Turbo’s Guide to Econ
This essay refers to the 3.0 ruleset, but many of the principles apply to Dystopia Rising Live.
Turbo’s Guide to Getting Rich, A.K.A. How to Kick in the Doors of the Economy Game in DR
For new players arriving at a game of Dystopia Rising, it can be daunting enough to figure out how to survive and thrive in the wild west of the Wasteland, much less worry about getting rich. One major factor of the game that may not be obvious at first is the complicated living economy that has emerged by trading materials, blueprints, and equipment to other survivors. This guide is an attempt to share some of the basic survival tips that I learned the hard way with new players on how to get by if you want to explore this fascinating aspect of the game.
A few disclaimers to start, though.
This isn’t gospel, it’s OPINION. And everyone has one. This is just my observations and opinions from about ten years of play, and you may disagree with my findings. I’m not perfect, and there are certainly some other different strategies to succeeding. The zen of the DR game is to find something you enjoy. You may not relish hours at a workbench or have the ability to bring home-cooked food to the game. But you may find this a good place to start your exploration of the DR economy experience.
This isn’t a price list. There are lots of folks with a list of exactly what they sell and buy scrap for, and that’s not what this guide is about. The prices in this game fluctuate so fast, it’s hard to predict what will be valuable from one game to the next. Instead, I’m focused on the behaviors that make people successful, not the price they sold an item for. I’m happy to discuss this in detail, but what I’ve found is that trying to slavishly create a formula for generating costs of an item is an entire job by itself.
This is based on a bit of my own real-world sales experience. I literally work in retail sales as my job in real life, so I have years of experience in negotiation, margins, sales techniques and such that I’m drawing from, so don’t feel too bad if you don’t get the economy game right away. It takes practice, like anything else. But the best econ players didn’t get there overnight, and neither will you. It takes time and effort, and a bit of confidence.
Dystopia Rising is NOT a real-world economy. Period. While the game has some similarities with real life economic systems, and I’m sure there’s some nerd out there with way more macroeconomics training than I’ve got that would argue otherwise, trying to compare the two is an exercise in futility, in my humble opinion. There are certain elements of supply and demand that might apply to things in the real world, but they inherently fall apart within the game systems of DR. There is effectively an infinite SUPPLY of items in the game, as at any time an ST can send out money, scrap, herb, or more as part of a mod, so the DEMAND can never be truly set with supply side economics. You cannot control the flow of the items that enter the game, you can only influence them.
Master skills can help make things easier, but they aren’t required to succeed. While it is true that someone with Master skills has a bit of an advantage on certain aspects of the item card game, this is a problem baked into the system of Dystopia Rising. A blueprint isn’t going to fix this alone, but you can be successful at the economy without ever spending a Mind point. Several of my rules will try to explore this concept in detail.
Succeeding at the DR economy is difficult solo — It’s easier with friends. In fact, it’s like turning on the “hard mode” of a video game. Most zombie stories are about GROUPS of survivors, and Dystopia Rising is no different. Those badass lone wolf characters will have a real hard time. The mechanics of the game are working against you if you are trying to do this all as a single character. If you do intend on trying this solo, understand that it will be about the people you know, not the skills you have, or the herb you can farm.
Finally, I’ve been pretty successful in the Economy game of DR in my days as a player before becoming the director and it’s one of my favorite parts of live events. But I’m not revealing ALL of my secrets here — it’s just too much. It’s honestly a better conversation in person and I love to talk about this in game as my character Turbo Six, or even just online if you want to chat. If you want to learn more, I’ll always offer a pay-per-view lecture during live events that detail some of my other secret strategies to getting rich (shameless plug!).
a Preface - the four avenues of play
The Economy is part of the Dystopia Rising game, whether you like it or not. A clever friend of mine named Ryan Coogan once said that there are four major avenues of play in a DR game - combat, role playing, economy, and CvC. It’s a pillar I’ve mentioned before in blog posts and other parts of the website, and I find it holds true no matter which game you attend. While the economy is technically optional, it will find ways to intrude into all kinds of aspects of the game.
You don’t have to participate in all of the four avenues of play, but you are never immune to consequences from them messing up your day.
You might not want to swing a boffer, but eventually you’ll need an answer for the zed and raiders at the door. You might not be the best role player, but politics of the player and NPC factions can quickly turn deadly based on a few charismatic words from an enemy. You might not like dealing with money, but when you need a new weapon, a repair, or simply some scrap for that shiny new toy, you’ll need some currency or some way to earn a living. And finally, you might not like CvC, but if you wander into the Wasteland unprepared you might have to deal with it sooner than you like.
The zen of DR is to participate in the parts of the game you enjoy most, but you’ll never truly escape the impact of any of these things. So, let’s prepare you to survive the most dreaded enemy of all - getting ahead in the DR economy!
The Basics - What is the Economy?
This is a big question, so it has a big answer.
Most folks seem to agree that the economy of DR involves ITEM CARDS, or just stuff in general. If you have lots of things, you are doing well. If you are struggling to find a brew to stay alive, you aren’t doing that well. Successful Econ players have LOTS of cards, from scrap, weapons, brews, and all manners of nifty gizmos, and it can give them a big advantage in surviving in the harsh world of Dystopia Rising.
There are so many ways to participate in the economy, but they all generally involve trading for goods and services, like item cards. The core of the economy in DR is basically a complicated barter system. On page 166 in the DR Corebook, it covers the design theory of the item system in the game. I encourage you to be familiar with those concepts, as I’ll discuss a few of these items later. But first, I’m going to focus on general concepts.
There are a few significant ways to participate in the economy side of DR:
Gathering - Generating valuable Resources like scrap, herb, and produce. Most of the in-game Resource item cards are designed to be generated by player Skills, like Agricultural, Foraging, Trailblazing, Hunting, or Salvaging.
Crafting - Generating crafted items like weapons, gizmos, or blueprints. There are three main skills involved in this aspect, Culinary and Artisan crafted items and Education for blueprints. Crafted items are the goal of most people that want to succeed in the economy.
Skill Use - Outside of the obvious inclusions in Gathering and Crafting above, this includes other in-game abilities that can be used on another character like Medical or Biogenetics, using Social Influence to cure a fracture, teaching other players a hard-to-find Skill or PFA, or offering access to certain “buy list” items through skills like Trade Connections or Criminal Influence.
Selling Services - Selling the use of your time or skills to other players. This can include selling a drink at a bar, offering real-life food items for money, by being a bodyguard or even using real-world skills like cooking, tailoring, or crafting props to help out your fellow players.
Mod Rewards & Loot - Finding items during modules or on fallen enemies. Monsters or NPCs in the game often have item cards that can be taken from them after you defeat them. Some planned events or mechanics in game might provide a reward or bounty of some kind for completing a task.
Entertainment - Offering leisure activities, like concerts, fun in-game activities, or games of chance. These might have some mechanics behind them, but I’m really talking about actual, legitimate entertainment.
CvC - Any items you take from another player are FREE! (At least for you!)
Trading in Resources or Crafting is one of the easiest and most obvious ways to earn money and be successful at the economy game, but the best way to get rich is through effectively selling Services and Skills. While actual real-world Services offer the best payout, using common Skills like Artisan to repair items that are broken in a big fight can be a way to earn money in game. Loot is probably the worst way to get items in the game, as it’s entirely dependent on the chance of being in the right place at the right time, and whether or not the game’s Staff sent out a particular enemy or mod. Entertainment can be lucrative in some cases, but many folks do this kind of thing as a labor of love because it doesn’t always pay. It can be hard to market it well and profit from your real-life skills, like singing or gambling without some real talent. CvC can sometimes be considered a lucrative way to get items, but that comes with its own particular risk and out of game considerations. I’ve wrote a bunch on CvC in another set of blog posts, in my “Introduction to CVC”.
But these all really revolve around ITEM CARDS. Let’s understand why that’s important.
The Importance of Items
Something the book does poorly, in my opinion, is really sell the importance of the in-game economy to your basic survival.
