Status Roll & Treasure

[Old Man Henerson]

I understand the basic concept of the status roll, it is certainly much better than setting prices for every little thing in the setting, but one area that I am not sure how to use it in is treasure and looting.  I come from AD&D, and one of the important parts of the game is finding the loot at the end of the adventure, or even grabbing it off your enemies as you go a long. Most of my current RPG ideas with BRP are story based, so looting gold is not going to be the focus, but I am still curious how to generate satisfying loot with the status roll. How to you guys do it?

[RosenMcStern]

Revolution D100 uses Status/Wealth levels, too. Treasure or other sources of extra wealth outside a character's regular income may become Consequences, that is one-time Bonuses to your Status roll when you are trying to acquire something. In practice, the loot allows you to use your Wealth as if it was one step higher, once.

On the other hand, if you lose "hit points" in a conflict for the purchase or crafting of an item, you get a "Low on cash" Consequence that acts as a Penalty for one roll.

[Lloyd Dupont]

Good question!
Since we don't usually track accommodation, food, bath, etc... I thought it wrong to track every minute gold won... And I think it's a topic I should give some consideration. though, for now, I have little idea / opinion..

As for looting and gold.. usually shop will have only mundane items and good magical items would only be a produce of adventure, so it's not really an issue, I think...

[Old Man Henerson]

32 minutes ago, RosenMcStern said:

Revolution D100 uses Status/Wealth levels, too. Treasure or other sources of extra wealth outside a character's regular income may become Consequences, that is one-time Bonuses to your Status roll when you are trying to acquire something. In practice, the loot allows you to use your Wealth as if it was one step higher, once.

On the other hand, if you lose "hit points" in a conflict for the purchase or crafting of an item, you get a "Low on cash" Consequence that acts as a Penalty for one roll.

25 minutes ago, Lloyd Dupont said:

Good question!
Since we don't usually track accommodation, food, bath, etc... I thought it wrong to track every minute gold won... And I think it's a topic I should give some consideration. though, for now, I have little idea / opinion..

As for looting and gold.. usually shop will have only mundane items and good magical items would only be a produce of adventure, so it's not really an issue, I think...

Thanks for the feed back. I am surprised this sort of topic has not come up before. I like the hit point idea a lot, and giving a temporary boost to your wealth level sounds like a pretty good way to go about it. The other thing I have not figured out is how exactly the players will keep their level of wealth if they are out on all these adventures. Granted, 3 out of 4 of the adventures ideas I am working on are more or less glorified one shot campaigns so money would not have the same meaning as it would in an ongoing campaign.

[soltakss]

I have mixed feelings over using Wealth Levels.

On the one hand, they abstract things so you don't have to track things coin by coin.

On the other hand, it can be satisfying to track things coin by coin.

Treasure is an example. You could say that you need a certain amount of money coming in to meet a certain lifestyle,  so to act Wealthy you need to be Wealthy. Nobles and Merchants may not have a problem with that, as they could have estates or businesses that provide that level of Wealth. However, Adventurers generally don't, so how do they stay Wealthy? Do they need to find a Treasure Hoard (Wealthy) every so often to remain Wealthy? If they don't, does their Wealth Level go down to Affluent or Standard?

What I would do is:

• Assume that an Adventurer needs to maintain a Wealth Level in order to keep that Wealth Level
• If an Adventurer finds Treasure of some kind, that can be used to maintain their Wealth Level or provide a very temporary one-level boost, so someone who is Poor and finds a Treasure (Standard) might be standard for a while, but then goes back down to Poor, or could maintain Poor for a while.
• Finding a particularly large Treasure (More than one Wealth Level higher) could mean moving permanently to a higher Wealth Level, so the Poor Adventurer who finds a Treasure (Wealthy) might permanently go up to Standard, or might temporarily go up to Affluent and then back down to Standard.
• An Adventurer who spends more than their means should probably go down a Wealth Level
• Discuss on a case by case basis with the Players

 

[Lloyd Dupont]

I was planning something just like that soltkass  

[RosenMcStern]

3 hours ago, soltakss said:

• If an Adventurer finds Treasure of some kind, that can be used to maintain their Wealth Level or provide a very temporary one-level boost, so someone who is Poor and finds a Treasure (Standard) might be standard for a while, but then goes back down to Poor, or could maintain Poor for a while.
• Finding a particularly large Treasure (More than one Wealth Level higher) could mean moving permanently to a higher Wealth Level, so the Poor Adventurer who finds a Treasure (Wealthy) might permanently go up to Standard, or might temporarily go up to Affluent and then back down to Standard.

