Starting Wealth, What cost of Living gets you, and Cost of a Sedan

[Verjigorm]

I pretty much always require weapons to be bought from the 20%. Some things, like cheap pocket knives, machates, hatchets, etc can be the 80%, but a rifle or shotgun? Naw, yer buyin' that.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

I'm happy enough with them having say a Remington 700 with a cheap 3x9-40 scope and a pump shotgun etc in the closet, or sundry other guns which I'd expect in anyone's house.

This seems to be very dependent on Status and culture. Most people I know don't own any firearms, even one is unusual.

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

I pretty much always require weapons to be bought from the 20%. Some things, like cheap pocket knives, machates, hatchets, etc can be the 80%, but a rifle or shotgun? Naw, yer buyin' that.

What if the character is a 19th century English gentleman with Filthy Rich or Multimillionaire? I don't think I'd make him account for every weapon back in the gun collection at Stuffy Hollows.

[Phantasm]

In my space opera space pirate game, I've got more than a few folks who come from D&D (where you have to buy even your extra clothes with starting cash) and BESM (where goods are bought with your starting character points). To ease them into GURPS, I've stated "set aside 50% to 80% of your starting wealth for generic, mundane sundries." This gives the PCs 20% to 50% of $75K for weapons, armor, etc (and some of them need that), so that they don't have to nit-pick anything not directly related to space piracy.

This means that they don't need to pay for their portable tool kits, any generic ground vehicles or air-cars stored in the ship's hangar bay/cargo hold for their use, computers, etc.


To the guy whose idea of "adventurer" means "well-armed vagrant", I produce this modern-day counterpoint: In one game I was in, a GURPS In Nomine game, my investigative reporter owned a sedan, a compact 9mm pistol, and little else. I paid for the sedan with my Cost of Living (he was still making payments on it), and the 9mm with the 20% of starting wealth, leaving plenty of cash left over for expenses. He was settled, with a legitimate job which lent itself to getting involved in adventures (even if half the time he couldn't print the actual result because when angels and demons are involved, who would believe it?). His job took him all over the place - when I had to leave the game, we'd gone from Philly to Sacramento, and were en route to Istanbul.

That help any?

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

What if the character is a 19th century English gentleman with Filthy Rich or Multimillionaire? I don't think I'd make him account for every weapon back in the gun collection at Stuffy Hollows.

So? Now, in general, what I've done with Filthy Rich/Multimillionaire characters is let them buy things on the fly if they fit their background, but from their adventuring money. It's generally worked well in the past.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

So? Now, in general, what I've done with Filthy Rich/Multimillionaire characters is let them buy things on the fly if they fit their background, but from their adventuring money. It's generally worked well in the past.

Like a Gizmo, but with money instead of CPs?

[Verjigorm]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Like a Gizmo, but with money instead of CPs?

Basically. I mean, I don't let them pull a shotgun outta thin air or anything, but I've found that the accounting phase of Character Gen for multi-millionaires can just been too damn much math.

I mean, I even do this with non multi-millionaires sometimes. Especially if the item would make sense for the character, but it's one the player forgot to buy at Char Gen.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Verjigorm

I mean, I even do this with non multi-millionaires sometimes. Especially if the item would make sense for the character, but it's one the player forgot to buy at Char Gen.

That's what I see the 80% as for. So that you can say, "But of course I have a whatits, back at the ranch!" I don't really see any problem with this being weapons as long as those weapons expected accoutrements of status.

If a character is of a status that rates armed guards do you make the PC buy the guard's weapons out of adventuring funds? Even if the guards stay behind at the mansion?

[Kromm]

To address the question briefly (the long answer being in the thread linked earlier):

The box on p. B266 exemplifies the things you can count on having without any need to itemize them or do detailed accounting, under two conditions: (1) you set aside 80% of your starting money to reflect a settled lifestyle, per the box on p. B26, and (2) you pay the cost of living on p. B265 each month. The fraction set aside for (1) reflects a mixture of cash paid for goods bought outright, cash not earned due to time spent making or stealing things, and possibly equity built up in large purchases. The payments in (2) reflect maintenance costs, mortgage payments, the entertainment budget to impress people enough to extend you credit, etc. All of the above is intentionally left abstract!

Nothing says that you cannot use the goods in the box on p. B266 on an adventure. If you do, though, you risk losing them! This matters because those things are part of what cements your Status. If you lose your car and wardrobe, your house gets blown up by the Greys, and you find yourself wandering around with only the stuff the other 20% of your money bought, like guns and body armor . . . well, the GM can hit you with a Status drop, and have the authorities treat you as they would any armed hobo. If you keep that stuff out of the picture on adventures, then it isn't normally at risk, and you can claim that you have a safe place to heal from injuries, stash your adventuring gear between adventures, etc. "for free."

Alternatively, you can be a wanderer with 100% of your money in adventuring gear. But then you don't get any of the things in the box on p. B266. You have to do detailed accounting on your stuff, and odds are you'll be limited to much less because you aren't settled, have no credit rating, and therefore cannot claim that you're paying off a house, a car, etc. What you will have is, of course, truly yours and likely handy on adventures. You might well still end up being treated like an armed hobo, though.

As for a background where nobody has a job, there are no authorities to look dimly upon wanderers with vehicles full of adventuring gear, Status loss isn't a factor, and there's nothing to pay cost of living on . . . well, that's a post-apocalypse campaign, shipwreck campaign, or post-scarcity science-fiction campaign. Just ignore all the rules for social traits, because they won't be relevant. Doing this yet positing that there's a society with a class structure floating around, and that this somehow doesn't touch the PCs, is a valid simplification for a minimally realistic genre like Dungeon Fantasy, but it's unwise for anything heavier.

[Moniker]

I resolved it this way -

Subtract Cost of Living from Wealth by Job monthly pay. The result is then multiplied by 36, which gives you the result of three years RAW net income. However, I assume that this is an "average" net income over one's life; an abstraction that takes under account gain and loss.

Within a TL4 society, this works out perfectly on virtually every Social Status. Looking at the Peasant, who makes $375/month and a Cost of Living at $300/month, this results in $2,700. This is just enough to get an oxen, a cart and a home with a few miscellaneous tools.

Wattle and daub home (Thatch) 300 square feet @ .74 per square foot = $222
Oxen = $1,500
Oxcart = $340

[vitruvian]

Has anybody calculated what level of Multimillionaire is required to have assets equal to the net worth of the entire planet, and what level of Independent Income to go along with that so that you get the entire GDP of all nations combined? Just curious how many points to get the Man Who Owned The World.