Expenses

[daimonionen]

How does this work in practice?

In our first few sessions, we simply forgot about the whole thing, but how do you alter the game in relation to the living conditions the players choose? Poor, wealthy, etc.

[JellyPooga]

There's really no hard and fast way to handle expenses. You can either "pay up front" your living expenses for a certain period and gloss over all those minor purchases like the couple of ales you buy and the two nights you stay there when you go to the tavern. Alternatively, you can pay after the fact; if you spent two nights living like a king and then the rest of the week in more humble accomodation, then tot it up and pay the expense at the end of the week/month/whatever. Again, you don't pay for individual costs of every ale and pie.

As for in-game effects, there's again no hard and fast rule. Some GMs might give different rumours, plot hooks or other information based on the style of living of different players. Others choose to ignore the whole thing and play things out as they happen. The advantage of using living expenses is merely for ease and to reduce bookeeping while allowing players/GMs to describe their down-time appropriately. Some GMs like to impose penalties for certain lifestyles; particularly poor adventurers might have to make a Con Save vs. disease for every month they spend living that lifestyle, for example. These are entirely at the discretion of the GM in question, though.

Personally, I prefer to use the "pay up front" method; so long as you cover your expenses in advance, I don't ask for every copper and silver spent on food and board, except where I think the player/character has gone above and beyond. I don't impose penalties for poor living conditions, per se (such as the aforementioned Save vs. Disease), but do impose benefits and penalties for the society a character moves in; those with rich lifestyles don't get warm welcomes in scummy slums and vice versa; usually represented by higher/lower social DC's. The King is more likely to grant an audience with someone that rubs shoulders with his courtiers than some peasant adventurer that spends most of his time dockside, slumming it with thieves and low-lives, for example. Likewise, some "toff hobnobber" walking around in fancy duds and flashing cash all over cheapside is more likely to be dragged into an alley and mugged should he visit the less salubrious parts of town.

[Addaran]

Often, it's just for fluff and roleplay. Someone will have a noble character or an high maintenance one that will want to have is own room, with a big bed, a warm bath and good wines, even if there's no mechanical advantage. Then there is the characters that will fit 6 in one room to save gold or will wonder why they can't just sleep in the stables since they hate buildings.

If thieves/assassins are after the players, wheither they sleep in a cheap hotel without locks or in a huge manor with guards will probably make difference on the encounter.