I've done a little negotiation in "real" life and psychological
tricks are played all the time. They are all perfectly "moral".
- Being outnumbered by the opposition
- Negotiating on their turf where they can control the pace of
events
- He has a bigger chair, sits on a table or walks up and down next
to something impressive (anywhere higher than you)
- Authoritarian tones or very boring
- Kindly grandfather
- He is good cop, his sidekick is bad cop
- Little shocks that trigger fight or flight responses (adrenaline
switches)
All of these are actually dirty if you know they are going on at all.
What ordinary people can do to counter it
- Negotiate beforehand the exact environment for negotiations
- Bring along lots of rough looking people who just stand there
with arms crossed.
- Ensure there is a bottom line that is out of your hands (ie,
someone else holds the money bag elsewhere; you get a clear mandate
from your people that you can't break)
- know what you are talking about.
- Adjourn whenever necessary to discuss it.
- Never contradict your mates
so when an Issaries devotee is using his convince_buyer feat a)he
isn't doing anything more dirty than any profiteer b)He may be
enhancing the environment before hand like some of the examples
above but in a magified sense. As for Enhance_appearance_of_goods
that is called merchandising, packaging and advertising in the real
world and that really is a black art.
So, Dar Harvarson cotter of Flintstead is going to:
- improvise the much ignored Durev feat of dont_get_ripped_off and
the barntar feat of ignore_clever_people
- bring along some rough looking mates (must be sober though even
if it is a market day) Sources of AP or augments (sneering contempt
from 20 paces skill)
- Choose a venue to his liking (don't get a penalty from subtle
influences of traders tent)
- don't settle straight away, go away and discuss it with your
dishthane (community support or low AP bids)
- pretend to be thick to disarm him (augment with
deceive_upper_class_git)
- Leave the merchandise somewhere else (interfering with the GMs
plot options if you lose).
Negotiation is always ugly and underhand and always includes
subtleties and in another age would be described as magic. And
anyway for every augmentation the trader can come up with , magic or
not, the PCs should be able to come up with more.
>>Fair Profit
Ha Ha Ha, don't make me laugh