How much to "charge" PCs between adventures? (cost of living)

[Starfox]

I handwave this, ignoring all such costs in DnD (3E, 4E). The reason is that it is a role-play tax. Some players might want to live in style, while others are skinflints. This is purely a role-playing decision and has no effect on the game in itself, but the skinflints gain a small bonus on the amount of money they can spend on magic items. In a game where gold is another form of experience points, this creates a (small) imbalance. It is also easier to ignore - role-playing is escapism for me, and balancing a household budget is way too much like RL.

 

[fba827]

personally, i wouldn't find it necessary -- assuming the PCs are doing odd jobs to earn their keep during downtime.

BUT if you do feel it appropriate to do for your group (and I can agree that some times it is appropriate) isn't there something in the PHB in the equipment section that has a chart for cost of a day's food and lodging for poor/standard/luxury (or something like that -- or am I just imagining it?)

 

[Sanzuo]

This reminds me of the fact that most D&D characters are essentially pirates. They roam around looking for treasure, spend it on new gear and the taverns, and head out again. I think that's why whenever my character is in a situation where he's at a tavern or talking to "civilian" npcs he throws his money around like Daddy Warbucks.

 

[Storminator]

In the Conan d20 game it's 50% of your PCs' net worth (including magic items!) per month.

I love that rule, even tho I've never used it. It just cracks me up.

PS

 

[Holy Bovine]

I'm thinking of having a chunk of time pass--a few months, maybe--between our current adventure, which is being DMed by another member of the group, and the next one, which I will be DMing. I was wondering if anyone has a system for what to "charge" PCs in terms of cost of living. I imagine a few different categories that I would ask the players to pick one from with honesty in the spirit of role-playing their character, from "living like a king" to "living frugally" to come up with a GP cost per day.

Any ideas?

I would keep it simple myself. A flat 5gp/PC level/month for an 'average' lifestyle going up to maybe 25gp for 'living like a king'. Why tie it to PC level? IMO it would be to show that high level PCs, being famous (or infamous) get overcharged for drinks, are asked for handouts, have to hire people to keep away their fans/haters etc. It also keeps it scaling up with level so even high level PCs still have to pay a % of their wealth. Heck, if your using 4E, you could have it 'scale up' when the PCs hit Paragon and Epic (change your base from 5gp (Heroic) to 15gp (Paragon) to 25gp (Epic) and multiply by 5 for 'living like a king' ). Even a 30th level PC living like a king is paying 3750gp/month to maintain their lifestyle - not unreasonable, imo.

 

[Sanzuo]

In the Conan d20 game it's 50% of your PCs' net worth (including magic items!) per month.

I love that rule, even tho I've never used it. It just cracks me up.

PS

I was like... What, that stupi... oh wait that's awesome. Your character just blows all his money on whores and booze.

 

[Holy Bovine]

In the Conan d20 game it's 50% of your PCs' net worth (including magic items!) per month.

I love that rule, even tho I've never used it. It just cracks me up.

PS

Anyone who is a fan of RH's Conan would love that rule. When did Conan ever need anything more than a loincloth and broadsword? The story (or in this case DM) provides what is needed to win. And if it doesn't just chop its limbs off!

 

[the Jester]

I would just ask the pcs how much they spend in that time. If they don't want to spend any money- they break even with work, etc- they just don't get any new cool mundane stuff (fancy clothes, bottles of the best wine, etc). If they spend money, you rate the party by the rate of expenditure- 1 gp/day (in my campaign) is a fun time for yourself, but 5 gp/day is a riot for you and your buddies; and if you spend 25 gp/day you have all the ale and (low to medium grade) whores you can handle, you're eating in style, etc.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Fantasy Craft has a nifty character attribute called, simply, Lifestyle. It can affect various downtime checks. Lifestyle is distributed between panache and prudence. Lifestyle is built from bonuses from the Charisma bonus, certain classes offer lifestyle bonuses, and from some feats.

As panache increases, the PC gains a (smallish) income at the start of each adventure plus an Appearance bonus.

As prudence increases, the PC's discipline with time and money improves.

In FC, coin comes in two categories; coin in hand and stake. Coin in hand is all money earned during the adventure and can be spent freely. Stake is money put aside for big items or emergencies, it can only be pulled from in cities or home base. At end of each adventure, PCs can transfer their coin in hand to their stake. The remainder coin in hand is immediately frittered away during Downtime (drinking, partying, impressing, gambling, bribing, food, rent, personal debt). The amount of coin in hand that can be transferred to stake is a percentage determined by the prudence score.

Doesn't really answer "how much" in a finite way, but it is an interesting mechanic that lets players control how spendthrift their PCs are. It can be easily plugged into other D20 games. Lets DMs avoid handing out a one-size-fits-all-PCs fiscal punishment.

 

[Celebrim]

In the Conan d20 game it's 50% of your PCs' net worth (including magic items!) per month.

I love that rule, even tho I've never used it. It just cracks me up.

PS

Yeah, it really captures the flavor of the stories.

I would say in general 1 s.p./level per day as a default 'lifestyle' expense. (Make this 1 g.p./level per day if you are using a g.p. monetary standard, like default 3.X or 4e.) The characters might spend their money differently - one character is buying booze and prostitutes and another gives it away to churches, their elderly mother, or beggars - but they all are in one way or the other living more grandly as they increase in stature.

If this comes up frequently in a campaign with alot of downtime between 'adentures', you could pay more attention to it as 'FantasyCraft' does.

As far as 'XP during down time' goes, my rule has always been that you can earn 1 XP per day practicing your trade or craft during downtime. So the fighter that wants to go out hunting to keep his combat skills sharp he earns 1 XP per day doing so. If you want to earn XP at a faster rate than that, it involves significant risk and can't be handwaved. Although, I might be convinced to double down time XP to 2 XP per day if the player doubled down time cost of living (representing gym fees, membership in a weapons guild, training with a local gladiator coach, paying for classes with a fencing master, ect.) depending on whether such oppurtunities were available.

Of course, a PC in need of cash can almost certainly make more money practicing their trade than they spend in expenses - especially below level 5 when their lifestyle isn't that much grander than ordinary middle class.

Also, the 'lifestyle' expence doesn't include cost of maintenance to property, taxes on income, wages for hirelings, serious magical research, item creation costs, etc.