Help running a negotiation.

[p_johnston]

IF YOU ARE PART OF THE ARMS OF THE WORLD LEAVE NOW OR THE BOSS WILL KNOW. PLEASE AND THANK YOU.

Hello playground I need a little help planning my next session. A little background the campaign is a Greek setting (i like to think of it as Yoplait because it's Greek light). The country is run by guilds each headed by a god (think Is It Wrong to Pick up Girls in a dungeon) and the players have just recently started their own guild. The party is currently a barbarian, two fighters, a rouge/fighter, and a bard (yes I know, all the beef).

Getting to the session. They will be hired by one of the other guilds to negotiate for a piece of land. I was thinking they would be given 10,000 gold told that any leftover after the negotiation is their profit. The owner of the piece of land in question wants 15,000 gold for it at least if he's even willing to sell. He's also fat, hedonistic, owns slaves (who he calls servants), and shady as Hades. I'm fishing for ideas on how to run the negotiation without is being just a straight skill check to get him to sell.

Idea's
1) blackmail-have the pc's able to either break in to get incriminating documents, or maybe find someone in town/one of his slaves who can testify to his misdeeds.
Problem-not sure how to stretch it an entire session/if the rouge sneaks in it leaves the rest of the party useless?
2)fetch quest-The owner wants (insert trinket name here) from a dangerous ruin/bandit camp/rival.
problem-I want to break away from boiling everything down to combat (also known as the Skyrim problem)
3)straight negotiation- make it some sort of skill challenge to negotiate him down
problem-same as number one. how to stretch it all session/ let someone besides the bard do stuff.

[Douche]

Those sound like great options. I also wonder how much authority they were given in negotiations... Like, do they have any leeway in services the purchaser would offer in addition to the gold cost?

What if the landowner says he'll sell the land for 7000 gold, but he gets to keep his cottage on the hill? Would they have the authority to give him that (or at least have the ability to go back to the buyer with that offer?)
Or, like, lets say the land is going to be used for dairy farming. Can the seller ask for free milk for life (limit 1 gallon per week, terms and conditions apply, see contest rules for full details)?
How about if the landowner will sell the land for an obscenely low price, like 3000 gold - but he gets a share of any income that comes as a result of business conducted from that land, and he gets to be on the decision board/gets a vote on decisions regarding the land?

I too dislike the idea of persuasion/negotiation coming down to a simple skill check. I'd like to give that NPC motivations, ambition, or greed, and see how the players interact with that.

[p_johnston]

The pc's don't actually have a lot of power in the negotiation. The guild that hired them is doing this sort of as a test to see what the pc's are made of. The deal is along the lines of "we give you ten thousand gold, you give us the land, we don't care how." If they bring it up the buyers might be able to share profits (which would be a negotiation with them in and of itself). The land in question is going to be used for a mine, and the seller is using it as a retirement estate. If he sells he's just going to leave to a new location.

As to the seller he's actually a retired Thieves guild member. He's obscenely rich himself (he's more then willing to eat the cost of the land for some decent entertainment). to his mind the entire negotiation is more of a game. He's being obstinate about selling because 1)he's bored finds annoying the other guild funny and 2)it's would be a bit of a pain in the butt to move.

[Douche]

Well, if it's all a game to him, I imagine he would rather send the PCs on a bunch of inane fetch quests and ridiculous/embarrassing tasks like walking through town wearing dresses or something. He would just keep pushing the PCs for his amusement to see how little self-worth they actually have.

Bonus points if you have them do a bunch of stuff and say the deal will go through as soon as they finish this one last task, then have them do some more stuff. Then they'd be all "But you said that was the last thing" and he'd be like "I have altered the deal, pray I do not alter it any further."

[p_johnston]

That's a fun idea. I like it especially because they'll hate him so much, but killing him will cause them endless trouble later.

[Felvion]

"I have altered the deal, pray I do not alter it any further."
The quotes...

[AcerbicOrb]

The quotes...

As long as they steer clear of Monty Python quotes, they'll be fine.

[p_johnston]

Actually to be fair to my players I am far more likely to make horrible puns/quotes/jokes then anyone else at the table.