The following mechanic is for a game that includes players who prefer freeform and players who prefer dice structure. It is an abstract compromise intended to avoid bean counting. I've brought it here in the hope of getting some decent feedback on the system, to figure out whether it's robust or whether there are hidden flaws in it.

Thanks in advance.

Wealth and Social Climbing.
The following rules cover all aspects of a character’s class, status, wealth, spending and jockeying for social position. All of this is contained in a few pages of rules that iron out to a few simple rolls. It’s easier than it looks.

Social Level.
Characters have a Social Level (SL) according to the following table. Initial SL is determined at creation and may go up or down with changing fortunes. A character’s current Social Level is determined by three factors - the accumulation (or loss) of Wealth, Status Symbols, and Favours.

* In feudal times, the position of Gentle(wo)man is taken by Knight Bachelor, who must be knighted, but needs no lands.

Wealth.
Characters have a Wealth Level (WL) that is usually equal to their SL. It is almost impossible to function with a WL more than one point below SL, [and WL is only permitted to be above SL while Status Symbols are catching up ???]

Wealth is gained or lost via business transactions. Some of these may be played out, others will occur ‘offstage’. 1D6 Dice rolls will determine the results of such transactions. Wealth Rolls are made on three occasions:
1 When an IC transaction arises in the course of play.
2 A compulsory weekly ‘Pocket Money’ transaction*.
3 A compulsory monthly 'Upkeep’ transaction, along with lackey upkeep and mortgage rolls if applicable. Voluntary monthly transactions such as the purchase of Status Symbols may also be necessary.
* If an important IC transaction roll fails, instead of the compulsory weekly roll, a re-roll of the IC transaction may be made, denoting a late arrival of the money. If the transaction was not time-sensitive, this may enable it to take place a few days late.

All transactions relate to the following table:

You must roll under the degree of expenditure to make a transaction. A natural 6 is an auto fail, a natural 1 is an auto success. Each time you roll an autofail you get a -1 DM on all subsequent rolls within that transaction period. Each autosuccess gains a +1 DM. If the only way you can make any transaction is with an autosuccess, you move down a Wealth Band. If the only way you can fail to make any transaction is with an autofail, you move up a band.

If your Wealth Level is higher than your Social Level you succeed in any Wealth rolls unless you autofail, (except those related to Status Symbols). If your Wealth Level is below your Social Level, you can only succeed on a roll with an autosuccess.

The GM may apply DMs to a Wealth Roll at any time as a result of situations arising in play.

Obviously, if your WL is below your SL, you’re on the slippery slope of accumulating negative DMs on every roll unless you autosucceed, reducing your WL even further. There are only two ways to avoid this - live within your means by liquidating your Status Symbols, thereby reducing your SL to match your WL, or take out a loan.

A loan will allow you to keep living at your current Status and will give you a clean slate, wiping out all the negative DMs imposed by roll failures, but it has to be paid off in 1D6 months. Repaying a loan is a Capital expense and if you fail to repay it you drop two wealth levels and nobody will give you a loan to stop it. You can’t take out another loan for a year and a day. You will almost certainly have to drop two Status levels to become financially stable.

You can save up for planned expenditures by making every transaction for a month, including your upkeep roll, at a chosen negative DM. You may then use that as a positive DM on the roll for the planned transaction at the end of the month. You may save to pay off a loan, too. You can defer such payments over several months and add together the DMs for each month. eg, if you have three months to pay off a loan, you could take a -2 DM for the first month and a -1 DM for each of the next two months and gain a +4DM to pay off the loan when it is due. You cannot save more than a +6 DM.

General household staff and servants are paid for as part of general upkeep. Special hirelings are paid for as specific transactions - the Upkeep of a dozen assassins would be impossible for a peasant, a Major expense for a knight, but may be pocket money for a King. If the hirer fails a roll, there will be IC consequences for both parties. Loyalties may be tested and the hireling may not be able to meet his own upkeep roll... A Lackey is usually a Pocket expense.

Status Symbols.
Status Symbols are possessions that exemplify your Social Level, and are essential to society’s acceptance of your SL. The Status Symbols relating to each Social Level are given in the Social Level table above.

Passage from one Social Level to another therefore has two requirements:
1. The person must have a Wealth Level equal to the higher Social Level.
2. The person must have all of the Status Symbols indicative of the higher Social Level.
Increase of Wealth Level is handled above. Some Status Symbols may be bought as Capital Investments at certain Wealth Levels, others must be acquired In Play.


Estates are primary status symbols. Land and property such as annexing a field or building an extra mill is Capital expenditure, but land and property suitable for a home or base of operations needs to be something more. This will require a Capital spend for a down payment, then a -1DM on your Upkeep for the next 1D10+20 years. Further Capital purchases will each pay off a year’s mortgage.
If you are buying a property for the next Wealth Band up, ie buying a Status Symbol in advance, you will need to make two consecutive Capital downpayments and a -2DM until your Status rises. (or a Routine Upkeep and a Significant Mortgage. Which is easiest, one roll of 5+ or one 3+ and one 4+? Make it easy for them.) You will be unable to pay off any mortgage capital until you rise.
If you are buying a property for the next band down, your purchase is a simple Capital expenditure and your Mortgage is pocket money. You can pay off 2 years mortgage with a Capital expenditure.