While you can certainly do without needing a binder of item cards to succeed, many items in the game are so important to the basic function of a Skill or behavior in game, that they are effectively REQUIRED. Sure, you can heal people in a limited fashion with Biogenetics, but acquiring a Doctor Ottoman’s Doctor’s Bag opens up a new level of interaction for characters that enjoy medical role play and makes healing with Medical actually functional. And if you don’t have access to brews and meals, you’ll find it rough to survive a tough fight against zombies without relying on your friends or the charity of others. If you are alone in the woods and bleeding to death, an Injectable is your only hope of avoiding a trip to the Grave Mind.
I’ll cover some more on items below, but having these items quickly available in game makes such a HUGE difference between surviving and thriving. And it’s fun to have cool tricks and neat gear. I think that’s the biggest reason to help you understand how to make the Economy game work for you.
One last thing when talking about items is to understand that the DR game system is designed to need MULTIPLE people to interact with an item, particularly when it comes to crafting. Most items need at least THREE different Skills to functionally produce, and often this means three different characters are involved. While one person with enough XP can technically do it all, they are still limited by available Mind points and time.
The Materials - Most items in the game need scrap or herb to make. That has to come from somewhere, whether it is a gathering skill, looting, or acquiring it illicitly. The majority of these items are generated in game by players, using skills like Salvaging, Foraging, or Agricultural. You gotta have materials to make a fancy suit of armor!
The Blueprint - This may be the easiest interaction to overlook, but that blueprint came from somewhere. While there are many groups in games that work hard to keep up with the chase of blue paper, you have to have the right recipe or blueprint to make items in game. If you don’t have this, you’ll either need to borrow or barter for one, use a Skill like Education to make a copy of your own, or find a way to get NPC help.
The Crafter - The skills Artisan and Culinary are used to make 95% of the crafted items in game. If you have these skills, you’ll find it easier to acquire items in game, as you can simply make it yourself. But, unless you have a way to acquire the materials from a mod or an NPC, you’ll need someone else to provide the items to complete the project.
So, this means that for every item that exists in the DR world, there’s generally supposed to be three sets of interactions that need to be completed before you can get the item. Once you appreciate this, the Six Rules to Get Rich can help you bridge the gap between survival and success!
Turbo’s SIX Rules of Getting Rich
(Okay, fine it’s a few more rules that Six, but the marketing sounds better when it matches the character name…)
I’ll discuss the specifics of item cards and the like a bit later in the ADDENDUM, but for now let’s talk about Turbo’s Six Rules of Getting Rich. These are the core concepts I want to share with you that will remain useful no matter what blueprint gets published, or what edition of the game we are playing. I’m going to focus on these cardinal rules, told from the perspective of my Diesel Jock supporting character - Turbo Six, the Mountain That Rides, Road Captain of the Road Royals. I’ll elaborate on the concept after each rule.
Let’s get started…
Turbo’s 1st Rule - Time is Money, Friend
“The single most valuable resource in the world is time. It’s the only thing you can’t get back. You’ll find more scrap, get more Brass, or just make a new ride. But you’ll never get back that 20 minutes you wasted listening to that Remnant there. It’s a hard lesson, my friend.”
Each player has about 38-ish hours in a game to play, since most games start Friday night around 9:00 pm to Sunday around 12:00 pm. The Post Office in most games is not open the entire time either, so you can really only generate new items during an even more limited window. Next, each time you make a new item, you gotta wait in line at the Post Office — if you are lucky, there’s not much line but sometimes it can add 15+ minutes before you can see an item card. Then you probably have a 4-hour NPC shift to attend, you gotta sleep eventually, and this is all assuming you aren’t one of those crazy people that have more than one character!
In fact, unless you are attending one of those rare games that offer Post Office services even late at night, you’ll probably only have about 22 hours to craft or use the post office.
The single most valuable resource in DR is TIME.
Period.
It’s not skills. It’s not item cards. It’s time.
It’s the one thing you can never get back.
If you can do that thing for another person, then it leaves them time to do something else. And that’s a value that you can capitalize on.
This is the reason why I rate Services as the most important thing you can do to earn money and “win” at the economy game. Every minute you are at a workbench working on a new weapon, crafting a tasty brew, or farming is a minute you don’t get back. You can almost always find a way to make money in a game by performing a service for someone, because their time is valuable. Most major Econ players are always looking for someone to craft an item for them, go get that herb for their next project, or just find them someone that has the material they need, and they often have more currency than they have time.
Remember the Bravado motto - Do Work, Get Paid!
Crafting skills like Artisan, Culinary, and Educated are surefire ways to earn money in game, even at a Basic tier for a starting player. There’s always a need to copy a blueprint, repair some armor, or whip up a brew or meal. Gathering skills like Agricultural, Foraging, Hunting, Salvaging, and Trailblazing can be quick ways to earn a buck by producing that item that someone needs right away. If you take at least one of these Skills when you first create your character, you’ll have the best start for succeeding in the Economy game.
The next tier of useful skills in game are ones I’d consider “Service Skills”. Skills that restoring Resolve or Mind like Social Influence, or healing with Medical or Biogenetics can also be useful for earning money, but they come with a big lesson that can be hard to understand at first. These skills need a certain situation to happen first before they can be used, so if that isn’t happening often in your game, it may be hard to earn a living in game using these skills. The more common the situation, the easier you can charge for these services.
The lowest tier of useful skills to earn money from are Combat Skills. While it’s helpful to survive a horde of zombies, it’s hard to make money off swinging a sword real good (unless you want to talk about CVC, but that’s a different essay). Trying to earn money as a thug for hire or a mercenary can also be successful, but it takes a special talent at personal marketing and charisma to really do it well. But most folks that try to rely on skills like Interfere to make money or even stuff like Blinding, Combat Tactics, or just having a big Shield are in for a hard lesson.
This brings us to our second rule.
Turbo’s 2nd Rule - Need versus Luxury
“People will always be willing to pay for a luxury - something they don’t really need. The thing that is most difficult to charge money for is a “need”. It’s why doctors and Sainthood are always dead ass broke, and why those mercs waiting for a fight are sitting over there bored!”
There are really two types of services and goods in DR - needs and luxuries.
In the middle of a fight against zed, where everyone is fighting back-to-back for simple survival, mercenary and pacifist alike - combat skills become a need. Need an escort to walk down to the lake with you to protect you while fishing late at night? That’s a luxury. Bleeding to death on a battlefield and getting someone to stabilize you or pour a brew down your throat - that’s a need. Fixing up that broken limb after you talked shit to that Retrograde bruiser? That’s a luxury. Providing the last needed Basic Scrap on a module to reinforce the barrier keeping the zed at bay? That’s probably a need. Providing the last Alloy Metal that DJ needs to finish off their ride? That’s a luxury.
You can charge money for a luxury. You can’t charge for a need.
If you try to charge money or scrap for something that can be perceived as a “need”, you will likely get some push back. Only truly merciless characters can get away with charging for items like this, and it will eventually lead to some CvC. If you try to hustle every new player in town over a cheap healing brew, someone will eventually call foul and it’ll be a bad time for you.
People generally resent paying for a need, and that resentment will likely not end in your favor. Be careful and really consider what is at stake. It’s very possible for something that would normally be a luxury to end up as a need if circumstances change. If the town needs a LOT of Radioactive Metal to build a wall to protect the town, they will often expect you to provide that item for the “good of the town” and balk at paying a market rate for the items.
However, exploiting the desire for a luxury service or good is the surest way to really make a fortune in the economy game. That same Radioactive Metal is a luxury when it’s used in a sexy new weapon Augment for that veteran player. Remember, no one really NEEDS a shiny, red monster truck. They WANT a shiny, red monster truck. This is really at the heart of every business model ever. You make money by selling something that people want, not what they need. This is why luxuries will always be the best way to earn money in game.
