Has Anyone Tried a No Cash Game

[Garnfellow]

I've also used the Wealth mechanic in fantasy games to great effect. I really like it for gritty, low-magic settings where D&D type bling -- platinum pieces, mountains of gold, seas of gems -- should be rare or unheard of.

As for my players, they only ever wanted something that could tell them "what can I afford to buy right now?" They don't want to deal with bankers, accountants, or financial advisors.

 

[FireLance]

Yeah, my group does this and it's worked pretty well for us so far. We've come up with pretty much the same handwaves for how equipment improves as well. Great minds think alike, eh?

My only problems are coming up with an individual item cost limit (I'm thinking 1/4 of the total limit for any one item) and items with charges (I'm thinking you cannot spend more than 1/10th of your wealth on potions, wands, staves, and scrolls).

We've used the rule that no single item can be worth more than half the total limit, and we don't put any restriction on charged items. Single-use items like potions and scrolls have a sufficiently high cost per use, and items with multiple charges like wands and staffs have a hefty upfront cost if you don't allow partially charged items. Do note that feats and abilities that allow a character to gain benefits by burning extra charges can be quite powerful under such a system, so allow them with care or on a trial basis. One additional house-rule we use (based on the RPGA rules) is that item creation feats allow a character to obtain magic items that he can create at 75% of the cost.

 

[Frostmarrow]

Tribe 8

No, I'm actually looking to get rid of the cycle of looting, selling, and shopping that I find boring and genre inappropriate. Changing to another system of Wealth will not remove the cycle.

I think it still could be worth looking in to it (if you haven't already). It's a nice system that does not rely on looting. However it does rely on getting payed.

Currently we are playing Tribe 8. There are no money in Tribe 8 and the population of Vimary rely on bartering instead. For us, the PCs, this basically means that we have what we want to have. An optimal choice of studded leather armor and a weapon of choice, for instance. If we need something else we can ask for it and if it's available NPCs will give it to us (we are heroes after all). If we need something that is not available on our home turf (Hom) we usually need to promise to grant favors.

We don't have any fancy stuff save my magical scythe. My guess is the GM will see to that my friends also get a magical weapon of the same power level (about +1) in sessions to come. We have one power gamer who hoards stuff but the rest of us don't. This basically means that he's just wasting his time as the GM won't set up a problem that can only be solved by owning the proper item.

Favors are a great currency by the way. In Vampire The Masquarade favors were a big deal. They were called boons and you gave them out in order to request assistance from other vampires. This could mean that you were later called upon to do something you'd rather not do - such as turn a blind eye or even fight your friends.

 

[DonTadow]

Shopping is one of my least favorite parts of the game as it is incredibly boring and non-interactive, hence the system. Players can update their characters between games as they see fit, and we can use game time for meaningful interaction.

Looting is a grim reality of D&D that I would also to see go away. In many settings, looting dead bodies is not thematically appopriate.




Not at all. As DM, I would have to approve any item like with a starting character. I don't know any DM that just lets you start with whatever you want. They always have veto power.

Roleplaying is only as boring as you make it. Shopping can provide unique opportunities for obscure NPC interaction, especially when pcs are bringing items that could disrupt an econmoy. The first relationshisp a pc is going to build in a new place is with the merchants. This really becomes good when pcs visit towns more than once. Merchants are the first to encounter long lost treasure or gold coinage from other lands. It also provides a landscape for how politics filters into the town economy. There's just soo much there to give up on the current system because as DMs, we don't feel like doing the tracking.

Looting is not a bad thing, it's realistic in every war, raid reality. When whomever wins they raid the villages and take the valuables, even the heroes. Even though my current campaign is full of anti-heroes, we had a hero cleric a bit ago and her thing was reliquishing the items from evil. If the items were left there, she felt that she was not doing her place to liberate the items for her god.

Anything in the game will be tedious and boring if you don't input the RPG flavor into it. (Thinking of another thread) If you just put a puzzle in front of your players and say solve it, then you're turning your rpg session into a crossword puzzle, but if you integrate it well and don't break from the fantasy of the world, it comes across as an oddity for the pcs to solve. The same with shopping and looting, if you turn it into a game of Acquire it'll be acquire, but if you keep the rpg flavor youll be surprised at how flexible it can be.

