Wealth Levels - Revision history

Peter Knutsen: /* Table to use */ uprading to NEar-Complete status. It's more than half complete anyway

Peter Knutsen — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 08:44:40 GMT

Table to use: uprading to NEar-Complete status. It's more than half complete anyway

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Peter Knutsen: /* Commodities */ also here switching to 4th tier subsubsection (4 times = )

Peter Knutsen — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 08:37:24 GMT

Commodities: also here switching to 4th tier subsubsection (4 times = )

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	Characters in modern campaigns can also have atomic wealth, such as the Rolex arm watch often used as a bribe in movies, although this must not get silly, such as a character owning 20 Rolex watches (unless he has, since his backstory, been in the habit of handing them out as bribes).		Characters in modern campaigns can also have atomic wealth, such as the Rolex arm watch often used as a bribe in movies, although this must not get silly, such as a character owning 20 Rolex watches (unless he has, since his backstory, been in the habit of handing them out as bribes).

-	=== Commodities ===	+	==== Commodities ====
	Players aso have to purchase starting commodities with Wealth rather than wht Equipment Budget. A Commidity is something that one can reasonably expect to sell for the same price that one paid for it, such as a sack of flour, or 120 large barrels of red wine, or a cow, although ae may gradually affect the price (a female slave will start dropping in market value as she ages, while red wine may become more valuable).		Players aso have to purchase starting commodities with Wealth rather than wht Equipment Budget. A Commidity is something that one can reasonably expect to sell for the same price that one paid for it, such as a sack of flour, or 120 large barrels of red wine, or a cow, although ae may gradually affect the price (a female slave will start dropping in market value as she ages, while red wine may become more valuable).

Peter Knutsen: /* Atomic cash */ changing to 4th tier subsubsection (4x = )

Peter Knutsen — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 08:37:06 GMT

Atomic cash: changing to 4th tier subsubsection (4x = )

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	Divide the cash between various categories, such as generic silver coins and hack-silver (include ancient coinage here), coins of specific lands (write the name of each realm and how many farthings the character has in that denomination), and items of jewelry, which are covered in further detaul below.		Divide the cash between various categories, such as generic silver coins and hack-silver (include ancient coinage here), coins of specific lands (write the name of each realm and how many farthings the character has in that denomination), and items of jewelry, which are covered in further detaul below.

-	=== Atomic cash ===	+	==== Atomic cash ====
	Especially in technologically primitive settings, it's realistic and common to carry much of one's cash in the form of jewelry. It's also less attractive for players since such items of jewelry cannot easily be divided into smaller pieces (hence the greek word "atomic" which means indivisible), although on the other hand there's almost no such thing as hack-gold, and in most places gold coins are highly exotic. So gold jewelry is a much easier to carry alternative to silver coins and hack-silver (some GMs may also want to give an almost-automatic -1 RD bonus to any attempt to use the Bribe skill to bribe with gold instead of silver, at least when the target is a commoner or slave. Gold has always had a certain allure).		Especially in technologically primitive settings, it's realistic and common to carry much of one's cash in the form of jewelry. It's also less attractive for players since such items of jewelry cannot easily be divided into smaller pieces (hence the greek word "atomic" which means indivisible), although on the other hand there's almost no such thing as hack-gold, and in most places gold coins are highly exotic. So gold jewelry is a much easier to carry alternative to silver coins and hack-silver (some GMs may also want to give an almost-automatic -1 RD bonus to any attempt to use the Bribe skill to bribe with gold instead of silver, at least when the target is a commoner or slave. Gold has always had a certain allure).

Peter Knutsen: /* Starting Cash */ adding new section on atomic Cash (skipping gemstones for now) and on Commodities

Peter Knutsen — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 08:35:36 GMT

Starting Cash: adding new section on atomic Cash (skipping gemstones for now) and on Commodities

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:35, 6 August 2011
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	Starting cash can be in the form of actual coins (current or ancient), hack-silver, pieces of precious metal other than silvery, and jewelry, including non-set precoous and semi-precious stone (but note that in the 10th century, precious stones could not be cut faceted at all, save perhaps via the use of magic).		Starting cash can be in the form of actual coins (current or ancient), hack-silver, pieces of precious metal other than silvery, and jewelry, including non-set precoous and semi-precious stone (but note that in the 10th century, precious stones could not be cut faceted at all, save perhaps via the use of magic).

