This post is part of a series where I put forth a challenge for bloggers to answer all 100 questions on this table by d4 Caltrops. This week I rolled a 40.
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40. How much are Lifestyle Expenses for your PCs "Between Adventures?"
Since I'm running DCC, I simply require PCs to carry around rations to keep themselves going. They're listed on the equipment table at 5cp per day's worth, which implies they're supposed to be spending that money. If they have a place to sleep, there isn't much more for them to worry about in terms of upkeep.
This question has led me to wonder if it would be better to replace rations with a general lifestyle expenses system instead. It seems logical to have rations apply to the wilderness and expenses apply to extended stays, but perhaps it's better not to get bogged down in too many systems.
I have considered taking something from AD&D and having characters spend a flat rate per level as lifestyle expenses. Let's call it 1gp per CL per week. This is a fair bit more expensive than rations (even at level 1), but if you hand out treasure as frequently as it's found in the modules, this should create a rate of wealth decay that is enough to motivate seeking treasure but not enough to incur crippling debt if the PCs take a couple weeks' downtime to heal, study, or whatever else you do in your downtime. It scales well; higher-level PCs need more time and money to heal but will also be able to seek greater treasures to tide them over.
My players also have a stable of characters (the other survivors of the funnel) in the starting town who are, while the main party have been adventuring, managing a farm. Do these guys have upkeep costs too? If anything, they should probably have income. I have previously told my players that they can spend their off-time working for a pittance, so I've been assuming that's exactly what those characters have been doing all this time. Presumably they still have expenses of some kind, but they are overall making a slight profit. Let's add a corollary: If you are spending your time working, you do not pay lifestyle expenses.
While writing this I noticed that in all the rules and discussions I've read about this topic, I've never seen anyone answer (or even ask) an important question: What happens when you can't pay? There could be a few reasons for this. Perhaps in practice players don't actually run out of money. This seems likely, given the prevalence of Judges looking for moneysinks for their players.
A more interesting potential reason is that it doesn't actually matter what happens. You don't need anything to happen. The PCs are now broke, and for many adventures that is the reason to go out adventuring in the first place. You could roleplay through the starving adventurers begging on the streets for food and a place to sleep, but more than likely they'll quickly seek a better opportunity - and a good Judge should place that opportunity directly in their path! If it all goes wrong and the players can't make a buck to pay for their expensive lifestyles, well, that's just an easy call-to-adventure. And if they're lost in the wilderness with no resources, the adventure has already started.
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Someone else joined me on this journey! This week, Theo over at Bombgoblin talked about drugs and it's a wild ride. If I told you what the drug is, it would only raise more questions. I strongly recommend checking this one out.
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