> No offence but I thought this whole wealth business was supposed to
>make it easier on the narrators and players so they didn't have to
>worry about how many lunars they were carrying around.
It does (or at least can) providing you don'r try and use it while worrying about how many lunars you are carrying around...
> If I have to puzzle over what every bit of treasure or cow is worth
> to the players by doing "only if" sorts of pondering I certainly
> haven't had my work made any easier.
Rather than work out what every bit of treasure is, or exactly how many cows they own at any given point in time you just use wealth.
"You manage to pick the lock on the chest - Inside is a whole pile of coins and gemstones - you'd estimate them to be worth around 5 wealth" or "While you were out adventuring the Black Oaks raided your stead and made off with 7 Wealth's worth of cattle..."
> This sort of rough approximation and "well it depends on how you
> invest/use it" talk doesn't make my job as narrator any easier.
Well not if you try to come up with hard and fast rules, no. It does if you say "...And you all get an increase of 1W as a result..." and someone pipes up "but why does my wealth only go from 5 to 6 while theirs goes from 18 to 19?" At this point you point out that it is easier to turn $1000 into $2000 than $1 into $2 (especially if you have to eat out of it at the same time) - and that mopmey attracts money...
> What effect does having an iron chain hauberk and sword have on
> your wealth?
Very little unless you want to sell them!
You run an adventure in which a player "acquires" said items. The player decides to keep it and spends a HP to "cement" the item. Why should he get a "free" wealth rise as well? Of course if he wants to spend a HP to increase his wealth he could justify it as being related as his new shiny toys show him to be a rich and successful adventurer...
>Wealth isn't supposed to be actual cash value.
Exactly. That's why questions like "How much wealth does raiding three cows get me" are extremely difficult to answer!
>An owned cow should be worth as much as a sold cow.
I don't follow. If I own a Cow then it will cost me something in terms of food and care (While I'm looking after the cow I'm not doing anything else that might make me money). It will also earn me something (in terms of milk, calves and possibly meat, leather, horn etc). If I sell the cow then I'll stop incurring the costs, but also stop earning me the income. If the income is > the cost then it is worth me having the cow. If the cost is > the income then I should sell it and take the money.
But this is far to involved for what is supposedly a fast "adventure" system like HW, so we just abstract it all to wealth and say "I have 12 Wealth of Cows", and assume that I sell or slaughter "unproductive" cows and buy sufficient new ones that are not replaced naturally to maintain that level unless I do something to increase or decrease my wealth
> If we have to worry about potential value and sold value this is
> worse than the old lunars system.
>
The trick is not to worry about them at all, just like most Roleplayers I know don't worry about living expenses "Between" adventures (You earn 1000gp/lunars/credits in adventure 1. Adventure 2 takes place "later" (once everyone has healed and trained) and opens in a bar - you buy a drink for 1 gp/l/c and carefully amend you r character sheet to read 999 ....)
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