-	Divide the cash between various categories, such as generic silver coins and hack-silver (include ancient coinage here), coins of specific lands (write the name of each realm and how many farthings the character has in that denomination), and items of jewelry ~~(write down the value of each item followed by an (a)~~ in ~~paranthesis~~ to ~~denote that the~~ cash is in an "atomic" or indivisible ~~state~~, although ~~of course with proper tools any jewelry can be cut into pieces~~ such as hack-~~silver~~. It is ~~both historically realistic~~ and ~~nicely simple~~ to ~~have multiple~~ identical pieces of jewelry, for instance 9 silver arm rings ~~each worth 250f(~~a) and 4 gold arm rings each worth 4000f(a)).	+	Divide the cash between various categories, such as generic silver coins and hack-silver (include ancient coinage here), coins of specific lands (write the name of each realm and how many farthings the character has in that denomination), and items of jewelry, which are covered in further detaul below.
		+
		+	=== Atomic cash ===
		+	Especially in technologically primitive settings, it's realistic and common to carry much of one's cash in the form of jewelry. It's also less attractive for players since such items of jewelry cannot easily be divided into smaller pieces (hence the greek word "atomic" which means indivisible), although on the other hand there's almost no such thing as hack-gold, and in most places gold coins are highly exotic. So gold jewelry is a much easier to carry alternative to silver coins and hack-silver (some GMs may also want to give an almost-automatic -1 RD bonus to any attempt to use the Bribe skill to bribe with gold instead of silver, at least when the target is a commoner or slave. Gold has always had a certain allure).
		+
		+	It's quite reasonable for a player to take many identical pieces of jewelry, for instance 7 silver arm rings and 8 gold arm rings all of average weight.
		+
		+	There's an increase in commercial value, for such jewelry items, as long as they are not hacked up into pieces, and for the sake of simplicity every NPC should respect this standard, both those who are connoisseurs of goldsmithing and those who are crude barbarians.
		+
		+	The increase is 20% for reasonably crafted metal jewelry, e.g. copper, bronze, brass, silver, gold, and perhaps even iron or tin, that a capable smith has shaped with some tender love and care. For very well-shaped jewelry where the Decoration skill was used, the increase is instead 30%, and for jewelry that is crude but still better than raw ingots, the increase is 10%.
		+
		+	As an example, a player may want to purchase, during character creation, 4 gold arm rings each worth 4000f. He pays only 3333f for each, and records them on his charcter sheet as 4x gold arm ring 4000f(a) each, using the f(a) to designate that this particularly entry of cash is in "atomic" form, and that if divded it drops down to its raw metallic value of 3333f/ring.
		+
		+	Later a table will be added here, with many ready-to-use examples of metallic jewelry.
		+
		+	Characters in modern campaigns can also have atomic wealth, such as the Rolex arm watch often used as a bribe in movies, although this must not get silly, such as a character owning 20 Rolex watches (unless he has, since his backstory, been in the habit of handing them out as bribes).
		+
		+	=== Commodities ===
		+	Players aso have to purchase starting commodities with Wealth rather than wht Equipment Budget. A Commidity is something that one can reasonably expect to sell for the same price that one paid for it, such as a sack of flour, or 120 large barrels of red wine, or a cow, although ae may gradually affect the price (a female slave will start dropping in market value as she ages, while red wine may become more valuable).
		+
		+	Commodities are almost always something you either use to make someting else out of (you make bread out of flour, and you make people temporarily inebriated by gving them red wine to drink), or something you exploit (like you exploit a male slave for physical work, or a sheep for its wool), and so it is in most cases fairly obvious to figure out whether any desired item shold be purchased with Equipment Budget or with Cash.
		+
		+	The one exception is living commodities, where the distinction typially is that if there are few in number and they are well defined, such as a single mount or a few, or a small number of slaves that service the character in various way, then they are Equipment, but if there is a large quantity of vaguely defined living beings, like 28 female slaves aged 15-17 Years Q4, or 14 horses Q6, then they're probably intended for re-sale (or gifts/bribes) rather than for personal use, and so shold be bougfht as Equipment. The exception to this is if the character has a large Unit or otherwise a large household. A warlord can well make use 28 attractive slave girls to keep his many warriors entertained, for instance.

