freak'in wealth system

[Plane Sailing]

I'd like to thank everyone who has come up with a simple explination of day-to-day changes for my bum

apropos of nothing, but you might like to know that this sentence reads really funny in UK english

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Now whatever happened to the good ole days of moderators KEEPING us on topic? Hrm?

Between the connotations of that line, and all the explaining and exampling I'm doing, I'm seriously contemplating writing an informative non-fiction piece. Something with the retro stylings of a 50's shop-class safety video.

"You And Your Wealth System"
or
"How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Abstraction"​

"Gee Whiz, Mr. Eastman, I didn' know you could do THAT with Wealth!"

"Indeed, Bobby. But be careful! We wouldn't want anybody to break the system and hurt themselves ... those edges are sharp!"

"Golly Willikers, Mr. Eastman, sir. I sure wouldn't want any a' my pals to hurt themselves on those sharp edges!"

--fje

 

[Plane Sailing]

Now whatever happened to the good ole days of moderators KEEPING us on topic? Hrm?

I think you ought to do that non-fiction piece on wealth though. I wonder if it is something that could be done as one of the articles here http://www.enworld.org/forums/article.php?c=5

Cheers

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Mmmm ... the more I think about it, the more I like it. I think I'll start up on a draft of "You And Your Wealth System".

Maybe I could answer a Wealth-related question every week.

First, perhaps, using Wealth successfully in your campaign.

--fje

 

[ledded]

Does anyone use weathy as a prerequisite for holding an alligience? Anything already out there like having "Old Money" as an alligience, with the character beliving in the ideal of broad privilage for the upper class?

Is using Disguise to fake having an allegience already covered?

We have done a lot of these things and more, covered mainly under the power of the GM to bestow circumstance bonuses based on a situation. My detective character in our modern game tends to keep a few different sets of clothes in his office or even his vehicle so that he can dress up/down for a specific occasion. Not necessarily disguising, just trying to blend in (or not blend in) as the situation warrants. Questioning a wealthy socialite while wearing grungy street clothes (showing an apparent wealth lower than I may have at the moment) may cause my Diplomacy to take a penalty, depending on the circumstances, while trying to gather information from guys in a blue collar bar while wearing my Rolex and Armani suit may not be the best thing to do. We've not used disguise to fake an allegience (as far as I know), though I have used bluff/intimidate to attempt to do so numerous times.

Excellent. Sounds solid from here. Can a Character use gambling as a profession skill to make money in a more slow, methodical way? Like the professional grifter whose 40 hour work week consists of going from table to table at small time games and fleecing the rubes?

Certainly. Every time he levels he makes profession checks like everyone else, and then can use the Gambling rules when he is in a particular high-stakes game and not bilking the tourists.

Define "ruining" in this case, please.

Well, first I try not to think of Wealth in d20 Modern as a total measurement of wealth, it's not 'permanent' wealth, really just a measure of your current spending power.

I'll try to give this a shot.

A guy, Richie Rich, has a wealth score of 20, which in the game makes him reasonably wealthy, almost 'rich'. He can drop a decent amount of cash without feeling it. Lets say he has played his career right (game wise) so that he drives a jag, owns a big house, and has lots of things like big screen TV, DVD player, expensive stereo, country club membership, goes to dinner at fancy restaurants all the time etc.

A guy, Joe Schmoe, has a wealth score of 7, which makes him lower middle class or thereabouts. He can go to a movie or grab a lower-end meal without worrying about it. He lives modestly, with a TV from Wal Mart, no fancy memberships, and drives an older model S-10 ford pickup.

Richie Rich decides that he just has to have the sports car of his dreams, even though it's a bit out of his reach. But he buys the $200,000 (DC 36) sports car anyway. So, since the car is 16 points higher than his current wealth score and also greater than a DC 15, he pays 2d6+1. Let's assume he maxed the roll (ouch) for a 13. His wealth just dropped to a 7, the same as Joe Schmoe.

Does that mean his is now no more wealthy than Joe? No, not to me. He still has the big house, the jag, the fancy clothes and the fancy country club, while Joe is still living pretty modestly. What it does mean to me is that Richie messed up his finances so that he really cannot afford to drive that car. The insurance, upkeep, credit card payments, house payment, etc are so much that his liquid spending power is vastly reduced; maybe he took a hit in the Stock Market (explaining that 13) so his available cash just suddenly dried up the same time he plunked down 200k for a dreamy ride (bad luck, Richie). He can always sell the big new car or the jag to boost himself a little if he's in big trouble, but of course they are not going to sell for anywhere near what he payed for them. But for the time being, he really can't afford discretionary spending more than Joe Schmoe, and at that level is probably pretty stressed out by barely making his bills and missing those thursday dinners at Spago, while Joe is happy enough with his Burger King and a movie rental.

Well, that certainly sounds like promising ground for some new options. I still have hope for loan sharks in d20M .

Just a little figuring involved, but by just looking at it by the DC's needed to meet the task, you can easily convert it to cash and back again. That way you can say "you borrow 200k from Nicky the Knife" instead of "You borrow at a DC <whatever> from Nicky the Knife". And then just hope the juice is worth the squeeze.

That does inspire hope . Is there any logical situation where you might have negative wealth?

I'm not sure, but the book I think says 0 is as low as it goes. In our game, we would probably allow it, but below 0 means that not only are you broke, but you owe money that folks are now actively looking for (i.e. the RBGM is going to have a field day with you). And you wouldnt be able to spend on anything till you got the wealth back above 0. It hasnt happened yet though so I couldnt say how our regular GM would handle it.

That makes sense fot the sports star, but for the wildly successful dot.commie who got out in time, it seems like there still might be a strictly monetary hook for results to occur. If wealth includes things like how much money you can just throw away on a whim, then some folks are gonna palm the bouncer a hundred and step right in, while others are gonna have to stand in line. This intersts me becasue I can easily see a scenario where being in line on the street takes you one way to the adventure climax, and being inside gives you a different angle to pursue... You're standing there when there's a car crash, and help in pulling an important-to-the-plot NPC out of the car, while your rich, only slightly insufferable ex-dot.com buddy is inside already, buying rounds and pumping a local rap star for info that will help advance the plot. Both characters are rewarded for their differences (two rich guys would only get one path, two poor guys only the other) and everone has a moment to shine.

Oh sure, there are things like diplomacy or gather info that bribes can help with a lot, especially if you can afford to toss out large amounts of cash without worrying about it. If you are willing to take a hit to your wealth score, a large enough monetary contribution at the right time can do wonders for a Diplomacy or Gather Info attempt, which can vastly sway how a particular adventure path goes (getting the key info at a different time or even at all). Your example is spot-on for what I would see there, but is left up to a lot of GM's call and not explicitly specified by the rules (other than the poor guys not being able to palm the bouncer a few Benjamins to get inside).

Basically, I'm wondering if in the material people have seen, is wealth ever a plot trigger, or only used as a logistical aide?

For our game, it is most often a logisitcal aide and general indicator of what we can do with our cash, instead of bookkeeping too much. But it comes up like in the examples I provided above as plot hooks or even minor triggers.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Article written. Hopefully it'll get moderated and put up soon!

--fje