Wealth Levels

[Tom Kalbfus]

Started this topic off as the Red Shirt Rule, but then it wandered onto Wealth Levels, so I'll start a new thread here:

One can introduce the concept of Wealth Levels instead, substitute credits for experience points.
Basically one's fighting ability is augmented by what one can buy or who one can hire. After a while, the characters become remote command figures who direct the movement of troops and ships in mass combat, but rarely engage in personal combat themselves. Admittedly, this is the way things work in the real world as well. The wealth levels continue beyond 20th level, there are people who rule planets, subsectors etc. Probably beyond 20th level, the character should retire.

Wealth
Level
1st Cr. 50,000 Cr. 400/month Very Poor
2nd Cr. 100,000 Cr. 800/month Poor
3rd Cr. 200,000 Cr. 1500/month Good
4th Cr. 600,000 Cr. 5000/month Rich
5th Cr. 1,440,000 Cr. 12,000/month Very Rich
6th MCr. 2.4 Cr. 20,000/month Ludicrously Rich
7th MCr. 5 Cr. 41,000/month
8th MCr. 10 Cr. 83,000/month
9th MCr. 24 Cr. 200,000/month
10th MCr. 50 Cr. 410,000/month
11th MCr. 100 Cr. 830,000/month
12th MCr. 256 MCr. 2.13/month
13th MCr. 500 MCr 4.16/month
14th MCr. 1,000 MCr 8.33/month
15th MCr. 2,400 MCr 20/month
16th MCr. 5,000 MCr 41.6/month
17th MCr. 10,000 MCr 83.3/month
18th MCr. 25,600 MCr 213.3/month
19th MCr. 50,000 MCr 416.6/month
20th MCr. 100,000 MCr 833.3/month

You can use this table to determine what kind of opponents the PCs will have, that is, their opponents will be of similar wealth levels to the PCs. At high levels you end up with space battles between the forces of the PCs and their enemies.

How does that sound as the basis of a Traveller campaign? Probably at around 20th level, the PCs become planetary governors in some frontier districts.

To get an idea of what kind of ship a party of four can afford at various levels there is this table
Wealth
Level
1st
2nd
3rd
4th
5th Launch, Ship's Boat,
6th Scout/Courier, Seeker, Free Trader, Pinnace, Shuttle, Modular Cutter
7th Far Trader, Yacht, Serpent Police Cutter,
8th Subsidized Merchant, Laboratory Ship, Corsair
9th Gazelle Close Escort, Heavy Freighter.
10th MCr. 50 Cr. 410,000/month Mercenary Cruiser, my 1600-ton Lab ship design (forthcoming)
11th Capital Starships using the High Guard Rules
12th Capital Starships using the High Guard Rules
13th Capital Starships using the High Guard Rules
14th Capital Starships using the High Guard Rules
15th Capital Starships using the High Guard Rules
16th Capital Starships using the High Guard Rules
17th Capital Starships using the High Guard Rules
18th Capital Starships using the High Guard Rules
19th Capital Starships using the High Guard Rules
20th Capital Starships using the High Guard Rules

So what are the goals of your Traveller campaign? One possible goal is simply to become filthy rich bastards with their own fleets of ships, and perhaps the governorship of a planet.

 

[Egil Skallagrimsson]

Of course, in Trav the players could start many points up the wealth and/or experience scale.

To be honest, if you want to build a campaign around these rather mechanist ideas, then go ahead, and it will be interesting to hear how you get on. Personally, this, and the experience based gain of "red shirts" in your other thread, all seems rather limiting. Why not run a campaign where the players already start as very rich and very important people, admirals, intergalactic nobles, world leaders etc, and build the adventures around that? Deneb sector would be a very good area to try this, but could work well in much of the Spinward Marches. If that's the game you and your players want, just go for it without tediously plodding through a sequence of adventures to "power up" the PCs.

By the by, are you going to increase the characters Soc in line with their increasing wealth?

Egil

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

Of course, in Trav the players could start many points up the wealth and/or experience scale.

To be honest, if you want to build a campaign around these rather mechanist ideas, then go ahead, and it will be interesting to hear how you get on. Personally, this, and the experience based gain of "red shirts" in your other thread, all seems rather limiting. Why not run a campaign where the players already start as very rich and very important people, admirals, intergalactic nobles, world leaders etc, and build the adventures around that? Deneb sector would be a very good area to try this, but could work well in much of the Spinward Marches. If that's the game you and your players want, just go for it without tediously plodding through a sequence of adventures to "power up" the PCs.

