Wealth

#advantage #disadvantage #character_option #rules_analogue
Social; Variable Cost

Wealth is relative. A middle-class American lives in more luxury than a medieval king, though he may have fewer gold coins in his basement. It all depends on the game world – see Tech Level and Starting Wealth (p. B27). In most worlds, the range of standard starting wealth and income is relatively great, and your skills determine your job and income; see Economics (p. B514) for more information.

Personal wealth is rated in “wealth levels.” A level of “Average” costs no points, and lets you support an average lifestyle for your game world. The rest of these rules apply if you are unusually poor or wealthy, have a source of income that does not require you to work, or are in debt.

• Dead Broke (-25 points): You have no job, no source of income, no money, and no property other than the clothes you are wearing. Either you are unable to work or there are no jobs to be found.
• Poor (-15 points): Your starting wealth is only 1/5 of the average for your society. Some jobs are not available to you, and no job you find pays very well.
• Struggling (-10 points): Your starting wealth is only 1/2 of the average for your society. Any job is open to you (you can be a Struggling doctor or movie actor), but you don’t earn much. This is appropriate if you are, for instance, a 21st-century student.
• Average (0 points): The default wealth level, as explained above.
• Comfortable (10 points): You work for a living, but your lifestyle is better than most. Your starting wealth is twice the average.
• Wealthy (20 points): Your starting wealth is five times average; you live very well indeed.
• Very Wealthy (30 points): Your starting wealth is 20 times the average.
• Filthy Rich (50 points): Your starting wealth is 100 times average. You can buy almost anything you want without considering the cost.
• Multimillionaire (50 points + 25 points/level): “Filthy rich” doesn’t even begin to describe your wealth! For every 25 points you spend beyond the 50 points to be Filthy Rich, increase your starting wealth by another factor of 10: Multimillionaire 1 costs 75 points and gives 1,000 times average starting wealth, Multimillionaire 2 costs 100 points and gives 10,000 times starting wealth, and so on, to a maximum level (usually 3 or 4) set by the GM.

This can also be found on B25.