D20 Wealth bonus in The Great Depression

[Veven1290]

I am planning on running a Pulpy D20 modern campaign set in the md 1930's With all the steampunkish mechas and Nazi Mindflayers a boy could dream of. Plans are coming along nicely but i am having trouble with the whole wealth bonus thing. I understand the concept and i even like it but my players are mostly going to start off homeless in a crummy hooverville with very little wealth. I am trying to weigh my options.
A) just start them with a wealth bonus of 1 or 2 (or 0) and make acquiring wealth more difficult than the rules suggest.
B) eliminate the wealth system thus making money tangible and (i feel) more important to the campaign (which is sort of what i would like). One issue would be converting the purchase DC to actual cost
C) any ideas?

option B is what i am leaning towards, i found this great website Dirty 30s! - Introduction
with all sorts of info on the 30's (prices and things like that) so option B would not be a load of work.

mainly i am just looking for any other options, or better thought out versions of my own. Also, any advice from people who have played/ran similar games would be great because i really want the money part of the game to add to the fun of it all, not just be a burden on the players.



This is my first post! my name is Ben and i have been stealing all your great D&D ideas for about a year now, i figured it was about time i actually join the site. greetings to everyone.

 

[SiderisAnon]

I find that players seem to take money more seriously and also enjoy the money aspect of the game more when there are quantifiable numbers. I've known only a few players over the years who really liked the abstract monetary systems. (I know when I played in a game with it, I always felt like what we could buy or not buy was down to DM fiat more than anything.)

Since you want to start the PCs out in one of the Hoovervilles and give them chances at working their way up, I would say that counting money is important. Rather than spending exp to increase their wealth, it's all about their hard work or smart ideas. It also gives you the moral situation of do they take the wallet from the bad guy they just defeated (whether that's a mob boss, a mugger, or some alien creature the Nazis have employed).

Make sure the players get a good look at the price list and pay scales. I'd suggest making up a "shopping list" of a dozen or so everyday items and their prices so that people can get an idea of what money really means. It helps transition to a situation where $1,000 may be most of a year's pay.

 

[Veven1290]

wow, thanks for a quick response!

i've decided real money is certainly the way i want to go.

One remaining issue i have is class features that rely on the wealth bonus I.E. The pulp scientist from D20 Modern: Past. His ability to create inventions from his discovery stems directly from his Wealth bonus, as well is the class feature "Major Breakthrough" (grants a +5 wealth bonus). Does anyone have any creative way to bypass this and still make it fun/balanced?


if anyone else has any experiences they would like to share that would be awesome.

SiderisAnon's insight is certainly invaluable and the more advice i get the better this campaign is gonna turn out.

thanks again!

 

[pawsplay]

You could take the one-time bonus, multiply it by character level, times $50. Like, a 14th level character who gained the Major Breakthrough would gain 14 x 5 x $50 = $3500.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Wealth Bonus works great for modern economics with bank accounts and lines of credit

That doesn't apply to the 30's I'm use money.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

When used as an indicator of wealth and privilege it works in any era, and it still eliminates the headaches of "how much does this cost?" or "do I really have to pay 50 gp/month/level of maintenance?" Noble families with castles, heirloom weapons, and fields tended by peasants could easily use wealth as an abstraction.

 

[CharlesRyan]

The Wealth system was designed to account for a modern financial world, where credit is commonly used and people's assets and resources go far beyond the cash in their wallets. (This isn't speculation--I'm the guy who created d20 Modern's Wealth system.)

Based on how you're describing the campaign, I'd skip it. The Wealth system would probably be appropriate in a 30s setting if the characters were affluent (or spanned a range of affluence); I'd be comfortable using it in a typical Call of Cthulhu campaign, for example. But in a game where characters are living on the margin of the economy, and credit in particular just isn't a factor, I'd go with a cash system.

Should the characters work their way out of poverty and start to move into the mainstream economy, you could always migrate them into the Wealth system.