Profession clarification

[GuardianLurker]

Here's my problem:

From d20 Modern:
How many ranks you have in the Profession skill (including ranks you may have just acquired after gaining a level) also adds to the Wealth bonus increase you receive on gaining a new level. In addition to the Wealth bonus increase you gain from your Profession check result (if the check succeeds), the number of ranks you have in this skill increases your wealth bonus as follows....

Emphasis mine.

The question is, how does the bolded portion apply?

1)Regardless of whether or not the check is successful, the rank dependedent increase applies (i.e. you're guaranteed a minimal wealth increase every level).
2) The rank dependent increase only applies if the check is successful.
3) Some other option I haven't thought of?

Help please?

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

"If the check succeeds" appears both in the skill description and in the Wealth system description, meaning to me that you have to succeed to get anything. I can see where it would lend confusion, though, as it says: "In addition to ..." without further referencing the "success" portion.

But that's usually my take.

--fje

 

[The_Universe]

I'm using Sidewinder: Recoiled's "Cold Hard Cash" system, which still uses a wealth bonus to determine actual dollars earned. Initially, if a character has the required ranks in profession, I allow them a small bonus to wealth. After gameplay begins, however, I require a successful check to allow the bonus.

 

[GuardianLurker]

What pushed you in that direction? How well do you think it'd work in a d20 Future/space opera campaign?

I'm still in pre-campaign mode, so the ruleset isn't frozen yet.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Depends on if you want your players to have large and/or ever-increasing Wealth bonuses.

I ran a campaign for a while where the characters were all unbelievably wealthy ... with just the "wealthy" ranking on the Wealth charts. +13-+17 I think. That was more than rich enough for my blood.

Wealth is a fluctuating number and Profession is less about MAKING MORE Wealth and more about GETTING BACK Wealth. It should be a leveling-out agent between levels. If the characters spend themselves down, their Wealth bonus (and the Profession DC) will be low, their results correspondingly higher, their earnings greater ... taking them back up to an average result. If they have done well in terms of rewards and haven't spent much, then the DC is higher and if they fail their Profession roll, then they're just doing "as well" as they're doing now, suggesting that they're about as Wealthy as their ranks would have them at.

If they gain with each roll, regardless of making the DC or not, then they will consistently get RICHER regardless of how high their Wealth is compared to their Profession. It would be like Department Store Manager Bob always getting a raise (bigger Wealth) but never moving up in the company.

That's how I explained it to my players: Profession doesn't make you richer, it's a mechanic for maintaining a level of Wealth based on your job experiences and ability.

--fje

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Depends on if you want your players to have large and/or ever-increasing Wealth bonuses.

I ran a campaign for a while where the characters were all unbelievably wealthy ... with just the "wealthy" ranking on the Wealth charts. +13-+17 I think. That was more than rich enough for my blood. --fje

Only +17? Mine got from +28 to +35.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Well, that's why I said "more than rich enough". They couldn't take 10 and buy the equivalent of a jet plane or whatever.

It was an odd-duck for Wealth in a campaign. The setting time period was more like early Dutch mercantilism than anything else, so the party's Wealth lay held up in alot of stuff like land, a ship worth the price of a small nation, and a diamond mine they had to share with one PC's new in-laws.

+17 was still more than enough to buy most of what they wanted. Their real worth lay in things that couldn't be liquidized easily, for role-playing reasons. (The airship was the center of the campaign, not having full ownership of the mine got them the ship, etc.) I think it worked out very very well and will most likely find reasons to keep Wealth under +20 in the future. It also made Profession checks something to role play, instead of entirely out of reach or a "Ho Hum, another +1 even IF the DC is 35."

--fje

 

[Mokona]

My understanding of the rules is that a profession check nets you one bonus to your Wealth while having a lot of profession ranks nets you a separate bonus to your Wealth. That way dedicated players spending a lot of points in profession are better off than lucky players rolling Nat-20 on all their profession checks.

 

[GuardianLurker]

Thanks all - especially HeapThaumaturgist.

For those of few of you who chose Option 1, how do you deal with infinite wealth in your games?

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Thanks all - especially HeapThaumaturgist.

For those of few of you who chose Option 1, how do you deal with infinite wealth in your games?

I made it nearly worthless.