All the cards have Trappings...

But do characters start with trappings listed? An awful lot of trappings say 'usually carries'.

A roadwarden:

His employers provide him witha postil and ammunition for a dozen shots, or he might carry a crossbow with a dozen quarrels.

<The pistol is worth 5 g by itself...>

The way this reads is if: A standard NPC will be equip like this , but I presume that PC's must buy their own stuff with their starting Wealth.

right, thats what we surmise.

Although I did not think of this before generating our characters; I suggest you allow the players to buy the listed items at half cost. Surely though, any firearm or other costly equipment provided by an employer will be stamped or marked in some way as to discourage the employee from absconding with the equipment.

In my games, I let the players purchase any of their trappings without having to track them down or haggle for them. If they choose to haggle, they can't get any more expensive than the standard cost. But they still have to pay for it.

Although I am loathe to bring it up, in prior editions characters started with the Trappings associated with their starting career. After all, this is what they did before deciding to become adventurers. Thereafter, acquiring the appropriate Trappings were a prerequisite to entering a different career. My box is sitting on my doorstep (according to UPS), so I haven't fully read the rules yet, but why would a starting character have to buy his Trappings? How do you think he made a living and generated his starting cash without them?

mac40k said:

This edition works slightly different in that character begin with equipment according to their wealth level. I think that the trappings on the career cards are general guidelines for what starting characters should begin with, not with what they do begin with.

mac40k said:

Sometimes, a bit of common sense needs to be interjected in order to right the ship. I believe that it should go without "rulebook consultation" to assume that the PC's should start with the trappings of their starting career. In fact, I'm very tempted to remove the character generation option of starting cash. Instead, I would like to see those points used to measure the level of life experiences/skills/characteristics gained (or lost in the case of certain characteristics) with maturity. This is somewhat similar to previous editions, but I think makes far more sense than throwing too much coin at characters.

Nope, they get their wealth and if they want the suggested trappings they need to buy it with their starting wealth, or convince the GM. I wouldn't claim it is "common sense" that careers start with the trapping. The trappings are just suggested as examples of what that career often has. Not every Roadwarden in the Empire will actualy have a pistol, for example.

While it certainly is within the GM's control to change starting equipment, you need to be wary of making the Wealth option obsolete. And, starting with both wealth and trappings gives the players *too much* stuff. If you remove the wealth option, how do you handle those extra points? Do you remove creation points, and how many? This penalizes characters that would normally have opted to start poor and use the full points for other advances. If you don't remove creation points, you've then significantly upped the power of your starting PCs.

Okay, Dvang, I'll concede that "common sense" regardiing trappings was a poor choice of words. Instead, I agree to disagree with you on whether player should start with a basic set of gear based on their career.

My issue with tying wealth to Character Gen points is this: Why should someone who is poor have higher over all characteristic points? Other than possibly Strength, what characteristic actually might benefit from being poor in a Mideival setting? So it's the interplay between the two choices that I have the issue with.

Instead, my option would be points used for maturity. Certainly with age, certain characteristics might improve at the detrement of others...but the net result should still be equal to a player that chooses to not use any generation points. What the player would recieve by spending points is additional skills. Thus, making the statement that the PC spent more time specializing in specific activities, rather than getting stronger, smarter, or maybe taking an extra bath once a week to improve their Fellowship ability.

I just don't understand how someone can have lots of money and skills and expertise, but have lower characteristics. Like the vast majority of the Warhammer experience, I simply prefer to leave money out of it.

I look at it more loosely, as a way of forming a character's background and personality. A character that chooses to start out Poor may be a skilled professional that just hit hard times and is down on his luck, for example.

Personally, while I didn't make my players buy their trappings outright, I did put stipulations that if they chose a certain income bracket, I might not allow them to have certain trappings. I mean, if you're dead broke, there's little chance you'd start out with say, a horsemore than likely you ate it already. :3c

But I think it all just boils down to a matter of opinion with no real "right" way to interpret things. I personally never got the vibe that PCs needed to buy their trappings for their starting career, but clearly other people have thought differently. *shrug*

Eldenward said:

Seems quite simple to me: a person is the culmination of all their previous endeavors. Making money is not something that just...happens, just like learning how to swing a sword or build muscle. Making money is as much a difficult endeavor as anything else.

Furthermore, it's really (really) cheap on points. With 20 creation points (25 for humans), 3 points for wealth actually isn't that awful.

I quite like that they included money. What I want to avoid in any game that I run is one player taking Wealth and everybody else wanting to treat him like a sugar daddy. In my youth, players would try that crap...

It's worth noting that the "Day Late, Schilling Short" characters have spent enough creation points on wealth to buy their trappings.

zelbone said:

I'm pretty certain that this is the truth.

Yes in earlier editions you began with all kinds of gear... but those starting characters really SUCKED (30% chance at almost ANYTHING).

In this edition, you have to buy your starting gear... but you're more capable as a starting adventurer.

It should be pointed out that characters do still start with some items/equipment. Even a broke character who spends nothing on wealth during character creation starts with a set of worn clothes and either a dagger or quarterstaff. With only 5 brass he'll not have much else, but characters do not have to buy everything with their starting money.

arscott said:

That's true, the 4 character spent an average of 2 points on the wealth option (the roadwarden spent 3 and the slayer spent 1).

mac40k said:

Yes, during character creation, spending at least one creation point on wealth will give you SOME gear. I believe that even a Poor character gets a hand weapon.

But you don't get the trappings listed on a career card.