I said I wouldn't answer this on the GD, as being too 'rulesy'; so, I'm afraid you guys have drawn the short straw...
Bob Vesterman:
> Wealth/Pricing/Buying Stuff - What? Why on earth was this done? I would have
> to see this in action, I guess, but it seems to be a purposeless
> complification of the standard, easily understandable, and
> not-difficult-to-keep-track-of "I have x pennies, this thing costs y
> pennies" system. What advantage does this system have, besides being in
> line with the omnipresent theme of vagueness? I just don't get this whole
> section.
Less bookkeeping, more narrative uncertainty, and more abstract (in that it respresents not just coin of the realm, but effective 'purchasing power') would be my guess.
If you like the system of "I have x pennies, this thing costs y pennies" (or indeed, cows), then I'd commend it to you. I won't commend HW to you in making it at all easy to convert back to that system: oops. But I'm sure a price-list in real units can be cannibalised from somewhere, or even some one might work out what formula supposedly _was_ used to construct the price table, in the first place, and reverse engineer it...
> For example, say I have a "wealth" of 10. So I can hire a mercenary for a
> day with my pocket change, since he has a price of 5, which is half my
> wealth. Can I buy something else with price 5 too? Something else again?
> Again? Again? When exactly does my pocket change start running out? And what
> happens the next day? Can I hire him again with my "new" pocketchange? The
> next day? The next? All the days of the week?
It's supposed to be a mechanic for narrative support, not an economic model: it doesn't 'reset', other than in the sense of 'not narratively interesting any more/can't be bothered tracking that'. Basically, a narrator with her head screwed on would simply make a _judgement_ about whether someone is spending 'pocket change' at a rate faster than seems sustainable, and require wealth tests on that basis.
> If so, then why can't I directly hire him for a week (that costs 5w, which
> is far beyond my wealth of 10)?
Because that price makes no sense, basically. The wealth scale _ought_ to be logarithmic, roughly speaking, so that the chance of you making one roll for a week, and of making seven easier rolls in a row, aren't _totally_ out of whack, as they are so clearly in this case. Not that it's going to be a close match, ever: HW is a reasonably smooth system, but not _that_ smooth.
The chart in HW seems to be sensible in some places, and out to lunch in others. I'd like to see as a matter of urgency a price list that's rendered in some sort of _game world_ terms (bovine or specie), firstly so that people can use that system, if they wish, and secondly, so that it can be used as an aid in debugging the chart in HW. (David D., is your price list from PDP online? Reckon it's in line with what HW is _attempting_ to say?)
> And if I can't hire him for a week with my ever-renewing pocket change, more
> questions pop up: How does it work, then? At what point does my pocket
> change stop renewing? Can I also not buy, for example, daily lodging, after
> a while (and what is "a while")?
Unless your wealth level is getting critical (say, below 10), you should always be live 'in the style to which you've become accustomed'. Well, if your wealth is 5, you _are_ accustomed to living in alleys or rank hovels, eating crusts or not at all, etc, etc: you get what I mean, though.
Basically, the answer to all your questions is this: the narrator should simply ask herself, at whatever time the thought actually strikes, "Is this character living within his normal means?" If the answer is merely 'maybe', then some sort of wealth test is indicated. If it's 'sure he is', then it's not. (If the answer is a flat no, this is generally the time to be coaxing hero points out of them...)
Hope that helps. I think there _is_ a decent idea in there, but as a mechanic it falls uncomfortably been 'just wing it entirely', and 'here's a viable deterministic procedure'.
Cheers,
Alex.
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