Cost of living and Starting Wealth 20%/80%

[Valadrim]

In the basic set it says that characters with a settled life style "should put 80% of their starting wealth into home, clothing etc., which leave only 20% for adventuring gear." (BS 26)

Home, clothing, etc sound like things that are wrapped up into cost of living. "Your monthly "cost of living is an average of your typical expenses for one month. It covers food, housing, clothing, and entertainment...and at Status 1 or higher, servants, if this is customary in your society." (BS 265)

If cost of living covers all the normal expenses, what sorts of things are players intended to buy with their 80%?

A TL 3 Wealthy Status 2 Knight has a starting wealth of $5000. 80% is $4000. Cost of living for the first month is $3000. Where does the remaining $1000 of the 80% go? Better and more loyal staff sounds like an advantage, fancy artwork sounds like you are paying for cost of living above status. Leaving it unspent or using it to cover a third of next month's expenses sounds clever and makes sure you can spend your money on "adventuring gear" instead of settled lifestyle items, it also sounds like it is dodging the point of the rule. Professional gear such as a library, shop or lab seem like the sort of choices the system is trying to push us towards, but I think I am missing what we are expected to do.

[Ketsuban]

Originally Posted by Valadrim

Where does the remaining $1000 of the 80% go?

As a guess/suggestion, pending the contribution of someone more experienced than me:

Wealth upkeep: maintaining the animals he breeds for racing/sale, covering speculation risk on premium goods, etc.
Status upkeep: social dos which he doesn't strictly have to attend, but will regret not attending; gifts for affluent strangers.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Valadrim

Where does the remaining $1000 of the 80% go? Better and more loyal staff sounds like an advantage, fancy artwork sounds like you are paying for cost of living above status. Leaving it unspent or using it to cover a third of next month's expenses sounds clever and makes sure you can spend your money on "adventuring gear" instead of settled lifestyle items, it also sounds like it is dodging the point of the rule. Professional gear such as a library, shop or lab seem like the sort of choices the system is trying to push us towards, but I think I am missing what we are expected to do.

The 80% covers all the myriad boring things which one has saved from one's past income: clothing, a house or shop or farm, mounts, vehicles, tools, and so on. It does not all have to be listed, but it must reflect your mundane job and status, and selling it would be disruptive and destroy much of its value. The remaining 20% of starting wealth can be cash or adventuring gear which is precisely enumerated and listed and which the player can spend however they want.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Valadrim

In the basic set it says that characters with a settled life style "should put 80% of their starting wealth into home, clothing etc., which leave only 20% for adventuring gear." (BS 26)

Home, clothing, etc sound like things that are wrapped up into cost of living. "Your monthly "cost of living is an average of your typical expenses for one month. It covers food, housing, clothing, and entertainment...and at Status 1 or higher, servants, if this is customary in your society." (BS 265)

If cost of living covers all the normal expenses, what sorts of things are players intended to buy with their 80%?

Owning a house and a car (or a villa and a horse). "Buying a car" isn't a normal expense. Keeping it fueled and maintained is. Buying a house isn't a normal expense. Paying for utilities and groceries, and the wages of the housemaid if it's that kind of house is.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Owning a house and a car (or a villa and a horse). "Buying a car" isn't a normal expense. Keeping it fueled and maintained is. Buying a house isn't a normal expense. Paying for utilities and groceries, and the wages of the housemaid if it's that kind of house is.

Fuelling one's car, or feeding one's mount, ought to be included in CoL, though. And IIRC it is.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Fuelling one's car, or feeding one's mount, ought to be included in CoL, though. And IIRC it is.

As I said "keeping it fueled is"

[Gollum]

I thought for a very long time about this, trying to give the best possible answer to my players' questions... And rules are not really clear here, even if they give some interesting hints...

For ordinary clothes, for instance, there is no problem. It goes clearly in the 80%. But for a car? does it go it in the 80% or is it adventuring equipment? And what about a cellular phone? In our modern world, almost everybody has got one...

So here are my conclusions...

