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gear
While metal exists on Athas, it is rare. Most people never own any, although will occasionally see it from afar, as the rich and powerful use it to assert status, as both ornamentation and enhanced equipment for their security detail. Most everyday objects are either crafted from stone, glass and other minerals; or harvested from plants and animals. Any character who acquires real metal should think twice before flashing it around: the character will be marked as a "player", and while it may impress some in the short term, it can also provoke existing powers-that-be who would prefer to retain the status quo (i.e. with them at the top and you at the bottom).
To accomodate the non-metallic economy, the original Dark Sun campaign setting replaced metal coins with "ceramic pieces." However, considering the evolution of real-life monetary systems, ceramic pieces seem less likely in practice than a commodity money system (eg shells and beads). No doubt, the original Dark Sun authors felt constrained by tropes inherited from AD&D, but we can do better.
The simplest commodities to track are slave labor and water. In FL, four units of water can fit in each inventory slot. On Athas, a slave is generally assumed to need one unit of water every two days, and one unit of food every four days. We'll call a unit of water a peck. To allow for buying food, clothing, and other essential items, one slave-week costs about five pecks. Smaller transactions are then measured in shorter periods of work: four Quarter Days (or "quarts") can be worked per peck, and six hours per quart.
Considering the above, we generally convert Forbidden Lands costs to Athasian units in the following ways:
- Every two coppers in FL translates to one quart on Athas, or one copper for three slave-hours.
- A silver in FL is about one peck on Athas.
- What a gold piece buys in FL, you can buy for three slave-weeks on Athas.
With those rough translations in mind, we now consider the various tables in the Forbidden Lands gear charts (pp180-195.)
- In FL, water is not given a price; it is assumed to be abundant. On Athas, a peck of water is worth a slave-day, or vice-versa. A 40-gallon barrel of water is equivalent to a slave-month.
- I trust PCs won't be buying slaves, but slave markets do exist on Athas. Most people on Athas will know that slaves can be purchased for a value of one or two barrels of water, depending on the vitality, skills and attractiveness of the slave.
- Live aarakocra eggs are worth a slave-day. Aarakocra are intelligent bird-like creatures, and their chicks are often trained as scouts and sentries.
- Most arrows are crafted from 1/2 stone and 1 light bone, and are valued at three quarts. Metal armor and heavy armor count as double against them. No one makes purely wooden arrows. If metal arrow heads are available, they increase the cost to four slave-days.
- Many items that require iron in FL can be made from other things instead without impairing their utility, so just use the usual price conversions.
Any of the weapons normally available in FL can be manufactured on Athas, but their price increases by three pecks per 1/2 iron. Eg a longsword is worth nearly two slave-months. If the same weapon were manufactured without iron, it would either do less damage or would be noticably more fragile, at a fraction of the price. Generally, bone and stone weapons suffer the following drawbacks compared to their metal equivalents:
- Metal armor is twice as effective.
- Reduce the weapon's damage by 1. (Even a weapon with 0 damage is still more effective than unarmed, due to retaining the skill bonus.)
- Whenever the weapon takes damage from being pushed, the first point of damage is doubled.
When obsidian, crystal or ceramic is used, it does not lose the damage bonus, but the weapon is instantly destroyed when its gear bonus is reduced to 0.
Athas has many unconventional weapons, most of which aren't actually in common use even on Athas. For example, the iconic chatkcha and gythka are mainly only used by thri-kreen; and many weapons intended for gladiatorial combat are designed to be either dangerous for the wielder or ineffective, and so are unlikely to be used outside an arena. Like on ancient Earth, most people engaging in real fights will probably just stick with spears, clubs, axes, shortswords and bows.
Furthermore, some Athasian weapons are basically just rebranded conventional weapons:
- Alhulak: Similar to a flail but Pointed instead of Blunt, in case you ever thought it would be fun to hit someone with a grappling hook and hope it doesn't swing the wrong way and hit you instead. Costs three quarts.
- Bard's Friend: Spiked knuckle dusters favored by minstrels. Equivalent to knives. Costs one peck.
- Carrikal: An Athasian battleaxe. Costs two pecks.
- Dragon's Paw: A gladiator's long spear with a spiked hand guard. Can be used to parry without incurring the normal penalty for non-shields. Costs three pecks.
- Impaler: A gladiator's pick equivalent to either a 2H axe. The blades are Pointed rather than Edged. Costs two pecks.
