Design Journal Part 3: Economy

Last time I posed the obvious question, "If the characters can't buy magic items, what will they spend their hard-earned gold on?" I don't want a game that feels like previous editions of D&D, where high-level characters simply slept on huge piles of gold because there wasn't anything to do with it but buy a castle or get it stolen by a thief.

The obvious answer, of course, is to dramatically reduce the amount of gold available to a typical character.

My current thought is to do something like the Dark Sun campaign setting did--keep prices the same, but give everybody a fraction of their normal wealth. Characters will start with silver pieces, not gold pieces, and treasure values will be divided by 2, 5, or (most likely) 10 across the board.

A nice thought, sure, but what does it really mean? A fighter typically starts with enough gold to buy a suit of scale mail, a shield, and a couple of weapons, plus miscellaneous gear. If instead of 150 gp, he has 150 sp, that changes in a hurry. A suit of leather armor eats up two-thirds of his starting wealth, leaving him enough for a dagger or shortspear--or, if he splurges, a light mace or greatclub--but not much else. Now *that's* roughing it--low-level characters will be constantly replacing armor and weapons with better items, making the price differences between various types of armor very meaningful. As an example, I'd guess that hide armor will prove extremely popular to low-level characters due to its high AC bonus to gp ratio (1 to 5, as opposed to the chain shirt's measly 1 to 25).

This gives an immediate advantage to those characters who don't need armor and/or weapons (the monk comes to mind, though she'll start with a measly 5d4 sp, so it's not clear that even she will be jumping for joy). Spellcasters won't be able to afford spell component pouches at 1st level, but that's OK since there won't be any 1st-level spellcasters. Most mundane equipment--packs, blankets, rope, and the like--should probably cost 1/10th of the normal price to match this sudden decrease of available cash, though fancy or complex items--locks, tools, and so on--will retain its normal price, becoming very rare in the process. The rogue's first set of thieves' tools will be a treasured item.

This might prove too hindering for low-level characters. Maybe I'll grant each one a single item that represents an inheritance, windfall, or simply a lucky find in their travels. The fighter might start with a battered longsword, the rogue with a set of tools, and the like. We'll see how nice I'm feeling when character generation rolls around, I guess.

As characters advance levels, they'll slowly be able to upgrade their gear. Assuming I give out 1/10th the normal treasure, a 2nd-level fighter could probably afford to trade up to a decent weapon and a suit of scale mail. By 4th level, he might have a masterwork weapon and a breastplate. At this rate, even as high as 9th level, a +1 sword would represent over half his total wealth! Again, maybe that figure's a little too low--I could increase treasure gain to 1/5 normal and I'd probably accomplish a similar result. We'll have to see how it goes.

The end result of all this is that characters will be significantly less powerful. When coupled with the weak spellcasting abilities available, I'll definitely have to adjust the difficulty level of encounters I throw at the PCs. But it also means that every single item the PCs come across is potentially valuable treasure. I've always loved that element of Gamma World, and it's a key part of any post-apocalyptic setting, so I hope it'll have a similar effect here.

OK, we've now covered some of the key elements that concern the characters populating the Land of Umber. Next time I'll talk about some variant rules I plan to incorporate into the game, one of which is designed specifically to have the PCs quaking in their boots...