	== Advice ==		== Advice ==

Peter Knutsen: /* Rules details */ adding more stuff to the Equipment Budget subsection, and moving the Cash subsection to the bottom of the section

Peter Knutsen — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 08:09:57 GMT

Rules details: adding more stuff to the Equipment Budget subsection, and moving the Cash subsection to the bottom of the section

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:09, 6 August 2011
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	== Rules details ==		== Rules details ==
	These are more in depth rules. They are not optional, but clarify the above material.		These are more in depth rules. They are not optional, but clarify the above material.
-	~~=== Starting Cash ===~~
-	Starting cash can be in the form of actual coins (current or ancient), hack-silver, pieces of precious metal other than silvery, and jewelry, including non-set precoous and semi-precious stone (but note that in the 10th century, precious stones could not be cut faceted at all, save perhaps via the use of magic).

-	Divide the cash between various categories, such as generic silver coins and hack-silver (include ancient coinage here), coins of specific lands (write the name of each realm and how many farthings the character has in that denomination), and items of jewelry (write down the value of each item followed by an (a) in paranthesis to denote that the cash is in an "atomic" or indivisible state, although of course with proper tools any jewelry can be cut into pieces such as hack-silver. It is both historically realistic and nicely simple to have multiple identical pieces of jewelry, for instance 9 silver arm rings each worth 250f(a) and 4 gold arm rings each worth 4000f(a)).
	=== Starting Equipment ===		=== Starting Equipment ===
	Starting Equipment is anything that reasonably can be purchased on the market, including several sets of clothes (unless the player is okay with his character walking around naked) of a Quality appropriat to the character's social status (or a higher or lower social status than he actually has, if he's deliberate about it), adventuring and crafts equipment, weapons, armour, mounts and slaves (excepting slaves purchased as Allies and mounts that are somehow magically bound to the character - an intelligent mount can also be purchased as an Ally).		Starting Equipment is anything that reasonably can be purchased on the market, including several sets of clothes (unless the player is okay with his character walking around naked) of a Quality appropriat to the character's social status (or a higher or lower social status than he actually has, if he's deliberate about it), adventuring and crafts equipment, weapons, armour, mounts and slaves (excepting slaves purchased as Allies and mounts that are somehow magically bound to the character - an intelligent mount can also be purchased as an Ally).

	The main exception is basic home furnishings, which are included in the Home Perk, if the character has that. Note the availability of equipment packages (such as various personal basics and camping gear packages) and of skill equipment kits (such as a Lockpicking kit or a Disguise kit), greatly simplifying the equipment purchase process		The main exception is basic home furnishings, which are included in the Home Perk, if the character has that. Note the availability of equipment packages (such as various personal basics and camping gear packages) and of skill equipment kits (such as a Lockpicking kit or a Disguise kit), greatly simplifying the equipment purchase process
		+
		+	Equipment Budget not spent during character creation is lost, although for inexperienced players the GM may allow them to allocate a small amount of farthings to things their characters have had along all along, and which are obviously relevant to their character concept, but which the player could no think about during character creation. The presence of Skill Equipment Kits does much to alleviate the need for GMs to make such allowances, though, and there is also the Lucky Pockets Luck Trait.
		+
		+	=== Starting Cash ===
		+	Starting cash can be in the form of actual coins (current or ancient), hack-silver, pieces of precious metal other than silvery, and jewelry, including non-set precoous and semi-precious stone (but note that in the 10th century, precious stones could not be cut faceted at all, save perhaps via the use of magic).
		+
		+	Divide the cash between various categories, such as generic silver coins and hack-silver (include ancient coinage here), coins of specific lands (write the name of each realm and how many farthings the character has in that denomination), and items of jewelry (write down the value of each item followed by an (a) in paranthesis to denote that the cash is in an "atomic" or indivisible state, although of course with proper tools any jewelry can be cut into pieces such as hack-silver. It is both historically realistic and nicely simple to have multiple identical pieces of jewelry, for instance 9 silver arm rings each worth 250f(a) and 4 gold arm rings each worth 4000f(a)).