 

Borrowing the concept of "cementing a benefit" from good old Hero Wars could help here, too.

[Old Man Henerson]

6 hours ago, soltakss said:

I have mixed feelings over using Wealth Levels.

On the one hand, they abstract things so you don't have to track things coin by coin.

On the other hand, it can be satisfying to track things coin by coin.

Treasure is an example. You could say that you need a certain amount of money coming in to meet a certain lifestyle,  so to act Wealthy you need to be Wealthy. Nobles and Merchants may not have a problem with that, as they could have estates or businesses that provide that level of Wealth. However, Adventurers generally don't, so how do they stay Wealthy? Do they need to find a Treasure Hoard (Wealthy) every so often to remain Wealthy? If they don't, does their Wealth Level go down to Affluent or Standard?

What I would do is:

• Assume that an Adventurer needs to maintain a Wealth Level in order to keep that Wealth Level
• If an Adventurer finds Treasure of some kind, that can be used to maintain their Wealth Level or provide a very temporary one-level boost, so someone who is Poor and finds a Treasure (Standard) might be standard for a while, but then goes back down to Poor, or could maintain Poor for a while.
• Finding a particularly large Treasure (More than one Wealth Level higher) could mean moving permanently to a higher Wealth Level, so the Poor Adventurer who finds a Treasure (Wealthy) might permanently go up to Standard, or might temporarily go up to Affluent and then back down to Standard.
• An Adventurer who spends more than their means should probably go down a Wealth Level
• Discuss on a case by case basis with the Players

 

Thanks for the Idea. You are right that abstracting all the little things is great, but counting out all that good loot from the dragon's nest is pretty sweet. Now the only problem is how to you split the loot with your friends?

[Lloyd Dupont]

2 hours ago, Old Man Henerson said:

Thanks for the Idea. You are right that abstracting all the little things is great, but counting out all that good loot from the dragon's nest is pretty sweet. Now the only problem is how to you split the loot with your friends?

Do not split, there can be only one?!  😈💣🔫

[Questbird]

2 hours ago, Old Man Henerson said:

Thanks for the Idea. You are right that abstracting all the little things is great, but counting out all that good loot from the dragon's nest is pretty sweet. Now the only problem is how to you split the loot with your friends?

 

 

And how do you carry it home without revealing to all and sundry that there's an empty dragon cave filled with loot? That's what caused the Battle of the Five Armies..

On the original topic, Swords of Cydoria (science-fantasy) had a wealth 'skill' too. The rewards for various artifacts and so forth tended to be a permanent increase in Wealth. One thing you could do is use checks against wealth. So if you find a bunch of loot, you could have an experience check against your wealth at the end of the session. If you make it your wealth increases (like any other 'skill'). Super wealthy characters wouldn't increase their wealth level much by finding loot in this way; poor characters would get wealthy faster. Once everyone is Jeff Bezos, finding some gold in some dungeon is not going to cut it. Maybe characters with Bargain or Appraise or something might get more points from this method (eg. +1 skill points on a successful check).

You could also have a monthly wealth check to see if you maintain your standard of living, if you have those in your game. Failure could indicate a loss of 1d6 Wealth (like a negative experience check). Special failure means you drop a lifestyle level. Special success means your lifestyle level increases for this month. A fumble could mean a catastrophic financial event (fraud, bankruptcy, lost investments, sunken ships, burned home or  warehouses etc). A critical might permanently increase your standard of living (a windfall, inheritance, promotion, stipend, title, magic fish etc.) In either of those cases it would probably be a good idea to drop straight into roleplaying the event.

