Wealth Siege!

[Templeton580]

My players have gotten to the point where they are about 7th level, their TARDIS allows them to steal almost anything they need, and their Wealth bonuses are huge. HUGE.

But they've recently gone rogue on the organization that set them up with the TARDIS, so I'd like to have that organization go after their Wealth, freeze the accounts, cancel the credit cards, and generally make it very tough for them to do anything at all requiring money.

So...using the rules as precedent, how would you lay siege to a Wealth bonus?

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Could model it like Poison.

Have the enemy use an attack roll of some sort, maybe using Knowledge (Civics) vs. a DC = 10 + (PC's Reputation Bonus) ... one attack per week or month. A successful attack does no damage, but inflicts XdY Wealth Damage unless the PC makes a save vs. DC 10 + (attacker's Int bonus) using HIS Knowledge (Civics).

Make a little mini-game out of it. My players love when I do stuff like that, especially with odd skills that the PCs may or may not have ... could be a whole other quest to find an accountant willing to help them (seeing as I doubt too many PCs have Knowledge (Civics) to make their rolls, leaving them with their pants down, which is probably exactly how it would be if somebody who hasn't had to deal with that sort of issue suddenly found the legal department of a big power grabbing their Wealth and twisting). Maybe, like some poisons, have a second roll later or suffer a smaller die in PERMANENT Wealth Drain (I.E. lost points). If they can fight the power, I.E. make the first save, they won't get their finances in a bind ... if they fail at that, they'll have to keep fighting or permanently lose some of the contested assets.

I'd model the damage on the current Wealth rules for losing Wealth ... just as if they bought some big-ticket items. Initial attack, perhaps, 2d6+1 and the secondary attack 1d6+1 or a flat 2. Since you say they have HUGE wealth, you can probably freely stick it to them with the 1d6+1 permanent drain a couple times without undue complaining, if you make it fun.

--fje

 

[Masada]

What's a TARDIS? So I can ban it from my game... LOL

 

[JimAde]

My players have gotten to the point where they are about 7th level, their TARDIS allows them to steal almost anything they need, and their Wealth bonuses are huge. HUGE.

But they've recently gone rogue on the organization that set them up with the TARDIS, so I'd like to have that organization go after their Wealth, freeze the accounts, cancel the credit cards, and generally make it very tough for them to do anything at all requiring money.

So...using the rules as precedent, how would you lay siege to a Wealth bonus?

If TARDIS means what I think it means, it seems pointless to even have a wealth bonus. They can just travel back in time, set up alternate identities financed with their stolen goods, and live in the lap of luxury. Or just travel to a world/time where everything is good and free (something like the Star Trek universe). Why do they care what happens to their money in the here and now?

 

[Templeton580]

What's a TARDIS? So I can ban it from my game... LOL

T.A.R.D.I.S. = Time And Relative Dimension in Space, aka "The thing Dr. Who flies around in."

Dang, Heap, you're the modern Idea Man! That's great. I think I'm going to stick them with the "damage" once, and that will be what lets them know their assets are under siege. After they are aware, they can start opposing (if they choose to, or try to).

 

[Templeton580]

If TARDIS means what I think it means, it seems pointless to even have a wealth bonus. They can just travel back in time, set up alternate identities financed with their stolen goods, and live in the lap of luxury. Or just travel to a world/time where everything is good and free (something like the Star Trek universe). Why do they care what happens to their money in the here and now?

TARDIS doesn't mean exactly what you think it means.

There are many rules governing its use, the most important of which is the inability to alter the known past. So yeah, in lots of cases they can materialize inside a warehouse and steal a bunch of stuff. (More in the TARDIS Manual.) But they can't go back in time and make themselves rich, because if they'd done that they would already be rich. And if they;re not rich, it means they must not have done that. The TARDIS prevents paradox.

But in other cases, like when one character is trying to buy a DC 25 copy of The King in Yellow, the lack of Wealth will hurt them bad.

 

[JimAde]

I'm just playing devil's advocate here, so please don't take this as criticism. I love freewheeling games, and I'm always interested to see how GMs reign them in enough to be fun.

So assuming they have good in-game reason not to just go haring off to live elsewhen permanently, what would prevent them from using the TARDIS to steal The King in Yellow? Do they have scruples, or are there further limitations on the use of the TARDIS?

And back on topic: Yes I think Heap's idea rocks. You can always justify the lost wealth as legal expenses. Many times people and small companies have won legal fights but were still crippled by the process while the "loser" is basically unaffected due to deep pockets.

 

[Masada]

OOOoohh! The TARDIS! *brain-spike*

Hmmm... I guess I'd have to start countering my PC's with enemy TARDI... Pull folks into time combat. In the past when "time combat" has occurred our rules were that you could not alter the events of the past, but you could alter their meaning and the motivations of the individuals. So you couldn't go back a stop something from happening, but you could alter why it happened.

Anyways... One option would be pretend their wealth bonuses were essentially infinite. This would make most mundane encounters silly and thrust them in to the "big time" where it wasn't gear that made the difference, but rather skills and their ability to influence.

 

[Templeton580]

I'm just playing devil's advocate here, so please don't take this as criticism.

No way, man! EN World is a poor sounding board when no one sounds off.

So assuming they have good in-game reason not to just go haring off to live elsewhen permanently, what would prevent them from using the TARDIS to steal The King in Yellow? Do they have scruples, or are there further limitations on the use of the TARDIS?

In this case, it was because they didn't know where it was. One of the PCs took a month-long tour up the West Coast, visiting all his old haunts (occult bookshops), and finally found it at Lu Cho's place in San Francisco's Chinatown. Really, it was a self-limiting thing on the player's part -- he'd rather have Lu Cho as an ally than have to go through the hassle of stealing the book, only to make Lu Cho an enemy.

So yeah, they have scruples (seems to me that as long as their purchases aren't traceable, they are scrupulous ), but we've also agreed as a group that the TARDIS Manual linked above would be the "bible" of time travel in this campaign. [As a side note, that's good advice to anyone planning a time travel campaign: don't worry about the theory and physics of time, just decide what the PCs' hardware is capable of.] Finally, I have set up a situation where they are a. too curious, and b. want revenge too badly, to go off and vanish into another time period.

Oh, and the world's gonna end in 7 years. [If you're really curious about the details, see link in sig.]

Funnily enough, independent of any knowledge about this thread, one of my players claims that his PC has always tried to live "off the grid." Hmm. Maybe he reads EN World...

 

[takyris]

If somebody is trying to live off the grid, I'd assign a wealth penalty for that. The wealth bonus assumes the ability to get loans, use credit cards, and so forth. And if he's hiding all his money in a bag under his bed, well, bad guys can take care of that as well.

Heap, totally agree. Great use of the system. Consider it yoinked.

(Note: To codify it as a ruleset, what would you say is a combat round, here? Or would you just make it a series of opposed checks? ie, an attack takes one week to set up, but can be hurried by taking a -5 penalty for each day. A defense takes three days to set up, but can be hurried by taking a -5 penalty for each day. You both roll -- if the attacker wins, the defender takes 1d6+1 Wealth damage. If the defender fails to beat DC15, he also takes 1d6+1 Wealth damage, regardless of whether or not he beat his attacker's DC. This lets a big massive company (big net bonus to Kn(Civics)) do surprise strikes on their target (giving them only two days' notice), knowing that the little company (small net bonus to Kn(Civics)) doesn't have the resources to handle these kind of last-minute claims -- and even if the claim is pretty specious (lousy attack roll and okay defense roll), the defender might not be able to get their paperwork in order on such short notice and might take a Wealth hit anyway.)