Group Resources

[mostlyharmful]

WBL, essential to regulating PCs and trying to reign in some of the crazier ideas they get hold of. But it only seems to apply to their own stuff, further it only seems to really apply to the things they carry around with them, rather than say limiting how many barns full of chickens they can own or whatever.

That being said a good DM has to keep track of off sheet resources, things like communal resources and items, property, stashes of backup equipment, etc...

so I was wondering if there's a standerdized system out there, if there isn't then what people generally think is reasonable. For my self I generally let the "group" own a similar amount to the individual players to cover things like rez resources, group transport, bail bonds, etc. Does this mirror the standerd, or am I way off?

Like wise if the player wants to invest in random crap that doesn't really impact on the game or their choices, like a big fancy wardrobe, a town house, a new wing on the temple, whatever, then I don't factor that into the WBL. Is this also the standerd? should they be rewarded for investing in the local game world? should they have less money to spend on adventuring supplies?

[Keld Denar]

You can easily modify situations to make up for RP expenditures. If Goodie Cleric Timmy wants to donate part of his wealth to building a new addon to a temple for RP, the temple gives him a similar value discount on crafting custom cleric related goods (such as holy weapons upgrades, sacred armor upgrades, Phylactery of Undead Turning, etc)

Also, if your players accumulate too much wealth, impliment sinks for it. Taxes, donations, theft, and many other situations can be used to skim a little money off the top of the PCs.

The idea of a slush fund is good, but the players should pay into it out of each of their pockets. To do otherwise is to inflate the WBL guidelines (which can be fine, but raises party power level).

An interesting idea would be to have one player keep track of a "check book" type sheet. Each pay in or out of the slush fund would be easily documented by recording what character, when, for what, and how much each time the fund is tapped. So if Billy's Greatsword +1 gets sundered, an entry would show: (Billy, 1/12/08, Greatsword Replacement, 2000g). A running total of the fund could be kept similar to a computer database, or a computer data base could be used. Everyone would pay into the fund as needed.

[BRC]

With our group everybody keeps track of our own funds, but if theres somthing thatsgoing to be a Group Purchase, defined by somthing that mainly benefits the group more than an individual, people often donate money to that purchase.

[Prometheus]

My group goes exactly as Bloddyredcommie. New treasure is quite diplomatically awarded to whoever wants it or needs it most, or sold and split.

I do want to add however, that all of my encounters use standard amounts of treasure from encounters and the only time I ever actually look at WBL guidelines is when a new player or NPC enters from a higher level than one. Things like renouncing wealth and tithing aren't compensated, except for the occasional in-game favor.