Assets

The corner stone of most adventurers is their favorite weapon and armor. While these things have a physical weight and value, they also have a mental weight and value. This mental weight and value is called Assets. A weapon you picked up off the ground thats worse quality then yours will obviously be of little use to you and thus your not likely to want to use it, or even think to use it when it would be a good idea. A basic axe has an asset cost of 2. Yet if someone went out of their way to imbue it with a Prefix, it would be worth 3 assets. A dagger with a +1 Ice Prism imbue would have an asset cost of 7, in fact it's so valuable a new adventurer might leave it at home for fear of losing such an expensive item. Typically a character has between 4 and 50 assets. They are few and precious, and it is easy to use up many from just having a potent weapon or armor. Other things use assets too, like a rope or documents allowing you to pass a toll post without having to pay.

Assets are for things you expect to use that day, or on the next journey. Some natives can wrap their mind around carrying a staff, a bow, and a set of armor with documents to pass to the next region. None can wrap their minds around carryings two daggers, a maul, a bow, a crossbow, 10 ropes, a set of bone plate, and a set of shell plate. Ignoring the fact that just carrying all that would require a slave or two. Now if the second Native, the one with 10 ropes, happens to be a merchant he might have all those things carried by slaves. That merchant would only use up to his assets in equipment on any day. If he decided when he woke up to use his bone plate, two daggers and his bow; then he would be using 14 assets requiring a merchant skill of 7 or more. If he had 7 exactly and later in the day he came across a barrier that a maul would be useful for, they wouldn't bother to try and use the maul, they'd just try to find another way to deal with the problem. If nothing else coming back to the problem later or having someone else, like one of his slaves, take care of it for him.

You have twice your Merchant skill in base assets. The Entertain skill can add 1 to 3 additional assets, and there may be other ways to gain additional assets. Whenever the word "assets" is mentioned alone, it is referring to base assets. There are special kinds of assets (such as Trap Parts) that are used exclusively for their appropriate scope.