Spycraft financial system: Realism vs Balance

[SWAT]

Well I'm not running an actual Spycraft game, but the financial system is similar enough. Characters are agents for an organization. For missions, they receive a certain amount of credits with which to purchase equipment.

Now, unlike what appears to be assumed in Spycraft, characters actually have a life outside of missions. They have a huge city to enjoy for a night out on the town, a little gambling, etc. The problem is that a few entrepreneurial players are trying every get-rich-quick scheme they can think of. Now, as much as they fail in their attempts, realism dictates that they will sometimes succeed in gaining funds.

More importantly, they argued, and rightly so, that they should get a salary. Now, I can't find a common sense reason why they wouldn't be allowed to just go spend most of their salary on extra equipment, allowing them to go on missions with much more stuff than planned. But I have players who couldn't care less, and certainly won't go through the trouble, so they'd end up hopelessly less powerful than the others.

Basically, realism is threatening the balance of my game, and I don't know what to do. Any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[Ranger REG]

Isn't that what the Personal Budget is for?

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

Here's the way I see things. Depending on your game, the PCs are probably already living some sort of glitzy high-life. They can get the hotel rooms, car rentals, martinis, whatever it is, as long as it's not imbalancing to the game. Their "salary" is going to support all this.

The thing is, I think Spycraft is set up more for quick, crisis-resolution type missions. The PCs get their gear, some pocket money, and are immediately dropped into the fire. The game doesn't really think they'll have time to play the stock market or invest in commodities. So the agent's personal lives is something that's glossed over- all the budgetary stuff is just for missions.

To me, being as they are super-secret agents of a shadow organization, they really don't have normal lives. Assume that they left a paper trail of their old life, like all of us- birth certificate, driver's license, whatever. They wouldn't be using any of this working for the agency, since it might blow their cover, give the enemy an advantage, lead to loved ones' endangerment, etc. So, they use a series of cover identies whenever they go out, they drive Agency cars, get Agency housing, etc. They have no real credit on their own, under their old identities; who's going to give a loan to someone who's had no verifiable employment for the past twenty years? For normal things, if they need a house or something, they would go through Agency banks, and then they'd have to justify things to the Agency. So telling them "I need a loan to make a cool million on a drug deal" probably isn't going to go over too well with the superiors.

That's how I picture things working. You might want to try to get on the www.spycraftrpg.com forums and ask around there. One last thing, though- powergaming through money schemes, stockpiling weapons, or whatever it is these guys are trying to do (why do they want to do this, anyhow?) is pretty far removed from what Spycraft is supposed to be about. If there's some people in the group that are holding things up or spoiling it for the others because they don't want to play along, I'd think about dumping them.

 

[swrushing]

More importantly, they argued, and rightly so, that they should get a salary. Now, I can't find a common sense reason why they wouldn't be allowed to just go spend most of their salary on extra equipment, allowing them to go on missions with much more stuff than planned. But I have players who couldn't care less, and certainly won't go through the trouble, so they'd end up hopelessly less powerful than the others.

The last sentence shows the source of your problem.

In my own job, it is not expected that I buy my equipment. The tools i need to do my job and which i can justify as needed for my job to be done well, are provided.

It should not be the case that you were so restricted in "job related equipment" provided by the guys sending you on the job that spending your own money on "extra gear" makes those who don't "hopelessly less powerful" than those who do.

So, if that is indeed the case for your game, i would look at your equipment dispensation mechanic and see why it is leaving out needed or even seriously helpful gear. Doesn't the team's boss want them to succeed? Is the budget of the agency so low that giving the agents the tools that can keep them from being hopelessly unprepared (thAt are cheap enough to be bought on an agent's salary!) are held back, risking the success of the mission?

Sounds like you need to revisit the equipment providing mechanics because the one you are using in your game is out of skew.

Once your team gets used to "we get the equipment we need to do our job" then if someplayers want to customize their stuff with their own salary... it wont be a balance issue because those who don't ("Spend my money on mission stuff? Are you nuts? I have a kid needing braces and want a boat for next summer at the lake!") won't be hopelessy unprepared since they get adequate and sufgficient equipment normally.

In my stargate game, i am very liberal with equipment and the carrying issues and scenario situations handle the rest.

