Cloak-and-Sword Économiste

Économiste

A cloak-and-sword class. Any early modern French milieu needs its John Law, or its John Blunt, or perhaps an enterprising florist.

Begin with a single suit of fine clothes, a French rapier, a deck of cards, a pair of dice, and 2 Credit (see Credible).

Indebted: Through bad luck and worse impulse control, your family wealth has been spent ten times over. Roll 1d6 to find out why you aren’t in debtor’s prison.

1. A daring escape! If you are ever put on trial again, you will be convicted.
2. A scapegoat. A noble family is sworn to your destruction. They all hold Esprit for you, but you roll 1d6 rather than 2d6 on their Esprit Reactions.
3. A self-imposed exile. If you ever return to your homeland, you will be executed. Your accent and manner of dress mark you indelibly as a foreigner.
4. A convenient marriage. You begin play married to an suitable spouse. If you ever spend a penny of their family’s fortune, the Church will make a special exception to its prohibition on divorce, just so that they can cut you loose.
5. A false confession. You are an enemy of all Angels, though not yet a priority for divine censure. 
6. Conscription and desertion. If you ever go to sea, you will be press-ganged.

Numerate: You always win games of pure chance, though your profits will not exceed the game’s expected value unless you successfully rig it in your favour.

Lucrative: Burghers, merchants, artisans, indebted nobles, and shareholders in your Grand Speculative Enterprise (see Grand Speculative Enterprise) hold Esprit for you. Due to a dizzying multiplicity of ruinous wars, the Crown is always in debt, typically to the Church.

Credible: You understand the flows of money throughout the economy, and as such can access a special stat called Credit. You may use Credit in lieu of specie to purchase items from those whom hold Esprit for you. This does not reduce your Credit, but you incur a Debt to the seller equal to the total monetary value of the items.

Good For It: You may reduce your Credit by 1 to withdraw specie from a bank up to a maximum of 100 silver per point of Credit (before the reduction).

The Invisible Hand: Your words ring with the honeyed promise of lucre. Once per Esprit reaction, you may reduce your Credit by 1 to re-roll either die or both dice. You may re-roll allies’ Esprit rolls this way.

Collections: Whenever you have more Debts than you have Credit, your oldest Debt is immediately converted into a commensurately dangerous force hunting you down. They can only be bought off with a payment equal to that Debt, but they can be killed, or dealt with by more abstruse methods.

Hey, Big Spender: Whenever you Carouse, roll 1d6. On a 2+, gain 1 Credit. On a 1, lose 2 Credit.

Largesse: Whenever you pay off a Debt (not necessarily your own), your Credit may increase by 1. The chance is based on the size of the Debt.

• Bar tabs of everyone in the tavern (1-in-6)
• Gambling debts (2-in-6)
• The fine for a dishonorable murder (3-in-6)
• A season’s tithe to the church (4-in-6)
• The expected profits of a fully-laden cargo ship, lost at sea (5-in-6)

You can pay off debts by using your own Credit, but note that this will incur debts of your own.

A Grand Speculative Enterprise: Once, ever, you may declare a Grand Speculative Enterprise. In order to do this, you must have the following:

1. The backing of either a noble family, many merchant venturers, the Crown, or the Church.
2. A madcap plan that promises heretofore-unimaginable profit.
3. A demonstration, true or falsified, of your venture’s feasibility.

Immediately double your Credit, or triple it if you are backed by the Crown. Your Credit now represents the public valuation of your Grand Speculative Enterprise, rather than merely your personal credibility.

Your Enterprise begins with 3 Shares distributed amongst its most prominent backers, who form the Board. If you would incur a Debt of any amount, you may instead issue the potential creditor a Share in your Grand Speculative Enterprise.

At the beginning of each session, roll 1d100. If the result is less than or equal to the number of Shares there are in your Grand Speculative Enterprise, you must do one of the following or reduce your Credit by 1d6.

• Issue Shares. Double the number of Shares. You may choose who receives them (and therefore holds Esprit for you), but this may anger the Board if it contradicts their interests.
• Go Public. From now on, due to the free trade in shares, whenever you encounter an NPC, there is a (Shares)% chance that they hold a Share of your Enterprise. Shares discovered this way are added to the total. You may only do this once, ever.
• Expand the Board. If, by the end of the session, you do not have a new backer from amongst a noble family, many merchant venturers, the Crown, or the Church, your Credit is reduced as above. If you have gained a new backing interest, issue them 3 new shares and they join the Board.
• Pave With Gold. Further Dividends must be paid with gold, rather than silver. If you have already chosen this, choose one of the following in addition to gold.
• Land
• Souls
• Love
• Years
• Noble title
• Divine grace
• Pay Dividends. Pay every shareholder an amount of silver equal to the square of your Credit. The money must be deposited with the Board for disbursement. After you successfully pay a Dividend, increase your Credit by 1d6.

If your Credit is ever reduced to 0 or less while engaged in a Grand Speculative Enterprise, you are Bankrupt and your Enterprise falls to ruin. Every Share is immediately converted into a Debt, and as your Credit is 0, each Debt immediately becomes a collector (see Collections).