Need a new money system

[invokethehojo]

I'm going around some of the 4e rules and running a pirate campaign in a low magic world (meaning the quest for endless gold to buy more magic items isn't a primary goal in life) and I want to streamline the money system so it's not about tracking how many coins you have, but more about whether your flush or broke and have access to the things you want when you can afford them. I've done some pirate research and it seems like they were constantly shifting from having more money then they could spend to having next to nothing, which I love, but a regular monetary system of gold coins just seems too detail oriented for this kind thing.

I want a looser system that is easier to deal with, the closest thing I can think of is d20 moderns wealth bonus system. It has the basic feel I want, but it has a couple flaws I cannot get around.

1) if you have a wealth bonus of 5, and your partner has a wealth bonus of 10, and you guys get a reward of 4 wealth bonus for a mission and split it equally, it makes no sense. the dude with more money gets more money, and the dude with less money gets less money. It's not proportional
2) It says that you can buy items of your wealth bonus or lower basically for free, but if you buy something of your wealth bonus or higher it lowers your wealth bonus. This creates a metagame scenario I really dislike: buy all the cheaper things you want first for free, then buy the more expensive thing and be broke.

Any body got any ideas on a free form type monetary system that is easy to use but doesn't create it's own wierd set of problems? so far I've just been telling the characters they are flush or broke or in between and judging how much they buying power they have on the fly. It's worked so far, but I'm afraid I need something a little more concrete going forward.

 

[willows]

Sticking with the wealth bonus system, let's say that your wealth bonus is how much wealth you have in the long term, and it's unlimited in both directions but it tends to stay close to your average value for a skill check.

(1) is easy to solve: When you get one-time income from a mission or some such, you don't add it to your wealth bonus; you get a one-time ability to purchase some Wealth X item.

(2) is less easy but possible. Say all substantial purchases require a wealth check:

- If you succeed you get it, and don't lose wealth.
- On a 20, you actually increase your net worth by making the purchase, and increase your wealth bonus by 1.
- If you fail by 5 or less, you spend 1 wealth bonus to get the item. This expenditure is temporary and offset by your income; at the beginning of the next adventure or whatever, your wealth recovers.
- If you fail by more than 5, you can still buy the item but you take a permanent wealth reduction - you're dipping into your savings.

In this situation, you can represent one-time oncome by temporary wealth bonuses. You can also incorporate skills and Charisma and whatever you like into the wealth check if you want to introduce some kind of bargaining.

You'd have to keep track of a fluctuating wealth bonus, but you've also got a system where every purchase (apart from those where you can't fail a wealth check at all) matters, and you don't have the weird metagame you described above.

 

[darkwing]

Research projects? Imagine the pirates using money (substitute affluence, influence, favors owed to them or businesses they own as appropriate to the campaign) to hire people to go out and attempt to create/acquire/locate desired items. They wouldn't get results immediately and results wouldn't be guaranteed. The item found could be better, lesser or different (saran wrap was discovered on accident while researching something else after all). The more wealth devoted to the project the quicker or better the results.

 

[Nytmare]

Research projects?

Pirates?

 

[Mesh Hong]

Research projects?

Pirates?

Pirate Bloodbeard - “Argh matey, which way thar wind be blowin outa murder cove?”
Pirate Three Tooth – “Aye, hows me booty mate, thems dubloons cost me two fingers and me left leg in the battle of crook’d point”
Pirate Bloodbeard – “arrgh”
Pirate Colin – “Well, early feedback from focus group alpha indicates that the initial prototype was flawed in concept, design, and presentation. However gentlemen, as the officially certified financial advisor on the good ship Black Scourge I have already anticipated your needs and reallocated our ill gotten gains in line with market projections and of course the Captains stated aim of Bleedin the land’lubbers dry. It is my belief that by the spring, gentlemen, we will have not only a viable business plan, but also a customer base eager to get on board with our product (see what I did there?). I also predict that by the third quarter of the second year we will break even on our investment and its all plane sailing from there gentlemen. Its all yo-ho-ho and shiver me’timbers from then on”
Pirate Three Tooth – “But hows me booty, mate?”
Pirate Bloodbeard – “Argh, an hows thar wind blowin outa murder cove?”
Pirate Colin – “You don’t really understand the premise of a planned economy and the importance of solid customer led market research do you, gentlemen?”
Pirate Bloodbeard – “I told yar we should justa buried tha dubloons on skull island like we used ta”
Pirate Three Tooth – “Aye, it were good’nuff for old Captain Brownpants, so it should’ve been good’nuff fer the likes of we”

 

[LostSoul]

Give out cash like normal.

Only give XP for cash that's spent on ale and whores.

You still have to track GP but you don't have to track XP.

 

[ninefold_one]

I believe the solution is the way that Rogue Trader does it in the Warhammer 40k system. It's an excellent system that uses profit factor. In fact quests can increase profit factor. When you want something you make a profit factor check modified by scarcity. Circumstance bonuses and penalties can apply depending on where you are. For example it might be easier to get upgrades for your ship in a port city than in a landlocked area.

So rather than printing all the Rogue Trader profit rules here I suggest taking a look at the book or seeing if you can find the rules reprinted online somewhere.

My other suggestion would be to use Birthright's "Gold Bars". But that's only my suggestion if you don't like Rogue Trader's Profit Factor.