We've been playing around with it in our games (from the most abstract approach to the most 'simulationist' and straying from recommended wealth quite widely or super-strictly).
In the current campaign our DM is handing out 150% of the expected wealth. We just reached 6th level and when we auditted two of our four characters they were within a couple of hundred credits of the expected gear (they had a few thousand credits spare ready for a splurge at level seven, but their WBL was pretty spot on, just looking at equipment). I was impressed something so simple was that close (especially since one PC is a frequent upgrader and the other tends to save up and 'jump' in equipment every couple of levels). The other two PCs havent been making notes of the value of their equipment, so the audit wasn't so easy.
Has anyone got a simple formula for how much to give which roughly compensates for the loss on selling equipment at 10%?
Very little in credits, but perhaps more than normal in terms of items and consumables. Of course, I'm holding back on purpose because my campaign revolves around finding artifacts, which will put them considerabley above the WBL for awhile once they do.
I don't worry about it as much in SF as I do in PF. As long as they fight humanoids foes often enough, they get the weapon and armor upgrades they have to have. The rest is all extra.
|
Like Big Lemon said, I don't worry about WBL as much as I did in PF. As long as everyone's major equipment (weapon, armor) is within a level or so of the PC's level, and everybody has a bit of gear and spending money, all is fine. I don't worry much about providing too much wealth either because it's more difficult to buy overpowered equipment in SF.
My players have responded by not looting every piece of equipment from corpses. In PF they would sell every short sword and buckler they found. In SF, they might pick up the batteries and leave the guns and armor behind. Which, in my opinion, is both more fun and more realistic.
Like many of my campaigns, I tend to feast and famine based on the story and the player's actions. I try to follow WBL as a guideline, but when the players do well in their decisions and rolls, I feel compelled to reward the players more. And when they mess up, they struggle for a level or two. Like most things for a homebrew, I appreciate the structure of the rules of WBL but I break it to suit the fun and story.
Exactly what's written in the AP.
No, I lie. I actually changed a seal fusion to Durable, instead, so it could actually get used.
That's all very interesting. It sounds like a lot of people don't really care about the wealth, provided the level caps are adhered to.
I haven't yet run much (I ran an opening 1st-4th level mini campaign for us to learn the rules) but I'm currently playing a Solarion who is around about spot on and I'm finding the WBL restriction to be meaningful. I don't quite have the armor I want, since I got some personal upgrades. Next level I'm tossing up in maxxing my armor's tier or filling up the slots in my current armor.
If I didn't have a significant wealth cap, I feel like I'd be considerably more powerful. Maybe it would be breadth of options/scope rather than a raw power boost though (which wouldn't really bug me). Perhaps I'll try being absurdly generous with wealth in my next campaign whilst maintaining the level caps. See if the players enjoy the ability to mix-and-match their equipment whilst not needing to scrimp and save.
I didn’t word that very well, but don’t worry about it. (By restriction, I meant I’m noticing not having as much wealth as I want, not that there’s some hard coded limit).
I gave them what it is in the AP
I am running a homebrew campaign, at level 5 they have earned about 10k total.
Per character, and a total that has passed through their hands. I have no idea how much they have saved up.
|
So, if you want to follow by the book, there's a way to do it, though it does take some math.
Essentially, in the CRB find the recommended amount of wealth for an encounter 1 level higher than the APL, then multiply that times 9 times the number of players. That is how much credits I'd give the whole party for one level. That includes raw credits plus weapons and armor that the party is likely to use. Don't include incidentals like armor 2 levels below what the party uses or whatever. Just factor that stuff out. It's not worth the headache of trying to parse out what the party will keep and what they will sell.
The way this works is that you need roughly 9 encounters at CR+1 to get to the next level. Following this Formula will get you slightly more than the WBL table, which is fine because players are going to be buying consumables and throwing away old gear.
That's what I do at least.