Survey
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
* Your assessment is very important for improving the workof artificial intelligence, which forms the content of this project
Eclipse Phase Wealth Abstraction by Oroborous Abstract Keeping track of credits and money in an RPG does not add to the story in pretty much every situation. The careful tracking of money and loot reduces gameplay and story, and steals focus from roleplaying and things that matter. This is somewhat inspired from the FATE rules system. Concept Wealth can be abstracted in much the same way Reputation and Networking have been abstracted for the social aspects of the game. Since that system works extremely well in what it tries to accomplish, wealth can be abstracted in a similar fashion. Costs are already on a scale from Trivial to Expensive. This simplifies matters because the cost scale can be directly mapped to the Favours scale in the reputation system. A thing to be acquired could be an item or an advertised service. Wealth does not enable you to find services or items, that is covered by Networking and Reputation, even in Traditional economies. However once the thing is found, acquiring it may require an Assets and Finances test to determine whether it can be acquired. Finances Skill (COG) The Finance skill is the character’s ability to manage and use their assets. Assets can be classified as investments, property, contracts and liquid assets (cash on hand). The skill is based off of Cognition (COG) and can be defaulted if not trained. Everyone has some financial sense, no matter how little. A character with a high Finances skill is able to do more with existing Assets when compared to someone with a low Finances who is not financially savvy. Finance is very useful in Traditional and Transitional economies, it is quite useless in the Reputation-based economy where Networking and Reputation rule. In a way, the two are quite opposed in utility which has a nice synergy to it. Finances skill may be specialized in as all other skills. Some specializations may be: Bargaining, Stocks, Hypercorp, Portfolio Manager, Contracts, Petal Peddler, etc. A failed roll simply results in a failure to acquire the thing in question. Be it due to lack of funds, inability to muster assets or the character deciding that it is simply too expensive to buy it and deciding to make do without it. The character only has one Finances skill which is used for all Ego IDs they may have. Assets Assets is a rating from 0-99. It works in similar fashion to Reputation ratings. The higher the rating, the higher the wealth of the individual. Thinking in the abstract, someone with Assets 20 could have some smaller investments, modest income and perhaps a small coffin condo on Luna. Assets 60 on the other hand may mean a large investment portfolio, significant income and multiple properties. Or it may just mean that dealing drugs for that drug lord has been paying off real big. Assets are relevant and kept separate for each Ego ID the character has. This represents the various levels of wealth associated with each ID. Between stories, a character may shift assets around. There is a limit of how many assets may be moved as this may draw attention or leave a digital trail leading to the alternate ID. The number of Assets which may be shifted between Ego IDs cannot be more than 20 per story. Acquiring Things Acquiring stuff can be abstracted as the character’s Assets vs. Cost. The cost of the item translates to the difficulty of acquiring the object. The character’s Fiances skill translates directly to the ability to bring his Assets to bear in order to to acquire the thing in question. To acquire a thing, you must compare the Assets to the Cost. If the Assets is higher than the Cost, it is easier to acquire it. When Cost is higher than the Assets, it becomes more difficult to acquire the thing. This is represented with a bonus or penalty on the Finances roll. The finances role represents not only the ability to acquire the item, but also shopping for it, and locating it and ultimately deciding to buy it. Someone with good Assets and ability to manage them will have an easier time acquiring things because they are wealthy. Poor characters will have a harder time. Assets vs Cost Table Assets Score Associated Cost Credit Cost Average Credits 0-19 Trivial 1-99 50 20-39 Low 100-499 250 40-59 Moderate 500-1,499 1,000 60-79 High 1,500-9,999 5,000 80-99 Expensive 10,000+ 20,000 Assets vs. Cost Bonus or Penalty For every level of difference between the Assets and the Cost, the character receives either a bonus or a penalty on the Finances roll. The bonus or penalty is -10/+10 per level difference up to a maximum of -30/+30. This means that you cannot purchase anything which is beyond 3 levels of Assets vs. Cost. It is just too expensive for you. Attempting to obtain something much too expensive for