So, i have been thinking a bit, and i kind of dislike how we handle money at the moment in our CoC game. However, i also don't want it to be just annoying bookkeeping. What do you guys think of basically using a mechanic similar to sanity points for money in the future? That would give some depth to the whole economic side of things, without being too annoying. It would also get away from it just being DM arbitrariness when you can and can't afford something, which might add something to the game.

HystericaLaughter

Australia720 Posts

February 08 2014 15:13 GMT

#623

Similar to the sanity mechanic? Do you mean like you have 50 money and hiring a boat will cost you d10 money?

Simberto

Germany11252 Posts

February 08 2014 16:47 GMT

#624

Basically, my idea was that you get a certain amount of money, as a score between 0 and 100 based on whatever (probably credit rating or something, but i'd think about an implementation that isn't too sudden and leaves you totally without cash). When you want to buy something, i decide on a difficulty/price. So a basic bribe might be x2-x4, while buying a zeppelin might be /2-/4. You then roll (or don't if you can't fail), and if you succeed you lose nothing, if you fail you lose something(d4, d10, d100), making you poorer afterwards. So if you are richy mc richguy, you can basically throw money around unless you want something really expensive without rolling, and if you are a poor guy you'd lose money if you bribe guys.

It's just something i have been thinking about because at the moment the way you are handling money is kind of weird(it worked just fine when we had rich europeans around), but you are also in a situation where it really should matter considering none of you actually have a lot of money, and i kind of dislike the arbitrariness with which i decide what you can and can not buy. Basically, there should be some sort of opportunity cost to constantly spending money on whores and boats.

I like the sanity system idea because it allows us to still handwave simple purchases, while potentially letting you spiral down into debt if you keep on buying zeppelins. And it would allow you to actually buy a zeppelin if you really want to, but give an actual cost to it that you can feel in the future, and then you think "Oh no, why did i buy that zeppelin in China, now i have to starve to death because i can't afford grilled ants in kenya!", while keeping the bookkeeping to a minimum by being sufficiently abstracted.

Murgel

Sweden175 Posts

February 08 2014 20:12 GMT

#625

I agree that the system we currently have isn't optimal, but with your idea, there will still be book keeping, because that value would have to go up and down just like real money depending on what we do. The only difference would be that you have to think up the variables by which it changes instead of using a real number. We wouldn't be able to plan our purchases either, since there's randomness. Strange scenarios could also happen where we roll so well and/or badly that we can afford three zeppelins, but not a boatload of whores, which would, by the way, be a very sad circumstance indeed.

CrazyF1r3f0x

United States2120 Posts

February 08 2014 20:41 GMT

#626

Not going to lie, 3 zeppelins versus a boatload of whores is a pretty hard decision. The best middle ground is honestly 1 zeppelin load of whores, with the zeppelin included obviously.

Simberto

Germany11252 Posts

February 08 2014 20:58 GMT

#627

Yeah, kind of true.

Basically, my main problem is that i don't want a system where you have to keep track of every expense, because that also means that i got to put a price onto everything, from hotel room to Rickshaw guy, and that slows the game down without any gain whatsoever. That basically means that just using money as a number is out of the window and i'd prefer some more abstract way of dealing with it.

However, at this point you are pretty close to the point where you are a group of guys without money hanging around in Shanghai, so some better way then just me saying "yeah you got enough money for this, but you are really running low now" over and over would be useful.

Just having some sort of money percentage stat to roll on doesn't really provide satisfying results in my opinion. If someone has a cool idea for a more abstract ressource system we could use, that is preferably lightweight while still producing reasonable results, that would be nice.

I remember using some weird money system in a FATE Eclipse Phase hack once that worked kind of similar to this. Basically, you had a number that described how rich you were (well, it was not actually money but some kind of favor system, but that is besides the point). That number described what kind of stuff you could get, and for some things you would then need to roll and possibly lose some of that money number afterwards if you fail. I really liked that system, but it also feels utterly out of place in CoC.

Basically, i am looking for something like that, but with a CoC feel to it, so ideally it would somehow use percentile dice etc...which was the point that i realized that the Sanity system basically does the same thing more or less. But i agree it gets a lot less elegant if instead of ~5 levels you suddenly got 100 levels.

