When Signature Gear Becomes Expensive

[Walrus]

I wouldn't treat Witchers as having Struggling Wealth in the first place.
They're certainly wanderer (non-settled) characters but they may have Average Wealth as well.

Originally Posted by Low Tech

Adventurers start with Status 0 and Wealth (Average). However, Status 0 isn’t the default for every person in every society, but a specific social situation – that of a “free man,” with enough liberty and resources to support a life of adventure. At TL1-4, such people are a privileged minority. The average person is a small farmer, with Status -1 and Wealth (Struggling) . . . not usually a slave, but not free to leave his land, and often held in mild contempt socially and legally. City dwellers may have Status 0
and Wealth (Average) – but food and housing cost more in cities, so their actual standard of living might not be much higher.

So, Wealth (Struggling) is for ordinary kmer (peasant), accompanied with Status -1.
All original stories about Geralt show him having higher Status (0 or occasionally 1 and sometimes courtesy one) and higher CoL. He stays at inns, drinks good wine, accompany nobles and do other things which certainly don't qualify for Struggling Wealth.

You can say that Witcher Job earns money on not so regular basis (not every week or even month) but it does supports at least Average Wealth.

[Grunker]

There are 3 things to say to that:

1) Geralt is probably the most capable witcher on the Continent. He is famous (both for the Striga job and other things), has a very high, very positive reputation as The White Wolf, is sometimes contracted directly by kings and queens for specific jobs, is extremely experienced and enjoys a huge web of contacts of people that he has helped before.

2) Even then, many stories tell of his difficulty finding work, and sometimes he can't find a place to sleep or anything much to eat. Geralt has one or two stories where he is plainly very grumpy at being paid very little compared to what he was used to.

3) Even with his favourable reputation, he is a social outcast. More and more witchers are described as becoming obsolete, which is also reflected in certain stories. Even when they are hired, they are viewed with mistrust. This also applies to even one as famous as Geralt, who is often called "mutant" and in the very first pages of The Last Wish someone attempts to give him a very sound beating just for being a witcher.

So you have the best and most famous witcher in the land, and in your own words you would describe him having average wealth.

Now, take an average and inexperienced witcher with but a few completed jobs, just out of Kaer Morhen. He is a social outcast, nobody knows him, yet everyone can see he is a mutant and there is little use for him with the increase of strength in the Knightly Orders. Even if there is work, it is dubious that it would be offered to him - he might have to convince locals to hire him for obvious Witcher jobs. Then, even when the job is complete, he will be payed little and will have to survive on that to buy supplies, upkeep weapons, and be able to reach the next village that has a job - which might be a while.

I think Struggling is more than generous enough for these witchers ;)

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Grunker

How do I solve this problem?

Forget Signature Gear. Just get them as gadgets.

[Grunker]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Forget Signature Gear. Just get them as gadgets.

Explain please?

I am going to bed now, but will be writing more in the morning. Thanks every one so far :)

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Grunker

Explain please?

Buy the weapons as (alternate) innate attacks with the gadget limitations. It's much cheaper,

[apoc527]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Buy the weapons as (alternate) innate attacks with the gadget limitations. It's much cheaper,

Unfortunately that makes little sense when the "abilities" are just pieces of equipment that happen to be quality weapons. I am having basically the exact same problem (fine meteoric iron greatsword for a PC) and it's almost 48 points of Signature Gear using the standard rules. I think that's too high. I think 20 points is probably appropriate for such a thing, but it's still just a piece of equipment he found. The gadget limitation is really only appropriate in Batman and Iron Man type situations IMO.

What I would do is probably apply a bit steeper curve to Signature Gear. The first 5 points give 50%, the next 5 give 75% of starting wealth, the next 5 give 100%, and any additional points give 150% per point. Thus...

1 point is $500
5 points is $2500
10 points is $6250 instead of $5000
15 points is $11,250 instead of $7500
20 points is $18,750 instead of $10,000
25 is $26250 rather than $12,500
30 is $33,750 rather than $15,000

I just don't feel that $500 per point is worth the cost once you start spending serious points. The above progression was just a brainstorm, but I kind of like it. And I'd follow the standard SG rule--this is ONE ITEM, so you can't take advantage of the more efficient later points unless you want multiple really expensive items. I think it's fairly balanced myself.

So, my PC who wanted a fine, balanced meteoric iron greatsword (CF +26), total price = $24,300 will pay 24 points rather than 49 points. Frankly, I think 24 point is still a huge point expenditure, but much more fair than the RAW 49, which is just ridiculous.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by apoc527

Unfortunately that makes little sense when the "abilities" are just pieces of equipment that happen to be quality weapons.

There is nothing that keeps a character from buying perfectly mundane equipment as gadgets beyond the stupidity of paying character points for something you could go into a local smithy or gun shop to buy. And these are not perfectly mundane bits of equipment. They're highly exotic irreplaceable weapons that are part of a certain character type's identity.

[SCAR]

PK's House Rules for SG (previously linked) are a great option - buy the item normally, or using PK's variant wealth rules - and then apply SG for the 'Plot Protection' which hasa better scaling price scheme.
For a truely wandering character using 100% of SW instead of 20% doesn't seem like a problem.

Kromm posted an alternative a few years ago - see this post and thread.

[Aneirin]

Another thing to remember is higher wealth levels don't necesarily mean a higher standard of living.

For example, let us think of the hedge knight. Individuals who got their name...for lseeping in hedges, going around doing jobs for lords but not staying with them.

They were actually quite well off (compared to peasants) it is just they wore they wealth on their backs in the form of their horses, armour and weapons (expensive equipment)

They weren't neccessarily poorer than other knights (who got their land in return for fealty and sometimes rent)

In GURPs this would be modeeled by buying wealth but NOT taking an additional level of status. Also not taking a patron like a regular knight would.

So whilst a normal knight would have status 2 and wealthy (one of the status is free)
A hedge knight would have status 1 (not taking the additional status level) and wealthy.

For Witcher (not entirely certain of source material) just buy the wealth level to get their equipment and equipment only and have them wearing it on their backs and leave them as status 1 or 0 even.

After all, a high wealth level is jusitifed as they have good equipment and as such can go for more high paying jobs (monster hunting) that needs their equipment.

[theothersarah]

If the players are all going to be Witchers, you can just treat the equipment as a campaign feature and not have to worry about its money or point cost.