	== Advice ==		== Advice ==

Peter Knutsen: typo

Peter Knutsen — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:53:48 GMT

typo

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	During character creation, two Wealth Levels may be modified as Perks. These modifications affect only the character's ''starting'' condition and so there is nothing "sticky" about these choices.		During character creation, two Wealth Levels may be modified as Perks. These modifications affect only the character's ''starting'' condition and so there is nothing "sticky" about these choices.

-	The two things, or stats, that can be modified, are Equipment Wealth and ~~Cast~~, both starting at a value of 3, and being sellable down to 1, or improvable up to infinity.	+	The two things, or stats, that can be modified, are Equipment Wealth and Cash, both starting at a value of 3, and being sellable down to 1, or improvable up to infinity.
	<div id="tabcon"></div>		<div id="tabcon"></div>
	== BELs for Equipment and Cash ==		== BELs for Equipment and Cash ==

Peter Knutsen: /* Design Notes */ adding a clarifying word (small)

Peter Knutsen — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:15:27 GMT

Design Notes: adding a clarifying word (small)

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	Allowing the player to define his character's economic situation with some precision is definitely a desing priority, and liberates players from the narrow-minded and heavy-handed assumptions so often made by other RPG designers. Having the system scale to infinity is good, but a recent change (as of August 2011) was that after certain Wealth Level breakpoints the multiplier would be reduced. This decision was made based on a conservative impulse ("better be careful"), and may be mildened or revoked entirely based on analysis or playtesting. It is expected to be perfectly playable and entirely reasonable as-is, though.		Allowing the player to define his character's economic situation with some precision is definitely a desing priority, and liberates players from the narrow-minded and heavy-handed assumptions so often made by other RPG designers. Having the system scale to infinity is good, but a recent change (as of August 2011) was that after certain Wealth Level breakpoints the multiplier would be reduced. This decision was made based on a conservative impulse ("better be careful"), and may be mildened or revoked entirely based on analysis or playtesting. It is expected to be perfectly playable and entirely reasonable as-is, though.

-	Initially Sagatafl used the denarius, d, as the unit of monetary account, but a denarius is really too coarse-grained for incidental purchases. While most such incidental purchases are supposed to be combined into Moonly or monthly Lifestyle "packages", it is still annoying to have to mess around with fractions, and even half-pennies was not sufficiently fine-grained, so eventually it was decided to utilize the farthing as the unit of monetary account, thereby starkly reducing the use of fractions and decimals.	+	Initially Sagatafl used the denarius, d, as the unit of monetary account, but a denarius is really too coarse-grained for small incidental purchases. While most such incidental purchases are supposed to be combined into Moonly or monthly Lifestyle "packages", it is still annoying to have to mess around with fractions, and even half-pennies was not sufficiently fine-grained, so eventually it was decided to utilize the farthing as the unit of monetary account, thereby starkly reducing the use of fractions and decimals.

