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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 7330963" data-attributes="member: 82106">LOL, I'm talking about my game design again...I abstracted wealth. In other words there IS a 'currency system' in HoML, but its just set dressing. When you make expenditures they fall into the categories of 'trivial', 'minor', and 'major'. There's a chart which equates this to 'gold pieces' so that the GM can describe a treasure of some explicit size, but in terms of what the characters DO they simply make trivial, minor, or major expenses of a given level, with something that may be major for a low level character perhaps becoming minor or even trivial at higher tiers. So a night's lodging is a minor expense at level 1, and by level 8 its trivial. Likewise purchasing a suite of plate armor would be a major expense at 3rd level, but minor for a 10th level PC.In terms of what happens when you incur an expense, if it is a trivial expense, then nothing happens. Granted, a higher level PC could simply camp in the Green Dragon Inn for all eternity, but that would be equally the case in 4e where he's probably got 1000's of days worth of expenses in his belt pouch. Its just making explicit what the game already effectively does.Minor expenses could 'add up'. They are probably plot-relevant, so they would come within the realm of elements of a conflict of some sort, and thus be materialized in the form of a check. I haven't formally written this up, but I would simply call this a 'wealth check'. Should the character find himself insufficiently funded (IE failing the check) then either the cost is beyond his means, or his means have fallen on hard times! Given that I have a 'degree of success/failure' mechanic that means the degree of failure can indicate which of these is the case. Players can elect to spend resources to improve their chances, or even expend 'Inspiration' to alter their circumstances, so lack of funds should normally become either an occasion for creative play, or an instance of substituting some other type of resource in its place. Major expenses pretty much work the same as minor ones, except they are just more significant. By incurring a major expense a PC actually depletes their wealth, making future wealth checks either infeasible or considerably less likely to succeed. It hasn't happened in play, but its not that far-fetched to think of a PC 'going broke'. Interesting things happen with this system since it has ways to substitute different resources. A character could spend an HS and utilize a technique he knows "I slit my finger and expend an HS to complete the material components of the ritual using the technique 'Blood is Power' this is now an Endurance check, not Arcana."</blockquote>

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