07-23-2023, 06:18 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Italy
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Cost of living and Create Food
Hi, would you allow a reduced cost of living for a Cleric with Create Food?
If not, why? If yes, why? Is there any social or practical consideration to be made? Me and my player have agreed to reduce the cost of living to 100$ per week, assuming that he consumes a nice meal per day in the inn (to avoid social issues, and also to make a more believable character that still enjoys "real" food now and then), and the other two he creates himself. |
07-23-2023, 06:42 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatoon, SK
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Re: Cost of living and Create Food
Part of our social contract is that Create Food doesn't taste that good and that when they can they eat real food so I don't reduce it at all. At the same time, their down time often comes at the end of saving whatever city they happen to be in so they often get free room and board. But I don't do a lot of dungeon crawl so ymmv.
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MiB 7704 Playing: GURPS Nordlond Dragons of Hosgarth Running Savage Worlds Tour of Darkness (Vietnam + Mythos) |
07-23-2023, 06:45 PM | #3 |
Wielder of Smart Pants
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
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Re: Cost of living and Create Food
I would definitely allow as complimentary to the Survival or Urban Surivial roll to avoid Starvation.
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07-23-2023, 08:44 PM | #4 | |
Join Date: Jun 2022
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Re: Cost of living and Create Food
Quote:
RAW: No. The 150$ is part and parcel with the cost of living in town. The rules spell out how to get by without paying 150$ per week, and Create Food isn't among them. You can just say that the room and board they're paying for is just that, room and board. He can prefer to eat Created Food, but the bed and breakfast they're staying at doesn't give rebates to skinflint clerics. Now, might I give them it as a Complimentary Skill as sir_pudding suggests, because even the rules don't always spell out every situation. But the 150$ per week is pretty clear that it's not for anything in specific, it's for "everything and anything", so it's explicitly set-up to stop "but we brought back more than a week's food and water, why do I have to 'pay' to at in town". You pay to eat in town, or you roll versus Survival or Urban Survival. Veering from RAW: Do as though wilt shall be the whole of the law. In this case since fresh food costs less, roughly usually half of what preserved food costs, I'd cut their weekly costs by $20 (because it's both pentaphiliac and rounder than 21$). Last edited by mburr0003; 07-24-2023 at 06:17 PM. |
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07-24-2023, 08:28 AM | #5 |
Join Date: Sep 2007
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Re: Cost of living and Create Food
Had a similar discussion with a scout with the 'avoids crowds' disadvantage and so tended to set up a little tent camp outside of town to satisfy that need, and hunt rabbits and collect wild lettuce for food, that sort of thing.
Our conclusion was that the $150/week still applies even when they're gathering their own food and sleeping in a farmer's field or copse of trees because it's covering all the other incidental costs of living. Incidental bits of equipment that need repair or replacement, spares, consumables, and a little somethin' somethin' for the farmer to look the other way regarding the weirdo camping out by the north pasture. It rather became a fun little aside to justify the $150 expenses against the traits of the character that would seemingly lower the cost. It was fun to figure out that they're leaving a little pile of cash by the farmer's door for their trouble! This cleric of yours, it'd be a good character building question to ask 'You're feeding yourself using Create Food, so if that money isn't being spent on food what is it being spent on?' As a cleric there are tithes, charitable donations, expensive unguents and oils to conduct their prayers, etc. |
07-24-2023, 08:45 AM | #6 | |
Join Date: Jan 2019
Location: Italy
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Re: Cost of living and Create Food
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I propose this ruling: "Downtime" in the city: abstract $150 per week and roleplay however you like how do you spend them. You obtain no advantages nor disadvantages in any case. You have only the option to forego the sum entirely by using the "raw" options. "Adventure" in the city. Go day by the day with the level of detail you prefer, as far as you want, but if you choose to do so, there is no "abstract" discount for anything. You must puy separately for each and every object and service. |
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07-24-2023, 09:21 AM | #7 |
Join Date: Jul 2023
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Re: Cost of living and Create Food
I'm very confused, why not?
Sometimes you have to put the RAW aside when the "rule of common sense" is bigger. In this case, a spell that let you create food from thin air obviously has a noticeable impact on the cost of living considering that food, by RAW, is the biggest expense in a day. I'd say 100$/week is even too high, but acceptable if one good meal per day is included. Justifying this arbitrary player abuse with "oh, but what about tithes, charitable donations, expensive unguents and oils to conduct your prayers?" would make me pretty mad as a player, since you can use the same argument with every class: A warrior will need to sharpen his sword, clean and polish his armor, then waste more money on training equipment that wear out faster and so on. At this point you might as well say that the Survival skill doesn't help to reduce the cost for food too, since I literally see no difference between this skill and Create Food. And as a player, hearing that since I don't spend that money for food I HAVE TO spend that money for the other things mentioned I would expect that since all the other players spend all their money for food and a place to sleep, they are just just surviving in conditions barely suitable for living, with absolutely nothing extra. Also this is supposed to be a roleplay adventure game, who cares about the RAW of the cost of living, creating a credible and immersive environment is more important, while also I see no need to deny a negligible money advantage to someone that invested points to have that advantage. |
07-24-2023, 06:24 PM | #8 | |
Join Date: Jun 2022
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Re: Cost of living and Create Food
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If your group does not play that way, cool. But it isn't "arbitrary player abuse" or any other nonsense. There are ways in the rules to avoid the "living in town tax", that's it. Lastly, food doesn't cost that much, deciding that Create Food will cut your town Living Expenses by a third when even Rations cost less 50$ for a week? That's an abuse of logic. |
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07-25-2023, 04:55 AM | #9 | |
Join Date: Jul 2023
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Re: Cost of living and Create Food
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I repeat: the only real argument against it is "it's not in the RAW", everything else is nonsense. And there's nothing wrong in just accepting the abstraction as is it and move on. HOWEVER, the moment you wanna ARGUE IT and start making excuses like "it does work, and you don't pay for your food, but when you use the spell during the downtime, all the other expenses magically raise, so you pay the same thing as everyone else" I AM gonna call it arbitrary player abuse, because you are arbitrairly raising the cost of living of his character just to not give him those few $ that will change absolutely nothing in the game, creating a feeling that players choises don't matter: the DM can just alter the reality to make them irrelevant just because he wants. Last edited by no dm god; 07-25-2023 at 05:58 AM. |
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07-25-2023, 04:11 PM | #10 | ||
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Re: Cost of living and Create Food
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A $30 discount sounds fine. (There may be other consequences depending on why you don't need to buy food. In the case of Create Food, "you have to eat blah tasting food regularly" is enough of a consequence IMO.) If players want more detail I'll calculate town expenses more precisely, but if 7 days of rations costs $42 then earmarking $30 for town food seems a reasonable abstraction. Quote:
Last edited by sjmdw45; 07-25-2023 at 04:16 PM. |
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