Organizations For Domain-level Play in Everway

Below is a draft of a format for domains/organizations/companies such as Merchant Houses, temples, mercenary companies - even families - in Everway. The format I am proposing combines Everway-style elemental skills with FATE-like Aspects.

I'll use this format to stat out a couple of organizations tomorrow.

OGL MECHANICS

Organization name:________________________

ASPECTS:

• Strength  (chose a tarot-like symbol):
• Weakness  (chose a tarot-like symbol):
• Opportunity (chose a tarot-like symbol with upright vs. reversed meanings)
• Additional Aspects:
• Associations will have one additional Aspect
• Guilds will have two additional Aspects
• Orders will have three additional Aspects

SKILLS: 

• Fire (Force)
• Earth (Resources)
• Air (Knowledge)
• Water (Influence) 

Skills are rated 1-10. 

Associations are organizations involving one or more villages, or a town. They will generally have skills in the 1-3 range. Assign up to 4-8 points to the four skills for these organizations, assigning no less than one point per skill. 

Guilds are organizations involving one or more cities or a realm. They will generally have skills in the 4-6 range.   Assign 8-16 points to the four skills for these organizations, assigning no less than two points per skill.

Corporations are organizations involving several realms or an entire sphere; they can also span realms on different spheres that are connected by a gate. Assign 12-24 points to the four skills for these organizations, assigning no less than three points per skill.

STRESS TRACKS: 

Organizations have two stress tracks: one for Order and one for Treasury. Each stress track has a default of 5 blocks.

• The Order stress track takes stress from the shifts inflicted by Force-related conflicts, as well as from conflicts that seek to divide or otherwise disorganize the organization's structure and systems. 
• The Treasury stress track takes stress from the shifts inflicted by conflicts targeting Resources.
• Either track may be effected by shifts resulting from attacks on an organization's Knowledge or Influences. The attacker selects the most appropriate track to target, with GM approval.

FATE POINTS: 

• 3 for an organization whose Skills are in the 1-3 range
• 4 for an organization whose Skills are in the 4-6 range
• 5 for an organization whose Skills are in the 7-10 range

Table 6: Inter-Sphere Trade Items

What kinds of items are traded between the spheres? Here is a D30 table to get some ideas flowing.

1. Luxury goods including: 
• Books and scrolls
• Spherepaths, atlases, and maps
• Fortune Decks (especially variant designs)
• Items uniquely associated with a specific Sphere or Realm (e.g., you only find Pyramid Cult medallions and rosaries in Everway)
• Items associated with a historical figure (ruler, folk hero, Spherewalker from a particular realm)
• Fine rugs and textiles
• Jewelry and other apparel
• Cosmetics
• Musical instruments
• Paintings
• Furniture
• Jade items
2. Gold and gems
3. Saffron
4. Other spices
5. Religious relics
6. Sacred articles (e.g., sage, holy water, dragon relics) used in rituals
7. Demon jars
8. Magic items
9. Grains. Magically modified high-yield grains are increasingly popular trade items. Some of high yield grains cannot be used as seed. Trade in these grains makes farmers in one sphere dependent on magi in another to produce new seed corn
10. Mankines
11. Human slaves (the sale of which is prohibited in Everway)
12. Salt
13. Fruits, especially the transportation of fruits that are in-season in one realm to another where those fruits are not in season (or simply impossible to grow)
14. Magic fruits
15. Various alcoholic beverages.
16. Recreational and ritual drugs
17. Domesticated animals
18. Specialized or superior breeds of domesticated animals
19. Rare or exotic animals
20. Magical creatures
21. Creature parts
22. Small machines, magical or otherwise
23. Weapons and armor.
24. Dragon-backed currency and items that were once part of Dragon hoards 
25. Dragon relics- see the Dragon Trade II.
26. Debt pawns to collateralize loans between spheres
27. Pottery, china, glasses, utensils
28. Labor in the form of skilled workers (masons, smiths, mercenaries, shipwrights)
29. Medicines
30. Stimulants including:

• Tobacco
• Tea leaves
• Coffee beans,
• Chocolate beans
• Coca leaves
• Khat

Strangerside Scholar: Merchant Houses of Everway

The Merchant of Baghdad, The Arabian Nights (1948) by Arthur Szyk
http://www.szyk.com/szyk-art/subject-areas.htm

The Everwayans are masters of commerce and trade. You don't get to be the city at the center of the multiverse without developing your capacities in that area. Centuries ago, Everwayan legalists decided that businesses were like people, with specific gifts, rights, and entitlements. One or two Everwayans have even tried to marry one. This isn't surprising or odd at all, since most Merchant Houses are tied to a particular Everwayan family.

Recently, it has been proposed that the Empty Chair set aside in the Council House for the Whiteoar family be given over to the House of Beads - also known as the Little Council - which represents the Merchant Houses of Everway. Why not let them have a seat, the great families ask? There are so many Merchant Houses after all, they need a voice in the governance of the city, and they have so much to offer. "All wealth comes from charters" as the say. At least that's the perspective of those who are already doing well thanks to such businesses.

Most of the great families sponsor one or more Merchant Houses. Each Merchant House has a charter, ratified by the Council and stamped with the seal of the King himself. Getting charters approved costs money. Not official money, as in taxes, but beads to move the wheels as the saying goes.

The charter sets out a Merchant House's purpose, and typically specifies the goods that it is empowered by Council and King to buy and sell. The charter may also specify the spheres or spherepaths in which the Merchant House may operate. Some are quite broad enterprises, trading many different types of items in many different realms; others buy and sell a single commodity, or serve only one or two realms.

One thing is for sure: almost all Merchant Houses require Spherewalkers: as representatives, as porters, as caravan guides between the realms. And here the different levels of ability with Spherewalking really matter. As the saying goes: "Walk for yourself, and you'll do make due. Help others Walk and you'll open the Gate of Riches." 


This opens our series on Merchant Houses of Everway.