	== Quick mini-glossary ==		== Quick mini-glossary ==

Peter Knutsen: /* Design Notes */ adding explanation of why the farthing is used instead of the denarii

Peter Knutsen — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:14:57 GMT

Design Notes: adding explanation of why the farthing is used instead of the denarii

← Older revision		Revision as of 12:14, 4 August 2011
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	== Design Notes ==		== Design Notes ==
	Allowing the player to define his character's economic situation with some precision is definitely a desing priority, and liberates players from the narrow-minded and heavy-handed assumptions so often made by other RPG designers. Having the system scale to infinity is good, but a recent change (as of August 2011) was that after certain Wealth Level breakpoints the multiplier would be reduced. This decision was made based on a conservative impulse ("better be careful"), and may be mildened or revoked entirely based on analysis or playtesting. It is expected to be perfectly playable and entirely reasonable as-is, though.		Allowing the player to define his character's economic situation with some precision is definitely a desing priority, and liberates players from the narrow-minded and heavy-handed assumptions so often made by other RPG designers. Having the system scale to infinity is good, but a recent change (as of August 2011) was that after certain Wealth Level breakpoints the multiplier would be reduced. This decision was made based on a conservative impulse ("better be careful"), and may be mildened or revoked entirely based on analysis or playtesting. It is expected to be perfectly playable and entirely reasonable as-is, though.
		+
		+	Initially Sagatafl used the denarius, d, as the unit of monetary account, but a denarius is really too coarse-grained for incidental purchases. While most such incidental purchases are supposed to be combined into Moonly or monthly Lifestyle "packages", it is still annoying to have to mess around with fractions, and even half-pennies was not sufficiently fine-grained, so eventually it was decided to utilize the farthing as the unit of monetary account, thereby starkly reducing the use of fractions and decimals.

	== Quick mini-glossary ==		== Quick mini-glossary ==

Peter Knutsen: /* Quick mini-glossary */ section written

Peter Knutsen — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:12:41 GMT

Quick mini-glossary: section written

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	== Quick mini-glossary ==		== Quick mini-glossary ==
-	~~Explain terms of great relevance to~~ the ~~subject matter~~ of ~~the article here~~, ~~but not terms that are~~ of ~~generally great importance~~ (e.g. RD).	+	'''BEL'''Base Ecnomic Levels, universal starting point values for, among other things, Starting Cash and Starting Equipment Budget.<br>
		+	'''BECM''' Base Economic Cost Multipliers, the setting-specific Perk Point costs for Levels of various (economic) things.<br>
		+	'''f''' farthing, historically 1/4 of a penny-coin (a denarius). Approximately 240 pennies were supposed to make up one Carolingan pound of silver (a "modern" pound is somewhat heavier, and pennies were ofte cut into quarters (farthings) or into halves<br>
		+	'''kf''' a kilo-farthing, 1000 farthings.<br>
		+	'''Mf''', '''Gf''', '''Tf''' and '''Pf''' used for large amounts of money, a million farthings, a billion (1000^3) farhtings, a trillion (10^12) farthings, and 10^15 (a million billion) farthings, repectively.<br>
		+
	== See also ==		== See also ==
	Include links here, to other articles that are highly pertinent to the subhject matter of this one. Remember <br> linebreaks before or after (but not both!).		Include links here, to other articles that are highly pertinent to the subhject matter of this one. Remember <br> linebreaks before or after (but not both!).

Peter Knutsen: /* Design Notes */ section written

Peter Knutsen — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:08:39 GMT

Design Notes: section written

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	== Design Notes ==		== Design Notes ==
-	~~Talk briefly about what~~ the ~~purpose of~~ the ~~mechanic~~ is. ~~Omit this section if it~~ is ~~extremely obvious~~ to ~~the target audience~~.	+	Allowing the player to define his character's economic situation with some precision is definitely a desing priority, and liberates players from the narrow-minded and heavy-handed assumptions so often made by other RPG designers. Having the system scale to infinity is good, but a recent change (as of August 2011) was that after certain Wealth Level breakpoints the multiplier would be reduced. This decision was made based on a conservative impulse ("better be careful"), and may be mildened or revoked entirely based on analysis or playtesting. It is expected to be perfectly playable and entirely reasonable as-is, though.
		+
	== Quick mini-glossary ==		== Quick mini-glossary ==
	Explain terms of great relevance to the subject matter of the article here, but not terms that are of generally great importance (e.g. RD).		Explain terms of great relevance to the subject matter of the article here, but not terms that are of generally great importance (e.g. RD).