If you have something that has value, or you can provide a service that offers value, you can market it and make money from it. The real skill and talent here is identifying what people want before they realize they want it.
This brings us to probably one of the single most clever rules for getting rich in DR.
Turbo’s 3rd Rule - Grilled Cheese Sandwiches Make Millionaires
“The single greatest way to earn money is by supplying food and drink in a moment of need. The richest folks I know got there not by farming herb or gathering scrap, but by selling a grilled cheese sandwich to a hungry survivor. I’ll spend way more Brass over a weekend on hooch and food that I ever will on scrap and herb.”
The single greatest way to make money in DR is by selling real-life food and drink.
I’ve spent more currency on a tasty treat at 2 a.m. in the morning than any other item in the game. I’ve seen people spend fabulous amounts of currency on a piece of cake. When you are tired, hungry, and exhausted from a day of fighting zed and walking the trails around the campsite, something other than water or that snack back at your tent is the most magical thing ever.
There’s a talent here, to be sure, by choosing the right food or drink that folks want. I’ve seen folks get rich by selling hot apple cider on a cold morning, selling warm cookies after a tough fight, or providing a grilled cheese sandwich late at night to hungry travelers. But I’ve also seen that same cider barely get sold once it gets a little warm outside. It doesn’t have to be food either - I’ve seen people make money by providing a back rub, providing a bottle of oil with a stuffed rat in inside, playing cards over a table at the saloon, letting people paint rocks in cool colors (BATTLE ROCKS!), or simply providing a neat looking real-life trinket to add to your costume.
If the thing you are selling provides a real world benefit to the player, has a neat prop, or provides entertainment, you can make money in game from it. That’s capitalism, baby!
Essentially, you need to appeal to the PLAYER, not the character.
There's certainly some real-life skill involved at marketing what you’ve brought and coming up with clever tricks and gimmicks to make a sale, and loud people generally stand out. We have some super clever folks in our games, and I’m always amazed at what they come up with to earn a fortune in the game. I encourage you to consider some aspects like this if you really want to make a killing at the economy game, and see what other characters are doing in game. If you can find a niche that other characters haven’t already taken, you will often find buyers to give you money and item cards.
You can definitely earn money by repairing armor or making a mind-refresh meal, but it will ALWAYS pale in comparison to the allure of tasty food and drinks and entertainment.
SIDE NOTE: Remember, anything that has a mechanical effect in game requires an item card and you can never exchange real-world currency for in-character resources.
But, now that we know to appeal to the player, let’s cover how you get by with a little help from your friends…
Turbo’s 4th Rule - Diversify Your Portfolio (or just make Friends)
“The folks I know that are filthy rich didn’t get there by just one trick. They did it by a whole lot of tricks! Don’t just focus on repairing armor or farming that herb, but think about how you can turn a profit in other ways. Or just pick the right friends to have in your crew. The smartest folks realized it’s easier to let others do the work for you…”
While some folks can do quite well with grilled cheese sandwiches, the best way to be successful in the economy game is to not limit yourself to just one thing, or one person.
The best solo Econ folks might focus on being able to farm up that herb you need for a brew, salvaging that scrap from a dead Raider, and offering healing to someone that needs help to get back into the fight. They have a cup of hot chocolate ready to sell after the big fight, and they have a stack of scrap to trade for that new blueprint you just got. They are the one-stop-shop!
Just like a character that excels at fighting might pick up a new skill or invest more Mind Points into skills to win a fight, the solo Econ character should invest in MORE crafting, gathering, or service skills. You may not be able to do it all right away, but the XP builds up pretty fast for your first handful of games. But this method requires a LOT of XP to really do well, and it’s not something that’s easy to accomplish for players just starting their journey in Dystopia Rising.
The best way to diversify is actually to build up some friends and form a crew of like-minded folks that can work together to succeed.
Like I said in the beginning, this is a GROUP survival game.
The true success of the Road Royals, my crew as a player in game, was that every character in the crew came into game with at least Basic Trailblazing. We were able to generate more Metals than any other group in game, and we could sell it for a profit. It gave us an edge over the other player factions, and enabled us to build Vehicles faster than any other group. But we did it as a TEAM.
It’s difficult for one character to do it all, as every skill you add increases in XP cost. A crew of dedicated folks working together will outperform that solo veteran character for raw potential in almost every way. If each character specializes in one particular aspect of crafting or gathering, you can quickly be able to do almost everything independently.
If you are struggling to succeed in the economy game, don’t try to do it alone. Make friends, and include them into your crew and you’ll be a success in no time. DR is a numbers game, and having more people than someone else is a quick way to be successful, whether it’s in a fight or a trade deal.
But let’s cover the real way to make money in a trade deal…
Turbo’s 5th Rule - Value is Subjective
“Everything is at once valuable and worthless. The local town will often have some common prices for things, but ultimately, unless you can find someone to buy your shit it isn’t worth anything. And anything you can take from someone else by force is FREE...”
I know a lot of folks might want to know exactly how much to charge for a Basic Scrap, or how much to charge for that fancy new Gun. With constant blueprints changes and the “metagame” of what is needed or what is the best item or weapon locally constantly shifting, it can be hard to set one price for anything. There are plenty of folks that have strong opinions here, but I really want to focus on the real truth - items are only worth what you can get for them.
It doesn’t matter how many scrap cards you have in your Supply Bag if you can’t find a buyer for them. Ask anyone that’s tried to sell a vintage Beanie Baby, or turn that collection of Pokemon cards into cash. It doesn’t matter what price that thing supposedly is worth. As long as it’s in your bag, it’s worth exactly squat.
This is where SUPPLY and DEMAND come in. The law of supply and demand is an economic theory that explains the interaction between the sellers of a resource and the buyers for that resource. Generally, as supply of an item or service decreases, you can charge people more for that scarce product. As supply for an item or service goes up, there’s less demand and more competition for your product, so the price generally comes down. Basic Economics 101.
If you are the only person providing a hand-crafted burger near lunch time, you can charge basically anything you want. If you are one of twelve people trying to sell a batch of homemade cookies, you’ll probably have to lower your prices to sell your assortment of goodies. If the plot of the weekend involves a lot of raiders showing up - expect the price of Basic Scrap to plummet. If a brand-new blueprint shows up, expect the price of Basic Herb to increase as folks frantically try to make more copies of that print to satiate the blue fever. If there are not many doctors in town this trade weekend, expect that you can charge more for healing.
Learn what items are in demand, and figure out how you can supply those and you can find a way to make money. The best Econ folks anticipate this demand BEFORE it happens, and can corner the market on that item when it’s most needed.
A second side of this value concept is regarding the most dreaded word in Turbo Six’s vocabulary - FREE.
People generally like helping their friends. There is always going to be some selfless person that offers healing for free, regardless of the situation. That selfless person might offer to salvage that scrap up for no cost to their friends. It only cost Mind points and a few swings of a boffer to get that Basic Scrap off that Raider, so it was really no cost to you. Hell, you might even just find a neat Master-tier Flat Back Hauler in the middle of a parking lot of a hotel, with the keys still in it.
You will never be able to control this effect, and it WILL impact your ability to earn money from items or services. You need to plan on it happening and be prepared to shift gears. Sometimes that thing you just farmed will be worthless, or at least, not needed at the time.
The greatest bit of chaos in the economy game of DR is that ultimately you have no control over how many items show up in a game, whether it is something provided FREE to a friend or something that arrives FREE from the game runners, and it’s where the supply and demand concept falls apart. It costs nothing for a Guide to send out Raiders with more Salvage Cards. It costs nothing to rob a person in the Wasteland and then sell their items for dirt cheap to a fence. It costs nothing to pass your item cards to your best friend or a crew member so they can make that cool thing they want. There will always be someone that gets that thing for free, or a lower cost than you’d be willing to sell at.
DR is not a closed economic system. There is effectively an infinite SUPPLY of items. The sooner you accept this fact, the sooner you can start to grasp how to make money by selling commodities and resources. The only thing that begins to approach a limit here is TIME. Remember, time is the single greatest resource in DR, and thus it means it’s the single greatest resource for the economy.
