Author Topic: Loot the bodies!  (Read 5862 times)

Offline The Mighty Buzzard

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Re: Loot the bodies!
« Reply #15 on: October 07, 2011, 05:52:17 AM »
Way too cheap. A character with Mediocre Resources could buy an island for the OoC price of a sandwich.

Hrm, good point.  $1 for the first tag, $2 for the 2nd, etc...?  Make it table-wide and it could add up pretty fast.
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Offline Blackblade

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Re: Loot the bodies!
« Reply #16 on: October 07, 2011, 05:53:56 AM »
Or maybe ten bucks a tag, divided by the character's resources.  Seems like a perfectly fair way of doing it.

Offline The Mighty Buzzard

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Re: Loot the bodies!
« Reply #17 on: October 07, 2011, 02:38:49 PM »
Fair, shmair.  Smokes n munchies don't buy themselves.
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Offline ALurker

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Re: Loot the bodies!
« Reply #18 on: October 07, 2011, 04:43:07 PM »
Giving a +X to resources for a specific amount of money doesn't really make sense story-wise because what you can buy with the resources skill goes up logarithmically (a +1 to resources equals a multiplication by 10 of amount of spendable cash). Personally, my group uses a rule that treasure has a specific resources score that can be used to replace one's own resources score (for better or worse) for a specific number of purchases.

Offline Becq

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Re: Loot the bodies!
« Reply #19 on: October 07, 2011, 04:43:51 PM »
Or maybe ten bucks a tag, divided by the character's resources.  Seems like a perfectly fair way of doing it.
First, determine what your expected number of Wads of Cash will be.
Next, estimate the amount of money you'd need to make the payments on a new BMW.
Divide the second number by the first to get your cost per tag!  Suggestion: double the result, just in case.  Blame it on the economy.

If actual useage lags, options include:
1) Allow flexibility in what Wads of Cash invokes can be used for.  "I cast Magic Missile.  I attack the Darkness!  Here's three Wads of Cash for a +6 to my roll!"
2) Allow Wads of Cash to be used to buy off compels.  COMPEL OFTEN!  "Hm.  I see that you are a Wizard of the White Council.  Well, unfortunately you just accidentally hexed the high power cables, and one snapped and is heading right for your head.  (Holds up a chip.)  Ah, buying it off with Wads of Cash, eh?  Then the wire narrowly misses you.  But then, there's another CRACK! as the next cable over snaps and is whipping right toward your head!  (Holds up a chip.)
3) Normal invokes now cost a Fate point PLUS a Wad of Cash!

Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: Loot the bodies!
« Reply #20 on: October 07, 2011, 10:18:34 PM »
All humour aside, ALurker raises a good point. His approach sounds pretty reasonable to me.

Offline The Mighty Buzzard

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Re: Loot the bodies!
« Reply #21 on: October 08, 2011, 05:48:24 AM »
First, determine what your expected number of Wads of Cash will be.
Next, estimate the amount of money you'd need to make the payments on a new BMW.
Divide the second number by the first to get your cost per tag!  Suggestion: double the result, just in case.  Blame it on the economy.

If actual useage lags, options include:
1) Allow flexibility in what Wads of Cash invokes can be used for.  "I cast Magic Missile.  I attack the Darkness!  Here's three Wads of Cash for a +6 to my roll!"
2) Allow Wads of Cash to be used to buy off compels.  COMPEL OFTEN!  "Hm.  I see that you are a Wizard of the White Council.  Well, unfortunately you just accidentally hexed the high power cables, and one snapped and is heading right for your head.  (Holds up a chip.)  Ah, buying it off with Wads of Cash, eh?  Then the wire narrowly misses you.  But then, there's another CRACK! as the next cable over snaps and is whipping right toward your head!  (Holds up a chip.)
3) Normal invokes now cost a Fate point PLUS a Wad of Cash!

Now that's some quality thinking!  I think I'd go payments + insurance though.  Full coverage on a new BMW is likely to be on the brutal side.

All humour aside, ALurker raises a good point. His approach sounds pretty reasonable to me.

True.  Might also specify that if number of uses > 10 it can be rolled up to one use of a higher level.
Violence is like duct tape.  If it doesn't solve the problem, you didn't use enough.

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Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: Loot the bodies!
« Reply #22 on: October 08, 2011, 06:56:57 PM »
10 might be a little much, but I agree with the idea.

