[3.5 or any] Wealth of a Borough

[Nich_Critic]

Hello all,

My players recently rescued a Borough from a Zombie incursion. From what they've said, and their general attitudes, they intend to solicit the new burgomaster for recompense of services rendered. In a letter, that they've since discovered was fake, they were promised all the wealth in town. This, they intend to collect. Obviously, since the letter was fake, the burgomaster isn't on the hook for the entire wealth of his population. However, I think the PC's are due for some kind of reward.

What I'm having trouble determining, is how much the burgomaster can reasonably give to the PC's. He will want to spend a greater part of his wealth returning the town to a livable state. Additionally, he likely doesn't want to go bankrupt.

What I need to determine is:
- How much wealth the burgomaster has access to
- How much of that wealth he is willing to give to the PC's
- What form is that wealth in (items, gold, property)
- How much of that wealth it's reasonable to give the PC's as a reward, in a meta game sense. (So as to not break the PC's in subsequent encounters).

I have no idea, how much money, liquid or otherwise, a burgomaster would possess. The rest I can probably decide on my own.

Info:
The town has (very roughly), 130 buildings, so an average population of 260 (assuming 2 people per household) (decimated by the zombies, I'd say that it's less then 100 now. Maybe even less then 50).

The PC's are very close to level 7. Their total wealth is around 77000, which is significantly less then the 94000 they should have at level 7 (They've actually found very little treasure, since they consider it immoral to loot houses, and the zombies they've been killing haven't had anything on them). Thus, they could be paid up to 17000 gold worth of stuff without breaking WBL.

Assuming they looted every house (and the inhabitants didn't object too strongly), they could earn upwards of 260*130 (33000) gold. A reasonable amount is half that, 16500 gold (strangly, very close to the amount they're missing)

[Bigbrother87]

Given your math ,and the situation, the answer appears to be easy.

You say that half the possible numerical loot of the town is almost exactly what the PCs can get to meet WBL.

Plus:

The zombies have killed over half the town.

Equals:

The burgomaster is very grateful, and offers the PCs what meager wealth those that have been killed, and haven't left families behind, had in payment for their assistance. It takes some time for the survivors to gather the coins, heirlooms, few pieces of valuable art, and possible letters of note, with tears of course being shed by the survivors over particularly important pieces.

"*sniff* This was the ring that Robert spent four months saving for, to present to Shirley at the Midsummer festival. He had to get this sapphire and amber setting to match her eyes and hair, he told me."

"That mirror has been in the Templeton family for six generations, saved from when the original Templeton's made their way here during the war. Please take care of it."

Things like that. You can have the burgomaster actually say all the wealth of the deceased, these pieces we've been able to gather, only that which won't be used for their burials...Whatever fits with the campaign and your players.

If they bring up the letter, and they will, you can have the burgomaster be affronted that they would desire ALL the wealth of the town, the wealth they will need to survive and rebuild. He may still give them some of the wealth, again, that owned by those killed, but it will definitely be a chillier process.

If it fits in, you might even have the Players be presented with the deed to a modest house or building in the town, but only if you want them to have a base/come back again. I'd steer clear of giving them property, personally, to make it easier on you.

I hope this helps you some.

[ericgrau]

IMO 77k is close enough and you don't need to hit WBL exactly. WBL is more for character creation anyway. Though it is easier than other methods as a ballpark to make sure you're on track.

Anyway commoners make cp's per day but they make a lot of their own things. Hirelings get sp's per day and professionals gp's per day. Someone's net worth might be a few years of wages. Maybe, assuming 3 years, that'd be 30 gp for a common farmer (plus far more worth in self-made items), 300 gp for a hireling and 3,000-10,000 gp for a professional. Most of this would be tied up in property, livestock and inventory. For example a house is 1,000-5,000 gp or more. If you give the borough level 7 NPC wealth by level I bet it wouldn't be too far off. Or you could adjust up or down from there. But at least now you can estimate the total wealth of the town that pays the borough.

Now the tough part will be figuring out what he has to offer to the PCs. Most likely he'll have a few nice large pieces of land. Maybe his home, some farmland tended by servants and so on. He might have a little coin, gems, art objects and/or magic items. Maybe he can get something from others.

[Zen Master]

I'd roughly estimate (without any sort of passing glance at the rules) that any commoner might have maybe 1 copper each week after all reasonable expenses are paid. That would make 52 coppers a year, times 260 commoners, for a grand total of 13520 coppers a year. Or 135 gold, divided amongs the entire population. And hidden under their mattresses.

So, stripping dirt poor commoners of their hard earned coppers isn't exactly ambitious, nor likely what the PC's had in mind.

The burgomasters coffers are another matter, but what they might contain is any mans guess. If the town just paid for a new bridge and improving the road to Stormport to the east, it might not be much. On the other hand, it might be lots.

But really, the DM should simply pay what is reasonable.

[ericgrau]

I dunno if I saw it in the DMG or where, but I was going on a commoner's net income. And that's a farmer. Experts and hirelings earn more. Plus commoners/farmers make their own homes, food and so on, which isn't included. Buying things that cost 3 years salary (before expenses) is not uncommon IRL, tough they may often be handed down through the generations, bought on a loan, or bought after 30 years of savings. Point is the PCs might not be able to get much coin, but the town's wealth in property is a heck of a lot more than a few gp each.

[Zen Master]

I dunno if I saw it in the DMG or where, but I was going on a commoner's net income. And that's a farmer. Experts and hirelings earn more. Plus commoners/farmers make their own homes, food and so on, which isn't included. Buying things that cost 3 years salary (before expenses) is not uncommon IRL, tough they may often be handed down through the generations, bought on a loan, or bought after 30 years of savings. Point is the PCs might not be able to get much coin, but the town's wealth in property is a heck of a lot more than a few gp each.

I agree with this - though I'd guess the typical farmer built his own dirty, tumbledown hovel, likely with help from his neighbors. I think the expensive - and actual money requiring - investment the average farmer would save up for is a pig, a plough or a horse to pull it.

In the end, it's also a question of what setting you aim for. Eberron, where every odd commoner might be a magewright or stumble upon a dragonshard while cutting lumber, could be a lot different.

[Nich_Critic]

Thanks, everyone, that's very helpful.

One last question. How should I distribute the wealth? My players would clearly prefer it in the form of powerful magical items, but I don't think that's quite realistic. The burgomaster is likely to have a few, but otherwise the townspeople wouldn't really. 77k is a lot to dump on them in the form of trinkets.

[bokodasu]

You could always go with letters of credit - maybe the borough isn't rich, but they have a good reputation with Bank X in Town Y. (Or maybe they don't, but the burgomaster has a really high bluff.) Letter of credit, players cash it in at the bank, and then they're in a town where they can buy whatever powerful magic items they want. (Or in Scenario B, they show up, find out the docs are forged, and make their way back to tear vengeance from the emaciated fingers of the starving population.)

[MickJay]

You could try giving the PCs a significant part of that settlement (houses and other buildings) and the land that belonged to those who were killed and had left no-one to inherit it. The PCs could then try renting or selling it off, at a price you'd be free to adjust over time (right now, potential settlers wouldn't pay much, seeing what happened to the previous ones - but if the PCs spent some time making the town secure and further helping it, the prices could go up). Setting your PCs as landlords is a fairly decent plot hook on its own.

[Hallavast]

2 people per household sounds very low. Even if you only count adults (and I assume your math is for the adult population who actually produce wealth), a good size house (3 rooms or more) is probably going to have 3-5 adults living there. A farm house could easily have twice that. Any rich people likely house servants which could mean 20+ people in one manor.