Economics and keeping the PC's poor.
Posted: Sat Jul 21, 2018 8:40 am
Edit: Here is a link to the Carousing table I use. I wish I could remember who originally posted it so I could give credit for at least a chunk of it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/113nOn3 ... 54TsF/view
One of the bigger challenges I've run into with DCC is the economy, especially coming from... well pretty much any edition of D&D where the PC's are inevitably walking around with the GDP of a moderate kingdom in their packs by 3rd or 4th level. I like the idea of keeping the PC's poor, but it can be tough to keep them motivated when the rewards for a quest where they kill a dragon or battle a lich king is 200 gold. Treasure is a big motivator in Fantasy in general, even if you look at Appendex N stuff the heros often walk away from adventures with a lot of coin in their pocket. I've had a challenge in finding that balance between rewarding players, while at the same time keeping them cash starved. We came from a long running (8 years) 1st edition (well actually a B/X Labarynth Lord, AD&D mashup) where the PC's were sitting on the better part of a million gold pieces by the end of the campaign at 9th level and XP was awarded for gold simply by dragging it back to town so I encountered some resistance when I tried to 'screw' them out of their coin. At any rate, after quite some time, I think I've developed a system I quite like. It offers a lot of player choice, and although it does tend to advance characters faster than might be typical in a DCC game, I'm OK with that. It gives them a sense of being rewarded for having 'lost' their gold, and they've bought into it pretty well.
Economics pt. 1. Finding the treasure: I generally try to award PC's about 100gp per level per adventure not counting hirelings. So if I was preparing an adventure for a party of 7PC's, 2 at 3rd level, 4 at 2nd, and 1 at 1st I would include about 1500GP worth of treasure... give or take. Going to either extreme of either missing secrets entirely or stripping the furnishings and sliverware can generally either decrease or increase the take by 10-20%. This might seem high, at least by DCC standards but I think it balances out with the next step.
Economics pt. 2. Spending the treasure: I strongly encourage my PC's to basically put their treasure in a pile and set fire to it. It's the fastest way to advance in experience by far and they have a couple methods to do it.
Method 1: They can spend their money on genuinely useful stuff. This can be weapons, armour, exotic material components, ect. For every 100 GP they spend this way (rounded down) they get 1 XP.
Method 2: They can basically just dump it in some sort of boring way that may or may not aid them indirectly. This can be Clerics donating to temples, Fighters equipping the local militia, Wizards spending it on research materials, Thieves putting coin into a hairbrained get rich scheme, or anyone just blowing it on wine women and song. This will get you 1XP for every 50 GP you jettison.
Method 3: Roll for it. I've got a carousing table I've been working on. It's a modified variation of one that I found posted here a couple years ago. This one is interesting because it will never give worse than a 50:1 ratio, but it can get as high as 20:1... However, there are a lot of potential complications. If you're getting 40:1 exchange on your GP's you're probably using it to bribe your way out of trouble with the local authorities. At 35:1 it can be easy to 'accidentally' gamble away more money than you actually have, and end up in debt to someone of the knee breaking persuasion. You might have blown it all on powdered black lotus that went up your nose. Gotten lots of XP for the privilege at a 25:1 ratio, but now you're hooked and it suddenly becomes an essential item going forward. Maybe that noblewoman you spent a small fortune on over the course of an evening at a 20:1 ratio turns out to be the favoured concubine/wife/daughter of the local overlord, and everyone saw you seducing her. There are also typically limits as to how much PC's can spend at one time using this method, and they are only allowed to roll once during any significant period of downtime.
Method 4: Dump it for the story. I'll periodically give PC's one-time opportunities to jettison large amounts of money at a much better rate than typical. This usually has to do with the story. I typically do this if I want to bump up the PC's power level significantly, or if I feel as though I have been dolling out too much treasure recently. The ratio and limits are determined on a case by case basis. It can range from 30:1 down to 10:1 depending.
