Wealth

Wealth is an abstract measure that encapsulates a character's standard of living, discretionary spending, and the sorts of items they can afford and use on an everyday basis. Note that depending on polity and character context, Wealth may encompass value in the form of livestock, land, trade goods, and so on as well as the simple case of money.

Lifestyle

Lifestyle levels are also referred to as Wealth levels, as they are the defining foundation of the entire Wealth system. Item values on each polity's Resource List are determined by the Lifestyle level at which those items are regularly available (see Goods and Assets, below). Similarly, characters receive a stipend (see Resources, below) equal to their Lifestyle level for each season of active play.

The routine actions of maintaining one's Lifestyle (e.g. working, paying taxes) are assumed to happen behind the scenes as a matter of course, so long as a character isn't trying to live beyond their official means. In contrast, improving one's quality of life requires extra effort.

Lifestyle Levels

Lifestyle Level Cost Cash-In
Unfree
Destitute 1
Impoverished 2 4 2
Ordinary 3 9 4
Well-off 4 16 8
Wealthy 5 25 12
Extravagant 6 36 18

Only brief conceptual overviews of each Lifestyle level are given here. Details specific to each polity can be found on individual polity pages.

Unfree: This applies to characters who are enslaved or indentured. An Unfree character receives no stipend and their quality of life is dictated by their owner or debt holder. The method by which one moves out of Unfree status varies; please see individual polity pages for details.

Destitute: A Destitute character owns nothing of value and has no reliable source of income; they have no job, no home, no significant possessions, and very little opportunity for discretionary spending. The Destitute are not merely down on their luck but desperately struggling to survive, and most likely losing. A Destitute Lifestyle cannot be sustained for extended periods, and characters who enter this state are expected to be actively working to get back out. Those who do not face slavery, indentured servitude, or death.

Impoverished: An Impoverished character is worse off than the norm for their polity. They likely have low-paying or seasonal work, little to no family support, and few contacts or skills by which to make ends meet. Their quality of life is poor, with substandard housing and few, low-quality possessions.

Ordinary: The majority of characters live Ordinary lives, reasonably comfortable, remarkable neither for poverty nor for abundance. This level covers typical housing conditions for a polity, often with family, as well as common goods and a modest amount of discretionary income. Ordinary is the lowest level at which one can reasonably expect to sustain dependents, and the highest level at which a character may begin play.

Well-off: Characters who are Well-off are a step above the norm; usually, these are successful professionals who have earned a modest reputation in their community. They may own some land, have larger houses, support more dependents, and so on; they also enjoy higher-quality and more uncommon possessions. However, their quality of life remains a long step below 'lavish'.

Wealthy: A Wealthy character is someone who has cultivated a significant reputation, knows all the right people, and is very successful in their vocation. Through this, they have assembled considerable resources and reliable avenues for greater income, allowing them to afford more and better of basically everything.

Extravagant: Very few people in any polity attain Extravagant living, and never without a solid reputation and extensive network of associates, collaborators, and clients. This is the uppermost of upper echelons, for which 'lavish' is the keyword; they want for nothing in the subsistence sense, and have considerable opportunity to show off their wealth with exotic and high-quality goods.

Improving Lifestyle

There are two ways to improve a character's Lifestyle: 1) bank up enough Resource Points to immediately pay for a level jump, as listed under 'Cost' in the table above; or 2) accumulate assets tangible (land, a storefront, livestock, equipment, etc.) and intangible (Renown, Skill proficiency, trade contacts, patrons, employees or other helping hands, etc.) that justify a higher standard of living.

Regardless of method, Moderator approval is required for any Lifestyle increase, and the player must be prepared to explain how the character will sustain their greater standard of living over future seasons.

Reducing Lifestyle

A player may choose to reduce their character's Lifestyle at any time. A Moderator needs to be informed of the Lifestyle change, but no approval is required. Cashing in a Lifestyle level gives the player half as many Resource Points as the cost to regain it, rounded down; see 'Cash-In' in the table above.

Staff may also dictate that a PC's Lifestyle be reduced due to IC events such as catastrophes (e.g. a devastating fire), overexpenditure or excessive debt, etc.; or if there is a mismatch between the character sheet and how the character's everyday life is portrayed in threads, i.e. the player overstated their Lifestyle.

Note that reducing a character's standard of living may result in the loss of assets, such as housing or particularly valuable equipment, that are no longer consistent with their Lifestyle.


update in progress

Goods

Assets

PCs may not receive assets (i.e. anything on which Resources would otherwise be spent) as gifts from NPCs, nor as a bonus from any other threaded event, unless awarded by a Storyteller or Moderator. PCs with appropriate skills may thread making assets for themselves (e.g. a smith PC manufacturing a sword), but must have a Moderator formally award the item before adding it to their Inventory.

