Magic can make you rich! (Wait, no it can't)

[ironpoet]

This thread was inpsired by the comments in this post: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,22095.0.html

It started off with a caveat from Ryan_Singer:

This looks about right. I'd add the caveat that in the Dresdenverse, no one has ever gotten rich using magic. Even the senior council relies on traditional finance with centuries of compounded interest. Turning lead into gold is possible, but never costs less than gold on the open market.

That lead into a series of suggestions about how magic can be used to make you rich:

...A wizard can become very, very wealthy without the need to conjure money;
1) Thaumaturgy divination, to predict the moves of the stock market in the day. That would be solving a problem with the contacts or resources or scholarship skill. Even the most skilled mortals in financial science in the world would get a base of superb +5 plus +2 from a stunt in this. A wizard using divination could easily get a complexity of 10 with a two-minute ritual. Fancy getting the maximum benefit of the stock market every day? 20% rate of interest per day would be about the best possible. In ten days you'd have 6 TIMES the money you started with. In one month you could start with $4.000 and end up with $ 1 million.

2) Thaumaturgy divination, to search for minerals - gold, oil, gems. Similarly to the above use, even the weakest wizard could get better results in minutes than world-class prospectors could get in days or months of searching.

3) How about buying and selling land? A wizard could influence the weather or conjure attacks by vermin with only minor complexity or even do power outages and the like to really drop property values. Then he'd buy the land for a ridiculous price and sell some months later at a much higher price.

4) Invest in a company then destroy the company's competitors. You don't really need black magic or any direct spells; any modern company can be destroyed by simply hexing it. Even better, manipulate the stock market like that.

5) Steal a bank. Hex the bank at night, sneak in under a thaumaturgy veil, put the guards to sleep, melt the vault door and grab the money. Even better, use summoned creatures to steal the money for you. No Laws broken whatsoever and the police will have no evidence at all; no modern security can resist hexing and any trace evidence left by summoned creatures melts away in minutes (and isn't human to begin with.
Or, you can do it faster by opening a Gate from the Nevernever directly into the bank vault.

6) Insurance fraud. Lots of insurance fraud. Fires, power failure, equipment failure, wizards can do it untraceably and seemingly naturally.

7) Arms Dealing. How much would an assassin or a terrorist pay for an invisibility potion? How about a mercenary for an invulnerability potion or a healing potion? Any kind of armed forces for a grenade-like potion that does 8 shifts of hexing in one zone, destroying every kind of technological item from alarms to firearms and mines to armored vehicles? How about lasting thaumaturgy veils for secret facilities and bunkers? And NONE of the above violate the Laws of Magic.

That led to a series of arguments about how that wouldn't work.  Conflict leads to story ideas, so I thought I would make a new post to capture it all!

I'd like to invite people to post three types of things here:
METHOD TO GET RICH: [Some way of getting rich using magic]
WHY IT WON'T WORK: [A reason why it wouldn't work.  This could be a mechanical reason, a thematic Dresdenverse reason, or a made up reason.]
STORY IDEA: [A quick description of a story idea that a GM could run, using this conflict]

[ironpoet]

Here's the trivial version:

METHOD TO GET RICH: Magic can do anything.  Use it to get rich!

WHY IT WON'T WORK: Magic is "Who You Are".  If you are the type of person who would use magic as a vehicle to "Get Rich Quick", then you are also the type of person who will be tempted by Fae bargains and the lure of the Denarians.  Enjoy your Free Will while it lasts!

STORY IDEA: An unknown businessman becomes a multi-billionaire overnight.  The White Council sends the PCs to investigate, but they discover that the businessman has already been corrupted by the Denarians.  Can the PCs prevail against a foe with unlimited Resources and the power of Hellfire?

[ironpoet]

METHOD TO GET RICH: Thaumaturgy divination, to predict the moves of the stock market in the day. That would be solving a problem with the contacts or resources or scholarship skill. Even the most skilled mortals in financial science in the world would get a base of superb +5 plus +2 from a stunt in this. A wizard using divination could easily get a complexity of 10 with a two-minute ritual. Fancy getting the maximum benefit of the stock market every day? 20% rate of interest per day would be about the best possible. In ten days you'd have 6 TIMES the money you started with. In one month you could start with $4.000 and end up with $ 1 million.


