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Old 01-21-2021, 06:11 PM   #11
Jareth Valar
 
Join Date: Aug 2013
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Independent Income

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
How else has it played in your games?
In our modern supernatural investigative game, all 3 players had it for various reasons and various levels.

One was a mixture of old money and writing royalties.

The second was our computer guru. Hers come from software patents and the like.

The third was a former restaurant owner. His comes from the fact that he has a line of signature sauces and flavorings on the market. Even a level of Reputation to boot, i mean everyone who uses them knows his face, lol.
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Old 01-21-2021, 07:50 PM   #12
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Independent Income

My current campaign has several characters with multimillionaire at various levels, the result of much successful looting, etc. Some of those have II, usually to represent having put some of their wealth into investments (I required paying cash as well as points to purchase the II), and one from royalties off a series of semi-autobiographical books about the group's exploits.
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Old 01-21-2021, 08:27 PM   #13
Donny Brook
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Independent Income

Independent Income is a fairly common trait in my group. I've used/seen it used to emulate intellectual property royalties, rental income, trust fund proceeds, receiving religious donations, and having a side-hustle as a mugger. It is also frequently handed out as part of a 'stage completion' bonus in ongoing campaigns.
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Old 01-22-2021, 01:08 AM   #14
Michele
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Independent Income

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Originally Posted by Donny Brook View Post
Independent Income is a fairly common trait in my group. I've used/seen it used to emulate intellectual property royalties, rental income, trust fund proceeds, receiving religious donations, and having a side-hustle as a mugger.
The first four examples sound right to me, but being a mugger, even if as a part-time thing, still requires "work". And I don't think it's just a few hours per month that do not interfere with adventuring. Even if you do it part-time, the part when you actually carry out the robbery comes after long hours spent in wait of a suitable target. Sorry for the nitpicking...
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Old 01-22-2021, 02:00 AM   #15
corwyn
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Independent Income

Our Victorian (1861) Monster Hunter game has a few characters with II:

The "retired" colonel, actually unofficially working for his friend, the prince consort, has a pension, possibly old money as well

Dr Jeckyl/Mr Hyde has royalties

The gunslinger/gadgeteer (me) has royalties from medical patents as well as "secretly" writing penny dreadfuls and dime novels
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Old 01-22-2021, 02:54 AM   #16
RedMattis
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Independent Income

I never use Independent Income. Instead for the sake of avoiding book-keeping and Muchkin'ing rouges taking "Dead Broke" I rule as follows:

If you have Standard Wealth you have enough money to waive smaller expenses.

If you have Higher Wealth your character will stabilize at that wealth level (if they are lower) over a medium amount of time. To justify Wealth you may want a Duty, high skills in merchant, gambling etc. If you permanently lose your wealth (unintentionally, f.ex. an NPC frames you and you get excommunicated) you get the points refunded. Very Wealthy, multimillionaires etc. are assumed to be able to afford anything in their general cost-bracket, or a few truly sizable (for them) purchases every now and then.

If you have a lower-than-standard wealth then I expect you to drop down to that wealth-level over time. You should justify it with disadvantages. Compulsive spending, gambling, selfless, etc.
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Old 01-22-2021, 05:01 AM   #17
Gumby Bush
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Independent Income

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Originally Posted by RedMattis View Post
I never use Independent Income. Instead for the sake of avoiding book-keeping and Muchkin'ing rouges taking "Dead Broke" I rule as follows:

If you have Standard Wealth you have enough money to waive smaller expenses.

If you have Higher Wealth your character will stabilize at that wealth level (if they are lower) over a medium amount of time. To justify Wealth you may want a Duty, high skills in merchant, gambling etc. If you permanently lose your wealth (unintentionally, f.ex. an NPC frames you and you get excommunicated) you get the points refunded. Very Wealthy, multimillionaires etc. are assumed to be able to afford anything in their general cost-bracket, or a few truly sizable (for them) purchases every now and then.

If you have a lower-than-standard wealth then I expect you to drop down to that wealth-level over time. You should justify it with disadvantages. Compulsive spending, gambling, selfless, etc.
This reminds me of Abstract Wealth (P3/44). Those rules strike me as incorporating Independent Income into Wealth and ignoring whether the wealth is job-based or investment-based, but I'm not totally sure. It might profitably be combined with Anthony's suggestion earlier of focusing on the way in which II reduces how much time you need to spend working.
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Old 01-22-2021, 06:56 AM   #18
munin
 
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Location: Vermont, USA
Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Independent Income

As a thought experiment I once used Independent Income as an inspiraton to create a version of Meditative Magic to automatically gain character points over time (instead of enchanting energy), a fixture of some stories. My thinking was that if you can spend a character point to get 10% of starting wealth now, or to get 1% of starting wealth every month forever -- therefore as a starting idea, you might spend 10 character points now to automatically gain one character point every month.

If this ability is leveled like II, then it needs to have a cap on it (20 levels, like II, is a good starting point depending on your setting) or things get crazy if you keep reinvesting in the ability for years.

I usually assume an average of one adventure per character/game month, and an adventure might have a dozen encounters each worth 1 to 5 points (so: 30 points per game month?). If someone wanted to spend 200 points in order to get an extra 20 points per month, I'd be more concerned about them starting at an effectively lower point level than I would about their capacity for growth.
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Old 01-22-2021, 07:22 AM   #19
Donny Brook
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Independent Income

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Originally Posted by Michele View Post
The first four examples sound right to me, but being a mugger, even if as a part-time thing, still requires "work". And I don't think it's just a few hours per month that do not interfere with adventuring. Even if you do it part-time, the part when you actually carry out the robbery comes after long hours spent in wait of a suitable target. Sorry for the nitpicking...
From one point of view, you're quite correct. I was the GM in that game, and the PC was a member of a race that was decisively physically/combatantly better than regular joes. It was a low tech setting with entirely unsophisticated police services. Under the circumstances, I chose to view the trait as a metagame contract and let it function as him making a couple of opportunistic 'scores' each month in the background/off-screen.

The trait had a Limitation (I can't remember if it was Accessibility or Environmental) that stopped it from working in situations where he had no viable 'prey' (e.g. lost in the wilderness or travelling at sea).
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Old 01-22-2021, 12:37 PM   #20
Ulzgoroth
 
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Default Re: [Basic] Advantage of the Week: Independent Income

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Originally Posted by Donny Brook View Post
From one point of view, you're quite correct. I was the GM in that game, and the PC was a member of a race that was decisively physically/combatantly better than regular joes. It was a low tech setting with entirely unsophisticated police services. Under the circumstances, I chose to view the trait as a metagame contract and let it function as him making a couple of opportunistic 'scores' each month in the background/off-screen.

The trait had a Limitation (I can't remember if it was Accessibility or Environmental) that stopped it from working in situations where he had no viable 'prey' (e.g. lost in the wilderness or travelling at sea).
Did making those scores not take any time though? Lurking in alleys or wherever in order to mug people is a perfectly valid (if not legitimate) freelance 'job' exchanging the character's time for acquiring money.
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