My PC's are about to begin the Tides of Dread adventure. My PC's have been out in the wilderness for a long time and have much treasure to sell and hopefully pick up a new trinket or two. (After fighting of the initial pirates of course)
The problem with this is that Farshore has an 800gp limit. This means that the colony is poor as dirt. The PC's can't even sell most of the art objects they found over the last two adventures. I anticipate this will be frustrating for the PC's but I also understand the reasoning. I really don't want my PC's to go another whole adventure without being able to even sell their unwanted treasure. So I've already decided to raise this limit a bit. Enough for my players to at least restock themselves with very basic magic gear.
Now my real question. The adventure seems to fix this problem by have the PC's complete quests. Many of these quests gain the PC's victory points but many others simply increase Farshore's wealth. Now Lavinia already made the PC's silent partners in the colony so this will give the PC's a vested interest in completing these quest but it dosen't seem to change the cities gp limit. I've search the DMG and haven't found anything connecting a town's asset to it's gp limit. So what does raising a town's assets really do? Is there any way to increase Farshore's gp limit? Is Farshore completley without useful merchandise for adventurers without waiting for the 6 month+ round trip from Sassirine, which is of course long after this current adventure should conclude?
One way that I can think to vary the gp limit is by measuring how closely allied the Olman tribesman get with Farshore.
Farshore's starting 800gp limit is with minimal trading going on with the Olman tribes. Essentially this limit represents the trade done with Sasserine (when ship were running) and the value and use of goods produced here in Farshore.
If the Olmans and the Phanatons can be convinced to trade with Farshore, and considering thats already part of the storyline (or for their aid, at least), it should be simple.
The Phanatons and Olman most likely have a rather different ideal of wealth, so there may be some options for lucrative trading in that regard.
You just have to be fair with it and don't make life too easy on the PCs.
You could essentially ad hoc raise the gp limit in my opinion if this is accomplished. I believe in the DMG, the only way, barring strange circumstances to modify gp limit is by it being a bigger city. But there are numerous examples of cities in printed materials that don't conform exactly to the city baselines as described in the DMG.
So yeah, make it part of the reward process for doing what they should be doing on the Isle of Dread anyway. Just base your increases on how well the PCs do their jobs at establishing trade.
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The PC's may just need to be content with supplying up on potions and scrolls before the Crimson Fleet hits. Hopefully once they hit 9th level, a caster will have access to teleport and can trade items at a larger metropolis. Hmm, I was just going to say, maybe they can buy a teleport scroll. But nope, that's 1125gp =/
Give specific, named NPCs item crafting feats. If the PCs want to buy magic items, they have to talk to one of these specific, named NPCs. Since the PCs are basically part-owners of the colony these NPCs live in, they'll probably be pretty reasonable about exchanging magic items for resources and favors, but the PCs can't just scoop up fifty spare potions at whim. They have to wait one day for each one. Fortunately, there is very little time pressure until after Khala is taken down, so you can usually just declare, "and so two weeks pass without incident" every time they stock up.
First, some vocab that I think will help.
Population centers have 2 stats, GP Limit and Assets.
From page 137 of DMG, Community Wealth and Population
GP Limit = the price of most expensive item anyone could buy.
Assets = the ammount of ready cash or the value of everything for sale at any one time. Assets are derived from the GP Limit.
In general, it's the GP limit that is more important for adventurer's than the Assets.
So, if a village has a 200 gp limit and Assets of 8,000, then they could purchase a Oil of Bless Weapon (100gp) but couldn't purchase a potion of cure moderate wounds (300gp). They could purchase 80 oils of bless weapon but no more (would be past the assets).
Next post info on Farshore:
I have had one character death so far and the replacement PC is from one of the Olman tribes. I gave him some knowledge of an old shaman from one of the other vilages that dealt in "magic". He supplied the party (for a price) with some potions in bone flasks and a few scrolls on different types of animal hides. One of these was a greater teleport scroll he acquired some time ago.
The party now has it but decided to investigate Galavant Cove first. It turns out it won't matter a whole lot since they just made level 11 and the party cleric has access to word of recall now. I tried to give them a break to get some items before going underground but they decided to wait.
Hopefully the scroll survives the black pudding...
The following mini quests improve Farshores GP Limit:
6, +1,000
7, +1,000 (after 3 months)
10, Meravanchi wins, +5,000 (in 1d6 months)
16, +1,500 (after trade routes)
18, +1,000 (after trade routes)
Farshore's GP Limit starts at 800 and can be raised for a total of 10,300, but not right away and only if Meravanchi wins which might not be the most desired result.
Many more of the mini quests add directly to the Assets and not the gp limit. What I plan on doing is calculating the new Assets after the new GP limit is figured (and loss of population if neccessary) and then adding these Asset increases as a bonus after that.
However, that still doesn't really help adventurer's buy new items. You could if you wanted to reverse engineer these bonuses back into GP Limit increases. (Using the default 240 pop, would change of course if population changes)
Formula from GP limit to asset is
Assets = GP/2 * (Pop/10)
2 x (Assets/(Pop/10)) = GP Limit
we know the population is 240, so
2 x (Assets/24) or Assets/12 = GP Limit
So, take a 1/12 of the bonus to assets and add to GP Limit if you wanted to help out the adventurers more and to keep the GP Limit and Assets in the correct ratio
So, the following increase Assets and give you an added GP Limit of:
5, +833
7, +416
11, +250
12, +500
13, +833
19, +416
20, +416
With a total of 13,964.
So, even if the party manages to do every quest AND you convert the Asset bonuses back into GP Limit increases, it's still pretty small compared to the level of the party and only a little more than quarter of Sasserine's gp limit.
I think they are suppose to feel like they can't do a lot here and that's why they should take opportunities where they can get them later. I think Scuttlecove has a higher GP limit but I'm not sure but of course the planar merchants later can trade them anything.
scuttlecove has the same 40K as sasserine.
But i think there really should be unlimited ptions for getting the gp limit up, afterall they have a small continent to expand upon!
The party now has it but decided to investigate Galavant Cove first. It turns out it won't matter a whole lot since they just made level 11 and the party cleric has access to word of recall now. I tried to give them a break to get some items before going underground but they decided to wait.
Hopefully the scroll survives the black pudding...
Given that "word of recall" is a one way teleport to the cleric's sanctum/home-temple that may pose some problems getting back to Sasserine laters, unless they have teleport or similar stuff handy.
I simply drew up an Olman spirit shaman with some item creation feats, who they had to convince in a role-playing heavy sidetrack to accept them as cherished tribal allies (they now are ) - and who is willing to do some enchanting for them. The time constraints alone have kept them from abusing this for now. Oh, and he requires the XP sacrifice to come from the character (possibility open through a houserule ), not himself. That alone has tempered the enthusiasm some