ANY attempt to tell you that there is a set value for all items in the game is ignoring the simple fact that basically everything can be gotten for free, if you are lucky and in the right place at the right time. With all that being said, there are a few core items that are valuable in every single game. These items tend to have the most stable pricing of anything, and it stays pretty similar no matter where you travel. I’ll cover a few of these items below, but let’s first talk about the golden rule (no, not that one…)
Turbo’s 6th Rule - There is No Best Way, Only YOUR Way
“Look. There is no one magic rule for making money. It’s a lot of luck, a bit of talent, sometimes some muscle, some practice, and a whole lot of circumstance. The best way to make money is doing what you are good at. Pick a thing to be an expert in, and you can find a way to monetize it if you are persistent.”
The “zen” of DR is to do what is fun to YOU.
Not everyone likes playing the “Dystopia Rising Trading Card” game. Like I said at the beginning, you don’t have to participate in every avenue of play, but you are never immune to the consequences. For me, I find that the economy of our zombie game is one of the most fascinating elements. There’s nothing more thrilling than the hustle of trading scrap and herb around the town looking for deals, in my mind. The Economy is probably the truest form of CvC in the game, as it can be as brutal and terrifying as any zombie or raider.
Try different things in the game. Don’t listen to that person that is spouting off how things should always be. Listen to other players, and watch what they do. Watch for the behaviors you see other players do, and try to mimic those behaviors in your own way. Excelling at the economy game is a matter of practice and luck, and it takes time to really do well. But if you pay attention to Turbo’s rules, you’ll be comfortably rich in no time!
I’ve presented a lot of topics here to read over, and this is just barely scratching the surface of the economy game. Once again this is just my opinions and observations I’ve made over the years of playing, and there is no real right way or wrong way to play the game. Just have fun surviving zombies in the woods with your friends!
-Fin
Past the Six Rules
In addition to my Six Rules, I’ve also added a few extra considerations over the years, that take a bit more of a “meta” approach as a player, particularly towards item cards. These all involve a bit of an out-of-character consideration, but I think they are still valuable in this context.
Turbo’s First Corollary - Mind is Money!
“The only thing better than getting that scrap from that Raider is doing it again, and again, and again, and again…”
Outside of time, the next best Resource in the game is simply more Mind points.
The more times you can do that trick, the more herbs you can farm, the more armor you can repair -- the more people will be willing to pay. Restoring Mind points is the ultimate luxury item in DR. While characters naturally recover Mind at the Twelves, it can be a long time to wait to do that thing you want to do if you are tapped out at 2:00 p.m. And even though characters don’t restore Body at the Twelves, most healing skills tend to fall more into the “need” category. Mind points are much harder to restore than Body though, so finding a way to restore Mind points to someone else is a great way to earn some cash.
There are a few consistent ways to get Mind in the game.
Culinary - The best way to regain mind is a Mind Refresh item like a Brew or Meal, particularly a strain-specific item. Culinary is the crafting skill used for most of these items and is supported largely by the skill Agricultural to generate the resources needed.
Social Influence - Items like the Essex Entertainer’s Kit, the Smoke and Mirrors Parlor, or the Dive Bar let characters restore Mind to others by spending their Resolve. This is great for new players, as you often don’t have much use for your Resolve until you unlock Master-tier skills.
Mind Transfers - Items like the Crystodyne Regalia, the Prayer Room, or Psionic skills like Master Faithful Spirit can transfer Mind points from one character to another. This is especially useful right before those players leave play for NPC shift or to switch to another character.
Buy Lists - Gizmos from the buy lists of Criminal Influence, Trade Connections, or Sailing can be quick ways to earn Mind back by spending Currency. Items like Crystal Candy or Rover Tea are useful and inexpensive. Crystal Candy is probably the single best Mind restore item in the game, particularly for new players that can’t really use their resolve.
Skills that assist in Mind restoration or giving Resolve back will always be consistently profitable. The best skill in this category is clearly Culinary, but it is closely followed by Agricultural. Herbs and Produce used in Mind refresh items will ALWAYS have a buyer somewhere, and can be reliable ways to make money off of generating commodities. Offering to farm up a particular Named Herb or Produce for a customer that needs a meal can be another quick way to earn money.
There is a talent for producing these items when folks need them most, and the best time to sell a mind refresh meal is right after a huge fight when there are still several hours to go until the Twelves. Take advantage of the lull after a fight to sell and you will make a fortune in no time! You don’t necessarily even have to have the skills to make the items - I’ve seen plenty of people making money by selling items they paid someone else to make for more than it cost to make them, all at a tidy profit.
Turbo’s Second Corollary - Currency is Always 1:1 (Except When it’s Not)
“Rectangles are rectangles, my friend. I’ll take Brass, Days, Credits, Tickets, whatever. It all spends the same. Trade Notes are even easier, ‘cause they are great for traveling. Anyone that tells you Trade Notes are not 1:1 is either a liar or they are trying to scam you. Period.”
Currency is normally the best way to pay for goods and services in the game. It always has a set value and is taken by almost everyone (save for a few really pious Red Stars, maybe). In Bravado, you can also earn Brass by completing contracts for the local factions like the Railroad Conglomerate. There are two types of currency, Local Currency and National Currency.
Local Currency should almost always be at a 1:1 ratio in value, regardless of where you travel.
This is a bit of a controversial notion, particularly for some old players of 2.0, where there was an in-game Trade Union that could mechanically impact the value of your local currency in the game. However, those times are dead and gone, and that’s simply not the case anymore. If someone tries to suggest that your currency is less valuable that yours, there’s often an angle they are playing or they are trying to sustain an old point of view based in the previous edition of the game.
This concept does have some caveats, though.
Local Currency (like Brass) is always more valuable to most players of that particular game, because every skill that spends currency requires it to be Local Currency. This means that although most currencies are pretty equivalent in practice, don’t be surprised if folks balk at accepting foreign currencies at a travel game since they can’t use it for their buy lists. If you don’t travel yourself, that weird currency might be harder to spend and you can’t buy a Rover Tea with it.
This is the only real time that your currency may not be valued at a 1:1 ratio, but I always recommend trying to find someone else that will take your currency first so you can get their ideal currency. Look for other local players that may be willing to trade currency. Many players also build a collection of foreign currencies, so you can generally find someone interested in taking all forms of currency at most games (if only to add to their collection). For most real econ players, a rectangle is a rectangle.
Trade Notes can also be traded at a 1:1 ratio with local currencies with most merchants and obtained through the Master Financial skill at a 1:1 ratio for local currency. Your Master Financial skill generates Trade Notes at the same value as anyone else, so don’t listen to anyone that tells you differently on Trade Notes. It’s the same story as above. Unlike Local Currency, Trade Notes are available in EVERY game in the network, and should retain their value no matter who you talk to.
Note: the value of Trade Notes will increase to a 5:1 ratio with the launch of DR Live.
Remember the basic law of supply and demand applies to Currency as well. If a character has a LOT of currency, they might be willing to pay more for an item than someone that only has a few Brass to their name. I’ve overpaid for a lot of items just to make sure that I c can buy it right then versus hunting for a bargain. Find out the budget of your customer if you can, as it can give you a lot of bargaining power.
Turbo’s Third Corollary - Scrap is the REAL Universal Currency
“Sometimes ‘steaders are shitty about what currency they will take. They’ll tell you stories of deals gone wrong, or that the local Post Office will only take their brand of money. However, EVERYONE likes Basic Scrap. It’s the only universal currency in the wastes. It keeps its value even when currency doesn’t go far, so always keep a stash of scrap in your Supply Bag (so it’s easy to find when I beat you up later).”
The ONLY normal Scrap item you can easily control entering the game is the humble Basic Scrap.