WHY IT WON'T WORK #1: Okay, maybe you're not technically breaking the Laws of Magic.  You're not peeking into the future, and you're not reading people's minds to see whether they will Buy or Sell.  But try explaining that to the White Council Wardens at your door.  I'm sure they'll be happy to give you the benefit of the doubt!

STORY IDEA #1: Marty Johnson, a Slick Stockbroker, is making a killing in the stock market.  The White Council sends the PCs to make sure the Laws of Magic are being broken.  How can you be sure?  Can you afford to let him go if you're wrong?

STORY IDEA #2: The PC's used completely legitimate magic to get rich using the Stock Market.  Unfortunately, Aeric Thomason, an Old School Warden, doesn't believe you.  Can the PCs convince the White Council of their innocence before Aeric can play judge, jury, and executioner?


WHY IT WON'T WORK #2: You think demons don't already control the Stock Market?  You think the White Court dedicated to Despair didn't request the recent Stock Market crash?  Good luck rigging a game that is already rigged!

STORY IDEA #3: The PCs discover that demons control the Stock Market.  Can the PCs remove this demonic influence without crashing the Stock Market again?

[ralexs1991]

WHY IT WON'T WORK #2: You think demons don't already control the Stock Market?  You think the White Court dedicated to Despair didn't request the recent Stock Market crash?  Good luck rigging a game that is already rigged!
[

haha epic LULZ

[Sanctaphrax]

METHOD TO GET RICH: Start a religion. Summon creatures and call them angels, cast spells and call them miracles, etc. Once the masses believe in you, take their money.

WHY IT WON'T WORK: You would not believe the size of the target that you paint onto yourself by doing this. Everyone from the Church to the White Council will be breathing down your neck. Like it or not, you will make enemies.

STORY IDEA: Henry Mirtan, a greedy sorcerer, realized a few years ago how easy it would be to expand his cult into something bigger. He formed a sect of Christianity called the Bearers Of The Words Of Christ and set himself up as Jesus reborn. It worked until he was approached by House Lantill, a small group of White Court Vampires who feed on worship. They put him under their psychic control and took over the religion. A disillusioned former cultist approaches the PCs and begs them to do something about this sick and twisted situation.

[MyNinjaH8sU]

It worked until he was approached by House Lantill, a small group of White Court Vampires who feed on worship.

Ok, that's freaking awesome as ideas go. One small thing I would like to add though: Worship isn't really a negative emotion... what about Obsession?

[Sanctaphrax]

Good point. Obsession-eating vampires would actually create a number of interesting plot hooks. Maybe another branch of House Lantill, not involved with this cult, feeds off of fangirls at Twilight conventions.

So yeah. Let's say that House Lantill feeds on obsession, and that it's only a part of the House that uses worship to create that obsession.

[knnn]

METHOD TO GET RICH
Smuggle via the NN.  Guns, drugs, slaves, etc.   Every country has those pesky border crossings in order to block or tax incoming goodies.  

Example:
A pound of pure cocaine is worth $20,000-$50,000 in the US, depending on quality.  You can buy the same quantity for under $1000 in certain places in South America.  

Find the correct Ways, and you can make your millions in moments

WHY IT WONT WORK
How do you think the Red Court are financing all their operations?  Any Wizard trying to work in South America will get his "staff" fed to him.  Also, finding buyers/sellers is not so simple.  Gangs are involved, etc.

STORY IDEA
Diego Barnella is by all accounts a bad person.  He has been a drug-dealing Wizard for the last 30 years (it was guns, explosives and slaves beforehand).  He has his own gang that peddles his stuff for him, and even owns some field in Ecuador.

Recently, his interests have been hammered by Red Court drug dealers, and a price has been put on his head.  Unfortunately, his personal wealth and connections, and especially his knowledge of the Ways are very important for the war, so the White Council needs to protect him...

...He might even be a "hero".

[MyNinjaH8sU]

All I can say to that is: High Concept: Stephanie Meyer - Elder of House Lantill. Other Aspects: Go Team Whampires!

