Wealth system and salaries

[HeapThaumaturgist]

So here's my take on this. Might seem a little odd, but I've done it before and it made people happy.

Give them 20,000 bucks as-per Plane Sailing's suggestion. RP out them getting this first big fat check. Do the Wealth score adjustments.

Then give them all a bonus to Profession checks. Like the Windfall feat.

Heck, in one position, I gave a character the Windfall feat to represent marrying into a powerful merchantile family.

Setting low-end limits or treating it all as a lump sum or treating the salary as a unique cash influx each time it comes down the pipe is, IMHO, losing sight of the system.

There's too much going on in the back-end (characters/story) to take it into account on the front end (the rules). Debt, investments, lifestyle changes, etc. Plus, simpler is better. You don't have to track time ("Uh, I think it's been a week ..."), you don't need to do anything for the players beyond the first time. They get a Wealth increase, they mark down a bonus to Profession checks (+2, maybe?) and your job is complete.

--fje

 

[tjoneslo]

Technically, you don't have to do anything. Having a job/source of income is already built into the abstract Wealth system. Will the PCs have time for two jobs now?

I really dislike this, as the rules assume that the character have a "real" job or two and go adventuring in their off hours. Is there a better set of rules that assume the character's job is adventuring...

 

[RangerWickett]

I ultimately said that they got a Wealth score of 28, and that would not replenish. They quickly spent until each of them was down to 20 or under (charter a jet to Greece, climb Mount Olympus, and buy magic items from a secret conclave of artificers). Since they assumed the magic items cost millions of dollars, they understand that they're going to be paying in installments.

However, if they had just decided to buy a bunch rifles and items with Purchase DCs in the 15 to 20 range, I would've felt bad about their Wealth score being reduced. Hrm.

 

[Klaus]

Sounds like a bonus Windfall feat to me.

 

[Vigilance]

I really dislike this, as the rules assume that the character have a "real" job or two and go adventuring in their off hours. Is there a better set of rules that assume the character's job is adventuring...

I think that's what the Wealth award mechanic is for. If you spend all your skill points on adventuring type stuff, you probably wont get much of a Wealth bump from Profession skills the way an ordinary working stiff would.

So for the full time adventurer Wealth awards would be his main source of income, with the occasional point or two of wealth indicating a good investment.

 

[Khorod]

Arguably, having Profession[adventurer] should be possible. You do things like lead safari's in Africa, guard businessmen in South America, or whatever.

And these jobs are the 90% of your life that goes more or less smoothly.

I like making the salary a bonus to Profession. Profession represents how well you leverage your income.

I'd possibly convert the first paycheck into a wealth bonus, but use that as the bonus to Profession while the job lasts. Then I would allow an immediate Profession check.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I do, indeed, let people take Profession (Thing The Campaign Is About).

Dark*Matter? Profession (Hoffmann Agent)

Paramilitary Squad? Profession (Military)

It's just a mechanic. Make it work for you. Because Billy started the game as a Burgermeister doesn't mean he has to put ranks in Profession (Burger King).

If Joe Shlub decides not to put any ranks into any Profession and he gets "hired" by an international crime-buster super-dudes umbrella corporation making 1 mil a year, and you want to give everybody a bonus to Profession for their salary ... Joe Shlub gets Profession (International Crime-Busting Super-Dude) at 0 ranks with a +2 bonus and his Wis mod on rolls.

If his Wealth is 28 and keeps going down when he buys rifles, but he's making 20,000 a week, and it never goes back up, because he can't make a Profession roll to bring it up ... that's saying what?

Mechanically, it's saying that Joe's player feels that Joe doesn't care enough about money and his job to bother spending time and effort (Skill Points) in tracking his finances, impressing his bosses, and generally being financially sound. Joe Schlub is a man's man, his precious time goes into training on the free-climb wall at the gym (ranks in Climb) or whatever. He pays credit for his AK47s and forgets to pay the bill for three months running, he keeps 50,000 dollars under his matress instead of letting it accrue interest in the bank ... he still has his Free Checking account at the local bank instead of socking funds away in money market accounts.

It's a wonderfully complex tapistry. Which is why I love the Wealth system. Let it be simple. Let it be counter-intuitively simple, and it will model very well the bewildering mine-field that is modern finances ... with very little input.

The more "realistic", I.E. complexified, the system becomes the LESS it models real-world financial situations. Credit, investments, paychecks, losing your wallet, whatever.

--fje

 

[genshou]

I can reverse-engineer the nifty guideline offered in the second issue of Bullet Points for you anytime. Just give me the current Wealth bonuses of the PCs and the amount they'll be getting (be sure to specify if it's per person or a "pool" for everyone).

Edit: The end result will be the actual Wealth bonus to give out to each PC.