 

[SWAT]

Thanks for the replies! They've pointed me in the right direction. Indeed, I realized that cops surely aren't allowed to bring their own guns to work. For legal reasons, I wasn't even allowed to bring my own lawnmower to cut the front lawn of a factory where I had a summer job when their lawnmower broke down. So, going along this route probably wouldn't be too far fetched.

Now, to answer your questions as to why this is happening in the first place, I probably should have initially given a bit more details. The characters work for MARANDA (Multiverse Anomaly Repair AND Assistance). This organization is not at all secret in the typical spy organization way. In fact, any civilization that's discovered dimensional travel would probably be aware of its existence.

Furthermore, characters have an extremely vast selection of equipment to choose from, which includes most magic items in the DMG. So you see, you can always be better equipped than you already are by getting a more magically powerful ring of protection, rocket launcher, or vibro-katana. And thus, to my utter and unexpected dismay, motivation is created to obtain more funds than what you are given.

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

Ah. I'd obviously misunderstood the Spycraft analogy- in that game, budgeting and distributing gear are hard-coded into the system, to the point where they're class features that are taken into account during character design.

Ok, your problem makes a little more sense now. One thing that it depends on is the availability of magic items in the campaign. If you limit what they can buy easily, then you at least don't have to worry about the more ridiculous items getting acquired.

Another option is to take a hard look at these "schemes" and make them start making hard checks. Calling for rolls like "Knowledge: Finance" and then taking all their initial investment when they fail might get them to think twice about constantly risking their cash. The same could be said for gambling (don't know what mechanics you're using there)- the cardinal rule in gambling is that the House Always Wins. Come up with a random die to roll to represent odds in the house's favor- if a 1 comes up on a d6, the House wins no matter what the gambler's skill. Almost all casinos (and definately the American ones) have the odds stacked in their favor so that they win ties, or if a certain number comes up they win everything, etc. Plus, there's always fixed games, which may get activated if the stakes are very high.

If they're really intent on playing out investments and whatnot, then you can assign salaries and make them track every expenditure- house, car, boat, etc, on a monthly basis. Once they have to shell out 75% of their salary each month for living expenses, they may not be so eager to just blow the rest. Another option is to get rid of cash altogether, and go with D20 Modern's Wealth System (which sounds like it might work better for you anyhow, since it takes things like credit ratings and magic item purchases into account). The rules are independant of classes, and could be ported into a homebrew system without too much trouble. Go to www.wizards.com/d20 and check out the Modern SRD to see what they're like.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I agree that Spycraft does not seem to really think much about people's outside lives. The game probably assumes that you are much more interested in tracking down Blofeld and his evil minions than actually playing the stock market. Since you stated that it wasn't actually Spycraft and it was a different game but the financial situation was similar I suppose you have to make a few adjustments.

I run a Mutants and Masterminds game. I almost ran into a similar problem. The characters defeated a bad guy who had a pretty nice piece of equipment. They wanted this weapon. I said fine. However, since M&M is a system based upon points and 'paying' for your powers, I said 'it may not be logical for you but if you want to use that weapon you have to *buy* it with exp.' It was the same for someone who tried to min max a character by buying only offensive powers and then first 5 minutes of the campaign, 'purchase' a bullet proof vest with money.

Situations like this (and yours) you should not be afraid to say, politely, 'I don't think I am going to let you do that. The game balance is set up for a reason.'

Of course if the things they take and want are fairly minimal, that's cool. Just keep a watch on things.

 

[AscentStudios]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but are your groups using Field Expenses? This is a certain amount of money ([2d4 + your level] x $100, IIRC without my books) you receive at the beginning of the serial or during the Gearing Up phase to finance miscellaneous expenses, such as living the high life, getting hotel rooms, buying black market weapons, or soliciting street level assistance.

Additionally, the agents may sacrifice a number of XP to gain emergency field expenses, at a $10:1 conversion rate ($100:1 if they have the Filthy Rich feat, again IIRC). There is also the infamous Financier's Bundle in the European Commonwealth Chamber book, which, for 25 BP, includes $10,000 in mixed currencies and a host of forgery equipment

Admittedly, these details are easy to miss in the Gearing Up Section of the Spycraft Espionage Handbook. I would suggest going back and reading it carefully, looking for these terms and you'll probably find a solution that should work quite well for your agents. Good luck!

Alex