1. When it is something mundane that almost everybody around has got (even when he never takes part in any adventure), the item can go in the 80% and the usual cost of living. In our modern world, for example: a used car, a laptop, a cellular phone, a little numerical camera...
2. When it belongs to the profession of the player and is one of his ordinary tools for his daily job, it can also go in the 80%. A gun for a cop, a good car for a taxi driver, a little personal library for a university teacher...
3. When it is not something ordinary and daily for someone in the character's situation, then it has to be paid with the 20% for adventuring equipment. A fancy new car, climbing tools, lockpicks, a gun for an ordinary citizen...

Actually, I noticed that the distinction was not very important... As long as the GM remains consistent!

If a character take part in a car chase wis his ordinary car and break it, for instance, he will have to pay for the repair (or even to buy a new car). And this will not anymore be taken into account in his ordinary cost of living, since it was done during an adventure... Likewise, if his clothes are teared up by knife strikes or pierced by bullets, the character will have to pay for new ones... Here again, I won't allow the player to say: "That's odinary cost of living." because the problems occured during an adventure and are not ordinary wear...

Brief, my rule is this one: the player can use specific adventuring tools or ordinary ones... But if he uses ordinary one and destroy them during an adventure, he will have to replace them or to go on without it. Likewise, if he uses his car to comute work or for shopping, no problem; it is ordinary cost of living. Now, if he uses his car for adventure purposes, he will have to pay for the fuel.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Fuelling one's car, or feeding one's mount, ought to be included in CoL, though. And IIRC it is.

Probably, though RAW says very little on the issue.

I'm currently struggling with what can and can not be part of the 80%. For instance, about 20k out of a Starting Wealth of 150k are reserved for purchase the ghosting procedure of my bioroid assistant (who has about 4 years left until old age kicks in rapidly*). The GM ruled it okay to fill this fund out of the 80%, but I wasn't so sure about it. Because let's face it, if four years pass in the world, or the roid gets heavily crippled, this is an instant upgrade. If times goes slowly and the roid is okay, those funds are just lying there doing nothing.
There is in fact reason to reserve around 60k more for a spare bioshell, and I haven't asked the GM about it yet. If that happens, I end up with 80k out of 150 already 'occupied'. That means out of those 80%, only 40k remain. Which makes me wonder if that is supposed to mean that I get reduced 'What Cost of Living Gets You'. The smartcar alone costs 23k. A 'comfortable house or apartment' seems to go for 50k at the very least. Then there's the AI, burglar alarms, and access to medical facilities. I'm actually not sure that Wealthy is enough to fully cover Status 1 CoLGetsYou by those 80% if you account for each and every thing.

And I don't think it's a good thing if I have to ask the GM about every ambiguous item.

* == Low-run model from the space genelabs, analogous but earlier than/inferior to the Xenocop, mostly intended for use in Duncanite private security firms; GM listed faster ageing as one of the signs that it is an early/inferior model, and since the curriculum vitæ already listed age at 21, well, Self-Destruct on top of the typical Short Lifespan.

[panton41]

For equipment from the 80% that would be useful on an adventure I always ask if they could afford to lose it and whether the game type puts that equipment in danger. For example a car is certainly useful in a modern-day game, but if it has the possibility of being lost or destroyed during an adventure I question whether a reasonable person would be willing to risk losing it. Not to say they can't, but I might assess a penalty if they do risk it and lose it (maybe Debt to represent car payments).

[Gollum]

Originally Posted by ciaran_skye

For equipment from the 80% that would be useful on an adventure I always ask if they could afford to lose it and whether the game type puts that equipment in danger. For example a car is certainly useful in a modern-day game, but if it has the possibility of being lost or destroyed during an adventure I question whether a reasonable person would be willing to risk losing it. Not to say they can't, but I might assess a penalty if they do risk it and lose it (maybe Debt to represent car payments).

This is exactly what I wanted to mean... And my house rule (which is more an interpretation of the existing rules than a true house rule) is made to emphasize it: if the car is damaged or destroyed, then, the character will have to pay for the repair or to buy it again...

It makes the player have the feeling that you describe: "Will I really want to take part in this car chase with my own car? Don't I prefer letting the foes go away and call the police?"

Actually, if I don't ask them to pay the item before the adventure with their 20% of starting wealth (because "everyone is supposed to have this at home"), then they might have to pay it after the adventure...

It also lead to interesting roleplaying situations:
Character's wife (played by the GM): "What did you by the devil do with our car? How will I take the children to school, now? You never thing before acting and I'm really becoming upset of that!"