Rules for money in play?

[jaerdaph]

Anyone know why the wealth to money conversion chart isn't in the SRD; other than: to make you buy the book (or where you could get it easily)?

Just an FYI: EN World has a policy about not asking for copyrighted material on the boards.

I'm also a fan of the Wealth system. The only problem that I've had has been in translating financial rewards into Wealth benefits. When an NPC offers the PCs $10,000 to take on a mission, the players rightfully wanted to know how this worked with the Wealth system.

Bullet Points: The Wealth System clears this up:

Q: In my campaign, the heroes are often paid for their services. The Wealth Bonus Adventure Reward Table on page 204 tells me how much of a bonus they should get, but not how much money that represents. It would be nice if I could actually come up with an amount to bandy about while they're speaking to their employers. How can I figure that out?

A: Ultimately, the actual monetary amount is really just a color element -- a bit of dungeon dressing that adds to the story and atmosphere of the adventure but has no effect on game mechanics. So, as with any other story element, feel free to make up whatever seems right.

That said, here's a rule of thumb. First figure out what Wealth bonus each hero is going to get from the adventure. To figure out what that means in real money, start with the party's average Wealth bonus and add 10 to get a value that I'll call the modified base Wealth bonus. Pretend that number is a purchase DC and convert it to dollars using Table 7-1 on page 204. Then add the per-hero adventure reward to the modified base Wealth bonus and convert that result to dollars using the same table. Subtract the smaller dollar number from the larger to get the monetary amount per hero, then multiply that by the number of heroes in the party to get a rough dollar amount for the award.

Here's an example. Let's say you have five heroes, and their current Wealth bonuses average out to +6. You know that the total Wealth award for the adventure is going to be +15, which will amount to +3 per hero. Adding 10 to +6 gives 16, which equates to $650. Adding the +3 per-hero award gives a result of 19, which equates to $1,500. The difference ($1,500 - $650) is $850 per hero. Multiplying that figure by five heroes gives a total of $4,250. I might be inclined to round that value up to $5,000, just to keep things nice and clean.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Just an FYI: EN World has a policy about not asking for copyrighted material on the boards.

That seemed more like a request for the logic behind the decision, rather than the material, to me.

To answer the question asked, I don't think they've ever said why. Besides encouraging sales, I think they did it to keep things abstract. The GM can make up whatever numbers he wants for a given purchase DC, setting the standard he wants for his campaign. This gives the GM the power, not the players who look up a chart and start pointing, whining, and trying to tell the GM how his campaign world works.

P.S. For good bartering, I'd advise giving the PC a bonus on their wealth check and a reduction of wealth penalty for associated die rolls. This way it wasn't just a good deal, but it was one that actually wasn't as difficulty to afford as it could have been.

 

[jaerdaph]

That seemed more like a request for the logic behind the decision, rather than the material, to me.

Anyone know why the wealth to money conversion chart isn't in the SRD; other than: to make you buy the book (or where you could get it easily)?

Anyhow, it was just a friendly FYI, and the original comment has since been edited out.

 

[Ahnehnois]

Anyhow, it was just a friendly FYI, and the original comment has since been edited out.

That table sounds useful! I wasn't aware of the legalities of the situation, but if it can't be had legally I can live without it. If I can find it cheap I'll pick up the actual rulebook in case I want to run Modern or CoC again.

 

[jaerdaph]

You know, *technically*, that table *is* out of date because the Wealth system is abstract, d20 Modern came out in November 2002, and you have to take into account inflation over the last seven years....

If someone were to adjust the dollar amounts in that table to account for inflation so that it was truly modern (i.e. today) again...

Hmmm...

I kind of want to make a spreadsheet now using generic terms like Wealth, Difficulty and Dollars. Something that would allow me to change the dollar amounts for a particular time period (modern day, 1930s pulp, 1890s Victorian horror...)

 

[ValhallaGH]

I kind of want to make a spreadsheet now using generic terms like Wealth, Difficulty and Dollars. Something that would allow me to change the dollar amounts for a particular time period (modern day, 1930s pulp, 1890s Victorian horror...)

As a GM that uses wealth systems in a variety of games, set in a variety of times and economies, I would be very interested in having such a spreadsheet.

I'm just saying, it would be a great guideline to keep my flavor text in keeping with the collective ideas of the setting.

 

[Bumbles]

I kind of want to make a spreadsheet now using generic terms like Wealth, Difficulty and Dollars. Something that would allow me to change the dollar amounts for a particular time period (modern day, 1930s pulp, 1890s Victorian horror...)

There are several tools online to do it already.

Here's one:

Measuring Worth - Purchasing Power of US Dollar

 

[jaerdaph]

There are several tools online to do it already.

Here's one:

Measuring Worth - Purchasing Power of US Dollar

Yeah - I was going to use one of those to do the conversions.