I am curious about the bounty killing business and the financials involved. Any ideas the Forum has on this subject would be most welcome.

So, to start things off the Bounty Hunter career description states that bounties are paid for Goblin ears and Beastman hands. How much would such bounties be? If a mail shirt is valued at 50s, it would seem reasonable that you get at least the same for a pair of Beastman hands. However, if my bounty hunting players go on a run and kill 20 beastman henchmen (as, for example, in the introduction adventure in the GM guide) they will quickly amass a small fortune.

For a bounty killing campaign to work, there must be some consistency as to the bounties paid and they must in turn be relative to the dangers faced. It would be great to figure out a sliding scale to use as a guideline. For example:

Snotling ears - 50b

Beastman hands - 50s

Chaos Troll head - 50g

Does it seem reasonable (leaving the henchman problem out of it)?

Another aspect of the bounty killing business is who is the buyer of the services. If a PC shows up with as bag of Goblin ears, who will be the person to go to collect the bounty?

I am, of course, a big fan of the Brunner novels and in those novels he gets most of his assignments from Judge Vaulkberg, who seems to have very deep pockets. But where does this money come from? Perhaps bounties are posted by local judges who in turn have a certain fund for these things in order to keep their jurisdiction safe and crime free?

I do not think that just anyone can post a bounty, as this would be more contract killing than bounty hunting, so there must be some authority behind it. Am I wrong and is bounty hunting in Warhammer basically a glorified name for contract killing?

Please let me know what you think.

cbruze said:

I think, from a personal pow, that it's waay to much!

I'd pay maybe 5-10 brass for snotling ears, 2-5 silver for beastman hands, and 50 silver - 1 gold for a trolls head.

But it also depends highly on the area where you deliver the bounty, some areas has problems with beastmen, and thus is likely to pay more for people killing them, while other areas might see a trolls head as an expensive curiosity (a noble might pay 5 gold for a trolls head, so he can pin it on his wall and claim he killed it...).

How about bounty hunter prices? What do they pay for hunting down common criminals and murderers?

Yeah, I guess there is a big difference as to whether the subject is a monster or a human. So a bounty hunter could either engage in contract killing / trophy hunting of monsters or "legitimate" bounty hunting of criminals.

While a monster's bounty must be based on its threat level, a criminal's bounty must be based on the crimes committed.

How did it work in the Old West with these things - how was the bounty decided and who paid it?

A Rat Catcher is a form of bounty hunter as well and a common rat must surly be the very lowest form of bounty anyone can claim. So if we decide what such a bounty is, we got at least a starting point.

10 rats for 1b?

Heya,

According to Warhammer 2nd Ed. Old World Armory, pg. 95, top right:

"Better still, the crown sometimes places a bounty on rats, a whole quarter-Penny per rat."

There is your starting point.

Spivo said:

These look like good figures. I awarded 75s for a troll head to my party when they turned it in.

I'd take a look at the Incomes table on pg 72 of the rules for guidelines. It will at least give you an idea of scope.

Jagdcarcajou said:

Great, thanks. And a penny is a bronze I guess, so four rats for 1b.

The quote also indicates that bounties are not a constant and that they come and go. So presumably when there is a particularly bad rat/goblin/beastman problem, that is when the crown issues bounties.

This also solves the problem with bounty hunting players chopping of ears of any henchman goblin they kill, nobody is going to pay for it unless a bounty has been posted already.

Doc, the Weasel said:

Out of curiosity - who did they turn it in to and who paid for it? This is the kind of situation I can see myself in ending up in, so would be great to hear how you handled it.

They were in Ubersreik. They didn't know who to turn it into, so they went to the guard. The captain (after having a subordinate confirm that it was real) then wrote and sealed a note that they turned into town hall for the fee.

I didn't plan to have it work that way, but it turned out to fit well enough. Also got to fit in some mind-numbing bureaucracy time at town hall, so bonus there.

Nice play. I like the idea of a bit of bureaucracy around collecting bounties etc.

I would definitely keep in mind that you can only claim a bounty if one has been posted. A professional bounty hunter should have to go where the work is, not be able to subsidise his luxurious lifestyle by just kiling things on his travels and turning them in every time he arrives in a town.

I found this tidbit in the sayings of Hochland section of Sigmar's Heirs from 2nd edition, page 50 for those who have it:

"There's no living peeling apples": It's a task that doesn't pay. From the Imperial practice of paying a (small) bounty on killing Orcs and Goblins.

The emphasis there being on the small part.