So...is there anywhere in the rules regarding living expenses?
Cost of an apartment/room?
Food?
Just wondering...
Living expenses?
There are some food costs in one of the Core Books but given that this is more of cinematic style of game, rather than a true simulation game, living expenses aren't really considered a factor since most PCs would live on a ship or a base. If you want rules for living expenses, just write 'em up
Just found this sweet stuff that this person made for Starship fuel and rationing, lookin forward to putting it in my campeign =)
https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/196668-operational-costs-a-new-fan-supplement/
As a PC I would like this, but as a GM I don't think my players would. I like the level it adds, having to worry about where your credits are going to come from and it gives you good motivation and description of how they're living. I plan on playing a luxury character so my expenses may be higher and I'm OK with that.
Here's my own hand-wave on the matter.
Usually, at least a week has passed for the characters between sessions. Surely, they're not just sitting around the docking bay waiting for the Next Big Adventure. Whatever wages the characters make "offscreen" like that cover their normal, day-to-day living expenses and don't go into their pockets. Once they're "onscreen," any cash flow is recorded.
So...is there anywhere in the rules regarding living expenses?
Cost of an apartment/room?
Food?
Just wondering...
Cost of a homestead is 50,000c and 5 obligation. (Far Horizons)
Cost of field rations is 5c. (AoR Core)
Seriously though, that's kinda how you may want to look at it. Other games mention this sort of things for other reasons (in D&D how many full night's rests you can have in an underground cave system before you starve is a key mechanical concern.) and so some players (and designers) carry it over without really thinking about it's necessity. In Star Wars food and rent is usually not a pure mechanical issue (Han never complains about the cost of a drink), but a story one. If the players go to the local Biscuit Baron to chow down some burgers and meet a local contact, it's not really important you bill them for the burgers. The location and the contact are the story element, not the cost of the food. Likewise the cost of Steve's apartment isn't important either, just that he's got a "base" for the crew.
On the other hand, if the players are running a multi-day operation in the wilds of some far flung world, how many rations they have will matter, especially if they have none, as over time it would start to impact difficulties as the GM applies the empty bellies. Or if Steve's obligation triggers, maybe he's behind on rent a few months and if the players don't do that sidequest Big Bungie just offered em, they'll be out on the street.
I’m not sure where the get their prices, it seems kind of ridiculous. As close as I’ve come to everyday expenses is how much stuff costs in the 1960’s.
I'm torn on this issue.
On the one hand I think if you are doing cinematic style Star Wars it gets hard to do the resource management game and maintain the style.
On the other hand it's not a movie, and the books are full of CR cost for items so it's gonna be a thing where you have to deal with it. I lean toward full accounting for resources and equipment because I found that players will often get too lax with it and stuff ends up being in question. I also think that money is a great motivator and so if the players know they need to make their rent they may be more inclined to take a bad job, so it could help the story along.
I think the base prices on things as listed in the books would be so unreliable in the galaxy at large because of local scarcity of resources, trade restrictions and pacts, and manufacturing to market issues. We could almost buy our own [YT-1300] for 10,000 must have been Luke being bad at math in my estimation. But I also think a Credit is basically one dollar U.S. as far as I can tell, and the costs in Far Horizons kind of bears it out. So I try to use that as a guide as to how much something would cost if it's not listed.
2 hours ago, philcabrera said:I’m not sure where the get their prices, it seems kind of ridiculous. As close as I’ve come to everyday expenses is how much stuff costs in the 1960’s.
Any examples?
1 hour ago, Archlyte said:But I also think a Credit is basically one dollar U.S. as far as I can tell, and the costs in Far Horizons kind of bears it out. So I try to use that as a guide as to how much something would cost if it's not listed.
A homestead for 50k? A light freighter for 120k? These are really, really low for modern day dollar equivalents. Some personal gear is closer (like a 400 credit pistol) but even the datapad is way too cheap compared to most tablets.
2 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:A homestead for 50k? A light freighter for 120k? These are really, really low for modern day dollar equivalents. Some personal gear is closer (like a 400 credit pistol) but even the datapad is way too cheap compared to most tablets.
Aren't those base prices though? But ok 50k for a homestead seems fine to me as long as it's not Space California. The ship is gonna be like buying a plane I'm thinking in our world and an old, junky one could be close to 120k don't you think?
Edited by Archlyte5 minutes ago, Archlyte said:Aren't those base prices though? But ok 50k for a homestead seems fine to me as long as it's not Space California. The ship is gonna be like buying a plane I'm thinking in our world and an old, junky one could be close to 120k don't you think?
