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Goober4473
2016-08-12, 12:33 AM
I'm still only half way through running Out of the Abyss, but I'm already thinking about mechanics for my upcoming Planescape game(s), and one thing I'm considering is, given all of the different kinds of currency you can find in the planes, including favors and blackmail, and since I'd like to run the game as a series of small missions ("cases") where players can swap out PCs easily as different members of a sort of detective agency, it'd be neat to have a system other than gold pieces to track wealth. So here are my thoughts:

1. Everyone starts with equipment based on class/background rather than buying items individually. Between cases, they can replace/refill all non-coin items they get from these (but they can't sell them for any meaningful amount). For instance, perhaps the fighter starts with chain mail, but later boosts Dexterity, they could swap that out for leather armor, a longbow, and 20 arrows. Likewise, they could refill those 20 arrows for each case.

2. Once they've established a base of operations (likely after their first case), they can gain additional equipment options in the same vein. Each case would come with something like Requisition Points, from loot and/or payment, which could be spent on office upgrades, which would include more/better gear. For instance, at first, the office might provide one PC a healer's kit, and each PC any additional martial weapon, and later upgrades might include healing potions, scrolls, expensive material components, poisons, mastercraft or even magical weapons and armor, or just about anything else. Each option would be swappable, refillable, and unsellable as with the starting equipment, so if you got one healing potion per case, whether you drink it or not you get 1, and only 1, for the next case too.

3. Characters might also carry some cash ("jink") of their own, but we assume a character's personal stash is for them, not for cases or equipment. Or at the very least it just goes into the replenishment portion of their gear. An upgrade might even grant some "bribe money" that could be used to get advantage on a set number of Charisma checks that would benefit from a bribe.

What doe you all think of this? And also, any further ideas, or ideas for specific upgrades?

RATHSQUATCH
2016-08-12, 07:53 AM
I personally like the way True20 handled or D20 Modern with a "Wealth" score. This made things pretty simple and left it open for the DM to interpret how much wealth you attain, while still saying "You find a small bag of coins on the body..." without having to track and every coin. Other mechanics you could look into are from BESM D20 (which basically makes your equipment work almost like another feature) and Game of Thrones D20 which lets you use Influence points to gain favors and access to different items and such through influence over a character.

Goober4473
2016-08-12, 01:49 PM
The important thing is that I don't want to give the players each a wealth level that they use to buy items. I want to replicate the starting equipment mechanics, and let them choose from some lists for each quest they do, with the ability to unlock different lists by spending Requisition Points. So no one should be like, "I want to buy a longsword. Can I afford it with Wealth level 2?" Simply, "I'll choose a longsword as the extra martial weapon granted by our level 1 Arms upgrade."

And like you said, if the players loot some pocket change, we don't need to go into the specifics, and we can assume they can afford say a night at an inn or similar expenses. Any large amount of wealth they loot would be converted into Requisition and spent on upgrades for their office.

Goober4473
2016-08-12, 03:59 PM
Here's some examples of what I'm thinking. Players would earn RP from payment for taking cases, or finding loads of treasure. Unlocking an upgrade unlocks it for all PCs.

Basic: free
- a) a healer's Kit or b) any one equipment pack from page 151 of the PHB

Armor 1: 2 RP to unlock, requries Armor 1
- a) studded leather or b) breastplate or c) splint armor
- a shield

Armor 2: 4 RP to unlock, requries Armor 2
- a) studded leather or b) half plate or c) full plate
- a shield

Armor 3: 6 RP to unlock, requries Armor 3
- a) +1 studded leather or b) +1 half plate or c) +1 full plate
- a shield

Arms 1: 3 RP to unlock
- a) any one non-light mastercraft* weapon or b) any two mastercraft* light weapons or c) three mastercraft* thrown weapons
- 20 pieces of ammunition if you chose a projectile weapon
*a mastercraft weapon deals +1 damage

Arms 2: 6 RP to unlock, requries Arms 1
- a) any one non-light +1 weapon or b) any two +1 light weapons or c) three +1 thrown weapons
- 20 pieces of ammunition if you chose a projectile weapon

Alchemy 1: 3 RP to unlock
- a) a healing potion or b) three doses of basic poison

Alchemy 2: 6 RP to unlock, requires Alchemy 1
- a) a greater healing potion or b) two doses of serpent venom or c) two doses of drow poison

Alchemy 3: 9 RP to unlock, requries Alchemy 2
- a) a superior healing potion or b) a dose of wyvern poison

Alchemy 4: 12 RP to unlock, requries Alchemy 3
- a) a supreme healing potion or b) a dose of purple worm poison

Spare Jink 1: 1 RP
- (one PC only) Enough money to grant advantage on one Charisma check that would benefit from bribery.

Players would then not go shopping during missions. Inn stays and other small expenses are glossed over unless there's reason for the PCs to be without any money at all, like they just got robbed. Players might describe how their characters spend their personal money in their downtime, but this wouldn't include adventuring equipment or be tracked in any real way. "I spend the week boozing and whoring" and "I carefully save all my money while living in as cheap a place as possible" would both just be story details with no mechanical effect.

They'd keep equipment they find. Small amounts of currency would be glossed over, and big scores of treasure would convert into RP.

Tvtyrant
2016-08-12, 04:08 PM
If you are going to go that far, why not replace the whole thing with "everyone auto-crafts their WBL equivalent?" Then their loot goes to character goals instead of equipment, and you simplify instead of complicate the money sub-game.

Goober4473
2016-08-12, 04:48 PM
If you are going to go that far, why not replace the whole thing with "everyone auto-crafts their WBL equivalent?" Then their loot goes to character goals instead of equipment, and you simplify instead of complicate the money sub-game.

I want to have mechanical rewards for completing missions, and what you're proposing still uses the gp value of items. I want to rebalance things based on their real value moreso than their gp cost. For instance, studded leather beign values the same as breastplate or splint mail, and a limited but reliable way to get potions/poison.