Ghosts of Gauntcliff: OOC

[Adam]

The Myth-Weavers sheet doesn't have a place for money, and I don't know if we got any for the last game anyways. Is there a way to determine an income we could have had between then and now? I'd like to hunt down some Druid scrolls for Benn to transcribe into my spellbook so I can make better use of my class's options. We don't get to learn them when we level up, but we can get them from scrolls.

Yes it does, near the bottom on the left. Under Psionic points there is currency

Well, that makes sense.

In any case, it's empty on my sheet, so the question remains.

[ewancummins]

Income, yes! It's a bit complicated, but I do think we should deal with it. I'm going to break things down into several posts.

THIS POST APPLIES ONLY TO PLAYER CHARACTERS FROM THE PREVIOUS CAMPAIGN

POST #1: Income from previous rewards & normal work/business

I believe a small cash guerdon was handed out at the end of last game. I'll check the final chapter and OOC notes. Dorgio made some money by selling his book. Of course Thom took his cut as the printer. The main source of income during the year would be craft or profession skills (and possibly spellcasting for money).

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/profession.htm

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/skills/craft.htm

If you have neither craft nor profession, and you aren't casting spells for money, you probably just earn 1 silver piece a day as an unskilled laborer.

Instead of rolling a skill check for every week of the year, we can have you roll one skill check for the year and multiply the result by fifty. That will give us your basic yearly income from skills.

That would reprsent a year of hard work, with only two weeks off. If you want to work less, so that you have time to study spells, visit friends in other towns,hang around pubs and party a lot, pursue other economic opportunities, etc, we can subtrsact and appropriate number of work weeks.


Please note that your PC will likely have to pay for his cost of living, and this will reduce the amount of money he gets to keep from his earnings. I will adress cost of living in the next few posts. You don't all have the same costs or arrangements.

[ewancummins]

THIS POST APPLIES ONLY TO BENN AND DORGIO

POST # 2 Income from spellcasting:

Spellcasters who sell their magical talents during the year are assumed to spend more than a day out of each month meeting with clients, travelling about the city and countryside, and actually casting spells on contract. If you go for this option, count it as two weeks of hard work (meaning that you can only take up to a X48 multiplier on any profits from craft or profession)

THIS PART IS FOR BOTH BENN & DORGIO:

There are enough people in Pont-a-Museau with both problems and money to provide you guys with a decent amount of business.


Most of the party's casters are pretty heavy on the healing and protective side of the house. Cure disease can be a real money maker. Not too many clerics are powerful enough to cast that one.

Of course, you guys wouldn't be the only providers of divine/healing magic in the city. There are some Ezran priests who can cast spells (IMC most priests of most religions are experts, not clerics, in game terms). They certainly ask for donations, and those outside the faith definitely have to pay up front for most spells. The poor and indigent might be healed for free by kindly Ezrans, of course.

Combat spells won't be sold very often. That is, unless you are a mercenary enforcer for anybody who can pay your bill. Anybody doing that?


Looking over the cleric list, I see a several useful spells Dorgio could cast for people: Remove Disease, Cure Blindness/Deafness, Augury,etc. The flexibility and variety of the cleric list really helps Dorgio in this regard.

Benn's list is a bit less marketable, but he could certainly sell some of his spells. He might use Zone of Truth to help a merchant uncover an embezzler, for example. That sort of thing won't come very often, but it could be worth a lot of money even if he casts it only twice in the year.

I've looked over your spell-lists and the spellcasting services table in the SRD.

If Benn sells his talents, I'm going to assume he makes 2160 gp in the year. Just keep that as profit, if you like, Adam.


DORGIO ONLY:If Dorgio sells his spells, but provides his services free of charge for his co-religionists , he will collect 900 g.p. in the year.This is half what he could get just selling his gifts and not giving anybody a break.

If he provides his services free to everybody in need, and just solicits donations, he will get only 450 gp over the year. His reputation will grow, and more people will become interested in joining his flock.

Would Dorgio keep that money for himself? Will he invest it a chapel fund, school, soup kitchen, etc? Commision a statue of the Morninglord? Something else?

Note that I assume that Dorgio does not charge his co-religionists, They support his cost of living. His lifestyle is modest, but all his basic needs are taken care of- a lady cleans his house, he's invited to dinner at somebody's home several times a week, and so on. Brock, you can simply just waive Dorgio's expenses for the year.

