Pirate Booty (alternate rule discussion)

[prufock]

So I'm designing a campaign setting for a pirate game - it will be an archipelago, with 30+ races, varied landscapes, all contained to small islands. Like other settings I design, I like to have an alternate rule.

I've used Action Points for a basic D&D setting, DRAW! for a western game (players get 2 poker chips and can use them to draw a card which adds a bonus to d20 roll or some other special effect, can earn more chips various ways), Reputation for a bards game, Taint for a wilderness game involving fey, Honor for an Asian-inspired game, Sanity for a monsters game, and so on. I like each setting to have a unique alternate rule.

For the pirates game, I was thinking it would be interesting to allow players to spend actual cash in gold pieces on bonuses. The cost of bonuses, though, is a sticky point. They would be one-time uses for each cost, so for instance you spend X booty to get a +Y bonus. I also think the cost should increase exponentially, since as they get higher in levels they'll have more expendable cash. For example, a +1 bonus would be 10gp, a +10 bonus would be 1000gp.

It's planned to be an E6 game, so they likely won't get more than 20K in liquid money at any time.

Do you have any ideas as to how much bonuses (or other effects like rerolls, additional damage, status effects, etc) should cost?

Or if you think this is a bad idea, do you have suggestions for a different setting rule?

Thanks all.

[Ellowryn]

There are already items that do mostly what you are looking at in the DMG, although they are very expensive. The cost should really depend on the availability of gold vs how high you are willing to let your players stats go. Flat permenant bonuses to stats are far more powerful than magic bonuses so they should be at least as expensive at those.

[prufock]

There are already items that do mostly what you are looking at in the DMG, although they are very expensive. The cost should really depend on the availability of gold vs how high you are willing to let your players stats go. Flat permenant bonuses to stats are far more powerful than magic bonuses so they should be at least as expensive at those.

Maybe I didn't describe this well, but the bonuses they would get by spending "booty" would be one-time bonuses to a d20 roll. When they're doing something for which they are desperate to succeed, they'd simply say "I'm spending 100 gp to get a +1 bonus to this check" (just as an example, I haven't settled on costs yet).

The money just disappears from their inventory and they get the bonus. No one notices the money disappear, it just happens (so it might mess with suspension of disbelief, but they just suddenly have less gold).

Other than bonuses there should also be costs for d20 rerolls, extra damage, condition effects, etc.

Costs could be based on the Magic Item Creation rules, depending on what you're trying to accomplish. As one-time uses, they should be cheaper, but since you can use them on the fly it should be more expensive than a simple one-use item. Maybe just allow on-the-fly one-shot effects for the cost of a continuous item that would supply the same benefit? So a +1 to a saving throw would be about 333 gp (one-third of a cloak of resistance, since it applies to only one save type chosen at the time)? Skill bonuses would be bonus^2 x 100 gp, and so on. That seems a bit steep for a one-time bonus, especially at low levels.

Another option I guess is to say that for every X gold piece value you have, one is a special "booty coin" that allows you to do a reroll or whatever.

Thoughts?

[prufock]

Hm, not much interest here. Perhaps the mods could move the thread to World-Building?

[Blackhawk748]

Another option I guess is to say that for every X gold piece value you have, one is a special "booty coin" that allows you to do a reroll or whatever.

Thoughts?

This seems like a good plan, every now and again they find a "Doubloon" or what have you and it gets them a reroll, but they can reroll ANY dice with it. That damage roll sucked? Spend a Doubloon!

[Ellowryn]

Ah, gotcha i did indeed misread what you wrote.

For actual cost i do believe you should reduce the cost some. Spending a third of the cost of a cloak of resistance just for one save seems way too much as a potion of resistance is only 50gp and lasts 1 minute. Perhaps 10gp per point of bonus. Yes this seems really cheap but that is the trap, do you only spend a little for a small bonus or spend a bunch to guarantee the roll? How often should i rely on the bonus?

I think you will find the party blowing through their gold very quickly if they actually use the system.

[dascarletm]

I have some suggestions for this.

To help with the suspension of disbelief (at least a little) make this a separate pool of "booty" that they must set aside ahead of time. The pool is the booty that you bury on islands throughout your career (map with X optional). This entices people to play out the buried treasure trope as well.

[Extra Anchovies]

I have some suggestions for this.

To help with the suspension of disbelief (at least a little) make this a separate pool of "booty" that they must set aside ahead of time. The pool is the booty that you bury on islands throughout your career (map with X optional). This entices people to play out the buried treasure trope as well.

Oooh, I like that! They bury treasure, and then by giving that money up (or at least hiding it for their grandkids to find) they get a luck reroll! I may implement this if I ever do a piratey game...

[prufock]

For actual cost i do believe you should reduce the cost some. Spending a third of the cost of a cloak of resistance just for one save seems way too much as a potion of resistance is only 50gp and lasts 1 minute. Perhaps 10gp per point of bonus. Yes this seems really cheap but that is the trap, do you only spend a little for a small bonus or spend a bunch to guarantee the roll? How often should i rely on the bonus?

I think you will find the party blowing through their gold very quickly if they actually use the system.

I think you're right, but that might be a bit too much of a discount. After all, they should pay a bit of a premium for being able to use this stuff on the fly.

I was thinking of making it exponential as per bonuses in the item creation rules. So for example a +1 bonus would be 10g, but a +2 would be 40g, and a +3 would be 90g, and so on. There would be no actual upper limit, but of course you would be limited by your wealth.


To help with the suspension of disbelief (at least a little) make this a separate pool of "booty" that they must set aside ahead of time. The pool is the booty that you bury on islands throughout your career (map with X optional). This entices people to play out the buried treasure trope as well.

I love this part, thank you! The "buried treasure" would give them a pool of wealth that they can spend on their bonuses and rerolls. It's thematic and allows an in-game explanation as to what happens to the treasure (it can get found, stolen, they lose their maps or forget where it is, etc).

So I have my idea. The hard part now is deciding how much things should cost. I was thinking, for a flat bonus, it should be bonus squared x 10gp. I would also give them a "variable" option, so that they can roll a bonus die instead, with costs of 25g for a d2, 50g for a d4, 100g for a d6, and +100 for each increase of die size up to d12. Rerolls would cost around 100g as well (a reroll being about an effective +3 bonus on d20 roll). You should also be able to increase your AC against one attack (as a reaction) for about the same cost (has to be stated before the attack is resolved).

Then there are other effects I would like to include, such as extra actions. An extra move should be around 400, an extra standard around 800, and an extra full-round action around 1200. Maybe an extra attack in a full attack would be between the move and standard, so say 600.

Casters could maybe get a bonus spell for spell level squared x 100g, caster level boost for bonus squared x 100g, and anyone could get SR 12 + X for X*1000g. Healing should be an option as well, maybe getting a die of hit points back equal to the variable bonus dice cost above.

I would probably allow additional effects a la carte, basing the costs on item creation with a discount (about a fifth of a one-time use-activated item). This whole system will require some extensive playtesting, which I'll use in the pirates game I want to run.