Basic Scrap can be easily generated by the skill Trade Connections, in exchange for Local Currency. At Basic, you can purchase 2 Basic Scrap, with proficient you can purchase 10 Basic Scrap, and with Master, you can purchase 20 Basic Scrap. With some basic equipment (a Merchant’s Monocle), and maybe even a PFA like Entrepreneur, you can purchase up to 96 Basic Scrap on one trip to the Post Office. With Sailing, you can get it even higher to 128 (as you can get another set of trades with Dock Worker’s Contracts). And there’s probably a few other ways to exploit that number with vouchers and the like.
What does this mean for you?
It means that Basic Scrap is ALWAYS available, and ALWAYS has value no matter what settlement you are in.
And because it is so plentiful it will always be pretty cheap, but it will be consistently cheap. The “cost” of Basic Scrap is effectively 0.5 Local Currency (since you can buy 2 scrap for 1 money with Trade Connections). This means the standard selling price will always be around 1 Brass each. You can make a decent profit just by selling each Basic Scrap for 1 currency, but you might pay a bit more depending on the situation.
Basic Scrap is used in basically every single Artisan blueprint, and many of the most powerful items in the game use large amounts in each item. And almost everything has expiration dates. This means that eventually they will need to replace that expensive item and that means they’ll need some more Basic Scrap. While it is in ready supply, it is also the most used scrap in the game. You can almost always assume that Basic Scrap will be in a very high supply and high demand in most games, so it’s often very easy to trade with other characters.
The one thing that is NOT commonly available is Uncommon and Rare Scrap. While someone with Trade Connections can generate 3 of each per game, this puts a finite limit to how often this normally comes into play. This makes this the truly ‘rarest’ scrap in the game, on par with Named Metals (since those can only come into play 2 at a time). There is a new blueprint called Smelt & Weld that enables characters to turn Basic Scrap into higher tiers of scrap, but it costs Mind and Time, so it’s still rarer and more expensive than most other materials in the game. Even with Smelt & Weld used in the most efficient way, it takes 3 basic scrap to make 1 uncommon, and 3 uncommon to make 1 rare.
While most games will have a steady supply of Raiders to provide Salvage cards, and the Guides will periodically “seed” new Foraging cards throughout the play space, there’s no way to guarantee you’ll be in the right place at the right time. Additionally, Rare scrap only technically appears on higher-tier Raiders, so it will never be as common as the rank-and-file Raider scrap. Uncommon Scrap appears on both tier 1 and tier 2 Raiders, so it can be slightly more common as long as Raiders are present.
This means that it’s up to the staff to make sure that these items enter play, but there’s normally a pretty decent supply of the items. The “normal” price for non-Basic Scrap is generally based around the “cost” of the Basic Scrap to make it, with Uncommon Scrap ranging from 2-5, with Rare scrap from 6-10, depending on availability. Sometimes you’ll pay more, but it generally tends to stay the same across the wastes. Outside of local currency, Scrap is the only other item that keeps a pretty consistent value.
Just understand the single biggest non-Trade-Connections way non-named Scrap enters the game is via Raiders. It can also be obtained occasionally for free with the Foraging skill, but that’s hard to rely on. If you are having a Zombie-heavy game, the price of non-Basic Scrap may fluctuate wildly as it can quickly become in short supply. Local plots and NPC requests can also cause the price to spike quickly, so always remember Turbo’s 5th Rule. If you can’t find someone to buy your scrap, it’s worth nothing!
The only other item that approaches Basic Scrap in value is Basic Herb. This is used in copying 95% of all blueprints, used in healing brews, mind refresh meals, healing meals, and even hooch. While the value of Basic Herb can change, it’s almost always in the lower end of the 1-3 local currency range, depending on the supply. This can also be obtained for 0 mind points using the Foraging skills, so remember what I said about the things being free. As a rule, Basic, Uncommon, Rare, Produce, and in-season Herb tends towards a lower price than you might expect simply because it’s fairly easy to obtain. Out of Season herb might fetch a higher rate, but it’s still far lower in value than the mind cost would demand.
The last consideration on Herb is to consider the availability of folks with Agricultural, particularly higher Skill tiers. If your game doesn’t have a lot of Master farmers, then out-of-season Herb, Produce, and Infectious Material will be more expensive and harder to find.
Turbo’s Fourth Corollary - Fancy Gear isn’t Always Necessary
A good suit of armor is nice, but it isn’t a replacement for just being a tough son-of-a-bitch. If you are good with a sword, you have almost as many tricks with a piece of sharpened scrap as you do with that fancy name-brand crafted item.
While gear is often a sought-after commodity, remember that your raw character stats are pretty potent by themselves. Having a lot of Body means your armor can’t get broken by a use of Break. And Starter weapons hit just as hard and work the same as a crafted item when you don’t have the right skills. Plus, starter items can’t really be stolen in CvC!
Simply put, if you don’t have fancy weapon skills, you don’t really need a crafted weapon.
There are a handful of items that have a unique function at Basic, like Exotic Weapons or Throwing Weapons, but outside of those few cases, you don’t really need to invest in these items until you’ve spent some experience. The high level PFA abilities on crafted items normally consume Resolve and large amounts of Mind, so it may be challenging for a newer player to even afford using them. Don’t worry too much about finding that perfect item until you can actually use it.
However, crafted items are just downright FUN.
There’s always a market for someone that can make an item, and if you are good at marketing your skills, you can make some good money building items for others. It’s especially great if you can offer something unique about the experience or have a bad ass phys rep to use while crafting, but there will always be a market for someone with Artisan to spend their time building a neat item for another character.
Hopefully, that item is still around…
TURBO’s FIFTH COROLLARY - Its ALWAYS been that way! (I think)
Sure thing pal. I’m sure that Toothpiq Chopper killed a Zed in a single hit. How much have you had to drink by the way?
Sometimes, stuff changes. And it can change the economy in a BIG way.
One reason it’s hard to set firm prices on stuff is that the Powers That Be will sometimes CHANGE things. Various blueprints will be edited and changed. Sometimes a certain item exploit might be identified, or an interpretation of a particular rule on an item or blueprint might change. Sometimes, even the reliable skill buy lists might change in drastic ways, or there might be a brand new item released by National to help with a particular skill or character ability. Maybe that item was very easy to get, and not it’s not.
In the past year, there’s been several updates to some popular blueprints, and it’s a generally smart idea to just expect things to change if they are too good. If you see everyone clamoring for that new brew or new gizmo, chances are a balance update is on the way. Be careful about over investing in a particular trinket, lest it suddenly become useless as the meta-game moves on. Check with your local game runner on what they do when items get removed from play or changed in a big way if you have questions, but it’s better to be prepared.
Chasing the “meta-game” of economy is always a risky thing. Sometimes that item that is “best in slot” might get drastically changed and it’s suddenly no longer the new, hot thing. A good way to make money is to identify the new hotness and figure out what scrap it needs to be made. If you can provide a ready source of that scrap, you’ll have a great way to make money as the demand skyrockets! But, that demand can change in a heartbeat, so make sure you have a plan to move on to the next best thing!
side note: online vs Live play
This one is a bit of a personal statement on the online game. I’ve thought about writing a cheeky Corollary for this one, but I haven’t thought of a catchy way to write about a purely out-of-character concern. But it has a BIG impact on the DR economy, and has been the single greatest source of volatility in the “market” of the game.
The actual state of the game economy is in serious flux at the moment, and the pandemic changed the way that games had to function to survive.
The online event represents a great way for chapters to run an event when they don’t have access to an affordable game site, or during inclement weather like a Texas summer, or a frigid winter, and it’s great for folks that may not be able to afford to travel a live event. It’s a valuable asset for a lot of games, and it’s not going away any time soon. It’s a necessary part for some DR chapters to survive, but it’s had a definite impact on the economy side of the game.
While there is always going to be some instability of the economy due to the systemic choices within the game itself, the DR economy is very volatile and there’s a big impact on live games from the “loot” given out by Online games. In most Online events, there’s some way to generate resources like scrap and currency. Hopefully, the chapter has put some reasonable limitations on how many item cards or how much crafting time can enter play from their online event, but that’s not always the reality. Even in their best cases, there’s a natural advantage to econ behaviors during an online event.
