Re: Hey mister tally-man......

From: Mark Galeotti <hia15_at_...>
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 19:42:00 -0000

Well, I doubt the skies would fall if you gave Harst-Orlanth Tally, but I think it works best kept as an Issaries skill. After all, either Harst has the Evaluate Resources skill and various relevant feats, so I think a Harst-Orlanth trader could easily know what he had. But Harst is essentially a glorified tax collector and shopkeeper, dealing largely in a relatively small range of goods whose value and equivalences are fairly straightforward. He doesn't need to keep records, he can just look at his storehouse or the market.

Other Issaries traders, on the other hand, are more likely to be entrepreneurs, perhaps dealing in a more varied range of goods, some of which are spculative ("what *could* I get for a wagon-load of Esrolian phallic symbols?") and many of which might even not be in the trader's immediate possession. Some form of portable written record might then be much more necessary. (I do feel that in more settled and urbanised parts of Kethaela, there may well be a banker/money-lender herocult, with a system of promissory notes.)

IMO, there's also the miffic dimension: Issaries got specific forms of visual language from LM (including tallying) in return for teaching LM that knowledge can be traded without being lost.

So Harst-Issaries traders may get a slight edge thanks to Tally, especially if they are more entrepreneurial. So they should! After all, the Orlanth-Harst trader will probably get an edge at home with their dry grain, blessed granaries, etc.

Mark

Mark Galeotti