My gaming group just got a major windfall.... to the tune of 10,000 credits per player (50K for the group).
I'm not very familiar with the game system as we're only starting out on it, but I feel like that is a HUGE amount. Is it just me? Is the game unbalanced now?
Looking at the rulebook, upgrading a weapon or armor to gain the Superior characteristic is 5,000 credits so maybe it's not too unbalancing?
Same thing happened to us last night. I was 5 to 1 odds to win a swoop race and my whole crew bet everything we had on me. We cleared a tad over 100k.
We almost have enough to buy a HWK - 1000
You may have to upgrade some enemies a bit, but the world has not ended. Money is nice, but you can't go buy a +50 Sword of extra vorpalness in this system. Easy solution... if they have a ship, fire it up. After a few ship upgrades, Obligation buyoffs, and attachments, they'll be back to a manageable level again, and a few ship repairs will finish that off.
You may have to upgrade some enemies a bit, but the world has not ended. Money is nice, but you can't go buy a +50 Sword of extra vorpalness in this system. Easy solution... if they have a ship, fire it up. After a few ship upgrades, Obligation buyoffs, and attachments, they'll be back to a manageable level again, and a few ship repairs will finish that off.
Or, just buy a brand new, sparkling ship. If money doesn't come in and we are always poor why put prices on ships in the book?
After playing in a few campaigns for over a year now, I can say that, while 10,000 credits seems enormous, it's not nearly as large so as to be unbalancing.
It's enough to take care of all of your mundane needs easily and buy one or two moderately significant upgrades, but by no means does it give you enough to punch the "I win" button. Most top-end gear is around 10k, so you can get one piece of gear and blow the entire reward. That's not even getting into ships...
Same thing happened to us last night. I was 5 to 1 odds to win a swoop race and my whole crew bet everything we had on me. We cleared a tad over 100k.
That sounds like a fun table.
Windfalls usually come at someone else's expense. Win it at gambling? The second tier gangster that owns the place has to explain to his Hutt boss where that money went. Did a relative die and leave it to you all? Well, the conniving second cousin that killed dear old whoever has no attention of sharing. Found the cash in a hidden compartment in your new ship? SOMEONE left it there, and didn't leave it for you. Etc. Have fun with the cash. Just don't forget to look over your shoulder.
Anything can be a story opportunity
Let them spend it.
Because they will.
Maybe they'll buy some armour, a new gun (for them selves or the ship) after that it'll be gone.
I think i will keep the characters having goals that will constantly require their attention and their money.
Like one that has a small community of twileks on a planet that is responsible for their welll being, one that collects plants, one that is hoping to be famous and my PC/NPC that is with the group is an outlaw tech and I am sure will dismantle more than a few important items.
And then theres still the need for the other stuff, like if they want a beast, or a droid companion, swoop bikes to race in, exporer gear, maybe at some point they will want their own star fighters, and then also probably set up a home a business and maybe even partially terraform a planet (though we will see if my group lasts together long enough for all of this)
Money comes and money goes.
I plan to let my players sink some of their actually considerable wealth in a certain Ryll mine they helped to save using the Homestead rules.
That should give plenty of adventure seeds and they get a nice base to park their ship in.
Nothing wrong with having money, it solves some problems and creates other ones.
My group ended up with a large sum too. The next time we play I'm starting off by asking "how did you spend/lose all that money?"
If they want to keep more than a fair amount, then others may see them as an easy mark (Obligation).
Oh this is embarrassing.
We had 50K gain from selling some very illegal spice and another job, escaping a large ambush without too much trouble. But then got into a desperate fight and left 40K from the job outside in the rental speeder while feverishly breaking back into our ship to rescue one of the crew who had been captured helping us break in (long story). Another one (me) of the five were taken out trying to get in (stun grenade booby traps.) My character was one who got knocked out trying to disarm the trap and rolled 100 on the crit. (Shoulder dislocated and arm broken by the maintenance hatch he was trying to disarm.) Only two of us left to fight inside now (the fifth is a huge Marauder too big to get in through that hatch).
Basically, (OK, don't laugh), my character's jilted girlfriend had taken over and fortified the ship while we were out on the job, pissed that her twin sister had been killed trying to betray us on that job. (Hence the ambush.) So we went from having taken out 20 Zygerrians in that ambush... to a 90 pound Twi'lek former slave-girl/Zygerrian sleeper agent almost taking us all out.
Once we had defeated that horrible monster and had let our huge Marauder in... he reported that a lot more Zygerrians were surrounding the ship in the crowded public landing bay. (There seems to be way too many of these guys on Nar Shaddaa... - special circumstances why they are that interested in us.)
So we can't just run away, 'cause they sort of put a boot on the ship - the landing legs were locked down. They can't get in - yet. And we can't take off.
Then we remembered the 40K from the job. Outside in the cab of the rental speeder. With the ship surrounded by another 20 or so Zygerrians trying to get in.
Then, in a slight misquote from the Firefly TV Series... "We are exceeding true stupidity here!" ... I get in the fighter and start bumbling around in the big public landing bay, trying to distract the enemies, being crawled over by Zygerrians, getting shot at once by one of the other freighters, vaporizing one Zygerrian hiding under the ship with the fighter's laser...trying to decide whether it was better to shoot off the 'boots' on the landing legs or break off the legs to get away.
