Reign of Steel is out!

[sonic232]

I'm sorry for gravedigging this, but I had a legitimate question about this. I'm gearing up to run a 4th Edition campaign using GURPS Action with everybody being new recruits of VIRUS, but I couldn't find a section in Will to Live on what the starting wealth should be. There is a section in the 3rd Edition book, but I wasn't sure if that was still accurate or not. Should I use the TL 8 starting wealth, TL 9 starting wealth or the starting wealth in the 3rd Edition book?

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by sonic232

I'm sorry for gravedigging this, but I had a legitimate question about this. I'm gearing up to run a 4th Edition campaign using GURPS Action with everybody being new recruits of VIRUS, but I couldn't find a section in Will to Live on what the starting wealth should be. There is a section in the 3rd Edition book, but I wasn't sure if that was still accurate or not. Should I use the TL 8 starting wealth, TL 9 starting wealth or the starting wealth in the 3rd Edition book?

I would suggest using the starting wealth and the prices in the 3rd Edition book. They're balanced against each other and they give a good representative list of what's available in the setting.

[sonic232]

Originally Posted by robkelk

I would suggest using the starting wealth and the prices in the 3rd Edition book. They're balanced against each other and they give a good representative list of what's available in the setting.

Hrmmm... Well, let's see... That'd mean using 3rd Edition tech books for pricing since 3rd Edition Reign of Steel expects you to have 3rd Edition Basic Set and Robots when buying equipment... I have 3rd Edition Basic Set, but not Robots. As well, pricing has changed between editions to reflect how Tech Level Starting Wealth has changed definitions (no longer representing an inflated dollar but more a standard unit of currency)...

Let me know what you think of this as a kind of kludge to figure it out:

Standard Starting Wealth in 3rd Edition for that tech level is $15,000, both for Modern Day and Interstellar, which Reign of Steel would fall between.

Starting Wealth in 4th Edition for TL 8 is $20,000 and TL 9 is $30,000.

Reign of Steel 3rd Edition says that humans in Washington and London start with $10,000 (2/3rds Starting Wealth, better than Struggling but less than Average) and humans in other zones start with $5,000 (1/3rd starting wealth, less than Struggling, more than Poor. Equivalent to WWII era starting wealth).

4th Edition adjusted wealth would thus be between $6,500 and $13,500 (rounding to the nearest $500 for ease of use) if based on TL 8 and between $10,000 and $20,000 if based on TL 9...

OR... Simply base Starting Wealth on TL 7 (Nuclear Age, WWII era) for non-Washington/London Zoners, which would be $15,000 smack on the nose, with access to TL 8 and 9 equipment. That's if you want to use the 4th Edition equipment books but represent the globally fewer resources you'd have access to.

Whaddya think, is that a fair compromise between the two?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by sonic232

I'm sorry for gravedigging this, but I had a legitimate question about this. I'm gearing up to run a 4th Edition campaign using GURPS Action with everybody being new recruits of VIRUS, but I couldn't find a section in Will to Live on what the starting wealth should be. ?

Does it give you a TL? Starting Wealth is set by TL.

[sonic232]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Does it give you a TL? Starting Wealth is set by TL.

It does. Robotic society is TL 10, TL 9 for humans most everywhere else except for Zone London, which is TL 8. But at the same time, the sourcebook suggests that quality of life doesn't match your tech level's assumed starting wealth. It is reducing its era's 3rd edition-style starting wealth to 1/3rd its usual for non-Washingtonians/Londoners.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

It's a post-apocalypse setting. Unless you live in one of the exceptionally-civilized areas, Flat Broke Wealth is on the campaign template and you can deal with that.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

It's a post-apocalypse setting. Unless you live in one of the exceptionally-civilized areas, Flat Broke Wealth is on the campaign template and you can deal with that.

So not only do they start out with nothing, they can never own anything but the clothes on their backs? I don't see how anyone could survive post-apoc settings that severely limited.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Owen Smith

Is it normal to kep track of money in an action campaign? I'm currently playing in four wildly different campaigns and we're not tracking money in any of them. The stakes of the campaigns are above the level money helps with.

Money seems to be hugely important, as it defines equipment you can use in the action. Dropping to the action scene with nothing is very different than dropping into the action scene with a squad of RATS each armed with homing APFSDSDU ammunition in Very Fine rifles and with missile pods attached.

Now, in a post-apoc campaign, Wealth usually works not with money, but rather with the goods themselves.

[sonic232]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Money seems to be hugely important, as it defines equipment you can use in the action. Dropping to the action scene with nothing is very different than dropping into the action scene with a squad of RATS each armed with homing APFSDSDU ammunition in Very Fine rifles and with missile pods attached.

Now, in a post-apoc campaign, Wealth usually works not with money, but rather with the goods themselves.

Yes, exactly. You must spend your entire budget on stuff, even if only for trade goods (food, medicine, etc.). My question stems from the difference between 3rd Edition starting wealth and 4th Edition starting wealth (3rd Edition being based on the inflated/deflated dollar, 4th Edition being based on 'whatever buys a loaf of bread'). Normal starting wealth for 3rd Edition in a time period like Reign of Steel is $15,000. However, humans start with 2/3rds or 1/3rd that, depending on if they're from a civilized zone or not.

The 1/3rd also happens to be exactly equal to the WWII era's starting wealth. Should I apply the 2/3rds / 1/3rd to TL 9 starting wealth ($20,000 and $10,000) or use TL 7's (WWII era's) starting wealth ($15,000) to represent the more limited resources? Or since they have VIRUS as a 'patron' (Action assumes that anyone you have a Duty of 9 or More to, you can access in a limited manner like a Patron, depending on rank), should I just give them the full $30,000 of resources and be done with it?

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by sonic232

I'm sorry for gravedigging this, but I had a legitimate question about this. I'm gearing up to run a 4th Edition campaign using GURPS Action with everybody being new recruits of VIRUS, but I couldn't find a section in Will to Live on what the starting wealth should be. There is a section in the 3rd Edition book, but I wasn't sure if that was still accurate or not. Should I use the TL 8 starting wealth, TL 9 starting wealth or the starting wealth in the 3rd Edition book?

Speaking with my "author of Will to Live" hat on, I would use the standard GURPS rules: starting wealth based on the campaign TL (presumably 9), bearing in mind that some things aren't readily available depending on where you are.

If your recruits were, say, nomads from Zone Denver, well, they were clearly successful nomads, but they probably don't have a TL9 hoverjeep because the satellites would spot the dust and IR plume and roving Vultures would kill it. But they may well have some quite nifty guns.

If I were running a campaign of "struggling nomads", I'd probably put some degree of Poverty on the required-traits list.

If I wanted my PCs to be dependent on Virus for everything, I'd put Flat Broke on the template (as G&A suggested); then they'd have their VIRUS-issued gear and nothing else.

And so on. It's a big world and can fit a lot of different sorts of campaign.