Brilliant Gameologists Forum

Play Like You Have To! => The Kitchen Sink => : NecroticBanana July 14, 2008, 08:10:50 AM

: questions on wealth bonus
: NecroticBanana July 14, 2008, 08:10:50 AM
So how much cash would qualify as a +1 bonus to a character's wealth score?

I have a player who doesn't over-look the fact that people have pockets and thus wallets. lol
: Re: questions on wealth bonus
: steventirey1985 July 14, 2008, 04:20:30 PM
There is no set amount. It would take a lot more cast to raise a wealth score from 50 to 51 that it would take to raise a score of 0 to 1.

You could always say that whatever the player finds is included in the wealth award you give out at the end of an adventure (or whatever.) Generally speaking, whatever you find in a wallet will not be enough to raise your wealth score.
: Re: questions on wealth bonus
: nadaka July 14, 2008, 05:52:05 PM
I never did like how wealth "rewards" were handled.

Here is what I do, note that this is a house rule.
Option 1: the PC can keep the cash and spend it on stuff without touching his wealth bonus.
Option 2: convert it to a PDC and "sell" it like an item to increase wealth bonus. If you launder the money, you take the standard -3 to PDC before "selling" it. If you do launder, do not take the -3, but you increase the chance of government investigating and possibly face tax evasion or other criminal charges.
: Re: questions on wealth bonus
: Orion July 14, 2008, 09:13:16 PM
I like the idea of finding cash and it being cash until it runs out, and then keeping Wealth as a separate thing. As long as nobody tries to abuse the system, it's a good fix for in-the-moment finds.
: Re: questions on wealth bonus
: nemafow July 15, 2008, 12:26:47 AM
Page 204 has a table that converts purchase DCs into cash.

You could explain to the player that the wealth gain is so insignificant (pointing to the table on the page of how much is in the wallet) that it will not directly increase his wealth score.

Orion's suggestion is a good compromise as well, as long as the players don't abuse it. Allow him to spend his $50 on a few packs of cigarettes or what ever, without touching his overall savings.


Myself, I just ditched the whole wealth system and simply give out cash to my players. And equipment is simply converted into pure cash sums via their worth on page 204. But this doesn't help you at all.
: Re: questions on wealth bonus
: NecroticBanana July 15, 2008, 02:43:13 PM
it's not so much the wallets as it is any sum of cash they might find. say they stop some bank robbers, or ARE the bank robbers, just trying to figure out how mcuh would constitute a bonus is all. I did like Nadaka's idea about using the cash as is and leaving the wealth bonus seperate..tho i may also just conclude it all in as Steven suggested, thanks guys.
: Re: questions on wealth bonus
: Orion July 15, 2008, 06:36:28 PM
How do you role-play these situations? As a GM, if my players found a big-ass bag of money, I'd say, "It's a big-ass bag of money." If and when they get a chance to launder it or get it into a bank account, then I'd tell you how much their Wealth went up. But until they count it and integrate it into their lives, it's not part of their Wealth bonus yet. It's just a big bag of money. Which is why I like the idea of spending it separately, actually. That's a really useful little stop-gap measure.
: Re: questions on wealth bonus
: Doctor Monocle July 16, 2008, 10:06:16 PM
Wealth is also a matter of perspective....
If your player is dirt poor (lives under a bridge, bathes in the local retention pond,etc) the a bag of $10,000 is going to raise his wealth level pretty easily.
If he is a millionaire who owns a mansion, the the $10,000 is more like spare change.

Here is an idea:

If the purchase DC of the item / money found is lower than your character's wealth bonus then no change occurs.

If the purchase DC of the Item or Money recovered is higher than your characters wealth bonus, the Roll 1D20.
If the result of the roll is higher than your Wealth bonus, then your wealth goes up by the Items Purchase DC: diveded by 10 (round fractions up). A natural 20 roll always suceeds.

Minimum increase is 1.

(Money has a purchase value of +1 per $500.00 US)...$10,000 "in Cash" would have a purchase value of 20.)


 
: Re: questions on wealth bonus
: backstabbist July 16, 2008, 10:32:13 PM
I dont see where the problem is with the most RAW like method of Nadaka option 2:

You find a briefcase full of cash. 
It has a PDC(x) set to it: how much it would cost to get a briefcase full of cash. 
If your character purchased that PDC(x) briefcase he Wealth would go down according to purchase rules.

But you are not purchasing it, you are selling that PDC(x) item to recover Wealth, and the amount of Wealth you recover would be the amount of Wealth you would lose to purchase it.

Look at it this way
The PDC(14) CashBag wouldnt raise the wealth of the Wealth15 guy that found it,
mainly because the Wealth15 guy that found it can repeatedly just make that bag appear without losing wealth doing so... he has an unlimited suply of PDC14 CashBags he can have.  Now that he found this one, he has an Unlimited Suply and one more.

Due to the base concept of the Wealth system,
Mr Wealth15 can just "buy" as many PDC14 Cashbags as he wants.
Finding one more is no big deal.

Jimmy goes to the stip club with his Wealth 4,
and can shove as many PDC1 Bills in the girls thong as he wants,
"buying" a PDC1 Bill will not lower his wealth, time after time, all night long.
If he finds a PDC1 Bill on the gound, it wont help his Wealth one bit, because he already has an unlimited supply of PDC1 Bills

"Bring me a beer every 10 minutes Cindi, and keep a Fivespot for yourself,
I'm gonna Take10 these purchases all night long"
: Re: questions on wealth bonus
: Lonewolf the Hunter August 17, 2008, 09:30:02 PM
I don't worry about to much, I usually just have a rough figure and rarely that should increase my PC's Wealth DC by 1 to 4 depending on quest factors, and if they decide to go thru the bad guys' pockets for extra change, that bonus isn't likely to go up much.