Apartment Rent?

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

"Cost of Living" is a nice abstraction, but how does a player account for having an apartment on his homeworld, or on some planet for the sake of his Cover Identity accruing paperwork? A nice table of apartment rents and house costs by population and standard of living would be great.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Where I live. That cost varies a lot just on one street.

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

Where I live. That cost varies a lot just on one street.

For the same "Standard of Living"? Usually costs only vary for different values of "Standard of Living"... then again, that's what "Broker" is for...

 

[phavoc]

There's really never been a scaled cost of living, between worlds, tech levels, stations, etc.

In the CRB 1.0, pgs 86-87 you'll find average costs of living per month for characters (it's based upon their SOC level). But if you were an agent and need to live under cover the expense table would be sufficient to fulfill that. It doesn't break it down as exactly as you posed your question, but pg 86 gives some sample costs that should allow you to extrapolate some basic costs which you can tweak as necessary.

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

I'm referring more to keeping up the appearances of living somewhere, while not actually living there; the sort of legitimate paper trail a cover would need. Individual cost breakdowns are pretty relevant for that sort of thing.

Also, players might bounce between two major worlds on a regular basis for whatever reason, and thus, will want to account for their apartment they're not actually living at.

 

[Condottiere]

Local conditions apply, so Dungeon Masters can set up their customized cost of living indexes and baskets, if they want to make the effort.

 

[phavoc]

I'm referring more to keeping up the appearances of living somewhere, while not actually living there; the sort of legitimate paper trail a cover would need. Individual cost breakdowns are pretty relevant for that sort of thing.

Also, players might bounce between two major worlds on a regular basis for whatever reason, and thus, will want to account for their apartment they're not actually living at.

Simply apply the same expense percentages you have here to simulate your reality. With no way of determining future costs that is the best method of applying realism to fiction.

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

Simply apply the same expense percentages you have here to simulate your reality. With no way of determining future costs that is the best method of applying realism to fiction.

What percentage of what? Advice this vague isn't helpful; and without a rule in the book, your advice does no good. Please state what you think the rule should be, rather than just giving vague advice.

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

What percentage of what? Advice this vague isn't helpful; and without a rule in the book, your advice does no good. Please state what you think the rule should be, rather than just giving vague advice.

Sounds like you know the answers already. Why are you asking for help about vague rent anyway?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Where I live. That cost varies a lot just on one street.

For the same "Standard of Living"? Usually costs only vary for different values of "Standard of Living"... then again, that's what "Broker" is for...

Learn how renting works.

 

[phavoc]

Simply apply the same expense percentages you have here to simulate your reality. With no way of determining future costs that is the best method of applying realism to fiction.

What percentage of what? Advice this vague isn't helpful; and without a rule in the book, your advice does no good. Please state what you think the rule should be, rather than just giving vague advice.

I am not sure why you cannot answer your own question here. How much does the average person spend in rent, utilities, food and clothing? All percentages easily looked up by market and nation. Putting that level of detail is immaterial to the game itself. The game already creates an economic model that doesn't have a real world equivalent, which is ok since you play games to escape reality.

If your players are in a major metropolitan city you can use expense example from Moscow to Tokyo to Bangkok to Houston. Hell, if you want more "realism" simply consult the GSA tables for cost reimbursement and per diem for specific cities.

It need not be perfect, just close enough for your purposes.

 

[muzzlehead]

I believe Traveler 5 has a 'Rent Maker' algorithm with 18 seperate flowcharts that includes low district rent control on Volcanic planets with and/or without shifting tectonic plates.

I have found the High Adventure of the Far Future is never complete without rent control missions and mishaps at off site storage lockers that raise rental fees that you fail to pay while slaying slum lords

 

[chiron0224]

I believe Traveler 5 has a 'Rent Maker' algorithm with 18 seperate flowcharts that includes low district rent control on Volcanic planets with and/or without shifting tectonic plates.