[ewancummins]

Post # 3: BROTHER EUSTACE, EVERLINE, & THOM

Thom should roll a profession check, as described above. That's his business income. He has some other possible sources of income. We can discuss that by PM. I will give you, RocEter, a cost of living for Thom after we've discussed things in PM. All money he rearns, minus cost of living for the year, will be added to his treasure total.

Everline is a special case. is she travelling a lot? Has she settled down and taken a steady job? What sort of material standard of living does she maintain over most of the year: cheap, middling, or fancy?

What exactly has Eustace been doing? Did he spend much of the year at his home monastery (He doesn't make any money there, but he gets room and board, writing supplies, access to the library, and some other stuff without charge.) Has he relocated to a city, perhaps Pont-a-Museau? Is Brother Eustace trying to sell his magical skills, or is that not his way? Is he helping people free of charge?

[ewancummins]

THIS POST IS FOR BENN

Post # 4 Domestic matters, Business stuff, and cost of living for Benn


Benn owns a house and a shop (he probably lives in the back part of the shop, or in the loft). He doesn't pay rent, because he owns the building, but there is a business tax on his shop.

Benn definitely has to spend more money now than he did when he was single. He has to buy fuel, soap, clothes, foodstuffs, etc. for a three person household. There are probably a lot of small incidental costs. Benn may have to travel a few times a year, or occasionaly ride in a gondola or take a carriage. He has to pay certain taxes, tariffs, and fees. ( Don't worry about other business costs- we'll assume that's accounted for in the craft/profession roll for profits).

Benn's wife obviously no longer works for Denys. Charlotte does a lot of work around the house, cooking, cleaning, mending clothes, etc. She knows how to hunt for bargains in the marketplace. She actually has several ranks in profession: domestic servant. Her household skills definitely offset your cost of living! Because she's at home to care for Benn's son, there's no actual need for a nursemaid (unless Benn wants to hire one).

I'm going to say it all adds up to 375 g.p. If Benn wants to spend more than that, his family can enjoy a higher quality of living, As it stands, they will be eating good meals on a regular basis, wear clean and well-mended clothes, and have firewood in the stove throughout the year. All three of them will have a new set of clothes in winter. Their house will remain in good repair. A rat catcher comes buy a couple of times in the year and roots out any pesky vermin. They family can afford to spend a little money on simple amusements.

If Benn hires a servant, or a couple of servants, the load on his wife will be greatly lessened. 3 gold would pay for an untrained servant 300 days out of the year. This person would probably be a teenage girl or an old widow. She'd help with domestic chores, watch the boy when Charlotte went out, and so on.

An untrained hireling (all purpose stockboy, porter, messenger, delivery boy, store-minder, etc) at Benn's shop, for the same cost as a domestic servant, would make things easier. Benn's would save a lot of time and energy, and be able to spend more time at his studies or with his family. He could go out and about without closing the shop, and without having his wife mind the place.

[ewancummins]

A SIDE NOTE FOR BENN:

Benn still has the keys to the small building that Denys had provided for use of the original party. This building served as the party's office and HQ for a time. It's located not far from the riverfront. The building is old but in reasonably good repair. It is fitted with heavy wooden shutters over the windows and a stout door with a average quality lock. The front room has a desk, chairs, and wall shelves. The back room is fitted out as living quarters, with a wood burning stone , a cot, a chamberpot, blankets, a stool, and some storage shelves. If Benn searches the place, he finds few of Norzak's old knick nacks are laying about, gathering dust.

Several months before play begins, Benn recieves the deed to the place from Denys Sancerre, via messenger. Benn's name is now on the deed. The previous arrangement had been an extended lease with the money waived in lieu of 'services rendered.'

[ewancummins]

If anybody is doing spell research or buying scrolls (that's possible, but of course it can be expensive), let me know.

[ewancummins]

A note about taxes-
We won't worry much about the particulars, because this isn't Papers and Paychecks. In case anyone was wondering-

Many of those jacked-up players handbook prices actually reflect tariffs, duties, and levies on various goods and services. Merchants routinely mark up the costs of good to match any tariff or duty added. It is widely considered dishonest to not do so. Such 'sales taxes' are very common, not only in Richemulot, but across the civilized world.

Beyond taxes or tariffs on goods and services, there are a lot of other forms of taxation; hearth tax, poll tax, scutage, rent, and so on. Income taxes are essentially unknown.

