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Red Markets: A Game of Economic Horror

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2018 Best Game Ennie Award Nominee

Red Markets
is a tabletop RPG about economic horror. 

In Red Markets, characters risk their lives trading between the massive quarantine zones containing a zombie outbreak and the remains of civilization. They are Takers: mercenary entrepreneurs unwilling to accept their abandonment. Bound together into competing crews, each seeks to profit from mankind’s near-extinction before it claims them. They must hustle, scheme, and scam as hard as they fight if they hope to survive the competing factions and undead hordes the GM throws at them.

Takers that are quick, clever, or brutal enough might live to see retirement in a safe zone, but many discover too late that the cycle of poverty proves harder to escape than the hordes of undead. Red Markets uses the traditional zombie genre to tell a story about surviving on the wrong end of the economy. It’s cut-throat capitalism with its knife on your neck.

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Reviews (36)
Discussions (25)
Customer avatar
Stacie W November 30, 2022 10:23 am UTC
Print on Demand please?
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Jacob R August 23, 2022 1:50 am UTC
Any chance of printing more physical copies? Or knowing a place to order one?
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Ethan C August 23, 2022 2:29 pm UTC
PURCHASER
As far as I know, the only available print copies are whatever Caleb still has himself, for cons and stuff. He told me that folks can contact him about buying one, but be prepared to hear bad news about shipping costs. We've discussed a POD edition, but so far it's not in the works, because setting it up would have very high upfront costs.
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Sharon L March 14, 2022 6:55 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Any plans for POD since it does not seem to be available on IPR anymore?
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Paul M May 24, 2022 4:30 am UTC
PURCHASER
+1
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Bård Simen V August 18, 2022 3:28 pm UTC
+1
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Noah E November 18, 2021 2:54 am UTC
PURCHASER
How does the system work in the basic sense, is it dice pool, d20, etc. Also, does Roll20 have sheets for it?
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Ethan C November 18, 2021 3:37 pm UTC
PURCHASER
The basic system is: roll two d10s, one black and one red. Add any skill bonuses and equipment bonuses to the black die. If the black die (plus bonuses) is higher than the red, it's a success. If it's equal or lower, it's a failure. Natural matching pairs are criticals: evens are crit successes (like Black10/Red10), odds are crit failures (like Black7/Red7).

It's a simple and intuitive system that's easy to learn, but with some very subtle and interesting math when you get into the probability curves.

I don't think anybody's finished putting together Roll20 sheets yet, but I know a few people have been working on it.
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Rhys M August 14, 2021 10:55 pm UTC
How many players are required for Red Markets?
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Ethan C August 15, 2021 4:34 am UTC
PURCHASER
It's a fairly standard RPG, an ideal table is one GM and 3-5 players. It's mechanically balanced for that range, but you could play with just 2 players or up to 7 if you really wanted to push things. The Negotiation mechanics mean that if you have more players in your Taker party, the money won't go around as well.
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Lasse J May 20, 2021 1:44 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Best zombie RPG I have been able to find out there. Negotiation rules are epic.
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Timothy S October 21, 2019 4:43 am UTC
I thought that the red market was "in the context of economic theory, refer[ing] to the trade of human flesh and blood in the form of sex racket, child trafficking, organ selling" and other heinous acts like slavery. Does the game refer to these issues/themes?
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Ethan C October 21, 2019 1:36 pm UTC
PURCHASER
The term "red market" has been used in a number of different ways, including referring to trade in human bodies, and also in reference to entirely unregulated markets in which the threat of violence is the only guarantor of honest trading. This game is more generally about the horror that comes from economic privation and the desperate struggle for survival in poverty after economic collapse. And zombies.

Depending on how heavy you want your game to be, you could certainly address things like organ trafficking, sexual violence, and slavery within the Red Markets system if you wish to. It's also quite possible to play lighter games where such things aren't encountered.
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Timothy S October 29, 2019 8:33 am UTC
Fair enough
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Tony M December 09, 2017 10:42 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Any chance of a high res version of the map on page 45?
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Connor N December 05, 2017 3:02 am UTC
PURCHASER
out of all the systems I've ever run, this one is hands down my favourite. I ran a campaign with the play test version of red markets and my players ended up knocking out a horror that defies nature, filling it with stims, and setting it loose on the locals so my players could escape without being shot. Also my teams medic solved most problems with huge amounts of drugs, the bruiser got shot in the leg and can't walk? fill him with stim sauce! we need to run away faster? stim sauce! we are going to see terrible terrible atrocities against nature? bottles of happy pills!

seriously while everyone else kept on buying gear, anti tank rifles, incendiary mortars, and leveling up their skills, my medic went through the game with a pistol, a medkit, and a bag of drugs
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Tony M November 24, 2017 12:56 pm UTC
PURCHASER
In the end, the words that they wrote there were meaningful.

