11-20-2012, 04:43 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Oct 2011
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Cost of Living and Status in Fantasy Game
OK so I'm running a Fantasy game (not DF!), and I'm trying to figure out how to handle the Cost of Living/Status issue. The PCs are presumed to be Status 0. They are all second sons/orphans who are leaving their homes to go to the far kingdoms and adventure (so, in effect, they are leaving their permanent 80% of wealth homes). When they hit the docks in the new city, it seems (by the rules) that they must immediately start paying the costs listed on B265, since they are (by definition) "living away from home". That means to find rooms in an Inn and start buying "3 squares a day" will cost them:
at Status 0: Inn: $120 per day 3 meals: $24 per day total cost = $144 per day! They could choose to live at Status -1 (and impress no one!) Inn: $60 per day 3 meals: $12 per day total cost = $84 per day! And they must continue to pay these costs until---when?? Note that Banestorm sez: Status 0: A rural cottage (probably held in fief or rented), or several rented or small rooms in town. Possibly a servant or two, or at least family members to help you out. A couple of changes of clothes, one set adequately smart. A mule or ox in the country; in town, enough credit to hire or borrow a mount if you need to travel short distances. So just when do the PCs get to stop paying the "living away from home" expenses? When they negotiate a long-term rent deal in town for several rented rooms? How do y'all handle this in your Fantasy games? |
11-20-2012, 05:28 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Mar 2010
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Re: Cost of Living and Status in Fantasy Game
In my games, they stop paying the "living away from home" prices when they invest 80% of their Wealth ($Foo) value in the new location to purchase a settled lifestyle.
Assuming TL 3:
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11-20-2012, 06:00 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Cost of Living and Status in Fantasy Game
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11-20-2012, 06:09 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
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Re: Cost of Living and Status in Fantasy Game
When I started my Worminghall campaign, I had the PCs stay in inns for a day or two, while they searched for teachers and permanent lodgings. But as soon as they'd made a search roll to find a landlord, they were in.
Bill Stoddard |
11-20-2012, 07:16 PM | #5 |
Join Date: Oct 2011
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Re: Cost of Living and Status in Fantasy Game
Well, since they are 2nd sons, and aren't going to inherit, I'm assuming their daddys didn't just say "here's $1,000--good luck!" Although they could, I guess. I don't seem to recall Kromm saying as such in his "how you allocate your starting money" post a while back.
Bill, that's what I was leaning towards; a variation between your post and Sunrunner's; that as soon as the PCs get semi-permanent lodging in the new town they start paying the standard amount again-and I kinda like the 80% idea, actually. Of course, once they "hit the road" on an adventure, then they're buying travel rations and paying the Inn & Tavern prices again... |
11-20-2012, 08:29 PM | #6 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Copenhagen, Denmark
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Re: Cost of Living and Status in Fantasy Game
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Hans |
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11-20-2012, 08:44 PM | #7 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: Cost of Living and Status in Fantasy Game
When relocating, did they load up a wagon with all their worldly goods, or did they just shrug on a backpack filled with clothes and necessities, plus a few bags of gold and silver coins?
If the former, I'd start charging them cost of living as soon as they start unloading the wagon.
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting |
11-21-2012, 05:16 AM | #8 | |
Join Date: Oct 2011
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Re: Cost of Living and Status in Fantasy Game
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But even when they do have long-term rentals in the city, when they go out into the countryside on adventures they'll still have to pay the "away from home costs", right? |
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11-21-2012, 07:33 AM | #9 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: On the road again...
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Re: Cost of Living and Status in Fantasy Game
Yes, but let's face it: that's what most people traveling over the holidays do today, too. We normally don't stay in motels with fully-stocked kitchens; we stay in places with a bed, a sink, and a shower, and eat at diners, often looking to make sure we don't spend too much.
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"Life ... is an Oreo cookie." - J'onn J'onzz, 1991 "But mom, I don't wanna go back in the dungeon!" The GURPS Marvel Universe Reboot Project A-G, H-R, and S-Z, and its not-a-wiki-really web adaptation. Ranoc, a Muskets-and-Magery Renaissance Fantasy Setting |
11-21-2012, 09:36 AM | #10 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: Cost of Living and Status in Fantasy Game
Others have the right of it: You can take your money up front (100% of starting wealth as cash), spend it however you wish, and automatically become a wanderer who either pays exorbitant on-the-road rates or makes a lot of Survival rolls (and eventually fails a few, losing some FP or HP). Alternatively, you can take 20% of your money up front, leave 80% tied up in an established home and lifestyle, and have 1/5 as much for gear, but enjoy the assumption that you have a home where your food and lodging are covered.
Fantasy as presented in most RPGs is an unusual and sometimes annoying case. It assumes that the heroes are wealthy treasure-hunters with no fixed address in a world where the vast majority of people must labor long days to stay warm and fed (and sometimes that fails, too) . . . and yet are admired for it, not treated as murderous drifters. A fair GURPS treatment of this would probably be to insist that they take a Claim to Hospitality with perhaps a -40% Accessibility limitation ("Must save the town first"), and most likely to make them all Wealthy with Independent Income to cover the ability to spend all their money on arms and armor yet not be treated as negative-Status scum (Wealthy and Independent Income 12 would mean being constantly maintained at Status 0 without having to do a damned thing "on screen").
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Sean "Dr. Kromm" Punch <kromm@sjgames.com> GURPS Line Editor, Steve Jackson Games My DreamWidth [Just GURPS News] |
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