[DF] - Party wealth disparity

[newtkeeper]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Finally, bankrolling the party makes you the leader. You can turn down the honor all you want, but in a world where the powers of soothsayers work, it will still find you. Too bad for the bard if the NPCs only want to talk to the rich artificer . . . too bad for all the other PCs when, on returning to town, the only Great Wish goes to the guy who funded the mission.

The problem isn't bankrolling Dead Broke PCs at all. One problem is treating the PCs' money as a single shared resource pool from which any of them can draw cash for gear prior to the campaign starting. The other is letting rich heroes be selfless, charitable wimps in a genre where "rich" is equivalent to "greedy, miserly, and calculating," and the selfless, charitable guys all take vows of poverty.

With all respect to the Great Kromm and the guy who writes the series, I think this may be a needlessly confrontational view. Traditional heroic archetypes (which I've used on occasion in dungeons) aside, any adventurer worth his salt knows that the guy watching his back being properly outfitted is at least something of a return on investment in itself. If a dead-broke comrade is somewhat deadweight, a comrade not fighting at peak effectiveness is vastly worse. So, if he pays you back cost (plus perhaps a small provider's fee), you're gaining by the transaction- and no munchkin turns down a free bonus.

Of course, the GM should still throw out the fair share of complications so it doesn't always work out as planned/