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So my Dead Suns group just got their ship, saw all the cargo and crew space, and their eyes filled with credits.
So they instantly decided to take a page from Firefly, and start like looking for passengers and cargo for their trip to Castroval. I immediately began to grumble. Nothing I can think of the tell them no, but I’m worried it will unbalance the economy of the Adventure Path. But I also don’t want to railroad them and be a curmudgeon either.
So I told them, they each get an extra 2000 credits for this initial 6 day trip.
Any ideas on how to regulate this or nip it in the bud?
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That’s like a private plane trying to compete with Southwest on a heavily traveled and short route. Make them wait a week to negotiate insurance and bonding, another week to find passengers who want some randos to take them instead of a cheap and reliable space liner, make put up 10,000 credits in collateral/premiums, let earn 100 credits per passenger, and have the passengers hijack their ship.
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So I told them, they each get an extra 2000 credits for this initial 6 day trip.
Following the rules:
Transportation
Starship Passage, Common 50 per day of travel
Starship Passage, Good 300 per day of travel
Starship Passage, Luxurious 1,000 per day of travel
They gotta sacrifice room for this also, and the Sunrise Maiden only has 4 expansion bays; I wouldn't allow them to cram passengers into cargo bays:
Guest Quarters
PCU 1; Cost (in BP) 1
Starships that function as passenger vessels require spaces apart from their crew quarters for their guests to sleep. A single expansion bay can be converted into common quarters (usually simple bunks or hammocks) for six passengers, good quarters (usually a comfortable bed, a desk with a chair, and a small set of drawers) for four passengers, or luxurious quarters (usually a large bed, a wardrobe, a couch, a desk with a nice chair, and a private washroom) for two passengers.
I'd allow them to get 1d6 passengers per week of waiting/looking for them; make them have to deal with such passengers (specially during combat) on the trip, including complaints and demands; and the more passengers they have, the bigger the chance one of them is actually a random encounter.
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Have a meta-talk with them. Ask what kind of campaign they all wanna play, and also talk about what you want to do.
If you go with the AP as written, right now they're kinda in the honeymoon. They have a ship, but they don't have the big plot yet where they zip off to various dark and nasty places to chase down people who want a doomsday weapon. So you can indulge them for a bit, have a small side adventure with some passengers. Then get back to the main plot and book 2. By book 3, you're not going to tourist destinations anymore.
Or you could go completely off the rails. It's your game; if a trader campaign seems great to your players, you can do that. It'll be hard to shove in the original AP but if you're having fun, who cares.
If your players are seeking lots of profit, this is where the meta-talk comes in. There's a wealth by level balance to this game. If you have about the expected amount of wealth and you spend it normally, then you can get into the sweet spot where encounters are just difficult enough to be really enjoyable. But this wealth by level balance is built around people getting their wealth through adventuring; not around people trying to make big profits and end up significantly higher than they're supposed to at that level.
What you could do is cast it as "actually, you guys care about saving the world, but that world isn't paying you, so you have to earn some money on the side to finance your superhero job". Reduce the amount of money found on credsticks a bit, but let them make up the difference by ferrying passengers and such.
Developer
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| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Have a meta-talk with them. Ask what kind of campaign they all wanna play, and also talk about what you want to do.
If you go with the AP as written, right now they're kinda in the honeymoon. They have a ship, but they don't have the big plot yet where they zip off to various dark and nasty places to chase down people who want a doomsday weapon. So you can indulge them for a bit, have a small side adventure with some passengers. Then get back to the main plot and book 2. By book 3, you're not going to tourist destinations anymore.
Or you could go completely off the rails. It's your game; if a trader campaign seems great to your players, you can do that. It'll be hard to shove in the original AP but if you're having fun, who cares.
If your players are seeking lots of profit, this is where the meta-talk comes in. There's a wealth by level balance to this game. If you have about the expected amount of wealth and you spend it normally, then you can get into the sweet spot where encounters are just difficult enough to be really enjoyable. But this wealth by level balance is built around people getting their wealth through adventuring; not around people trying to make big profits and end up significantly higher than they're supposed to at that level.
What you could do is cast it as "actually, you guys care about saving the world, but that world isn't paying you, so you have to earn some money on the side to finance your superhero job". Reduce the amount of money found on credsticks a bit, but let them make up the difference by ferrying passengers and such.
This is very good advice!
Of course, it's going to be difficult to do both the AP and carry around passengers/cargo, but your group might be up to that challenge.
"I know we agreed to take you to Bretheda, but we just have to stop off at this spooky asteroid real quick..."
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Another option is to propose separating "power money" and "lifestyle money".
Ferrying passengers and cargo, and other civilian activities, can earn you lifestyle money. Buy a nice beach house on Castrovel, a desert speeding car on Akiton, dress in the newest fashion from Kalo-Mahoi. But you can't spend it on better weapons and armor. You just... can't.
It's not strictly realistic. But it works for the game: it allows you to have nice luxuries, without impact on game balance. And if you think about it, the almost monklike financial discipline that a lot of PCs exhibit, investing all they money optimally in power items, instead of blowing it on drinks at expensive nightclubs to impress someone who looks better while you got beer goggles on - is that really realistic? Is it even anything like what heroes from most movies or novels do? If it's neither cinematic nor realistic, then why are we acting like it's natural?
And there's a precedent for it too: you can't mix the budget you have for outfitting your spaceship and your personal gear. You can't spend starship build points to buy bigger armor and guns. That's also not necessarily realistic, but it works for the game. You can cover it up a bit by saying it's the Society budgeting for upgrades to your ship, not your sword. But we all know it's a meta-rule to make the game work. And that's fine.
Considering that book 2 gives players no real gear and no real money, giving them extra won't hurt. You have item level to balance power of gear.
Have the meta-talk (as noted). Or just give them the money and take it from treasure they would have otherwise have gotten.
If they see this as rewarding, they'll keep doing it.