Handling Riches and Wealth

In the third edition, the Simulacrum’s social attributes were changed to use the new Characteristics mechanics. These were Education ([adverb] Learnèd), Relationships ([adverb] Sociable), and Riches ([adverb] Wealthy).

In this post, I want to go over my ideas for handling wealth and purchases.

As with other Characteristics, Wealthy is measured from Not (1) to Very (5). Rather than counting the currency, the measurement is an abstract composite of income, credit rating and savings. Not Wealthy means the character is broke and homeless, while Very Wealthy means the character is listed on Forbes’ Billionaires List.

Likewise, purchases are abstract. To make a purchase, the character makes a Wealthy check at Difficulty equal to the item’s Expensive attribute. This ranges from Not Expensive to Very Expensive. If the check fails, then the character cannot buy the item at that time. A Fumble reduces Wealthy by one level, which must be regained in play.

Riches are useful for funding the party’s occult adventures, but also a double edged sword. The wealthier a character is and the more conspicuous their consumption, the more they’ll attract sycophants, con artists, creditors, brokers, and secret society agents looking to prey on such wealth. It’s impossible to fully conceal wealth in modern globalized society, so paparazzi will come out of the woodwork to harass the character and create complications regardless of how reclusively they live.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What are the decans?

Image
In astrology, the zodiac signs  are ruled by particular planets  and divided into  three decans per sign  as shown on the figure below:  In the French 3e supplement  Codex des Ar-Kaïm , the concept of Decans is introduced as an additional way to define a character's personality. Each House has its own emotional nature, further modified by the character's Decan. All Houses have three Decans, except for Serpentarius that has none. In other words, the combination of House and Decan serves a similar role to the Nephilim's Metamorphosis. In the US version, this would be represented by BRP's Passions (or Personality Traits as they're labeled in Chronicle of the Awakenings ). I'm still trying to figure out how to integrate Passions into the Ar-Kaïm rules, as Ar-Kaïm lack metamorphoses but the concept overlaps heavily with the Essences mechanic (i.e. their magic points). Ar-Kaïm display environmental manifestations as a result of their Essence values and ...
Read more

"Reverie" as a new degeneration for Ar-Kaïm?

In the character creation for Ar-Kaïm, during the Past step the note determines how much of their mortal life the character remembers. Apprentice means they have total amnesia, Journeyman means they remember only dreams and confuse it with reality, and Master means no memory loss. However, this section contradicts the rest of the book(s): Ar-Kaïm don't suffer any Skill loss and amnesia is never mentioned in their lore. I suspect this text was leftover from an earlier draft as an oversight. It obviously creates problems for roleplaying so I can understand why it was revised. However, the Ar-Kaïm Codex has a short story where the narrator briefly mentions she sometimes has difficulty distinguishing dreams from reality. This inspired me to imagine a new degeneration just for Ar-Kaïm, one I tentatively call "Reverie." Ar-Kaïm have a close bond to the Astral and to the dreams of humanity. The idea behind Reverie is that it represents a loss of control and identity as a result ...
Read more

What are the Minor Tablets?

In the third edition Gamemaster's Screen , the Quest for the Cycle of Destiny is introduced. (The fanzine  Vision-Ka  #3  specifies on p41 that this Quest is one and the same as the Arcane Quest of The Magician.) The goal of this quest is to acquire and study the Minor Tablets, crafted by Akhenaton as supplements to the 22 Major Arcana Trumps. The purpose of these Minor Tablets is to help mortals reach Agartha. There are four Minor Arcana  in total: The Wand (Fire), The Cup (Water), The Sword (Air) and The Coin (Earth). Keen-eyed readers may notice that the symbolism of the suits correspond loosely to the traditional magical tools (see Liber Ka p52). By pursuing this quest, the Nephilim is better able to understand their Simulacrum's Solar-Ka: they can boost their chances of Critical Success based on their Solar-Ka, retain player control during Shouit seizures rather than handing control to the GM, and develop Solar Resistance through initiation into a Minor Arcanum...
Read more