Starting Money

[buzz]

So, I see many sections in the various SF HERO books about being careful with the amount of money PCs have access to, but I'm not finding any guidelines on how much money to actually start PCs off with in a Heroic game set (roughly) in the Terran Empire setting.

 

Any ideas here? For the time being, I've just asked my players to use common sense and run anything out of the ordinary by me.

[Steve]

Re: Starting Money

 

Since characters can theoretically spend points to gain a lot of wealth during their pre-adventuring life, it becomes a little trickier to talk about starting cash for campaigns. You should talk with any players planning on spending points this way, since that money could cover a starship purchase and then leave them with about the same amount of cash for personal stuff as other players do.

 

Or you could forbid the purchase of Wealth entirely. If you choose this route, then it just becomes a matter of looking at the books and seeing what you want them to have. A blaster pistol and some light armor to start their quest for fame and fortune? Or do you want them to have powered armor with all the extra options, heavy plasma rifles, and fusion grenades suitable for vaporizing vehicles?

[buzz]

Re: Starting Money

 

What I've done so far is this:

 

1. They have a ship, a beater far trader inherited by one fot he PCs. No cash or points were spent on this. It's part of the setting.

 

2. One player wanted a mecha (don't ask me why, he loves anime). I told him to pay points for it.

 

3. Other than that, I just declared them at "middle class" or worse, and they have anything that would be reasonable. If they want the unreasonable, they have to run it by me.

 

I really wish the stacks of HERO books I own would have been of more help here.

[Curufea]

Re: Starting Money

 

The points spent for the wealthy perk should not be used as a guideline to how important it is to the concept of the character.

Wealth is a major character motivator and can affect the campaign greatly.

If a player buys wealth, they should design their character background with wealth as a major influence in their lives. It is not a throwaway skill that needs no explanation.

[buzz]

Re: Starting Money

 

Um, okay.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Starting Money

 

HERO has never been good at the roll 3d6 x Y = starting funds kind of thing. In my campaign, I just took the wealth level of each character and divided it by 12. I figure one months income was about the right amount of spending money.

 

You could, just as easily, make up a random roll. It has certainly worked in just about every other game system I've ever played. How about 3d6 x 1000 (max cash=18,000) (credits, buckazoids, etc)? Depending on the amount of stuff you want them to buy, either the number of dice, the multiple, or both could change. Want to start them poor, change it to 2d6 x 500 (max cash=6,000). Once they spend money on a few things, it leaves them with a little cash.

 

I wouldn't stress out the money portion, unless there is a reason for precise bookkeeping. In that case, just be consistent with making them pay for each thing they pick up along the way.

[Tom Carman]

Re: Starting Money

 

Here's an idea I came up with to reduce bookkeeping; it hasn't been tested in play. This should work better for campaigns in civilized places, not frontiers.

 

Use Wealth to determine annual income.

1) Expenses of 1% or less are "free", and need no accounting at all.

2) Expenses around 5% are usually fine; roll 3d6 and don't roll "18".

3) At 10% of annual (should be 1/12 for monthly, but I'll simplify), expenditures have a 15- Activation roll.

4) The Activation drops a level each for quarterly, semiannual, and annual. Spending a full year's pay is rolled at 11-.

5) If someone blows their roll, they should wait a game-time month (or week?) for their finanaces to improve before trying again.

[Rapier]

Re: Starting Money

 

Money in Hero is always tricky.

 

In D&D it's real easy, because everything is bought and paid for with cold, hard cash. In Hero, some of the stuff is bought using points and some using cash. You can even spend points to give you MORE CASH!

 

So it's always been a balancing act. There is also the give and take of starting cash vs maintenance cash. Do you have an NPC character you will be playing? Figure out how much stuff he should have for starting. Figure out how much it costs. Adjust it by +- 10% or so to allow some character to spend and others to save.

 

We always had a problem in D&D when your character is "carrying" around 400,000 copper pieces. Money there was TOTALLY useless because the players could always afford anything and never spent any cash on it!

 

Take a look at the Resource Points idea from Dark Champions. It works really well and removes some of the "oomph" from having to price everything out.

[buzz]

Re: Starting Money

 

Take a look at the Resource Points idea from Dark Champions. It works really well and removes some of the "oomph" from having to price everything out.

Ah, good call. I had been toying with the idea, but since the campiagn is pretty much a Traveller/Firefly-style merchant thing, I had this nagging feeling that I needed to use real money. Resource points make sense.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Starting Money

 

Ah' date=' good call. I had been toying with the idea, but since the campiagn is pretty much a Traveller/Firefly-style merchant thing, I had this nagging feeling that I needed to use real money. Resource points make sense.[/quote']Then resource points would go a long way to represent what the characters have while keeping money allowance low. Makes getting what they want as easy or difficult as you want it to be.

[AlHazred]

Re: Starting Money

 

I multiply the amount of money it shows in the Money Perk by 2,000, and I let people start with 10% of their annual income. Of course, I also make cans of Coke cost $200... I like the realism that inflation provides to the campaign...

[Captain Obvious]

Re: Starting Money

 

I multiply the amount of money it shows in the Money Perk by 2' date='000, and I let people start with 10% of their annual income. Of course, I also make cans of Coke cost $200... I like the realism that inflation provides to the campaign...[/quote']

 

Damn, that's some massive inflation! How far in the future is your game set?

 

Edit: although I suppose with the size inflation a lot of junk food products have undergone, maybe a can of Coke runs about 64 ounces...

[AlHazred]

Re: Starting Money

 

Damn' date=' that's some massive inflation! How far in the future is your game set?[/quote']2010.

 

 

Hey, you think that's expensive, you should see the price of gas!