Offline BumblingBear

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Re: Loot the bodies!
« Reply #23 on: October 09, 2011, 06:17:18 PM »
I think this question's probably come up before and its one of the few things that irks me about DFRP and fate in general.
Recourses is a skill.

If my character's dead poor he'll stay that way, even if the adventure means we find several suitcases full of money, unless I spend several sessions slowly increasing my recourses skill (and maintain my skill pyramid while I do so) my character will continue being poor.
He could wallpaper his (tiny) appartment with 100 dollar bills but still not have a penny to his name.

The same goes for gear and goodies (Focii, enchanted items etc) You've got a certain amount, and its more or less fixed.

I want to loot the bodies! I wanna run my hands through grubby piles of cash! How can DFRP/FATE handle this?

Not all fate games have resources as a skill.

Bulldogs! keeps resources separate and one's beginning resources upon character creation is influenced by the barter and gambling skills.
Myself: If I were in her(Murphy's) position, I would have studied my ass off on the supernatural and rigged up special weapons to deal with them.  Murphy on the other hand just plans to overpower bad guys with the angst of her short woman's syndrome and blame all resulting failures on Harry.

Offline MegaPuff75

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Re: Loot the bodies!
« Reply #24 on: October 09, 2011, 06:53:55 PM »
If my character's dead poor he'll stay that way, even if the adventure means we find several suitcases full of money, unless I spend several sessions slowly increasing my recourses skill (and maintain my skill pyramid while I do so) my character will continue being poor.
He could wallpaper his (tiny) appartment with 100 dollar bills but still not have a penny to his name.
Storywise the explanation for this is that your character with a low resource skill not only doesn't have a lot of available cash, he also has numerous debts that he has to pay off. For example if Dresden ended up with a wad of $100 bills and didn't feel compelled (heh) to return it he would probably pay his rent and bills for the month and any back rent and then use the influx of cash to justify a few days off, so all in all it would have no real effect on his resource skill. If you think about it the resource skill not only represents how much cash you have, but also how you treat the money you do have. You could make a CEO with a resource skill of 2 because he obsessively invests his money and as a result never has cash available to spend on things, or a Cashier with a resource skill of 4 because he saves all of his money and doesn't waste it on luxuries.
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Offline Cyberchihuahua

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Re: Loot the bodies!
« Reply #25 on: October 12, 2011, 11:43:57 PM »
*****Random Ideas. YMMV****

As a GM you can largely prevent unexpected loot turning into a problem. Think about turning high value items taken from bad guys quickly turning into tags or social or mental conflicts. Marcone would never let a suitcase with half a mil just walk away. But in keeping with the loot that no longer has an owner...

Make each loot item a "Consequence".

Mild        +2 to one resource check, lasts until the end of the next scene. The money you swiped from a thug's 
             wallet. By the end of the next scene you could have gotten to an ATM, and that small amount of cash
             would be useful. Might be used to counter act a compel like "Lost My Wallet".         
Moderate +4 to one resource check, lasts until the end of the story. This could be one valuable item or a sack of
               cash, which may come in handy during the story. After that, it probably went for rent.   
Severe    +6 to one resource check, lasts until the end of the next story. Like the briefcase full of money Murphy
              got during Aftermath. Its a lot of money, but if it stays around for too long, it will find itself dwindling
              to pay rent, or smaller needs for the Paranet.
Extreme   +8 to resource checks, lasts until the story says otherwise. Imagine the last season of Angel where
              the team got Wolfram and Hart.

This could also be turned into another stress track for social or mental conflicts involving extortion or ransoms. You could take consequences to you Resource skill like you do your other stress tracks. If you have seen "Proof of Life",
you can see where I'm taking this.

Try to allow only planned loot, so you can stat in advance.


*edited for spelling errors.*
« Last Edit: October 14, 2011, 09:25:44 PM by Cyberchihuahua »
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Offline ARedthorn

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Re: Loot the bodies!
« Reply #26 on: October 14, 2011, 05:57:41 PM »
I actually rather like this idea... it's scalable in an established, obvious way... and lasting in a much more appropriate way than aspects.

Offline JStreet

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Re: Loot the bodies!
« Reply #27 on: October 14, 2011, 11:15:49 PM »
YS278 states that magic items only work for the creator unless made specifically to be used by someone else.  Thats the easiest fix in my opinion.  The item simply was made to only work for the greedy bad guy caster.  If you want the party to have access then it was made useable by anyone.  Or, They find a Grimoire With the Item Recipe so they can make one themselves (perhaps a very rare component is needed though? hello story line.).