That is awesome though. I think I might have to borrow them for my game!

[mostlyawake]

The Idea: Supernatural Blackmailer or Locator
Use divination to spy on people, then blackmail the crap out of them.  Or, find Osama Bin Laden and get a reward.

Why it won't work:  Blackmail is illegal, dawg.  Plus, it makes people wanna gank you. And do you think Osama isn't being hidden by magic? Really?

Story Idea:  The group is hired or ordered to find and confront someone accused of using divination to blackmail people.  Try catching someone who uses divination to figure out you're coming...

additionally, the PCs uncover some pretty dark secrets about the people they are trying to protect from blackmailing.  Now it's a moral dilemma: what do you do when you find out the blackmail was about a 13 year old who broke the "no killing with magic" law on accident, because no one ever taught her how to handle magic properly?

[Richard_Chilton]

How about conjuring cocaine rather than smuggling it?

Example: Conjuring some coke and selling it wholesale to someone who will cut it and retail it for you.

Why it won't work:
Conjured things have a duration.  No one is going put a massive number of shifts to conjured something that will be snorted.  Odds are the drugs will be used before the duration runs out, but if they aren't then they fade away to nothing.  Then there's the competition in the drug business: your customers used to buy from someone else and that someone isn't going to be happy about losing those sales.  Oh, and it's illegal.  The guy you're selling to might need to sell you out to the narcs - or the narcs might target you.

Story Idea:
Gangs sell and trade drugs between them, and a gang war breaks out when the coke that one gang sold the other turns out to be nothing but baby powder.  It tested fine on the day of the sale, but now (a mere week later) it's crap and the buyers want their money back.  Of course the first gang knows that those were good drugs.  Harsh words became blows which led to bullets and now the bodies are piling up.

The police are doing what they can about the war while investing the new player in the underworld...  Meanwhile there's a very scared wizard who isn't good at dodging bullets who is crying for help, help that the players might give.


Richard

[Becq]

METHOD TO GET RICH
Become a private detective.  Use magic to solve the cases brought to your attention.  Cheating spouse?  Missing persons?  Lost items?  Paranormal investigations?  Love potions?  Endless purses?

WHY IT WONT WORK
I can't think of any possible reason this scenario could possibly fail to make millions practically over night!

STORY IDEA
Hm.  You know, come to think of it I can't see any way to make this sort of story in any way appealing to anyone.  Damn.  Any thoughts?

[Sanctaphrax]

Not to be rude, Becq, but that just isn't a very interesting idea. There aren't any good stories to be told about it.

Seriously, that isn't the kind of story that people want to read about or play games around. It's too humdrum, too lacking in impact on the world at large.

[Becq]

Not to be rude, Becq, but that just isn't a very interesting idea. There aren't any good stories to be told about it.

Seriously, that isn't the kind of story that people want to read about or play games around. It's too humdrum, too lacking in impact on the world at large.

Yeah.  Now I'm embarrassed that I even hit the 'Post' button.  Ah, well.

[knnn]

METHOD TO GET RICH
Two words:  Male Enhancement  

It's not against the Laws of Magic if it is not against their will (they are paying for it...)

WHY IT WONT WORK
 
IT REALLY DOES!  

Seriously though,

Manmeet Agarwal is a 150-year-old wizard who for some reason has spent the last 100+ years working on a robust spell that is guaranteed to "do the deed", finally succeeding about 5 years ago.  His problem was with marketing.  Being a little naive about the modern world, he read about the internet, and decided that mass e-mails, ALL IN CAPS would get all the rich men in the world flocking to his door...

STORY IDEA
1) Manmeet "the Hammer" Agarwal (he legally changed his name) want to hire the PCs to market a new life-improving medical procedure.  He's used up all his savings in some internet scheme, so all he can offer in payment is a free procedure.

2) Someone stole Manmeet's procedure (White Court?) and he hires the PCs for revenge/steal back the formula.

3) Someone is killing internet spammers with black magic (their noses grow until they explode).  The ferocity of the attacks clearly points toward someone trying to get revenge.  Should the PCs stop the rampaging wizard, or help him eliminate a scourge from the Earth?