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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6851006" data-attributes="member: 4937">Yes, but this is just part of the problem of running them fairly.  The systems depend on a lot of GM fiat and unsaid things.  Out in the real world, price is always a real thing.  If I'm using a system of abstract wealth and the guy has wealth rating of whatever, I know as a GM that you can buy a pack of chewing gum without need to check for a temporary loss of credit rating because I know the chewing gum costs $1 and so should be trivial for anyone with any non-zero wealth rating whatsoever.  But if he has wealth rating of just 1, then buying a bag of groceries for the week despite being no more than a string of such purchases put together might well call for a temporary shortfall.  However, I also know that might not be true for wealth rating of 3.   But how would we know that unless we define those things in some fashion and examine the prices of goods and compare them to the abstract lifestyle?  So prices are coming into the calculation, just not up front and out in the open.Or in short, abstract wealth systems only work well when wealth and its consequences or acquisition of possessions isn't really a part of your story, but is rather just an occasional bit of color. The closet I come to using abstract wealth is in urban campaigns I often have a daily 'cost of living' fee I deduct, which is abstractly offset if someone buys the PC's lunch or otherwise provides resources.  Thus, there are times when I'll declare that though no funds have changed hands, the party can treat it as if they received a certain number of silver pieces in case I might forget that they received those resources in a later session when I deduct costs.</blockquote>

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