramics, a wealth of 3 is equal to a silver or two, a wealth of 4 is equal to a number of
silvers, a wealth of 5 is equal to a few golds, and a wealth of 6 or higher is equal to
many golds.
Buying goods is a simple matter of finding a vendor and
purchasing them, the rarity of the goods being bought supplying the difficulty for the
wealth check.
| Rarity of Goods |
Difficulty |
| Plentiful |
Easy (4) |
| Common |
Average (8) |
| Uncommon |
Challenging (12) |
| Rare |
Daunting (16) |
| Very Rare |
Desperate (20) |
| Unique |
Impossible (24) |
See the "Wealth" section for more details.
The majority of craftwork on Athas is done upon materials
such as clay, wood, stone, shell, bone and obsidian, as metal is rare and extremely
expensive.
As these materials are not metal, they weigh and cost far less than metal items of the
same sort would.
In addition, weapons made out of these substances are less
sturdy than their metallic twins, not holding as good of an edge and even breaking while
in use. Weapons normally crafted of steel that are instead made of bone, stone, obsidian,
or wood all cause 1 less than the listed damage in other sources (note though, that no
weapon can cause less than one point of damage). Further, striking with such weapons
increases the action difficulty by one (for bone, stone or obsidian) or two (for wood).
Material |
Cost |
Weight
|
Damage
Adjustment |
Attack
Difficulty |
| Wood |
one-tenth |
half |
-1 |
+2 |
| Bone |
one-third |
half |
-1 |
+1 |
| Stone or Obsidian |
one-half |
one-third |
-1 |
+1 |
Any of these weapons will break upon striking if a Dragon
card is used for a successful blow (though damage will still be dealt); failing the attack
action with a Dragon card has either no effect upon the weapon, causes it to become stuck
in something nearby, or a similar mishap (Narrator's choice).
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