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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kigmatzomat" data-source="post: 3190774" data-attributes="member: 9254">Hmmm, how do they make money.... Let me count the ways.In the beginning, the PC cleric realizes he has some coin that he can't figure out how to use; not enough for a great item and he doesn't feel like buying another backup wand of curing.  He visits an NPC trader who is a former adventurer and arranges to invest in the trade caravan.  The party goes on an quest for a few months and when they get back, the cleric is handed a bag of gold by the trader. Instantly, the rest want in on the racket.  I explain it is a random system that is weighted towards a moderate profit over the long haul.  The smart ones figure out that means they need to diversify and  begin trolling through their list of past contacts who were traders and see if they need silent partners.Later they had to travel between continents.  Chartering a ship was expensive, simply because of the risks and time involved.  Upon further consideration, they purchased the ship and contracted the crew.  They then leased it to the trade consortium they were heavily invested in, and turned their journey into a profit generating venture.IMC the nobility dislikes giving out rewards more than a few hundred gold in cash.  So I've given out tax exemptions (causing them to invest in that region), exemptions to toll roads and to city entrance taxes (resulting in their escorting some of their own caravans, again bringing wealth into the region.  Smart, those nobles).When that begins to pale, they switch to military rank.  Heroes of note should be able to give instructions and have people take them seriously.  Military rank gives them that, as well as giving the military influence over them (heh, heh, heh.)   Military rank also tends to come with a stipend (pretty minor for their level, but comforting), the guarantee of a warm place to sleep & food in any town of note (handy, very handy) and the ability to requisition supplies (also very handy).  Beyond that, gifts of land are popular, preferrably land that should be profitable but has some monstrous presence that keeps away the peasants but isn't such a nuisance that it has ever been worth getting rid of it.  (Again, it indirectly results in investment within the nobles' demenses)I've also used the "investment due to guilt" approach.  Their adopted town wanted to make some improvements (build a real protective wall around the town) but hadn't raised all the cash they needed and would the heroes please loan the town a few thousand gold at a fixed interest rate?  They agreed but were smart enough to require a parcel of land within the wall as part of the repayment process.After that they started looking for investment opportunities.  When they were given a reward for saving a keep from a goblin invasion (but not before the goblins burned the fields and destroyed the peasants' houses), they gave the money back to the lord to loan out to the peasantry to get them productive faster.   They also arranged for a school of magic to be built in the area since a) the goblins were so dangerous b/c they had magic and b) the locals are a ready workforce that won't be tilling fields any time soon. Most recently they funded a tavern/brothel in a town they "saved."  At the moment they are brokering a land deal for a group of psions that were self-exiled in an extradimensional realm for a few thousand years.  Exactly what profit they will make there has yet to be seen but I expect there to be some.  Net result is they hold the rank of Major in one military, Sargeant Majors in another, are adopted members of a major Clan, between them own something like eight houses and about 5,000 acres on two continents and in five different cities, are the primary holder of a city bond to one city and a loan to a small barony, are the co-owners in a tavern/brothel, and have a combined total of about 500,000gp invested in about six different traders scattered across two continents and three seas.  They are exempt to all tolls on the King's or Emperor's Highways, are exempt to the normal entrance fees & taxes for cities in the Kingdom and an Empire, are exempt to the cargo fees & taxes in three cities, have tax various tax shelters on a variety of properties, hold traders' guild "Master" status across most of the planet, and are honorary deans of an Imperial School of Magic.  The party is 20th level now, FYI, and it took some 6 years of IRL and game time to amass those assets.</blockquote>

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