[Varyon]

Originally Posted by maximara

Another thread with the title "Abstract Wealth Pyramid #3-44 " was started and from what I have seen it appears to be light years ahead of what has been presented so far.

The fact that thread has no responses implies said system is very rarely used, at least amongst forumites. And, while I certainly do like the concept (and as you note later, many inconsistencies can be explained away - if you can't buy a landspeeder but a few minutes later can buy a starship, it's because there weren't any landspeeders for sale), my gaming preferences are for settings where characters generally lack a monthly income and acquire wealth via adventuring, which really doesn't mesh well with an abstract wealth system.

Originally Posted by Rupert

I suspect that fixing cost of living vs income scaling over TLs would allow this aspect of II to be cleaned up fairly easily.

Yeah, CoL should probably be a consistent percentage of typical monthly income. I know there have been threads in the past addressing this, but I can't find them with a quick search (I also made my own system, with starting wealth and income following SSR for changes in TL, and CoL as a consistent percentage, but that's stuck on a computer with a bad video card). Of course, now that I think about it, I suspect what percent this was may have changed depending on TL. It's probably also realistic for it to change depending on Wealth - while a Poor person may spend less on CoL than a Wealthy one, the former could easily be a greater percentage of the character's income.

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

You've said that backwards now a few times and I wondrr if it's conributing to some kind of confusion. It doesn't cost more at lower tech levels, it pays less.

It costs (in points) more to have it replace some given fraction of monthly income. At TL 3, each point of II for a character with Average Wealth is $10/month, while an Average job pays $700/month - each [1] in II provides ~1.5% of the pay of a comparable job. AT TL 8, each point of II for a character with Average Wealth is $200/month, while an Average job pays $2,600/month - each [1] in II provides ~7.5% of a comparable job, a boost of x5. At TL 10, each point of II is $500/month, compared to wages of $5,600/month - ~9% per [1]. This is a problem if assuming II should be based on wages, but I don't think that's outlandish, given that's a very likely use-case for it - if you want to build a character who doesn't have to work, II seems like it would be the go-to trait... but it isn't. An easy fix, of course, is to base II on wages rather than on starting wealth. Not having a job gets you extra time roughly comparable to not needing to sleep, so basing cost for "completely replaces the need for a job" on Doesn't Sleep seems appropriate. Of course, Doesn't Sleep also works on the weekends and has direct adventuring uses, so I'd eyeball the appropriate cost for Doesn't Work as [10]. That implies each [1] in II should pay out 10% of monthly income for your wealth level.