Quote:
Originally Posted by cosmicfish
I do not think it is disingenuous at all - I am looking for rules to fit a narrative, not changes in narrative to fit the rules (which is where piling on debt or debilitation come in). If a player wants "expensive item(s) but low wealth and earning potential" I want to do that without adding caveats just so that the rules add up nicer.
And this is exactly what I am talking about - you are suggesting changing the game world so that the item is less valuable. That is explicitly NOT what I am looking for.
But still valuable - just because it is impractical for commercial exploitation does not mean that it is suddenly cheap. Luke Skywalker could probably have made a ton of credits by selling his father's lightsaber at the end of A New Hope (as it was quite possibly an extremely rare and valuable collectible) but that does not mean that having that lightsaber would make him a highly-paid mercenary or otherwise enable him to make an income commensurate with the sale value of his possessions. Wealth assumes a certain correlation between income and net worth, and I am looking to skew that relationship.
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I think we are potentially having a miscommunication.
My point is: If the item can be leveraged for wealth then there needs to be some explanation AND mechanic for why its not being leveraged for wealth. If the item cannot be leveraged for wealth, then the item is worth a lot less then its 'sticker price'- these two factors are true in both the real world and can be reflected in the GURPS world very effectively and cover a huge number (possibly all) sources of 'item rich, money poor'.
Luke Skywalkers' father's lightsaber is a great example of an item that is probably worth a fortune to the original owner only, radically less to sell- lightsabers are immensely personal items that are hand crafted, that are really only useful in the hands of a limited number of precognitive psychics. Lightsabers might have value based on lineage and ownership, to collectors, but as a weapon or item it would only be a curiosity to the world of money, and in and of itself not do anything to command money- to a non force-user its a prop to pretend you are a force-user, and probably priced as such.
Another great real-world example is a tailored suit. I might pay $1300 to have a suit hand-made for me, if I loose some weight and the suit is now baggy on me and for whatever reason I did not have it re-tailored I'd have to search far and wide for a buyer, and probably get less then $200 for it. I can't leverage the suit for money- a finely made, but baggy, suit is not going to win me any advantage in negotiations and business vs a cheap but well fitting suit.
Though perhaps I am misunderstanding you- could you list a few more examples; perhaps there is something I am not seeing rather then not communicating effectively.