RE: [DL] Money: How much is too much?

["Derek D. Bass" <wangenstein@mad.scientist.com>]

Maybe sending them West will drain them of their excess money. Prices in the
Gold Rush skyrocketed as demand far exceeded supply. I can't remember exact
figures for prices, but I know that prices for basic supplies like food or
shelter were outrageous. I imagine that the Ghost Rush would experience a
similar inflation of prices... You could get them out there and have
something happen to their horses and supplies, then make them have to
reoutfit at the inflated prices of the Maze. (Ever see Mad Max: Beyond
Thunderdome? Something along those lines...)If it suddenly costs them
$50-100 per day per posse member for food, shelter, ammunition, repairs,
haircuts, dentistry, etc., a $500 bounty will be necessary just to keep them
going...

You could also start specifying the quality of the goods they're getting.
Would common thugs have the best equipment, or just whatever they could find
or steal off someone else? Maybe that horse is one step away from lame, or
that saddle's just barely holding itself together. They have to find someone
to buy the stuff, and if the stuff they get isn't worth anything, they're
out of luck...

BTW, do all these characters have the "Greedy" Hinderance? If not, it sounds
like they should...

Derek "Squeeze that dollar 'till it screams" D. Bass


_______________________________________________
In my campaign, my players pick up everything that isn't nailed down and
sell it off at the next opportunity.  I'm talking guns, horses, found mad
science, stuff like that.  This is causing them to garner vast sums of
wealth relative to the average annual income.

For instance, the posse goes up against 8 mounted thugs.  When the smoke
clears, there are 8 dead or captured thugs and 8 horses free for the taking.
They sell the 8 horses for half-book, or $75 each.  They sell the guns (they
have an aversion to single-action, but that's a different post), gun belts,
saddles, everything they can think of.  They collect bounty on the bad guys
if there is one.  Even if they don't know whether there is or not, they
always check.

From a player perspective, this is all reasonable.  When you get the chance
you milk it for all it's worth.  But from my Marshall perspective, it's a
problem because if they're too rich, a $500 bounty on some guy's head isn't
going to set them off on an adventure.

I know this is an old problem, and the old answer is "get them to spend it."
But if each time they shoot up some bad guys they get maybe $90 per bad guy,
and rooms cost $1 a night, it's hard to get them to spend it fast enough.
And I can't send human bad guys after them without the standard
accoutrements.  (They haven't gone up against many powerful but cash-poor
monsters yet because I'm easing them into it.)

What can I do?  Or am I worrying too much?


To unsubscribe, send a message to esquire@gamerz.net with
unsubscribe deadlands
as the BODY of the message.  The SUBJECT is ignored.

_______________
______________________________________________
FREE Personalized Email at Mail.com
Sign up at http://www.mail.com/?sr=signup