Edited March 19, 2020 by Questbird

[soltakss]

10 hours ago, Old Man Henerson said:

Thanks for the Idea. You are right that abstracting all the little things is great, but counting out all that good loot from the dragon's nest is pretty sweet. Now the only problem is how to you split the loot with your friends?

The GM needs to decide whether a Treasure (Wealthy) is still a Treasure (Wealthy) split up between the party, or if each person gets a Treasure (Affluent). 

7 hours ago, Questbird said:

And how do you carry it home without revealing to all and sundry that there's an empty dragon cave filled with loot?

Pack animals, big cart, boat, lots of options. Just don't put it in a treasure chest and start giggling every time you look at it.

[Old Man Henerson]

13 hours ago, Questbird said:

And how do you carry it home without revealing to all and sundry that there's an empty dragon cave filled with loot? That's what caused the Battle of the Five Armies..

You could just take back enough to supply you for a while and return when you need more, of course, leaving a whole cave full of gold could just attract another angry dragon, as they learned in the Lonely Mountain.  Granted, in Thorin's case, he could afford to help out the people of Lake Town and give the elves a chest full of diamonds with out making a dent in his new loot pile.

13 hours ago, Questbird said:

On the original topic, Swords of Cydoria (science-fantasy) had a wealth 'skill' too. The rewards for various artifacts and so forth tended to be a permanent increase in Wealth. One thing you could do is use checks against wealth. So if you find a bunch of loot, you could have an experience check against your wealth at the end of the session. If you make it your wealth increases (like any other 'skill'). Super wealthy characters wouldn't increase their wealth level much by finding loot in this way; poor characters would get wealthy faster. Once everyone is Jeff Bezos, finding some gold in some dungeon is not going to cut it. Maybe characters with Bargain or Appraise or something might get more points from this method (eg. +1 skill points on a successful check).

You could also have a monthly wealth check to see if you maintain your standard of living, if you have those in your game. Failure could indicate a loss of 1d6 Wealth (like a negative experience check). Special failure means you drop a lifestyle level. Special success means your lifestyle level increases for this month. A fumble could mean a catastrophic financial event (fraud, bankruptcy, lost investments, sunken ships, burned home or  warehouses etc). A critical might permanently increase your standard of living (a windfall, inheritance, promotion, stipend, title, magic fish etc.) In either of those cases it would probably be a good idea to drop straight into roleplaying the event.

Yeah. I think the rolling system sounds like the right way to go on loot. It is distinctly a BRP solution, and it is very easy. Moving into roleplaying would be a good way to get down into it.

5 hours ago, soltakss said:

The GM needs to decide whether a Treasure (Wealthy) is still a Treasure (Wealthy) split up between the party, or if each person gets a Treasure (Affluent). 

I also think that roleplaying out the situation here would be good as well.

[Questbird]

On 3/20/2020 at 12:57 AM, Old Man Henerson said:

Yeah. I think the rolling system sounds like the right way to go on loot. It is distinctly a BRP solution, and it is very easy. Moving into roleplaying would be a good way to get down into it.

 

If you wanted to represent different amounts of loot you could have a limited number of wealth checks to share between the players. So for example if you had four players but they hadn't found much wealth that session you could make them share 3, 2 or 1 wealth checks -- someone would miss out.

Of course, the wealth levels is an abstraction meant for games where loot gathering is not the prime goal. If your game is truly an old school shoot and loot dungeon bash, you mght be better off counting coins, gems, statuettes, necklaces, goblets, silks -- and encumbrance!

[Old Man Henerson]

23 hours ago, Questbird said:

If you wanted to represent different amounts of loot you could have a limited number of wealth checks to share between the players. So for example if you had four players but they hadn't found much wealth that session you could make them share 3, 2 or 1 wealth checks -- someone would miss out.

Of course, the wealth levels is an abstraction meant for games where loot gathering is not the prime goal. If your game is truly an old school shoot and loot dungeon bash, you mght be better off counting coins, gems, statuettes, necklaces, goblets, silks -- and encumbrance!

Yeah, abstracting wealth levels is more what my current games require, and then again, money will probably not even have any value to the PCs. If, however, any of my campaigns need it, i will certainly use these rule ideas. The limited rolls is another good way to go with wealth piles, thanks for the idea.