- Wrist razors: Bone claws worn on the backs of the hands. Equivalent to knives. Costs one peck.
As with weapons, similar armor exists on Athas as Forbidden Lands, except iron components cost more, and non-iron replacements come with drawbacks:
- It makes the armor half as effective vs metal weapons.
- When the armor takes damage, the first point of damage is doubled.
Note that armor which doesn't normally rely on any metal, i.e. Leather armor, is not degraded in this way; its weaker material is already accounted for in its lower armor rating.
Furthermore, because of the heat, most people will prefer to avoid heavier armor anyway. See the survival rules for more information.
- A unit of iron ore is worth one peck.
- A unit of iron is worth a slave-week, a unit of silver is worth a slave-month, and a unit of gold is worth a slave-year.
- Fish still exist on Athas, but they are unlikely to be eaten frivolously. A unit of fish costs a peck, instead of just a single slave-day.
- Likewise, wood is rarer and more valued on Athas, so a unit costs a peck.
- There is no wool on Athas. Cloth is generally made from plant fibres.
- Silk is harvested from "silk wyrms", dangerous 50' monsters. Although silk is not exactly rare, harvesting it is considered dangerous work. It also has fire-resistant properties. Thus a unit of silk is worth three slave-weeks.
Additional raw materials:
- Bronze -- Bronze is harder to create than iron, but copper and tin are relatively more abundant on Athas. Thus bronze is worth about the same amount, instead of being more expensive.
- Crystal spider web -- a light item worth one quart, used to add edges to weapons.
- Gems, jewels and crystals -- always light or tiny items, variable cost. In addition to being a raw material for jewellery, they can also be imprinted with a psionic matrix.
- Bone, scales and chitin -- varies in size from tiny to heavy. Tiny bones are often used as needles and are worth a quart. A heavy chitin plate such as from a braxat can be worth a whole slave-month.
- Erdlu egg -- can be consumed raw to provide a single ration of both food and water. Unopened, the shelf life of an egg is one month. Costs two quarts.
- Aprig -- Like a cross between a pig and a pangolin, aprigs are tough on the outside and juicy sweet on the inside. They are easy to take care of, being herbivorous but not otherwise fussy, and gentle-natured. When killed provides 2 units of meat, 2 units of bones, two units of leather and a unit of scales. Cost: two slave-weeks.
- Erdlu -- Tough and scaley flightless birds which are also excellent herd animals. When killed, provides 4 units of meat, 4 units of light bones, and 2 units of scales. Females yield one egg per week. Cost: one slave-week.
- Kank -- Large docile insects often used as beasts of burden. They are tough and reliable mounts, and when organized into herds begin producing globules of honey from their abdomens. Cost: two slave-months.
- Inix -- Large and extremely strong lizards, usually employed as either pack animals or mounts for half-giants. On the road, they need to be fed one ration of vegetables or other plants per Quarter Day. When slaughtered, they yield eight units of heavy chitin and six units of leather. Cost: two slave-months.
- Mekillot -- Dreadnoughts of the sands, these armored reptiles dwarf even inix. Extremely billigerent, so need to be kept under constant psionic control or similar. Cost: four slave-months.
- Crodlu -- "riding raptors", similar to the extinct terrorbirds of the Americas. Best for smaller riders such as halflings, but can carry a human, elf or mül. Cost: two slave-months.
- Aprig sty: this replaces pigsty.
- Dovecote: TBA, but doves seem unlikely on Athas. More likely, you might hire a telepath.
- Erdlu pen: this replaces sheepfold. Erdlu cannot be shorn, but their eggs are quite nutritious, and when an adult is killed, it can be harvested for beaks and scales, useful for crafting weapons and armor. An erdlu pen with a male will produce one egg per week per female.
- Field: Rather than requiring no prior resources, a Field needs a peck of water every day.
- Forge: It doesn't make sense to replace the iron in a forge with some other material, so forges are extremely expensive on Athas. Furthermore, due to their rarity and the physical demands of the work, hiring a smith to run the forge also requires two pecks per day.
- Garden: Like a Field, a garden must be watered. Gardens require a peck of water every second day.
- Mine: You can build a mine, but its yield will be lower. For each Quarter Day of work, each miner rolls one Gear Die. A result of 6 means the miner recovered one unit of iron ore.
- Pasture: Probably doesn't make sense since there are no cows on Athas and even if there were they would use too much water.
