Quote:
Originally Posted by Jinumon
This question has bothered me for a long time. Just how much money would it take to reasonably entice some exceptional Indiana Jones- or Geralt of Rivia-type to risk life and limb for a wealthy employer or with the promise of a big score? How often do they take jobs, and how long do those jobs take? Funnily enough, I feel I may have stumbled upon a solid ballpark figure while prepping for a 5E campaign of That One Game I intend to run shortly for some friends (it’s all they know, don’t hold against them… or me).
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If you are the kind of person who relies on salary, you are not an adventurer at all. One of the defining features of an adventure is high risk, high reward. Or as soldiers say, the only thing sillier than dying for a standard of living is dying for someone else's.
People's perception of both risk and reward from high-risk situations are not very good. There are people who risk life in prison to steal a few days' minimum wage, or throw their lives and treasures down a pit on Oak Island without evidence that anything is buried there, let alone its value.
Mercenaries etc. earn anything from Struggling (tenant farmers or beggars rounded up at gunpoint and told that they are going to a foreign land to fight the wicked ...) to Very Wealthy (members of what is becoming the dominant ethnic group sucking the old elite's money away). Often, they are motivated by the possibility of one day becoming independently wealthy (ie. not having to work for a living) or gaining enough Wealth to support a certain Status; just as often, their personalities mean that they lose money as fast as they gain it.