:-)

Nice background, and lots of it, so even if the Profit System isn't for you could run this with pretty much anything you fancied.
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Jared A November 23, 2017 7:35 am UTC
PURCHASER
I backed the Kickstarter. Post-apocalyptic Ocean's 11 heists with a Call of Cthulu-type sanity mechanic.

This is more about seeing how far you can get when everything is against you as opposed to being the Big Damn Hero. Combat is alright but what I really like is the non-combat side. Negotiation, planning, providing for dependent NPCs, upkeep on your precious gear, and all while trying to keep your humanity from breaking. And you won't need an accounting ledger for this, it's all presented in the abstract. You can spend resources to get information or to say you have some rope when you find you need some. But you have to be cautious about how you do that because you can successfully complete an adventure and end up worse off than when you started.

The book is setting, rules, and how to run the game. The game mechanics can be adapted to other genres, it's not really that dependent upon the zombie motif. I've been tinkering around with adapting it to a more cinematic crime setting....See more
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Jack R November 23, 2017 3:40 am UTC
PURCHASER
When will this be available for print on demand?
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Ethan C November 23, 2017 4:37 am UTC
PURCHASER
I don't know about any future POD plans, but it is available in print now from Indie Press Revolution (in the U.S.).
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Craig B July 21, 2018 9:36 am UTC
PURCHASER
Has anyone here bought the hardcover at IPR? I'm just wondering how it holds up. clocking in at almost 500 pages is a hefty printing, and I've had some gamebooks in the past (won't mention names but one could find my comments on various game dev pages here about their books that fell apart repeatedly, and which I do not waste my money on anymore) of this size where if the binding is done cheaply will just self-destruct in months. 500 hundred pages depending on the paper quality is pretty damn large and heavy, and we don't exactly have a world anymore that promotes quality anything since the globalist stooges have convinced everyone cheaper is better. If that's the case I'd really appreciate knowing before I waste money on a book that will not hold up. I take care of my books as well and do not abuse them. I have game books I bought 20 years ago that minus minor cover wear look to be fairly new.
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Daniel K July 21, 2018 1:19 pm UTC
PURCHASER
It is a solid and attractive book. Very good paper quality and what seems to be a robust binding. I haven't heard or seen any complaints about deterioration. There might be printing specs on IPR or in one of the kickstarter updates.
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Ethan C July 21, 2018 8:25 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I can also vouch for the quality and durability of the binding.
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Craig B August 18, 2018 7:14 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Thanks Guys!
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John B November 22, 2017 2:44 pm UTC
PURCHASER
What Red Markets provides that so many other games don't is a reason for your characters to adventure. It's a reason that is immediately and viscerally available to anyone who wasn't born wealthy. Hustle and live, or get eaten by a system that doesn't care about you, that lacks the capacity to care about you. Hustle long enough, well enough, and you can not care, too. This is what separates Red Markets from other horror games. You don't have to stretch your view of the world to include inscrutable outer gods or post-singularity machine gods. This horror is economic, and it's personal. It may take a little while to get used to the negotiation mechanic mini-game, but you'll catch on. It's going to feel frustrating that the game penalizes you for accumulating possessions and dependents, but overcoming those constrains is the whole point of the game. Think of them as formal restraints when composing a sonnet or other metered and schemed poem. Wrestling with the structure forces you to be creative, and raises the stakes....See more
Customer avatar
Taylor L November 21, 2017 10:43 pm UTC
Full Disclosure: I (like others here) backed this book on Kickstarter. I have both the PDF and hardback copy like many here.

A game for post-apocalyptic enthusiast, occult-conspiracy theorists, and plain misery junkies. Gone are the trappings of your best qualities burned away by the fall of civilization in a crisis, instead all of your inefficiencies and weakness laid bare before the monumental task of just surviving. It's not a game about Zombies, it's a game about poverty, loneliness, doing what it takes to survive. The "Casualties" are just one more detail of your bullshit job. It clings to coining the phrase "economic horror" with it's Profit system, where no rolls are free and must be carefully rationed out with limited resources. With it's Boom and Bust rules you can tailor it to be a hardscrabble and heroic romp through a dead civilization like S.M. Stirling's: Dies the Fire or as bleak and unforgiving as Cormack McCarthy's: The Road.

About the Physical Copy:...See more
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Nathaniel J November 21, 2017 9:27 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Another backer here: This game skews dark. As written it leads to interesting moral choices and a sense of impending doom. The players are eternally one job/paycheck away from ruin. Altruism inevitably has deeply personal costs to the characters and those characters families, making heroism all the more heroic. I have some criticisms, but they're very minor, because the game is so well done. It's obviously a labor (pun intended) of love, but don't get it because of that. Buy the game if you want to grapple with a type of horror, financial, that many deal with every day. Spend money on this product to support critiques of capitalism!
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Product Information
Platinum seller
Rule System(s)
Pages
496
ISBN
978-1-987916-97-3
File Size:
80.38 MB
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File Last Updated:
November 19, 2017
This title was added to our catalog on November 19, 2017.