Items acquired during Online game are made with with little to no risk.
In a normal live event, if you try to farm up a Basic Herb in the crafting zone, there’s always a risk you might be interrupted by a horde of zombies or raiders. If you start working on that expensive Augment at the workbench, you’d better consider having a bodyguard nearby with a quick healing brew or the Interfere skill. There’s always some risk that comes with acquiring item cards in a live event, and there’s some natural limitations. The Post Office isn’t always open, and sometimes there is a line. You gotta sleep sometime, or at least use the bathroom, and there’s no real way to craft for all 22 hours or so of usable time you have during an event.
That all changes with online.
During an online event, you can earn materials by participating in a module. You can complete actions on a Zone of Mechanics in a Discord channel, or you can send in a spread sheet of all of your Mind expenditures in game. The thing that changes is EFFICIENCY. There’s no wait at the Post Office for that item. You don’t have to walk across the Meadow to get that shiny new herb card. You don’t have to spend 20 minutes at a workbench in the Depot hammering away at that new armor, you can type a command into a channel and drink a cup of coffee. You can spend 30 hours at your computer typing in commands in a script way easier than you can sit and farm item cards in a live event. You can interact with all sorts of players from all over the network through the magic of the internet, and can trade digital currency to your heart’s content.
And that means that a person that attends an online event can trade and make items at a simply phenomenal rate. This means that the SUPPLY of items is at all time HIGH, and that means that the PRICE of items in game is at an all time LOW.
There’s no real way to compete with this effect, and I’m not sure there ever will be as long as online games continue to exist. National has made some big strides recently in providing expiration dates for stuff like meals and herb from online events, but online events are a HUGE advantage for the dedicated econ player. If you have a few players in your chapter that regularly exploit the online event for econ behaviors, they will have an advantage that you will never match if you only attend a live event.
Buyer beware.
types of items - An ADDENDUM
In my original essay, I take a lot of basic knowledge for granted. The important of item cards in game is valuable information to have, but this requires a lot of understanding about blueprints and crafting skills in game, and how they are ACTUALLY used. This next part breaks down most of the items in the game, from my perspective. This can be helpful for new players, as most of this is not clearly outlined in the book. I know I said I wouldn’t provide a price list, but I’m included some trends I’ve seen in game below. Once again, this is all just my opinion, so reader beware.
What are Item Cards?
There are multiple items of value in the game that can be traded for goods and services. Each of these has value, and it’s important to know how to get these items in game once you start. Check out p. 166 in the DR Corebook for some details and mechanics on these items, and we have a handy list on our website.
Currency
Scrap
Herb & Produce
Blueprints
Crafted Items
Currency
Each game in the network has a unique Currency that they use as a form of money. These often come in 1s, 5s, and 10s, and are themed to the settlement. There are two types of currency, Local and National.
Local Currency - In Bravado, the single Local Currency is known as a Brass Note, the 5-note is called a Lead Note, and the 10-note is called a Tin Note. Nearby chapters like DR: Oklahoma use currency called “Days”, while DR: Arkansas uses “Stone”. This is the most plentiful type of currency, so if you see a strange rectangle in someone’s hand, it’s probably from another chapter.
National Currency - Trade Notes are the primary form of national currency, and come in 1-, 5-, and 33- varieties. These are generally obtained from NPC merchants, or using Master skills. There are some rarer currencies like Ottoman’s ABC or Arks that can be acquired at National events.
I’ve touched on Currency in the main essay above, but I’ll reiterate here that Currency is one of the best things to trade for goods and services in the game. It’s taken by almost everyone, and keeps a set value. Local Currency will always be more desirable than foreign currency at most games, simply because the buy lists require local currency to purchase from. NPC merchants may also occasionally give you grief about taking foreign currency as well.
A few things to understand about currency:
Currency can only be obtained in a few reliable ways - via skills (Proficient Financial Influence, Master Financial Influence, Basic Sailing) or the Elitariat Strain Advantage. That’s it.
Generally, the three “buy list” skills of Sailing, Criminal Influence, and Trade Connections will end up costing more money to buy everything from them than you can possibly produce in one game by yourself.
Buy Lists require Local Currency. You cannot use that neat foreign currency or Trade Note to buy an item from the Post Office in most cases.
A player can normally bring in around 39 currency at one time under normal circumstances (16 for Elitariat advantage, 8 for Proficient Financial, 10 for Master Financial, +5 for a Freeiron Accounting Journal). If you bought every item from all three buy lists, you’d spend 45+ currency each game. If you have every Econ skill in the game, you enter the game needing to earn between 20-80 currency just to break even.
Currency can be looted from enemies occasionally, earned from Work Orders, or obtained from modules or NPCs, but it is not something you can reliably count on, especially when you travel to other games in the network. This means the best way to earn currency is trading goods and services with other players.
Scrap
Scrap comes in several varieties - Basic, Uncommon, Rare, and Named. Each is more or less valuable depending on how hard it is to obtain. Some scraps can only be obtained once per game by a character, so are naturally rarer and more expensive. Others might be easy to get, so their value is determined by local supply and demand. Scrap generally doesn’t expire, but is used in basically every blueprint item in the game so it’s commonly desired by other players.
Named Scrap comes in a few varieties, each group being separated into a category of Scrap based on how it is obtained.
Metals - Alloy Metal, Conductive Metal, Hard Metal, Radioactive Metal, Soft Metal
These require the skill Trailblazing to generate.
Natural Resources - Combustible Materials, Craftable Stone, High Grade Lumber, Natural Fibers, Psionic Crystals
These require the skill Foraging to generate.
Recovered Materials - Machined Components, Mechanical Components, Plastics, Recovered Electronics, Synthetic Fibers.
These require the skill Salvaging to generate.
National Scrap - Festering Crystals
These items are only released during National events and Premiere events, in small quantities. They are the hardest items in the game to acquire, but they are only used in rare and expensive CVC related blueprints and brews.
A few other skills and abilities in the game that can generate Scrap cards by spending Mind or Currency:
Master Financial Influence - once per game, you can trade 20 Local Currency for 20 Trade Notes, or vice versa. This isn’t so much currency generation as it is currency selection, but it’s great if you travel.
Trade Connections - once per game, you can trade Uncommon, Rare, or Named Herbs for their equivalent in Scrap, with the appropriate level of this skill. This is a great way to keep value of some herbs that are about to expire.
Buy Lists - the three skills Trade Connections, Sailing, and Criminal Influence can often generate Scrap or Herb by obtaining unique Gizmos. These cost Local Currency to purchase, however.
Basic Scrap, In-Season Named Herb, and Infectious Material can be obtained from the Buy Lists.
Salvaging Cards - You can also get Salvaging Cards from using the weapons and shields from fallen Raiders. These items can be collected by anyone but can only be converted to a usable item with the skill Salvaging. While you can sometimes sell a Salvage Card in game, it’ll generally fetch a lower price than the actual scrap, because they will need to spend Mind to convert it to something useful.
Foraging Cards - you can occasionally find Foraging cards around the play space, trading with NPC merchants, or sometimes during a module or looting enemies. However, my experience with Foraging is that it’s not very reliable, and often requires you to be in the right time and place. There’s real work that needs to be done to find these cards around the site, and it all relies on the gamerunners periodically “seeding” the cards into play.
A few key things to remember about Scrap:
Once upon a time, Basic Scrap was challenging to acquire. However, the buy lists changed and it swung it the opposite direction. Now, the most reliable way to obtain Basic Scrap is by using the Trade Connections list. The only other reliable way to get Basic Scrap is either by Salvaging items from Raiders or relying on Foraging cards to trade for scrap. Both of these other ways can be nice ways to supplement your stash but are difficult to rely upon since they require the STs to put something into the world. With such cheap and plentiful Scrap, the value of Basic Scrap is now firmly at around 0.5-1 Brass, or maybe less if someone is haggling.