And the other PC decides to the two NPC's horror to drive a Swoop out of our cargo bay to retrieve the cash... but WITHOUT closing the cargo door. He zooms out, crazily fails several piloting rolls to travel through the chaotic landing bay (by then) to get the cash,... and a lot of Zygerrians stream up into the ship held now only by one really pissed Marauder NPC.
OK, so the cash is gone by the time the fumbling swooper finds the rental speeder. So he crashes the swoop back into the bay and the pilot (me, having re-docked the fighter to the ship) closes the cargo door and breaks off the landing legs and we fly off.
(Summarizing the various fights inside the ship against 16 or so Zygerrians 'cause this is just getting silly. I did have the opportunity to do a 'You won't take me alive!' standoff against 5 of them when they broke into the bridge. I took out 1.9 of them before they gave me 5 blaster wounds including a Horrific chest wound (rolled 97+10 - Hey, my crit rolls are getting better!). Thank goodness for the really pissed off Marauder.)
So we took in 40k +20k (Another stupidity I won't discuss), gave 10k to the Hutt for his cut on the 40k spice deal, 40k lost in the rental speeder, the last 10k lost with the Scoundrel (why do we keep giving that PC credits to hold?) = 0. Minus 4 ripped off landing legs and resulting hull damage on landing, 16 dead Zygerrians stinking up the ship, 1 dead Twi'lek ex-girlfriend/mole, and various vicious crits and ReallyBadHeadaches by those who got stunned one (or more!) times during this session. (How is that even possible?!)
So the moral of this story, is there is no amount of money that can withstand the bouts of stupidity that will (hopefully occasionally) afflict a party.
No, that wasn't me, what are you trying to say. I clearly said I heard that story in a bar somewhere on Nar Shaddaa...
Edited by StreakI gave the PCs 15k for capturing two Rassk at our last game, that has to be split among 5 characters, it's our second adventure and I think I gave them too much.
They are on their way to Coruscant, I'm thinking the docting fees, registration for their un-registered ship, and a refueling from traveling from the Outer Rim (Kowac) to the Core will cost them about 10k of that.
If you're concerned about the new cash and its effect on the group, just have all the characters' appendixes simultaneously burst. Healthcare costs a lot in the SW universe.
I've always followed the "Keep them hungry" philosophy, but I think in my upcoming game I'm going to have to lighten up a bit and make sure they're properly equipped to handle what I'm throwing at them.
I find that any technical or combat related character will always have something else they want to pick up. Not to mention forged identities, ship upgrades and whatever else they need or have wanted. Even talkers might need cash to look the part in trades or alternatively have product to peddle. Or pay some obligations off. There's countless things that 10k won't begin to cover.
There is a saying I've heard recently. $5,000 is a lot of money to owe, but not a lot of money to have. I think the principle works in Star Wars as well. With so many neat toys and upgrades to buy coupled with living expenses on the edge (paying informants and giving crime bosses their cut) it's easy to keep people hungry for more money.
Even if that's a nice wind fall, parts and reapir for the ship, obligations or upgrades can eat that up fairly quickly. MY players also like to RP the uses for loose cash (upgrading the ships stock of Booze. Gotta love it : ) ) so they do not abuse it much...they also use it for medical supplies and paying the bribe mill
So after winning the airspeeder race on Bespin (we bet on ourselves through an alias) and getting away with the credits from the auction and successfully stealing the Jewel of Yavin, each of us pocketed somewhere around $80,000 credits. Our gadgeteer proceeded to spend somewhere around $70,000 of it on personal gear, attachements, security for our base, etc. Our pilot invested most of his in Iso-Tech for a piece of ownership and access to Reom's network. The rest he spent on a few pieces of gear. I bought a couple of items and attachments and shipped $65,000 to my homeworld to fund a revolution. The other two, I'm frankly not sure what they're doing with their credits The moral of the story is while we have some toys, we're also very, very wanted beings and pretty much broke again. $10,000 won't throw anything terribly out of whack, especially if your people will spend some coin on things that may not bring them anything mechanically, will pay RP dividends.
Edited by sonovabithMy gaming group just got a major windfall.... to the tune of 10,000 credits per player (50K for the group).
I'm not very familiar with the game system as we're only starting out on it, but I feel like that is a HUGE amount. Is it just me? Is the game unbalanced now?
Looking at the rulebook, upgrading a weapon or armor to gain the Superior characteristic is 5,000 credits so maybe it's not too unbalancing?
Nothing by itself in this game is unbalancing. Continuing trends can sometimes ruin the enjoyment of a game depending upon the wants and desires of players, but don't sweat the small stuff.
Some other games require certain optimization and play on a curve of difficulty. This game, and many like it, does not. It is entirely up to the GM to determine the hazards, challenges, and mechanical parts of the story that they weave with the other players. It will change the story dynamic for a period of time, but keeping things fresh with a story arc about them spending like drunken sailors could be very entertaining.
On the note of lots of credits.... One of my characters sold a stolen Lambda shuttle and AT-ST to Corellians and netted something like 3 or 400k. He used it to buy some cyberwear, some -nice- weapons and gear as well as 2 freighters to start his own shipping company (thus fulfilling obligation). After that, it left about 3k and change.