Best Take on d20 Modern Wealth System?

[Jackelope King]

I like the d20 Modern wealth system as a nice, abstract approach to wealth. However, I've also heard of a few glitches that exist in the system, and I thought I remembered hearing about a nice take on it from a third-party publisher, but for the life of me, I can't remember it.

So does anyone know any nice takes on the d20 Modern wealth system, or a similarly nice abstract wealth system similar to it?

 

[Jackelope King]

One weekend later bump.

Anybody have any recomendations?

 

[Vigilance]

There's been one attempt at converting the wealth system to cash, and I've done some work with requisition rules, but I haven't heard of any "definitive works" on the Wealth system as is, sorry.

 

[ValhallaGH]

The only oddities I've seen in the wealth system are:

• No rules for combining resources to make a purchase.
• High level characters are either very wealthy or poor (depending upon Profession ranks).

The oddities I've seen complained about are:

• The arbitrariness of the Cost 15 wealth loss.
• The conceptual difficulty of making a wealth check.
• The lack of rules for combining resources to make a purchase.
• Level matters more than adventures for gaining wealth.
• The Windfall feat is pretty worthless.
• "It's too hard."
• "Why can't we just use cash?"

Yeah, those last two are just player whining, not actual oddities of the system.

Sorry, but I haven't seen a similar system that didn't share most of those weaknesses. Good luck finding one, though.

 

[Roger]

The best things I've read about it have been the Bullet Points articles from Wizards' website on it. I think there were two articles on it.


Cheers,
Roger

 

[Pbartender]

The only oddities I've seen in the wealth system are:

• No rules for combining resources to make a purchase.

...

• The lack of rules for combining resources to make a purchase.

I've heard a lot of people complain about the D20M Wealth system not having rules for combining resources. The truth is, the rules are there, they're just not very inspired...

Aid Another
One other character can make an aid another attempt to help a character purchase an object or service. If the attempt is successful, that character provides the purchaser with a +2 bonus on his or her Wealth check. The character who provides the aid reduces his or her Wealth bonus by +1.

The only oddities I've seen in the wealth system are:

• High level characters are either very wealthy or poor (depending upon Profession ranks).

True20, which also uses Wealth, does a much better job of handling this. You still make a Profession check, but there is no Profession skill. Instead, you just use whatever skill is most appropriate for your character's profession... A politician could use Diplomacy or Sense Motive, chauffer would use Drive, a priest might use Knowledge (religion), burglar could use Stealth or Open Lock, and a gambler could use Bluff or Sleight of Hand, and so on...

That way, you can still get decent Profession checks using skills that are naturally useful to your character, without "wasting" skill points on an otherwise useless skill.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

High level characters are either very wealthy or poor (depending upon Profession ranks).

It's not just the importance (or lack thereof) of Profession vs other skills, but also how it gives you a lot more money than adventuring. There's no financial incentive to adventure.

If Handle Animal gives you more money than adventuring if you're a cowboy, I think there might be a problem, especially as you skyrocket in Wealth.

The oddities I've seen complained about are:

Can I add another one? You start with too little Wealth. Very often 1st-level characters spend everything (but they get it back in a couple of levels if they took ranks in Professin).

 

[jaerdaph]

Personally, I thought the wealth rules in d20 Modern were innovative and elegant, IMO and YMMV. The fact that you can use aid another to simulate pooling resources makes it even more so.

Green Ronin's True20 uses the Wealth system as well, but there is no profession skill, as PBartender mentioned. You choose a skill based on what your character does when determining wealth. Makes a nice house rule in d20 Modern as well, and you don't have to throw away skill points into profession.

 

[hobgoblin]

to increase your profession skill you need skill points, to gain those you need to go up levels, to do that you need xp. so how do you gain xp?

as for the artifacts of the wealth system, i have seen them up close when i messed up in handing out payment for jobs done one person could hand the other enough money to have him roll 2d6 in wealth increase while still maintaining said increase himself. this was after they split the payment in equal parts...

i think the biggest issue is the newness of the system. no other game i can think of have a similar system in use. and as its so new, people have a hard time grasping the concepts and thoughts embedded in the design of the system.

 

[jaerdaph]

i think the biggest issue is the newness of the system. no other game i can think of have a similar system in use. and as its so new, people have a hard time grasping the concepts and thoughts embedded in the design of the system.

I think you've hit the nail on the head.