I have found the High Adventure of the Far Future is never complete without rent control missions and mishaps at off site storage lockers that raise rental fees that you fail to pay while slaying slum lords

Oh my god, too funny. That T5. Anyhow the way I see it the need for a "cover identity apartment" is a little specific for a core rule book but if I was refereeing the game I would consider that housing is part of the standard of living calculation. Since most apartments require you to make 3x the rent to apply you could pick a standard of living for your false identity and pay a third of it's upkeep since you aren't feeding or clothing this false person. That's how I would house rule it for that one off case for a player but to me it doesn't seem like it's something common enough to justify it's own official rule. But that's just my .02

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

It's not just the cover identity; it's also the player that keeps an apartment to return home to, or someone who keeps a safehouse. There are plenty of use-cases.

Yes, apartment cost is part of planetside living expenses; that's the problem; which part? How much?

 

[Tenacious-Techhunter]

Learn how renting works.

Learn how constructive criticism works.

 

[CosmicGamer]

It's not just the cover identity; it's also the player that keeps an apartment to return home to, or someone who keeps a safehouse. There are plenty of use-cases.

Yes, apartment cost is part of planetside living expenses; that's the problem; which part? How much?

How much is a bear at the local watering hole? A whiskey, an order of wings, a new pair of pants, a dinner jacket, a night at a fleabag hotel, a night at a nice hotel, a suite at the grande hotel... an apartment...

Lets set aside any debate over the need for such info and acknowledge that for some people, like most of my gaming, this type of stuff would come up far more often than something like the cost of a new vehicle - could use the cost of a used one, and the cost to rent.

In some versions of Traveller there has been a real world to Traveller currency "exchange rate" given. I don't recall if such is included in this version. If not, suggestions of what you think it should be is likely what the OP and others would find useful.

 

[FallingPhoenix]

In Russia, you don't drink bears, the bears drink you!

 

[phavoc]

It's not just the cover identity; it's also the player that keeps an apartment to return home to, or someone who keeps a safehouse. There are plenty of use-cases.

Yes, apartment cost is part of planetside living expenses; that's the problem; which part? How much?

It is impossible to provide that level of detail across a star empire. The game already eliminates other concepts such as currency fluctuation. Even simple economic theory tells you that you cannot mix a capitalistic trade system with a mono-currency across multiple locations and tech levels with no change in value. Also there is no cost differential stated for living ONPLANET vs. OFFPLANET - when we all know that if you have to import nearly all of your goods that costs for said goods is much greater. You need not look any further than Hawaii or Alaska (for the US) to see economics in action.

The books already state how much the average expenses are by your SOC level. Any person can pay UP or DOWN the table to make it look like they are more or less important. That gives you a baseline expense ratio.

As I said previously you can easily look up the average cost in rent (Google is your friend here) in any major city in the world. You can also find out what kind of expenses are "typical" for travellers in these same cities. Dig a bit further and you can find websites that list actual costs.

It would be downright silly for the core books to go into this sort of detail. It can be easily determined by tossing out a reasonable percentage. What you seek cannot be created because there are far too many variables. If you want more realism with your estimates you've been given the path to go forth and create them.

 

[parker15]

ShawnDriscoll
Learn how renting works.

Hello Shawn,
Learn how Private landlords that accept DSS.
Thanks
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Jeraa]

Edit: And I just noticed this thread died a year and a half ago, so I seriously doubt there will be a reply. Especially considering the person who bumped it one has a single post, and a link to a non-existent site so it may be spam.

An apartment in the middle of a big city is generally more expensive than the exact same apartment would be on the edge of town. A tiny apartment in the middle of a major city is generally far more expensive than a large more luxurious one in the middle of nowhere. A middle of the road apartment in a developed country may be highly luxurious in some third world location. There is no standard. There are too many variables. The only good way to do it is just to pick a price that sounds good.

And that is just for real-world places. Once you start getting to exotic locations typical of sci-fi, it gets even more complicated. An apartment on one of the few land masses of an ocean world is probably going to be far more expensive than one in sealed undersea habitat (you pay a premium for fresh air and sandy beaches, even if the actual apartment is the same). Rents may be higher on hostile worlds, as even the air needs to be imported (everything would be more expensive).

While population levels do play a part, you can't base it off planet population. Is that population spread thinly across the whole planet, or bunched together in a few large cities? That will have an impact on costs.