you will most likely result in a loss of Assets on a failed roll. That’s a decision the character makes when they decide that they need something really bad. The inverse is also true, if you are filthy rich and the thing costs nothing to you, it does not get any easier to acquire it past some point. Burning Assets The penalty can be mitigated by Burning Assets. Assets can be burned and liquidated in order to obtain the thing which is desired. For every point of assets burned, a character can negate the same amount of penalty from their roll. This represents selling off property and investments in order to make the purchase. Time to Acquire The time to acquire a thing depends on the difference between Assets and Cost. A wealthy individual can just go into a shop and buy something with existing assets, a frugal individual will need to scrape together his assets to make the purchase. All this takes at least some time and involves shopping on the mesh, visiting a physical store, etc. Assets vs. Cost Table Assets vs. Cost Difference Time to Acquire Finances Bonus / Penalty -3+ 15 minutes +30 -2 15 minutes +20 -1 15 minutes +10 0 30 minutes 0 1 1 day -10 2 3 days -20 3 1 week -30 On a MoS +30, the time to acquire is reduced by 1 level. On a MoS +60 the time to acquire is reduced by 2 levels. On a critical success, the time to acquire is reduced by 3 levels. For example, acquiring with a difference of 2 (3 days) a MoS +30 would take 1 day. A MoS +60 would take 30 minutes. A critical success would take 15 minutes which is also the minimum amount of time required to acquire something. Difficulty to Acquire In some instances and locations a thing may be harder to acquire than normal. Be it hard to find, rare or strictly controlled. In this case, a difficulty modifier may be applied. Easy to acquire items have no bonus, it is easier to simply just allow the character to acquire it, or if really needed make them make a standard test. Acquire Difficulty Table Finances Penalty Examples -10 Uncommon: controlled substance, requires license, frowned upon, low demand. -20 Rare: highly illegal substance, weapon where weapons are illegal, very low demand. -30 Unique: custom made thing, extremely specific use, possession punishable by cold storage/indenture service. Failed Roll A Failed Finances roll simply means the character cannot acquire the item at this time. It is up to the GM to determine when an appropriate amount of time has passed before the character may try again. A suggestion is to allow it once per story or after 1 week if the story spans a large amount of time. On a critical failure, something bad happened with the character’s finances and he loses 1 Assets per MoF on the roll. Converting Existing Characters Converting existing characters should be fairly straightforward. Simply take the number of CPs spent at character creation on Credits and add it to the COG base. This results in the character’s starting Finances skill. Take their existing credits and divide by 100. That is their current Assets score. Do not add the base COG aptitude score as the character is already getting extra skill points added. For example Joe Sentinel had spent 3 CP on Credits at character creation. He also has 3,200 credits to his name. His Finances skill would be 30, and his Assets would be 32. This results in an acceptable approximation of character wealth. Creating New Characters Characters may no longer spend CPs on Credits. Rather they must buy Finances and Assets separately. The cost for Finances is same as any skill. Assets is treated same as Reputation. The costs are below. Customization Points 1 CP 10 Assets 1 CP 1 Skill Point (up to 60) 2 CP 1 Skill Point (61-80) 5 CP 1 Specialization Cost of Living It costs to live. This concept can be abstracted with the character making a Finances roll every month of game time. This represents lodging, food, entertainment, etc. A success roll results in the character being able to cover their living expenses. Remember that a wealthy character will live at a wealthy level, a poor character will live at the subsidy level. A failed roll results in a loss of 1 Assets per MoF rolled for that month. This represents a month of harder than usual living expenses and/or bad luck in the stock market, etc. The reduction of Assets also ensures characters have a reason to spend REZ points on buying more assets. A poor character with good Finances skill will be able to live more consistently than a very wealthy character with poor Finances skill. Firewall Funding On a mission, Firewall occasionally provides funding to the characters. This can be nicely modelled by giving the group as a whole a number of assets which they can use when burning assets becomes a necessity. Suggested Assets funding numbers are: 5, 10 or 15 maximum, depending on nature of the mission. Anyone in the group may draw on these assets and burn them accordingly.