By the by, are you going to increase the characters Soc in line with their increasing wealth?

Egil

I think social standing can be bought, just bribe the right nobles, as it is also handed out as awards for heroic deeds done for the Imperium and so forth Generally each rank comes with property and so forth. A knight probably gains a district on a certain planet from which he obtains a stipend obtained from the taxpayers of that region in support of that particular knight. A Baron governs a region of a planet, a count an entire planet/system, a Duke governs multiple systems up to a subsector perhaps in certain parts of the Imperium, an Archduke a sector What do you think, sound about right. Probably a Player Character wouldn't get any higher than being a Count/Planetary governor, the population on the planet probably has combined 10 to 100 times the count's wealth.

 

[Rick]

I do believe you may be reinventing the wheel again, Tom; you may find some of these ideas are in the Dynasty book, or your ideas overlap with it. The higher up your wealth table you go, the more likely you are to become a dynastic power and that is the right area for that book.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

I do believe you may be reinventing the wheel again, Tom; you may find some of these ideas are in the Dynasty book, or your ideas overlap with it. The higher up your wealth table you go, the more likely you are to become a dynastic power and that is the right area for that book.

Do they actually pay for their noble titles? For example, if one wants to be a count, would one pay Cr100,000,000,000 to a Duke, an Arch Duke, or the Emperor? I'd say not every planet has a ruling count. There are on average 40 systems per subsector, the ones that are Feudal Technocracies have ruling counts as the chief executive. So basically a character has Cr100,000,000,000 in cash, pays that amount to a Duke the Duke gives him title to a planet and Star System, which is the property of the Imperium, not all planets within the Imperium are. So out of a subsector of 40 planets, maybe 5 are Feudal technocracies, one of which is the home planet of the ruling Duke of the Subsector, the other 4 are ruled by counts, so basically the player would buy the planet and system and the title of count comes with it, so he would be down Cr100,000,000,000 and gains an income stream from the taxpayers of that planet in the amount of Cr833,000,000 per month, does that sound about right? With that money, the player can buy one Mercenary Cruiser a month, and have some cash left over for high living. The Cr833,000,000 can be thought of as that planet's monthly defense budget, as the Count is in charge of that planet's defense What sort of fleet can you purchase and pay for with Cr833,000,000 a month? Probably the large ships would be financed through the sale of treasury bonds, and the Count would be responsible for paying the interest on them until those bonds mature.

 

[Rick]

It's a bit more complicated than that. An equally valid situation is one where the title is real, but the position is a mere figurehead; all of the power and influence is wielded behind the scenes by a shadowy dynastic group. Any attempt to wrest power back to the nobles family would result in a clandestine war between the 2 groups. Dynasty is well worth a look if you are interested in those sort of campaigns.

 

[Tom Kalbfus]

It's a bit more complicated than that. An equally valid situation is one where the title is real, but the position is a mere figurehead; all of the power and influence is wielded behind the scenes by a shadowy dynastic group. Any attempt to wrest power back to the nobles family would result in a clandestine war between the 2 groups. Dynasty is well worth a look if you are interested in those sort of campaigns.

Okay, what if the Dynastic group attempts to assassinate a Duke, the PCs foil the plot, and so are awarded a planet and the Title of Count, to replace the Count who was killed in the assassination attempt? That's a good way to get started, Similar to Dune isn't it. The Dynasty will attempt tp assassinate the PCs, and sponsor various threats to the planet to wrest control away from the Duke's allies.

 

[Rick]

Not much like Dune really, lol!
Forgive me if it seems like I'm pushing the Dynasty book on you, I'm not, but if these are the types of campaigns that you like, then you may get loads of ideas out of it. There is a lot more beyond just the wealth - power, influence, media or religious control, military, power bases, assets and how to use them all against other groups. Some of it you may not need, like how to develop a dynasty over a long period, but it could certainly be useful. Think of it as a D&D 'Kingdom generator'!
In the scenario, they might try dirty tricks to discredit the new Duke, attack his sources of wealth or undermine his influence with the population, only in a last resort might they need to use direct action.