mayapuppies Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Ok so two of my players chose the following disad from the Master List of Limitations (I love that page): 10 Social Limitation: Debt (Frequently, Minor) Notes: This Disadvantage goes beyond merely owing money, which most people do. It does not mean being merely unemployed (though that may be part of it). Debt means that the person owes so much money that she cannot engage in normal social interaction. He cannot usually go out for drinks, or a meal, or any event which costs money, unless someone else picks up the tab. In extreme cases, he might even be in danger of losing his home, car, everything he owns as creditors seize his paltry (or not so paltry) assets to make good on some of the debts. At the Minor level the character's debt simply prevents him from engaging in normal social interaction with his friends, co-workers, and colleagues, the frequency determined by how often the character's social life is affected. At the Major level, not only does the character have no hope of buying a candy bar and slurpy with his friends, but he's constantly worried about whether or not his car will be outside when he's done not buying the slurpy, if his house will be foreclosed, if his bank accounts (such as they are), will be emptied. Again, frequency is a function of how often the character's debt affects his interaction with everyone else. For example, Occasional, Major indicates the character owes a great deal of money but doesn't have much to worry about in terms of assets ("Sure, I can't get that slurpy, but it's not like they can take my car - what car?"). Of course, if the character manages to get a car... In a modern campaign I wouldn't have any problem whatsoever working this in. However, these characters are adventurers (one being a minor noble and the other a street-level con-artist) and it's becoming apparent that attempting to tie them down somewhere to "collect the payments" is becoming a bit difficult for me to validate. How should I handle something like this in a typical fantasy game? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rapier Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: Disad help Ok so two of my players chose the following disad from the Master List of Limitations (I love that page): In a modern campaign I wouldn't have any problem whatsoever working this in. However, these characters are adventurers (one being a minor noble and the other a street-level con-artist) and it's becoming apparent that attempting to tie them down somewhere to "collect the payments" is becoming a bit difficult for me to validate. How should I handle something like this in a typical fantasy game? Replace it with a Hunted: Creditors. If through RP (or campaign situationals) a disad become invalid, replace it with something more appropriate. For instance, if a player has a Secret ID and he gets exposed on national TV, he no longer has a Secret ID. But he shouldn't lose those points. So instead those points get converted into something more appropriate (DNPC, Public ID, Hunted). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gojira Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: Disad help As a disad, maybe a Hunted that shows up occasionally to try to arrest the PC and drag them off to debtor's prison. This gives the PC a good reason to be on the move (running away from his/her debt). If your players are really wedded to the idea of keeping the disad, and your question is "how do I deal with my players?", well, not sure. Maybe a little more info what you've tried so far and how they responded would help. P.S. Oops, scooped by Rapier! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Man Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: Disad help The minor noble could find his lands and titles have been given to somebody else or been left to rot. Like the above people said, you can send debt collectors after him too. As a con-artist, his victims could send officials after him. Or maybe a bothersome copycat artist with the blame falling on the PC. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted May 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: Disad help Ok, some more background is in order. Once again I am being vague. These are brand new characters and have not entered a game yet. The minor noble is the daughter of a Quaestor (see my Lordship thread) which basically means she has no lands other than daddy's title. They both owe the debt to a smuggler named Karus (the noble used him to help her run away from home and the con-artist hasn't sent me his reason for the debt yet). The noble also owes this smuggler a favor in addition to the monetary debt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted May 31, 2006 Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: Disad help Is there any magic in this campaign world? If so, the characters could be victims of some sort of minor curse or geas from the smuggler they're indebted to, that affects them with misfortune until they pay off their debts, or at least make an effort to do so whenever they come into any wealth. In practical terms this wouldn't need to be run much differently than the example above, except that the apparent causes would be different: the player with a fat purse of coins taken from the giant's horde runs into a clever cutpurse; his horse is spooked by a dog in the street and runs off; the room at the inn where he's staying catches fire and burns his goods; etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mayapuppies Posted May 31, 2006 Author Report Share Posted May 31, 2006 Re: Disad help oooh, I could put an unseen Rune of bad luck on them... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eosin Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 Re: Disad help This disad like the PERK Money doesn't work well in a fantasy setting (neither does Contact in most FH games but that is another story). If they are trying to cash in on the free points, you need to ensure that for some odd reason they NEVER get any treasure. Thier equipment should be shoddy (breaks on a 17+ or on a max damage roll). They should have cool stuff that requires them having to pay experts, translators, or bribes which, of course, they cannot do so they see opprotunity passing them by... They want free disad points that are negated by adventuring and getting money/treasure/magic but I would make sure that they understood the pain of poverty. Running around for an adventure with a 1 PIP HKA dagger with a -2 OCV due to shoddy workmanship as their primary weapon should encourage them to take disads that work rather than disads that aren't disads. When they finally manage to put enough together for a fair sword, have the collecters show up and leave them with the dagger once again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Monster Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 Re: Disad help Yeah, it's a bit trickier in a medieval fantasy world, where having money generally matters less than in modern times. But there are ways... They owe a smuggler. That right there opens the door to this guy having presence and influence just about anywhere, either directly or through a seris of contacts and mutual favors. It's entirely possible that this guy has all but a lock on civilian transport - caravans, ships, etc. - and whenever the PCs enter a town or meet a transport, they could be recognized. Then the NPC could either try to soak them for hard cash in the summgler's name (never mind if the money actually gets to him , tries to capture them to sell to enforcers , refuses to deal with them becuase they never pay their bills , impounds their stuff for payment , or even just takes good notes and sells the info to the smuggler's men. This situation can be allieved for a while by them sending appropriate buckets of cash to the smuggler regularly, which of course will be just enough to cover interest - or else the debt is huge, or it's actually an ongoing tribute, or some such. Word can travel fast around a merchant network, and a welsher will find a bad rep waiting for him everywhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted June 1, 2006 Report Share Posted June 1, 2006 Re: Disad help This actually gives plenty of plothooks. The smuggler is going to try to call in favours. He can "sell" part pf the dbet to someone else for them to try and collect on it. People who know the character as a debtor are going to want their cash up front, while others might be a bit leery of entrusting their daughter's ransom to such a person even ifthey promise to get the daughter back, and so on. The smuggler can try pressuring the noble's daddy for the debt, and he (or the rest of the family, if he's dead/undead) in turn might pressure the character "Think of the family name!" When the character does get loot, word will eventually get around, and the creditor (or his agents) will turn up, demanding a cut. If he's smart he'll never take enough to pay it off and with medieval interest rates (sometimes over 200% p.a.!) the characters will soon owe him even more. It's like reputation, social limitation:poor and hunted rolled into one, so it shouldn't be as extreme as any one of those - but it's broader than any of them, so play it as a mild version of all three. cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.