Moneyless Wealth

[Yora]

I am currently runnig a campaign of AS&SH (AD&D), and we're playing with a simplified Encumbrance syster (slots instead of weight) and XP for accomplishing goals instead of combat. Other than checking how much food and torches are left, we try to avoid any accounting that disrupts the game and slows things down.

Which leaves the issue of money.

There isn't really a lot to buy. Magic items are not for sale and characters can get the best armor by level 3. Prices for food are negible. The main thing to buy is potions.
It would be easy to not use money at all and instead let the players pick a few potions they like at the start of an adventure and deal with everythig else purely as loot. But combined with no XP for fighting, there wouldn't be any reason to explore and simply get in and out of a place as fast and quitely as possible. And what I want my players to deal with is the question whether to be cautious and keep things safe, or to take some more extra risk for additional reward. If the reward is XP, it's almost not a choice at all, since players always want maximum XP.
Another thing for which wealth matters is resources other than personal equipment. I want to encourage building strongholds or at least home bases, which are staffed by servants and guarded by troops. This would be a way to show how much wealth, influence, and reputation the characters have gained. It just doesn't seem appropriate that a champion of the domain and experienced leader of the people lives in a hut in a village.
In the next adventure, the group would benefit greatly from having one or two dozen horses packed with food, weapons, and other supplies, but that's not something they could just get for free.

Does anyone know of a system to track what things the character can buy with their wealth, but also allows them to sacrifice or lose much of their wealth if they spend too genrously? Something that dorsn't require counting coins?

[Kalmageddon]

There's the Wealth system in d20 Modern, though it was made with a modern economy in mind where your wealth wasn't necessarely tied to hard cash. It works fairly well.

[Worgwood]

You could borrow Exalted's wealth system. I never played much and I don't remember exactly how it works, but basically, every mundane item has a Wealth value between 1-5, and players each have a Wealth value between 1-5.

If your Wealth value exceeds the value of an item you want to buy, you can get it without it making a significant impact on your personal Wealth value. If your Wealth value equals the value of an item you want to buy, you can still get it, but your personal Wealth value decreases by a factor of 1.

[Yora]

I just had this idea:

If the character has at least 1,000 gold pieces, he can ignore anything that costs less than 10 gp, but must substract anything that costs 10 gp or more. (Platinum Level)
If the character has at least 100 gp,he can ignore anything that costs less than 1 gp. (Gold Level)
If he has at least 10 gp, he can ignore anything worth less than 1 silver piece. (Silver Level)
If he has less than 10 gp, he must substract any purchase from his wealth. (Copper Level)

You get the benefit of being able to say "ignore that, this price doesn't matter to you" while still having the situation that characters can run out of coins and treasure matters.

[Thrawn4]

I have been thinking about the same problem as well. Although it is a crude system, I have always liked the way V:tM deals with wealth: A nice ressource level that allows you to easily estimate what a character can buy. Now, the same system would probably not work in most fantasy campaigns, as it doesn't allow for enough detail and accounting is more important as I want to prevent my players from hording all kinds of potions.

So here is my idea:
A more in-depth wealth level system, e. g. wealth from 0 - 20 that indicates your resources for a certain amount of time (e. g. one week / one session). Every piece of equipment requires a certain amount of your resources, e. g. 1 point for a sword. This includes the costs for upkeeping, e. g. food for horses or repairs. Potions are equipment that you just buy and use. You can buy more potions of course, but each one takes more resource points and when you use the potions they are gone. You can take more than your usual amount allows (within certain limits), but at the end of the period you should have found something valuable that makes up for the due points or you have to pass a difficult barter roll.
Potions have a best-before date (ideally equal to the period used for the resources) so players can't horde all the potions.

But combined with no XP for fighting, there wouldn't be any reason to explore and simply get in and out of a place as fast and quitely as possible. And what I want my players to deal with is the question whether to be cautious and keep things safe, or to take some more extra risk for additional reward. If the reward is XP, it's almost not a choice at all, since players always want maximum XP.

Why wouldn't there be any reason for fighting? Sometimes it's the easiest or the only way.
Also, I don't see why XP-boosts shouldn't be another reward, but if you want to avoid it, you can still reward them with making/saving friends, getting more resources, becoming famous or infamous, magical gear or knowledge.

[Ionbound]

Why wouldn't there be any reason for fighting? Sometimes it's the easiest or the only way.Also, I don't see why XP-boosts shouldn't be another reward, but if you want to avoid it, you can still reward them with making/saving friends, getting more resources, becoming famous or infamous, magical gear or knowledge.

I think the system Yora has here is that you would get EXP for say, clearing a dungeon of goblins no matter how you do it, but you wouldn't get any for slaughtering a town.

[fsttesogold]

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