CrazyF1r3f0x

United States2120 Posts

February 09 2014 02:54 GMT

#628

I remember using some weird money system in a FATE Eclipse Phase hack once that worked kind of similar to this. Basically, you had a number that described how rich you were (well, it was not actually money but some kind of favor system, but that is besides the point). That number described what kind of stuff you could get, and for some things you would then need to roll and possibly lose some of that money number afterwards if you fail. I really liked that system, but it also feels utterly out of place in CoC.

Why? It sounds like a solid abstract currency system to me.

Simberto

Germany11252 Posts

February 09 2014 03:32 GMT

#629

Because it works completely different then anything in CoC, at least in the details. Fudge dice, small numbers as modifiers, etc...

Basically, i am looking for a way to take that general concept and make it feel like CoC, so preferably something that uses percentile dice and is based on some sort of 0-100 statistic. My first draft was using something similar to how sanity works, but as has been stated by Murgel making the whole thing have hundred steps instead of the ~5 or something it had in FATE would make it require more bookkeeping and feel more clunky.

I think it is important that a rule system generally feels consistent and does not have too many different edge case rules. So in my opinion one should not randomly add a fudge mechanic just for money, the same way you wouldn't want to randomly add d20 combat or something like that.

Anyways, this isn't extremely urgent, it is just something i had been thinking about a bit.

HystericaLaughter

Australia720 Posts

February 09 2014 20:55 GMT

#630

Reeeeeeeep.

dismiss

United Kingdom3341 Posts

February 09 2014 21:01 GMT

#631

I have 14 sticks of dynamite now, teehee.

Xoronius

Germany6362 Posts

February 09 2014 23:04 GMT

#632

So... when we came back from the Island, there were 20 new china guys on the boat. If we add the 4, that died on the island and the 5 (former) PC´s, we had 29 people, for which eating and drinking for the drive back should have been calculated. For the 5 that are left, that should be enough for at least 6 days.

Does anyone have a genius plan, how we get to some kind of land in that amout of time?

HystericaLaughter

Australia720 Posts

February 10 2014 04:20 GMT

#633

There is a reasonable chance the guy you revived can fix the boat.

Murgel

Sweden175 Posts

February 10 2014 05:54 GMT

#634

Was it that bad? I thought it was just the chimney that got smashed, and possibly the problem of being understaffed. Your captain has a compass, a map and can drive a boat straight exactly 50% of the time though, so don't worry, I've got this. If I happen to take a few seemingly irrational turns now and then, that's just to give you guys more time to scrub the decks. Those 30 splattered remains won't remove themselves you know.

CrazyF1r3f0x

United States2120 Posts

February 10 2014 06:22 GMT

#635

At any rate I think getting back to the mainland is small beans compared to destroying the black mistress, we should be fine.

HystericaLaughter

Australia720 Posts

February 10 2014 10:12 GMT

#636

Just realised, my new guy is completely fucked in 12 hours from that green smoke everyone inhaled. I only have 2 hp, and that's if we don't all turn into Deep Ones anyway.

dismiss

United Kingdom3341 Posts

February 10 2014 10:59 GMT

#637

So you better fix the ship quickly. :D

Simberto

Germany11252 Posts

February 10 2014 14:00 GMT

#638

On February 10 2014 14:54 Murgel wrote:
Was it that bad? I thought it was just the chimney that got smashed, and possibly the problem of being understaffed. Your captain has a compass, a map and can drive a boat straight exactly 50% of the time though, so don't worry, I've got this. If I happen to take a few seemingly irrational turns now and then, that's just to give you guys more time to scrub the decks. Those 30 splattered remains won't remove themselves you know.

You didn't really check the engines yet, you were pretty busy dealing with the whole "stop sinking" stuff.

Murgel

Sweden175 Posts

February 10 2014 17:27 GMT

#639

This is your captain speaking again, everyone ignore the above message. Yes, that's an order!

CrazyF1r3f0x

United States2120 Posts

February 10 2014 18:43 GMT

#640

You know what is weird, I've noticed that once a PC dies, often they are the ones to die again, even if they don't act suicidal. Like JP in rollplay, ocne Tudagub died, his next 2 characters had much shorter lives, in my irl campaign some guys wizard died in like the ~6th meeting, then his fighter died in like the ~9th, and then his artificer almost died on the 10th meeting.