Wealth

[Sivad]

First of all, let me say this:

"HUZZAH!"

It's been a loooong time since I've been this jazzed about a game. This setting is just so cool.

Anyway, here's my question:

How does a character with a starting wealth of 1 (one) afford anything?

How did Ms Scrann (in the Just a Delivery scenario) afford all her starting gear? Is there a section that outlines starting wealth and I've just missed it?

Thanks

[malladin_ben]

When you make an Acquisition check you add your wealth, and one influence bonus if appropriate, to a D20 roll. This represents not only your spending power, but your ability, say, to go out and blackmailor bully people into giving you what you want for free.

Ben

[jezter6]

Don't forget, in d20 modern at least (which is 90% of the rules of Etherscope), you can take 10 or 20 on a wealth check, it just takes TIME to find the item...assume that time is spend looking around for someone willing to sell the item to you, or even finding a hard to get item.


Wealth is one of the d20 modern rules that you'll learn to either love or hate. At chargen, you can assume that you take all the time you need (take 20) to find an item...that means you automatically get 20 + Wealth Score + Influence. Which means you could (with enough points) afford a DC 20+ object even with a wealth of +1 and no other bonuses. It will seriously cost you by draining that wealth point.

So the theory is, go buy anything DC 14 or less immediately. Sure, by all 'technical' standards that means you could buy 10,000 DC 10 items and not lose any wealth, but that's for the GM to slap you in the head and rip up your char sheet.

Lastly, start buying the 'big' things in order...cheapest to most expensive, just make sure you watch that your wealth + 20 never goes lower than the most expensive thing you want to buy.

[Malladin_Nigel]

Don't forget, in d20 modern at least (which is 90% of the rules of Etherscope), you can take 10 or 20 on a wealth check, it just takes TIME to find the item...assume that time is spend looking around for someone willing to sell the item to you, or even finding a hard to get item.


Wealth is one of the d20 modern rules that you'll learn to either love or hate. At chargen, you can assume that you take all the time you need (take 20) to find an item...that means you automatically get 20 + Wealth Score + Influence. Which means you could (with enough points) afford a DC 20+ object even with a wealth of +1 and no other bonuses. It will seriously cost you by draining that wealth point.

So the theory is, go buy anything DC 14 or less immediately. Sure, by all 'technical' standards that means you could buy 10,000 DC 10 items and not lose any wealth, but that's for the GM to slap you in the head and rip up your char sheet.

Lastly, start buying the 'big' things in order...cheapest to most expensive, just make sure you watch that your wealth + 20 never goes lower than the most expensive thing you want to buy.

Thanks, couldn't have covered it better myself

[Guest]

Don't forget, in d20 modern at least (which is 90% of the rules of Etherscope), you can take 10 or 20 on a wealth check, it just takes TIME to find the item...assume that time is spend looking around for someone willing to sell the item to you, or even finding a hard to get item.


Wealth is one of the d20 modern rules that you'll learn to either love or hate. At chargen, you can assume that you take all the time you need (take 20) to find an item...that means you automatically get 20 + Wealth Score + Influence. Which means you could (with enough points) afford a DC 20+ object even with a wealth of +1 and no other bonuses. It will seriously cost you by draining that wealth point.

So the theory is, go buy anything DC 14 or less immediately. Sure, by all 'technical' standards that means you could buy 10,000 DC 10 items and not lose any wealth, but that's for the GM to slap you in the head and rip up your char sheet.

Lastly, start buying the 'big' things in order...cheapest to most expensive, just make sure you watch that your wealth + 20 never goes lower than the most expensive thing you want to buy.

That's a pretty good summary, just remember that unlike D20 modern, your wealth bonus is pretty static in Etherscope. It rarely goes up, but it's also harder for it to go down, too. There's not a roll to make to see whather your wealth score goes down after a big spend. You only loose wealth if you take a 20 on any purchase.

Ben

[Sivad]

So, a starting character gets 2d4 plus wealth factor based on background. Per the d20 Modern rules.

Correct?

[malladin_ben]

No, just their wealth bonus set by their social template. the equivalent of the 2d4 is the use of influences on acquisition checks.

Ben

[Charke]

I wrote "Just a Delivery" and the players (playtesters) wrote up the starting characters in the adventure. There were a number of concerns about starting wealth but even a low wealth can get you reasonable starting gear - but thats been covered by previous posts.

Ms Scrann? Somebody snuck a couple more characters into the mix on me! I was surprised by the question because my playtesters all played high-wealth characters. Darned editors. The addition is logical though. The adventure was designed to show all the features of Etherscope and adding a low-wealth character is a good idea.

Mark Charke