The dilemma. Kordag Hold is hungry and every merchant house in Valmora is selling grain there at four times the usual price. Your treasurer begs you to do the same. If you sell at the old price, the others will call you a traitor to the trade.
From the gameThe painting on this decision card in Valmora.
What would you do?
Play itDecision 1 of 1
Dilemma
Every House Is Selling Bread at Famine Prices
Kordag Hold is hungry and every merchant house in Valmora is selling grain there at four times the usual price. Your treasurer begs you to do the same. If you sell at the old price, the others will call you a traitor to the trade.
If the roll succeedsKordag queues at your wagons and blesses your name. The other houses are furious and powerless.If it failsThe other houses undercut you everywhere else to punish you. Kordag is grateful; your ledger is not.
What happenedYour strongroom fills. The miners' wives know exactly who you are.
What happenedThe famine passes without you. So does any credit for easing it.
No right answer.
In the game the roll is d20 plus your adviser’s skill. Here the bonus is a flat +2.
The options and what happens
Sell at last year's price and say so in the square.Bold · decided by a d20 roll against 13
Succeeds: Kordag queues at your wagons and blesses your name. The other houses are furious and powerless.
Fails: The other houses undercut you everywhere else to punish you. Kordag is grateful; your ledger is not.
Sell at the market price like everyone.Certain outcome
Your strongroom fills. The miners' wives know exactly who you are.
Keep your grain out of it.Certain outcome
The famine passes without you. So does any credit for easing it.
About this card
This is one of 8 hand-written dilemmas set in Valmora (Year 412 of the Lantern Calendar), one of three ages in Be a CEO, a business strategy game where you run a trading house. Each dilemma has one bold option, decided by dice, and safer options with certain outcomes. The text above is the card exactly as it appears in the game, with the amounts it showed on the first day of a new game.
Questions
What are the options in “Every House Is Selling Bread at Famine Prices”?
There are three: “Sell at last year's price and say so in the square”; “Sell at the market price like everyone”; “Keep your grain out of it”. The first is the bold option: the game rolls a d20 plus your adviser’s skill against 13. The other two have certain outcomes.
What happens if the bold choice fails?
The other houses undercut you everywhere else to punish you. Kordag is grateful; your ledger is not.
What happens if the bold choice succeeds?
Kordag queues at your wagons and blesses your name. The other houses are furious and powerless.
More Valmora dilemmas
Bandits Who Want to Be GuardsSix men who robbed the Stonebreak road for years have walked into your yard, laid down their knives and asked for work as caravan guards.
Nobody Uses Swallow PassAn old shepherd swears that Swallow Pass, abandoned since a rockfall in his grandfather's day, is open again.
A Caravan from the Fever CountryA steppe caravan has arrived at Aldheim's east gate from lands where the sweating fever is spreading.
A Partnership with the Horse ClansThe Tal clan of the steppe offers to share its grazing grounds and remounts with your caravans, in exchange for iron at a fair price.
Written by the Mantar Tech team from the game’s own data and text. Be a CEO is in closed alpha, so numbers and cards can change. About the art: much of it was made with AI tools and then selected and edited by hand.