Uncommon and Rare Scrap are probably the MOST valuable Scrap items you can collect, as they can only be produced reliably once per game by trading herb for scrap with Trade Connections or with a blueprint. While Salvaging can sometimes get this scrap from more dangerous Raiders, it is entirely dependent on the Guides to send those enemies into the world. Plus, as written, very few Raiders even have the items that produce Rare Scrap on their Threat guides so this remains very hard to get, short of the Smelt & Weld procedure.
Metals are generally the rarest of the Named Scraps, as they can be generated only once per game via the Trailblazing skill, or by trading Named Herbs with Trade Connections once per game. However, equipment can increase this to 3 basic-tier metals, 2 proficient-tier metals, and 2 Soft Metal, per character for Trailblazing, and some mechanics can offer an additional trade with Trade Connections. Metals are used in most high-end blueprints, especially in vehicles and armor, so these will always retain good value. Metals generally sell for 5 or more currency.
Other rare Scrap items are Psionic Crystals, Recovered Electronics, and Soft Metal. Any item that requires a Master skill to generate can be more valuable than other Scrap, since fewer characters can bring it into play.
Herb & Produce
Herb comes in several varieties - Basic, Uncommon, Rare, and In-Season Named, and Out-of-Season Named. Produce comes in multiple types, though some Produce is more useful than others. Each is more or less valuable depending on how hard it is to obtain. Others might be easy to get, so their value is determined by local supply and demand. Herb and Produce generally expire in 6-months, but sometimes shorter durations are seen.
There are several types of Named Herb, in one of two categories called Lineage herbs and Cross Lineage herbs. All Named Herb is considered “in-season” during two windows - January to June, and August to December. If a herb is “in-season” January, it will be “out-of-season” during the later part of the year.
Produce - Eggs, Fish, Fruits, Infectious Material, Meat, Milk, Shellfish, Tree Nuts, Vegetables
Lineage Herbs
(Jan-June) - Chervil, Anise, Calendula, Basil, Milk Thistle, Fennel, Epazote, Dill, Burnet, Bay Leaf, Aralia, Bayberry, Prairie Wildrye, Horehound, Peppermint, Hibiscus
(July-Dec) - Ragweed, Geraniums, Rosemary, Marjoram, Salvia, Wormwood, Witch Hazel, Parsley, Cicely, Turmeric, Caraway, Sage, Lemongrass, Valerian, Lemon Balm, Thyme
Cross Lineage Herbs
(Jan-June) - Foxglove, Wasteland Yew, Viral Hemlock, Khella
(July-Dec) - Quinine, Cannabis, Ayahuasca, Jimsonweed
A few skills in the game can generate Herb & Produce cards by spending Mind.
Agricultural - This skill is the best in the game at generating Herb and Produce. Once you hit Proficient tier, it is more efficient than Hunting at gathering Produce.
Basic - Basic Herb, Uncommon Herb, Rare Herb, In-Season Named Herb
Proficient - All Produce, except for Infectious Material
Master - Out-of-Season Named Herb, and Infectious Material
Hunting - Hunting is primarily useful for extending the expiration dates on Produce cards, but it can produce some common Produce.
Basic - Fish, Shellfish, Meat
Master - Appropriate Produce related to the creature you hunt
Foraging - Tree Nuts. This is the only reliable Produce you can create with this skill. If you can find Foraging cards, you can produce Basic Herb cheaply.
If you are lucky enough to find a Foraging card in the wild, you can obtain Basic Herb, Uncommon Herb, Rare Herb, and seasonal Named Herb.
Buy Lists - the three skills Trade Connections, Sailing, and Criminal Influence can often generate Herb and certain Produce by obtaining unique Gizmos. These cost Local Currency to purchase, however.
You can currently generate in-season Named Herbs and Infectious Material via buy lists.
You can also get Herb from finding Foraging cards around the playspace, trading with merchants, or sometimes during a module or looting enemies.
A few key things to understand about Herb & Produce:
Herbs and Produce expire. It’s one of the few commodity items that don’t stick around, so it’s important to not invest too heavily in these items. There is a solid opportunity in providing needed herbs and produce on consignment for players instead, and crafting it on the spot for their needs. There are very few uses for expired herbs and produce, so if you can’t use them before they expire you might lose a lot of effort and time.
Every mind refresh meal or brew requires both in-season AND out-of-season herbs. This means that Master-tier farmers serve an important purpose in producing Mind Refresh meals, and you cannot produce past the Proficient tier on the meal without out-of-season herbs.
Basic Herb is almost always valuable. It is used to copy most blueprints, used in brews and meals, and even some gizmos. You will rarely have trouble selling this resource.
The most valuable Produce is generally Tree Nuts, Fruits, and Vegetables, as they are used in mind refresh meals. Infectious Material is probably the rarest Produce, and is used in a number of Gravemind related prints. However, it can be obtained cheaply with Criminal Influence. Shellfish is used only in poison brews, and tends to be only requested by folks interested in CvC.
Some herbs and produce are literally worthless. There are several Cross-lineage Herbs and a few Produce that are not used in most blueprints currently available. This could change in the near future, however. Be careful when you buy herbs and produce you don’t easily recognize.
The following herbs and produce have very little (or no) use:
Milk. There is no known blueprint that uses this item. Do not farm this, unless a plot requires it.
Ayahuasca, Cannabis, and Khella are only used in a few very specific blueprints, in this order of priority. Be careful generating too many of these herbs, as you may not have many buyers.
Eggs, Meat, and Fish are only used in healing meals, and Shellfish is only used in poisons. Both of these are rarely crafted unless by request, as often other methods of healing are more useful than meals and poisons have a niche application.
Viral Hemlock, Wasteland Yew, Quinine, Foxglove, Jimsonweed are only used in the series of expensive injectables known as “Byproducts”. For a while, these herbs had no use, and all of these new brews require a Festering Crystal to make (a very rare National-only scrap). This means that people only need these herbs if they ALSO have access to this scrap. If you find these herbs, you are best off trying to convert them to scrap with Trade Connections.
Cross-Lineage herbs are great for turning into Scrap via the Trade Connections skill. If you come across a lot of Cross-Lineage herbs, you can use Trade Connections to turn it into any Named Scrap of your choice. This is great to generate the rarer Named Metals, especially without needing Trailblazing.
Blueprints
Most items in the game can be crafted using blueprints. These are schematics or recipes that detail how an item is made, and are required to craft basically everything in the game. You must have a copy of the blueprint with you when you go to the post office, along with the materials you are using in crafting.
There are a few types of blueprints in the world, as described on p. 166 of the corebook.
Artisan Blueprints - Used to make gizmos, weapons, armor using the Artisan skill. About half of all blueprints are Artisan prints, and these end up being some of the most used prints in the game. Artisan prints are normally crafted in an Artisan Crafting Area.
Culinary Blueprints - Used to make brews, injectables, meals, and intoxicants. While almost half of all blueprints are Culinary prints, in practice, most folks tend to focus just on the handful of Strain-specific prints that match their character or crew. If you are a Nomad there’s very little value in a print for an Elitariat brew, since you can’t use it. Culinary prints are normally crafted in the Culinary Crafting Area.
Procedures & Benedictions - There are a few unique types of blueprints called Procedures. Instead of making an item, these normally provide a new use of a skill like Culinary or Medical. If a Procedure helps you use a Faithful skill in a new way, it is normally called a “Benediction”. Some of these prints can allow you to preserve meals from expiring, or increase the output or yield of Culinary. Others provide unique ways to interact with the Gravemind. These prints are often quite complicated, and have varied uses at every level of the print.
Regional Blueprints - This type of print is very rare at the moment, as only a few games have released a game-specific print. Most Regional prints are just like normal prints except that the items on the print can only be created or used while at that specific game, or if that other game specifically allows that print to function in their game.