One of the interesting side effects of this, particularly the inclusion of the occasional opportunities for XP 'firesales' is it forces the players to really consider how they want to spend their coin. Just for example, say a PC wizard recently found a scroll of create staff. Now he just needs the material components. They'll cost him 2000 GP, but the catch is, I've just put them in a situation where they can contribute coin to help equip and train a standing army to hold off an orc invasion. It's a 20:1 rate... Does he dump the 1100 GP he's saved? Does he continue to horde it to get that staff crafted? Does he split the difference? I mean he's 20XP short of the next level. Maybe if he donated 400... Choices are hard.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/113nOn3 ... 54TsF/view
One of the bigger challenges I've run into with DCC is the economy, especially coming from... well pretty much any edition of D&D where the PC's are inevitably walking around with the GDP of a moderate kingdom in their packs by 3rd or 4th level. I like the idea of keeping the PC's poor, but it can be tough to keep them motivated when the rewards for a quest where they kill a dragon or battle a lich king is 200 gold. Treasure is a big motivator in Fantasy in general, even if you look at Appendex N stuff the heros often walk away from adventures with a lot of coin in their pocket. I've had a challenge in finding that balance between rewarding players, while at the same time keeping them cash starved. We came from a long running (8 years) 1st edition (well actually a B/X Labarynth Lord, AD&D mashup) where the PC's were sitting on the better part of a million gold pieces by the end of the campaign at 9th level and XP was awarded for gold simply by dragging it back to town so I encountered some resistance when I tried to 'screw' them out of their coin. At any rate, after quite some time, I think I've developed a system I quite like. It offers a lot of player choice, and although it does tend to advance characters faster than might be typical in a DCC game, I'm OK with that. It gives them a sense of being rewarded for having 'lost' their gold, and they've bought into it pretty well.
Economics pt. 1. Finding the treasure: I generally try to award PC's about 100gp per level per adventure not counting hirelings. So if I was preparing an adventure for a party of 7PC's, 2 at 3rd level, 4 at 2nd, and 1 at 1st I would include about 1500GP worth of treasure... give or take. Going to either extreme of either missing secrets entirely or stripping the furnishings and sliverware can generally either decrease or increase the take by 10-20%. This might seem high, at least by DCC standards but I think it balances out with the next step.
Economics pt. 2. Spending the treasure: I strongly encourage my PC's to basically put their treasure in a pile and set fire to it. It's the fastest way to advance in experience by far and they have a couple methods to do it.
Method 1: They can spend their money on genuinely useful stuff. This can be weapons, armour, exotic material components, ect. For every 100 GP they spend this way (rounded down) they get 1 XP.
Method 2: They can basically just dump it in some sort of boring way that may or may not aid them indirectly. This can be Clerics donating to temples, Fighters equipping the local militia, Wizards spending it on research materials, Thieves putting coin into a hairbrained get rich scheme, or anyone just blowing it on wine women and song. This will get you 1XP for every 50 GP you jettison.
Method 3: Roll for it. I've got a carousing table I've been working on. It's a modified variation of one that I found posted here a couple years ago. This one is interesting because it will never give worse than a 50:1 ratio, but it can get as high as 20:1... However, there are a lot of potential complications. If you're getting 40:1 exchange on your GP's you're probably using it to bribe your way out of trouble with the local authorities. At 35:1 it can be easy to 'accidentally' gamble away more money than you actually have, and end up in debt to someone of the knee breaking persuasion. You might have blown it all on powdered black lotus that went up your nose. Gotten lots of XP for the privilege at a 25:1 ratio, but now you're hooked and it suddenly becomes an essential item going forward. Maybe that noblewoman you spent a small fortune on over the course of an evening at a 20:1 ratio turns out to be the favoured concubine/wife/daughter of the local overlord, and everyone saw you seducing her. There are also typically limits as to how much PC's can spend at one time using this method, and they are only allowed to roll once during any significant period of downtime.
Method 4: Dump it for the story. I'll periodically give PC's one-time opportunities to jettison large amounts of money at a much better rate than typical. This usually has to do with the story. I typically do this if I want to bump up the PC's power level significantly, or if I feel as though I have been dolling out too much treasure recently. The ratio and limits are determined on a case by case basis. It can range from 30:1 down to 10:1 depending.
One of the interesting side effects of this, particularly the inclusion of the occasional opportunities for XP 'firesales' is it forces the players to really consider how they want to spend their coin. Just for example, say a PC wizard recently found a scroll of create staff. Now he just needs the material components. They'll cost him 2000 GP, but the catch is, I've just put them in a situation where they can contribute coin to help equip and train a standing army to hold off an orc invasion. It's a 20:1 rate... Does he dump the 1100 GP he's saved? Does he continue to horde it to get that staff crafted? Does he split the difference? I mean he's 20XP short of the next level. Maybe if he donated 400... Choices are hard.