Favours.
Favours are a form of payment in kind that may be owed to you for services rendered, for heroic actions, or may simply be begged (toadying).

Favours may be obtained by two means:
1. A character may perform an IC action that the GM agrees will result in someone owing them a favour - or them owing someone else a favour.
2. A character may toady for favour. This is partially role play and partially purchase. The character will have to spend significant time in the target’s presence (a month doing little else) and will have to spend money on wooing them (as for courtship). A favour from your own SL is a Major Transaction, one from the level above is a Capital Transaction, and from a level below is a Routine Transaction, but if you fail in ‘toadying down’, you incur a -1 DM on your Wealth rolls for the next month as you have to spend time and money on the social circuit to retain your status after fraternizing with riff raff.

There are three grades of favour: Offer, Onus, Obligation.
An Offer is something that is trivial to the giver. An introduction, a reference or recommendation, a pocket money gift, a patronage, etc.
An Onus will require the giver to go out of his way or take some risk to pay it off.
An Obligation is a major undertaking by which the giver will do anything in his power to grant the request even if it places him at great risk.
The GM will decide which grade of Favour is owed for a particular deed. The Level of Favour will be the giver's SL.

Favours may be given, received and exchanged. There is an accepted exchange rate in society: An Obligation is worth 5 Onuses, an Onus is worth 5 Offers. If someone owes you an Obligation and you ask them for an Onus, they will oblige, but they no longer owe you an Obligation, they owe you another four Onuses. Favours may be traded up to higher Social Levels, losing a grade per level. A Wealthy Tradesman who owes an Obligation and who is owed an Onus from a Merchant (perhaps via toadying), may pay off his Obligation by requiring the merchant to transfer his Onus to the other party.

Favours may be cashed in as DMs on a roll. An Offer of the same level is +1, an Onus is +2 and an Obligation is +3. Or, they may be used in RP to provide assistance in kind. Each difference in Level will alter the Favour’s DM by 1.


Example 1:
Vanda is a peasant adventurer, of Social Level (SL) 2. Vanda breaks her sword in combat and needs to buy another in-game. The GM decides that for a peasant, a sword is a Major Transaction. Vanda must roll 2 or less on 1D6 to buy a new sword. If she rolled 2, she would have her sword and may have money left to buy other things. However, she rolls 6. Vanda does not have enough money available to make the purchase at this time. Unfortunately, this natural 6 means that she finds herself so short of money that she has to  take a -1 DM on all subsequent Wealth rolls for the remainder of the week.

Example 2:
At the end of the week, Vanda must make a compulsory Pocket Money roll (to ensure a little instability for her SL). She would need to roll 5 or less on 1D6 or suffer a -1 DM for subsequent rolls for the rest of the month.
However, Vanda bravely elects instead to up her stake and re-roll for a sword. She rolls 1, which is adjusted to 2 because of her negative DM from her previous failed roll. Obviously she has had an (offstage) windfall during the week and now has just enough money to buy a sword.
Vanda will need to make pocket money rolls at the end of each week.

Example 3:
At the end of the month, Vanda must make a compulsory Upkeep roll as she pays for her food, clothes and lodging. As she has been in the field all month, the GM decides that she hasn’t had to pay for lodgings and awards her a +1 DM which cancels out the previous negative DM. She rolls 4 and can pay for her Upkeep this month.

However, Vanda also has a Lackey, and needs to spend Pocket Money on the Lackey’s Upkeep, too. She rolls a 6. She hasn’t enough money left to pay her Lackey, and she’s in dire straits, the natural 6 imposing another -1 DM for the whole of the next month, since it was rolled on an end of month roll.

Fortunately, earlier in the month, she helped out a couple of peasants, and is owed 2 Offer Favours. The GM agrees that the peasants Offer her some geese which she can sell to pay her lackey (first +1 Favour converts 6 to 5) and to offset her debts (second +1 Favour removes -1 DM). Vanda is back in the black.

If Vanda didn’t have those Favours, she could have tried re-rolling for her Lackey Upkeep with the -1 DM and risk increasing that DM, or she could let the Lackey go. (Or perhaps engage in some RP to charm him into staying on for no pay).

The only ‘bean counting’ for players in this mechanic is that they must record their current SL, WL, Wealth Roll DMs, Status Symbols, and Favours owed and owing - four numbers and two descriptions:

Vanda the Fighter
SL = 2
WL = 2
Wealth Roll DMs = 0 this week, 0 this month.
Status Symbols = Backpack assets and rent for lodgings.
Favours = None owed, none owing.

I like where you are going with this, but I don't like where it is now. If the goal is to create a middle ground system between bean counting and hand waving, this doesn't work. It's every bit as a crunchy, perhaps moreso, than the basic addition and subtraction that Vanda would face is she simply bought the sword with coins. I like the way that the mechanic works, but as it is now, it isn't as simple as the stated goal requires it to be. That part about equating favors to debts made my eyes lose focus. Could you maybe streamline this system more? I could see you combining Wealth and Social into a single stat called Status. Alternatively, I could see you editing out the status symbols rule altogether.