- Shrine: In a city, these will often be devoted to the local sorcerer-king. In the wilderness, devotion to local nature spirits is more likely.
- Well: They say there are vast aquifers under the Athasian desert; it seems like anyone who digs deep enough can eventually bring up as much water as they need. That doesn't mean it's easy though. After building a well, roll 1D6. This is the number of inventory slots of water it contains. Each inventory slot regains one unit every day. You can dig the well deeper, but now you need someone with the Builder talent, on top of the 50 stone and two weeks work. Each time you increase the depth of the well beyond this, the builder gets a cumulative -1 to their Crafting roll, and the amount of time is increased by one week compared to the previous level; on the plus side, the number of dice rolled at each level increases by one each time. Eg, a well with four levels requires 200 stone, 11 weeks of work, three Crafting rolls by your builder (with 0, -1 and -2 penalties), and the resulting well can hold 7D6 inventory slots worth of water.
Some types of meditation benefit from being able to gaze into a polished object such as a crystal ball or black mirror. When performing the ritual version of a psionic power that utilizes Meditation, such objects provide a Gear Bonus to the Meditation roll.
There are three variants of this type of item, depending on the skill used to craft it:
- Common: +1 Gear Bonus to ritual Meditation rolls. Requires Mineralogist at Rank 1 to craft, or costs one peck.
- Uncommon: +2 Gear Bonus to ritual Meditation rolls. Requires Mineralogist at Rank 2 to craft, or costs five pecks.
- Rare: +3 Gear Bonus to ritual Meditation rolls. Requires Mineralogist at Rank 3 to craft, or costs a barrel of water.
In addition to the Mineralogist talent, crafting a focus from scratch requires access to Raw Materials capable of creating a polished surface, such as crystals, gems, obsidian or glass.
Using the discipline of psychotronics, a psionicist (or just someone with the wild talent) can record skills that they know into a crystal or gem. By combining psychotronics with telepathy, they can even copy skills that they themselves don't know, but which are known by someone else who they can access. The psychotronics talent is also able to copy skills between matrices.
Anyone who touches the matrix can emulate the skill, as though they had the same number of bonuses as in the recording. Note that when such skills are rolled, they cannot be Pushed.
The transfer usually isn't "pure", but instead comes with snatches of memory and personality from the original source. By meditating on the crystal, it is even possible to ask basic questions of the original source, especially if it's about memories related to the skill bonus. The higher the skill bonus, the clearer and more intelligent the emulated personality will become. The more of a single person's skills added to a matrix, the more similar the emulated personality will be to the original person.
All skill matrices are Rare; their value varies by the level of skill bonuses provided, ranging from a few pecks to many barrels of water.
The discipline of psychotronics can also prepare a crystal or gem to act as a storage pool for surplus Power Levels. When activating a psionic power, anyone touching the crystal can draw upon the stored Power Levels and add it to the effect. Conversely, anyone with any psionic talent can spend Willpower Points to add Power Levels back into a depleted condenser.
Note that each condenser has a maximum Power Level, which affects it's value and rarity.
- Common: The maximum varies between 1 and 6; roll a D6 for a typical rating.
- Uncommon: The maximum varies between 7 and 12, possibly determined by 1D6+6.
- Rare: Anything higher than 12. Anything higher than 20 is unheard of.
A typical price is one peck per maximum Power Level, plus another peck for each Power Level actually available.
A third use of psychotronics is similar to Skill Matrices, but rather than imprinting a skill, you instead imprint another psionic power. Anyone with any psionic talent who touches the shaper can channel Willpower Points into it, and the Active version of the power will come into effect by consuming the granted WP. No shaper ever provides more than one power, and they never provide either Passive or Ritual versions of the power. It is always exactly one type of Active effect. On the plus side, they can be activated as a Fast Action.
All shapers are Rare; their cost varies by the Rank of the power provided. A Rank 1 shaper usually costs between a slave-week and a slave-month. Rank 2 varies between a month and half a year. Rank 3 could cost anything greater than half a slave-year.
It is possible to fuel a Power Shaper using a Psionic Condenser. It is also possible to configure a suitably advanced Skill Matrix to act as a governor for deciding when to activate the condenser. Thus, sophisticated automated systems are possible.
However, this is advanced knowledge, jealously guarded by the sorcerer-kings, and any independent psionicist who dared display such ingenuity would be painting a target on their back. Still, who knows what legacy systems still inhabit old ruins, or what advances the sorcerer-kings have made in their secret laboratories?