For an aircraft that can carry 8 people and cargo? Not even close.
And when you do, remember that those prices are for unarmed and unarmored craft.
The economics in the system as written are borked.
I did a comparision and skipping all the math in a credit to dollar comparison I left personal gear as is, multiplied vehicles by 10, ships by 100 and the numbers made way more sense. It's rough, but it's also easy and it was close enough.
45 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:For an aircraft that can carry 8 people and cargo? Not even close.
And when you do, remember that those prices are for unarmed and unarmored craft.
Yeah I would have figured base models but I guess I got prices locked in my head form a long time ago. Good news is that about doubling the cost might be about right. I'm not afraid to tell people to chuck what they read in the book.
It does make me wonder what they used as their yardstick.
32 minutes ago, 2P51 said:The economics in the system as written are borked.
I did a comparision and skipping all the math in a credit to dollar comparison I left personal gear as is, multiplied vehicles by 10, ships by 100 and the numbers made way more sense. It's rough, but it's also easy and it was close enough.
Ships by 100? Ok well I will have to take a look at that. My concern would be that the ships would be so expensive that they would be adventure averse in trying to protect it from any harm.
In my game, my players like to actually ship some cargo while flying around, just as a cover. I just say their trading covers their living expenses plus fuel and docking fees for the ship, and have done.
On 2/15/2019 at 8:47 PM, Archlyte said:Ships by 100? Ok well I will have to take a look at that. My concern would be that the ships would be so expensive that they would be adventure averse in trying to protect it from any harm.
In Genesys, the jet fighter costs $100,000,000. In Star Wars, you can practically get a Praetor II for that kind of money if $ = credits.
17 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:In Genesys, the jet fighter costs $100,000,000. In Star Wars, you can practically get a Praetor II for that kind of money if $ = credits.
That's cheap compared to the real cost of a F35, the worst jet fighter of the moment. 😈
5 hours ago, Dafydd said:In my game, my players like to actually ship some cargo while flying around, just as a cover. I just say their trading covers their living expenses plus fuel and docking fees for the ship, and have done.
While I love the idea of actually keeping track of what it costs to keep a ship running, for that Firefly feel, I’m pretty sure it would bore me in practice. Your suggestion is a nice compromise — hand wave it, but offer an explanation of the handwave.
4 hours ago, HappyDaze said:In Genesys, the jet fighter costs $100,000,000. In Star Wars, you can practically get a Praetor II for that kind of money if $ = credits.
Which is realistic in today money. The economics in the game are borked. A pound of blaster rifle makes a pound of starship worthless. When I did the dollars to credits comparison there was a Home Depot flyer on my desk and I looked at the ad, a 50 lbs bag of deodorized manure was way more valuable than a similar amount of starship in the game.....
« Ten thousand!? We could almost buy our own ship for that! »
Luke Skywalker, A New Hope
On 2/15/2019 at 6:14 PM, 2P51 said:The economics in the system as written are borked.
I did a comparision and skipping all the math in a credit to dollar comparison I left personal gear as is, multiplied vehicles by 10, ships by 100 and the numbers made way more sense. It's rough, but it's also easy and it was close enough.
Yeah, it makes no context in reference to the real world, but to be fair... I can see why they did it this way.
"Great job, you just defeated the bounty hunters!"
"Awesome! What kind of ship did they come in?"
"Uhhhhhh... a pretty rundown G9 rigger (Worst thing he could think of off the top of his head)"
"Cool! They go for 5.5 million right? Even if it's worth half that, we can find a fence to take it off our hands for 1%? That's still 25,000. Then we'll have to go shopping, because that take is more than our last job."
The shopping is the problem. You can buy your way into too much success in combat. I was glad to see they nerfed the F out of atachments in SotB.
I totally agree, I was trying to think of the most subdued answer I could for my example.
Now if a party got their hands on even a mediocre snubfighter or freighter?
"We're going to sell it. And buy ALL the personal gear"
So I run a game with 5 PC's. Right now, my PC's have surplus credits about 15,000 among them. They don't really try to buy new gear, exclusively don't drink at the bar to avoid paying a tab, etc. They have a decent sized ship-repair bill they have ignored for 3 sessions, meanwhile gaining plenty of obligation. All of this being said, I had to start taxing them. I tax them for food, transportation, repairs, charge entrance fees to certain Cantina and clubs, I count their ammo and rations. It is the only way to keep them from hoarding credits. I feel like this keeps them on their toes, gives them a real world feel, and gives them some small amount of responsibility.