[CONAN] PC Paycheck

[Supplement Four]

There's a bit of a hidden economic system in the 3.5 game. A PC can throw on his Profession or Craft skill to indicate a weekly wage.

I was thinking of doing this in my game, especially since treasure while adventuring is hard to come by in my universe (note that Conan never had a lot of money, and when he did get some, he usually spent it quickly, leaving him broke again--which means wealth is not easy to come by during the Hyborian Age).

Have any of you GMs out there played around with PC economics over the long term?

Of the two PCs in my game, one is a weaponsmith, while the other is a trapper. I'm thinking of skipping, say, three months or so, off camera, so to speak, than then rolling up some coin for the PCs.

If you've done this before in your games, I'd like to hear how it went. Any pitfalls I should watch out for? What worked well and didn't work so well?





Besides, mini-games like this can be quite fun and great ways to move time forward in a campaign.

 

[Spectator]

I think I would revolt from your playgroup if I had to earn an honest wage, unless my PC had Profession: Pimpin 'Hoes or Profession: Gambling.
Otherwise it sounds dreadfully boring.

"OK Conan, You hear the Roosters crowing, what do you do?"
-Ugghhh wake-up and work again.
"Conan, what else?"
-Dude, He eats some gruel and stale bread, puts on his tunic, shoes, and heads to the shop!!!
"Conan, you arrive at the shop what happens next?"
Dude, I mean GM, The SAM CRAP THAT HAS HAPPPENED FOR THE LAST THREE MONTHS!!!! I MAKE HORSESHOES, day-in and day-out!!!!


Not a good idea.

 

[Supplement Four]

"OK Conan, You hear the Roosters crowing, what do you do?"
-Ugghhh wake-up and work again.
"Conan, what else?"
-Dude, He eats some gruel and stale bread, puts on his tunic, shoes, and heads to the shop!!!
"Conan, you arrive at the shop what happens next?"
Dude, I mean GM, The SAM CRAP THAT HAS HAPPPENED FOR THE LAST THREE MONTHS!!!! I MAKE HORSESHOES, day-in and day-out!!!!

LOL!

I don't aim to make the game boring by any means. But, I do think I'm going to go down this route. I'm not running my game like D&D where there is a lot of treasure. Sometimes, it's costing the PCs to adventure with the supplies they're using up.

But, that fits the Conan stories, eh? There are only a few tales where Conan found a cache of goodies, and when he did, there was usually a huge price that he wasn't willing to play in order to get his hands on the stuff. The Hall of the Dead comes to mind.

And, I don't plan on playing a whole game session with the smith at the forge and the trapper out checking his traps. I plan on saying, "OK, three months went by...let's check and see how much money you made..."

I want that coin to be the characters' main income--where they get the silver (actually, they're on the barter system) to repair and upgrade equipment.

Plus, I like delving into the macro side of this game--I may, later on, once the PCs are much older, play using the Empires book, maybe uniting a couple of the clans and playing with the PCs as clan leaders. But, that's a long time off.

Right now, I'm just interested to see how running a smithy or being a trapper can be instilled in the game in a fun way.

Remember, I ran the first 5 sessions of this campaign with pre-adult, teenager characters, and we never left the village. In those 5 game sessions, we never had a dull moment, from roleplaying with NPCs and story intrigue, to fist fights with the other kids, to sparring with wooden swords and shields, to games of chance and skill at festival.

If I can run 5 interesting game sessions without a moment of real combat, I might be able to incorporate the PC making money through his chosen profession.

 

[Matt_H]

Surely the whole reason they're adventurers is because the returns will always be better raiding and looting, its a free an easy life and you don't have the grind of peasant life!

Have you considered how your weapon smith will even set up a forge for just three months?
Tools, a forge, a customer base.
No one is going to let you borrow those or even hire them as their own livelihood is at risk if they do.
Sure the trapper can bag some good furs as they wander around and maybe encounter bears or wolves, but surely if life was easier and better as a tradesman, then they would settle down and trade. It doesn't work like that though, only the best smiths make good money in big towns...if they're lucky and talented and well established. Every other smith lives at a subsistence level, making the odd shoe or repairing the odd plough blade, whilst working his own garden, doing some hunting etc to make ends meet, or they work for a lord who lodges and feeds them for their work arming the local militia/guard...no profit involved.

So I repeat, adventuring will always return better profit, or you get by until you hit the riches (or maybe your players need to reconsider their looting methods...anything is of value in bulk/in the right place).
Traders just get by for the most part.
So sure, once you are a master smith, renowned across the region after years of tedium, making your name and proving your wares, then your crafting will pay off, until then, keep your blade sharp and your eyes peeled for the money making opportunities that adventure offers.


//edit: you may also want to consider that in the middle ages it wasn't unknown for townsfolk/lieges to hamstring their smith to prevent them leaving. They were sometimes just too valuable an asset to let go!

 

[Supplement Four]

Have you considered how your weapon smith will even set up a forge for just three months?

My campaign is a sandbox focussed on a clan of Cimmerians. The PCs have just become adults and accepted as warriors for the clan. The clan chieftain is also the village smith, and he's the PC's father.

So I repeat, adventuring will always return better profit, or you get by until you hit the riches (or maybe your players need to reconsider their looting methods...anything is of value in bulk/in the right place).

I haven't been stocking my adventures with lots of loot. I've gone "realistic" with that. People are basically poor. Doing the calculations, a good smith or trapper can make a better living than pure adventuring (in my game, so far....everything changes). They're not mercenaries being paid anything. They're barbarians scraping out a living in the cold hills of Cimmeria. Trading should be looking lucrative to them.

 

[Matt_H]

I haven't been stocking my adventures with lots of loot. I've gone "realistic" with that. People are basically poor. Doing the calculations, a good smith or trapper can make a better living than pure adventuring (in my game, so far....everything changes). They're not mercenaries being paid anything. They're barbarians scraping out a living in the cold hills of Cimmeria. Trading should be looking lucrative to them.

So what is their motivation?
I still can't see how defeating the local band of brigands or taking on an enemy tribal raiding party can net them less loot than tradeskills (the enemy are armed right? equiped for travel? maybe have some small armour pieces, clothes? kit? maybe a mount?).

I've gone "realistic" with that. People are basically poor.

Being poor is the biggest incentive NOT to stay at home and work, regardless of the risks and you are proving that your tradeskills are less lucrative than adventuring or the life of a brigand because everyone is dirt poor still.
Shouldn't those new to manhood be proving themselves by raiding rival villages, hunting bears, repelling incursions from the border kingdoms or picts? or even exploring vanaheim for its fabled riches?

I admire your aim, but shouldn't that sort of economical consideration be for NPC's, or as a sideline (like the trapper) that can supplement adventuring whilst out in the field.

 

[Supplement Four]

So what is their motivation?

My campaign is heavily story based.

I admire your aim, but shouldn't that sort of economical consideration be for NPC's, or as a sideline (like the trapper) that can supplement adventuring whilst out in the field.

That is traditional RPG thinking. I want to make the professions strong in my game, though. If they have to go out and adventure, I want them to feel the pain of not having "work".

And, I'd like the reward of putting points into their professions to be rewarding. In this case, if its their primary source of income, they'll want to skip three months and work until the story takes them away again. That's where they'll get the coin to buy new gear.