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Old 06-14-2021, 03:40 AM   #71
johndallman
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: To be, or not to be… poor

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Originally Posted by Donny Brook View Post
I'd be happy to write that, but I'm not in a position to jump through SJGames hoops for the privilege.
Could you do it at less than book length? I co-edit a GURPS fanzine, The Path of Cunning, and it sounds interesting. PM or e-mail me.
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Old 06-14-2021, 03:38 PM   #72
arnej
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ft Collins, CO
Default Re: To be, or not to be… poor

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Originally Posted by FeiLin View Post
As for solutions, I’m considering a few things.

A) I could not only make the world and any individual rewards befit their Wealth level, but conceivably also expand/enforce the role playing element, explaining to players I expect them to follow their character sheets on this point. I might even penalise bankrolling for poor role playing (ie less CPs) unless it is handled credible (for example, the rich guy starts owning the poorer ones, almost literally, and becomes the de facto group leader).

Any thoughts or other solutions? I’m inclined to a combination of A) and C), since I definitely like the extra depth of the concept of Wealth.
I'd lean hard into "A".

This has always been challenging. In the past I have started with telling players of 'poor' PCs that they needed to roleplay being poor. To have reasons built into their character that suck money away (gambling debts, sick mother and her medical bills, spendthrift girlfriend) and just handwave that even though you got $XXX share after the adventure/dungeon, somehow you only have 0.5 * $XXX to spend. They have to understand that they get no benefit from the other half of that share.

As an even more draconian rule, if players of 'rich' PCs start bankrolling 'poor' PCs, you could start taking character points from the rich PCs to buy off the poor PC's disadvantage. That's basically what they are doing - make them pay for it.

My $0.02
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Old 06-22-2021, 06:21 PM   #73
Black Leviathan
 
Join Date: Sep 2018
Default Re: To be, or not to be… poor

The Wealth Advantage/Disadvantage has rules for continued income during the game but it's a super weird game where your players continue to punch a clock and collect a paycheck after the campaign starts. Wealth should primarily affect starting resources.

With the exception of Dungeon Fantasy's weird gamified idea of Wealth, loot isn't a part of the wealth advantage, nor is shopping or consumption of ammunition or any other oddity. Being poor doesn't mean you don't have friends that can help you and it doesn't mean you're bad at managing money.

That said if your campaign has a paycheck. If the players run a tavern, or fly a cargo ship, or are part of a fantasy Mercenary company. The GM should point out that the poor player would normally be paid less than regular crew. If your poor players are short-cutting the problems they'd normally face because of poverty by getting handouts I think you're well within your rights to use those negative character points for other disadvantages like Lower Status, or an enemy exciseman.
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Old 06-23-2021, 07:05 AM   #74
Varyon
 
Join Date: Jun 2013
Default Re: To be, or not to be… poor

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Originally Posted by Black Leviathan View Post
The Wealth Advantage/Disadvantage has rules for continued income during the game but it's a super weird game where your players continue to punch a clock and collect a paycheck after the campaign starts.
I wouldn't expect it to be that weird, although not the genre(s) I'd typically be interested in. There's plenty of fiction where the characters have obligations during the day and do most of their plot-relevant stuff on nights and weekends, occasionally skipping out on their daytime obligations when absolutely necessary. Granted, those characters are often children/young adults, and the daytime obligations are school rather than work, but the same can easily apply to adults working a 9-5 M-F job.
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Old 06-23-2021, 07:40 AM   #75
Stormcrow
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
Default Re: To be, or not to be… poor

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Originally Posted by Varyon View Post
There's plenty of fiction where the characters have obligations during the day and do most of their plot-relevant stuff on nights and weekends,
GURPS isn't only about emulating fiction, and it's not necessary to find models in literature to justify something. Often it's about setting up a fantastic and/or exciting environment and letting players do what they want with it. Other times the management of money may play a part, and a job between adventures will usually offset the character's Cost of Living expense. Sometimes it's just about verisimilitude: you're not a full-time adventurer, so you have to be doing something when you're not adventuring.
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Old 06-24-2021, 06:06 AM   #76
AlexAB
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Default Re: To be, or not to be… poor

In my games, I consider the wealth just a starting point. If during the adventures the characters amass enough wealth to change levels, they get a higher level of the advantage free of charge. If on the other hand, they lose money, they might lose the advantage. This is not different, I think, from a character gaining a disadvantage like "one-hand" from a combat wound.

As for bankrolling, I think it is important if the players at least act naturally. Is the rich character giving way too much money to the poor ones for no good reason? If so, the player should probably be penalised for bad role-playing; as with doing anything that doesn't make sense. On the other hand, if the poor character is geared up by the rich one to be his bodyguard or something like that; or the rich player become an employer of the poor one and demands some kind of service from time to time; that can help the game become more interesting just as well.

It is important that disadvantages like that do represent an actual disadvantage, though. From the game start. So the initial situation of the character should play a hand into how the game starts. In other words, I wouldn't allow the rich character to buy things to the poor one before the game even started.

My approach to points might be a bit unusual though. I usually have a policy of not letting points do "meta-game" stuff. For instance, the version of signature gear in my campaign doesn't really protects the character's item in any way; it can still be stole, destroyed and whatnot without any kind of protection. It does allow you, though, to purchase gear that is either very rare or unique in the setting - things that you wouldn't be able to purchase normally without at least some adventuring to find who might be selling it - from the get go.
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