07-21-2010, 06:48 PM | #21 | |
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Canada
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Re: High wealth bank rolling the whole group.
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07-21-2010, 10:05 PM | #22 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: High wealth bank rolling the whole group.
So would you disallow selling down ST, or reduce the value, for characters that don't need ST much anyway (sort of like the prohibition on taboo traits that you weren't going to take)? Does the mage get full value for low ST even though the barbarian is going to do the fighting, take the damage, carry stuff for the mage, kick open the doors for him, and haul him out of the pits?
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07-22-2010, 12:28 AM | #23 | |
Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Luxembourg
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Re: High wealth bank rolling the whole group.
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But in the end, it depend on the game. In a d&d -like game, i would probably frown on having all players take dead broke and one rich player gearing them up. In a cthulhu like investigator team, it is traditionnal to have a wealthy dilettante funding the investigation and travels of his fellow soon-to-be-mad investigators... It is subjective. If it make sense in universe, it is good for me. If it is just exploiting for maximal group power, less so. Celjabba Celjabba |
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07-22-2010, 12:49 AM | #24 | ||
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dobbstown Sane Asylum
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Re: High wealth bank rolling the whole group.
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The tank is using his beefiness so the other PCs don't get hit. But the rich guy is using his money to directly enrich the poor PCs. That's a difference. But read on . . . Quote:
But if Lucky Ducky is Poor, and Mr. Moneybags is giving him value equal to that of (say) an Average or Comfortable job, each month, then it's not fair. Because Lucky Ducky got free points and they're not penalizing him. (And yes, that's an analogous, but different, situation to that of one guy with high ST and a party of weaklings.)
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07-22-2010, 10:43 AM | #25 |
GURPS Line Editor
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: High wealth bank rolling the whole group.
Do remember what Wealth is: a rating of off-screen holdings, credit rating, and business connections. At low Wealth, you lack the social network and assets to be offered good jobs, high-yield investment opportunities, large loans, etc. At high Wealth, you have the connections to get cushy postings, invitations to high-Status events, and so forth. In concrete terms, read p. B517 this way:
Note that I've said a lot so far without mentioning starting money at all. That's because starting money is a small part of what Wealth is about. The GM might even give away equipment to go with skills and background story elements – the thief gets lockpicks, a grapnel, a few daggers, etc. for free; the knight starts with armor and a sword; and so on. I've done this and been in campaigns where it was done. It changes very little. Especially in a game focused on mercenaries or dungeon delvers, the first big score will render differences in starting cash largely irrelevant anyway. Thus, letting rich PCs bankroll poorer ones has little long-term impact on the campaign. It won't help the poorer PCs score better jobs in their downtime, get them into the right social situations for social engineering, or grant them free Status. It won't insulate poorer PCs with Greed from their demons. And it won't let poorer PCs justify any better return on Independent Income. It just means better gear . . . and gear that doesn't cost points has no plot immunity at all. No points means no obligation on the GM's part not to break, confiscate, or steal the gear – or not to have it prove cursed, faulty, radioactive, stolen, etc.
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07-22-2010, 11:00 AM | #26 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Medford, MA
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Re: High wealth bank rolling the whole group.
I like what Kromm and P.Kitty said.
I'll also add this: I always make the PCs cough up their monthly cost of living for their Status. The high wealth PC, if he continuously bankrolls the poorer PCs, will inevitably start running into trouble upkeeping the monthly cost of living for his Status...then he might start losing status. I find players willing to be generous, but not so willing to be so generous as to jeopardize their own status. I also pay attention to where the PCs get their income from. And if they are wandering adventurers with no steady income...well, I find they don't bank roll all that often. Even if they do have steady income... They do help each other out some...but it never gets crazy. But I think this has a lot to do with the fact that I use all the elements of GURPS economics: Job rolls (or if no job or independent income, then no income unless you graverob it or steal it...and then you have to deal with fences or who knows what), Cost of Living, people treating people of different status differently, etc. |
07-22-2010, 11:32 AM | #27 |
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: High wealth bank rolling the whole group.
Wealth in actual play breaks down like this in my campaigns:
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07-22-2010, 11:58 AM | #28 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Greenville, SC
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Re: High wealth bank rolling the whole group.
I wrote this super simplified overview for my players. It doesn't touch on how a high wealth character can support low wealth characters but it does touch on keeping up you status by paying your cost of living.
If a high wealth/status character funded the group of low wealth/status characters, the wealthy character would be paying out of his spending cash (which he'll have plenty) for stuff that is temporary and/or disposable. If the group is equipped with the top of the line stuff over the course of the adventure and then tragically lose all of it. Now all that stuff is gone. The wealthy could purchase everything again but without him the individual characters don't have the purchasing power to equip again. Quote:
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07-22-2010, 04:39 PM | #29 |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: High wealth bank rolling the whole group.
What is the errata that makes Wealth effect job searches directly?
Because there are rules for them (B518), and as written Wealth doesn't have any effect. Burning cash on the search does, and having Status might (as an ability that would impress a potential employer), but Wealth is left out. The text on the preceding page seems not to be aware of this, either. So what's missing?
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07-22-2010, 05:33 PM | #30 |
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Montréal, Québec
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Re: High wealth bank rolling the whole group.
There's really nothing missing . . .
As Wealth Level (p. B517) notes, jobs have associated Wealth levels, and those who work at them must spend points to reach those levels. If they don't, what happens is up to the GM. The most logical outcome is that the PC is seen as insufficiently respectable or reliable for the job, and the employer finds some pretext to terminate him or demote him to a job commensurate with his Wealth level. It's entirely possible that the Status associated with the Wealth level of a job is a de facto prerequisite for the job, too; you can't get the job "Knight" without Status 2, and living in a Status 2 fashion requires you to be Wealthy. And as Finding a Job (p. B518) explains, the Wealth levels associated with jobs are canonically linked to Status levels, and search rolls have a penalty equal to twice that Status level. Thus, while it's fine for a Status 2 character to start with a Status 2/Wealthy job, the GM is within his rights to deny that to a PC with Status 1 or less, or who's Comfortable or poorer, and ask to see him make the search roll . . . at -4. I guess you could read these rules otherwise, but the above is the spirit in which they were written.
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