We won't worry about the exact nature of taxes,I'll just subtract X amount of money from annual earnings. In Richemulot, this amount isn't very high, a fact that draws immigrants and investors. Compared with the rapacious taxation in Borca or Falkovnia, Richemuloise taxes are very low indeed!

[Rock of the Fraternity]

*raises hand* If you check Everline's sheet, you can see how much spending money she had left after the last campaign. I would still like to make a few purchases, but I need to check the DMG and PHB. I'll pm you once I've made my choice, if that's okay. ^^

[ewancummins]

*raises hand* If you check Everline's sheet, you can see how much spending money she had left after the last campaign. I would still like to make a few purchases, but I need to check the DMG and PHB. I'll pm you once I've made my choice, if that's okay. ^^

That's okay.

[Adam]

Sounds good. So, if I interpreted the block of text correctly, Benn has 2160 - 306 (for two servants and a humble living) for a total of 1754gp over the course of the last year, plus the shop. Not bad for a year's work. To be honest, Benn comes from a humble background and Charlotte is a former maid, so I can imagine both of them being fairly frugal. Charlotte gets an assistant, and Benn hires a clerk to help him run his antiquities/mystical services businesses, at first as an appointment/rent based business and now out of the shop after receiving the deed.

As far as finding the druid scrolls, do you want something like Gather Information to find someone to provide it? Search? Something else?

You'll note I've added ranks of Knowledge: Nature after the last two adventures, since fool me twice, shame on me. Now, of course, there will never be any call to roll it again.

[ewancummins]

Sounds good. So, if I interpreted the block of text correctly, Benn has 2160 - 306 (for two servants and a humble living) for a total of 1754gp over the course of the last year, plus the shop. Not bad for a year's work. To be honest, Benn comes from a humble background and Charlotte is a former maid, so I can imagine both of them being fairly frugal. Charlotte gets an assistant, and Benn hires a clerk to help him run his antiquities/mystical services businesses, at first as an appointment/rent based business and now out of the shop after receiving the deed.

As far as finding the druid scrolls, do you want something like Gather Information to find someone to provide it? Search? Something else?

You'll note I've added ranks of Knowledge: Nature after the last two adventures, since fool me twice, shame on me. Now, of course, there will never be any call to roll it again.

Knowledge:nature...

Use gather info to find those druid scrolls.
DC is the spell's level +20. These sorts of scrolls are rather scarce, but Pont-a-Museau is a big city, and you might be able to track something down.

Synergy- If you have 5 or more ranks in any of the following skills, take a +2 . Yes, this is cumulative.
profession: bookseller
forgery
appraise
spellcraft
knowledge: religion

You still have to actually pay for them , after that, of course.

[ewancummins]

Matheo Barozi can help to. Count him for an additional +1 to your roll, Adam.

[Brock Marsh Runoff]

DORGIO ONLY:If Dorgio sells his spells, but provides his services free of charge for his co-religionists , he will collect 900 g.p. in the year.This is half what he could get just selling his gifts and not giving anybody a break.

If he provides his services free to everybody in need, and just solicits donations, he will get only 450 gp over the year. His reputation will grow, and more people will become interested in joining his flock.

Would Dorgio keep that money for himself? Will he invest it a chapel fund, school, soup kitchen, etc? Commision a statue of the Morninglord? Something else?

Note that I assume that Dorgio does not charge his co-religionists, They support his cost of living. His lifestyle is modest, but all his basic needs are taken care of- a lady cleans his house, he's invited to dinner at somebody's home several times a week, and so on. Brock, you can simply just waive Dorgio's expenses for the year.

Dorgio has spent the past year mostly tending to his flock and the occasional outsider who called on him. He became less consumed with hatred then he was after Evie's death, and has been focused on improving the Gundarakite enclave in the city, offering spiritual comfort, helping newly-arrived refugees find shelter in the many abandoned houses, etc.

He would have cast spells for people outside his community but only accepted donations, especially considering he's largely living off the kindness of the Gundarakites. Of the 450gp he earned in donations, Dorgio invested 200 towards improving the lay priests' modest library. He hopes that his people can use the accumulated knowledge to better their positions in he city. In the meantime Dorgio has been through several drafts of a treatise on healing in battle--the working title is Suture and Flame, previously titled Healing While Bleeding, previously titled The Hell at the Pig Farm.

[Brock Marsh Runoff]

How expensive are books in Richemulot? I imagine they'd still be fairly expensive, but less so than in a medieval domain?