Selling Assets

If a character has Assets in their Inventory, they may sell those items at any time in exchange for an appropriate amount of Resource Points; threading the transaction is not required. Material items and equipment generally sell for one point less than the purchase value. The value of an animal depends upon its breed, health, and age. The value of any item may also be dependent upon local availability of similar things and local demand. If there is any uncertainty about how much an item is worth, consult a Moderator.

If any Asset is sold to a PC, a thread documenting the transaction is required and must be linked in both characters' ledgers.

Resource Points

While Lifestyle reflects a character's overall standard of living, Resource Points reflect discretionary funds that can be spent on assets or other unusual expenditures — items not covered by one's Lifestyle. These items are more valuable, more durable, or require ongoing upkeep. Resource Points are tracked in a Ledger, and anything purchased with Resources must also be tracked on the character's sheet, usually in an Inventory section. Items that can be purchased with Resources include anything outside the character's normal standard of living, such as a fine silk shirt or elegant vase; equipment and assets such as weapons, armor, animals, land, and buildings; any regular maintenance expenditures such as the upkeep of a companion animal or NPC; and unusual payments such as bribes or bought information.

Note that neither Resources nor Inventory are meant to catalog everyday, routine actions and possessions. For example, a PC with sufficient skill in a crafting profession can be assumed to routinely create valuable assets and sell them; that is part and parcel of their Lifestyle. Other PCs may freely thread purchasing these items just as they would when buying from an NPC. However, the selling PC can only add Resource Points to their ledger if they are actually giving up an item from their Inventory in the transaction. Thus, while a sculptor PC can sell a statue at any time, the sale is assumed to be part of their Lifestyle and does not gain them extra Resources unless the statue was already a tracked asset.

Characters are free to spend their Resource Points on any sort of asset they can reasonably obtain according to the Resource List for their polity. Simple purchases (e.g. an off-the-shelf sword or a readily available kind of horse) do not have to be threaded out, but can just be noted through a ledger deduction and then adding the item to Inventory. More unusual or complex purchases made from an NPC, such as a special custom order; the purchase of livestock, land, or a building; or any successful negotiation of significantly reduced price must have their values approved by a Moderator before being threaded. Transactions between PCs do not need staff approval, but should be reasonably consistent with market values for the item being sold.

Stipend

Each character receives a seasonal 'stipend' equal to their Lifestyle level for every present-time season they are active in. In other words, a character of Ordinary Lifestyle will receive a stipend of 3 Resource Points. Stipends may be added to the ledger as soon as a character has cleared the minimum activity requirement for the current season (see Thread Types).

Needless to say, if the stipend was the only way to obtain Resource Points, it would take a very long time for characters to advance in Lifestyle level. Resource Points may also be gained through a number of IC actions, described below.

Thread Awards

Storytellers may award Resource Points at their discretion upon the conclusion of a moderated event. Typically these take the form of loot from raids, rewards for valorous action, valuable discoveries unearthed during explorations, or awards for performance in IC competitions. Most Storyteller awards are on the order of 1-2 points per thread. Note that players who receive Resource Points as a thread award for any reason may not also receive assets or other special items from that thread.

Players may also submit certain of their own threads to a Moderator requesting a Resource Point award; eligible threads include the character working at their IC job, stealing or uncovering valuable items, receiving bounties or rewards for actions, etc. Typically only one to two such threads may be turned in per season, and awards will be given as much for quality of writing and innovative plotting as for the value of services rendered. As above, either Resource Points or items may be awarded for a given thread, but not both.

Player Transactions

Resource Points may be obtained from a transaction with another PC, but only if the selling PC has an actual Asset in their Inventory to sell. For example, say Adam wants to buy a sword from Bob the blacksmith. Adam and Bob may thread out this scene, Adam will deduct the appropriate amount of Resource Points from his ledger, and he will add the sword to his Inventory, because it is Bob's job to sell swords and so it is reasonable to expect Adam to be able to buy one. However, if Bob did not either previously purchase the sword in question or write a thread about its making and have the item awarded to him by a Moderator, he may not add Points to his ledger. This prevents players from gaining extra Resources without putting forth any extra effort.

Making the item and selling it may also be done in a single thread, so long as it is submitted for a thread award when completed.

PCs may also freely give Resource Points to another character, reflecting a substantial IC gift. However, characters who abuse this privilege and make a habit of giving Resources away may find their Lifestyle reduced to reflect that recurrent loss of wealth. PCs may not receive Resources from NPCs except through threads moderated by a Storyteller.

Part of the game's systems

Renown Skills Wealth

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