I know, we’ve had a lot of attempts at Abstract Wealth. Well, I’m taking my own crack at it. It’s probably pretty similar to what’s come before. Also, it’s still very much in the concept phase.

Basic Idea: Everyone has a Wealth Rating, which represents what they can easily buy. I’m thinking that for most characters, it would start at 2. Anything they might purchase has a Cost, based on the order of magnitude of its listed cost. the Difficulty of the Cost would basically be how many digits are in its listed cost, -1. So anything that costs 1-9 credits has a difficulty of Simple (no difficulty dice). Anything 10-99 would have a difficulty of 1, 100-999 difficulty 2, and so on. In most circumstances, characters can buy goods below their Wealth Rating without much worry. Probably don’t even roll, unless they’re buying enough to bump it up a notch. When a character wants to buy something that equals his Wealth Rating, he’ll need to roll his Wealth Dice, upgraded by his ranks in the Negotiation skill (Not calculated as skills usually are. If he has Wealth 2 and Negotiation 4, he rolls 3 Yellow, not 2 Yellow, 2 green. There is some precedent for this with the Mass Combat rules). If he succeeds, he gets the item, and does not have to adjust his Wealth. If he fails, he can buy the item, but his Wealth Rating will be reduced by 1 until time passes (GM fiat. Maybe at the end of a story arc, or until the group finds a significant windfall). If the character wants to buy something one difficulty higher than his Wealth, he again needs to roll. If he Succeeds, he gets the item, and his Wealth is reduced, as above. If he fails, he just can’t afford it. Anything two or more ranks higher than his Wealth Rating, he just can’t purchase without taking Obligation. Or maybe spending Duty? I dunno, I haven’t really gotten into AoR. Perhaps add a Setback die if the item listed cost starts with 5 or more. So something that costs 600 credits would have a Difficulty of PPS.

That’s the basic framework. I’m thinking there should also be Windfall, for when you find a significant, but temporary amount of cash or easily tradable goods. Windfall can be used to make purchases without reducing your Wealth, or can be invested to permanently increase your Wealth later. Still at the drawing board on all that. Also still working out the effects of Threat, Advantage, and so forth.

Whaddya think, am I on the right track here?

Edit: Font was weird.

I think abstract wealth works best when it is something like minor renovations of a room in a ship, purchasing socks, or when it's someone's Uncle Moneybags with money sprouting out their ears. I think trying to quantify it like that just makes it more confusing. And does the wealth check replace the Negotiation check to find the item? Thus completely negating the rarity? And how many items can you buy at once? Can you clean out a whole store as long as you roll well enough?

This looks like just a more confusing version of credits. Pretty much everyone understands the concept of money, and most people are pretty quick with it. Just using the actual mathematical values will cut out confusion and wonky-ness.

If/when I use abstract credits, it would be with a character who has gobs of the stuff, but is lacking in spending opportunities or is struggling to acquire the money that is rightfully theirs. Or it would be an NPC backing them. "Oh, you need a new flux capacitor/ion drive/ship/droid factory? I'll cover that, no problem." The Alliance, mysterious benefactors, etc.

I think you're on to a good start so far.

Does your group hate shopping? or just tracking money? Usually someone in the group actually likes playing banker.