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Old 04-06-2007, 10:30 AM   #11
sir_pudding
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Default Re: Being rich without being Wealthy

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Originally Posted by Bookman
I
3) The offhand comment in Basic about characters usually having access to only 20% of their by-the-book wealth for gear is widely ignored, due to the comment that follows which says that characters with an unsettled lifestyle can have all of it.
I never have this problem, most characters end up with 80% tied up in non-adventuring gear, because there is no way that their concepts could be "non-settled" and no way the campaign could support "non-settled" characters. When I do run campaigns with "non-settled" characters, then they are usually all wandering knights, gypsy performers, whatever and therefore everyone has 100% of their Starting Wealth to spend. Most campaign concepts are going to produce either all settled or all wandering PCs, rather than a mix.
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Old 04-06-2007, 11:17 AM   #12
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Default Re: Being rich without being Wealthy

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Originally Posted by DouglasCole
Signature gear: pro: plot protection and a nice return on your points. con: it's ONE thing, or one type of thing.

Points for cash: pro: totally flexible and fungible. Need not be converted directly into equipment at the time, but can be kept as liquid and acceptable trading gear. buy anything that can be had for money. Con: slightly less bang for the points.


So, in my mind, the reason signature gear buys more than points for cash is that the designers probably decided something like this:

You get X dollars in value for cash.

for Sig Gear, you get a limitation: 'Only for one thing' and an advantage 'plot protection.' the designers must have felt the limints on your choices of what you get for that point expenditure is worth more than the fact that by and large it won't be taken away from you.
Agree completely. That's why I ended up making a single item of Signature Gear worth twice as much as the corresponding cash-for-points would be. Try and shoehorn in several "signature items", and it's not an attractive option. That works for me.
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Old 04-06-2007, 11:18 AM   #13
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Default Re: Being rich without being Wealthy

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Originally Posted by sir_pudding
I never have this problem, most characters end up with 80% tied up in non-adventuring gear, because there is no way that their concepts could be "non-settled" and no way the campaign could support "non-settled" characters. When I do run campaigns with "non-settled" characters, then they are usually all wandering knights, gypsy performers, whatever and therefore everyone has 100% of their Starting Wealth to spend. Most campaign concepts are going to produce either all settled or all wandering PCs, rather than a mix.
Am I right in thinking that the all-wandering cast doesn't have much need to muck about with jobs and such, and therefore the other advantages of wealth don't really mean much?
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Old 04-06-2007, 11:49 AM   #14
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Default Re: Being rich without being Wealthy

Perhaps we ought examine the feasibility of decoupling Wealth into it's components and buy them all separately

Starting Cash
Fixed (non-adventuring) Property
Income
Status
Liquidity
Duty (job, doesn't get paid if doesn't perform)
somehting else I can't put my finger on at the moment

Buy as much fixed property and starting cash as is appropriate to your lifestyle in whatever proportion you like.

Make any status bonus a function of visible expenditure and not 'wealth level'

Balance some incomes with the Job duty, you can tweak that duty to represent the increased/lessened time at work mentoined in the wealth templates if you feel it's appropriate. (I've always wondered how guys who work scant hours got to be multi-millioaires in the first place.)

If you want to have your fixed property be very liquid (e.g stocks vice a manor house) you could pay a premium for it by charging different cp/$ for more 'useful' types of wealth.

I think Pyramid did an article on something like this but don't have time to look it up right now.

What do you think?
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Old 04-06-2007, 11:49 AM   #15
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Default Re: Being rich without being Wealthy

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Originally Posted by Bookman
Am I right in thinking that the all-wandering cast doesn't have much need to muck about with jobs and such, and therefore the other advantages of wealth don't really mean much?
In the last all-wandering campaign I ran, the PCs were a troupe of travelling performers (kind of a Wild Bill Wild West show, with Illusion magic), and therefore they still had a job (with income based on ticket sales). In general I think I've always had employed PCs make Job Rolls, and all PCs pay CoL (which made unemployed PCs wish they were employed). Of course I've also always used the Time Use rules, and had lots of downtime. "Everyday is an Adventure!" doesn't really make sense to me.

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Old 04-06-2007, 11:52 AM   #16
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Default Re: Being rich without being Wealthy

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Originally Posted by benz72
I think Pyramid did an article on something like this but don't have time to look it up right now.

What do you think?
One of the reasons I didn't get into this aspect of it was because there is a very good article that does this part of redefining wealth already. I think it was called The Color of Money.

[edited to add: Googled for it and added the link.]
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Last edited by Brandy; 04-06-2007 at 12:58 PM.
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Old 04-06-2007, 12:48 PM   #17
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Default Re: Being rich without being Wealthy

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Originally Posted by sir_pudding
In the last all-wandering campaign I ran, the PCs were a troupe of travelling performers (kind of a Wild Bill Wild West show, with Illusion magic), and therefore they still had a job (with income based on ticket sales). In general I think I've always had employed PCs make Job Rolls, and all PCs pay CoL (which made unemployed PCs wish they were employed). Of course I've also always used the Time Use rules, and had lots of downtime. "Everyday is an Adventure!" doesn't really make sense to me.
I suspect we're closer than you might think then WRT the starting wealth. I would have abstracted all of the travelling gear (wagons, horses, props and sets) and the other gear that they use to make their money as the 80% of wealth, I think. It sounds like you probably had them buy that sort of thing from the 100% they started with? Just a guess, there.
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Old 04-06-2007, 04:30 PM   #18
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Default Re: Being rich without being Wealthy

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Originally Posted by Agemegos
I understood, and I think that that is silly. You are saying that the Wealth advantage doesn't describe investments, doesn't describe household assets such as a car and a house, and doesn't even describe cash in the bank. It only describes furniture, clothes, toys, and adventuring gear. Convert 'wealth' into money and it ceases to be wealth.
Actually, no, that's not what I'm saying. But it's off topic for this thread in any event.
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Old 04-07-2007, 12:47 AM   #19
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Default Re: Being rich without being Wealthy

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookman
I suspect we're closer than you might think then WRT the starting wealth. I would have abstracted all of the travelling gear (wagons, horses, props and sets) and the other gear that they use to make their money as the 80% of wealth, I think. It sounds like you probably had them buy that sort of thing from the 100% they started with? Just a guess, there.
Actually, IIRC, all the startup costs were provided by a mysterious investor (a Patron for all the PCs) the starting wealth only went to their personal gear.
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Old 04-07-2007, 08:36 PM   #20
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Default Re: Being rich without being Wealthy

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Originally Posted by Bookman
3) The offhand comment in Basic about characters usually having access to only 20% of their by-the-book wealth for gear is widely ignored, due to the comment that follows which says that characters with an unsettled lifestyle can have all of it.
I personally allow it, but it's paid for elsewhere. You have the option of taking the full starting wealth in gear, or the "free with status" items.

There are also social ramifications to being such a wanderer. You might be a knight (high status), but if you don't have lands and aren't attached to a household, you're an outsider to most of the 'quality' people.
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