Quote:
Originally Posted by maximara
Well the Wealth trait hangs off of the average starting income of the TL — with a monthly range between the previous and next TL (Basic Set 517)
In certain situations Wealth is irrelevant.
Many late TL5+ solders have their equipment provided by their government so its cost is irrelevant. The same would be true of a Star Fleet crew though it would be the ship providing the stuff. James Bond inspired spies are much the same way.
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The "average" wealth in the US today is far bigger than here in Brazil or in South Africa.
Regardless of that, the amount is the same, no matter if your character plays in Scandinavia, South East Asia or the Caribbean islands.
I dont think that "average" here means dividing the GDP of a location by the number of people; that's not it.
What the starting "average" wealth means is a life without much hardships but also without luxuries, given the TL of the setting, irregardless of the local economy.
A group of TL1 semi nomads may all have "Poor" or "Dead Broke" as their
particular "average", due to how poor their civilization is. That doesnt mean their sheets have their "average" starting wealth being 0, it rather means that everybody in this tribe have "Dead Broke" in their sheets, as they are constantly starving.
People living in (the most boring RPG setting ever) "Grand Utopia" where EVERYBODY has access to a bunch of luxuries without any effort dont have their starting average wealth being $1.000.000, instead all those citizens have Wealth or more (perhaps even 1 or more Multimillionaire levels!) at their sheets, as a sort of "cultural trait" common to all.
The Wealth trait doesnt measure local economies, but rather the capabilities of individuals to have access to goods and services. Thus, someone with a Comfortable weath could be considered rich in a dirty poor society of mostly serfs, while someone with a Wealth level would be just a common citizen in a post scarcity Utopia.