d20 Moder/Naruto d20 Starting Equipment Question

[MattyMidori]

Hey all! So me and a small group of friends have recently gotten back into Naruto, and want to see about doing a campaign in it. We've gotten pretty used to 5e at this point, so at least for me, diving into the big blocks of text and frequently broadly linked mechanics of the d20 Modern system is jarring, to say the least. I played a bit of 3.5 but not nearly enough to call myself proficient in it, and so I'm having a bit of trouble when it comes to getting everything all figured out for character creation- in particular with the equipment system.

I have a basic understanding of wealth, how you gain and lose it, and I've checked the d20 rulebook on how you decide starting equipment - make a list of items you want, get everything lower or equal to your Wealth Bonus, and then start rolling wealth checks for anything more expensive. What I'm confused about is purchasing duplicates of the same item, both in and out of character creation. I'm not seeing a lot of anything about that, and I'm unsure as to how it plays out. Does it multiply the DC by how many copies of the item I want to procure? Is there simply a limit to how many I can get at any one time? Does buying multiple copies of an item lower wealth automatically?

If anyone could answer these questions I have, I'd be very grateful!

[Silvercrys]

I am very, very rusty on my d20 Modern, but from my recollection and based on the SRD, I believe you're supposed to make a new check for each item if you're trying to buy multiples since purchasing just one reduces your wealth bonus and could mean you can't afford to buy two of them. There aren't really any rules for putting a bunch of stuff in a cart and rolling a single wealth check for them. Not on the SRD anyway. Maybe there should be, though, I'm not sure how I'd implement that exactly.

Anyway, the only stuff you're meant to be able to easily buy multiples of is stuff with a wealth DC less than your actual wealth bonus, which is why you automatically succeed at buying it and it doesn't reduce your wealth bonus. Anything higher than that is hard for you to buy so you have to roll for it individually.

[MattyMidori]

I am very, very rusty on my d20 Modern, but from my recollection and based on the SRD, I believe you're supposed to make a new check for each item if you're trying to buy multiples since purchasing just one reduces your wealth bonus and could mean you can't afford to buy two of them. There aren't really any rules for putting a bunch of stuff in a cart and rolling a single wealth check for them. Not on the SRD anyway. Maybe there should be, though, I'm not sure how I'd implement that exactly.

Anyway, the only stuff you're meant to be able to easily buy multiples of is stuff with a wealth DC less than your actual wealth bonus, which is why you automatically succeed at buying it and it doesn't reduce your wealth bonus. Anything higher than that is hard for you to buy so you have to roll for it individually.

I understand that, but I guess I'm talking about stuff below your wealth threshhold, specifically. I have a starting wealth of 9, so could I just buy as many Wealth DC 3 items as I wanted at character creation? Or, am I limited to one copy of each at character creation, and purchasing more would require a trip after the game starts?

[Silvercrys]

I understand that, but I guess I'm talking about stuff below your wealth threshhold, specifically. I have a starting wealth of 9, so could I just buy as many Wealth DC 3 items as I wanted at character creation? Or, am I limited to one copy of each at character creation, and purchasing more would require a trip after the game starts?Ah, I see.

Technically speaking there is no hard limit to the number of items you can buy at character creation. Following the rules in the SRD, you can purchase any number of items with a DC below your wealth bonus (+9) regardless of how many you already have. Your check automatically succeeds, after all, and since this is prior to play it's usually just part of your character's background/starting gear and doesn't need any justification for time spent shopping, etc. So yeah, you can just buy a million torches or whatever at character creation if you want to. Technically.

It's the sort of thing that usually gets houseruled around by the GM basically saying "no, you can't buy more of those than you're going to carry with you", or everyone just agrees to use the system responsibly and not buy enough shuriken that you would collapse the town's economy if the system were remotely realistic.

The standard "optimization" advice here would be to buy at least one of every item on the equipment list that is under your wealth bonus in case you need it later, then buy extras of stuff you expect to be consuming regularly like grenades, etc. but don't go overboard or your GM will probably crack down on the wealth system and have to institute hard limits.

Unfortunately, the only real answer I can give here is to talk to your GM and explain your dilemma and how many of whatever it is you want to buy, and see if they agree that the number you want is reasonable. If you're worried about running out and needing to buy more later, the best thing to do is just keep your wealth bonus above the item's purchase DC so you can always buy as many as you need without having to roll, though you'll need to be somewhere the item is available of course.

And if you are the GM, well, good luck. I'd sit the players down (maybe not literally) and talk to them about the wealth system, maybe show them this post and ask them not to abuse the rule for buying equipment under their wealth bonus at character creation; you could also implement a house rule to limit them on a per item basis to no more than 1 ladder, 2 spools of rope, 20 shuriken, 5 torches, etc. on an item by item basis but it would take quite a long time to go through the equipment list that way.

There are a few other wealth loopholes, I believe. Using the rules for selling stuff, if your wealth bonus is at least +18 you can buy an item at DC 18 with no check, sell the item at DC 15, and gain 1 wealth from the sale bumping you to +19, then repeat until your wealth bonus is arbitrarily large. This can take up downtime, though, as the GM might say each sale takes 15 hours to find a buyer and each purchase takes 18 hours to find the object again.

The system as implemented in the SRD basically requires a human to run it and make sure players don't exploit it; I think the concept is quite sound as a way to do away with the book keeping usually involved in tracking money, but the implementation is flawed, to say the least.

Anyway, this also assumes there are no Naruto d20 specific rules for wealth checks and that they lifted wealth from the d20 SRD word for word without attempting to patch either of these exploits, as I'm not familiar with that adaptation at all. I would hope anyone reusing the wealth system would at least have a blurb about the problems the system has, but I know better than to assume they didn't just lift the system and expect it to work as-is.

[MattyMidori]

Awesome!!! Thank you so much friend. Your help was invaluable <3