Econonmics and money-making

[AverageCitizen]

I ran a game once where the whole point was to beat the thieves/merchant guilds of city X at their own game. Their primary measure of success was how much money they made. It was very sandboxy, if you know what I mean. Obviously there was significantly more cash flowing than in a normal game.

 

[Family]

I just buy my in game gold from Johnyasdf....

 

[PeelSeel2]

I like using a system like Gary Used in LA. Mine is 1cp = $1.00, 1sp = $50.00, 1gp = $500.00. I have the characters decide on what 'social class' their characters are aspiring to be/are. Characters have a standard of living they 'maintain' with their wealth. Maintaining this standard of living confers social/adventure benefits (also dangers). Generally speaking I take the standard D&D (any edition) cost of magic items (and other 'fantasy services') in gold and that is their cost in cp. Mundane equipment I price off modern standard. A good adventuring backpack is going to cost 150-400cp, a cheap one 50cp, etc. I will take the wealth packages in D&D 4e and say gp = cp and call it good (most likely).

I like winging it with wealth. If I do that, however, I have a plan to 'drain it' or make the party use it up. In my current campaign the characters where in a gold boom town. The Baron of the area sent a calvary unit to maintain peace in this small hamlet that suddenly was big stuff. The calvary office in charge was a pompous ass, inept and vain, and prone to radical measures to keep the local peace. Long story short, a gang planned a good heist of the smelted gold shipment totaling in the millions of copper in value. The characters got framed for it in the end. They managed to track the shipment and recovery it in most of it's entirety. But due to alliances they made to find it/get it, in the end they had ~100,000 to split between them, and some good social contacts. In addition, most of them had obligations for most of their money to advance their organizations/causes/personal ambition that ate up their shares. In the end they ended up getting what I considered fair for their level. They palyers had a lot of fun and never felt 'cheated' out of the money, and I had a continued fairly balanced campaign.

In previous editions you really had to eyeball the wealth situation. It will be nice to have a good, balanced reference point for adventures.

 

[Mort_Q]

Okay, I understand that the board is generally antagonistic, but please don't jump to the conclusion that I don't think it would work, or that I can't handle it. I was just asking for perspective. I've actually run some very bottom-line oriented campaigns and we all had a good time.

I'm sorry if I came off as antagonistic.

I thought I was answering the question you asked.

 

[AverageCitizen]

I'm sorry if I came off as antagonistic.

I thought I was answering the question you asked.

Oh, you did. No worries. I just... I was probably being over-sensitive.

I just didn't mean for the "What if they do that for the whole campaign?" question to come off as though I was pointing out some game-breaking flaw. It's just something I consider an interesting scenario, and I was curious how you'd handle it. Which I know now. I do appreciate your input.

 

[Dausuul]

The excerpt today raises a question. When the players specifically target opportunities to earn some quick cash, either by more targeting lucrative quests or by actually stealing from the robber-baron or whatever, do you give them the same amount of treasure they would have gotten anyway? Or do you give them some kind of little bonus and let them be slightly more wealthy than their peers because they have focused on money-making?

What if they do that for the whole campaign?

How would you guys handle that?

I'd give them the extra money. It'll all come out in the wash. If they did this repeatedly, I'd start adjusting to compensate--setting aside one or two parcels per level for "extra credit" opportunities.

 

[Mort_Q]

I just didn't mean for the "What if they do that for the whole campaign?" question to come off as though I was pointing out some game-breaking flaw. It's just something I consider an interesting scenario...

I'll admit that that is how I read it... but I like the scenario, and since I think I want to start me first 4e campaign in Sharn, something along the lines as what's already been discussed sounds like fun.

I think I'd ask the players what kind of opportunities their charactes were looking for, and then maybe ask them to develop 2 or 3 low level contacts that I could use, and then see what sort of things they like, and what sort of hooks I could bait.

 

[Sojorn]

I ran a game once where the whole point was to beat the thieves/merchant guilds of city X at their own game. Their primary measure of success was how much money they made. It was very sandboxy, if you know what I mean. Obviously there was significantly more cash flowing than in a normal game.

Throw out leveling by XP in that game. Convert most of the item parcels into the gold equivalents. Players level when they get all the treasure parcels in a level. Don't ever force the PCs into a skill or combat challenge that has no monetary reward (since XP is supposed to cover those).

Instant campaign 'o greed.

 

[AverageCitizen]

Throw out leveling by XP in that game. Convert most of the item parcels into the gold equivalents. Players level when they get all the treasure parcels in a level. Don't ever force the PCs into a skill or combat challenge that has no monetary reward (since XP is supposed to cover those).

Instant campaign 'o greed.

That is very intriguing. Obviously an extreme case, but I like your thinking. Genius!