Cost of Living Questions

[VariousRen]

Originally Posted by CeeDub

But there is: Abstract Wealth, as described in Alternate GURPS II. Has some flaws, too, but unless you're so much into accounting that you want to do it for your characters in your fun time, it's way better.

For a more action focused game it would be great, but the point here is that the adventurers are counting every silver piece. They are calculating if taking a boat along the coast is worth the up front cost when traveling supplies and risk are taken into account, figuring out how long they can wait for McAdventurer's wounds to heal before they have to take a job to pay the bills, ect. Abstract wealth takes away from that a little bit more than I would like.

It would be nice to have some rules that turned daily living into more of a gaming system, with decisions with pros and cons to each. Live in a sketchy area of town for less, but a much larger chance of dealing with conflict in town. Skimp on food for the week, but take a hit on any HT rolls you incur because of hunger fatigue, so on and so forth.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by CeeDub

But there is: Abstract Wealth, as described in Alternate GURPS II.

That's a game that doesn't bother to track money.

[CeeDub]

Originally Posted by VariousRen

For a more action focused game it would be great, but the point here is that the adventurers are counting every silver piece. They are calculating if taking a boat along the coast is worth the up front cost when traveling supplies and risk are taken into account, figuring out how long they can wait for McAdventurer's wounds to heal before they have to take a job to pay the bills, ect.

Ooh, that sounds nice, too. I'd love to find a group for a campaign like that.

[VariousRen]

Originally Posted by CeeDub

Ooh, that sounds nice, too. I'd love to find a group for a campaign like that.

We don't have any space left, but you can watch us on youtube (Shameless plug :P) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdo...YLkfnhr3vYXpFg. We also keep all of our rules, world history, and characters on an obsidian portal page: https://the-fall-of-brekhan.obsidian...ikis/main-page

We started at 40/-40 points (and relatively new to GURPS, this was about a year ago now), and the characters are just now reaching the ~120 point range. It's very entertaining to run a game where treasure is measured in silver, not gold, and magic items are things that people hunt down, not expect to find by accident or buy. We use basically every realistic combat rule we can get our hands on, and it's awesome to watch people decide if it's worth the cash for a ridiculously expensive healing potion, knowing it could save someones life if the healer of the group is knocked out and someone has taken a wound to the vitals (no first aid helps here, they need surgery or magic). Desire for cash also drives a really good social aspect to the game, because it's people who have the real treasure, not nameless monsters.

[CeeDub]

Originally Posted by VariousRen

We don't have any space left, but you can watch us on youtube (Shameless plug :P) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdo...YLkfnhr3vYXpFg. We also keep all of our rules, world history, and characters on an obsidian portal page: https://the-fall-of-brekhan.obsidian...ikis/main-page

We started at 40/-40 points (and relatively new to GURPS, this was about a year ago now), and the characters are just now reaching the ~120 point range. It's very entertaining to run a game where treasure is measured in silver, not gold, and magic items are things that people hunt down, not expect to find by accident or buy. We use basically every realistic combat rule we can get our hands on, and it's awesome to watch people decide if it's worth the cash for a ridiculously expensive healing potion, knowing it could save someones life if the healer of the group is knocked out and someone has taken a wound to the vitals (no first aid helps here, they need surgery or magic). Desire for cash also drives a really good social aspect to the game, because it's people who have the real treasure, not nameless monsters.

*drools* My body is ready! Take me now!

[dcarson]

There have also been notes at least in Transhuman Space that at higher tech levels the normal level is Status 1 not 0.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by dcarson

There have also been notes at least in Transhuman Space that at higher tech levels the normal level is Status 1 not 0.

THS' Status/CoL rules are very much a thing of their own - I think they're an attempt to reconcile the incoherent mass of 3e worldbook CoL varieants with the streamlined and generic GURPS 4e approach. E.g. they have the same Wealth provide different different levels of income depending on where you live, and those multipliers are not the same as the CoL multipliers, so you're highly incentivised to e.g. commute each day from Guinea (cheap living) to Australia (high income).

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Anthony

The CoL and job rules are bad; unfortunately, there isn't an easy way of completely ignoring them in any game that bothers to keep track of money.

CoL should be fairly easy to fix if you're willing to accept no longer having a single value per Status regardless of TL.

Job rules... slightly more work to fix, I'd imagine, but still quite doable in a Pyramid article.

[weby]

Transhuman space had the idea that different areas were different prosperity and thus living in that area shifted the normal level by the average wealth multiplier for the area.

Adapting that idea we would get a better system than the current flat cost.

[VariousRen]

Hmm, interesting. So there are no alternate rules in any of the pyramid issues that provide more in-depth rules for cost of living, job income, status, and so on? Maybe I'll sit down one night and work out some more detailed rules.

I think the basic idea would be to:

1. Scale CoL as a percent of TL, modified for the prosperity of the area you are.
   
2. Seperate jobs from status, and instead base them on skill plus a status modifier. It's harder to be hired if you don't know people or live the lifestyle they expect, but not impossible. There has to be some way for a Status 0 person to get a status 1 job so they can become status 1.
   
3. Introduce finer granularity into every day life within status levels, area for players to find a happy medium with risks and rewards.