A few key things about Blueprints:
Almost every blueprint can be reproduced using the Basic Educated skill. A few rare prints will require particular lores, or even Proficient Educated to reproduce. Augment blueprints require the most unique Lores, overall. So, if you have even the basic ability to read and write, you can copy around 95% of the prints in the game on your own. This normally costs 2 Basic Herb to use as ink, but some prints require other rarer items to make the ink.
Blueprints are normally represented by the instructions printed on a blue sheet of paper, hence the name. Feel free to store the blueprints in your Supply Bag in any way you prefer, but some players have strong opinions about keeping their blueprints pristine and clean and will store them in a binder or protective casings. Always ask before you borrow a print!
Most blueprints are pretty niche and just aren’t that useful if you don’t have a particular Profession Focus Achievement or skill. Unless you are a crazy person like me that’s got the blue fever and has to catch ‘em all, you don’t really need to own every print. Focus instead on the handful of prints you use regularly, and prints for the most common items in your game.
There are generally folks in a game that will lend you a copy of a print to make an item for a negligible cost, and many settlements have built a ‘town print book’ as a way to provide common prints to new players. If you don’t have a copy of print you need, ask around the crafting areas and you are sure to find someone that can help. It should be pretty cheap to borrow a copy of a print from someone in game, if not free. You might have to pay for herb or time if you want a copy of your own, though! Prints generally are sold anywhere from 5-10 currency in most settlements, but can be more expensive if it’s a rare or new print that few people have.
Crafted Items
Items that are crafted using the Culinary or Artisan skills are normally referred to as crafted items. There are certain gizmos and items in the world that do not have a relevant blueprint, and can only be produced from buy lists or acquired from NPC merchants. In general, crafted items are a BIG part of the DR game, and virtually every character can find a use for a crafted item. For this reason, I’ll cover a few points about these here.
Crafted Items play a large role in how the Profession Focus Achievements (PFAs) work. Once you’ve earned enough XP to purchase a PFA, you can find certain items that give you a new mechanical ability to use that PFA. The item simply has to be improved to the Master-tier level by a character with Master Artisan, and anyone with the PFA can use that new ability if they meet the requirements.
There are different types of item cards, as found on p. 169 in the corebook.
Armor & Shields - These items normally have long expirations and once crafted to a higher tier unlock new uses of combat skills. Armor requires a certain amount of coverage to represent, but can dramatically increase how many hits you can take in combat. Shields offer some very powerful abilities but are generally weak against Firearms.
Augments - These items were added after the book was published, but these are “upgrades” for existing crafted gear. They are VERY expensive to make and only last 3 months. While Augments can do some fun and powerful modifications to your standard crafted items, it can be a chore to maintain more than a few for your character at a time, based solely on how often you’ll have to replace them. Augments represent a neat way to “customize” your weapons and armor so that just because you have the same Toothpiq Chopper as the next guy, you may have a different combat trick you can utilize.
Weapons - The most common crafted item in my experience, as they offer powerful effects in combat if you can afford the Mind points. The PFA abilities of weapons are the biggest reason to select one weapon over another. Craft the right weapon to match your PFA!
Small - knives, daggers, stabby bits. These are generally used with sneaky skills and murderous type behaviors.
Standard - Swords, Axes, Hammers, etc. The gold standard of weapons and the most common crafted item in this category.
Two Handed - Claymores, Spears, and more. These generally get very efficient Mind skills to make up for how limited they are in combat.
Florentine - Offhand weapons that are normally used with the Florentine skill while fighting with two weapons.
Exotic - Weird guns like flamethrowers and rocket launchers, that can be quite expensive to craft.
Firearms - Shooters, rifles, guns are very popular weapons, and are normally represented by Nerf guns or packets. These are very effective against shields, but can’t be used at close range.
Thrown - The props for these items are probably the most varied items in the game. I’ve seen everything from a book, a wrench, or even a shoe.
Gizmos - These are probably the most popular item card type in the game. It’s a catch-all category for everything from wrenches to bombs, and is the most varied item you can find. There’s probably a third of the Artisan prints that make Gizmos, it’s that common. Gizmos can do a little bit of everything, and are my favorite type of item to own.
Single Use Gizmos - A lot of gizmos are temporary, and have one use. These items can be pretty powerful, but you’ll be crafting them again, and again, and again. This includes stuff like lockpicks, bombs, and drugs.
Components - These are items that do nothing by themselves but are used as crafting components in bigger, more expensive items. In practice, these add additional time, mind, and effort to the cost of larger items. They can be very valuable to have crafted in advance, to save time when you need a particular Artisan project made.
Tools - Certain gizmos are used with other skills and offer a new use of that skill. These range from tools to help with crafting, special bags that prevent pickpockets from getting your stuff, or even other types of garments like gloves or goggles. These are probably the most powerful items you can create with crafting, as they are often the best items in the game.
Brews - Brews come in a few varieties and there are Generic variants that offer minor effects and Strain-specific variants that offer better effects for particular Strains. Most brews take at least 1 minute to drink, so they are difficult to use in combat.
Healing Brews - restores Body, and are one of the most popular brews. These things will save your life, and you can use them to get a buddy back up from bleeding out even if you aren’t a doctor or psion. The Uncle Todd’s Healing Brew is a generic version of this brew.
Recovery Brews - restores Mind, but these are much more expensive than meals to create. The Saint John’s Recovery Brew is the generic version of this item.
Injectables - Quick to use and usable in combat. These generally heal a small amount to get you back up and away from a fight. These are very expensive to make, but incredibly valuable to have. These save your Infection!
Intoxicants & Hallucinogens - Ah, the ever popular Hooch and Spirit Walk. These items are generally only used for roleplay effects, and can cause the Intoxication or Hallucinations effects. The Strain-specific varieties generally increase the length of time of the effect. Mechanically, these really do nothing - Intoxicated has no real effect in the game currently. But, these brews are surprisingly popular to sell for those folks that enjoy RP and are occasionally used in other items as a crafting component.
Death Brews - If you are a Gravehead, someone who messes around with the Gravemind, these are your favorite brews. Death brews allow you to listen and even participate in a Grave Mind scene for another character that has died, with their consent.
Meals - Meals come in two varieties - Healing and Recovery. One restores Body, and the other Mind. These commonly expire very quickly, unless you use certain Procedures to extend their expiration date. The Strain-specific meals are the most efficient versions of the meals, and offer a large increase in value if you are the right Strain.
Room Augments - These are locations you can craft to offer buffs and advantages, provided you can make a cool physical setup to represent the area that is approved by the staff. Room Augments are generally very expensive to make, and can be a chore to set up the props for. If someone has invested in a Room Augment, it’s generally worth paying for those services, as there’s a lot of work involved building these on an out-of-game level.
Vehicles - The favorite item of Nomads and yours truly, Vehicles are the most costly items you can make. They also have one of the longest expiration dates, so making one of these is generally a project that takes multiple games to complete. Each tier multiplies in cost, so a Master-tier vehicle is the single most expensive item in the game to create. There are motorcycles, boats, airships, and caravans, and each have very powerful effects.
A few key things about crafted items:
Crafted items don’t last forever. They will have an expiration date on them, and it can range from a few days to a few years. One of the reasons to get good at the economy game is that you will eventually need to replace that shiny gun or vehicle when it expires. If you can anticipate when folks will be replacing their gear and items, you can make sure you have the right Scrap to sell them at a premium!
Crafted items are where a majority of your commodity items will be used. The desire for these items is basically what drives the barter economy of the game, and learning what resources are popular is a quick way to success. Scrap is normally used in Artisan items, and Herbs are normally used in Culinary items.
Most crafted items require a prop, or a “phys rep”. These are great ways to show off your real-life crafting skills and it's a great way to add to your costume and kit. There are also a number of real-life crafters happy to make items upon request, so if you don’t have time or the energy to make one you can reach out to your local chapter’s social media for folks interested in taking commissions.
That’s it. You can stop reading now.