Thanks for the feedback, Chupabob. :)

Yes, the idea is to create a middle ground between bean counting and hand waving. I could perhaps streamline it, but I worry that might make it too hand-wavy.

I'm not sure that the simple counting up to six that is required with this system is quite as crunchy as counting hundreds or thousands of coins. Buying a sword is a very simple transaction. Mortgaging a house whilst paying off a debt would be much more involved with cash, but here, it's reduced to just another DM on 1D6.

My thinking was that it avoids endless price lists of equipment, provisions, property, transport, etc, all of which have to be balanced to ensure that the rich are not too powerful and the poor are not denied progress. This system is the same at all levels, so is automatically balanced.

I could maybe look at the favour exchange system again and make it less eye-watering. Cashing in favours is never going to be a simple process in any system, but maybe I can make it easier.

I think I would need to keep the status symbols, as they are what prevent people from rocketing up the ladder by 'successfully' buying a packet of bubble gum six times every day. The status symbols require players to make difficult capital rolls in order to improve themselves. Unless I can come up with an alternative.

Oooookay, I get it now. The thing that you really want to get past are the price sheets which are found in the equipment section of most rules books. That makes sense. For that specific goal, this system is a success.

It's not just a matter of deleting price lists, but on reflection, I think you're right - it's still crunchy but in the wrong ways.

Thanks for the feedback. It's had the desired effect of making me re-appraise the whole thing.

I've updated the system so that there is just a Status level and a linked Wealth level in a more conventional gains structure. There is a simplified loans system and I've kept, but simplified, the Favours (cos I like them).

Although the structure is now more conventional, it sort of weighs beans rather than counting them. :)

I was somewhat intrested to see the lifestyle levels in 5th ed. DnD but I like the idea of a player of any "Level" able to play a character of any level of wealth.
   So I wanted a kind of justification for how you could be rich but not in control of their money so you don't just throw money at the rest of your party for good stuff.
  The way I look at it money is Always related to people controlling money, to the sources of that money, and recognising the characters place in the scheme of money and service.

Church Mouse; There is always some group that recognises who you are, if not by name then as being like them.  For a some help around the place they will let you crash, and eat, though if you've got some money or supplies to share the meals might be more fon and you reputation amoung the comunity may spread faster.

Guild job; you are a member of a guild and know the guild secrets and hand sign etc. So if you sign in at the guild hall they will set you up with digs, in exchange for a part time job. If you want to work full time at your profession you might get pay out of it.  But you get room board and maid service, if you've got some company in the rooms not a biggie unless the help complains.

Family wealth; you are part of a wealthy family and are in good standing so when you hit town you go to a merchant of a guild that works with your family and you are assigned a Factor who rents you're rooms, or suites based on what your familes stated requirements.  The factor and sevants handle all the household money, and details

Settlements Wealth; I have a 5th ed DnD character, A "Noble" [really guys a knight is a "Gentle") which ended up giving his "wealth" but gave him three servents. I was alloew to give him a faction that allowed a source of wealth.  But it was based on his servants, the three servants; the Squire & His Secretary, First Concubine and Valet, and Second Concubine and Cook/Camp Steward.
   Jarl Archi' Never handles any money, his Squire, holds onto the Factor authorization documents from the Manor, hamlet, and several thorpes that he is Jarl over. And the Squire  settles local affairs as a noble everything for the householdis settled on credit through either the factor or the peronal servant who hold.  Which works because he hold and is always in possision of two family heirlooms by which he and his family/clan can be recognized.  The locals just go to the local manor or castle and find out who his factor is. what is even more fun is that as a noble his servant become offended if he handles even his personal purse, in this case his personal pouch is held by his Valet/concubine who pays his personal bills.  And he definatly doesn't want to offend. [lets just say this LG rolled Girls as his weakness, so he made sure it was all legal, honorable and above board]

My point is that there is no reason for an adventurer to handle ANY household expences if you plan right. Those household expences can be of any wealth level. And someone else is all ways taking care of this household you just moved into.

A thing I like from L5R is the idea that low-skilled servants don't count.  In town adventurer groupies and fans may get your drinks for you without even wanting tips, etc.

Since all this wealth levels is based on your household or personal staff.  You as a player don't even see the wealth except as backdrop.  If you are a Noble your servants may even have no problem with your party "Crashing in Your Digs" since it is quiet an honor to the household have a Noble with such a retinue as your.. as long as they, and you know their place.

---Items identifing wealth level; Letters of Credit, Seal [Family, guild or noble] bearing offers of Factorship, Noble family or clan heirlooms.
---Fund Source; Skill and social affiliation, property, family, Estate, realm.
---Money Handler; Host, Factor, Valet, Steward..

And a recognition of the difference between your property and your sources property.
  Jarl Archi' is adventuring because he wishes togather the money to invest in a new mill wheel for the grain mill.  But that would be a personal expence rather then something paid out of the local taxes that he is responcable for.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:54, Fri 15 Jan 2016.