I'll skip the lengthy analysis of how high-Wealth player characters are less motivated to risk life and limb on an adventure than those of low-Wealth. Suffice to say that I present monetary (or other cash-convertible valuables) to purchase DC, meaning that a Wealth bonus +1 character can expect to earn a huge number of points while a Wealth bonus +20 is looking at an insignificant gain in those terms.
What I am looking for is ideas for how to hit the PC's wealth bonus.
Why is this excercise in any way necessary? Well, hopefully it's not. However, if your campaign is suffering from high-Wealth characters, it's nice to have a toolbox of ideas to dip into to even out the playing field a little.
-DF
Ransom
A friend/relative/love interest of the wealty PC is kidnapped by thugs. The thugs demand a significant ransom. Provided they come up with the cash as demanded, any half-decent plan to trace the kidnappers back to their hiding place goes pretty smoothly. Rescuing the victim provides the climax for the adventure, but the cash is lost. Perhaps the leader's car mysteriously explodes when he tries to get away. Perhaps the decision to hide out in a closed gas-station was ill conceived. Or perhaps the PCs are suprised to find themselves the victims of a switcheroo: the briefcase they retrieve contains only a stack of comics and Jack of Clubs.
-DF
Or their bank sells out/crashes/goes out of business...
Also, when my PCs roll Profession checks to see if they gained wealth, they risk losing wealth too, representing bad investments etc...
But we don't use the wealth system no more. It has its good sides, but overall, it's too weird. And it doesn't really work when your wealth bonus gets bigger than +20. ...which my PCs always tend to get for some reason.
And it doesn't really work when your wealth bonus gets bigger than +20. ...which my PCs always tend to get for some reason.
That should just be an added incentive to hit the PC's Wealth. Keep an eye on their wealth and when it approaches that red zone where stops working properly, zap them down a couple of notches.
-DF
I started instead to give them purchase DC's of cash. If you find $20,000, that's purchase DC 28. A character with a wealth bonus of +4 is gonna gain a lot from such a find, but someone with a wealth bonus of +21 who can regularly afford such a price won't benefit much from it. Also makes splitting easier.
Though it typically depends on what kind of campaign you're running, there's a lot of different things you can do. If the PC's need help from a criminal NPC, perhaps the NPC asks for a huge up-front payment. If the PC's can't go anywhere else for the information, they have to pay up. Theft is tried and true but, if poorly done, can leave the players feeling cheated (though anyone with +20 wealth is like a beacon to thieves). Destroy some key, expensive pieces of equipment that they'll need to replace, like their vehicle or their ultra-gadgeted gun.
Or, more fulfillingly, give them something to buy. Do the characters have a base of operations they own or might be interested in upgrading? If you occasionally run scenarios in the base, they would probably be very interested in outfitting it with cool gadgets. So long as it's cool, most players will sink quite a bit of money into something that is otherwise completely useless.
So long as it's cool, most people will sink quite a bit of money into something that is otherwise completely useless.
Fixed
.The players loved it.
One of the other little things i did turned into a side mission for the pcs...it had turned out that one of the heroes hadn't paid his water bill,so when they decided to go pay it,they got caught up in the middle of a robbery,so the whole time the hero with the water bill,kept going on how each bad guy might make him miss the 5 pm deadline and have his water shut off,roflol.
The players loved it.
Wow, that's kinda outside the normal wealth rules, but very funny.
Wow, that's kinda outside the normal wealth rules, but very funny.
well,i was fair to the players because I announced that I wanted to try something new with the wealth system and they agreed to go with it. heres the ending :
PC1 : "How much longer till the water department closes and how far from them are we?"
me: *rolling %die* about 15 mins and your 10 blocks from them."
pc1 :"Thats it. We're not stopping for anything!"
they got there in one piece
pc1 "I jump out of the car and run toward the door"
me: As you run toward the door you notice a worked also coming toward the door with keys in his hand
pc1 I dive toward the door *rolls his check* and gets a 20
me :"Your head hits the door pushing it open into the workers face breaking his nose"
pc1 "Sorry about that,but I'm here to pay my bill."
Why is this excercise in any way necessary? Well, hopefully it's not. However, if your campaign is suffering from high-Wealth characters, it's nice to have a toolbox of ideas to dip into to even out the playing field a little.
What I'd like to see are suggestions for putting a squeeze on the player character's Wealth bonus as part of the game play as opposed to arbitrarilly deciding that their house burns down or something.
-DF
if it floats in / under water - torpedoes
if it flies SAMs [ surface to air missiles ]
if its visible from space - lazer death rays / rods from god
the ` golden rule ` is to to just capriciously destroy thier stuff - JUST to reduce thier wealth - but integrate it into a plot
a prime example [ from one of my own campaigns ] - one hero was insanely wealthy and had EVERYTHING including being the primre benefactor of a oceanographic research insitute and owning a fleet of 6 research icebreakers - one day he was awoken to be told that all 6 had been deep sixed by ` forces unknown ` - as none of his luxury yachts , his private jets / helicopters , etc etc had been touched - he and the rest of the party quickly realised that a new nemesis had arisen and there was ` something a foot ` in the arctic ocean icefeilds [ other seemingly irrelevant clues sudenly made some sense ]
with one stroke - i had both put a dent in his wealth - kick started a new campaign chapter - and ensurered that he would react
Not A Pen Dragon
if they have uber expensive stuff - destroy it :P
A good point, though perhaps damage may be an even better option. While the PCs have already spent Wealth on buying their stuff (or obtained it by other means), having to repair is a second expense - good for chipping down Wealth a couple of notches.
-DF
a way to have wealth get hit. lawsuits by the bad guys who somehow managed to get away, as well as good guys who were hurt by the heroes, or family of those who were hurt by the heroes.
Lawsuits by innocent bystanders is a great way of adding consequence to the actions of reckless players. Expensive lawyers can even keep the players out of jail, at a cost.
I like the idea of the bad guys suing the Heroes on trumped up charges and so on, but likely they'll fant a "refund" when (if?) they are acquitted.
-DF
Lawsuits by innocent bystanders is a great way of adding consequence to the actions of reckless players. Expensive lawyers can even keep the players out of jail, at a cost.
Here's a sidebar: how should you play out a lawsuit? Opposed Diplomacy checks versus the lawyer?
Here's a sidebar: how should you play out a lawsuit? Opposed Diplomacy checks versus the lawyer?
And knowledge (Civics)
knowledge (civics), knowledge (tort law), knowledge (criminal law)... combined with however many attorneys (+1 per each student, +2 for lawyers, +10 for paying a corrupt judge... hehe)
that should make some of it real interesting... dice checks to see if you get to stay out of prison or you have to break out...