 

[maggot]

Thank you all for your replies. I would like to hear from anyone that has tried this approach (rather than those that want to dissuade me from the approach). What things were problematic?

So far, I've figured out that charged items may or may not be an issue. Wizard spell book costs would need to be settled. And the cost for spellcasting would need to be addressed. Anything else I should look out for? Anyone out there actually try this?

 

[Crothian]

Thank you all for your replies. I would like to hear from anyone that has tried this approach (rather than those that want to dissuade me from the approach). What things were problematic?

It felt all meta gamey. Characters just get what they want to a certain price it can be hard to have it all make sense all the time in the game. Players felt they were being cheated from what they earned. It didn't m,atter how much they did, what prices they negotiate, they always ended up with the same amount of "stuff".

I think for it to work you first need the right set up. I'm not sure exactly what that is, perhaps an oriental feel for instance with taboos against looting from the dead, honor system so that players won't steal or something like that. I think the genre will be changed in unforseen ways and players will have to be able to ignore certain inconsistancies that they usually don't have to.

 

[maggot]

It felt all meta gamey. Characters just get what they want to a certain price it can be hard to have it all make sense all the time in the game. Players felt they were being cheated from what they earned. It didn't m,atter how much they did, what prices they negotiate, they always ended up with the same amount of "stuff".

I think for it to work you first need the right set up. I'm not sure exactly what that is, perhaps an oriental feel for instance with taboos against looting from the dead, honor system so that players won't steal or something like that. I think the genre will be changed in unforseen ways and players will have to be able to ignore certain inconsistancies that they usually don't have to.

Thanks. I guess I'm looking for more of a heroic feel akin to comic superheros. Superman saves the world because he is Superman, not because he is going to get fabulously wealthy for it. Batman doesn't negotiate prices, he takes out the bad guy trash.

As for feeling to "meta gamey", which I don't quite understand, what if you could only buy new equipment or upgrade old equipment, but not just totally revamp. So if you had a +1 greataxe, you could get a +2 greataxe next level, but not turn it in for boots of flying.

 

[Crothian]

Thanks. I guess I'm looking for more of a heroic feel akin to comic superheros. Superman saves the world because he is Superman, not because he is going to get fabulously wealthy for it. Batman doesn't negotiate prices, he takes out the bad guy trash.

Thus why I said you have to redefine the genre. This is comic book hero genre not fatnasty RPG genre. You can do it in a fantasy like setting, but its going to be different.

As for feeling to "meta gamey", which I don't quite understand, what if you could only buy new equipment or upgrade old equipment, but not just totally revamp. So if you had a +1 greataxe, you could get a +2 greataxe next level, but not turn it in for boots of flying.

Things feel met game like when they don't make a lot of sense in game. So, if each character has the one ancestrial item that increases in power as they level, that's fine. But if all their equipment of all the PCs acts like that it just seems over done.

Another option is to go with a game like Iron Heroes since replaces the need for magical items.

 

[maggot]

Things feel met game like when they don't make a lot of sense in game.

So like when the heroic paladin loots the bodies of those he has slain. Or when the illiterate barbarian keeps inventory of each item looted and what it is worth. Or basically, all the time when playing D&D. If I'm okay with five-foot shifts and clerics of death gods that cast heal, I should be okay with not modeling this aspect of the game.

Another option is to go with a game like Iron Heroes since replaces the need for magical items.

Yeah, that's another option. I was trying to avoid it because there is much more material available for regular D&D, and because regular D&D has many more caster classes. But it is an option. Thanks.

 

[LostSoul]

The way I see it, you're trying to roll "loot" into XP, more or less. When you hit your next level, you get all the benefits associated with it - including the increased GP value of equipment.

I think that method could solve some problems that can crop up with the common system. Looting dead PC's bodies, for example. Uneven treasure distribution. I'm sure there are others.

In in-game terms, you could just say that magic items draw their power from the user, and there's a limit to how much magic power one person can give out. You learn to push this as you gain levels.

Thus why I said you have to redefine the genre. This is comic book hero genre not fatnasty RPG genre. You can do it in a fantasy like setting, but its going to be different.

It can be argued that D&D Fantasy is Super-Hero Fantasy. D&D characters get their super-powers via magic items (and sometimes class abilities and spells).