[DF] - Party wealth disparity

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Hans Rancke-Madsen

Sounds buggy to me. But never mind.

Wealth governs two things - starting cash, and ongoing cashflow. In regular GURPS there is a strong link between Jobs and Wealth.

DF characters are somewhere between unemployed bandits and contractor mercenaries, with no Job rolls and no steady income, so the Job system is inappropriate. They just don't have a monthly Job roll and then go on adventures in their spare time. Instead, their "Job" is generally "finding" objects during gameplay time (adventuring) and then selling them to pawn shops or the rough equivalent for cash. So Wealth playing its usual role in the Job rules, Wealth has to factor in somewhere else in the cashflow equation, and the only place it has left to fit is into the resale of objects.

Dead Broke means no income from a Job. Ergo, in the equivalent DF game, it must mean no income from selling looted items. Even using a 0.5% trivial income instead of 0% breaks down really quickly when you look at some of the things PCs can bring home.

Dead Broke really IS inappropriate for characters that are allowed into a store in any way, you're right. Frankly, Dead Broke in a modern non-DF game is ALSO generally inappropriate for characters that don't have the kinds of big problems that real Dead Broke people have - anywhere from crushing Debt to an Enemy to physical or mental illness rendering them unemployable.

EDIT: That said, there actually are a number of adventurers who can be expected to NEVER be allowed into the Town in order to sell anything - generally we're talking about Ogres, Minotaurs, Dragon Men, Hobgoblins, and other "monsters". Most of which are also quite stupid to boot.