|
PFS, like many organised play campaigns, creates an abstract way of tracking what treasure characters acquire.
The way I understand it, everything that characters find/steal/are given/etc during an adventure disappears at the end. It is replaced by an amount of gold equivalent to its value - though subject to a cap on the maximum amount of gold a character can take from each scenario. Often, if some of the things found are ones which characters do not usually have the ability to purchase (i.e. items from sources which are not freely available for purchase) then the items will be listed on the SC to indicate that the character can now purchase the item (see the Guide to the PFS for more detail).
So the answer to your question is, I think: no, they don't have to buy things, but if they want to keep things they have to buy them. This means there isn't any tracking that you need to initial: you decide how much treasure they get, expressed as an amount of gp (following the instructions in the scenario). The players decide whether they're going to buy anything with it.
If any of that's inaccurate, hopefully someone else will come along and correct me!
|
I'll try ot answer your questions separately:
What happens when a PC takes mundane gearoff an opponent after an encounter?
They can use it until the end of the adventure, at which time they are required to turn it into the society, and get it's value in GP. (as seen in the values in the adventures)
Do they have to buy it at the end also?
They are not required to buy it in the end, but if they want to keep it for further adventures, than yes, they do need to buy it at the beginning or end of an adventure.
Do I initial it like treasure?
I don't have a chronicle in front of me, but I think that you need to initial off the old pieces spent or final gold total, so if your PCs bought something you would initialize it that way.
|
Some of what you guys say makes sense, but I haven't read anything about turning anything over to the Society at the end. I know all magic items are "lost" at the end and everyone has a chance to purchase them, but plain gear doesn't make sense to me. So, if a Pc grabbed 10 bolts, plain, mundane crossbow bolts, he'd lose them at the end? If she picked up a longsword, no magic or masterwork quality, she loses it? I could see subtracting it from the gold value at the end of the scenario however. Could someone in Event Organizing help out?
Director of Brand Strategy
|
Some of what you guys say makes sense, but I haven't read anything about turning anything over to the Society at the end. I know all magic items are "lost" at the end and everyone has a chance to purchase them, but plain gear doesn't make sense to me. So, if a Pc grabbed 10 bolts, plain, mundane crossbow bolts, he'd lose them at the end? If she picked up a longsword, no magic or masterwork quality, she loses it? I could see subtracting it from the gold value at the end of the scenario however. Could someone in Event Organizing help out?
All the wealth is abstracted. When an act is completed the GP value is for equipment equaling that amount. If you want to abstract it such that the PCs are actually carrying around 300 gp worth of shields and weapons, you can do that, but then it adds the extra step and time drain of having them actually sell it at a shop and buy what they want. By converting it immediately into GP it saves time. If they do want to use the great axe that the half-orc tried to kill them with, they can. It's really all flavor. But since they receieved the value of that weapon in GP as part of the Act x award, they can't get the GP and the axe when the scenario is over. They either "sell" the axe and get the designated GP, or they keep the axe, in which case they "buy" it from their own GP value for the scenario. Since PCs can always buy mundane (and +1 for that matter) weapons and armor, whether they keep the one they found or use the abstracted wealth to buy their own it's the same result, and again, is all flavor. The wealth system was designed to speed up, simplify, and standardize play in all situations, from home play to cons, so it has to be a bit different than normal.