RPG Monies
Just a few sessions of Star Wars Saga Edition on the player side of things, and I'm stricken by the extreme range in currency-dependency of the characters.
In D&D, there's generally a way to convert gold to magic items. And magic items are used to increase character power. So whether because of Honest Abe's Discount Magic Items chain or a party member with item creation feats, it's generally assumed that that this conversion will happen - gold becomes an increase to the character's abilities in some fashion.
Star Wars games, because of the material they emulate, don't have that outlet as there aren't any ubiquitous magic items. So it seems you end up with two (maybe two and a half) types of characters who are on opposite extremes. On one end, you have the characters that almost don't care about credits. A Jedi gets his lightsaber, a scoundrel gets his blaster, and... they're good to go. As long as they have enough money to buy meals (if the game even covers that) and an occasional mission-critical piece of equipment, they never want for money...
On the other end, you have characters who can never get enough money. Owning a ship is a massive money sink right there. Heck, they can piss away hundreds or even thousands of credits at every stop just to restock, nevermind actual repairs or improvements. Also, the Tech Specialist feat is the closest thing to enchanting, allowing usually granting a one or two point bonus to a single aspect of an items/ship/droid - which costs money and time. Give these characters tens of thousands of credits, and they have no trouble making that all vanish given the opportunity.
Arguably, there's a middle ground of characters who are conceptualized around a gear set they can't afford out the gate - a heavily armed and armored Mandalorian for instance. But really they just go from desperately wanting funds to having what they need once they reach the threshold of affording what they're after.
And I... have somehow managed to make the perfect storm - a ship owner/captain who is a Tech Specialist. That mechanical dependency on funds has fueled a certain personality, and I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with that, as she's constantly worried about being able to afford repairs/supplies/improvements while no one else in the group really has reason to care. Not sure there's anything to do about it, per se, but it just feels odd to have money sinks that only exist for certain characters in a game.
In D&D, there's generally a way to convert gold to magic items. And magic items are used to increase character power. So whether because of Honest Abe's Discount Magic Items chain or a party member with item creation feats, it's generally assumed that that this conversion will happen - gold becomes an increase to the character's abilities in some fashion.
Star Wars games, because of the material they emulate, don't have that outlet as there aren't any ubiquitous magic items. So it seems you end up with two (maybe two and a half) types of characters who are on opposite extremes. On one end, you have the characters that almost don't care about credits. A Jedi gets his lightsaber, a scoundrel gets his blaster, and... they're good to go. As long as they have enough money to buy meals (if the game even covers that) and an occasional mission-critical piece of equipment, they never want for money...
On the other end, you have characters who can never get enough money. Owning a ship is a massive money sink right there. Heck, they can piss away hundreds or even thousands of credits at every stop just to restock, nevermind actual repairs or improvements. Also, the Tech Specialist feat is the closest thing to enchanting, allowing usually granting a one or two point bonus to a single aspect of an items/ship/droid - which costs money and time. Give these characters tens of thousands of credits, and they have no trouble making that all vanish given the opportunity.
Arguably, there's a middle ground of characters who are conceptualized around a gear set they can't afford out the gate - a heavily armed and armored Mandalorian for instance. But really they just go from desperately wanting funds to having what they need once they reach the threshold of affording what they're after.
And I... have somehow managed to make the perfect storm - a ship owner/captain who is a Tech Specialist. That mechanical dependency on funds has fueled a certain personality, and I'm not sure I'm entirely comfortable with that, as she's constantly worried about being able to afford repairs/supplies/improvements while no one else in the group really has reason to care. Not sure there's anything to do about it, per se, but it just feels odd to have money sinks that only exist for certain characters in a game.
It's something I'm aware of, and the way I'm trying to deal with it is to have a line of credit (after a fashion), which two of the characters can supply, helping to cover the cost of the ship, supplies, and so forth. I'm also trying to work out a way for your character to get a paycheque, effectively - part of the negotiation that went into getting a discount on your ship's upgrade, for example. Yeah, I can see it being problematic, it's the difference between being a freelancer, and being an employee, I guess. D&D seems to have a different problem - it's assumed the PCs don't have a job and a source of income, thus going out and dungeon crawling becomes the occupation. I've often wondered what would happen in a D&D game if a PC actually got something close to a 'job'.
ReplyDeleteBut... but... How can you have epic fantasy adventures if you're not a band of wandering murder hobos?! ;) I've had games where certain characters are effectively employed, albeit usually to something like a kingdom army or religious order - usually that gave motivation for dungeon crawling or whatever and affected the money side very little. Nothing's going to give a regular paycheck that compares to unearthing treasures of an ancient kingdom or recovering dragon hoards. I've also dabbled some in PCs being a part of (or in charge of) running their own mercenary-type outfits. That can be interesting if the players are into that side of things, but balancing the books generally isn't as fun as beating up bad guys. And I am aware of the credit lines you're handling, though that makes things awkward in other ways. - Deveron offers money freely. The logistics of that are questionable when he's from an isolated world, but okay, we assume credits pushed around through some space-Swiss bank accounts or whatever. Is he paying for continued services? It hasn't been framed that way. It's been put forth more like giving money to a friend, which may not have actual obligation tied to it, but usually feels like it does even if not. It's not like she'll ever really be in a position to pay him back. - Videya's arrangement is a bit more clearly business. There's less feeling of questionable obligation there, but it's still a little unclear. Sylia was going to be paid to pick up Dev and take the Jedi all to Tython. The group has detoured way off-mission there, but hasn't formally renegotiated. There's the distance of an employer-employee relationship, but there aren't any hard terms. It's like "keep flying us around and I can provide some money at some points," and that's disturbingly vague. Plus, there's sort of the feel that all that is "for the ship and travel expenses." Sylia also wants to pick up some personal gear which, when considering cost for Teching things up, could easily run close to 10-15 thousand credits. Now, I don't expect all that to drop out of the sky as earning money can be a gradual process, but when her source of income is literally the other PCs that she's charter-flying around, it feels... off-topic, if not outright wrong, to turn to them and ask for money that isn't for ship expenses. Normally, a captain would look at a set job, consider the expense required to accomplish it, then try to charge enough to cover that and to profit some and come out ahead. When dealing with other PCs and "jobs" that aren't clearly defined, it's much harder to do that.
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