pc's and the money
- Thread starter styker
- Start date
Delemental
First Post
I'd disagree on the cleric not getting money because he is "doing what he's supposed to be doing". NPC clerics charge for healing or resurrections, why couldn't the PC cleric?Demoquin said:
Your best bet on limiting is the use of power groups within the city. If the wizard is offering teleports, have him be visited by representatives of the Wayfarer's Guild (from Complete Arcane) unhappy about his unauthorized services. If he doesn't toe the line, he finds himself shadowed daily by a rogue/sorcerer with a wand of Dimensional Anchor. Even if you don't have such groups in your world, there's always that pesky percentile roll. After all, the wizard cannot possibly be "very familiar" with that many destinations, and there's a limit on how many places he could consider "studied carefully". Eventually he's going to be asked to go somewhere he's not familiar with, and the roll will come out badly. I don't think the customer will pay for being teleported somewhere hundreds of miles from where they wanted to go.
As for the cleric, there's got to be other churches in the city, right? They might not appreciate the PC cleric 'freelancing'. Even if it's the cleric's own church in the city, his superiors might not appreciate him bucking authority and performing unauthorized miracles.
Another big factor you can use to limit all the PC's get-rich-quick schemes is simple economics. 95% of the people in any city are going to be commoners and experts whose annual income is measured in the dozens of gold pieces, not the thousands. If Joe Fighter walks into the local gambling hall and plunks down 5000 gp on the craps table, he's probably going to be politely informed that the house can't cover that large of a bet, that the table limit is 5 gp. THe kind of casinos that could handle a 5000 gp bet are probably very exclusive, invitation-only establishments, and the PCs aren't on the list.
As for the 5% of the population that probably could keep up with the PC's financially, it's likely that they've already got arrangements for anything the PC's could provide. "Teleport? No thanks, have a negotiated contract with the Wayfarers. Cure Disease? No thanks, just had one done last week by my good friend Cardinal Fred."
All that being said, don't just forbid your characters from doing some gambling, just make sure they understand that they're not going to win or lose more than a few gold coins, because no one else in the city can afford higher stakes. Don't tell the wizard he can't try to sell a teleport, just make sure he knows beforehand that there are groups in the city that might oppose him. And don't tell the cleric he can't ask for gold for healing other NPC's, just make sure he understands his superiors might take issue with it. Then let them decide if it's worth the risk, and enforce consequences if they do it.
In the end, there's a hundred ways to "beat the house" and make money by exploiting the rules. It comes down to this; do your players want to be adventurers and fight monsters on game night, or be accountants and fight tax collectors?
Crothian
First Post
styker said:
Like it is said above there are many ways to stop the PCs from doing this. What I like to do is give them minimal success. First they have to figure out how their services are going to be advertisaed. They can try word of mouth but that could take days or weeks before any business. I use guilds a lot so jioning one would be be4nificial to the player. I then let them make some money. A few hudred gold in a month is not going to destroy the campign, so if they want to do this let them. Just don't go overboard and try to make it fun.
Shin Okada
Explorer
I simply assume that when they are "not in adventure" they spend as much as they earn.
Rystil Arden
First Post
That could be a really bad idea when the PCs say, "Really? Let's go get Bishop Serrahn to ressurect our fallen comrades!" etc.reanjr said:
Jack Simth
First Post
Unless, of course, it's someone trying to maintain a relative monopoly - an "honest" monopoly over a wide area, when faced with a competitor that is trying to underbid them will underbid the competetor - into bankruptcy, by taking a loss on the product/service. And it can afford to - it's been in place for a long time, has big reserves because of it, AND can get support from other monopolized regions, if need be. More, it may very well have solid vertical integration as well (say the church has it's own mines and miners, and so gets Diamonds for the materials cost to "craft" items, as under the craft skill, it can fund that 25,000 gp in diamonds True Ressurection for 8333 gp, 3 sp, 3 cp). However, a week after the competetor is out of buisiness (when comrades have fallen, and can now take advantage of the "sale" they inspired), the monopoly will be back to buisiness as usual. And that's a NICE monopoly. The mean ones also hire thugs, assasins, thieves, and con men; they make whisper campaigns for character assasination; bribe governmental officials to run rigged inspections or change laws to make smaller versions impossible; et cetera.Rystil Arden said:
reanjr
First Post
Rystil Arden said:
Well, I should clarify that I meant Raise Dead. And a party with Raise Dead will probably usually be better off raising themselves and spending the 5,000 gp than trekking all the way back to this city for a freebie.
Alternatively, the priest might only do it for those not wealthy enough to make it economical. There might still be a few clients, but overall it would cut down the "set up shop" thing.
And the priest may have moved on by then.
